The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

Thought it might be fun to have a thread for shows that you've seen or will be seeing.

What is (are) the best show(s) that you saw? First show? Most unique or unusual? What's the one that you like to tell people about so you can appear to be impressive?

Any embarrassing shows?

This is not to be confused with the Music thread. Apologies if there is a thread already, but I couldn't find it.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

KISS in 1979. I was 11. They were still in makeup and still had the original lineup. Judas Priest was the opening act.

[Gurtholfin]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

My impressive show, or one that few others would have been at was Jane's Addiction at First Ave. in 91 or so. This was on the Ritual de lo Habitual club tour before Lalapalooza came to be. This is the tour where Perry was smacking it up to the point that a performance or two was less than a half-hour and their tour bus got turned over in some city after a short performance.

The First Ave show was about an hour and was a spectacle to say the least. The stage was full of flowers, candles and voodoo stuff. Perry was using every prop possible as a phallic symbol, Navarro was tearing it up, Eric was laying it down and Perkins was a wild man on the kit. Great show and I'm glad I got to see them in such a small venue before they got too big and disintegrated.

[Gurtholfin]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

KISS in 1979. I was 11. They were still in makeup and still had the original lineup. Judas Priest was the opening act.

I so wanted to see them back then. I bought Kiss Alive II with my first communion money. Remember the gatefold record with the tattoos and all that?

Kiss was my first favorite band from about 75-78 or so...

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

I so wanted to see them back then. I bought Kiss Alive II with my first communion money. Remember the gatefold record with the tattoos and all that?

Kiss was my first favorite band from about 75-78 or so...

KISS Alive II was my favorite album for years. I've seen the band 13 times. My favorite show was the first reunion show in the mid-90's cause they went old school and recreated the KISS Alive II stage set and song list.

[peanut]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

so many. I guess Woodstock.

[pirate]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

went to REM concert and got there late, bought tickets at gate, people were in our seats...they told us to go to a desk in the concourse. There they told us they printed duplicate tickets by mistake. We were waiting for them to say we could have our money back etc. and then we were led to seats right next to the stage. So, we paid the 'bad seat' price and got to sit in great seats. Still thinking of best concert but this was an interesting concert experience.

[SteveP]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

Worked so many at Maple Leaf Gardens over 12 years. Bob Seger in his prime, ABBA (blew the roof off the place), the "final" concert of The Who. The best was probably Skynrd opening for the Doobies. Springsteen's Born in the USA Tour shows and Tina Turner at the old CNE Stadium were incredible.

[rufus]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

Top Five:

The Replacements, 1986 at The Channel in Boston
Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense tour, 1983 at the CCCC in Portland
The Waterboys, 1989 at The Orpheum in Boston
REM, 1983 in the Pit at Umaine.
Nirvana, 1993 at the Springfield Civic Center,Springfield Mass.

First show: Foreignor, w/ Walter Eagen at the CCCC in Portland, 1978
Worst show: Duran Duran at the CCCC, 1982, 1983(?) just dull and lifeless

[Gurtholfin]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

Top Five:

The Replacements, 1986 at The Channel in Boston
Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense tour, 1983 at the CCCC in Portland
The Waterboys, 1988 at The Orpheum in Boston
REM, 1983 in the Pit at Umaine.
Nirvana, 1993 at the Springfield Civic Center,Springfield Mass.

This would have been with the big band - meaning the 12 piece or whatever Mike was going with?

Wish I could have seen that but they never came near anywhere I was living until they were past the point that I wanted to see them.

Still listen to Fisherman's Blues a few times a year. Incredible album.

[rufus]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

Yep. They started off very quietly, with In Search of a Rose, and for the first six or seven songs, the place was just silent. Polite applause after the songs, I was just standing there slackjawed and stunned at how beautiful it all was, and I guess maybe the rest of the place was too. And then they did A Bang On The Ear, and the whole place just erupted at the end, and it was just madness for the rest of the show.

I've got a beautiful bootleg of that show.

I think it was a 7 piece, maybe 8. There was Mike, Anto, and Trevor, the drummer whose name I'm drawing a blank on right now, Noel(?), Sharon Shannon on accordion, Steve Wickham on fiddle, and a guy on flute and keyboards. Possibly one more, but I don't think so.

Saw them a year later, back to back nights, hoping for the big band again, but unknown to me, Steve Wickham had decided to leave, and Mike just didn't feel like doing the Irish stuff without him, so they went out as a four piece. Good shows, but I was so looking forward to the big band stuff. And I love Steve Wickham.

[manurespreader]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

well I can't touch most of those. but here's my list.

1. Paul McCartney last august at Comerica park. paid 250 per seat and it was worth every penny, sat in the 6th row. 3.5 hours of non stop.By far the best I have ever been to.
2. Doobie Brothers in Norfolk VA, 1976.
3. Joan Osborne- NYC- august 2010. really intimate setting. only about 60 people and a full house.
4. Billy Joel- starkville, mississippi- 1977.At his height.
5. The Chieftains- 2006 Nashville, with the Nashville symphony

wish I had seen but passed for some stupid reason-
Rolling Stones- 1999- Las Vegas.
Dixie Chicks- 2002- heard about that one

[Gurtholfin]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

went to REM concert and got there late, bought tickets at gate, people were in our seats...they told us to go to a desk in the concourse. There they told us they printed duplicate tickets by mistake. We were waiting for them to say we could have our money back etc. and then we were led to seats right next to the stage. So, we paid the 'bad seat' price and got to sit in great seats. Still thinking of best concert but this was an interesting concert experience.

I have a somewhat similar story...

In ’92, my girlfriend (wife now) and I decided a week or two before the show to go and see Springsteen at the Target Center. Since we didn’t buy tickets right away, we were stuck in the back of the arena, up near the top and one seat in front of the other – couldn’t even get two tickets in the same row. It was Halloween night – we didn’t dress up.

So we’re sitting there before the show and a couple of dorks (so we thought) with nametags walk up to us and are harassing us about our costumes and asking what we’re supposed to be. We’re like “college students," and were thinking, please go away.

Then they asked us to see our stubs and I’m thinking up HERE? You need to see my stub? So they say, “We want to upgrade your seats, how does front row sound?”

So into our hands are placed two front row center tickets. Not believing what just happened, as we walked down to the main floor and as we passed each check point, we kept expecting to be stopped with someone telling us that we were simply in the front row of this section.

Well, they were front row center and it was amazing. Bruce emerged from a coffin and opened with Spirit in the Night (Halloween) and played everything. Paraded through our aisle during Glory Days and I got to slap his back as he went by – VERY short man with a VERY large bodyguard in tow.

Later found out that he routinely buys the first row or two at every show and gives the tix to people in the back. Right place, right time. Was a really good show made great through a simple twist of fate.

[St. Clown]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

I've not been to a great many concerts in my life. I'd like to go to more, but most of my friends aren't really big on attending them, or at least not the same acts that interest me.

My favorite so far has to be the Black Crowes, 2008 at the MN State Theater Grand Stand. The Black Keyes opened.

My first concert ever was We Fest, 1994. For those not from around here, it's a giant drunken 3 or 4-day country music festival in Detroit Lakes, MN, not far from the North Dakota border. Of that festival, my favorite acts had to be the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Tim McGraw (I think he was there. It was either then or 1995, the two years blend together). I'm remiss to think that the last show of the weekend was Ray Charles and my buddy and I decided to skip it because "who the hell wants to see him?" We were 17/18 at the time with no appreciation for who he really was, obviously.

[Slap Shot]

Re: The Concert Thread • So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...

I've sadly forgotten more concerts than I can remember. I'm only slightly joking....

Those that first come to mind are my first concer ever in 1978 at the old Met Stadium with Pablo Cruise, Steve Miller, and The Eagles. Was at the same KISS concert Scooby mentioned, saw the Dead more than a dozen times in 1989, Roger Waters at Target, R.E.M. at Alpine Valley, Big Head Todd at Red Rocks, the Cure in London, so many great shows at 1st Ave (Garbage, Prince, Dandy Warhols, The Clash, Pavement, Rev. Horton Heat, The Church, Soul Coughing, Echo & The Bunnymen, Spiritualized, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets etc., come to mind), DLR at the State Fair, U2 two nights in a row at the Civic Center for Joshua Tree, Foo Fighters at X, VH at Met Center, The Replacements, Soul Aslyum and Husker Du at several different places, Tom Petty and Pearl Jam at the X, Tom Petty and Lenny Kravitz at Met Center, The Who at the Civic Center, Prince at Met Center, Violent Femmes at St. Thomas; Cake, Tapes N Tapes and the Suburbs at Summit Beerfest, Soul Coughing at 1995 CedarFest...