Best Live Concert You Have Attended?
 

Which was your favorite concert you have ever attended?

I have attended quite a few concerts but hands down my favorite live performance was a band called Local H. They are a two man band with a ton of energy. A lot of bands have solid albums but sound disappointing live. Local H is one of the few bands who always sound better live.

There are a ton of other concerts that were fun and provided excellent memories, but Local H is my number one favorite live band.

Bon Jovi from the Slippery When Wet days. Jon owned the stage. Cinderella opened. Fantastic twin bill.

Bon Jovi and Cinderella at the same show; that would have been solid back in the day! I saw Cinderella about three years ago and they were still great!

Nice try Local H.

I know I am in the minority to state how Local H put on the best show I have been to. It would have been easier to convince people that other shows I went to were better; AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue, Violent Femmes, Korn, Stone Temple Pilots, Cinderella, Kix, BoDeans, Sheryl Crow, Guns N Roses, Third Eye Blind, Cold, Everclear, Disturbed, and so on. They were all great concerts but truly Local H was the best.

Umm... birthday present from my girlfriend (now ex-wife).

On my birthday in July 1994. Assorted bands, but I wanted to see the Allman Brothers.

I know they were so much better in the 70's, but it was great hearing them under the stars at an open-air amphitheater. And Blues Traveler and the Black Crows and others.

Feeder at a local festival nearly 5 years ago.

^_^ they were awesome!

Melt-Banana in 2002. Second time I saw them, first time seeing them with Dave Witte on drums, and first time they were opening with an early rough version of "Shield for Your Eyes, A Beast in the Well on Your Hand", which was to be their most common opening song for the next decade, but at the time was like: "WTF..... Ohhhhhhh!" (it has a very lite & groovy intro). And when I already thought I was watching the greatest thing that could ever be, they kicked it up a notch by playing an outrageous cover of My Generation.

Melt Banana would be great. On my list for sure.

Jeff Beck/SRV at the UIC Pavillion in 1989. Hands down the absolute best concert I'd ever been to, and I didn't really realize it until years later. I've been to many incredible shows, but this one really sticks out in my mind as one of those nights filled with something that was intangible, and electric. It was a spur of the moment thing too, as we'd (me and my friend Pete, the singer from Zoetrope) just got two tickets from a friend that couldn't go, so he gave them to us. We drove there kind of blindly, since I had no idea where it was (no GPS or Google Maps back then), and when we got there, we had to stop and ask a few people for some party favors, which when we finally found someone with some, were quite good. We get inside the venue as SRV is just starting his set, and thoroughly blew the roof off the place, then Jeff came out and proceeded to blow my mind with the Guitar Shop album done in it's entirety. Bozzio was a stand out too. For the finale, Jeff went into his quintessential blues rock "Going Down" when Stevie came out to join him mid-solo. Stevie brought the house down. Incredible mastery and intensity as Jeff looked on in delight and awe.

This video description says it's from the show I went to, but that's a false claim since Stevie came out mid tune with his guitar behind his head, but it's from the same tour.



About a year later when I heard the news, I took the day off of work, went to my favorite place in the woods, and carved a guitar with wings into a picnic table. I try not to be one of those "SRV is the greatest that ever lived" mouth breather twits, but **** me runnin, that dude could play a mean ****ing guitar.

Beastie Boys w/ The Ramones at San Diego Sports Arena 1992. Both sets were outstanding. The Ramones still had some energy and the Beasties always blow everyone away.

Peter Gabriel - 1986 on the So tour. I lucked out and got second row center stage tix. Was the closest I'd ever been to the stage at an arena show. He and his band were amazing.

Page & Plant - 1995 Unledded tour. Was the first time Page and Plant had played the old Boston Garden since 1973 - they'd been banned from Boston after fans trashed the Garden prior to the 1975 Zep tour.

I'de never been part of a crowd that was so electric like that before or since. Next to LA and NY, Boston was one of Zeppelin's fave cities. The place was absolutely bonkers for the entire show. Almost felt like I was tripping at times.

They're playing in Canada in July.

Might see Melt-Banana when they come through Vancouver, maybe.

Seeing Accept in 2013 at a small bar, maybe 300 people, was probably the best show I've ever been to, Stalingrad Tour. Stuffing a band with a sound that insanely massive into a bar of 300 die hard fans is a hell of an experience, they absolutely demolished the place. Probably the loudest show I've been to as well.

GHOUL in a very small bar was hilarious, their stage show is a blast, slime and blood everywhere.

And Black Sabbath in 2007 before DIO's passing was almost a religious experience, especially considering I was maybe 13 years old.

I should give honorable mention to Gwar. Their music is not the best, but the experience is overly entertaining. I still have my blood soaked t-shirt somewhere. It was winter time in Minnesota, so after my buddy and I left, we had to walk pretty far in the cold with our clothing drenched in the blood and other juices the band sprayed over the audience. One of the fluids was from Lady Gaga's breasts, shortly before they decapitated her. LOL

I went to one of Acid Mothers Temple's concerts where they had a couple decent bands that opened for them. AMT was ****ing mindblowing though. I passed out and pissed my pants during the final song, it was incredible stuff man.

The Magic Band was great as well, John French really brought that **** to the table. The whole band played everything note for note and it was damn incredible.

Public Image Ltd. was waay better than I had expected. I was the drunkest guy in the crowd, except for maybe John Lydon. Talk to some crazy old tweaker dude with a Benjamin Franklin haircut who went to Woodstock and left the day Jimi Hendrix later played at. PIL puts on a damn good show, it was loud as ****. They did a 20 minute version of Religion where Lydon was screaming at the sound guy to turn the bass all the way up and their guitarist, Jesus Christ, played some really experimental stuff. Jesus looked pretty coked out tbh.

i have to think more on this as i really think this is a combination of many things....act, crowd, general feeling.....it's just to easy to just out and say getting vomited on by Gibby of the Butthole Surfers

but i will say

Built To Spill is quite possibly the best live band (as far as musical ability) i have ever seen

Nick Cave.
I'm seeing them next month!

uh

aren't they all like
dead

the ramones, i mean. but i wouldn't be surprised if the beastie boys were too.

edit:

oh hi im day drunk stupid didn't read the 1992 bit NEVER MIND ME SORRY

Might not have been my favorite that I've been to, but Against Me! easily put on the best show from any band I've seen.

Roger Waters or Paul McCartney.

Cloud Nothings, no contest.

This was the concert I was at

Tool definitely are the number one that i've seen. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and even Metallica were also great when I saw them. Tool would definitely take the best spot though.

I saw the Flaming Lips twice during the Yoshimi era and both shows were pretty amazing. The second time was a New Year's Eve show, which made it extra special.

Saw Aerosmith do a New Year's Eve show (1989) in their hometown Boston Garden. Skid Row and Warrant backed them up. Was the Pump tour.

Hated to admit it but both Warrant and Skid Row killed it. And Aerosmith were on their best behavior by then and delivered the goods.

I kid you not, I was at the same show the night before New Year's

Warrant?

Skid Row?

I don't remember Warrant playing, so either we got there late or they didn't play that night. I do remember Skid Row though. Sebastian Bach was being a complete dick and telling the crowd to "give a big fuck you to Boston" because he was upset about some incident. Their set was pretty forgettable I guess since I don't remember much about it. Aerosmith were great though. I remember being amazed by Steven Tyler's level of energy. And I remember that the stage was set up to look like they were playing on Boston rooftops.

Edit: Are you sure about Warrant playing? I was just looking at this page about the Pump tour and Warrant isn't listed among the openers.

I'm 100% certain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_Tour

I'd have to say KISS on the 'Revenge' CLUB tour in April 1992, a 13-city jaunt that was essentially a live "listening party" for their new album at the time. They previewed the entire 'Revenge' album during intermission prior to the show and then pummeled 1000 people with a 22 song set. They truly let the music do the talking and took no prisoners that night. In short order, they've NEVER sounded better live since OR after. With ANY lineup. Good times ( :bowdown: )!

Rock in Rio Lisboa - Rolling Stones with Bruce Springsteen

Fishbone with The English Beat. I've seen better bands but it was the most fun that I ever had at a concert (been going for 40 years)

Springsteen in 1976 was a jaw-dropper. Tom Petty in 1980 was phenomenal. J. Geils Band, on New Years Eve in 1981 made me think I'll never see anything this good ever again. (I was wrong). Linda Ronstadt, in 1983, Get Closer Tour made me realize that there was a difference between "singing" and "vocals". The chills I got hearing that voice soar across the arena, the power of her delivery, the softness of her plaintive emotion on the slow ones was just stunning.
Thinking of those 4 shows, the common threads are that there was no nonsense- no dancers, no costume changes, no smoke, no laser lights, just a band on a stage, with talent honed by years of playing in front of an audience. With skills in capturing an audience, they grabbed us by the throat and never let us go under we were spent, hours later...

Saw Rush in 1977 in a small theater in Fitchburg, MA on their Farewell to Kings tour. This was back when they had just a single keyboard on stage.

Spent the entire show with my elbows on the stage right in front of Alex.

HA! Just looked it up: 12/2/1977

http://www.rush.com/tour/a-farewell-to-kings/

http://progulator.com/TK421/wp-conte...Group_1978.jpg

Nice! I imagine that they were still fairly unknown to the masses, having little radio airplay or "hit" songs, so those dates must have been "real" fan gigs...

For sure. They only started getting really popular after Permanent Waves and Spirit of Radio took off. And then Moving Pictures and Tom Sawyer made them mega-huge.

Did ya know that only The Beatles and The Stones have more consecutive gold and platinum studio albums than Rush?

I believe it! Very, very loyal fans who have stuck with them a long time..