Best Concerts you've attended?

Devo, 1983, Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ

January 2002 at the Crocodile Rock Café in Allentown, PA:

Sworn Enemy

Poison the Well

Hatebreed

2003ish Doug Martsch (of Built To Spill) at the North Star Bar in Philly. Mike Johnson played a great opening set.

Maybe 2004/5? Earlimart at the Five Spot in Philly. Silversun Pickups opened for them.

Rush on the Moving Pictures tour. My first concert ever. Maybe 1980?

Black Flag/Gone/Painted Willie on their last tour in Fayetteville, AR.

NIN sometime in the late 1980s opening for Jesus and Mary Chain.

.Trump2020OP-the real one......... wrote:

D. Boon died before I saw the Minutemen live. Saw Firehose a few times, but not the same. Would have like to have seen Sue Tissue before she went underground. The Golden Bear and Safari Sams are long gone.

T.M.A.D.D.D.H.A.S.F.N.E.

I saw R.E.M. with the Minutemen on Dec. 2, 1985 in Raleigh, NC, 20 days before D. Boon died. Great show. I wish I'd been more familiar with the Minutemen when I saw them so I could have appreciated them more at the time.

Saw Tricky open up for PJ Harvey in maybe 1993 - excellent show. Maybe 1991 or 92 saw Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins (remember really loving their debut album Gish at the time) open for Red Hot Chili Peppers. Other great live shows from the early 90s included fishbone, Jane's Addiction, fugazi.

Alice Cooper -opened for Motley Crew a few years ago. Ran through every hit song in 45 minutes. No wasted time like a lot of bands.

The Zombies - years ago at the Ohio State Fair. Colin Blunstone's voice was incredible.

I actually saw Zappa twice, the first time at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in 1969. This was a time when you could walk around and hang with the musicians, so I was able to spend time with JImmy Carl Black ("I'm the Indian of the Group") and spend a minute with Zappa.

The second time was before he suffered that injury in England. Cobo Hall was also amuch larger venue than the Grande.

And yes, I followed Johnny Mac into Mahavishnu, whom I saw three times- I've McLaughlin 7 separate times in my life with various bands and musicians- Tony Williams Lifetime, Mahavishnu, Shakti, Free Spirits, and duet with Chick Corea.

greenliner wrote:

Blue Cheer, MC5, Psychedelic Stooges- Grande Ballroom, Detroit, 1968. Loudest show I ever attended.

Jimi Hendrix Experience, Soft Machine, MC5- Masonic Auditorium, Detroit, 1968

Mahavishnu Orchestra and Mothers of Invention- Cobo Hall, Detroit, 1972

Magma- 3 separate shows of the greatest band no one has ever heard, all in Chicago, 1999, 2015, 2016

Sun Ra Arkestra- The Stables Bar, E. Lansing, MI 1975

Tony Williams Lifetime, Birmingham Palladium, Birmingham MI, 1971, with this short-haired guitarist I had never heard of, John McLaughlin.

Would be surprised if you also didn't catch Cream or the Jeff Beck Group at the Grande.

Some of my favorites:

Yehudi Menuhin w/the DSO (can't remember the date but late 70s)

Weather Report (again can't remember the date early-mid 80s in Detroit)

Larry Coryell & Jean Luc Ponty at Western Mich. Univ. late 1970s (still have the t shirt from that show!)

Bauhaus (early 1980s in Detroit)

Stanley Jordan at Ole Miss in the late 80's (first time I ever saw someone playing two guitars at once)

The Residents w/Snakefinger (early-mid 80s; can't remember if it was in Detroit or Ann Arbor)

But the best was King Crimson at Pine Knob, MI.

This was their Discipline-era lineup: Bruford, Belew, Levin, & Fripp. Sound was great for an outdoor show, the band was tight, and Belew had complete mastery of his guitar, effects, and feedback.

Been to over 60 shows, none of them bad, but some of the more memorable ones...

Pearl Jam in Philly in 2016. They played 3 hours and the first hour was Ten front to back. Life changing experience for me.

Iron Maiden last summer was awesome, band completely on top of their game, Bruce Dickinson with a flamethrower while singing Flight of Icarus, I'd put that one second

Springsteen played for nearly 4 hours when I saw him a few years ago and was incredible.

Saw Black Sabbath 4 times before they retired, Ozzy for all of the jokes about his muttering still commands an audience better than anybody.

Probably the most surprisingly good band I ever saw was the Scorpions, went in there not knowing what to expect and they killed it.

I missed them both. I did get to see Blind Faith at the hockey arena, though. Friend and Lover opened for them. Saw Weather Report a few times, the first of which was at Michigan State in a small venue on campus. The Residents and Snakefinger (Phil Lithman, RIP) show was in Ann Arbor.

Best - Grateful Dead, Boston Garden 5/7/77

Most fun - Grateful Dead, Colgate 11/4/77

Most famous - Grateful Dead, Cornell 5/8/77

Pat Metheny - any one of about 5 shows in Ann Arbor

Vince Gill - Clio, MI, small amphitheater

Rhiannon Giddens - Ann Arbor

Honorable mention:

My Morning Jacket - Auburn Hills

Kings of Leon - Clarkston

Gary Clark, Jr. - Detroit

Cornell 5/8/77 - was that Slope Day?

Ah, man, you were at Cornell? Supposedly their best show ever. I have the 3-disc version that was released and love it.

Cro-Mags, 1989 @ the Living Room in Providence RI

I was fortunate enough to attend The Beatles in concert, at City Park Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana in September of 1964.

I was just a kid at the time - 8 years old. The concert was on a school night -a Wednesday, if I remember correctly - so My Mom actually pulled me and my older sister out of school for the entire day so we could be at the stadium when they first opened it up at 1 pm. Most parents hated those long haired musicians with their wild, unruly music. But my mom loved The Beatles, enough that she paid The (at that time outrageously high) sum of $6 per ticket for us to be able to attend that historic concert.

The show didn't start till 8 pm, but there were huge crowds rushing into the stadium when security guards opened the place up at 1pm. People were already yelling and acting crazy, and (as I was only 8) I was so much smaller than most of the rest of the folks there. There was a stampede to get into the place. Stupid teenagers pushing and yelling. I really feared I would be crushed to death when the large mob of mostly hysterical teenagers rushed through the stadium gates.

But I survived that and my family made our way to our assigned seats to await the beginning of the concert.

I felt sorry for the opening act. It was Jackie deShannon, herself an A-list soft rock musician. She probably have a great performance, but you couldn't hear her for all the yelling.

Even when The Beatles themselves finally took the stage, the yelling continued.

I was only 8 years old, but even I realized how stupid all that yelling was. I mean, you pay $6 a ticket (about the equivalent of 100 bux a ticket today) and then wait long hours on wooden stadium benches that did not even have a back on them and you do this for what reason - so you could yell your fool head off instead of listen to the musicians that you paid so much to hear perform?

I strained to hear the music, but it was not until about the third song they performed, before I could finally hear them play over all that yelling. The first song I was finally able to hear was Things We Said Today, off of their album entitled Something New. That song is still special to me, even today.

Before the concert was over, a large group of teenagers - females mostly - broke through the police barriers and ran out into the field. New Orleans police had a difficult time rounding all those unruly girls up and protecting John, Paul, George and Ringo through their final songs. My older sister wanted to join them, but my Mom refused to let her.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, that is for sure.

Colleen, you win! :-)