Rush's final tour (R40).
Followed very closely by Starset.
Rush's final tour (R40).
Followed very closely by Starset.
wawazat wrote: Big venue-Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and BB King at Pine Knob. Great show from all performers though Bonamassa blew me away! Small venue-Rodrigo y Gabriella at Royal Oak Music Theatre. Incredibly tight and powerful for two people on acoustic guitars. Went with my wife when she was 7 months pregnant. My boy loves the band to this day!
Saw both these acts when they came through Des Moines a couple of years back.
The Bonamassa show was also memorable for one of the amps starting to catch on fire during the show!
Rodrigo y Gabriella at the relatively intimate venue had the entire audience on their feet pretty much the whole show. As they were just two folks with guitars on the stage, they also invited about 20-30 folks from the audience just join them on stage for the show as well.
Bon Jovi opening for Ratt back in 86. There were more scantily clad females there than this simple country boy had ever seen.
Baroness and Between the Buried and Me at the Crocodile Rock Cafe shortly before it closed. Album-perfect sound, and two of my favorite bands putting on incredible performances at what was (at the time) my local venue.
I really loved seeing the Police on their reunion tour.
But a band that is pretty hated here has blow that concert out more than a few times, IMHO. Hard to say which was a favorite, but now I wish I did an entire weekend when it was an acoustic and electric combo concert a few years ago.
Damn... can't pick just one. I've been to A LOT of great shows.
Big venue shows:
Slayer and Pantera, 2001 at the Worcester Centrum (now the DCU Center). Both of them were amazing. Slayer had just gotten back Dave Lombardo on drums, and it was Pantera's last tour.
Killswitch Engage, around 2002-03, at the Worcester Palladium. It was a special word-of-mouth show that was for a DVD shoot (the Set This World Ablaze DVD) and tickets were $2 or $3. It sold out in under 10 minutes. Show was amazing, and they played everything they had for hours.
Ozzfest 2004 (or was it 2005?), and the headliners were Slayer, Judas Priest, and the ORIGINAL lineup of Black Sabbath. All of them killed it. Judas Priest played for over an hour and played EVERYTHING. And then Sabbath came on. Holy hell. They only screwed up one song (Snowblind, one of my faves) but Ozzy said that they were sorry and it's because they were all old men, which made up for it. 
Foo Fighters, around 2011, Boston Garden. I had luxury box seats. It ruled. They played for like 2hrs, and did some covers, too. They covered Tom Petty's Breakdown, which lends to my theory that somehow Dave Grohl and Tom Petty are the same dude.
Iron Maiden, 2014 (I think), Xfinity Center in Mansfield MA. Somewhere Back In Time Tour. They played all the good stuff. It was a religious experience. Alice Cooper also played, which was pretty cool.
Small venue shows:
Tree, at The Middle East (downstairs), Cambridge, MA (2012?): Tree is an old-school Boston Hardcore band from way back. I saw them 100 times back in the day, and then around 2000, they broke up. They did a reunion show a few years ago at one of the venues they always had shows at. They never lost a step. So many old people going nuts, myself included.
Pallbearer, at TT The Bears, Cambridge, MA, 2012: I was sick as a dog. They played with Royal Thunder (female fronted doomy band, also awesome) and another band I forget. Pallbearer is heavy, slow, and haunting, and I went into a weird almost catatonic state at the show. It was intense.
Fu Manchu, The Sinclair, Cambridge MA, 2013: They played the album The Action Is Go front to back. They were incredible. Also of note, it was two days after the Boston Marathon bombing and the bombing suspects were on a rampage mere blocks from the club.
The Absence, O'Brien's Pub, Allston MA 2013. If you like melodic metal with growly vocals, these guys are a must-listen. I was pumped to see them, and there were only about 20 people in the tiny venue. I felt bad for them. But they didn't care, and they ripped the roof off the place!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Baroness and Between the Buried and Me at the Crocodile Rock Cafe shortly before it closed. Album-perfect sound, and two of my favorite bands putting on incredible performances at what was (at the time) my local venue.
I had a ticket to a Baroness show this past summer and ended up not being able to go. I REALLY wanted to see them live!
Datsun310Guy wrote: Rush 2112. Chicago International Amphitheater
That's funny. That was the beginning of Neil having a big influence, and I had become a fan before. 2112 was the last album I bought until Clockwork Angels.
The 2112 concert in Regina had Max Webster (fronted by Kim Mitchell) opening, and the crowd was way more into them than Rush.
Bogart's in Cincinnati 1992. Headliner was Beastie Boys with Basehead. Standing in line, rumor was firehose would make an appearance. Got inside and true enough, firehose played. Mike Watt broke a bass string on stage and did a quickie replacement, breaking that string and wound it up again. Adam Yauch was on top of the speaker stack during Slow and Low. Got to meet Mike Watt selling merchandise inside the venue. Somebody spilled a full beer right by the bar. It was really good.
Rush 2112 Tour
I saw the Distillers open for co-headliners Garbage and No Doubt at the Long Beach Arena. All three performed Blondie's "Call Me" together as their encore. Awesome.
Not the best, but so much fun: Die Antwoord. I'm not even a fan of their music, but no way was I going to miss that experience.
I've only been to about 10 concerts, half of which were DMB shows.
The best was Allison Krauss and Union Station at Louisville's Palace Theater. They had Tony Rice play a few songs with them. It was incredible.
It's a tough call for a while I was going to a lot of them. Probably the most fun I've had was a Garth Brooks in Central Park. I've been a Garth Brooks fan since I saw him open for Kenny Rogers at a Christmas show and that's an incredible venue to see a show in. I met some people there and after the concert we ended up hanging out until about 6 in the morning and going right to work from there.
My second favorite wasn't really a concert but Billy Joel did a fundraiser for a music school up in Massachusetts. It was a small place maybe 300 people and he would play a little music, tell stories, and answer questions from the audience.
Not a single Black Crowes mention? In 2013, saw the last show of Black Crowes and Tedeschi Trucks Band at Meadowbrook, outside Detroit.
Close second would be Black Crowes with Jimmy Page at the Palace in 2000.
Prince, or Social Distortion. I can't decide. Or Tom Waits. Still can't pick one.
G8MikeGXP wrote: Not a single Black Crowes mention? In 2013, saw the last show of Black Crowes and Tedeschi Trucks Band at Meadowbrook, outside Detroit. Close second would be Black Crowes with Jimmy Page at the Palace in 2000.
Woody wrote: Elton John was a huge disappointment as he decided to go to rehab in the middle of the show, and the Black Crowes just sucked.
KyAllroad wrote: Here Come The Mummies Hilarious, funky, rocking. A lot of fun live show.
Anyone naming an album "Single Entendre" is a winner in my book! I saw them after hearing a set on Bob and Tom and they were wicked tight in person.
Best concert I've seen was Weezer and Cake, my two favorite bands. Weezer has some really off nights though as I have experienced where Rivers has a tough time being close to in tune and time.
I didn't really want to go, but a friend talked me into seeing the Stray Cats back in the '80's. She was right, excellent show and Brian Setzer doesn't get the props he deservers probably. Unbelievable guitar player.
Another stand out was seeing the Violent Femmes at a club. Drinking probably helped, but it was a great show.
I also saw REM a few times when they were still playing bars. It's hard to overstate how different they sounded then to most other bands.
I think I missed my time though, I would have loved to have seen say a more punk Blondie or the Ramones back in the '70's.
Peter Gabriel--Milwaukee Marcus Amphitheatre 2003
Eagles (Hell Freezes Over)--Alpine Valley 1994
Warren Zevon--Hancher Auditorium, Iowa City 1987
R.E.M.--Carver Hawkeye Arena, 1989 (Green)
YES--Alpine Valley 1985 (90125)
Rush--R30--Milwaukee Marcus Amphitheatre, 2005
Billy Joel--Carver Hawkeye Arena, 1987
The BoDeans--Summerfest 1987
I've also seen great shows by Van Hagar, Cheap Trick, The Alarm, The Call, Midnight Oil, David Gray, Aerosmith, Social Distortion, Train, Duran Duran and I'm sure a few others that have slipped into the cracks of my old memory.
George Thorogood and the Destroyers, 1985, at George Washington U in DC. Great show!
Honorable mentions for Tool (Lollapalooza 93 and a couple other times), Motörhead, Santana, Little Feat, and I don't even care what kind of hate this draws: Sarah McLachlan. Fumbling Toward Ecstacy was in heavy rotation when it was time for brown chicken brown cow.
Whitesnake with Great White opening (Hartford Civic Center) in early 1988 was probably my favorite just as far as wretched excess.
Stryper (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1988) was the most fun, great seats.
Fabulous Thunderbirds in a small western Mass. club (mid '90s?) had the best atmosphere.
Loreena McKennett, around ten years ago, at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Full supporting musicians just like the video below, including the Hurdy Gurdy man. It was an incredible performance.
Have only experienced a handfull of concert performances in my life, but the most memorable one was last year in Dallas at the 2016 Miku Expo. Beat out being front row at Joe Satriani 'Engines of Creation' tour in Phonenix, AZ. Liked is so much I instantly booked ticket to the Houston concert that was a few days later.
With most 'normal' concerts I've been to I like the original studio performance better. Sure, it's nice to see Joe Satriani or Eric Johnson play live, but the studio version is what remains in my head. With a Vocaloid concert, it's a whole different experience...crazy Japanese concept experience. You're listening to music created by some individual around the world (professional or amatuer), being played by professional musicians live, with a 3D laser projection of the virtual 'singer' used, and are in a crowd club/rave setup with glow sticks participating in the songs... very interesting experience.
Depeche Mode at the Bell Centre in Montreal couple years ago. My wife said David Gahan moved around and played the crowd as if we all wanted berkeley him! Great mix of old and new songs. Was fun to watch the millenials try and sing along with us old folk Gen-Xers.
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