Best Concert Experiences Rock On All

I was recently reminiscing with a couple of GWJ'ers (obriano and tboon) about some of our favorite or surprising live shows we had attended over the years, and we thought it'd make for a good forum topic.

For me, the best show I had ever went to was a Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys concert when I was in my early 20s. I had always been a fan of punk music throughout most of high school, but Flogging Molly was far and away my favorite band. I was also fascinated with anything related to Celtic culture, so Flogging Molly was the perfect mix of both worlds.

The show itself was unlike any of the other punk shows I had been to previously. There was a mosh pit, of course, and one that I participated in. The difference here is that the pit was still a crazy mix of people flinging themselves into each other, it wasn't a no holds barred punch and elbow fest that I was used to. If someone fell down, everyone else made a wall around that person while he or she was helped back up to rejoin the fray. During specific songs, everyone would throw their arms around everyone else's shoulders while swaying and singing. To sum up, it was the most positive energy I had felt from a crowd at a show I had ever experienced.

Years later, when my group of friends started to get married, we made it a point to have Drunken Lullabies play at some point during the reception so that we could commemorate that show since it was one of the first shows our group had all attended together.

So, what about everyone else? Any really memorable experiences for anyone out there? It doesn't necessarily have to be a favorite show, it could just be a show that you went to and ended up being very surprised by the experience.

Tool

The two became one and spiraled away.

June 11, 1989 Metallica Damaged Justice Tour

I loved how they build the lady justice statue through the show (rather than having it build at the beginning) then during And Justice for All it blew up! It was so great.

When I was in college near Kansas City, pretty much any concert we saw at the Grand Emporium in downtown KC was amazing. It was a cozy nightclub with a bar along one side and a bunch of tables packed into the other side facing a little stage. In its heyday it was THE place in KC for blues, jazz, funk, or zydeco. We saw bands like The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones there and every single show was fantastic. They also served up some divine barbecue ribs by "Amazing" Grace Harris - it was a shame when this place closed down about a decade ago.

The only specific concert that comes to mind was at one of the KC Blues & Jazz Festivals over the summer, this would have been mid-90s sometime. I was part of a local jazz brass band and we had a gig at the festival. The gig was so-so, but as Official Artists we had backstage access, which meant we could get right down in front of front row for the big Friday/Saturday night headliners. I distinctly remember the Saturday night closer was Buckwheat Zydeco, who we had never heard. One of the older guys that helped run our band said "just go - you won't regret it". We got into the special access right down in front for the show, and they blew us away - and absolutely brought the place down. Unforgettable experience.

One of my first concerts was in 1986, Ozzy Osbourne, in Nashville. The opening band was a bunch of plucky young thrashers called Metallica. Hetfield had broken his wrist skateboarding, so somebody else played rhythm guitar while he sang and thrashed around.

In the crowd was a man dressed in black named Johnny Cash. He was very gracious about signing autographs, and he shook my hand. What a night!

As a Northern VA native, the 9:30 Club is central to pretty much all of my great concert memories:

In 1999, the Chemical Brothers played the 9:30 on tour for Surrender. Although the club is known for having a great sound system, until that night I had never experienced the full force it (and the Chemical Brothers) could unleash. I could feel the bass in just about every bone in my body, my shirt was vibrating (or maybe I was vibrating my shirt?), and every so often, I could see my shoelaces jump slightly in time with the beat. And I was at the back...

A year later, I went to see Sleater-Kinney. They were awesome, but I was really surprised by the opening act - a scrappy little Detroit duo called the White Stripes, on tour for their second album. Hadn't heard of them at all (and from what I could tell, the people around us hadn't either), but they played a great set and closed with an unbelievable version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" that left my girlfriend and I speechless for a couple of minutes after. You can hear their cover of "Jolene" on the live album Blackpool Deluxe...give it a listen if you've never heard it before.

I'll close with the Flaming Lips, on tour for Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in 2003. I was dealing with a bad breakup at the time, but it was impossible to stay depressed...it was the most life affirming and fun show I've been to. People in animal costumes dancing on stage, scenes from Cool Hand Luke playing during "Fight Test" (and a snippet of Battle Royale during "Yoshimi"!), beach balls flying everywhere, some other random tidbits I'm probably forgetting...it was just shy of sensory overload. Good stuff.

1990 - Rolling Stones in Madrid on their Urban Jungle (Steel Wheels) Tour. They played for more than 3 hours with just a bit of a break where Keith noodled around. I have never seen a performer, before or since, put as much physical effort into their performance as Mick Jagger did that night. None even close.

1992 - Ozzy's "No More Tours" Tour. Awesome openers: Sepultura and Alice in Chains. Great and really diverse crowd. I worked my way to front and center on the floor for Ozzy but only lasted a few songs pinned to that security rail.

2000 - Foo Fighters opening up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Hartford. RHCP were good, but the Foo Fighters were fantastic.
Some kid jumped up on stage for the final song and instead of having security drag him off Dave Grohl sang cheek to cheek at the mic with him for awhile and then let the kid solo the rest of the song.

Probably my best concert experience was seeing L7 in the late 90's at Gabe's Oasis in Iowa City. I don't know if Gabe's is still around, but it was basically the definition of a dive bar- and that night the place was absolutely packed, way over capacity. I spent the entire show jammed up against a speaker while people clambered over each other and crawled through the rafters trying to get on stage, only to be pulled down by the bouncers and chucked backed into the roiling crowd. Someone started throwing shoes at the band at some point, one of which must have been mine as I had to walk home in my socks.

It was a pretty good concert.

ruhk wrote:

Probably my best concert experience was seeing L7 in the late 90's at Gabe's Oasis in Iowa City. I don't know if Gabe's is still around, but it was basically the definition of a dive bar- and that night the place was absolutely packed, way over capacity. I spent the entire show jammed up against a speaker while people clambered over each other and crawled through the rafters trying to get on stage, only to be pulled down by the bouncers and chucked backed into the roiling crowd. Someone started throwing shoes at the band at some point, one of which must have been mine as I had to walk home in my socks.

It was a pretty good concert.

Yes Gabe's is still here and still having shows. And it is still a dive.

Cool. I left IC in 2006 and think about moving back every so often, but seriously, screw Iowa winters. The only thing worse is Iowa summers.

Boudreaux wrote:

When I was in college near Kansas City, pretty much any concert we saw at the Grand Emporium in downtown KC was amazing. It was a cozy nightclub with a bar along one side and a bunch of tables packed into the other side facing a little stage. In its heyday it was THE place in KC for blues, jazz, funk, or zydeco. We saw bands like The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones there and every single show was fantastic. They also served up some divine barbecue ribs by "Amazing" Grace Harris - it was a shame when this place closed down about a decade ago.

I loved the Grand Emporium back in the day. My greatest experience was farther west, at the Outhouse in Lawrence, KS, but I did have one insanely psychedelic experience at the Grand Emporium. I'm sure the statute of limitations have expired, and this was 27 years ago.

I was going to see The Flaming Lips, who were touring just before they got signed to Warner Brothers. They had added a guitarist, Jonathan Donahue, who later left to form Mercury Rev. But I digress.

It was 1989, so it was before they had gotten arty. At this point, they were the loudest band I had ever seen. The rumor is that the Grand Emporium banned them after this show because it was so freaking loud. And really, it was too loud. several of my friends left because it was unbearable. But I was on acid.

The insane part actually came before, though. I was going with two other friends, and we met at an apartment about a mile or two down away, but pretty much a straight shot south on Main Street. We all three dropped and were going to leave in an hour or two and walk to the show. As we are talking they mentioned having tickets, and i had planned to buy at the door. My friend freaked and told me it would sell out. So I decided to jump in my car, buy the tickets, and then get back to walk to the show with them before the acid kicked in.

I walked into the bar and The Flaming lips were doing a sound check, so I bought a beer and decided to listen. They were playing some Beatles songs when, well, the acid kicked in. They then played a cover of Wish You Were Here. Basically, it was a fantastic set, and I was happy to have caught it. But then I had to drive back to meet my friends. That was dumb, but the trip back was uneventful.

But my buddies were gone by the time I got back. On the door was an angry note wondering where the f*ck I was. Yeah, pre-cell phone days. So now I had to make the trek all alone, and I full on tripping by this point.

The walk to the show was adventurous enough, and my ridiculous peace symbol tie-die shirt was drenched from the long walk in the heart of the summer.As I made my way up Main Street and towards 39th, I saw the band sitting out on a park bench in front of the venue, on the other side of Main. In this state of mind, I thought it was a perfect time to meet them and tell them how much I enjoyed the sound check. The problem m is, I began walking across the road at the intersection, diagonally because it was the direct root. As I'm out in the middle of 39th and Main I start to hear sirens and screaming. I'm standing there when a truck was speeding down 39th street, with a large black woman hanging out of the back of the pick-up, being dragged on the ground. Behind them were two speeding police cars tearing after them.

I met Wayne Coyne when he ran up to me in the middle of 39th and Main and asked, did you see that? Honestly, I wasn't sure I had. But seriously, I could not have scripted a better way to meet one of my favorite psychedelic bands of all time. Surreal doesn't quite cover it.

On the plus side, later, while touring on Hit to Death album, they let me hang out back stage and drink beer with them after they played and I got to hear a lot of interesting stories about what was going on that changed their sound and personnel so much over that time. And nope, they didn't play the grand Emporium. It was a bar in Westport that was either The Shadow, or whatever name it was going by at the time It changed a lot.

Dr_Awkward wrote:

1990 - Rolling Stones in Madrid on their Urban Jungle (Steel Wheels) Tour. They played for more than 3 hours with just a bit of a break where Keith noodled around. I have never seen a performer, before or since, put as much physical effort into their performance as Mick Jagger did that night. None even close.

My best experience was one night before seeing The Stones on this very tour in KC at Arrowhead Stadium. The night before, Lawrence, KS, a friend insisted I see this funk punk band that he saw at the Grand Emporium the night before, 24-7 Spyz. I had no idea who they were or what they sounded like, but a night at the Outhouse was always a good time.

Before they came on stage, they blared NWA's Straight Outta Compton from the PA, playing the who first side. When they came on, it was loud, fast, and funky, and the single greatest performance I had ever seen. The Outhouse is a cinderblock garage in the middle of cornfield. No security. No occupancy limits.

I was at the front of the stage, to the right, where the bass player was. The mosh pit was so over the top and violent that I soon found myself face down on the stage, feet still on the floor, but piles of crowd surfers holding me down I finally wiggled my way onto the stage, sitting in from t of the bassist now. Eventually, I moved up to make room for someone else. The singer started calling for folks to pull the people standing on chairs along the walls into the mosh pit. For awhile, I seriously wondered if people were going to die that night.

Oh, Nirvana opened for them. They were a complete afterthought. None of the albums 24-7 Spyz put out lived up to their live shows, but man, it was a hell of an night.

The next night I saw the Stones at Arrowhead. I used binoculars. It was still a great show, but the contrast was kind of insane.

And for the three pack, the next night I saw The Butthole Surfers at The Bottleneck in Lawrence, KS. Great show. Not for the faint of hearted.

First concert I saw was Ozzy Osbourne in 1982, a month before Randy Rhodes died. It was a make-up for the previously canceled show, due to the bat/rabies/dove/whatever incident.

My wife and I saw Tom Waits a couple of years ago at The Fox in St. Louis. That was a huge bucketlist item marked off, and a great show.

I racked my brains trying to figure out which was the best. Was it that Squarepusher gig where I was standing at the bar next to Bjork and Aphex Twin, the one when Squarepusher got thrown out of the club mid-set by the owner because the owner though he was a jazz musician instead of a filthy beat-merchant?

Maybe seeing Autechre at All Tomorrow's Parties? The Plaid gig where I decided to propose to my wife? Pantera at the Brixton Academy, when a dude stage-dived off the balcony?

Then it struck me. Duh. Andy C, playing at 3am, to a crowd of maybe 80 people, in the middle of the desert, right after Bassnectar finished up. Watching the sunrise after we got back to camp. Burning Man has a way of making other live music experiences kind of pale in comparison.

Robert Plant and the Strange Sensations at V Festival circa 2002? - Ended with Whole Lotta Love in a tent enviroment - once I met up with my sister afterwards (she was watching Oasis) she thought I was high because of the buzz I was on.

Jason Isbell and the 400 unit - Small venus, knew nothing about the artiest, blown away.

About ten years ago, the wife and I saw Journey, Styx, and REO Speedwagon in a sports arena. Our seats were heavily discounted (about 50% off) for being "Obstructed View".

In our case, however, "Obstucted" meant that we were extreme stage right (perpendicular to the stage), and about ten feet away from the band. In addition, we could see all the roadies and crew as they were working on gear behind the set, saw the performers as they went offstage to chill during solos and breaks, and had an unbelievable experience that 99% of the rest of the audience couldn't imagine.

Best. Concert. Ever.

Some friends and I went to Liberty lunch (very small club) in Austin to see KMFDM play. We had no idea who the opening band was but we managed to walk in the doors right as they started their set. It was Ramstein and they blew us away with their performance. After the show is done we filter out back to the tour busses to try and chat with the band and we get stopped by security saying "KMFDM isn't seeing any fans tonight" and my buddy cries out "Who cares about KMFDM we're here to see Ramstein" One of their roadies heard us and started to laugh and let us in so we got to hang out with the band for about 10-15 minutes after their show. Between their limited English and our horrible German we managed to have a great chat. And what stuck with me was I asked them what they wanted to do next as a band. "We want to be on Southpark like Primus"

Whatever concert I ate the most mushrooms at was usually the best.

koshnika wrote:

Some friends and I went to Liberty lunch (very small club) in Austin to see KMFDM play. We had no idea who the opening band was but we managed to walk in the doors right as they started their set. It was Ramstein and they blew us away with their performance. After the show is done we filter out back to the tour busses to try and chat with the band and we get stopped by security saying "KMFDM isn't seeing any fans tonight" and my buddy cries out "Who cares about KMFDM we're here to see Ramstein" One of their roadies heard us and started to laugh and let us in so we got to hang out with the band for about 10-15 minutes after their show. Between their limited English and our horrible German we managed to have a great chat. And what stuck with me was I asked them what they wanted to do next as a band. "We want to be on Southpark like Primus"

That's an awesome story. I'm jelly. Seriously.

garion333 wrote:

Whatever concert I ate the most mushrooms at was usually the best.

Sounds like you missed the late 80's/early 90's LSD glut. But yeah.

A good example is this clip. I was at this show, eighteen and pretty much out of my mind. I remember this song, a cover of Cat Stevens' Wild World, vividly as one of the greatest moments ever. I was looking to see if there was a pic and found an actual video, which is kind of rare for shows in 1987.

I was in college right when grunge hit and saw a great on-campus, outdoors, Pearl Jam concert with these guys opening:

Sadly, earlier that year, I had a chance to go see some band I had never heard of in one of the smaller clubs in Athens but passed to stay-in the dorms and drink cheap beer.

Spoiler:

Nirvana

Badferret wrote:

Sadly, earlier that year, I had a chance to go see some band I had never heard of in one of the smaller clubs in Athens but passed to stay-in the dorms and drink cheap beer.

Spoiler:

Nirvana

Man, I got lucky, seeing them open for another band, as I wasn't even there to see them. I mean, I guess I was lucky. They were good, but nothing made me think they were going to be what they became.

I saw them again a year or so later, after they really hit, playing on campus in the KU Ball Room, with Urge Overkill opening. Honestly, I there to see Urge Overkill. It's funny to think that I was lucky enough to see them twice, yet both times I was actually interested in the other band they were playing with.

Nirvana is overrated. Their impact on MTV and radio is huge, but musically they're overrated.

That said, I never saw them live.

Jayhawker wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Whatever concert I ate the most mushrooms at was usually the best.

Sounds like you missed the late 80's/early 90's LSD glut. But yeah.

I hit the tail end of that but acid is far more flaky than fungi. Or so I'm told.

garion333 wrote:

Nirvana is overrated. Their impact on MTV and radio is huge, but musically they're overrated.

That said, I never saw them live.

Jayhawker wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Whatever concert I ate the most mushrooms at was usually the best.

Sounds like you missed the late 80's/early 90's LSD glut. But yeah.

I hit the tail end of that but acid is far more flaky than fungi. Or so I'm told.

Are we doing this? In that case, I absolutely loathe Pearl Jam. I do not understand in the least why people like them, much less love them.

obirano wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Nirvana is overrated. Their impact on MTV and radio is huge, but musically they're overrated.

That said, I never saw them live.

Jayhawker wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Whatever concert I ate the most mushrooms at was usually the best.

Sounds like you missed the late 80's/early 90's LSD glut. But yeah.

I hit the tail end of that but acid is far more flaky than fungi. Or so I'm told.

Are we doing this? In that case, I absolutely loathe Pearl Jam. I do not understand in the least why people like them, much less love them.

Get off my lawn!

obirano wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Nirvana is overrated. Their impact on MTV and radio is huge, but musically they're overrated.

That said, I never saw them live.

Jayhawker wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Whatever concert I ate the most mushrooms at was usually the best.

Sounds like you missed the late 80's/early 90's LSD glut. But yeah.

I hit the tail end of that but acid is far more flaky than fungi. Or so I'm told.

Are we doing this? In that case, I absolutely loathe Pearl Jam. I do not understand in the least why people like them, much less love them.

Personally, I was a much bigger fan of Mudhoney and Tad from the Seattle grunge days. I liked Pearl Jam, but was never a fantatic.

In fact, they kind of ruined my one try at being a promoter. I booked the Outhouse to put on The Laughing Hyenas from Detroit. Basically, I wanted to see them, spoke with their agent to see when they would be turning, and she suggested I just do the show myself. And I did!

What I didn't realize abut the date I chose was that it was Day on the Hill at KU, a free concert n front of Memorial Stadium, with Pearl Jam headlining.

It was a terrible turnout, I stiffed the sound guy and gave the Hyenas every dime I collected, also stiffing the opening bands. Larissa, the guitar player was pretty cool about it. She told me about putting on a show in Detroit, The BirthDay Party (Nick Cave's band) when no one showed up. If I thought them coming form Detroit to get screwed was bad, The birthday Party came from Australia!

In the meantime, Buffalo Tom was one of the bands playing at Day on the Hill, and they came out to see the show, so I got to meet them. Later, The Laughing Hyenas came to town opening shows on consecutive nights, for Jesus Lizard on campus, and then Sonic Youth at Liberty Hall. John, the singer looked me up and got me in to both shows,and let me comeback stage where I got to sit on on an interview Thurston Moore was doing. Eventually, the interview turned into Moore and me talking about Patti Smith and other music, as well as the weirdness of alternative bands going mainstream.

They had signed to Geffen at that time. He talked about how they were given clothes they had to where, which was weird, because it was the same clothes they always wore. But the label wanted them to stay "in character" after they started getting paid more.

obirano wrote:

Are we doing this? In that case, I absolutely loathe Pearl Jam. I do not understand in the least why people like them, much less love them.

We are no longer friends. It was a good time while it lasted though.

Spoiler:

I think I may only like Pearl Jam because I loved playing the songs in Rock Band. Even then they are just all right to me.

CptDomano wrote:
obirano wrote:

Are we doing this? In that case, I absolutely loathe Pearl Jam. I do not understand in the least why people like them, much less love them.

We are no longer friends. It was a good time while it lasted though.

Spoiler:

I think I may only like Pearl Jam because I loved playing the songs in Rock Band. Even then they are just all right to me.

I remember playing some by myself one day on rockband and was at one of the gigs with 2 random songs. It picked "Alive" twice. As soon as the song started up again I just walked over and turned my xbox off.

I am so, so, SO indescribably jealous of y'all who got to see Ozzy in his prime. (And with Randy Rhoads too! UGH) He's coming my way sometime later this year, and you better believe I'm going, but I know it will only be a shadow of what he once was.

My favorite concert experience to date was the first time I ever saw my favorite band, Rush, live; it was their Vapor Trails tour. Even though now I know it wasn't their best tour, at the time it was absolutely magical. I thought I'd missed my chance to see them forever, and I cried through half the set, I was so happy to be there.

My second favorite concert experience would have to be Bon Jovi. There were pyrotechnics and lasers and stage-jumping, and at several points Jon Bon Jovi literally humped his way across the stage. Love or hate their music, those guys really knew how to put on a show.

Saw Nine Inch Nails during the Downward Spiral tour at a very small venue in LA. I was literally in front of the statge. The entire venue was the size of a bar. David Bowie came out and did a song with them. At the end of the show we heard of a secret show in an hour by KMFDM and got an invite. It was also a small venue. We were tired and sore from the NIN show but couldn't pass up a secret show. It was great.

Another secret show (the joys of living in LA and being somewhat connected) was Marilyn Manson, this was when Mob Scene was fairly new. It was on a rooftop parking garage across the street from the Mann Chinese theater and being filmed for air on Jimmy Kimmel. He only did a couple songs but it was a pretty great time.

[quote="obirano"]

CptDomano wrote:
obirano wrote:

Are we doing this? In that case, I absolutely loathe Pearl Jam. I do not understand in the least why people like them, much less love them.

We are no longer friends. It was a good time while it lasted though.

KaterinLHC wrote:

My favorite concert experience to date was the first time I ever saw my favorite band, Rush...

Wow, I didn't think I'd find a new best friend that quickly!

I was going to try to go see them during the latest R40 tour, but man those tickets were just too expensive. Also, I'd hate to have gone and then have the glass shattered when I realized that they might not have the same "oomph" they did 40 years ago

Nine Inch Nails, Paredes de Coura (music festival), circa 2009.
So much dust was lifted that I was blowing it to tissue paper all night long.
Had a nice surprise, before NIN, with Blood Red Shoes. A couple of brits which I ended up seeing again twice in England. They're awesome.

Muse again in 2009 on their tour, Prodigy the next year also in Paredes de Coura and Tenacious D in the Download festival were great ones too.

I have to mention Skrillex in the Leeds O2 Academy. I only like maybe 2-3 songs from him, but watching him live was an experience I won't forget anytime soon. The crowd was insane.
I would probably have the same experience with Nero, but that time I was in the upper balcony just watching the chaos down below.

CptDomano wrote:
KaterinLHC wrote:

My favorite concert experience to date was the first time I ever saw my favorite band, Rush...

Wow, I didn't think I'd find a new best friend that quickly!

I was going to try to go see them during the latest R40 tour, but man those tickets were just too expensive. Also, I'd hate to have gone and then have the glass shattered when I realized that they might not have the same "oomph" they did 40 years ago

I hate to say it, considering you didn't go, but... the R40 tickets were totally worth it. I saw them in Chicago and it was hands-down the best Rush concert I'd ever been to. Not my favorite, of course, but quality-wise, definitely the best. It almost made up for me missing the Clockwork Angels tour. Almost.

Anybody else see Maiden live? They put on a fantastic show too. Plus, there's never any line for the women's bathrooms.