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Best concert/worst concert?


hobo73
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Yeah man. Gwar gigs are fun. Mosh pits are solid. I always leave shirtless and sweaty wet. My body steams when I leave Gwar gigs. Always see them in the winter. So you hit the 40 degree air and you steam off fog. Their shows are workouts.
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Best...? Pearl Jam? AC/DC? Jethro Tull? Police - Synchronicity?

 

I have to go with DEVO, early 80's, at Seattle's Paramount. It was phenomenal.

 

Worst? Joe Satriani. Everyone was bored to death.

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Best—Rush 3-11-81 Market Square Arena

 

Here's the setlist:

 

2112 Part I: Overture

2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx

Freewill

Limelight

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude

Beneath, Between & Behind

The Camera Eye

YYZ

Drum Solo

Broon's Bane

The Trees

Xanadu

The Spirit of Radio

Red Barchetta

Closer to the Heart

Tom Sawyer

Vital Signs

Natural Science

Working Man

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part IV: Armageddon

By-Tor & The Snow Dog

In the End

In the Mood

2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

Encore:

La Villa Strangiato

 

Worst: Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Xcel Center, St. Paul MN. Tim McGraw was an OK showman even if you didn't really care for his songs (which I don't). Faith Hill was, to be charitable, not.

 

I was there !

 

At Rush not Tim McGraw. :no:

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Maybe the best non-Rush show was Elton John in the early 80s. I also saw (and liked) AC/DC, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Stones, and Cheap Trick. I used to occasionally work a concert security gig in college and that took me to a Eurythmics concert that I found oddly interesting.

 

I kind of got dragged to a couple I didn't want to go to, so they were the worst: Jimmy Buffett and Chicago. Not really into either one. Kansas and Yes weren't that appealing to me.

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Some more best and worst for me:

 

Best:

Rush 2011 Time Machine Tour cuz I had front freaking row! Their performance I would classify as 'workmanlike', very tight but without any real fire either unfortunately.

Rush 2015 R40 tour. Another very tight performance, but with more fire and they seemed a bit looser than usual likely cuz it was near the end as a touring band.

Page and Plant 1998. I had seen Zeppelin in '77 and their performance was uneven likely cuz Pagey was in the throws of heroin addiction by then. But in '98 (Hollywood Bowl) he had sobered up and absolutely tore the place apart.

Head East opening for Atlanta Rhythm Section 1977. Blew the headliners off the stage.

 

Worst:

What passes for Lynyrd Skynyrd these days touring with Bad Company (who were quite good) a couple of years ago. Only one original member left (Gary Rossington) and they went by the louder is better mantra (it's not guys, really) and ran through every rock & roll cliche in the book in 90 mins.....flipping guitar picks out after every song, Johnny Van Zant wrapping himself in an American flag and so on and so forth. I saw the REAL Skynyrd in '76 and this version ain't even close to them.

 

Kiss on the Animalize tour. Spent half their time on stage talking rather than playing music. Queensryche opened for them and totally kicked their asses. Saw them in '76 and was very entertained. Not this time.

Edited by driventotheedge
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Best:

Rush's final show. Best show I've ever seen, out of hundreds.

U2 in 1984-85. Those shows were fanfookingtastic.

 

Worst:

Nitzer Ebb; A Split Second, both shows were somewhere around 1989.

I've also seen many (as in dozens or scores) of crappy "laptop bands" who have a person or three onstage pressing keys on their laptops. Those types of bands often have no stage presence, which is no surprise.

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... Worst: 10/20/74 at The Big Red Barn-Olympia Stadium, Detroit. Traffic and Fairport Convention. Place was hot and stuffy. Both bands and the sound systems sucked. End of story

 

Wow, I'm a huge, huge Traffic fan and quite keen on Fairport Convention as well. But if the conditions were uncomfortable and the sound system sucked, I suppose it's not going to matter who's playing on stage.

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Aside from seeing Rush for the first time which was during the Moving Pictures tour...

Best non-Rush show for me would probably be Genesis 1982, during the last tour in which they performed Supper's Ready in its entirety.

 

Worst concert was Ted Nugent 1980.

Wasn't a huge fan to begin with, but I didn't mind some of his early stuff, particularly with the Amboy Dukes. Unfortunately, the sound was ear-piercingly loud and crappy, and I couldn't decipher at all what was being played. It was just noise.

Edited by Northerner
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Best - U2 San Francisco 2nd night April 1987 on the 1st leg of the Joshua Tree tour. Close 2nd was 1984 Unforgettable Fire tour, 2nd night at Glasgow Barrowlands in Novbember,

 

Worst - Van Halen Glasgow Apollo on the (I think) FW tour. Band was very very late. very very sloshed. And I'm a big DLR-era VH fan.

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... Worst: 10/20/74 at The Big Red Barn-Olympia Stadium, Detroit. Traffic and Fairport Convention. Place was hot and stuffy. Both bands and the sound systems sucked. End of story

 

Wow, I'm a huge, huge Traffic fan and quite keen on Fairport Convention as well. But if the conditions were uncomfortable and the sound system sucked, I suppose it's not going to matter who's playing on stage.

Very true. I saw Pink Floyd there (playing to support of Wish You Were Here) from the center of the mezzanine (GA seating,and I was part of a group of 8) and it was outstanding. Also, understand that for the concert in '74 they were using the house PA for vocals, and the AC wasn't working. Lot of the audience was loudly complaining to no avail, yours truly included.

Edited by pjbear05
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Best - U2 San Francisco 2nd night April 1987 on the 1st leg of the Joshua Tree tour. Close 2nd was 1984 Unforgettable Fire tour, 2nd night at Glasgow Barrowlands in Novbember,

 

I was at that SF show, at the Cow Palace, with Lone Justice opening. U2 were still great back then. The first time I saw them was on the Unforgettable Fire tour (also in SF) and that show changed my life it was so amazing.

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Best - too many to mention.

 

Worst - Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead at Giants Stadium. I never understood the Grateful Dead cult. Good band, silly fan base. I was never more bored than watching 50,000 Dead Heads mesmerized.

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Best - There's a lot in contention for the best show but one that still stands out to me nearly 6 years removed from it was Porcupine Tree's final American show at Radio City Music Hall on 9/24/2010

 

Worst - Sugarcult, Damone, Meg and Dia and I believe some other 4th band. I can't remember the date exactly but it was circa Halloween 2006. This was the first show I saw and I tagged along with my sister who bought the tickets as well as my cousin. I can't even remember how the bands were live and I don't remember how they sounded but just searching these three bands on Wiki, I concluded that their style of music is just not my thing. The only thing I remembered was that this was at the former House Of Blues in Atlantic City, that we were at the back on the front row of the balcony and that we probably went cause we wanted to do something other than what I perceived to be "typical" stuff for a 12 yr old at the time to do in Atlantic City.

 

 

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Other than my first RUSH show, Glasgow 1977 (Stray were the support) it would probably have been a year earlier and AC/DC in the same venue.

Not only was it my first time seeing them, but they had a punk band of all things (The Suburban Studs)

as support. They lasted about 3 songs before they were forced to flee the stage or face the wrath of a furious Glasgow crowd.

It was hilarious.

 

To be honest though, there have been many 10/10 gigs over the years.

 

As for the worst shows, during a festival, I saw Meat loaf. It was appalling, with the behemoth having to leave the stage between each song

to take a mask full of oxygen. It didn't help,he was gasping for air throughout.

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Best - R40 show in Philly

 

Worst - Ozzy and Motley Crue at Stabler arena in '84...We thought we were going to have great seats and found out when we got there that we were behind the light/sound board. Nobody in our section could see a thing.

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Among the best ones:

Rush R30 & R40

Black Sabbath Birmingham NEC 1997

Deep Purple Zurich 1987 and Montreux 2000

The Who London 2013

Queensryche Milan 1990

Marillion Loreley 1987

 

Mars Volta the worst ever: only time I left the venue before the end of the show.

 

 

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Best was probably Harry Connick, Jr. He sounded great, he was an engaging "frontman" and he was super energetic. He did a soft shoe number on his piano.

 

Worst was probably the Crue on their farewell tour. I saw them on the Girlsx3 tour, and loved them. Time has passed them by.. I can hear Vince saying, "Oh, really, buddy? You think the 27 years haven't taken their toll on you?" Fair point.

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Best - Too Many.

 

Worst- Ozzy, Alice in Chains, Sepultura- Pyramid Memphis- 1992?

1st off let me preference this by saying I have seen Ozzy 5 times and the other 4 shows were great

The Pyramid arena was one of the Worst place ever for sound. And is now no longer used as a concert venue

This show was postponed from the original date due to Ozzy being sick (Drugs), rescheduled 4 months later

Sepultura played- no one cared

Alice in Chains played- Layne Staley had a broken foot sang from a wheelchair, and was on painkillers...mumbled the entire set.

Ozzy comes out, not too music but just walks out and says..."Hey Memphis, look I'm not feeling the greatest, I have a cold, but I'll do my best"

Then started playing Paranoid, and he was also Mumbling...We left after an hour....Zak Wilde never smiled...

It was a trainwreck.

Edited by Disembodied Spirit
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"Bests" are many

 

- Return To Forever Reunion, April 8th 1983 - Ritz Theater in Elizabeth, NJ .. Al D handed me his guitar pick and shook my hand - ( .. the pick is a Manny's Medium, shaped like the usual Fender )

 

- The Donnas, Oct 8th 2001, Irving Plaza, NYC ... less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, The Donnas played one of the most inspired shows I have ever seen .. I stood next to Joan Jett and there was an electricity at that show that was once in a lifetime ..

 

- The Cure, Aug 23rd 1989, The Spectrum, Philly ... They were amazing

 

- INXS, Aug 21st, 1988, The Spectrum Philly ..... Michael Hutchence had a presence like very few other performers I have seen, and the band sounded fantastic ... They were at their peak

 

And the four that could be categorized as religious experiences

 

- Rush, May 9th 1980, Palladium NYC .. no words . .

 

- Cheap Trick, May 26th, 1979, Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ ... ditto

 

- Kiss, July 24th 1979, MSG ... can you imagine me at this ?

 

- Iron Maiden, June 30th 1982, Northstage Theater, Glen Cove Long island ... Can you imagine how incredible this was for a 15 year old ?

 

 

The only bad shows that pop to mind are Bonham and The Cult, January 31st 1990 at The Spectrum in Philly .. I loved the at the time Cult, but they were awful

 

And Jane's Addiction Feb 25th 1989 at L'Amours in Brooklyn .... again, I was a fan, but they sucked

 

.

 

 

.

Edited by Lucas
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- The Cure, Aug 23rd 1989, The Spectrum, Philly ... They were amazing

 

Hey, I saw this tour! For the Disintegration album, September 10th at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA.

 

- INXS, Aug 21st, 1988, The Spectrum Philly ..... Michael Hutchence had a presence like very few other performers I have seen, and the band sounded fantastic ... They were at their peak

 

I saw this tour, too! June 2nd, also at the Shoreline.

 

- Cheap Trick, May 26th, 1979, Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ ... ditto

 

My first concert ever was Cheap Trick on this tour (with Blue Oyster Cult & Pat Travers) August 19th at Spartan Stadium in San Jose.

 

- Iron Maiden, June 30th 1982, Northstage Theater, Glen Cove Long island ... Can you imagine how incredible this was for a 15 year old ?

 

I saw Maiden a couple weeks later, July 18th, in Oakland. Lucas, I think we have led parallel lives.

 

- Rush, May 9th 1980, Palladium NYC .. no words . .

 

I *WISH* I had seen this show!

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