What was the best gig you've ever seen?
For me it was the first one I ever saw, Devo in December 1978 , i was 13 and they blew my tiny English mind.It was like seeing the future- and the future rocked like a bastard. Second would be Brian Wilson last year at the Royal Festival Hall, a slightly different gig I grant you but so very beautiful. I've just recently got McCartney tickets , his new American band are stunning, and his songs show promise so I've got high hopes for that one.
Comments
End of discussion.
top five in no particular order
Earth Wind and Fire....great show with effects by doug henning the magician...at one point the bass player was doing a really long solo with the others trying to stop him...finally they pick him up on their shoulders and carry him off while he is playing...but as they walk, he stays put and is left lying sideways in mid air while playing his bass...it was great...of course the whole place was full of pot smoke
gladys knight and the pips....my very first concert...good show, but mostly here because it was my first
gang of four...great show on their last tour...they had sara allen on bass...dang she was a sexy little monkey looking girl
talking heads---any of the 4 times i saw them in the 80s
tie: billy joel, springsteen, joe jackson...they all put on great shows
others of note: steely dan, neil young, john hiatt, mission of burma, the handsome family, the mekons...and all the bands i saw at the 9:30 club in dc from 1980 to 1984 that i was too stoned and drunk to remember seeing....oh, and recently, had a good time at an Ataris/Sugarcult show...got to see my daughter go crowd surfing by...proud papa moment....g
bands i hate myself for not seeing: the clash, elvis costello, bob dylan, david bowie, the english beat, the pixies
g
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first large concert (30,000+): Bowie <Glass Spider tour> -nice lasers through the um... smoke-
best gig (front of stage): paul simon / peter gabriel / Maria Muldaur tie... each awesome at the time and perfect for their respective venue
best gig (backstage): BB King.
Bob Dylan - at my college when I was a Junior.
Dead Milkmen - last show EVER!
311 - in a small club in Philly
Radiohead - that same club, both of these shows were so great because you were close enough to see the band's sweat
The Juliana Theory - in a basement in New Brunswick (now they're selling out big venues)
Weezer - all 4 shows I've been to because they rock so hard
The first 3 lollapalooza's and the first 2 Warped Tours (the rest sucked)
Talking Heads Greek Amphitheatre late 80s
Crash Worship: super intense... intenser than intense and you get drenched in milk, wine, water and maybe even scorched a bit
Camper Van Beethoven: Twice, at my school (theirs too) and at a New Years celebration . . . lots O dancin
The most dangerous (shades of RI) show was Mother's Finest/Ted Nugent/Black Sabbath. 1976 at the Spectrum in Philly. People ****ed up everywhere. M-80's. 15 foot bonfire set on the floor (general admission) in the middle of the Black Sabbath set...frightening show. :eek:
Paul McCartney at the Omni in Atlanta in (I think) 1991 or so. His first tour in many, many years and he played LOTS of Beatle and Wings songs. And he was playing his Hofner violin bass, which was just extra cool.
John Mellencamp on the Scarecrow tour in 1986. Almost three hours of ALL his hits, plus album cuts, plus jams and lots of cool covers of 60's garage/one-hit/dance songs (apparently, in preparation for this particular tour, Mellencamp gave his band a list of several hundred of these songs to learn...they played a TON of them that night and they absolutely rocked. Mellencamp in his heyday...quite a performer).
Emmylou Harris at a bluegrass festival in Wilkesboro, NC. Accompanying her up was Jerry Douglas on dobro, Mark O'Connor on fiddle, Carl Jackson on banjo, Vince Gill (!!!) on mandolin and Emory Gordy, Jr. playing stand-up bass. Anyone here into country or bluegrass music knows how cool and ferocious of a band that was.
And it was! Holy cow...
I've seen other good shows by The Mavericks, Rolling Stones, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and - coolest of all - The Eagles on the opening night of their "Hell Freezes Over" tour back in 1994 or so at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in Orange County, CA.
They had the sheer balls to OPEN with "Hotel California".
I'd never seen so many Bic lighters in my life...
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George Clinton, 1998-2001.
Bob Dylan.
Colonel Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit, opening for Phish at the Barrymore Theater, 1991.
Too many more....
There are so many, it's hard to choose the best one.
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The pigs... The GIANT PIGS!!! AAARRRGHH!
*acid flashbacks*
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<strong>RUSH Vapor Trails tour 2002 at the Gorge. The whole intro to One Little Victory was prety cool.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Saw the same tour at The Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA (formerly Great Woods). Unbelieveable show. The crowd was pumped and so was the band. It's an outdoor ampitheater, and the energy was sky high. I saw them later on the tour at the Fleet Center and the show was just as tight, but the crowd energy was down.
At the Tweeter show I was with 7 friends, most of them Rush newbies and all of them were blown away. At one point, I was singing along with the band, and this cute girl in front of me grabbed my shirt and yanked me down to sing along
1) i saw the who in 1975, @ the vets auditorium in des moines, it was a show beset by technical difficulties. on the the third time the band had to leave the stage, keith moon remained walking around all the equipment, examining it, poking at stuff with a drum stick, after two or three minutes he walked up to the mike and said, "WE HAVE WAYS OF DEALING WITH EQUIPMENT LIKE THIS!"
and the crowd went crazy!
the show itself was mediocre and no, they didn't wreck anything except for a mic and a harmonica, but that memory is one of my favorite concert-going memories.
2) elvis costello & the attractions @ alpine valley in wisconsin. (1979?) it was steve nieve's birthday, they did the show and elvis said not to leave that they just were going to take a break and came back and did a whole 'nother set, which turns out were all steve's requests.
3) fleetwood mac @ the rko orpheum in davenport iowa 1975. it was their second or third show with lindsay and stevie. they were incendiary. mick fleetwood even mentions this show in his autobiography. the fleetwod mac eponymous lp had just come out and no one knew what to expect. it's hard to explain how great stevie was then, but she gave me absolute chills (you know like when you see bruce?) that night. and mick fleetwood and john mcvie were the best rock rhythm section i've ever seen.
4) rolling stones @ the gator bowl 1975, not that great of a show but at 16, i drove half way across the country to see the stones. my friend bailed as his ma found out, so i went alone.
i've seen the stones every tour since (until this year, i couldn't handle all the paperwork)and i can truthfully say the get much better each time.
5) roy harper @ shank hall milwaukee wisconsin. (1999?)
me and 10 other people saw this show, he could of cancelled but he said what the hell.....he had us pull our chairs round, and he told stories about the songs, explained cricket and futbol, asked questions about baseball (he'd seen the cubs the day before.....he asked if all baseball stadiums were as nice as wrigley.....we said....er....no not exactly!) not many people know who roy is in america. but he's hero to jimmy page ("hats off to harper"...led zep 2) pink floyd (he sings "have a cigar" on wish you were here) kate bush and many others. he's very political but you never know where he's going to land on topics.
he's my hero and THIS is the best show i ever saw!
now that i've been influenced....
i didn't even think of any jazz shows (ornette coleman, i'm jealous!) i did see keith jarrett in 1974 and he lectured us all night about our behavior and coughing.
i saw gladys knight at jazz fest in new orleans and she made me cry, like three times, during the show she was so great. (no pips though...jealous again)
emmylou last year at the vic right here in chicago. god i love her.
tangerine dream at the aragon in chicago 1976. blew my mind.
last month, i went back home to iowa and saw dave holland's quintet, maybe the best jazz show i ever saw.
pink floyd the animals tour @ soldier field before the flying pigs had been in mothballs, and roger waters was counting down the shows til tour was over.
this is my favorite thread ever! i could read this stuff all night. keep them coming.
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Artman -wow CBGB's, Ramones,1976- you win
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i remember when i worked in a record store in college and of human feelings had just come out...i would play that and people would come up and ask me to take it off, they said it made them nervous....i would say, me too, that's why i love it.....g
[ 02-25-2003: Message edited by: thegelding ]</p>
Artman -wow CBGB's, Ramones,1976- you win <hr></blockquote>
i agree! (on both counts) no one can beat ramones in 76 @ cbgb's unless someone saw the british shows they did in england that inspired johnny rotten, joe strummer et al.
[quote]yes, superKDC, when i saw ornette colman mentioned above, i was jealous too....
i remember when i worked in a record store in college and of human feelings had just come out...i would play that and people would come up and ask me to take it off, they said it made them nervous....i would say, me too, that's why i love it.....g <hr></blockquote>
when i worked in a record store i would play gil scott-heron
and scare all the "straights."
jazz the real alternative.
in the late 70's and early eighties when all the little creepy children (you know who you are) would come up to me in my store and ask why we didn't have an "alternative" section (er... because it's rock, you knob) i would say "oh but we do!" and take them over to the jazz section.