What was the GREATEST live show you ever saw...really? Like, for real....no lies.....

I really haven't seen a lot of great acts. I don't see enough shows, one of my biggest regrets really. So I don't really know. Built To Spill in PA was great. GirlTalk is just something you gotta see, how one small dude and a laptop can get a place jumping like that.... amazing.

Honeslty though, my favorite show is probably a few random small bands I happened to catch here and there and have forgotten about. Those nights when you're opening for someone, or your friend's band is, then the headliners come on and you're not expecting shit, and next thing you know you're like :eek: for an hour and a half straight. Yeah, those are the best shows for me. That's my answer.
 
Hmm, honestly, for just pure fun and rocking enjoyment, I guess "The Smithereens" in the late '80s in Portland. They rocked, sounded great, had massive energy, and I managed to climb up on stage and rock out with them for a while, and they didn't even kick me off.

Two shows I would have loved to attended would have been U2 Red Rocks, and Born to Run tour, 1975, Hammersmith Odeon, London, plus any good Clash show, and maybe a Replacements show back in the day, on a good night.

I suppose a Pink Floyd show during the hey day would have been really good too.


Worst live show, The Grateful Dead, Tacoma Dome, 1988. Carlos Santana "opened" for them and absolutely kicked their asses. (not that that was his intent I am sure). It was so bad, I wanted to leave but was stuck with friends who wanted to watch the dancing hippy girls.
 
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I guess I would say the Stones 1989 on the Silver Wheels tour. Three Rivers Stadium with 80,000 folks all singing along to Ruby Tuesday.

All said though I've not been to many concerts.
 
Led Zeppelin at Knebworth 1979. I was there. :embarrassed: 14 years old, my first ever gig and it blew my head off completely. Looking back at the footage, it clearly wasn't even close to Zep's best..but the atmosphere was incredible.
 
eloydrummerboy said:
Built To Spill in PA was great.
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Troc a few years ago on the You In Reverse tour? Great show.



I think one of my all time favorites was Slayer @ a dance club in South Philly, Reign in Blood era. Opening band left the stage with out finishing the second song cause the crowd was chanting Slayer so loud. They set up folding chairs on the floor and of course, everyone just started hurling them towards the back when Slayer came on. Possibly one of the most violent experiences of my life. Never saw so many people carried out of a show.

Dropkick Murphys on St. Pats.

Cro-mags on Best Wishes....girl right in front of me took a full on boot to the face at the opening verse of Down but not out. It was one of those dayyyyymn moments you don't forget :wink:

SOIA & 4 other HC bands at a show that turned into a near skinhead riot. Pete Koller singing on the floor, dead center of the pit.

Sepultura and Voivod showing up at a local bands show, performing a song then hanging in the crowd.

A.K. from Flotsam and Jetsam smacking my friend on the top of his head with the mic because he wouldn't dive off.

Falling asleep during the Lemmy feedback solo at an Overkill/Motorhead/Slayer show.

Rush shows were killer too
 
Tough call.

Some of the better shows I can remember include The Rolling Stones in '05, Van Halen in 07/08, AC/DC in '94ish, Aerosmith in '91ish, and believe it or not, Motley Crue in '91.

Of course, both Van Halen and Aerosmith also occupy the slots for some of the worst shows I've seen too. :embarrassed:
 
I havent seen near the shows some of you guys have seen. Some of the best shows I have seen have been because I had front row seats and not so much that it was an epic show. I saw Brad Paisley twice from the front so they were far better than if I had been sitting back. I got a guitar pick once and a high five as he ran by another time. Great shows but I wouldnt call them epic.

Probably the biggest rock show I saw was Van Halen in 1984. Decent seats in a reasonably sized venue. Of course their album was big at that time and the show had a lot of energy and it was one of my first concerts so I would have to go with that one.
 
I'm not sure I can pick one. I mean, Modest Mouse and the Shins at a bar in Champaign-Urbana was great because I got to hear bands I was just getting into. The penultimate Smashing Pumpkins show (pre-reconfiguration) was fun as big deals go. I've seen Radiohead twice after they achieved biggest band on the planet status. I saw the Strokes and the Hives and the White Stripes at separate shows at Metro when they had just exploded and everyone was super-excited. Trail of Dead at the Empty Bottle was great. I saw the only Ugly Cassanova tour at the Bottle. Interpol at the bottle was cool too. I've seen absolutely killer displays of rock attitude (if not prowress) at the Fireside Bowl. For example, this local act Wolcott who were shambly and perfect. I spent a year or more hanging with them and catching all their shows, and none of them were better than that one night before they caught Local-Rock-Staritis. Neko Case at Schubas during the recording of the Tigers Have Spoken. Wilco at the Abbey Pub during the painkillers-and-getting-fucked-by-WB era. The Libertines (no Pete *sob*) at Metro and Dirty Pretty Things at Schubas were both cool shows because they were not packed but the people who were there were all shameless rock nerds who knew all the lyrics.

I can't choose. I can't even imagine being able to choose. I guess a lot of what sticks for me are weeks/weekends where I was going to shows every night (sometimes two a night) and barely sleeping and living on minithins and whiskey+cokes.
 
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Pink Floyd on their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, RFK Stadium
Bad Religion at the Warped tour in 03 or so Nissan Pavillion
Face to Face back in 94 or so at Ziggs in Winston/Salem
INXS at the HFSetvial at RFK Stadium
The Scorpions at Monsters of Rock at RFK Stadium
 
Just saw Roger Waters, The Wall last night. It was FANTASTIC!

But the best show, hands down for me was Live Aid back in 1980 something in Philadelphia.
 
Tiltsta said:
Probably Living Colour. Really an amazing 3.5 hour long show.
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I saw Living Color at the Palace in Hollywood with Truilio Discgracias opening the night after Vivid went Gold. It was like a funk metal Mardis Graw.

My other top shows were Counting Crows at the Greek in 1997 Recovering the Satellites tour, U2 at the Rose Bowl last year (more for the spectacle of the show) and Buddy Guy at the House of Blues in the mid 1990s...
 
I like smaller shows better than big stadium ones usually. Two others that come to mind are Lyle Lovett a few years back outside of Trail Creek cabin in SV. My wife and I were dancing together, with room to move, like 10 feet in front of him. Very nice couple night.

Michelle Shocked came in to Ketchum and played a bar with her electric blues/rock band a few years back too. She rocked it hard! Good show.
 
It's a toss up between four:

Queen - A Night at the Opera Tour
Pink Floyd - The Wall

Dave Edmunds. Nick Lowe joined him halfway through the show.

Kid Creole and the Coconuts. These guys knew how to entertain.
 
Robben Ford at Bogart's (club in Long Beach) some 17-18 years ago. Robben was 4 feet from me on an elevated stage.

If you are speaking of a larger venue - Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas concert (10-11 years ago). Slim Jim Phantom joined Brian during the trio format and played classic Stray Cat tunes for about 35 minutes.

In the Arena, I gotta say Judas Priest with either Dokken or Dio (can't remember which one opened. Either way one was for JP and the other the Scorpians) opening up for them - This was the mid 80's.

The funniest was WASP at the Troubadour when Blackie Lawless was throwing raw meat into the audience.
 
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I've been to 100+ shows, and I haven't really seen a 'stinker', though I didn't care for Starship - 'We Built This City' concert, and Aerosmith the night I saw 'em wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't bad.


Best performance-wise....probably Rush on the Vapor Trails tour/Detroit, Styx - Kilroy Was Here tour - Detroit, Porcupine Tree last year at The Vic in Chicago....Kansas' 25th anniversary tour/Detroit, Dream Theater - Falling into Infinity tour/Detroit, Scorpions - Blackout tour/Kalamazoo, King's X any of the first three times I saw them (fourth time they had an off-night), Blind Guardian - A Twist In The Myth tour/Detroit, Iron Maiden - Powerslave tour/Detroit


Best sounding bands: Marillion opening for Rush in '85. Flawless sound, but they played without moving and stared at their shoes the whole time. I could've just listened to the album and got the same experience.

...and Blind Guardian. For a fast-paced metal band, they had a fantastic sound, and BG is extremely tight, live. Different than the studio albums to be sure, but in some ways even better, and there aren't many band you can say that about :embarrassed:


And concerts I'm glad I saw (and were pretty good, to boot): Ozzy w/Randy Rhoads, Feb '82/Kalamazoo, and Metallica w/Cliff in January(or Feb?) '85/Kalamazoo
 
k4df4l said:
Dropkick Murphys on St. Pats.
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That's a show I would love to see. I've watched video clips and it looks absolutely insane.

For me, no question, it was seeing Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros at the Filmore not long before he died. Seeing one of my heroes in my favorite venue playing a mix of his great solo material and several Clash songs, it was one of the greatest nights of my life.
 
I would say the Page and Plant gig at the Hollywood Bowl about 12 years ago... I was expecting mediocre, and received a clinic on how it is done, and who wrote those riffs!
 
Ray Davies
Waters doing DSOTM

I fully expect Waters doing the Wall to jump to number 1 when I see it next year :thu:
 
Seeing Randy Rhodes play with Ozzy...

Seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn open for RunDMC and ZZ Top...

Seeing the Clash at Red Rocks.
 
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