Most Fun at a Concert...

1974 Southampton England - an old rock group called YES.

Their light show was pretty good for the time. What a blast as we all stayed up all night after meeting up with like minded ppl.

1974 Bournemouth England - the greatest rock group QUEEN.

They were supporting Mott the Hoople - I still laff about it but EVERYONE went to see Queen when they opened and most of us went to the bar when Mott came on. Mott seemed to disappear after that

Oh the memories of my sheltered life !!

October 2006, Giants Stadium, The Rolling Stones. Opening act Kanye West (poorly matched in the opinions of 80,000 Stones fans) was largely ignored and got pissy about it. Grow up, jerkwad--you're the opener, not the main attraction.

When the Stones came out, 80,000 people got to their feet screaming. I haven't attended nearly as many concerts as Kevin, but of the ones I have, including seeing the Stones again, I've never been part of a crowd that got so into it as this one. It was absolutely amazing, and the energy from it lasts for hours and hours. For once, I probably stayed up as late as the band.

Maryn, who went out to breakfast, then went to bed

Back in the 80's we went ot a Judas Priest concert at Madison Square Garden. The crowd outside with the NYPD was fun to watch. The cops and crowd seemed to enjoy annoying each other. Both laughed at everything the other did without any problems. And three quarters of the way through the concert people started throwing the foma inserts in the chairs everywhere. It was weird.

I haven't hit as many concerts as Kevin - and damned jealous of the acts he's seen - but have been to see Robert Plant, Heart, Euthymics, and a few others. as far fun moments, I can think of two and they both revolve around Rush, though the first one is kind of vindictive.

1) Saw Rush up in Canada at the PNE. It was during their Presto tour. They started playing the Pass, a song filled with lyrics like "Turn around and walk the razor's edge. Don't turn your back and slam the door on me." Most of the crowd had their lighters out and were swaying with the song. Two girls in front of me were screaming "F ya!" and throwing out their Ronnie James Dio "I Love Yoy" hand signs while thrashing to the rather mellow song. Part way through I couldn't take anymore and tapped one of their sholders. The girl whipped around and yelled "What?" I smiled and said, "The song's about suicide." She sulked in her seat and calmed her friend down.

2) Same concert but three days later in Seattle. Alex, the guitarist, had a rough night in Canada. They were playing the Overture/ Temple of Syrinx and poor Alex missed a couple of notes during his solo. He shook his head and stomped his feet out of disgust seeing how they'd been playing this song for over fifteen years at the time.

So in Seattle they got to the same part of the song and Alex nails his solo. He must have felt like crap for days about it because this night, he threw his head back in triumph and started dancing all over the stage, laying out a heavy riff that absolutely rocked. I think a lot of the crowd saw both shows because the roar at that point was nearly deafening. It was a great night.

Oh man, so many cool shows I've been to!

In no order whatsover:

Manowar and Immortal in 2002

Queensryche and Metallica in early 1989

Slayer in 1991

Rammstein in 2001

Black Sabbath in 1999

Obituary and Sepultura in 1990

Megadeth in 2005

Plus tons of local bands...I used to go to at least 30 shows a year. Now I'm lucky if I see 3! But I haven't lost my passion for listening to music. I still listen to tons of metal but I enjoy other genres too, stuff that I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to 15 years ago.

Worst show ever: James Brown live in downtown Montreal in the mid-90's; everybody was booing. He really sucked, so unprofessionnal! Pantera in 1994 were terrible as well; the singer went on a huge racist rant against black people, way to kill a show buddy!

Pink Floyd! Gah, late 80's, I was a teen, smoking weed, ah, it was great. Me and the boyfriend left the concert (which was at the Omni, I believe, in Atlanta) and walked into a dust devil of cash! Seriously, a mini-tornado of $1 and $5 bills, just cruising down the sidewalk. I think we nabbed about $50 or so, like I said, we were stoned.

Michael Kwan LIVE. Why? Because I was on stage with him -- we performed two songs with him. That was one hell of a head trip.

With Lorin Maazel and the PSO: Handel's Messiah and Sergei Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. World class experience.

As far as being in the audience goes... you know? I've never been to a live rock/pop concert. Isn't that sad?

DEF LEPPARD! Aug 2, 2008, Birmingham ALABAMA!

SLThomas said:

Pantera in 1994 were terrible as well; the singer went on a huge racist rant against black people, way to kill a show buddy!

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I saw this on youtube. Then I watched a bunch of other Pantera show clips and really...Anselmo is a total moron. I don't understand how so many people like that dumbfuck. His act is totally staged and he plays it like numbskull. You're a good metal singer but man, Phil, cut the banter and posturing as you look like a fool.

I don't go to shows very much anymore as I get freaked in crowds. The best show I have been to is probably !Tchkung!. Fire juggling/eating, mud-throwing, bizarre protest art, loud tibal/indistrial music heavy on drums. Loud drums. The crowd was into it and everyone had a blast.

Although Lollapalooza 2 was a highlight as it featured Ministry, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Ministry was already one of my favorites and were my primary reason for attending. Soundgarden I liked and they were awesome but Pearl Jam was a very pleasant surprise. PJ was already hitting pretty hard but I was resistant to them. They put on a great show, though. No explosions but those guys can play live.

Ministry was like a force of nature. Dark settled in and they came on and the crowd rushed the stage, blowing the security barriers to bits...I will never forget the PING PING sound the chain links made as they snapped...as the band opened with NWO. The people in the general admission grassy area started lighting their belongings into bonfires. It was great.

Best shows:

To, Petty and the Heartbreakers, New Haven, 1983. It was the first concert I ever went too. It was me, my friends Dawn, Lucy and Markie (a girl, short for Margaret.) Markie's brother drove us over there in his beat-to-heack screaming orange Toyota Somethingorother. Lucy had the biggest crush on the Heartbreakers' "new" bassist, Howie Epstien. Well, by the end of the show we'd wandered down from our perch way up in the nosebleed seats to one of the stair landings somewhat closer to the stage, and, as the lights came up and the band was starting to pick up and leave, I was, of course, being a 15 year old fangirl and hanging over the railing waving to Tom, who of course wasn't looking that way. Well, Lucy hollers "HEY HOWIE" at the top of her lungs - and Tom and Howie both turned around and waved back. (!)
When I heard that Howie had died a few years ago, that was the first thing I thoguht of...

The Ramones 1987, Vassar College Gym, is the other best show I've ever seen. Worst opening act on earth, though - a band called Sharkey's Machine. Man, bad does NOT begin to describe them. They got booed off the stage. The Ramones, however, ROCKED. (It also rocked when my hearing returned about three days later, but that's another story...)

John Paton said:

1974 Southampton England - an old rock group called YES.

Their light show was pretty good for the time. What a blast as we all stayed up all night after meeting up with like minded ppl.

1974 Bournemouth England - the greatest rock group QUEEN.

They were supporting Mott the Hoople - I still laff about it but EVERYONE went to see Queen when they opened and most of us went to the bar when Mott came on. Mott seemed to disappear after that

Oh the memories of my sheltered life !!

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Oh man, I would have LOVED to have seen Queen back then. Or any time, really.....

3. When I was a wee 13yo: David Cassidy. Okay, go ahead and laugh. I was a sighing, screaming, worshiping fan. For a teenybopper-geared show, it was pretty decent.

2. Delirious and Tree63. I went for Tree63, the opener; never heard Delirious before. WOW. Incredible. They're from England, so no idea when they'll ever come this way again, but I'd buy a ticket without question.

1. Denver and the Mile High Orchestra in 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2002... I've seen them 8 times. all of them rocked except for the Kingdom Bound one (Annoying. Couldn't hear, couldn't see. Blech). DMHO are the best. Ever.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers at the Uptown Theater in Chicago, 1981, I think. He came onstage in a pink tutu singing "He's So Gay" until interrupted by Terry Bozzio and Steve Vai doing a cover of Ziggy Stardust. That segued into a ten-minute version of "Flakes", with Bozzio's dead-on Dylan impersonation, complete with shades and funky fedora, punctuated by Vai walking around trying to break into "All Along the Watchtower", all of which became a crowd-chant-along of an improvised number named after the Coneheads' home planet. Rem-U-Lak! Rem-U-Lak! Rem-U-Lak!
During this piece, Ian Underwood disappeared from the stage, to be replaced by guest bassist Jack Bruce, and the band launched into the entire second side of Apostrophe while roadies tossed rolls of toilet paper into the crowd. Singer Fee Waybill of the Tubes was also on hand for these festivities, doing snide background vocals and occasional commentary.
Following the Apostrophe segment, giant disco balls descended from the ceiling and the band essayed a rather lengthy version of Dancin' Fool, prefaced by a scandalous version of Disco Inferno with Frank outfitted in a white polyester suit and miming the snorting of lines approximately the size and length of the chalk along the third base line at Wrigley.
A good time was had by all.

Pagey's_Girl said:

Best shows:



The Ramones 1987, Vassar College Gym, is the other best show I've ever seen. Worst opening act on earth, though - a band called Sharkey's Machine. Man, bad does NOT begin to describe them. They got booed off the stage. The Ramones, however, ROCKED. (It also rocked when my hearing returned about three days later, but that's another story...)

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Oh yeah, THE RAMONES live killed! I saw them in the summer of 1990, an outdoor show at an amusement park where I worked that summer (La Ronde). It was great seeing the show with the city lights as backdrop. Awesome.

The Pogues, London Hammersmith Odeon, winter 1985. Both band and crowd got progressively inebriated and so.fired.up. as the evening went on. Imagine a couple of thousand mohawked bodies pogo-ing nonstop.

Their second encore was Waltzing Matilda.

I saw Butthole Surfers at a waterpark once. Firehose opened up and a new band called Stone Temple Pilots played the middle set. Then night fell and the Butts came out. There was a wind storm and the lights went out. The band still could play as they were on different generators maybe? The Butthole Surfers use big screens to show bizarre and gross scenes like dental surgery and the like...but the wind storm blew them down. So we got to 'see' a Butthole Surfer concert in the dark with no screens. It was pretty cool really. Also, all the water park rides were open until the lights went out and so I swam around and slid on slides before the Butts...who I was there to see...came on. It was a fun time had by all I suppose. The Wooden Song in the dark...oh yes. Rumor has it that was the tour that turned Scott Weiland on to heroin...so maybe he doesn't have as fond a memory of it as I do. STP sounded good and everyone was excited to hear them as they were the hot new thing on the rock scene at that time. Firehose...I'm not a fan and found Watt to be a bit sullen that he wasn't the main attraction.

1. Seeing The Living End bassist stand on top of his bass as he played a solo when he played at Manly Wharf, Sydney 2004

2. Disturbed, last Saturday @ Festival Hall, Melbourne - best gig ever!

3. Gyroscope, Tuesday night @ The Billboard, Melbourne. Great gig but the highlight was them breaking into a cover of Midnight Oil's Beds are Burning, in the middle of Fast Girl. Awesome stuff!

Honeyboy Edwards circa 1997. An original Mississippi bluesman in Norwich Arts Centre. Weird and entrancing.

KTC - you and I are from the same era! Most of my best moments were at Uni in the (very) early eighties. I don't know whether it's still the case or not, but back in those days UK based bands used to hone their craft by touring the college circuit. Hence I got to see Duran Duran when they were new romantics (and could hardly play their instruments), Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart when they were the Tourists rather than the Eurythmics (I remember her being very uncomfortable, even in front of a small audience), and during fresher's week there were free tickets to see a band from Sheffield, called Def Leppard. The girls laughed at the lead singer's tight leather trousers. But, for me, the best ever was Chuck Berry at the Hammersmith Odeon in around '89. I wasn't a huge fan, but a friend got the tickets because Chuck rarely came to the UK and she wanted to see him before he left forever. But, as the performance went on and on, I suddenly realised that not only did I know all the tunes, I knew all the words too. The crowd were really up for it as well, and I remember the man himself saying that it reminded him of Swinging London all over again. Shame he's now better known for spying on women taking a pee.

Grand Funk Railroad, sometime in the 70s in California. They were so buzzed they played for four hours and wouldn't get the fark off the stage. We didn't mind--the whole crowd was buzzed too.

Lover Boy, Las Vegas, around 1998. Me and my girlfriend danced in front of the stage to the delight of the the crowd, then they got going and joined in. I earned myself a 'warm up' reputation after that and did the same thing for dozens of future lounge acts . Ah, the days.

Tri

Best show, ever: Huey Lewis and the News. Seriously.

Stevie Ray Vaughn was the opening act. He was okay. Huey took the stage, did his sets. All very good. Then an encore. Then a second encore. Then...a third encore, with Stevie Ray and his band. A jam session started, using old blues standards.

Total length of the concert: four and a half hours. Everyone left the concert so pumped up. I still remember it, 20+ years later.

Next in line: Def Leppard. No doubt about it.

Next: Neil young, the Arc-Weld tour.

Next: Stones, baby! Pick a show.

July 4, 1976. Tampa stadium, 80,000 people. Opening act-Loggins and Messina. Next act-Fletwood Mac. Third act-Eagles. It all started about 4:00 in the afternoon and went on to about midnight. Absolutely the best concet I have ever seen. BTW: tickets were $12.75.

Richard

Seaclusion said:

July 4, 1976. Tampa stadium, 80,000 people. Opening act-Loggins and Messina. Next act-Fletwood Mac. Third act-Eagles. It all started about 4:00 in the afternoon and went on to about midnight. Absolutely the best concet I have ever seen. BTW: tickets were $12.75

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I saw that tour at the football stadium in lovely [sic] Foxboro MA. The opening act was Boz Scaggs instead of L&M, but by the time we got into the stadium Boz was done with his set. The closest seats were at the far end of the stadium from the stage.

A twelve-year-old girl behind us was drinking for the first time. She drank a fifth of Sloe Gin. Early in The Eagles' set the medics came and carried the passed-out girl away. She came back 20 minutes later and seemed sober. Weird.

The stadium sold beverages in large waxed paper cups. Someone made a three-foot-high pile of the cups and lit it on fire. That was the last concert at Foxboro Stadium for many years.

I think The Eagles played "Take It To The Limit" for nearly seven days. Interminable. The rest of the show was good, though, especially Lindsay Buckingham's fantastic rendition of "Oh Well."

I eventually did see Boz Scaggs, several years later in Sacramento. I went to see the opening act, The Roches. Unfortunately, the rest of the audience wanted Boz's disco-ish stuff and booed The Roches off the stage (screaming, "Get the Raid!"). Very sad, because The Roches were amazing. Their three-part "Hallelujah Chorus" blew my socks off.

Boz was good, too. His band was essentially Toto. But I'm sorry I didn't get to see more of The Roches.

Speaking of The Roches, what's the next line in this song: O HAI MISTER SELLACK... ;-)

Dale