Best concerts you've been to

Post Reply
IsabellaWilliams51
Debut
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2021 12:08 pm
Contact:

Best concerts you've been to

Post by IsabellaWilliams51 »

What concerts have you been to that you recall the best ones you've been to? For me being a metalhead, I admit the best ones I've been to were Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica. I will also add Chicago Open Air in 2017 that was truly amazing with such great line-up. I miss concerts, but we have to be patient!
User avatar
Edre Depeche Head
Movin' On Up
Posts: 866
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:27 pm
Contact:

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Edre Depeche Head »

I saw Depeche Mode twice on the Global Spirit Tour and Radiohead just a month later. By far the best concerts I have been to.
Edre the Depeche Head
User avatar
Krurze
Movin' On Up
Posts: 877
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:10 pm
Location: Hamburg

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Krurze »

My best concert experiences have been on festivals. I've seen Portishead a few times at different festivals and it's always been an intense experience, but the moxt extreme was at Melt! Festival 2014. I was stoned out of my mind and just absorbed every single sound with my entire body. After the gig ended my buddy was like "Dude, the visuals were so intense, right?" and I realized that I didn't even notice that there were any visuals. It was all just sound for me for about an hour, and not just any sound but the amazing crisp sound of Portishead with Beth Gibbon's harrowing vocals. One of the most intense experiences of my life.

Another gig that stands out is Thee Oh Sees at Fusion Festival 2018. On that day everything just came together perfectly: It was sunday, so I already had an amazing festival, I had some great buddies with me all in great spirit, I was just the right amount of drunk and the setlist was great. Fusion is generally a pretty open-minded festival, but I've gotten so into the music that I definitely attracted some anxious faces from the people around me. Well it was sunday after all, so everyone probably carried some kind of hangover with them, but for me it was the highlight of the festival and one of the best gigs I ever attended.
Brad
Higher Ground
Posts: 4718
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Brad »

R.E.M./Minutemen/Jason & The Scorchers
Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA.
Nov. 30th, 1985

R.E.M. Setlist:
Feeling Gravitys Pull
Harborcoat
Maps and Legends
Driver 8
Fall on Me
Sitting Still
Laughing
Good Advices
So. Central Rain
Have You Ever Seen the Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
Can't Get There From Here
Shaking Through
Just a Touch
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
Old Man Kensey
Pretty Persuasion
Little America

Encore:
Gardening at Night
9-9
Windout

Encore 2:
Theme From Two Steps Onward
Second Guessing
See No Evil (Television cover)
Boy (Go) (The Golden Palominos cover)
Toys in the Attic (Aerosmith cover)
Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen cover) (starts off a capella and ends… more )
Life and How to Live It

Minutemen Setlist:
(Instrumental)
Anxious Mo-Fo
Toadies
The Big Foist
Retreat
Corona
Courage
Fake Contest
Beacon Sighted Through Fog
The Only Minority
Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth?
King of the Hill
Hey Lawdy Mama (Steppenwolf cover)
The Cheerleaders
Political Nightmare
What Is It?
Stories
Hey Good Lookin' (Hank Williams cover)
Bermuda (Roky Erickson cover)
One Reporter's Opinion
Dream Told by Moto
Badges
I Felt Like a Gringo
Jesus and Tequila
No One
The Big Stick
Love Dance
Lost (Meat Puppets cover)
The Anchor
It's Expected I'm Gone
Spillage
Mr. Robot's Holy Orders
Don't Look Now (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
God Bows to Math
Please Don't Be Gentle With Me
The Glory of Man
The Red & the Black (Blue Öyster Cult cover)

Thanks!
Jirin
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3350
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 4:12 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Jirin »

Sleater-Kinney might be the most memorable one to me, that was in the Woods era.

Other specific ones, one or two times I saw Radiohead were great, and White Stripes/Jack White are incredible live.

Oh, one time I was seeing Neil Young, I got up to go to the bathroom and he thought I was leaving early and said "Where ya going?"
Hymie
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3330
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2013 10:37 pm

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Hymie »

Some of mine:

Carl Perkins at the Lone Star Cafe.
The Spaniels luncheon in New Jersey.
Joe Turner and Lloyd Glenn at the Cookery
Wilson Pickett at the Lone Star Cafe.
The Five Keys at Schuetzen Park.
Fats Domino and Chuck Berry at the Theatre Go Round In Nanuet.
Lightning Hopkins at the Lone Star Cafe.
James Brown at the Lone Star Cafe.
The El Dorados Luncheon in New Jersey.
Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge at Belleville High School.
Grady Chapman at the Lodi Boys Club.
Otis Williams and the Charms at Schuetzen Park.
The Five Blind Boys in Piermont
Solomon Burke in Nyack
User avatar
Moonbeam
Full of Fire
Posts: 2543
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:40 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Moonbeam »

My top 10, in chronological order:

Madonna at Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI, USA, 8/26/2001. It was my first time seeing Madonna and it was the first time she had come to her home state to perform in a long time. My brother and I were in the front row (we paid through the nose for tickets), and Madonna came up to us several times. The show was filmed for an HBO broadcast and DVD release, and I am visible a few times!

Prince at Paisley Park, Chanhassen, MN, 6/21-27/2002. This was the week-long Celebration at Paisley Park called Xenophobia. Probably the greatest week of Prince fandom ever, as Prince performed a unique show every night, and I met many friends there who I knew from Prince's fan site who have become lifelong friends. Prince was well out of the mainstream at this point, and it felt like he had built his Uptown in the fanbase with people of all walks of life.

Annie at North Star Bar, Philadelphia, PA, 9/24/2005. Annie's music had transformed my life and helped me find my inner joy again after lots of deaths in my family. I travelled alone to Philadelphia and ended up meeting a fan I recognized from Annie's forum, and we made sure to be front row for the show, which was part of Annie's first tour of the US in support of Anniemal. I had recorded a piano version of "Heartbeat" onto a CD and gave it to her along with a letter. She came out and chatted with me and a fellow fan afterward for about an hour, giving us each promo copies of her upcoming DJ Kicks compilation. It was one of those "lightning in a bottle" moments where I was awestruck meeting a personal hero.

Prince at the Empire Ballroom, Las Vegas, NV, 5/27-28/2006. I was just about to immigrate to Australia, so I shelled out for a last-minute trip to Vegas to see Prince for two soundchecks and two shows on consecutive days before I left. These shows were one-off shows and were likely preparation for Prince's Vegas residency later in the year. As such, they were loose and a bit experimental. He let his then-protege Tamar do a full set while he supported with blistering guitar. The shows featured awesome setlists and were worthy in their own right, but the highlight came during the soundcheck to the second show on the 28th when Prince started to play "Peach" and asked someone from the audience to sing. After jumping enthusiastically, I was chosen to sing. It was wild to perform one of my favorite Prince songs with Prince and his band behind me, and it was wild leading him into a guitar solo! I was trying not to just look at Prince the whole time but instead perform for the crowd, but apparently people were saying Prince was smiling and laughing, enjoying my performance, and said "Somebody's gotta pay this dude." After I got off stage, one of the security guards bumped into me and handed me 40 bucks. One of the most incredible nights of my life.

Kylie Minogue at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Darling Harbour, NSW, 11/11/2006. My wife and I had connected on many things during our long-distance relationship before I moved to Australia, and one of them was Kylie. She had sent me a few CDs of hers that were difficult to find in the US, and it became a part of our story. Before I immigrated to Australia, I had planned a 3-month visit during my break from teaching in the summer of 2005, and Kylie had announced concerts in Sydney at that time, so of course we had lapped up tickets. I was very excited for the trip, but when I arrived, my future-wife told me that Kylie had postponed the shows as she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully, Kylie recovered fully, and our original tickets were honored. We ended up seeing 5 shows of the Showgirl Homecoming Tour, and this was her first show since the diagnosis. Needless to say, the crowd provided rapturous support to a clearly moved Kylie, and it was as emotional of a show as I've ever seen, complete the resplendent new song "White Diamond" as a musical tribute to her triumph.

Grace Jones at Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW, 1/13/2009. Having completed her comeback after nearly 2 decades with 2008's Hurricane album, the 60-year-old Grace Jones brought the house down with her commanding, almost-demigod presence, sharp wit, and unbelievable energy, hula-hooping her way through a 10+ minute of "Slave to the Rhythm". I had long loved her music, but Grace Jones put on a display of stage presence like none I've ever seen.

The Cure at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, NSW, 6/1/2011. While I had previously loved seeing them in support of Bloodflowers and The Cure, this was the pinnacle for me, as my wife and I got to see them in such an iconic venue perform their first three shows in their entirety for the very first time in their history. They were filming the show for a supposed DVD release which never came to fruition, so they were on top of their game. The lighting, atmosphere, and conversations about the various songs and albums were great, and hearing the early history of The Cure this way was divine.

George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic at Enmore Theatre, Sydney, 4/1/2015. Funk is by nature a celebratory, communal genre, and therefore lends itself well to a live experience. George and the band had the house shaking and quaking in sweaty, raucous release for well over two hours, hitting highlights like "Flash Light" and "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)", deep cuts like "Presence of a Brain", the guitar apotheosis of "Maggot Brain", and the victorious "Atomic Dog", in which the 73-year-old George spent a good minute jumping up and down to the beat, ensuring that he'd make our funk the P-Funk.

Prince at the State Theatre, Sydney, NSW, 2/21/2016. Prince's acclaimed final tour, the Piano & a Microphone Tour, saw him perform alone with just a piano. It was a rare opportunity to hear him in such a way without the usual rock pyrotechnics. Prince performed two shows that night and was at his playful, show-stopping best, performing rare highlights such as "Love... Thy Will Be Done", "Noon Rendezvous" and "Purple Music". Of all of the 27 shows I have seen of Prince, he never sounded better than he did here. Sadly, it was the final time we got to see him, and the way he sounded so great made his death two months later all the more difficult to comprehend. I'll never hear "Free Urself", the last song he played that night, without thinking of it as one final gift.

Jenny Wilson at Tavastia, Helsinki, Finland, 9/27/2018. I had been having a tough couple of years personally when I heard Jenny's incredible EXORCISM album, which ended up being my album of the decade for its fluorescent fury and electromagnetism. It had been a godsend and had given me life and strength. I travelled to Helsinki for work for a couple weeks, and Jenny Wilson happened to be performing there duing my stay, so of course I had to attend. She played every song from EXORCISM, and during my favorite, "FOREVER IS A LONG TIME", she reached out and grabbed my hand in the audience! It was another one of those spiritual, life-affirming moments that I'll never forget.

Some other contenders:

Prince at Paisley Park, Chanhassen, MN, 11/5/1999. My first trip to Paisley Park for an impromptu show.

Franz Ferdinand at Majestic Theatre, Detroit, MI, 6/13/2004. I had just lost my dad three months earlier, so this show provided a much-needed release.

!!! at The Forum, Sydney, NSW, 3/8/2007. The most painful one to remove from my top 10, the raucous energy was all-encompassing.

Sufjan Stevens at State Theatre, Sydney, NSW, 1/29/2011. A wonderfully wild and colorful adaptation of the amazing Age of Adz.

Janelle Monáe at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, NSW, 5/27/2012. A thrilling, ass-shaking set that left me in awe of her energy and her star power.
User avatar
Live in Phoenix
Full of Fire
Posts: 2503
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:50 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Live in Phoenix »

Moonbeam wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 2:47 am Prince at the Empire Ballroom, Las Vegas, NV, 5/27-28/2006. I was just about to immigrate to Australia, so I shelled out for a last-minute trip to Vegas to see Prince for two soundchecks and two shows on consecutive days before I left. These shows were one-off shows and were likely preparation for Prince's Vegas residency later in the year. As such, they were loose and a bit experimental. He let his then-protege Tamar do a full set while he supported with blistering guitar. The shows featured awesome setlists and were worthy in their own right, but the highlight came during the soundcheck to the second show on the 28th when Prince started to play "Peach" and asked someone from the audience to sing. After jumping enthusiastically, I was chosen to sing. It was wild to perform one of my favorite Prince songs with Prince and his band behind me, and it was wild leading him into a guitar solo! I was trying not to just look at Prince the whole time but instead perform for the crowd, but apparently people were saying Prince was smiling and laughing, enjoying my performance, and said "Somebody's gotta pay this dude." After I got off stage, one of the security guards bumped into me and handed me 40 bucks. One of the most incredible nights of my life.
Moonbeam wins this thread.
digifuwill
Are You Experienced?
Posts: 43
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:02 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by digifuwill »

Parliament-Funkadelic All-Stars at a club in Providence back in ‘95, not long after Dre and other new hip hop titans made Clinton a big thing again. Great music, great crowd, great time.

The concert that most surpassed my expectations was Eric Clapton in Philly back around 2005. Derek Trucks was with him and the two just went off. Opener Robert Cray joined for part of the set, too. Best live guitar I’ve ever been fortunate enough to hear.
User avatar
Moonbeam
Full of Fire
Posts: 2543
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:40 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Moonbeam »

Live in Phoenix wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 3:10 am
Moonbeam wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 2:47 am Prince at the Empire Ballroom, Las Vegas, NV, 5/27-28/2006. I was just about to immigrate to Australia, so I shelled out for a last-minute trip to Vegas to see Prince for two soundchecks and two shows on consecutive days before I left. These shows were one-off shows and were likely preparation for Prince's Vegas residency later in the year. As such, they were loose and a bit experimental. He let his then-protege Tamar do a full set while he supported with blistering guitar. The shows featured awesome setlists and were worthy in their own right, but the highlight came during the soundcheck to the second show on the 28th when Prince started to play "Peach" and asked someone from the audience to sing. After jumping enthusiastically, I was chosen to sing. It was wild to perform one of my favorite Prince songs with Prince and his band behind me, and it was wild leading him into a guitar solo! I was trying not to just look at Prince the whole time but instead perform for the crowd, but apparently people were saying Prince was smiling and laughing, enjoying my performance, and said "Somebody's gotta pay this dude." After I got off stage, one of the security guards bumped into me and handed me 40 bucks. One of the most incredible nights of my life.
Moonbeam wins this thread.
Haha, thanks! I’m sure others have had some amazing experiences, too!

I really hope an audio or video bootleg of that show surfaces at some point.
Nick
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3115
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:28 pm
Location: New York State

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Nick »

Not a lot of details here, just names and years.

LCD Soundsystem (2010)
Sleigh Bells (2010)
Kanye West (2014)
Paul McCartney (2014)
The Flaming Lips (2014)
Tame Impala (2016)
Radiohead (2018)
Beach House (2019)
Jirin
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3350
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 4:12 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Jirin »

Oh, totally blanked on Flaming Lips. Nobody else has their level of stage theatrics.
User avatar
Honorio
Higher Ground
Posts: 4480
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2012 7:38 am
Location: L'Eliana, Valencia, Spain

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Honorio »

When I read the (awesome) write-up by Moonbeam I remembered doing something similar (but of course, not as brilliant) many years ago. Rummaging among some files on my computer I found it. I wrote it probably 10 years ago, Lou Reed was still alive. But I'm going to post it like that, without updating it. So here I go…

1. AL TALL + OVIDI MONTLLOR + LLUÍS LLACH (Bull Ring, Valencia, October 3rd of 1981)
One of my very first live shows (I was fifteen), and a politically highly-charged one. Apparently not everyone was celebrating the brand new freedom after long years of dictatorship, so some ignorant fascists put a bomb in the house of Joan Fuster, one of the most brilliant intellectuals of my homeland. But they didn't succeed. They couldn't shut his/our mouth. I still get chills when I remember Llach singing "Campanades a morts" ("Bells Ringing Out for the Dead") and shouting "Assassins!!"

2. ALASKA Y LOS PEGAMOIDES (Galaxy Disco, Pobla de Vallbona, Spring 1982)
Not many people gathered round the stage in a small village disco to see the icons of the "Movida Madrileña." But I admit that it shocked me (or at least a young and impressionable me). Expecting to find the new wave colourful look and bright sound of its records I found a band with gothic look and punk energetic sound. This performance pushed me into modernity, into looking forward and not back in pop history. Of course I changed my mind years later but I don't regret at all embracing fashion and modernity during my teenage years.

3. DEPECHE MODE (Pachá Auditorium, Valencia, March 3rd of 1984)
A great concert from a quite early incarnation of techno-pop masters (without Clarke but with the glorious line-up of Gahan-Gore-Fletcher-Wilder). No guitars and no drums but nobody missed them. They were about to improve notably in a few years, but then Dave Gahan was a perfect front-man yet and the songs were superb ("Everything Counts"!!). I was playing in a punk-funk band then and I remember my friend Raúl asking me: "Why don't you play songs like these ones?" And I told him: "Believe me, it's not easy at all, I wish I could."

4. ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN (Pachá Auditorium, Valencia, May 24th of 1984)
God bless Pachá Auditorium. We didn't have in Valencia a club with medium capacity that allowed concerts of bands not successful enough to fill stadiums but known enough for not playing in a small club. For me it was like a Pop Church where I went religiously during the eighties. I could point many concerts but I'll point a fantastic one from the second Fab Four from Liverpool. They came to promote an acoustic-based album ("Ocean Rain") but its set was tremendously intense and noisy. The buzzing in my ears lasted for more than two days.

5. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E-STREET BAND (Vicente Calderón Stadium, Madrid, August 2nd of 1988)
Despite the 40ºC (104ºF) stifling heat and the stadium packed with thousands of people Bruce Springsteen gave us no rest at all, the intensity didn't decline during more than 4 hours of concert. And I know that you believe me for sure. The ritual of rock 'n' roll live shows at its maximum expression. Going to see a massive rock star at the height of his popularity is (almost) always a powerful experience, but if we talk about The Boss and his E-Street Band you can multiply the impact by ten. Glory days.

6. PRINCE & THE NEW POWER GENERATION (Luis Casanova Stadium, Valencia, July 24th of 1990)
I know, the movie "Graffiti Bridge" was not "Purple Rain," the album was not "Sign 'O' the Times," the "Nude" Tour was not "Lovesexy" Tour and even The New Power generation were not The Revolution. But a Prince show is always a Prince show. Not simply a rock concert but a complete show, the perfect way to showcase the exceptionality of Prince as musician (what a superb guitar player!), singer, dancer and showman. Sex, music, dance, romance.

7. BOB DYLAN (Luis Puig Velodrome, Valencia, July 21st of 1995)
This performance falls into the category "come on, let's go to see him before he dies" in which I could include shows I went like The Stones or Lou Reed too, although all of them continue alive and kicking. Part of the "Never Ending" Tour, Dylan completed an awesome concert despite the fact that his latest release was an uninspired "MTV Unplugged" album. Some highlights included the country section (with "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" or "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight") but mainly a wild take on "All Along the Watchtower." You could actually "see" the waves of electricity coming from the stage and shaking the audience.

8. GORAN BREGOVIC (Cultural Centre, Burjassot, May 17th of 2003)
A brothers concert. One of the few occasions when my brothers and I went to a show together. My brother Jesus (yes, it was quite common in Spain naming Jesus the boys born just before Christmas) was a big fan of Bregovic and the Wedding and Funeral Band and introduced my brother Miguel and me in such wonderful Balkan music, that night more apt for weddings than for funerals. By the way, Jesus is the real genius of my family, a gifted musician and an expert in flamenco and folk music (one of these days I will finally convince him to make a list on the subject).

9. RADIOHEAD (Las Ventas Bull Ring, Madrid, July 16th of 2003)
No doubt, one of the best live shows I've ever seen. With Low as support band, Radiohead made a great concert with a perfect balance between rock and electronica, between intimate and cathartic moments, between avant-garde and accessibility, between classicism and modernity. And moreover my wife Ana insisted in waiting to meet the band outside the Bull Ring. After two hours (the things you do for love!) Thom Yorke showed up and, surprise surprise, he talked with Ana and me for a few minutes. He was really gentle and nice considering the late hours.

10. PIXIES + MORRISSEY + STROKES + FRANZ FERDINAND (FIB, Benicassim, July 21st-22nd of 2006)
And, last but not least, the F.I.B. (Festival International of Benicassim) that supposed for me the main access to good live music in the last decade or so. There has been so many good moments there that I can't name them here. I've selected the 2006 edition because of the "professional" show of the Pixies, the coolness of The Strokes, the enthusiastic performance of Franz Ferdinand and, above all, the long-awaited performance of Morrissey. I've never seen The Smiths playing live and the previous show of Morrissey two years before was mysteriously cancelled. But when I heard the first notes of "Panic" it was clear to me. It was worth the wait.
User avatar
Edre Depeche Head
Movin' On Up
Posts: 866
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:27 pm
Contact:

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Edre Depeche Head »

Honorio wrote: Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:17 am 3. DEPECHE MODE (Pachá Auditorium, Valencia, March 3rd of 1984)
A great concert from a quite early incarnation of techno-pop masters (without Clarke but with the glorious line-up of Gahan-Gore-Fletcher-Wilder). No guitars and no drums but nobody missed them. They were about to improve notably in a few years, but then Dave Gahan was a perfect front-man yet and the songs were superb ("Everything Counts"!!). I was playing in a punk-funk band then and I remember my friend Raúl asking me: "Why don't you play songs like these ones?" And I told him: "Believe me, it's not easy at all, I wish I could."
That is amazing! While I honestly have no issue with how Depeche Mode sound with a drummer these days and seeing them in 2018 was one of the best nights of my life (I also still love their new stuff as well), If I had a time machine I would love to see them in the 80s!
Edre the Depeche Head
User avatar
Live in Phoenix
Full of Fire
Posts: 2503
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:50 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Live in Phoenix »

1980s and 1990s

My concert experiences aren't better than yours, but I can pass along an anecdote or two. Some of my favorite concerts have been at the state fair, i.e. Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the fall. The concerts are free besides fair admission, and are only 90 minutes. (Get in & get out is often fine with me, instead of testing my patience.)

The Moody Blues (Arizona State University; November 30, 1983)
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble opened, of all people. (In contrast, the Moody Blues' current album, The Present, was cold synth pop.) I'm too young to really remember either of their shows, unfortunately. For the state fair, I just remember running up the ramp to get to the show. For the ASU show, I just remember Vaughan; my memory, right or wrong, is that he was pulling all of this stuff out of his guitar, like he was massacring it in a beautiful way. That's my memory of it as a 5-year-old.

The Moody Blues (Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum; November 9, 1986)
My mother has alleged once before that at one of these two concerts, someone asked where Mike Pinder was, and the response was, well he's sitting at home getting fat. (Pinder left after their 1978 album, and was included in the band's R&R Hall of Fame induction. In fact, it's just him and singer Justin Hayward representing the band on a cup I bought at the Hall of Fame gift shop.)

The B-52's (Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Fall 1992)
I remember a bunch of people appearing on stage for "Roam" as tourists. (Did they make a healthy wage for several months just doing that spot?) My mom had us go to this, which set a certain precedent and came back to bite her, in a way.

Nirvana (Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum; October 18, 1993)
This was the kickoff show for a tour that never wrapped up. My mother didn't want to go, and didn't want me to go, so I dutifully bugged the crap out of her until it was decided that my older brother would attend with me. (The state fair can be a little scuzzy.) Mudhoney opened but I don't remember them being any good -- a colorless set, as our local newspaper critic put it. This and R.E.M. were some of my favorite shows, at an age when I was still starstruck and before I got more listless at concerts. At one point, the audience got their lighters out, and Kurt Cobain started jokingly singing Aerosmith's "Dream On." They mentioned coming through Phoenix before, at the Mason Jar, and playing to like ten people. On a Facebook Phoenix nostalgia site, some people didn't have very good memories of this show, I guess because some of "Smells like Teen Spirit" was deliberately played wrong (the two ringing notes), and because the show ended with a bunch of noise -- but I didn't care about any of this, and had also left early, involuntarily, to beat the crowd. I've seen hot concerts acts, sometimes with a hot album on the charts, but this is arguably my best example of seeing an act that was pretty much at its peak and pretty much at the center of the rock universe at the time.


Oingo Boingo (Mesa Amphitheater; July 10, 1994)
311 opened, of all people, doing their rap-rock. To this day I couldn't tell you where Mesa Amphitheater or Desert Sky Pavilion are (were?). It was well past the known universe, for me. They played the unusually combative song "Piggies," which never ended up on an album because, as would happen fairly often, I was basically watching a last moment of glory.

R.E.M. (Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion; November 4, 1995)
This was re-scheduled, after drummer Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm. To be cute, I wore a Sonic Youth shirt, since they were the original opening act. Patti Smith's Horses played on the PA before the concert, and for a little while after that I used to think of it as my favorite album. This was another last-hurrah-in-retrospect tour, as the band was still together, and was in their creative and commercial stride. Apparently a couple of songs were actually used exactly from here for their next album. They joked about Berry's brain aneurysm (complete with light show), and attempted a version of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" that fell apart immediately. Michael Stipe used a lyric stand for some songs, but he noted that he didn't need it for this next song, "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," the ultimate non-sequitur song and a hard one to memorize, I would think. I thought "Let Me In" from the Monster album came off especially well. Maybe or maybe not my favorite concert, but probably my favorite concert experience, because of some personal factors as well.

Side note: I still remember us driving home on the freeway, when suddenly our lane gets backed up, so it's like we're about to race right into the stationary car ahead of us. My older brother does a very quick lane change -- I wonder if he was even looking first. This all could have maybe gone much worse.


Bob Dylan (Phoenix Symphony Hall; November 9, 1995)
Did I really go to this less than a week after R.E.M.? I don't keep ticket stubs or anything, so usually I'm relying on a Google search plus my general memory (not helpful here, though I know it was during my last year of high school). Dylan seemed permanently stuck in the wilderness during that time period, but I had been listening to a ton of his albums and was interested, plus tickets were probably cheap. The band played very long solos, which kind of got on my nerves. His voice wasn't that good, but it'd get much, much, much worse live. (More on that next time.) Stevie Nicks showed up for a song and was bloated. It was from her medication or something; I'm sure it's yet another part of Fleetwood Mac soap opera lore.

The high point, easily, was "All Along the Watchtower." The term I later came up with for this sound in concert was Rocking the Fuck Out -- there are people on record you don't think of as loud, who will maybe never be loud on record, who suddenly hit you with loud, raging guitars in concert, as if they've just re-thought their musical identity. He ended with "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," except using the line, "Everybody must get home." Now that Proposition 207 has passed here, he could just change the line back. As part of his routine leaving the stage, he'd put his hands up to the adoring fans in front like, "It's OK, settle down." He shook some hands, and someone either yanked or didn't let go, and there was a moment of awkwardness as he got yanked halfway down.

Lilith Fair (Desert Sky Pavilion; June 28, 1998)
Not totally my cup of tea. I think Liz Phair was the coolest one there by process of elimination, though I liked Sarah McLachlan too. The Indigo Girls did an acoustic version of "Rockin' in the Free World," but that song wouldn't sound great in concert until I heard Neil Young perform it in 2016 -- electric. Between this and the Oingo Boingo show, I heard 3 bits of banter that started like, "I've never been so hot in my life," or "It's fucking hot!" but all of them ended on, "But I guess you're used to it." (In the '90s I was...I handle it worse now.)

Tori Amos / Alanis Morissette (America West Arena; September 22, 1999)
I was a cast member in an X-rated Ancient Greek comedy, "Lysistrata," at my community college. I blatantly skipped rehearsal for this. America West Arena is not a small venue, but I managed to bump into someone else also skipping rehearsal. At one point, Tori wore a mask, kind of like you'd imagine someone wearing at a ball. When she sang "The Waitress" and got to the line, "I believe in peace, bitch" she sang it repeatedly for what felt like 10 minutes. I wasn't exactly there on purpose for Morissette, but she did Rock the Fuck Out for "So Pure," which sounds like a tea party on the studio version. She also spun around and around during one song for about as long as Tori sang the "I believe in peace, bitch" line.
StyleItTakes
Are You Experienced?
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 6:59 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by StyleItTakes »

My Dad took me to see Bob Dylan in Melbourne when I was a kid (1998), Patti Smith opened. The experience changed my life in many ways.

I've seen John Cale three times, the most memorable of which was in Melbourne in 2010, when he performed his classic album Paris 1919 in its entirety.
Why don't you sit right over there
We'll do a movie portrait
I'll turn the camera on
And I won't even be there
A portrait that moves
You look great I think
AmyGill
Debut
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:08 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by AmyGill »

So, the best one so far was the On the Run 2, where I got to listen to my all-time favorite couple Beyonce and Jay Z. I've literally been crying for the entire duration of the concert. I've had the most mesmerizing sensory experiences in my life during that concert! This happened back in 2018, and that was the year when I was just getting started with my band. Now, in 2021, we're so happy to host our first concert ever in Surrey! However, we need somebody's help. We're looking to hire some production services for a relatively low price. We need them to supply us with an outdoor stage and LED screens. If anybody could recommend a company that does that, we would be very thankful!
User avatar
Father2TheMan
Different Class
Posts: 427
Joined: Sat May 27, 2017 8:40 am
Location: Central Ohio, USA
Contact:

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Father2TheMan »

I have not been to nearly as many concerts as most here (funds are not typically available) but I will mention two:

The Beach Boys tour for their first box set (not the same ol' cars/surf songs set for once)

Willie Nelson, Ohio State Fair (almost 3 hours of Willie gold)
"The laughs come hard in Old Lang Syne....."
Steve333
Superunknown
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2021 4:18 am

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Steve333 »

I think the best concert I ever attended was Stevie Wonder at Madison Square Garden in November of 1980.
Neil
Different Class
Posts: 403
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2014 9:50 pm
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

Re: Best concerts you've been to

Post by Neil »

I have been to a lot of concerts over the years so I will list out my top 5.

1. Neil Young & International Harvesters North American Tour dated 9/21/1984 at Riverbend. This concert holds a special place in my heart as it was my very first concert at age 15.

2. Deep Purple Perfect Strangers Tour on 3/12/1985 also at age 15 at Cincinnati Gardens.

3. Pink Floyd The Division Bell Tour on 5/29/1994 at the Ohio Stadium.

4. Paul McCartney The Paul McCartney World Tour on 2/12/1990 at Riverfront Coliseum. This one was also special because it was the only concert I attended with my parents and it was cool to hear a lot of Beatles songs live.

5. The Who Reunion Tour on 7/19/1989 at Quicken Loans Arena.

Honorable Mentions
Elton John Sleeping With The Past Tour on 9/12/1989 at Riverbend

Nirvana In Utero Tour on 10/30/1993 at Hara Arena

James Taylor/Jackson Browne this year at The Nutter Center in Dayton.
Post Reply

Return to “Music, Music, Music...”