Best and worst rock concerts you've attended

[harmony5219]

Worst: Sly and the Family Stone. Sly arrived about an hour late, was high and drunk, probably threw up a few times, slurred his words, off key, and only played about 45 minutes. Bob Dylan: 2001 or thereabouts. Voice was shot, he couldn't articulate or enunciate clearly, never acknowledged the audience or his band. One hour performance as the headliner. Blue Cheer: 115 decibels of cacophony. Had tinnitus for 3 days. Van Morrison: narcoleptic concert.
Best: Clapton many times. Santana before the late 1990's. After that, not so good in concert. Steely Dan, especially when Larry Carlton did guest appearances with them. McCartney always delivered for me. Clapton and Winwood were superb. Heart, The Who, Michael Jackson, Todd Rundgren, The Beach Boys, Loggins and Messina, and Traffic's Reunion concert were 2-3 hours of really good stuff.

[Mike Schwartz]

I don't know, I find it hard to believe that many of those listed could really deliver "2-3 hours of really good stuff"

To me that much of it would be

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Worst: Sly and the Family Stone. Sly arrived about an hour late, was high and drunk, probably threw up a few times, slurred his words, off key, and only played about 45 minutes.

Sounds exactly like the concert I was at circa 1970 at the Cumberland County Auditorium in North Carolina. Asshole kept looking at his watch while he was banging on the organ.

[moldyfigg]

We've seen BB King when he was just going through the motions without any feeling. Other times, he has created fireworks.

[stonemonkts]

Attending rock concerts was a hobby of mine for at least 15 years, between 1973 and the late 80s. My favorites were the ones that surprised me, exceeding expectations.

I would say the first time I saw Bruce Springsteen, which was in a movie theater in 1975? was one of the best shows. That band was really tight and their sound was so sensational and fresh at the time. This was just before the release of Born to Run.

Procal Harum was amazing...never expected the lead singer to have such a powerful voice. Around 1975 again, I think.

The Kinks, performing the Village Green Preservation society double album, followed by a non-stop string of recent and old hits (stuff from early on, and also stuff from the great Lola vs. album). They were extremely entertaining, especially Ray Davies. But the band were good as a whole. Loved his brother's vocal accompaniments. This had to be 1973.

I'll have to think about the worst...I already know what it was, but it had to do as much with the venue, and crowd, as the music.

I went to an all day and all night fucking extravaganza at the Englishtown Raceway, which featured (ugh this lineup) the Marshall Tucker band, Blue Oyster Cult, the Grateful fucking Dead, and finally, and stupendously, the Allman Brothers. The first 11 hours of that awful horrible clammy sweaty steamy smelly day was like a scene out of Il Inferno...but then, just as the night air was getting cool, The Allman Brothers played for about an hour and they were fantastic. Not sure if they saved the day (aspects of that clusterfuck left a few psychic scars), but I was forever grateful to them for at least coming through just when I thought I wouldn't make it out of there with my sanity intact. I think this was 1977/78.

[john williams]

The best:

Radiohead
Sigur Ros
Died Pretty
Wilco
Lou Reed
John Cale
Bjork
Dirty Three

Worst:
Dylan

[BeBop]

Led Zeppelin, Oakland, 1977 (best and worst)

The concerts I've worked on backstage - all in Las Vegas - were memorable, but not good or bad per se. U2, Rolling Stones, Elton John.], Madonna (and one I'm forgetting )

[harmony5219]

I don't know, I find it hard to believe that many of those listed could really deliver "2-3 hours of really good stuff"

To me that much of it would be

As Sly said, "different strokes for different folks."

[Jazzooo]

Best would have to be Poco, with opening act of Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer, with a close second being any of the four times I saw Lee Michaels and Frosty play the identical but always perfect show.

I'd say that the worst was Blue Cheer, but I still love telling the story of their volume. Just white noise from beginning to end, and I had been a fan of their records.

[Fred K]

Best

Violent Femmes w/opening act Alex Chilton at a VFW hall in Baton Rouge, LA in 1985. (This was a big VFW hall with low ceilings. No one seemed to know who Alex Chilton was and he was booed throughout his set. He didn't care. The Violent Femmes were great and the the crowd was crazy)

David Bowie "Glass Spider Tour" at the N. O. Superdome in 1987 (This was the first of my two times seeing Bowie live. It was a huge spectacle of a show)

(I lived in Louisiana until 1989, mostly in north Louisiana. I saw some great shows in Baton Rouge and New Orleans from 1985 to 1989, especially at Tipitina's -- The Ramones, Joe Ely, Marshall Crenshaw, The Bears (w/Adrian Belew) and Wilco come to mind.

Lou Reed at The 9:30 Club in 1998 (Lou came on stage and was pretty surly, but the crowd was so into the show that Lou warmed up and delivered a great show)

Bryan Ferry at The 9:30 Club in 1999 (Big stage show and backing band in relatively small club for Ferry)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at The 9:30 Club (DC) in 2002 (I've seen Nick Cave several times since, and he is always a great live performer. This was the first time I saw him and the only time with both Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey in the band.)

PJ Harvey at The 9:30 Club in 2004 (I wish I had seen her earlier, this is my only time seeing her live, but a great show nonetheless.)

Lou Reed plays "Berlin" at St. Ann's Warehouse (Brooklyn) in 2006 (Lou Reed again, a real event -- one of three nights performing the Berlin album)

(I've seen a lot a great live music in DC over the last 20 years or so and some acts are so consistently good I can't single out a specific performance -- Richard Thompson, Los Lobos, John Doe, Elvis Costello, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Aimee Mann)

Worst Shows

Aerosmith in Shreveport, LA in 1978 (No Joe Perry at the time, Steven Tyler had a drug problem, it was way too loud, and the album they were touring behind sucked more than usual for an Aerosmith record. Memorably bad)

Paul Westerburg at The 9:30 Club around 2007 (or so)(Westerburg was so drunk that he couldn't finish a song. I left after 30 minutes. If I were 18 again, I would have probably thought it was hilarious. I wasn't and it wasn't)

Neko Case at The Black Cat in 2011 (This show may have been a couple of years earlier. I've seen Neko several times and it's usually a great show, but at this Black Cat show she couldn't get enough of her guitar in the monitor for the entire set. She stopped a couple of songs and complained between every song. I wanted to yell out that they could turn off her guitar completely and no one would care. A disappointing show from someone I like a lot)

She & Him at The Montreal Jazz Festival in 2013 (I'm an M. Ward fan, but Zooey Deschanel is barely a passable singer and is an even worse live performer. The rest of the crowd didn't seem to mind, but I left before the show was over)

[steve(thelil)]

I'd say that the worst was Blue Cheer, but I still love telling the story of their volume. Just white noise from beginning to end, and I had been a fan of their records.

Funny, this brings to mind Trapeze, who seemed to be an imitation Blue Cheer. The show was similar to the Blue Cheer show that Jazzoo described.. I don't remember who they opened for, but it was in a classy hall. At an age where I would have been expected to dig a power trio in thigh high boots and hair down to their waists, I instead was knocked out by how lame they were.

[Gentle Giant]

Sometimes bands are better left in the studio.

The Cars, for example.

[stonemonkts]

Kind of a fun sub-topic: bands that were even better live than in the studio.

Springsteen '73-78

Lou Reed specifically the Rock n' Roll Animal band

Procol Harem

Mott the Hoople (laugh all you want, but live they kicked ass)

I'll think of more later.

[Jazzooo]

"Definitely not an easy sound to replicate outside of the studio environment."


Something like the Cars? Super easy, actually--just no fun to watch as it doesn't involve more than one human being.

[Pete C]

A couple of bad ones at Fillmore East. Van Morrison mumbling and staring at his shoes for the whole show. Mayall delivering such a bad set that he apologized to the audience: "I know we were fucking awful..." But I remember the Elton John/Leon Russell double bill being memorable.

[harmony5219]

Harry Chapin was positively soporific.. two hours of fingerpicking, words, words, words, and more words.

Ringo Starr and his all star band: pretty pretty pretty good.

Jeff Beck: excellent stuff and his young bassist Ms. Tal Wilkenfeld was pretty pretty pretty easy on the eyes.

Leslie "The Great Fatsby" West: can still walk the walk on the fretboard.

Earth Wind and Fire: delivered the goods.