• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Best as well as most disappointing live show...?

JonL said:
Speaking of mismatched bills, in the mid '70s I saw Hot Tuna with Journey as the opening act. Journey was just getting started on the national scene. Hot Tuna fans at the time were not particularly receptive to anything at all except Hot Tuna. Journey didn't stand a chance. They were booed from the moment they took the stage until they gave up three songs later. As they cursed the audience and left the stage they finally got a huge cheer and ovation. It wasn't so much that Journey sucked, it was that the audience didn't want ANY opening act... they just wanted their Hot Effin Tuna.
Click to expand...

I don't know who was responsible for booking opening acts for Hot Tuna, but what an idiot...good friends of mine (still) opened for them, and were chased offstage by the Tuna idiots, there in the NYC area, matter of fact..ended up disbanding after that show, was the final straw..was the amazing prog group, Happy the Man
 
They should have never booked any opening acts for Tuna. The crowd sure didn't want one, and in those days a Tuna show could easily last 5 or 6 hours so there was no need to fill time. I went to a lot of Tuna shows in the '70s. I was raised a little better than to boo the opening act, and I felt badly for Journey even though I didn't like them and just wanted to see Jorma, Jack, and Bob.
 
some genius had Loverboy opening for ZZ Top at Nassau Coliseum back around 1980. I told my friends these guys are going to get savaged. So we tailgated an extra half hour or so and walked in just in time to see Loverboy get boo'd off the stage. Then ZZ threw a really good show (of course)
 
Went to IL. state fair to see George Thorogood early 90s.Mainly listened to rock radio stuff at that time. Opening band was Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials.Blew George away! Went to look for some of their music after & seems they were listed under blues.Hmm something new.Opened a whole new avenue of listening for me & wife-a lot of what I listen to now is blues-blues rock.Many other memorables- Twisted Sister 1984 at Carmel Ice Skadium in Indy less than 600 people standing room only-Walter Trout playing a double set at small festival at Conyers,Ga. RL Burnside at Memphis in May shortly before his passing...many more..
Worst sometime in 80s Spfld,IL...Aerosmith. Tyler was drunk & f**ked up.Slurred into about 2nd song & got into a fight with one of the other guys.Knocked over a speaker & fell off the stage.Got a Best of lp instead of a refund. I never opened mine,gave it away.
 
Worst:

Led Zeppelin. Chicago. April 9, 1977. By a landslide. The Stadium show at which Pagey passed out from, um, "food poisoning". A confused mess of a night from the outset, LZ managed to play a mere six numbers into their set before Sir James faded away in the middle of "Ten Years Gone". I also saw LZ's April 10 performance, which more than made up for the disappointment of the previous evening.
 
Best No. 1: Weather Report at the Taft Theater in Cincinnati, OH (pre-Jaco with Alfonzo Johnson on bass). They played music from Mysterious Traveller and Tale Spinnin', their latest albums and it was as close to a perfect performance as anyone could imagine.

Best No. 2: Original Mahavishnu Orchestra at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH around February, 1973? The original headliner was the Allman Bros. but started way late because Gregg was "sick" and they cancelled. The group Spirit opened the show and Mahavishnu ended it. My brother and I left in the middle of Billy Cobham's "One Word" solo because we had to meet our Dad who was driving us home. Had no clue who they were and thought they were extremely weird (and really, really loud). Remember we went there to see the Allmans. Didn't become a fan 'til a few years later. First real concert I ever attended.

Worst: Weather Report in a place called Cincinnati Renaissance which was a converted parking garage with terrible acoustics and sound system. Shorter and Zawinul were really pissed all night and the group's playing showed it. Uncomfortable to watch such a great group suffer under those conditions. Again pre-Jaco
 
Last edited:
My favorite concerts are very similar to AK'r Elberon.

No. 1. The Mahavishnu Orchestra 1973. They just came out with Birds of Fire, played the entire LP and most of Inner Mounting Flame at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

No. 2. King Crimson 1973. They just came out with Lark's Tongues in Aspic. One heck of a performance at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.


No. 3. Double bill with Return To Forever (Corea, Clarke, DiMeola, White) and Weather Report (Zawinal, Shorter, Pastorius, Acuna, Narada) at the Arie Crown Theatre in Chicago.


I had no real bad shows. I was very selective and focused on Progressive Jazz. Had I went to more rock shows that would have changed.
 
Best:
Donnie Iris on the gateway clipper in Pittsburgh x5 :yes:
Judas Priest this past summer with whitesnake opening.
311 was fantastic all 3 times I've seen them.
Heaven and Hell with Megadeth was great.

Worst:
Megadeth Gigantour 2008 Towercity Cleveland OH. They are my favorite band and the music was great but there was technical difficulties with equipment all night. During the first 5 songs you could barely hear vocals of any kind.
 
I've seen some good live music over the years (Joe Jackson, original Dixie Dregs, Donald Fagen, Squeeze, Allman Bro's at the Beacon...) but the best live SHOW I've seen to date wasn't music, it was Rodney Dangerfield at the Westbury Music Fair...he absolutely killed the place.
 
Best: Hard to decide between AC/DC (2008), The Who (1983), B.B. King (2007)

Disappointing: Blue Oyster Cult at the Pima county fair in 2005 (?), I walked in near the end of the show and thought it was a bad cover band until I realized it was them.
 
Mo Green said:
some genius had Loverboy opening for ZZ Top at Nassau Coliseum back around 1980. I told my friends these guys are going to get savaged. So we tailgated an extra half hour or so and walked in just in time to see Loverboy get boo'd off the stage. Then ZZ threw a really good show (of course)
Click to expand...

I saw the clash get booed off stage. They (and Eddie Money) were the opening act for The Who. The crowd like Eddie Money but hated the Clash. There were about 6 guys in camo with a “Combat Rock” banner about 6-7 rows in front of us and people were chucking beers at them. While performing the song “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” a lot of the crowd shouted “GO!”.

MTV.com quote: “During the fall of 1982, the Clash opened for the Who on their farewell tour. Though the tour helped Combat Rock scale the U.S. charts, the Clash were routinely booed off the stage on every date of the tour.”
 
Another good: PF on the DSOTM tour

Another bad: Joe Cocker, mid 70's. He was drunk and drinking. We sat close to the stage, but way left. Watched him puke behind a stack of speakers during a song. really bad show. Lots of boos (and booze)
 
Best: The Who, July 2, 1980, Dallas, TX

Worst: Van Halen, summer of 1980, I want my eight dollars back!
 
Best: Sigur Ros. Those guys are incredible, the string and horn sections were there as well. Only concert other than orchestral I've been to where when a song started, everyone went dead quiet.

Worst: Pantera, off their final album. Phil had clearly been drinking, and came off like a total asshole.

Most disappointing: Metallica in the early nineties; Suicidal Tendencies, Alice in Chains, and Metallica would've been a serious line-up at the time. Heroin interceded and I ended up with Candlebox instead of AIC. They should have prorated the ticket price!
 
Best: Spyro Gyra Spokane Opera House around 1987... the musicianship and sound quality were beyond words, it sounded amazing and I doubt anyone will ever hear anything that good.

Worst: I'll have tho think about that one... :scratch2:
 
leonsteiner said:
Best: Sigur Ros. Those guys are incredible, the string and horn sections were there as well. Only concert other than orchestral I've been to where when a song started, everyone went dead quiet.

Worst: Pantera, off their final album. Phil had clearly been drinking, and came off like a total asshole.

Most disappointing: Metallica in the early nineties; Suicidal Tendencies, Alice in Chains, and Metallica would've been a serious line-up at the time. Heroin interceded and I ended up with Candlebox instead of AIC. They should have prorated the ticket price!
Click to expand...
the song is hey Satan , huge gaps of silence between pump organ groans , it's so silent you can hear the floor creek , I have seen them 4 times now , not one time was there a single buffoon try and clap or yell or otherwise , it's a trip. When you saw them did they play behind a white see thru curtain ?
 
Most of them have all been "best", but among them here are the most memorable:

Albert King at the Cabooze (Minneapolis) about 1982 - first time I witnessed someone totally connected with the audience and fully immersed in his making music. The big guy totally blew it out and I was 5 feet in front of him.

Kasey Chambers, 400 Bar (Minneapolis) probably about 2002 - Stunning performer in a tiny intimate space, who doesn't love her story?

Golden Smog, Basillica Block Party about 1997 - Kind of an underground supergroup formed by Minneapolis natives from bands including the Replacements, the Jayhawks, Wilco, Run Westy Run, etc. Those guys just loved performing and it showed.

Lucinda Williams, MN Zoo about 2004 or 5 - The bus pulled in about 5 minutes before the show with the Avett Brothers opening. Apparently they just spent a hot 8 hours on the road with no AC. Lucinda said screw the set list, and growled her way through requests and spur of the moment blues jams for the next 2.5 hours.

Patti Smith, State Theater Minneapolis 2009 - I always enjoyed her music, this tour promoted her comeback album "Twelve" and she nailed the performance... on of those ultra cool hippie chicks and I just loved the show.

The Bad Plus, Lakeville Community Center 2009, Great small theater, and a very engaging show. Can't wait to see them again at the Dakota Saturday night!

The only disappointment I can recall was also Lucinda Williams about 2007 at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. I've seen her 6 or 8 times as she's seems to call Minneapolis her second home but this show stunk. She was obviously disinterested, and hung on her music stand which obviously had her lyrics (of her own songs, wtf?) and still got lost and forgot her place or her words on at least two occasions. So that was my last LW show.
 
Best shows: too many to mention.

The absolute worst show was when Smashing Pumpkins came to Ole Miss in the mid '90s
The first thing the lead singer did was put down the town of Oxford MS and the second thing he did that really nailed it was put down Ole Miss. The lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins did not know about the Ole Miss Student body's uncanny reputation to hurl a whiskey bottle with laser guided precision. Ole Miss Students can hit what they aim at. Smashing Pumpkins were pelted off the stage 15 minutes after they took the stage. THAT was the best part of the whole show.

Harry:D:D
 
Art K. said:
Best - Too many great concerts to choose one. Mostly jazz and classical.

Worst - Probably the Destroyers/Starz/Uriah Heep concert I attended in the 70's in Rockford. Starz (believe it or not) actually put on a respectable show considering how bad they were. The Destroyers were horrible. Uriah Heep had to dodge bottles as the crowd grew restless...and Rockford crowds at the old armory we not to be messed with!
Click to expand...

I thought I was the only person that had the misfortune of seeing the Destroyers, they were with KISS in the 70's, me and my friend laughed for years about how bad they were. We did see Alice Cooper and Rainbow the same year that made up for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom