Best/Worst concerts

[DeaverTex]

Best I paid to go see: Moody Blues. This was 1974, in Houston. They played every single one of my favorites, including some that were years old.

Best I didn't pay to go see: Three Dog Night. This was 1992 or 1993, at the AWHON conference in Reno, Nevada. The hour concert lasted for not quite two hours, and they stopped because the hotel told them they had to playing. I first saw them in 1968, when they were a warm-up band for Vanilla Fudge. Wow! The next day, it was hilarious seeing all the old 1960's era fogies (like me) who could barely move because they spent the evening dancing on chairs and tables.

Worst I paid to go see: Iron Butterfly, along with the James Cotton Blues Band and The Nazz. I think this was in 1969. The Butterfly was the headliner band, and when they came on stage, the organ wouldn't work. For most of the concert, the lead and base player just jammed. When they finally got things working, they introduced their new sound -- blues. OMG, it was horrible.

Worst I didn't pay to go see: Donovan (Donovan Leach). This was 1968, I think. He spent most of the concert sitting cross-legged on stage, playing and singing to himself so that nobody else could hear. Then I got thrown out of the concert hall by security. I was a volunteer worker, and hearing the concert was supposed to be my pay. Security said that I needed to stay at my station, which was INSIDE a men's restroom, watching a window to make certain nobody broke in. Yeah, right.

[low-key]

Originally Posted by Sabeking

That is awesome . I often wondered why he was not more popular. I loved his music. Funny I have no idea how my brother came across his music living in NC but I remember we had our own little cult following in high school! His sound reminded me a little of Bruce or George Thurogood.

funny you should say that, hime and Bruce are friends and often back in the 80,s while SouthSide was giving a concert, Bruce would show uo and sing with him

[GraysMom]

Best:
-Styx
-Shaw/Blades
-Billy Joel/Elton John

Worst:
-Jimmy Buffett, but only because the crowd on the lawn was so drunk and unruly that we couldn't enjoy the show. In fact we ended up in the ER because a group of drunks knocked DMIL down and she hit her head on the ground.
-Ted Nugent-opened for Styx and he spent the whole time spewing obscenities and political/gun crap.

[Pakey]

Best: Queen 1975

Worst: Willie Nelson 1980

[Sabeking]

Originally Posted by low-key

funny you should say that, hime and Bruce are friends and often back in the 80,s while SouthSide was giving a concert, Bruce would show uo and sing with him

Can you imagine seeing them together. Wow!

[Sabeking]

Originally Posted by Pakey

Best: Queen 1975

Worst: Willie Nelson 1980

I actually read somewhere a few years ago that Willie Nelson was voted one of the worst to see in concert. Why did you not like it?

[Pakey]

Originally Posted by Sabeking

I actually read somewhere a few years ago that Willie Nelson was voted one of the worst to see in concert. Why did you not like it?

1. I hate country music; my husband's boss invited us.

2. Mr. Nelson was very intoxicated, rude to the audience and put on a poor performance.

[sasywtch]

Originally Posted by GraysMom

So jealous you've seen Barry Manilow live so many times!

There's a few on these boards that have me far out beat. Cookie is one if she reads the community board. (I'm guessing she has been to more than I have from years ago).

He use to come to Lake Tahoe alot and the bay area so it was an easy commute for me.

[RadioNate]

Originally Posted by HelenePA

Best- Garth Brooks one word... AMAZING!
other awesome people were - Sawyer Brown, Tim McGraw, David Nail (his voice is SOOOOOOo awesome!) Darius Rucker (hootie). I've been to a LOT of concerts... a LOT.

not so good? Bruce Springsteen.. dont hate me but I saw him in 2000 (2nd row) when he put out his box set of songs that never made an album.. I knew ONE song the whole night - If I should fall behind. He did none of his hits.. I had fun but honestly I could have sat that one out.

Concerts are my thing. Love them, I've seen pretty much everyone.

I saw that Springsteen tour. It was awful! Just bad. People were mad leaving the arena.

I've seen people be amazing & then be terrible & vice versa.

If we are talking big venue arena acts the most consistent great act I've ever seen is Paul McCartney.

Everyone else great, I've also seen be good, not great. Green Day, James Taylor, Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Zac Brown Band, Neil Diamond, all the big "hair metal" bands, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker (but Hootie is surprisingly consistently good,) a hundred TXcountry/Red Dirt acts, Justin Timberlake, Prince, Madonna, U2, Eagles, Rod Stewart, Clapton.

The hands-down worst was Destiny's Child. Horrific. Terrible. I was embarrassed for them.

I saw Cheryl Crow once & she was awful however she redeemed herself a few years later.

I've seen too many terrible opening acts. Fury in the Slaughterhouse, Andrew WK, Soup Dragons, some so bad I can't even remember who they were.

My current amazing small (under 1000 seat venue) act is Will Hoge.

[JVL1018]

Originally Posted by HelenePA

Best- Garth Brooks one word... AMAZING!
other awesome people were - Sawyer Brown, Tim McGraw, David Nail (his voice is SOOOOOOo awesome!) Darius Rucker (hootie). I've been to a LOT of concerts... a LOT.

not so good? Bruce Springsteen.. dont hate me but I saw him in 2000 (2nd row) when he put out his box set of songs that never made an album.. I knew ONE song the whole night - If I should fall behind. He did none of his hits.. I had fun but honestly I could have sat that one out.

Interesting-I was going to say Bruce-I saw him twice in the summer of 1999, and thought he was great! Same tour as 2000, but when I saw him in NJ definitely played a lot of great, known songs. I specifically remember Badlands, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Thunder Road, Bobby Jean, Spirit in the Night etc.

I loved his Born on the USA tour(my first concert in 1985). His Tunnel of Love without the E Street band was meh.

I've seen him 9 times and I've loved every one(besides the aforementioned ToL days).
I skipped his concerts when he was all Tom Joad Springsteen. Not my cup of tea.

My favorite concert ever was Springsteen 7/31/2008 at Giants Stadium.
My other top concerts were Bon Jovi in 1989 and Motley Crue around the same time frame-they were SO good.

Faith Hill/Tim Mcgraw were good too.

My worst concert was Kiss at Nassau Coliseum back around 1995ish. They sounded horrendously bad. My husband, who is a huge Kiss fan and has seen them numerous times, swore it was the acoustics in the place. Mmhmm, sure.
We saw them again this summer with Motley Crue at the PNC Arts Center..and they did sound a million times better, so maybe it was Nassau Coliseum.

One that I thought would be fantastic and was just okay was Billy Joel/Elton John.
Guns n Roses was really good..once they finally took the stage like 2 hours late. @@

[Scornelius]

Amazing: Great Big Sea, Peter Gabriel, Rise Against, Melissa Etheridge.

Awful: Tori Amos. She seemed to be in a cranky mood and the sound was so bad that those of us in the nosebleed section couldn't tell which song she was playing until the audience up front started singing along.

[It'sWDW4me]

Best
Tom Petty - so energetic and he REALLY got the crowd involved. This was back in the late 80's and it's still my "wow- that was a great concert" memory.
Billy Joel - I just have always loved him. It was doubly great that I won two tickets to see him in Philly. It was triply great in that I won the tickets literally days after I told my lying, cheating, a-- of a now-ex that he would be my ex! I took his sister to the concert with me. She and her now-ex had just separated too. We had a BLAST.

Worst
Alan Jackson - sickeningly horrible. I kept thinking "ok, it's gonna get better any minute now. Aaaaannnnnnyyyyy. minute. now." For the price of the tickets I could have bought 3 of his cds, listened to them at home alone in my living room and had a much better time. He just stood in the middle of the stage, strummed his guitar, sang his song, then spread his arms out and soaked up the applause. Rinse and repeat. Seriously. That's ALL he did all. night. long. You now couldn't pay me to see him again.

[Nancy]

Best: George Strait when he did his big tours. I got to see Lee Ann Womack, Mark Chestnutt, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and of course George himself. Best money I ever spent on a show.

runners up. Styx, Journey (Steve Perry days), Huey Louis and the News, Bob Seger, Neil Young, Heart and Genesis.

Honorable mention: Vince Gill, Lorrie Morgan, Yes and America

Worst? Cheap Trick (still can't believe I wasted that money).

[shortbun]

Best-Bowie, Stones(a few times),Boz Scaggs/Fleetwood Mac/Eagles, Sting, Boz Scaggs/michael McDonald/Donald Fagen,Elton John at Dodger Stadium, James Taylor, Bowie, Steve Miller,Grateful Dead, 3 day concert on a farm near my hometown-too many groups to mention all-Doobie Bros/Allman Bros/Clapton...

Hoping the 2 day Mumford and Sons stopover in Troy, Ohio over Labor Day will be added to my all time favs=so far, two headline nights and 7 other bands. mmmmmmmm! I'm old but I'm not dead.

How could I leave out Led Zepplin?

[HelenePA]

Originally Posted by JVL1018

Interesting-I was going to say Bruce-I saw him twice in the summer of 1999, and thought he was great! Same tour as 2000, but when I saw him in NJ definitely played a lot of great, known songs. I specifically remember Badlands, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Thunder Road, Bobby Jean, Spirit in the Night etc.

Nope he did none of those songs! I saw him at the Bryce Jordan Center up at State College. The only "cool" thing I can say about that show was we had nose bleed seats. Me and my 2 friends got there pretty early, a guy was walking around and asked if this was where we were sitting for the show. We said yes.. he said.. Well if you give me your tix I'll give you 2nd row tix.. my friend who is a HUGE Bruce fan didnt think he was serious at first.. We actually had to talk her into it! lol But we wound up 2nd row for that show. For the encore we were allowed to stand at the stage, she touched his boot.. I have never seen someone so happy before over touching a shoe!

There was ONE more show that was awful but its been so many years I had forgotten his name.. Sammy Kershaw, Aaron Tippin opened for him who was really good but Sammy? Honest to god it was so bad and to top it off he looked like a drowned rat.. not nice I know.