WE Fest? NOT! I'm no CW person but I happen to know that WE Fest is Aug 2,3,4 in DL...and I suspect the organizers would be most displeased by any association with the deaths at the current festival!

this one's rock, the other in a couple weeks is country. this weekend is a tune-up for law enforcement, while about the worst that happens in WEfest is a few rowdier drunks start swinging at each other.

I haven't really been to a BAD concert ever. there were the headbangers in Little Canada one late evening during the city community celebration, but they weren't BAD, they were just playing alt-metal. they played on the same beat and in the same key, so they probably had their stuff together... but it's not my bag.

the BEST, bar none, were the three trips Brian Wilson has made into the twin cities in the past few years. mellow, perfect music, plus the thrill of seeing a true survivor who has been one of our brightest musical geniuses.

I could probably confess to PLAYING a few bad concerts in the high-school orchestra, but that's another matter. I take the fifth. Beethoven's. whether it sounded like Jack Daniels' fifth is, again, another matter.

Greatful Dead concert, near front row general admission seating, some hazy time in the early 70s, Field House at the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. Windowpaine acid, so good everyone was only taking 1/2 a hit, so we naturally took 2 hits. Unbelievably great concert. Buddy freaked out and had to be hauled away by some roadies, so lost my ride home. Wondered around stoned out of my mind for most of the night. (back then I think we called it "tripping your balls off") Ended up lying on a waiting room couch at the university hospital. Had to hitch a ride all the way home the next day.

What a long strange trip it's been.

Too old today to survive another such experience.

My girlfriend dragged me to a Sonny and Cher concert where Sonny came out and said Cher was in the hospital. Sonny laid a guilt trip on us and the show went on with the audience doing Cher's parts. GF wouldn't take the refund and go and I was hoping for luck later so...

Since I had zero expectations for S&C maybe the Gordon Lightfoot show a few years ago at the State theater was worse. I had seen him in his prime and wish I had left it at that. He sounded like Gabby Hayes channeling Walter Brennen.

Best time was in the Peanut Room downstairs at Williams Pub. Steve Young played to only four of us for three hours sitting at our table during breaks. He even helped toss out the two ornery,mean drunks in the back.

Seeing The Who from the bleachers at Philadelphia's humungous old (and now demolished) JFK stadium on September 25th, 1982 with my classmates. A young woman stoned out of her mind after consuming her own nine barrels of Jack Daniels--or Baba knows what else--stumbled over alongside my friends and I on our row of metal bleachers and promptly passed out, but not before heaving up the entire contents of stomach.

Teenage Wasteland indeed.

Which Zep show were you at, the Bloomington or St. Paul one?

I, when I have the time, like to collect Led Zeppelin bootlegs. There's plenty of them. I know that there are no recordings of the 1977 Minnesota shows in existence. Many people would be eager to get their hands on them IF they do exist. (Ya know anyone???)

Zep's prime was 1971 - 1973. From 1973 on they were superstars with egos to match and weren't as interested in a good performance as before. 1977 was a spotty year, but the LA concerts from that year are some of the best Zep ever did.

I've heard an audio recording of Zep's 1973 show in St. Paul. It was not one of their better performances, in my opinion, and the audio quality of the bootleg is poor.

As for Jimmy Page's "flu", they used that sick excuse for the July Seattle show. Video of that show exists, and I've seen it, it's a terrible performance.

As for large festival concerts, I don't know how anyone can go into a port-a-potty and defecate on top of a festering pile of feces. I've never been to a festival/camping concert and would never go for that reason alone.

Good concerts I've been to:

AC/DC 1990
Rush 1990
Page & Plant 1995

I can honestly say I've never been to a bad concert. I've seen some crappy bar bands, but have never been to a bad concert.

Oh, god, Rolling Stones, Met Sports Center, 1972. Because I was young and stupid, I decided to tart myself up in a velvet dress and high heels, and then when the concert started, I joined the mad rush of people toward the stage. Ended up almost getting suffocated in the crowd, and sprained my ankle falling off the goddamned heels. My memory is that the sound system sucked so totally that it was hard to tell one song from another, not that that was anything unusual in Met Center concerts. :P It's a shame, because looking back at the set list, it would have been a hell of a concert if I could have, y'know, actually *heard* anything clearly.

It's probably been thirty years since I've been to a big outdoors-or-amphitheatre kind of rock concert; I don't miss them.

Ryan Adams - Seventh Street Entry

Wouldn't play, just sat regurgitating his ridiculous opinions. Please shut up and play.

Yo La Tengo - First Ave (every time)

Boring "exploratory" guitar wanking by Ira. Play your PUBLISHED/RECORDED music, dude...not the crap that wasn't up to snuff. Hendrix you are not.

Steve Earle - First Ave (every time)

Again, shut up and play. I don't care about your politics, ex-con.

Son Volt - First Ave (latest)

Please, don't turn a great Uncle Tupelo song into a Jimmy Cliff reggae version. Ruined the concert. Also, pick up a competent lead guitarist if yours runs off to play for Keith Urban. You'll always be an eternal mope, Jay.

Mark Kozelek - 400 Bar

I didn't know the 400 had reserved, indian style seating. I guess it was highlighted by the brilliant question and answer period where the first question was boxers or briefs. Kozelek looked as pissed as we felt.

Alison Krauss and Union Station - Northrop

Great concert, great playing. Audience ruined it. When the premier resonator player in the world is about to grace us with his talent, please refrain from yelling your pathetic questions or statements. It pissed him off, pissed everyone else off and he probably shorted us due to your uncourteous outburst. In this age of baby boomer entitlement, I guess that's just too much to ask for anymore.

Why do I keep going to concerts. I pay for this misery?

The Sisters of Mercy with Rob Dickinson, formerly of Catherine Wheel. I took my regional transit authority up there from Tacoma to see Andrew "Von" Eldritch & Co. do their thing, and it was a total surprise that Mr. Dickinson opened for him; Von had a different opening act who, for some reason, couldn't make it through the North American leg of their tour. The fact he rolled acoustic for his entire set was just too cool.

And to think that all this time, I had thought that the only way I'd ever see TSOM was if I had a ticket to Europe and another to whatever festival Von chose to play that year. It was great just to see him here on his last date in the United States before his last date in North America the following night in Vancouver, BC; the last time he was here was in 1999.

As for the show itself, I got to meet a husband-and-wife duo who followed Von throughout most of his US dates, and was nearly squished by a sad, old goth who kept screaming out for a song (not "Freebird," but it would've been funny if she had) he didn't want to play that night. Thankfully, a wee lass kept watch over me, making sure I didn't lose my space to CrazyGothLady.

Sadly, no autographs--didn't get the chance. However, I do have this set of photos from the show. Check 'em out, yo!

James, that's 10,000 Lakes, not WE Fest.

10,000 Lakes = Hippy Bands
WE Fest = Awful Country Singers.

Ancient Worst Concert:> Alice Cooper at the St. Paul Civic Center, probably 1978 or so. Took my date up to our nosebleed seats while my hardcore Alice Cooper buddies headed down to the crowd around the stage. Hardly had Cooper begun to sing when we saw the crowd near the stage moving away rapidly.

I think The Wave may have been invented that day, because clockwise around the arena we saw people leaping to their seats to leave. "Whatever it is," I said, "We'll find out in a minute." Suddenly my eyes and nose began to sting and pour out fluid - and we joined everyone else crowding out of the arena. Somebody had smuggled in a tear-gas canister and set it off.

My hardcore-fan friend, the late Moldy Ramone, was so angry at his long-awaited concert being cancelled that he actually beat up a car in the parking lot: the hood and side panels were kicked and punched til the car looked crumpled.

Ancient Best Concert:Some kind of travelling dance troupe from Sweden visited our high school. Why I went to this thing I can't recall, except that there wasn't anything else to do in that godforsaken town anyway. I was dreading this thing because I just knew it was going to be some wheedly folk music and people in idiotic Swedish costumes doing traditional dances.

Sure enough, the curtain opened, the folk music began, and half a dozen old ladies in dirndl's or whatever started doing some odd mincy little dance with their hands folded oddly in front of themselves, fingers pointing down.

Then, just as I was trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with the way they were walking, they all spun around: the traditional costumes were on their BACKS, with masks on the back of their heads. What followed was an evening of smokin' hot modern dance by dozens of young Swedish women in tiny little outfits. Wonderful, especially since afterwards, with nothing else to do and nowhere to go, they joined the audience for cookies and apple juice, and were very approachable.

Modern Worst Concert:Lorie Line Christmas Concert, 2006. We'd never been to one before, and didn't know what to expect. When her show began, we sat there speechless, trying to figure out whether or not we should be laughing at was the most treacly, saccharine, schmaltzy performance we'd ever seen. Look, Lori's wearing... a gigantic gown! Isn't that fabulous everybody?!

This would have been not-to-our-tastes but tolerable had it not been for the people behind us in the State Theater. I don't know when the world changed and theaters started allowing people to bring alcoholic beverages into performances, but let me say that this is an ill-advised policy. The folks behind us were TRUE Lori Line fans, and maybe very nice when sober, but they were hooting and hollering throughout much of the performance.

It was very odd. Lori appears on stage in yet-another Barbie gown... "Whooooo!!! YEEAAAHH!!! Whoooooo!!!" O-kay... Lori's emcee husband appears, and pops a collapsed top-hat into shape: a piercing wolf-whistle followed by shouts and vigorous arm-pumping. Finally, the couple appear together, and the drunks leap to their feet to cheer, splashing my entire family with alcoholic beverages.

We left.

Modern Best Concerts:It's hard to pick between an Ellis concert or the Indigo Girls at the Minnesota Zoo Amphitheater... Lots of good concerts available, though...

"The Good and Great Must Ever Shun
That Reckless and Abandoned One
Who Stoops to Perpetrate a Pun,"
Lewis Carroll, 'The Three Voices'

It was an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert at an outdoor venue in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC. It was a very hot afternoon, and my group was sharing a jug of wine as we waited in line to enter. Due to the combined effects of heat and wine, I passed out pretty much as soon as we got to our seats. I woke up as the concert was ending, lying in the shade of a tree where my companions had thoughtfully parked me. I was told ELP put on a great performance.

I remember lots of great concerts - ELP, Black Oak Arkansas, Harry Chapin, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Bette Middler, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Alice Cooper... I dated a musician in high school (OK, he played the guitar. Hey, he wrote songs for me, I fell in love), so we went to all the concerts!

A few years ago, I heard a commercial on the radio for an upcoming Alice Cooper concert, and all of the sudden I realize... I went to that concert! And here are these... these... children going to this concert like it was their concert!

Indeed, what a long strange trip it has been.

Suzy

Credo quia absurdum.

You work for a major market newspaper and have this fact this wrong? Don't we have an editor for startribune.com?

Wefest doesn't even start until August.

Currently the 10,000 lakes festival is going on in Detroit Lakes. May that be what you are blogging about?

Worst Concert: Late 1968 or early 1969. The Vanilla Fudge at, I think, the Minneapolis Auditorium. My first date with my best friends little sister.......big deal for my young 19 year old butt! The opening act was, unbelievably, the 1910 Fruitgum Company, a very odd combination. The 1910 Fruitgum Company played, surprisingly, a very solid set, an hour or so. Then it was announced the Fudge were "no-shows". Accompanying the return of the the 1910 Fruitgum Company to stage were chants of "F#@k The Fudge". The 1910 Fruitgum Company played more than another hour earning the respect of the anti-bubble gum guy.
Best Concert: The Beatles at the Met in 1965. That gets respect from my Grandchildren today. What more can I say.

I'm sure it makes no difference to the majority of people reading this, but the 2 deaths mentioned at the beginning of this blog happened at the 10,000 Lakes Festival. Same venue as WE Fest, but that doesn't make it WE Fest, which is still about 2 weeks away.

We punk rockers went to "shows" not "concerts" but among hundreds I attended, the following stand out:

Best-Murphy's Law at the Vic Theatre, Chicago. Not even close to my favorite band but they put on such an exhilarating and inspired show that evening and the kids responded. Everything a rock concert should be. Truly perfect.

Worst-Concrete Blond at the Metro, Chicago. Singer collapsed due to overindulging in something and sang setlist lying prone on stage. We'd gladly put up with that from The Replacements but were very disappointed and bored with it that night.

Saddest-Irish Fest, Chicago. Respect precludes me naming her but a once great female singer (my parents saw her at Carnegie Hall, I grew up on her albums) looked like Norma Desmond and sang in the most painfully choked warble. I thought an old soak barfly had picked up an untended mic. I seriously got a lump in my throat at her public humiliation.

Worthwhile-Bad Brains, Bowery, NYC. Had a "+ 1" on the guest list so I asked a girl I'd just met at college. We've been together now 25 years (married 16 years) and have three great kids who hate punk rock but we still crank it up when they're out.

I was at that Led Zeppelin show, Chicago Stadium 1977. We had bad seats, off to the side of the stage but perfect vantage point to see Jimmy Page run behind the amps and empty his stomach.

I haven't been to too many concerts, so I can't really say anything about a worst concert.

The best one, though, was the Anonymous 4 concert in Tucson, Arizona, in...I *think* 1997. It was a nice, intimate setting (a church), it was the first time I'd heard them live (they are *incredible* live), and there was a reception for them after the concert, to which we could all come. Not being a music student, I didn't really have anything to say, but I did get their autographs.

I've been to six more of their concerts since then, including the one just this past Thursday. I've loved them all.

Best arena show: Zep at Madison Square Garden in 1971; kids climbed on stage (lots of kids). Plant and Page stood on amps to be seen over them. Stage collapsed. Big hole in middle, with a plank sticking out over the gap. The show continued (remarkably, it's like all the resposible MSG employees went home early). They did a yet-unreleased song, with Plant jumping up and down on the springboard, singing "Lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time!" Hard to beat.

Best small venue: Bowie at Queens College, NYC. 2003. Full scale show in small house (he did one in each of NY's five boros - tix sold to fan club members, I think). He's still got it.

Like Suzyholly I was prone to musician infatuation in my younger days, in spite of being a pretty straight, dewy-eyed girl. My favorite story from that era involves one of my stoner beaux paying his little sister $10 to clean all the dope seeds out of his Bonneville before he picked me up to take me to the Led Zep concert in San Antonio (1973)--Houses of the Holy Tour. Ah, good times, good times. It was a good concert, too, even if you were sober. (Remember laughter?)

Biggest missed concert opportunity: taking a pass on the Eagles (right after "Take it Easy") because the cover charge ($5) was too much.

10-14-1987

Husker Du @ The Spectrum in Montreal Canada.

I was sitting in my dorm room after dinner, when my rommate came in and told me that Husker Du was playing somewhere in Montreal that very evening, and did I want to go? Montreal was a 2 hour drive from our college in Northern NY, and we had no idea where the hell the Spectrum was. (It was just a little club that held maybe 500 people.) We made the drive, and found the place after some frantic searching and got in the door just as they were finishing their first song. Bob Mould was doing the whole eye rolled back into his head hopping around in circles on one leg thing, Grant Hart was beating the crap out of his drum set, and Greg Norton was just pogo-ing the whole time. (Coolest handle bar mustache on any punk bassist ever! OK, the only handle bar mustache on any punk bassist ever.) For their encore they played Sheena is a Punk Rocker by the Ramones. I think the feedback finally faded from my head somewhere around Conrwall Ontario when we crossed back into the US.

We had no idea at the time that it was to be their last tour. They broke up just a few months later. Fate ended up bringing me to Minneapolis about 5 years later. (For some reason I thought they'd have a statue of them somewhere like MTM) About 4 years after that Warner Bros. released a live album recorded on that tour. It has several songs from that night, including Sheena. If only I'd have known I'd have shouted something stupid.

Sigh... those were the days. If you fell down in the mosh pit people helped you back on your feet. Now they just kick you in the head.

King Crimson--or at least a variation of them--at the Ventura Theater in Ventura, CA. Out on stage walked Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn--and then Adrian Belew--and that was it. Belew played drums (I actually interviewed Belew for my college radio station and got to sit with him and his band The Bears for two hours. Great stuff!) while Fripp and Gunn did almost total improv. It was amazing.

Worst concert: Robert Fripp again--Ventura Theater again. It was billed as Soundscapes and he came out on stage and played his signature aural bits of confusion for about 25 minutes. Then, he talked to the audience, answered a few questions and said, "I'm not really feeling it tonight, so I think I'll leave you with a recording..." he promptly flipped a switch on his gigantic digital rig, and walked off the stage.

E-gads.

nah, not the "good" punk bands of today, i always offer a hand to the recently fallen, and get the same treatment.

nah, not the "good" punk bands of today, i always offer a hand to the recently fallen, and get the same treatment.
I wish i woulda been born sooner, i missed the husks

Out of the 100 or so concerts I've paid to see, the performance of Stone(d) Temple Pilots at Xcel, as part of the Family Values Tour, has to be considered. We left early, and I NEVER leave a concert early. It was bad.

I don't go to too many concerts, and I've loved most of them. The only bad one that comes to mind was a few years ago when Aerosmith and KISS were at the Target Center. I don't care about or really like KISS, but I desperately wanted to see Aerosmith.

Turns out, KISS was awesome and Aerosmith sucked. I could barely distinguish one Aerosmith song from another (I'm not sure if it was the sound system or if the band was just being sloppy). Then they abruptly ended the concert after someone jumped onstage. (The best part of that was the idiot who jumped onstage tried to crowd-surf but the crowd just kind of let him fall when he dove onto them.)

My worst concert was Styx in the mid 80's. Early 80's Styx was great, the mid-eighties Styx used a sound system purchased from Radio Shack on a budget. I remember that it took quite a while for the crowd to realize it was the first Styx song playing, not another warm up band playing. It was that bad.

On a side note, we paid $8 for the Styx tickets. I remember being outraged when Foreigner charged $12 for a ticket. "We'll never pay $12 for a ticket!" we shouted!

As I recall, they were getting $200 per ticket for the last Rolling Stones concert, scalpers were getting new BMWs for tickets. Oh how times have changed.

I just checked my iTunes library. I don't have a single song from the big-hair bands of the 80's in my library. I do, however, have Janis Joplin, Rare Earth, and Sam 'n' Dave. The 80's in America were a blight on civilization. When your biggest contribution to pop culture is painter's pants and big combs in your back pocket, you know you have a lame decade.

Many tied for worst, only one best.

Best:
Rolling Stones, September 2002, Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Dr John opens, Bono walks on during "It's only rock and roll". The sound is enough to fill Wrigley Field, and we're in a room roughly the size of your High School music room. I remembered to bring earplugs (Etymotic ER-20) so I could actually converse on the way home without shouting. But we're only 30 feet from the stage, post rush. And Ronnie is clean and playing like he is awake and paying attention.

Worst:
Jethro Tull at Chicago Stadium, the Passion Play tour in 1970-something. One of the first concerts with a "big screen" and real live graphics to add to the concert experience. Unfortunately, our seats are stage right and even with the screen, making it only visible as some flashing backlight. Don't remember the concert because I was too pissed about the screen.

Badfinger at Lyons Township High School, early 70's. Even though it was only a high school fieldhouse, everybody rushed the stage. To get closer, we went to the side and stood directly in front of - a 15 foot bank of speakers. I still have ringing in my ears 35 years later. Note to self - never forget to bring earplugs again.

Rolling Stones at Soldier Field, 2007 - The concert went on even though the temperature was in the low 40's as it began, and ended up in the high 30's. Mick and Keith both blessed us for coming, but didn't offer to refund our money. It's really hard to play great music when you haven't been able to feel your fingers for 20 years (because of the drugs), compounded by geriatrics and lack of circulation from hypothermia.

Rolling Stones at Soldier Field, September 1997, Bridges to Babylon tour - Worst. Seats. Ever. The stage was at one end of the stadium, we were one row from the top at the opposite end. The only concert I've been to where it wasn't too loud, probably because we were 400 feet from the stage. Thank God for the big screens, even though there was a lag time between the picture and the sound (like lightning in the distance).

In my youth, I loved the huge, spectacular arena concerts. I realized I had grown "wize" when I went with my youngest sister to see Billy Joel at the Target Center back in the early '90's. I love Billy Joel but the venue is so bad, I tried to sleep through half the show. Now, I wouldn't go see anyone at an arena.
The two best concerts I've ever seen were Peter Gabriel, at the Milwaukee Amphitheater during Summer fest of 1987, and Michael Buble at the Orpheum last Friday night.

Both shows would've bored me silly when I was 18 and stupid.

If you're going to write for a NEWSpaper, you might want to get at least the most basic facts straight: you mistakenly refer to WE Fest when you really meant 10,000 Lakes Festival.

Makes me wonder if you actually saw Zeppelin in '77...or if you just took your drunken buddy's word for what he thinks his drunken buddy's uncle told his cousin he thinks he saw.

Just goes to show there's a huge difference between journalism and blogging.

nice try.

WE Fest is in two weeks, it's the 10,000 Lakes Festival this weekend. You'd think as an editor, you'd pay a little attention to those tiny details before you festival/concert bash. In any case, we've all been to bad concerts but what an unfortunate series of events for this festival and those men's families and to call it the "worst concert ever" is a bit presumptuous for the rest of the music lovers.

And "tiltaswirl" knows about fests, because he's been assembling and operating the finest carnival rides for over 8 years. He'd give this blogpost two thumbs down, except he lost one thumb in a tragic Mad Mouse accident.

There's more objective news in Lilek's average Bleat than the whole front page of the Strib or NYTimes. And a fair bit of humor, too!

Bachlorette party, rented a giant Winnebago, hired a driver and drove to Alpine Valley, WI, to see Jimmy Buffet. We partied all the way there. Rained all day, and downpoured for the entire concert. By the time we arrived, the gate wasn't even taking tickets because it was raining so hard. Slipped and slid all over Alpine Valley hill. When concert was over had to strip before entering the rented Winnebago. Our hired driver then proceeded to get the Winnebago stuck in the mud and had to be towed out. Expensive? YES. Playing in the mud at a Jimmy Buffet concert with your best friends - PRICELESS!

Saw Steve Howe (Yes guitarist) in Allentown, PA at a small club a little while back. I thought I was in for an intimate experience, I just never thought it would be with the person a few seats behind me. This fellow kept singing through the entire show. Not the vocal parts, mind you, but singing the guitar riffs. And off key no less. Why someone would want to see a guitar virtuoso only to howl over his performance note by note (sort of) is beyond me.

(Ya think tiltaswirl just might be a... [whispers] ...journalist?)

Willie Nelson July 4 concert, Tulsa, Okla.
Hot. Packed. All the usual lack of amenities.
Zonked before I entered the speedway where the concert was held, added beer on top of that. Before the major acts went on stage (Asleep at the Wheel, Waylon Jennings, and Willie) I fainted and was rescued by some hippie kids who let me "rest" in their tent while my significant other stood in line more than a half hour to get me two plain hotdogs to revive me. After I ate, I was good to go, withstanding the huge rush of concertgoers when Willie and everyone else finally took the stage late in the day. I remember patting the butt of some good looking guy who couldn't wait any longer in the PortaPotty line while he did it into a chain link fence. There was this huge Doobie everyone was passing around. I slept all the way home (to Arkansas) under a tarp in the back of a pickup truck.
What an adventure for a 30-year-old woman with teenage kids!

A real memorable concert was Jimi Hendrix at Mpls auditorium in the winter of '68. My buddy and I were in about the 6th row and and when the bass player came in on his four stacks of Marshall amplifiers, my buddy immediately puked. I remember clouds of smoke and some of the strangest characters I've ever seen parked around me. (Of special note was the guy in front of me who came dressed in a toga carrying his canary in a cage....I'm sure the poor bird never sang again!) Jimi talked to the audience off-mike in the front row and even took requests. One guy kept begging for "Sunshine of Your Love" so fervently that Jimi finally did an instrumental version of it. (It killed!) Tickets were, I think, $8.

A lot of candidates for both best and worst.

Worst for me was probably Queen's A Night At The Opera tour. First time I ever heard a band play a tape during a concert instead of live performance, the lighting guys turned off the lights to cover up the fact the band wasn't playing.

Dishonourabe second place to Kevin Coyne for being so drunk he lit the wrong end of a cigarette in the middle of a song.

Final dishonourable mention to Judas Priest playing with their 100,000 watt amps in a small club (my ears rang for 3 days afterward).

Best list, wow, goes on forever... Andre Segovia playing 7 encores in his eighties... my Dad taking me to see Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee when I had no idea who they were... my first Jonathan Richman concert, my only Clifton Chenier show... Devo, Gary Numan, Boomtown Rats and Magazine in their prime... any John Cale Show... Greg Kihn, David Johansen, Leonard Cohen, John Hiatt (when I met him)... Dr. John, The Flamin' Groovies, Robert Fripp, any Bob Dylan or Van Morrison show (especially the one he did on the Toronto waterfront)... Elliott Murphy and Richard Thompson shows fit in there somewhere...

'scuse me I gotta go change the music plaing on the stereo...

Best concerts and movies for me have been the unplanned, unanticipated ones - and that was the Sha Na Na concert at the MN State fair. Absolutely brilliant, particularly remember a guitarist playing Telstar on his back, in the throes.

When they first came on stage some in the audience were tossing trash at them - I suppose because they looked like greasers and this was hippie time. They took it good naturedly for a while and then one of the members asked "If the hippies could keep the trash in the audience with them where it belonged". And then they proceeded to nail everyone to their seats for the whole show. Best rock concert I ever saw - would never have gone out of my way to see a Sha Na Na concert but stumbled on this one.

In later years it was embarassing to see their TV show - too bad, they were talented.

My then girlfriend and I went to "The Eagles" during their "Long Run" tour in 1980. St. Paul Civic Center, Christopher Cross warmed up the crowd,(only half full by the way) if thats what you call it. And The Eagles...just played by the numbers. The only one of the group who showed any life at all was Joe Walsh. The others you could just tell were mailing it in. The guy in front of us was so toasted he passed out before Cross was done, everyone was smoking cigs and other things causing the worst smell of various things ive ever experienced. Whats funny is the ticket price...sat on the floor for 12.50. Unreal now.

"The Police" at the Met in 1981..."Go-Gos" warmed up. All Sting could do during the show was repeat over and over that "eee-ooo-oooh" thing thinking he was getting the crowd going. Horrible

Best concert ever. X at the Walker in 1983. Billy Zoom, John Doe, and DJ Bonebreak were all right on and wailing . Exene was completely wasted and often kept singing after the songs were over. Excellent small venue to see a show. Much like Johnny Winter at the Cabooze before he started to head down hill.

Worst concert ever. The Police at I think the St. Paul Civic Center. Just plain boring.

Worst, by far Eric Clapton in 81-82 time frame. He was so stoned he couldn't play the individual notes in the solos, he wandered around on stage looking for the right guitar (they were lined up behind him in a semi-circle) and he forgot to play Layla. A stoner next to me got carried out by Security during the encore because he still didn't hear Layla and he was by God going to fight somebody. The highlight of that night was we could use the ticket stub to get into a bar to see Whitesnake....

Best concert ever was a double bill of the Dixie Dregs and the Fabulous Thunderbirds at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Incredible musicians all around, and the T'birds even had a wireless guitar for a solo that went into the audience, out into the street, around to the front of the Fox, and back down the aisle onto the stage. Tremendous night.

Had to be Woodstock. Lost our food, the place was crawling with unkempt sorts, I was stone cold sober so I noticed that the rain and mud were getting worse, the acts were late, slow, sloppy, drunk, stoned and worse, the guy we rode up there with wanted to leave Saturday afternoon and I didn't argue too much. By then it was a mess.

Some of the acts I saw were ok, but some were dreadful. I still have my ticket, and it was 6 dollars a day. Eighteen dollars for three days of music and mud. Oh yeah, it seems like a bargain in retrospect, but it was not so great at the time. Four people died at that show.

But as bad as it was, it was still better than Altamont.

Cal Jam II 1978. We drove all night to Ontario Motor Sppedway to see Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Heart, Fleetwood Mac etc, and to be a part of the event. It seemed like every other 16-25 year old from California, Nevada and Arizona had the same idea.

No food or beverages could be brought in so I was eventually forced to wait in long line for a turkey leg. The guy mast have sold all the cooked ones to the first 10,000 people ahead of me because when I got mine it was frozen solid. "No refunds kid". I bounced it off his forehead and ran off into the crowd and that was the only fun I had all day.

Later, standing in line for over an hour for the porta-potties the guy in front of me couldn't wait any longer and did the squat and plop right on the ground. Good thing there was no food in my stomach or I would have lost it.

The bands all played shortend sets and we decided to give up right in the middle of Aerosmith do we could get a jump on the traffic.

To this day I think festivals of any kind suck. Give me a club or a small theater with a good PA.

Best: Pink Floyd, 1990, Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh, NC, Delicate Sound of Thunder Tour. Even thought we sat through an hour rain and it was post-Roger Waters Floyd, it was still a great show!

Worst: Keb Mo, 2005, Carolina Theater, Durham, NC. Would have been a very good show, but he had 5X the sound system he needed for that venue.

The bar now known as Schubas was once a club called Gaspars in Chicago and the sanitized and processed air in Schubas surely lacks the bodily fluid and viceral smell of Gaspars.

Saw every member of the Velvet Underground at Gaspars except Mo' Tucker - don't think she did much after the VU ceased to exist. Nico did a 25 minute droning and fantastically shattered version of Femme Fatale, her voice and body seemed to be in free fall but survived to finish a whole set for a small handful of very appreciative fans.

Lou Reed was late. It was a cold dark night and his entourage showed up in a red van that parked in a bus lane and got a ticket. The neighborhood was a the opposite mirror image of what it is now. Drugs were at hand if you wanted them and prositutes made the rounds on the streets outside the club. Lou took to the stage and did a tryst of songs which veered in and out of each other, Sister Rary, I'm Waiting for My Man, Sweet Jane and all mixed together ending with a wild ride of I Heard Her Call My Name. That concert could not be done again, ever. Lou Reed was not popular in the year 1980 and he barely packed the crowd in. The concert was out of rhythm and out of tune but yet it had some insane intensity as if the band was determined to make up in intensity what it lacked in sobreity.

Recently I went back to the same club and saw a performance. The place was ultra clean, well-lit, smelled like Pine-Sol and the drinks were watered down. I felt bad for the 30-somethings in the crowd, the were excited to see this performer, someone who has made a name for herself and her perfomance sounded just like her albums. Made me sentimental for the night when the transvestites and junkies and prostitutes braved the cold weather to see Lou Reed in the dark depths of the backroom at Gaspars, the scent of tobacco and the cheapest perfume, it was a singular moment of humanity unveiled and with a soundtrack that matched each note with the feeling that what was cheap was also extraordinarily rare.

The "Worst" Concert I experienced was one that never happened. In the mid-1990s I discovered that Dead Can Dance was doing a rare US tour, and one night was in Salt Lake City, Utah, only an hour away from where I was living at the time. I was amazed, since bands like DCD usually stick to the coasts. I bought four tickets that same day--2 for friends, 2 for myself and fiancee. Drove up for the concert weeks later...Lisa Gerrard was ill, and there was no performance. :-(

Another bad experience: New Years Eve, 1999. St. John's Newfoundland was the first city in North America to ring in the New Year. 50,000 people and more crammed onto the freezing cold waterfront to try and watch live bands, TV coverage, etc. When it was all over, 50,000 plus people try to move out through a single gate that was big enough for 2 cars to drive through. We had no control over our destination, and just tried to avoid getting crushed against the fence, or getting crushed underfoot, or just basically getting crushed. If anybody had been injured, there was no way for anybody to get to them. Good thing Newfoundlanders are pretty polite folks, but it wasn't fun.

Best Concert #1: Oingo Boingo Farewell Tour. Those guys rocked the arena hard, and were having a lot of fun saying goodbye and thanks.
Best Concert #2: Going to school in St. John's, Newfoundland, way way out in Atlantic Canada. Hometown band made good, Great Big Sea, were doing a home concert after winning some awards, etc. The whole concert was a big 2 hour sing-along kitchen party for the home town crowd. Everybody knew the words, and GBS were relaxed and having a blast.
Best Concert #3: Barra MacNeils doing a pub concert in Newfoundland. Intimate setting, crowded, fantastic performance and music. I floated home about 2:00 am just dazzled by them.

You were bragging about that concert in your Bleat of 5/3/04!!! I remember it specifically because it was so funny:

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/0504/050304.html

And then I said the magic words: I saw Zep in concert in ’77.”

Awe. I swear, a semi-circle formed around me. I felt like someone describing my role in a great battle.

"And so I looked to the guy next to me to see if he was rocking, but he had turned green, man, and I vowed that he had not rocked in vain so I said WHOOOOOO and the fellow next to me – never saw him before, or after, but I’ll never forget him – he took off his shirt and lit it on fire and waved it around his head like some Viking Bezerker just as Zep crashed into Immigrant Man, and I realized that we would forever pity the men who were not here to rock with us this day, for truly we had rocked in a way few have rocked since.

"And for an encore, my friends, they played Stairway to Heaven. No one saw that coming. No one."

George Thorogood and the Destroyers in 1985 (give or take a year) at the Springfield Civic Center, Springfield MA. Just about every song sounded the same which was exasperated by the awful acoustics. All the tickets for the show were general admission. My foolish attempt to go onto the floor of the civic center to get closer to the stage with the hopes of improved acoustics was a huge mistake. I would have had an easier time making my way through a riot. The only good note was that by leaving early I didn't have to deal with the hassle of the crowd or the traffic.

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert at Target Center. Started with Joy To The World, with a giant video of the band playing the song while the actual band presumably played the same thing at exactly the same time live on stage. Since the music (including the drums) is entirely electronic, they never once during the concert were able to convince me that they were actually playing anything live. For all I know, I spent all that money to have someone play a CD for me. My date and I were nearly asleep in our seats by intermission.

I've been to a lot of concerts. Saw Jimi Hendrix open for the Monkees in Jacksonville in 1969. WORST CONCERT: Rolling Stones, Brewer Stadium, 1976 I think it was. All day show, and after a long line of great bands(incl. Chaka Khan, Billy Preston and the Eagles) the Stones started up and they sounded like crap. A whole bunch of people started to leave. Too much music, too much sun and too much beer I guess. BEST CONCERT: Bob Marley & The Wailers, Waikiki, 1979 was it? I danced the whole show, excellent!

The worst concert I ever went to was a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert in the early 90s. They looked like they had just crawled out from under rocks and were actually angry at the audience for not having bought more of their recent (and dreadful) releases. They were obnoxious.

I have two best concerts. The first is the Bus Boys in the mid-80s. In fact, any Bus Boys concert is a "best concert".

The second best concert was The Monkees in 2001. I have never had so much fun or seen a band having so much fun. During the concert, Davy leaned over and planted a big, wet kiss on some mid-40's woman in the front row. I think she simultaneously levitated, passed out and had an orgasm. I almost fell over laughing. It was that kind of concert.

Chris Whitley in a small club in Salt Lake City about 1998 or so. Was in town for a convention. Big crowd of college bookstore managers went to a downtown club hoping to drink and dance... and out comes Chris with a footstomp and pedal steel. And somehow he made that whole crowd dance to his version of the blues. It was really amazing.

Worst: Fleetwood Mac, Buddie Miles, Elvin Bishop in a baseball stadium, mid-afternoon, Stockton Ca. 1973ish. Mid-Mac the sound goes down and, without explanation, CS gas canisters start flying in over the walls, courtesy of the local police who over-reacted when one of theirs took a bottle to the helmet from the some idiot in the bleachers. Wild panic ensues and the fleeing crowd flattens the rear-chain link fence to get out of the place. Then the riot rages, with beer and wine bottle-throwing music lovers against plastic bullets and CS gas until dark. Over-flowing formal hearings a month later are called off because of a bomb threat. Nothing further happens.
Best: Visiting sister in San Leandro, circa 1970. We go out mid-afternoon looking for a bar with a pool table. Sign out front says "Live Music Tonight." We're so engrossed in the game, we don't notice the crowd gather. Then "Ladies and gentlemen, Van Morrison." Free, intimate, unexpected. Awesome.

Worst concert was in Phoenix, around 1980 and the band was to my great embarrassment was Molly Hatchet. I never was a great original Skynard fan but they happened to crash their plane in my hometown about 3 years earlier and that caused me to go back and check out their albums. In their absence, I allowed myself to be sucked in by this Skynard lite group.

Reason for its awfulness really boiled down to the sound, which was very similar to the scream of the f-4 jet engines on my base. I don't know if I blame the band or the sound system but it was extremely painful.

In fact, if I had been in my right mind, I probably would have left but alas, in those days it was all about the party.

One thing about Phoenix was the antagonism of the audience. I grew up in Mississippi and every concert in Jackson was always enthusiastically greeted (maybe we were desperate for entertainment). In Phoenix, I saw more opening acts booed off the stage than I care to remember. That included Mitch Ryder, who gave one of the best shows I had ever seen. I prefer the Ms attitude.

James Gang, Memphis, Tennessee, late '70's. Outdoor arena, way oversold, and the folks outside who couldn't get in started throwing rocks and bottles, and then feces from the port-a-potties. They knocked down the fence and got in, effectively ending the concert. I got hit by a bottle, thank goodness.

Yes in late 70's. At the Sports Arena in Toledo. On acid, no air conditioning..it must have been 130 degrees inside. It was literally difficult to breath the humid,smoke filled air. Did I mention we were barefoot and the cement floor was covered in sweat, like it had been hosed down. Now that I think about it..the girls were so hot they were taking off their shirts and sitting there in bras...

Early 80's. Jethro Tull. Chicago Stadium. A guy insists on standing up in the row in front of us, swaying from side to side in a drunken stupor screaming "TULL! TULL! TULL!". We didn't have to wait long for his eventual meltdown, when he fell over his chair and into our laps. My friends and I were kind enough to let him lay on the floor under our feet to enjoy the rest of the concert. The roach burns he may have suffered came at no extra charge.

Went to see Yes at the Cleveland Coliseum in Richfield probably in 1974. I have no idea how me and my four buddies drove from Columbus while the half pound of weed was smoked but somehow we did.

We had kickass loge seats courtesy of my roomates Dad (who was into some pretty cool stuff himself) and the concert was great - the first half hour I remember.

I came to in some sort of makeshift hearing room in front of a judge or magistrate with some huge gorilla of a cop holding me up by the back of my sweatshirt as I couldn't stand under my own power.

While I couldn't see, I do remember him telling the cop "Certainly drunk but not possibly disorderly! Fifty buck fine!! Get him outta here."

The drive back to Columbus was uneventful.

Worst: They Might Be Giants played on the Catholic University campus around 2000, give or take. Their contract said they were to start at 9pm, and they were insistent on not starting a minute earlier. The opening band finished around 8:20. So people stood in a cramped gym for 40 minutes growing increasingly restless. There were as many boos as cheers when TMBG finally took the stage, and the crowd didn't get into the show until they finally played something from Flood about 1/3 of the way through.

Best: My first concert was Aerosmith in Pensacola, Florida in 1994, where I had about row 40 tickets, so I was psyched when they came back 10 years later. I ended up with row 18,section 3 (on the side on the floor) so I was happy with the improvement. I get to the arena, find my section, and find that the rows are marked 16, 17, 19, 20. I ask the usher where my row went. "Oh, we had to rearrange the seats to make room for the catwalk. You're over there." Where? "The first row in front of the catwalk." I spent the whole evening leaning against the catwalk, and had the best seats in the house when they came out on the catwalk to play. Steven Tyler would have stepped on my arm had I not moved it at the last moment!

Worst: Sly and the Family Stone at the Montreal Forum in the early 70's. Sly was so wacked out that he tripped on the stairs leading to the stage and had to be dragged to his organ where he hung on for dear life and tried to sing a song. Crowd started booing 30 seconds later and a near riot ensued.

Best: Bruce Springsteen in GREAT form at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier which is where the Montreal Symphony Orchestra usually plays. Awesome acoustics, 10 rows from the stage, awesome hash. Springsteen played for 3 hours.

A buddy and I saw Renaissance at a joint in North Jersey called "Joint in the Woods" on a Friday night. I don't recall the name of their one popular song, I think it was Innagaddadavida in length but soft stuff, real soft mellow stuff in retrospect (Saw Iron Butterfly perform that on another occasion).

Anyway, we liked the concert, so went to the Sunshine Inn in Asbury Park the next night to see them again. Remember now, I said they were mellow, so the obvious choice for an opening act? Kiss in full make-up of course!! So, we saw a good concert and a bad one by the same band in one weekend -- mellow just doesn't work after Gene Simmons jumps out at you in a small room with his tongue out!

Oh, and Watkins Glen in '73 was a fun time, except that we didn't have enough ice so had to use a stream to keep our beer somewhat cool. Still have that whole stub somewhere, as they gave up trying turn back 600,000 people without tickets and let the gates fall.

Bob Dylan at the P.N.E. Agridome in Vancouver, B.C. in '65 or '66.First half by himself and the second with The Band.Still my favourite but James Brown in '64 is a close second.

Greatest:
Itzhak Perlman at Georgia Tech when I was 11 or 12. Changed my view of music and made me fall in love with classical music in general and the violin specifically.

Worst:
I've been lucky. I don't think I've ever been to a really bad concert.

fascinating comment thread, and in it we get a key glimpse in Lileks' demographic.

i was barely a zygote when some of the noted shows were held (60's early 70's). as a spry 42-year old, my concert heyday was the way bitchin-80's, or in my particular case it was more like the mega-metal 80's.

having been lucky enuff to attend by dozens and dozens of live shows over the years, (have i been to 100 concerts? not quite, but close i'd wager), its difficult to pin down a "best" and a "worst."

Best overall concert probably was The Who and The Clash at Oakland Coliseum, October 1982. me and my chaps drove down from Sacto to see the show, stopping by my brother's frat at UC Berkeley to pick up the tix at about 345 a.m. For the record, the stench of a fraternity pledge porch bunkhouse at 345 a.m could be weaponized and used to end all wars.

i did not partake of any counterculture items coz i wanted to remember the show, and my boys taunted me all day and night with assorted bits and pieces.
but as it happens i was so tired from pulling an
all-nighter getting to the show, i unforgivably slept thru chunks of The Clash. The Who were transcendental though and to this day i remember every note. Leaving the show and walking back to our car, somebody threw a softball sized rock at us from the bushes that missed my head by inches. nice people in Oakland. Not.

There is no "worst" concert that i can say i attended, however, i remember...and to my hometown's lasting shame can never forget...two particular instances of Sacramento concert-goers making global fools of themselves:

In or about 1982, an as-yet-unknown by everyone Stevie Ray Vaughn opened a show for 80's hair metal kingpins Y&T. Y&T is no more than a blip on the screen today, and we know what the late great Stevie went on to do. But...on that day, the Y&T crazed fans more or less BOOED stevie off the stage at Cal Expo. in the summer heat. not booed to the point of leaving the stage, but he played for all of 30 minutes, and did no encore. i still have the scars from that one. although i barely knew who SRV was at that time, his performance made Y&T look like Murph and the Magictones playing the Ramada room of the Joliet Holiday Inn.

Second worst concert moment also at Cal Expo: Aerosmith, in or about 1987. right at the most emotional, driving, screaming moment of "Dream On", some demented nutcase threw a rock on stage that hit Steve Tyler right in the face. To this day i can still see the rock coming out of the crowd, in slow motion. To his credit, ST finished the song, his face covered in blood, then stomped off stage for 30 minutes to get stiches while the crowd begged for forgiveness and one more song. A'smith did came back on, and Tyler said "well folks, some A##hole threw a rock at me." And with that, the band launched into a 25-minute, unforgettably awesome version of "Let the music do the talking." The single greatest act of rock and roll forgiveness i ever saw. "the night of the rock" is still talked about by those in Sac who know.

One last cool concert moment: in or about 1988, same Cal Expo outside venue, this time with Guns and Roses and Iron Maiden on the bill. GNR announced they would not be playing for some reason. Axel broke a fingernail or some such crap excuse. So, Maiden comes on and quasi-apologizes that GNR were a bunch of wussies and therefore, they, Maiden, would play an extra-extra long set. Which they did. they performed for 4 hours and played almost every song in their repetoire. It was misty, cool and rainy that night, & the steam of the crowd heat rising was surreal. Maiden lead singer Bruce D remarked on that a few times, and when he announced that the steamy crowd "Reminds me of England", the crowd went nuts.

So many great concert moments, luckily with few real bad scenes.

Big Brother and the Holding Company came to Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis in August 1968. Band started playing. Shortly thereafter, they had to stop the concert, probably because the power went off.

So, the next day, the band went out to Forest Park, set up in a covered picnic area, and played their hearts out for the 500 or so people who showed up. It was fabulous.

I attended one of the "Edgefest" outdoor concerts in Wisconsin in the mid-90's and it rocked. The best moment happened while Cake was playing their set. The main food being sold there were pizzas (not personal ones, they were bigger). There weren't enough trash containers, so of course the ground was littered with these things by the second day. During Cake's set, a few people got the idea of throwing pizza boxes into the sky frisbee-style. Before long, the entire crowd was doing it repeatedly and it was one of the craziest things I have ever experienced. Pizza boxes flying everywhere, dodging them and throwing them over and over. Good times! But yes, I'm definitely too old to enjoy a moment like that anymore.

Relax, tiltaswirl...15000 idiots are still 15000 idiots, whatever festival brand name is imprinted on the T-shirts and commemorative bongs.

Worst was Teddy Pendergrass in 1982, St. Louis. Went with my g/f who squealed like a frightened guinea pig the entire concert. Need I say more?

Best:

1. Ray Charles at the Tangier, Akron, OH - November 1982. Small venue, great seats, legendary talent.

2. English Beat at Oberlin College Chapel - April 1983. The Beat was great, and the warm-up band was a little combo from Georgia that was just starting out...REM.

3. Jethro Tull Songs from the Wood tour, St. Louis - 1978. Superb musicians, literate lyrics, fabulous show. In an era where rock shows opened with exploding stages, Ian Anderson opened with an acoustic guitar on a stool playing "Wondering Aloud." Perfect.

Jefferson Airplane, free, in Central Park in NYC, on a beautiful summer night in about 1971.

It's easy to pick the Worst Concert Ever: The Cars in the mid-80's--1984, I think. Nothing original--they just played their music. It sounded exactly like the album(s); they might well have been lip synching.

Best: Same year, I saw Joe Jackson, and he was freakin' awesome. I liked he wasn't afraid to mess around with arrangements and chat...kinda...with the audience. Made it a lot of fun.

But the absolute best was the first punk show I ever saw. Early 80's at the Ontario Theater in DC (look on the back of "Gravest Hits" by The Cramps; that pic of Lux Interior climbing off the stage and into the seats was at the Ontario). Black Market Baby, who were followed by the Bad Brains just as they were touching Reggae. I've never heard anyone play faster or tighter before or since. The headliners were The Stranglers, and some punks in the slam pit kept giving the Stranglers the finger, so Hugh Cornwell took off his guitar in the middle of the song and leapt at him, quickly followed by J.J. Burnell and Jet Black. I'm pretty sure Dave Greenfield didn't join in the fracas; when it was over, they picked up pretty much exactly where they left off.

Then, at the end of the concert and at the request of Hugh Cornwell, the movie screen came down and they showed "Eraserhead."

Best concert to date: Sting, sometime in 1988-89, at the Oakland (CA) Arena. My sister-in-law was an intern at MCA Records at the time and got my wife and I tickets (free, no less) on the arena floor, 10 rows from the stage. Large crowd, large venue, and Sting was in great form. I particularly remember "Message in a bottle" (with the audience singing the refrain) and "Spirits in the material world".

Honorable mention: Blood Sweat & Tears, in a relatively small venue in San Diego in (I believe) December 1970, just before (again, I believe) David Clayton-Thomas left the group.

Most memorable: a double bill of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention plus Country Joe and the Fish -- again in San Diego, small venue, and I believe in the winter of 1970-71.

Worse concert? It pains me to say: They Might Be Giants at the 930 Club in Washington DC a few years back. The sound system was so wretched that night that I could barely tell at times what song they were playing. ..bruce..

My WORST concert ever was Guns N' Roses in (was it the Dome?)in the early 90's. The opening band played until 8:30 or so and we had over four hours to kill before Axel got his crap together; they played from 12:30 to 3:00 a.m. Some of us had to get back to Iowa to work the next day and it was a bee-yotch. Talk about a buzz-kill. I can't believe no one else has mentioned this yet here.

Best? Tie between Pink Floyd 1988 at the Uni-Dome in Cedar Falls, IA ("Delicate Sound of Thunder)and the Stones in Ames, IA in 1989 ("Steel Wheels"). Rumor has it that Floyd's lazers punctured the dome and so they were never invited back. It was the first time I had seen the Stones and it was surely the biggest stage (it was in a football field) I have ever or will ever see again. I have to admit I was trippin' for Floyd and shroomin' for the Stones but even without that they would have been darn near out-of-body experiences.

Lately the Roger Waters show was AWESOME and so was Tom Petty w/Pearl Jam on June 27, 2006. (To quote Petty, from a song on "The Last DJ": "Let's hear it for those bad girls....and those boys that play that rock n' roll. They love it like you love Jesus....it does the same thing for their souls."

Kinda says it all, eh?

Best: Bruce Springsteen at Princeton University on November 1, 1978. Day after Halloween and he was telling stories about kids knocking on his door and being shocked to see him at home, giving out candy. 3+ hours of The Boss in his prime, on basically his home turf.

They had these stupid metal folding chairs in the audience, and partway through everyone decided to wave them around overhead in time to the music. Very strange. I heard him later on the radio talking about how he'd never seen such a thing.

Also memorable was a Bowie show in Lexington, KY for the GLASS SPIDER tour. While waiting for the thing to start, I was sitting there for some reason reading the NEW YORK TIMES. Some VERY flamboyant fellow came over and asked to see the stock section, opened it up, squealed, "Oh, goody, it's UP!", gave the paper back, and pranced off. My then-girlfriend, now wife, still talks about that.

My brother's most memorable was when I took him to see his first concert ever, the Rolling Stones, again in Lexington, in about 1977 when he was 11 or 12. In retrospect, I should have taken some gal, but I get credit from him to this day for being the best big brother ever.

I saw Fleetwood Mac's last concert with Christine McVie at the MCI Center in D.C. They played for two and a half hours with three encores and no opening act.

Worst Concert: Easy! (and I've seen hundreds, including "shows" like the DKs when they were traveling in a station wagon) Jimmy Buffett at the Nissan Pavilion in 1995. Why was it so bad? It was JIMMY BUFFETT playing and the huge, overpriced, grotesque venue was full of Jimmy Buffett fans. How could it be worse?

The worst show would have been the long awaited Guns & Roses visit to Phoenix. This would have been '87 or '88. They were booked with Iron Maiden, who at the time I was lukewarm about. The week before the show G&R cancelled (apparently Axel Rose needed cord scraping or hair plugs or something). The replacement act was LA Guns, of whom I had never heard, but apparently had some tenous connection to G&R. The night of the show (outdoors, in summer, in Phoenix) Iron Maiden's truck overturned in the desert, destroying most of their stage equipment, delaying the start of the show two hours, and, it was rumored, killing a roadie.

The best show would be one of three, the final INXS show, Ben Folds opening for Tori Amos (he blew her off the stage), or Guster opening for Semisonic in a tiny local venue.

Cheers,
RK

2. English Beat at Oberlin College Chapel - April 1983. The Beat was great, and the warm-up band was a little combo from Georgia that was just starting out...REM.

YES! I saw them on this tour at the Palestera, Univ. of Rochester. (Rochester, NY that is), Got there early to see REM, and got trapped up against the stage when the English Beat came on. Spent their whole set sandwiched between my girfriend and the stage.

The Indigo Girls someplace in NJ, in the mid 90's. Bad sound and the entire audience sang every word to everysong. BLECCCH. What a waste of money and time that was.

Worst:

Rush, Richfield Coloseum 1986ish

I got dragged to this show by the son of one of my parents' friends (!) So boring, so long, so bloated.

Bob Mould, Bogart's 1989ish

Bob was angry and petulant, he cut the show short. Really disappointing after the great shows on the Workbook tour.

Bob Dylan, Blossom Amphitheater, 1987

This might have been better than the tour that the Budukan CD comes from, but just barely. I think Bob played 75 minutes with encore. He rushed through songs a la Van Morrison. Seemed completely bored and disengaged.

Best:

Bob Mould, Peabody's Down Under 1988

Unbelievably intense, loud and angry. Such a great show. I still have the setlist somewhere (I stole it from basist Tony Maimone (sp?).

The Replacement, Cleveland Agora 1987

A very drunk 'Mats played a great set. The band wandered the audience during the opening act. The Cleveland band, Death of Samantha were also partying in the crowd.

R.E.M., Cleveland Public Hall 1986

Stipe said "screw the security, rush the stage" and everyone did. This was my first REM show and the only one worth attending.

Worst Concert - Goo-Goo Dolls at the State Fair a few years back. Drunk/stoned and full-of-himself John Rzeznik couldn't hit notes, couldn't remember lyrics, and generally mumbled at the audience.

Best Concert - Smash Mouth at the State Fair (different year). These guys put on an enthusiastic show in a torrential downpour. Went home drenched and happy.

Amazing that Lileks would pick the '77 Zep tour...also my choice for worst concert, albeit in Tampa, Florida. Zep had descended from great rock to that monotonous thumpa-thumpa funk beat stuff after LZ5. Started the concert with 1 1/2 such numbers. I say 1/2 since a classic Florida thunderstorm broke during the number (like, 2 inches of rain and 35mph winds over 45 min) and the "rain or shine" promise of the event promoters was found to be hollow. Tiny tarp over the stage and water everywhere with thousands of amps of power.

So Zep left us and, when it was announced you needed to turn in your ticket stub to obtain the $10 refund a riot broke out on the playing field. The "fans" threw bottles and whatever at the stage - first the roadies and then the cops - and rushed it twice. Entertaining when viewed from 30 rows up in the stands like we were. About a million of Tampa's finest circles the stadium and split some skulls. Would that we had this level of control in Baghdad.

So chilled to the bone (wet shorts, wet T-shirt, wind blowing, etc.) we sat there and chatted with a cop who walked up the steps to where we 5 hudled to stay warm. It kept him out of the melee' anyway. After things wound down we drove 50 miles back to Sarasota. I guess it was like going to professional wrestling. But still better than the "music" Zep was playing those days.

BEST CONCERT EVER: Muddy Waters at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco, circa 1978. Full house of around 250 max...great sound system presented every instrument to the ear...great music. Charlie Musslewhite (sp?) played 2 sets as did Muddy's band. They had just repaired the place after it was trashed in a Lou Reed concert a couple of weeks before. It will never get better!

Heart. Texas World Music Festival. Cotton Bowl. '78-ish. Ann Wilson at her peak. Hit high notes all night. Didn't cheat on one. Van Halen was there too. They kicked. So did Sammy Hagar.

Honorable Mention:

Elvis Costello. Nashville. '82-ish. "Almost Blue" tour. Wonderful.

Gino Vanelli. Ft.Worth. '79-ish. Killer musicians kicking azz.

Return to Forever. Louisville Ky. '78-ish. Most awesome display of musicianship ever seen by this correspondent.

Warren Zevon. Louisville Ky. '84-ish. Just the man and a white grand piano. I expected a backup band. Was disappointed - at first.

Weather Report. Louisville Ky. '84-ish. Unbelievable. Jaco ruled the world that night.

Andres Segovia. Louisville Ky. '80-ish. One of the true greats. A bit past his prime - but come on... it's Andres Segovia we're talkin' about.

Super Honorable Mention goes to a Robin Trower concert I saw in Nashville Tennessee. For those of you who don't know this already, Nashville is the Cretin Capital of the World (tm) and three of us trekked down there from Bowling Green Ky. to see the show at Memorial Auditorium. The show rocked, of course. The best part of the "show" was that we saw three people puke... one before we were even inside the auditorium!! It was a stellar night, my friends. Sure was.

Almost forgot the worst:

Three friends and I went to Florida for spring break in '78 and we decided to hit a small bar for some fresh seafood & drinks. The food was slammin' and we were enjoying the cold brew. Thing is the owners of this bar fancied themselves as crooners, troubadours... whatever. They sucked. Played Dan Fogelberg tunes (badly) all night. It was a running joke for the four of us for years afterwards. Anytime we heard some bad music from then onward, all we had to do was repeat the catchphrase of the two "singers" that night: "...A little Dan Fogelberg for ya."

The worst "real" national act I ever saw was Bachman Turner Overdrive around '77 or so. Dreadful.

Bob Dylan, old Charlotte (NC) Coliseaum, 1974. First concert tour by Dylan since his 1966 motorcycle accident. Actually a dual tour with The Band. The Band sets were worth the price of admission alone, Dylan did an entire set solo on acoustic guitar, and very tight sets by Dylan/Band together of his electric stuff.

The old Charlotte Coliseum was a basketball venue (ACC Country), and I was a poor Forestry student at NC State, so I was only able to buy the cheapest tickets ($6 each, when $12 was a fortune), but we were actually behind the stage and above the musician entrance. We probably saw the musicians far better than the most expensive seats down front, which were folding chairs on the flat base of a basketball court. After most songs, Dylan would turn 360 and wave to those of us behind the stage.

Never dated the girl I took again, no big loss for either of us, and ended up back in Raleigh with flu and a 102 degree temperature. But this is one concert that stands out after all these years, when Bob Dylan was still in his creative and musical prime. I have seen excellent concerts by Clapton and Springsteen, had some fun at outdoor events, but Dylan 1974 was historic and memorable.

I scalped an $80 ticket for the John Mayer Trio concert at The Qwest about 2 years ago. I think I heard one song I knew, and there was hardly any singing, it was all just whaling on guitars. If I wanted to see Johnny Lang, I would go to Johnny Lang. And I wouldn't pay $80 for a general admission ticket!!!

Probably the best was the first time I saw our very own Semisonic in March of 1999. They played the University of St. Thomas where I was a freshman. They played "Gone to the Movies" which I still have not seen them play again--and I've seen them at least 10 more times.

Also best was Semisonic's Dan Wilson last year playing the Minnesota Center for Photography solo and acoustic. He actaully made my toes curl in delight.

Best:

Joe Jackson, Oct. 28, 1979, at the Guthrie. His "I'm the Man" tour. In 1979 and thereabouts, the Guthrie was using its thrust stage for punk rock. What a gift to the Twin Cities music public that was! I also saw great concerts there around the same time from the Talking Heads and (don't laugh) The Knack. Say what you will, the were awesome that night.

Worst: So, so many. Pretty much everything at the Met Center blew. Some of those have been mentioned here. I also remember the Police concert there being especially awful, the Go-Gos were way the better band. But I was also lucky enough to see the Police earlier at Jay's Longhorn and at the Minneapolis Armory, with XTC opening for them... wow.

Saw Zep at Tampa stadium for the Houses of the Holy tour. At the time it was said that it was the largest group of people gathered for a concert outside of a festival type venue.
Saw Floyd at the same place for the Dark Side of the Moon tour, I think that was 74, not sure. Many Shrooms grew in the cow fields around Tampa at the time and I was a USF student with time to hunt for them.
I think that floyd was the better of the two , but both were great.
I also saw Hendrix with the Monkees tour at the St. Petersburg Bayfront Center in 69, Hendix was amazing and I became a huge fan, I also saw Tull and The Dead there in 73, I think.
Saw Yes, Poco and ELP at the Tampa civic center about the same time.
I've been to lots of concerts since then, some oldies but I like metal and the newer stuff also, but those mentioned have the biggest place in my heart.

"Out of the 100 or so concerts I've paid to see, the performance of Stone(d) Temple Pilots at Xcel, as part of the Family Values Tour, has to be considered. We left early, and I NEVER leave a concert early. It was bad."

At least you got to see part of the concert. I tried to see them at an outdoor bandshell in Dallas when it started raining, nearly frying the equipment. Despite the tickets saying "rain or shine," STP didn't appear to be coming on. My friend and I left about about an hour of this, and evidently, we missed the riot (which ensued after the announcement was made that the concert was in fact canceled) by about five minutes or so. Among other things, a police officer was evidently hit in the head by a beer bottle thrown from the crowd.

As for the best? Well, I'm a jazz musician by trade, so my all-time favorites fall under that category. Among the best in recent years would be the Pat Metheny Group's "The Way Up" tour in '05.

Been to alot of great concerts over the years but none was as transcendent as Bob Marley and his Wailers at the Apollo in 1980.... Got the tickets for free from some girl we sold an ounce to, and the only person in the Apollo that was higher than me was old Bob himself.... great music... Second best was Milton Nascimento at Carnegie Hall in 89, but you people don't know who he is.... oh and seeing Built to Spill in the Velvet Room in NYC which holds maybe 200 people.... we sat in the front row with our feet on the stage and did whippets with the bassist DURING THE SONGS.... Worst concert - Bobbie Zimmerman at mothers east.... couldn't understand a word he sang and he couldn't care less as long as he got paid.... and kudos to the brother who admits going to a Renaissance show.... Annie Haslem Lives!!!!

First best: Mothers of Invention at Columbia University, ca. 1968. I was a virgin concertgoer and my much more experienced boyfriend procured tickets for the stage. We sat right behind those Motha's. Blew my little prissy mind to shreds. It was the beginning of a whole new musical life for me.

Another(two)bests: Having in my old age become a Radiohead fan girl, seeing them twice last year for the first time. The second gig I spent in the pit right in front of Jonny. Man, he is magic, as is Thom.

Well, I feel pretty square after reading about all these crazy concert experiences! I haven't been to very many shows, and I was sober for all of them, so no wild tales here.

The best was U2, on the Elevation tour, May 4, 2001. I have been a fan since I was 12, when I first saw the "Sunday Bloody Sunday" video on MTV. The tickets were incredibly expensive, but my sister's ex-fiancee won a set from a radio station and he didn't like U2, so we got to go. I yelled so much I think I embarrassed my sister, but it was just an incredible show. Whatever you may think about Bono's politics, the man has a great voice. He and Edge did a stripped-down version of "Desire"--just the two of them, out on the catwalk with Edge playing guitar and singing backup--it was hands-down the best moment of the show.

Also, to the poster who saw the Stones in Lexington, KY in 1977: my uncle was a Lexington cop at the time, and he ended up guarding the band's dressing room for that show. He got Mick's autograph for my cousin, but he said he didn't like him very much.

John Lee Hooker in 89/90 in an ancient theater in Jacksonville, FL with about 300 people max. Camper Van Beethoven, mid-late '80s, at Einstein a Go-Go in Atlantic Beach, FL. Middle of summer and the power went out in the club about 5 minutes into the show. Maybe 100 people there, so we kept fairly quiet while they played drums against the stage and acoustic by the tiny over-door emergency lights for 90 minutes and every song became a sing-a-long. Last best was Red Hot Chili Peppers in '86 at the University of Florida. I don't remember what started the trouble, but about three songs in the ballroom management got pissed and cut the band's power off. Flea banging away for dear life not a sound. Finally, their manager came out on stage to calm them down and Anthony tried to strangle him on the spot. Up came the house lights and the show pretty much ended there. Ah, good times, good times.

Roxy Music at Paramount Theater, Oakland, CA, 1977. This was their "whatever it is album that comes after 'Country Life'" tour. Something was wrong with their sound system because it was completely distorted and ear-splittingly loud. Brian Ferry, who was never a great singer, was completely unintelligible.

What a miserable experience.

Best: They Might Giants, Flood Tour - Vic Theatre in Chicago. 1990? I was 13 years old and it was my first real concert! Tons of energy!

Another Best: The Mavericks (headliner) and BR549 (opening band), Park West in Chicago 2004 . I can't think of another singer besides Raul Malo who sounds just as good (and even better) in person as he does on the albums. His voice makes me melt. I've seen him solo at Schubas and Fine Line, too which I also rate as 'best' shows. But back to Mavericks and BR549. For the encore BOTH bands were onstage playing song after song after song. There must have been 10+ people on stage - it was an awesome jam fest!

Travis. First Avenue. Last Night. No question, end of discusstion.

Worst: Axel Rose pulls the same stunt that Deegirl experienced, except in Roanoke in the early 90's. First, the last-minute-substitute opening band was Blind Melon. No one had heard of them at this point and if you think about it, their music was a horrible fit for the GnR crowd. They basically played their whole album. While the crowd was respectful, we were dying for them to leave. Then came the usual 3-4 hour wait for Axel to get his stuff together. Meanwhile we're watching the clock, all of us having to work in the morning. Axel finally played, but after two songs someone hit him with an ice chip and he threw his mike down and walked off the stage. Thankfully, someone muscled him back on because the place was primed for a full scale meltdown. This was the concert where they did acoustic stuff, feh. We got home at 5:00 a.m.

Best: GnR, Metallica, Faith No More at RFK, early nineties. Faith No More was OK, but they ended up leaving the tour after that show, I believe. My group came to see GnR, but seeing Metallica play live (from their Black album) was a revelation. They owned the place that nice. After they were done Axel was only about two hours late going on. GnR rocked it, too, but I felt sorry for the people who had taken Metro in and had to leave to catch the last trains just as the band was getting started. Got home from that one around 5:00 a.m. too.

FYI...someone lost their life at We Fest last year. I'm tired of people attaching some behaviors to all those that attend a "festival" like 10,000 Lakes Music Festival. I'd also like to mention that every year that I've attended the 10,000 Lakes Festival the staff and security have always made a point to tell me how impressed they are with crowd overall and how they behave themselves in comparison to We Fest. Which in my opinion should be called the beer and sex Olympics and not a music festival.

Steve, from Minneapolis

Second best was Milton Nascimento at Carnegie Hall in 89, but you people don't know who he is

Oh yes I do...I lived in Brazil for 3-1/2 years. Got a lot of Milton, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Martinho da Vila, Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes...never saw any in concert, though. Damn.

Sometime in the early 70's. A friend talked me in to going to see an awful band called Humble Pie in Milwaukee at Summerfest.
The place was filled with filthy stoned hippies. The cowardly band started referring to the police as "pigs" and directing their ignorant peace loving hippy followers to riot. The police came in by the hundreds clubbing stoned rioters as they went.

The hippy clubbing was the high point of the concert as I recall.

Bob Dylan at the Minnesota state fair (Mid 90's). If it wasn't for the guitartist from Saturday Night live I've would of walked out. Second Worst was Depeche Mode at the Target Center, the same year the Nirvana performed they last concert at Roy Wilkson.

For me, it would be the summer of 83' Seeing R.E.M. open for the suburbs on navy island downtown St.Paul. Also in the line up was The Replacements, the phones and, let's active.

I've seen a lot of bad concerrts in my 45 years, but here are two that stood out for being unexpectedly good:

Weird Al Yankovik(sp) at he State Fair. It was a free show, it was outdoors, and a total lunar eclipse occured while Al was playing. He stopped the show to ask the audience to turn around and check out the moon as it turned a gorgeous red-orange. He also played an incredible two hour set. He's coming back this year, and I'm going to go see him again.

In the summer of '77 I went to the Spokane Colusium to see Aerosmith. This was during a period of great chemical experimentation by Steve Tyler and the boys, so their set was nothing to write home about. The opening act, however was a little band from Oz: AC/DC...what an incredible show.

Worst concert the ZZ Top show where I got my nose broken by a frisbee before that opening act, and spent almost the entire show in line at the First Aid booth.

When I was younger, I wanted to see New Kids on the Block at the Met Ctr. I think I was 15. Being that I lived in Andover, I knew my folks wouldn't drive, but I didn't know they wouldn't let me go; they said there were too many drugs. It wasn't until I was almost 30 and had been to many concerts that I found out they were right about the drugs at concerts.

And the best concert: Nickelback with Three Doors Down and Puddle of Mud at Xcel!

Should I feel really young here or really left out?

My best concert would be any of the White Zombie concerts in the 90s but the greatest would be the tour they did at Roy Wilkins to promote their La Sexorcisto:Devil Music Vol 1. They came out and started the guitar rift for Thunder Kiss '65 and the crowd erupted. I got stuck in the seats because the lower level was sold-out. But the view was amazing. It looked like a huge wave of water but it was the people below just ulating with the start of the concert. So much energy! Some people came up later and said they couldn't take it anymore down on the floor so they gave us their ticket stubs and we got down to the floor. It was incredible. Many mosh pits. I even moshed with a few crazy Vikings linemen. They would knowck me down and then pick me back up. It seemed to last for hours. It was also the first date I took my wife on. People still don't believe that was our first date.

Next best would be Sponge at First Ave promoting their Rotting Pinata album. Fantastic! A small venue with a rocking band. It was up close and personal. One of my friends got invited to the VIP lounge afterwards and got us all up there.

Worst concert EVER:
Tori "I hate all men" Amos. I was talked into going to this concert in the early 90s by an ex girlfriend at the State Theater. What a huge mistake. She is the worst live performer EVER. She chanted through all of her songs and add-libbed new parts during them. But the worst part was the hate she brought out there. In between songs it was feminist fest about how men are evil and they are worthless. Of course I was one of the few men there so I took a lot of stares. Never again.

worst- Aerosmith '84. They were so drunk that they barely made it to the stage.

best- Bruce Springsteen '85. "Rosalita" was especially good.

The concert I enjoyed the least was U2 at the Rosemont Horizon (suburban Chicago) in the mid-80s. I can't say it was a bad concert, because I could neither see nor hear it. We were at least seven miles away from the stage, and the three teenagers in front of us stood up and screamed every word to every song throughout. That's when I knew I was too old to go to regular stadium concerts anymore.

The concert I had the most fun at was Al Green a couple of years ago at the Guthrie. I would've paid just to hear him sing Call Me, but the whole concert was a blast. The man has charisma.

Best concert: Anyone of the Yes shows I saw from '74-'79. I especially enjoyed the in-the-round shows.
Worst: Sad to say it was Jimi Hendrix.June 5 1970 at Dallas Memorial Auditorium.Ego and drugs had taken its toll on him and he played most of the show with his back to the audience.Still sadder to realize now that he was going to be taken from us soon after.

I have to say, Nickelback's concert last night was one of the best I've seen. We had a blast - even if it meant that the 5am alarm was rather painful this morning.

BEST- Last concert at the Met. Pablo Cruise, Steve Miller, Eagles/Joe Walsh.

First- Kiss and Uriah Heep.
Brother and my cousin make me sit next to people. I get passed doobie they don't. My god I was all of fourteen years old. Thank goodness my son hasn't followed in my footsteps.

Worst- Ted Nugent at the Civic Center early eighties late seventies. All I could hear was echos. Way too loud.

Best ticket purchase- On a whim buddy and I went to see Clapton/Heart concert early eighties. First guy we see sells us sixth row floor seats for fourteen bucks apiece. Great concert. Was way too hungover from night before to drink or even smoke pot.

Last live concert- Prince in his prime. Great show.

Results- Have hearing loss due to all the concerts that I attended in my teens and early twenties. Also clean and sober for eighteen years.

I had to give it some thought but finally settled on the worst concert being Lynyrd Skynyrd, USF Sundome, 1987. First, I was not a fan of LS or 'southern rock' for that matter (a recent transplant from Illinois where it was all REO Speedwagon and Cheap Trick) and although I had heard about a plane crash long ago, I didn't realize I was going to one of the first 'reunion' concerts. Don't remember how I was talked into this by one of the two other couples we ended up going with.
The show was probably okay except for the Sundome having the acoustic brilliance of a large balloon (hey, wait, that's what it is!). Apparently, the fan base had suffered for years with no outlet for their grief and before the first hour was up, they were literally crying into their (large, numerous) beers. The empty mike for the former lead singer probably didn't help.
By the second hour, I understood completely why cowboy boots are the footwear of choice since the floor was easily an inch deep with liquid that I didn't want to look at, never mind walk through. All around us at this point people are so drunk (the one-hitters making them thirsty, I guess) that they are starting to mutter about 'Freebird', a song that even then I never needed to hear again. Around this time, one of the other wives goes into a panic attack that she claims is caused by her fear of crowds (I wish I had thought of this) and because of some complicated transportation issues that are lost to me now, I end up sitting with the remaining wife while all the others take the panicky one to safety.
We stuck it out valiantly (for reasons that again aren't clear to me now) until it became apparent that they were going to illuminate only the empty mike while they did 'Freebird', which caused a woman behind us to somehow simultaneously sob uncontrollably and throw up and we bolted for the exit. To this day, when I hear the beginning of "That Smell" I assume they are talking about the Sundome by the end of that show.
Best concert. Hard Rock Cafe-Orlando. 1991. My best friend and I celebrating the finalization of my divorce. We actually wandered in to find something to eat and ended up totally enthralled by a band covering Pink Floyd, only better than Pink Floyd (Soldier Field, don't remember the year, pretty good show). We are drinking shot/margarita/shot/margarita and sitting on the bar with feet on bar stools until I notice that the tequila is not mixing well with the Robitussin I've been treating a viscious cough with. The stairs to the bathrooms at the Hard Rock are only slightly shorter than the escalators in the Atlanta airport and after managing to get down there, I'm incapable of navigating back up. My friend and a kind employee assist me (as a true friend, she blames my 'medication') and we manage to get to my car. Here we determine that only one of us knows how to manage a clutch and after I start it and try to explain the basics (trying not to care that the 300Z is my pride and joy and the only thing left after the divorce) she drives to the hotel without leaving second gear. Best. Concert. Ever.

Also saddens me to say that the most disappointing concert I ever went to was a They Might Be Giants concert when I was in college. Hardly interesting or exciting at all. They Might As Well Have Been Recordings.

This is opposed to the Material Issue concert I also saw there...which was fun and exciting...I don't even remember who I went with it was so much fun...

I think big, multi-band concerts can be quite disappointing...like that Zone for the Holidays concert I went to when Zone 105 was alive. Audience was so young that when they turned up the lights at the Target Center during Semisonic's "Closing Time," the joke was entirely lost. And, I remember a Basilica Block Party where the members of Blues Traveler almost outnumbered the people listening...

Worst: Korn, Mudvayne, ... at the Target Center. The "non-smoking" venue was choking, somebody a few rows up found great sport in regularly throwing beer our direction. Mudvayne mailed it in and sounded awful. Korn has a good production and made it nearly worthwhile but by then it was too late.
Best: Disturbed at 1st Ave, kickoff for 10,000 fists. In that venue, up close - they were awesome.
Weirdest: My mom took me to see Hendrix at Northrup, I was in awe for a so-so concert.
Memorable: Grand Funk ... where was it? St. Paul?
Memorable II: The Beach Boys, Boz Skaggs, ... Beautiful day.

I have been to every 10k that they have put on. And i can tell you it might not always be the same bands or the sames friends going to rock out. But it is always good time. And you cant let acouple dumb hippys that cant handle there durgs give a bad name for 10k. I love it every year and will coutinue to go back. And yes it was me who took tht golf cart and got away suckers.

I have been to every 10k that they have put on. And i can tell you it might not always be the same bands or the sames friends going to rock out. But it is always good time. And you cant let acouple dumb hippys that cant handle there durgs give a bad name for 10k. I love it every year and will coutinue to go back. And yes it was me who took tht golf cart and got away suckers.

I don't think I've ever been to a bad concert, but one of my most memorable was Steve Miller at the old Met Center in 1990. The guy behind me spilled beer down my back, then later asked me to dance. When I told him no, he asked "are you sure?" My friends and I still laugh about that one.

The best concert I've been to was Ray Charles at the Oregon Zoo back in 2001 or 2002. He rocked out pretty good for as old as he was.

Lots of fogies in this forum, so let’s bring up the average age:

Bad concert:
Saw Red Hot Chili Peppers at Roy Wilkins on the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour. Smashing Pumpkins opened along with some band nobody knew … we didn’t even bother to show up for them … Pearl Jam. (Must have been ’91 because Pumpkin’s “Rhinoceros” was getting airplay on KJ104) It was a bad show in retrospect because of what I missed. We had nosebleed seats and spent the concert envious of those in the mosh pit. Mediocore show musically.

Another bad show was the Cure at Target Center a year or two. (“Friday, I’m In Love” … ugh … Cure fans were already nostalgic for the Disintegration era, who were nostalgic for the Kiss Me era, who were nostalgic for Head On The Door, and so on.). My friend smoked a ton of weed and fainted while trying to suck the last bits of his one-hitter. I wasn’t of driving age (or had just got my license … it was a hazy time...) and was freaking out about getting busted by my mom.

One of the best: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at the Varsity Theater in Milwaukee … 1994? Got to hang with Judah Bauer, the guitarist, before the show. They were just a 3-piece but they ruled. High energy, Spencer aped Elvis and James Brown, plus windmill-arm guitar playing, and lots of running up and down the stage. They opened for The Breeders and everyone just waited that one hit song (Cannonball). I don’t think many in that Marquette University crowd got the JSBX. At the end of the set Spencer played the theramin. ‘Nuff said.

Saw They Might Be Giants in that same venue a couple of years later. It was great, they were into it, not like the other peoples’ experiences posted here. TMBG got the crowd singing along, rocking in their own nerdy way. I recall everyone went nuts when a tuba player appeared. They reminisced how the stage collapsed the previous time they played Milwaukee.

Saw Semisonic at a small club in Milwuakee too, right after “Great Divide” was released. They were tight, another great three-piece group. At the time I thought they were too poppy (snob I was), but I couldn’t help getting into the show. Dan Wilson has got that thing for making great, catchy music. Yo La Tengo played next. I was next to heaven, two highlights were “Moby Octopad” and “Autumn Sweater.”

An unbelievable show was All at the Rave in Milwaukee, must have been ’93 or early 1994. A little history: All is what the Descendents became when Milo, the lead singer, left. Well, Milo was getting an advanced science degree at U of W-Madison at the time. He came down and played the encore. They did “I Wanna Be A Bear,” “Sour Grapes," “Clean Sheets” and a couple more I can't remember. What a sweet surprise. Milo rocked, his glasses flew off.

Finally, last one, thanks for your indulgence … was Bootsy Collins, also at the Rave in Milwaukee, about 1995. A friend had comp tickets, and I was reluctant to go. Oh. My. God. The Mothership had landed. It was a freak show, but I have never felt so much honest-to-goodness positive energy during a concert. I was one of the younger people there, and my musical inclinations were for the punk/indie scene, but everyone was dancing, enjoying themselves and it was infectious. Later on I checked out what funk music was all about, but that was an awesome baptism. Bernie Worrell was with him, and he ruled that night. Bootsy seemed to will the music from his bass, he barely touched the instrument and insane sounds came from it. The guitarist had on ass-out pants a la Prince. He wore them without irony. Crazy. Bootsy got down into the crowd and walked around, with everyone surrounding him. It was all love and respect and great, funky music.

I missed U2 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago in 1984. It is a big nightclub with a few thousand capacity. It was during the Unforgettable Fire tour, and they had not yet blown up, which would happen in the ensuing months. I didn't go, because it was a "school night."

Oh, yeah. Prince was the opening act. And tickets were $15.

Garvey, that would have been my ultimate dream concert, right there...Prince and U2 in 1984. I probably would have passed out from the excitement. Prince came here to Rupp Arena on the Purple Rain tour in 1984 or 1985, but my mom wouldn't let me go. She had seen some of the videos on MTV and thought Prince was "inappropriate" for a 14-year-old. I missed out on Billy Idol for the same reason.

1977 indoor Aerosmith/Nazareth concert on
the Fourth of July---Got separated from most of my friends during mad rush for seating (Pre-1980 Who concert tragedy).
Firecrackers were thrown in stands throughout show, many of which landed in my lap or next to my ears because we were sitting in the front row above the plexiglas separating the second level from the first level. My friend had a pack of crackers go off at his feet and pop up inside his pant leg. A guy on the main floor had his hair catch on fire from flying debris, unbeknownst to his stoned-butt. Cherry bombs were thrown into concession stands and Roman candles were set off inside the arena.
Aaaah, but the topper of the night was the bonehead who dumped his beer directly onto my tape recorder just as Aerosmith took the stage!!!

"Worst Concert - Goo-Goo Dolls at the State Fair a few years back."

I've never seen them live (nor had any interest in doing so), but the guy who's now their drummer did refer to me as a "jackass" in a letter to our college newspaper when we were in school. I wonder what he would have said if he'd actually have ever met me in person...

(A little background here: I was the program director of the campus radio station, which--like many university stations--played jazz. Every once in a while, there would be angry letters from people who thought that it was our duty, as a school-funded organization, to help new bands get exposure. What they really meant, of course, was that they wanted us to help local rock bands, which didn't have a place at a jazz station. And it was interesting to note that the people who wrote those letters to the editor were almost always members of said bands. If only there had been MySpace back then, perhaps they would have left us alone. And needless to say, whenever someone mentions the Goo Goo Dolls, my reply is always, "They need a new drummer.")

And let me join the chorus of those who have never seen a bad They Might Be Giants concert; I've been to four or five of them and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

My best concert ever was seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan with Eric Clapton and Robert Cray the night Stevie died in a helicopter crash. It was at Alpine Valley in Racine, WI and there were two shows, Robert Cray opening, Stevie then Clapton. The first night Stevie, and this is just my opinion, totally upstaged Clapton. Now don't get me wrong, Clapton put on a hell of a show, but Stevie was completely demented. He had these looks of intense pain on his face when he played, it was amazing. On the second night, Stevie put on an even better show, it absolutely blew me away. Clapton came out and gave a complete virtuoso performance, exactly what you would expect from him. The night was capped off by a half-hour long version of "Sweet Home Chicago" with Stevie Ray, Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray,and Jimmie Vaughan all taking turns soloing. It was phenomenal, absolute best ever. The only way it could be topped is if Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, Randy Rhodes, and Dimebag Darrell Abbott all rose from the dead and went on tour. I found out he died the next morning and on the drive home there was a radio station playing an hour long tribute to him. When I started losing the signal I pulled over, sat on the hood of my car listening to the rest of it and cried like a freakin' baby.

My worst concert experience wasn’t the musician’s fault. The little I saw was a great show. In fact, standing up while they did four encores nearly killed me. In 1981, my boyfriend (who was displeased with me from earlier asking me to a Barry Manilow concert, and I suggested he take his grandmother) took me to see Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer band at the Universal Ampitheater in Los Angeles. I was young, young, young, and didn’t even know why they were called the Coral REEFER band. I was also a bit of a prude and thought he was, too. I had no idea why the police scrutinized us so closely as we walked in. Actually, I still have no idea why, since they didn’t do anything to anyone.
Once the band started, about every third person lit up. Our seats weren’t very good, but we couldn’t see anything through the haze of joint smoke. I started to laugh because some of the people back where we were had already passed out before he even got to Cheeseburger in Paradise. I turned to my boyfriend and saw that he wasn’t the fellow prude I thought. He hadn’t brought any pot with him, but was attempting to get a contact high. I will never forget the sight of him swaying around with his nostrils flared as wide as I think a person can, attempting to dust-buster up any bit of cannabis smoke he could. He wasn’t “into reality”, he was just cheap. If the people around us weren’t too stoned to notice, I’d have been really embarrassed, but then something happened to me. I started to wheeze—like a freight train. Then, my right eye swelled shut. I nearly went into anaphylaxis. Apparently, I’m allergic to pot. My boyfriend was too wasted to notice that I spent most of the concert with my head down in my lap trying to find a bit of clear air and realizing this needed to be an ex boyfriend and fast.
I have a friend who was arrested at a Jimmy Buffett concert a couple years ago at that same venue. This amazed me, having seen the sorts of things people do there without any consequences. This friend has a party-supply store and he went to the concert with a bunch of plastic lobsters, crab hats, and leis. He was selling without a license. Considering how I don’t think all those people brought there own that night I was there, I guess there are some things in California they allow to be cottage industries, but don’t DARE try to sell a plastic crustacean at a Buffett concert.

Best Concert I ever went to was Weird Al Yankovic here in Houston four years ago. He even beat out Lyle Lovett playing in his home town here. Best part of Lyle’s concert was when he asked the audience to guess whether the band member drove a car or a truck. At the bearded keyboardist, this one tiny girl in the row before me stood up and shouted, “Two-ton diesel duelly” and I think she was right.

The Al crowd could be described as “ruly.” My friend looked around, pointed at some parents with their kids and said, “Oh look, baby nerds.” Yeah, we were all nerds assembled to see THE MAN. I’ve never been in a more polite, happier to just plain be there crowd. The opening act was an Engineer Comedian and he wailed! Of course, 2/3 of the audience was engineers so he was definitely wasn’t too hip for the room. The only time Al left the stage was for a quick costume change. He had a pair of cheerleaders out there just for that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” number and rolled around the stage, petting the head of the security guard. The security guard looked pretty nervous when Al launched himself out into the crowd a couple times, but we went wild. Dressed as a lounge-lizard, he sang a ballad to a woman who looked about in her late forties and her daughter just gasped through the whole thing. The best part was the encores where he did his whole range of Star Wars stuff, including a strange chanting song in sort of a droid talk. He’d put the mike out to the audience, and they knew the movies well enough to do it back. The song morphed into the Hawaiian War Chant, and the audience STILL new it.

Thanks for reminding me of a great evening. Yes, with Jimmy Page staggering around the stage and Plant pretty hoarse, the quality of the music left something to be desired. But of course I had the records at home. Sure wish I could remember who I was with and whether we bonded over it.

Never been to a bad concert. This Rush concert was the best though. It had the four food groups of good concerts nowadays: Kiss arse music, lasers, explosions and fire.

They also trader the trademark dryer for a few very large industrial chicken rotisseries. At least these made more sense than the dryer did. It probably fed everybody after the concert.

It was all over much too fast.

Speaking of the Dregs......late 70's at the Great Southeast Music Hall, and when they opened for Mother's Finest and Atlanta Rythm Section at West Ga College, '76, 77, 78!

That's "kick" arse.

WTH is kiss arse music?

I was also at that show with outstanding seats. I recall they played 3 or 4 tunes with Page playing while sitting down most of the time. Does anyone recall which songs they played?

Nice story about the Peppers playing about 3 songs and then they ended the show. Didn't came it to a riot and was this show in April?

I was at this concert, too. It was hot and muggy, and, as you stated, the amenities were horrible. A friend of mine got dehydrated and passed out. Wasn't Lynyrd Skynyrd there? That would have been 3 months before the plane crash. I remember not being able to hear anyone on stage because the sound systems were so bad.

I was at that Sly show too! Not only was he stoned out of his mind - but I seem to remember that we had to wait about 2 hours or more for them to come on stage after the opening act. I am trying to find the actual date of this show and also the opening act. Do you have any info on that? I actually vaguely recall that I thought the show wasn't so bad after it finally got going - I could be wrong about that! I am looking for some other concert dates from the 1970 thru 72 at the Forum also if you went to other shows there.

Bruce at Wilfrid-Pelletier?? Wow - that must have been great - what year was that?? I saw The Beach Boys there in I think late 1972. Also saw T-Rex at Pierre Fonde Arena Sept.72 with a brand new band called the Doobie Brothers opening up! Great show - but Marc Bolan was pretty waisted to. I was right up front for that one and have some great pictures that I took.

Steve: I was there too, and it was the most memorable concert ever, pretty much as you described it. Beautiful afternoon, great music, peace and love crowd, full of families and children (and ice chests, blankets), then suddenly power cut during Mac's performance. Without mic, organizers signaled for crowd to remain calm; then wafts of smoke came through the crowd. I thought a bbq had gotten out of hand, until the first wiff of smoke. Panic, people grabbing what belongings they could, running for the fences (as police blocked exits), I arrived at the fence and found a young mother with a baby in one arm and stuff in other. I offered to carry some of it over the fence for her, and to my surprise she gave me the baby--screaming, whole face irritated by the tears which burn the skin due to the gas. We climbed the fence (later knocked down, as you say); get outside the stadium and a riot is going on. Pigs beating people; people turning over cop cars; showers of glass anytime a cop car drove by. I heard the cops went into the performers' trailers and teargassed the bands.

Best concert: Boz Scaggs maybe a year or two earlier, also in stockton, almost no audience because this was pre-disco Boz.

I have been to many concerts. The worst were Aerosmith at the St.Paul Civic Center in the 1970's.3 times and all were bad. They did'nt call them arenashit for nothing. Also Grateful Dead & Dylan at the Metrodome in 1986. It was the first concert staged in the dome and the sound was awful.

JHi Stephen, I was the Aerosmith "Cop" girl, that was onstage with Aerosmith show, my old compadre & friend, Charlie Hernandez, Aerosmith tour/road manager, would have had me walk right down that ramp, for the onstage "Cop" gig thing, that Steven Tyler asked me to do with him, pull a gag on his buddy Joe Perry, that night, Feb 10,1994, Pensacola Civic Center for the Get a Grip tour.
I'm looking for you or anyone who might have pics of me from that particular show. Please email me at yesdearokdear@yahoo.com if you do.. Thanks!
Lisa

I was in high school at the time, and attended this one with my girlfriend, whose father gave me a speech about taking care of his little girl before we left from Rocklin in my '64 Dodge pick up. There were rumors going around that the band wasn't the real Fleetwood Mac shortly before the pigs closed the exits and started lobbing tear gas into the crowd. I remember the cyclone fence being trampled and seeing a riot cop hurling a wine bottle, which later turned up us a newspaper photo. Job one was to get my girlfriend out of there so I was a little disappointed about not being able to participate in the riot, being 18 at the time, but we had the satisfaction of seeing four bikers stomping the bejeesus out of one of the pigs as we were leaving.