Music: What are your favourite concerts?

[kihei]

What are your favourite concerts that you have seen in person?

What made them special or memorable? Did the performances meet or surpass your expectations?

If you want to stretch the category to include comedic performances, that's fine, too.

As always, commentary is encouraged.

Click to read more...

 

[Ben Grimm]

1. All the Stones concerts I've seen.
2. Damn the Torpedos/You don't have to live like a refugee.

 

[kihei]

The best concert that I ever saw is The Who at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1975, one of Keith Moon's last shows. The playing was absolutely transcendent. If I ever had any doubt that rock and roll could save my soul, that doubt was forever removed by the band that night.

HM:

Pink Floyd, The Wall, Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, New York, 1980--They played one week on Long Island and one week in Long Beach, California, and you went to them as that made up the entire NA tour. The Wall was the pinnacle of rock theatre, a breathtaking production that required a hockey arena to perform properly. Plus. of course the band was great.

Plastic Ono Band, Varsity Stadium, 1969--the surprise tail end of a old time rock and roll/The Doors all day concert. Nobody believed the rumour that was spreading that John Lennon was on his way to Toronto to perform until John Lennon showed up with Eric Clapton, Alan White (Yes), Klaus Voorman, and Yoko who would perform covered in a sheet.

Radiohead, Scotiabank Arena, 2018--The band was touring behind the release of Moon-Shaped Pool, one of my favourite albums, and they more than surpassed my astronomically high expectations.

U2 in a bar (Maple Leaf Ballroom on St. Clair, 1981), The Clash in a movie theatre (The Rex on Danforth, 1979), and My Bloody Valentine at the Spectrum club in Toronto, 1992) are also right up there, as is sixth-row centre seats for a Wings concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, 1976

 

[Xelebes]

Surprise 3½ hour set by Chris Liberator at Twilight Afterhours. Very pleasant surprise and he leaned heavily on the 303 on that set.

In terms of actual bands, it might have been a Jen Hodge set like back in 2018 or 2019. Can't remember when exactly it was. She was pretty damn good.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The best concert that I ever saw is The Who at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1975, one of Keith Moon's last shows. The playing was absolutely transcendent. If I ever had any doubt that rock and roll could save my soul, that doubt was forever removed by the band that night.

HM:

Pink Floyd, The Wall, Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, New York, 1980--They played one week on Long Island and one week in Long Beach, California, and you went to them as that made up the entire NA tour. The Wall was the pinnacle of rock theatre, a breathtaking production that required a hockey arena to perform properly. Plus. of course the band was great.

Plastic Ono Band, Varsity Stadium, 1969--the surprise tail end of a old time rock and roll/The Doors all day concert. Nobody believed the rumour that was spreading that John Lennon was on his way to Toronto to perform until John Lennon showed up with Eric Clapton, Alan White (Yes), Klaus Voorman, and Yoko who would perform covered in a sheet.

Radiohead, Scotiabank Arena, 2018--The band was touring behind the release of Moon-Shaped Pool, one of my favourite albums, and they more than surpassed my astronomically high expectations.

U2 in a bar (Maple Leaf Ballroom on St. Clair, 1981), The Clash in a movie theatre (The Rex on Danforth, 1979), and My Bloody Valentine at the Spectrum club in Toronto, 1992) are also right up there, as is sixth-row centre seats for a Wings concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, 1976

Wow, that's impressive A-listers... I'll have to go a lot more modest as I've never seen an important show. The one I'm the most happy to have seen is no doubt Diamanda Galas in 2009, still seems unreal to this day. As for my favorite ones, you'd have to pick one of the many Mike Patton shows I've seen (I'm a groupie). I've seen him 4 times with Mr. Bungle, but my favorite ones were probably his more obscure ones... Once on stage with Rhazel, they'd just syntonize random radio station and improvise with microphones and effects on anything that played, music, catholic mass, anything. Once alone with a wall of speakers with microphones hanging in front of them doing his Feedback Étude (just 25 minutes of feedback, with Patton playing percussion on the microphones, crazy shit, we must have been max 12 people to stand through the whole thing). I've also seen John Zorn a good number of times, favorite one was him conducting Duras : Duchamp.


Edit: found this (not the show I was at, but same "tour")

 

[Babe Ruth]

I saw Alice In Chains at the third Lollapalooza tour.. they were probably at their peak, Layne Staley seemed healthy then too.. They came on right as the sun was setting and the crowd was completely wild.
It was a memorable set for me..

Another unique one, I saw Danzig in the early 2ooos. He was playing the Wiltern in LA. It was an interesting mix, because the Wiltern is an old elegant theater with balconies & red carpeted stairs, etc. The kind of place where Gone with the Wind would've been screened, and it was filled with metalheads & old punks etc..

 

[Mike C]

 

[kihei]

I should have included Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps, Maple Leaf Gardens (1978), Neil Young solo at Massey Hall (1971), The Band at Massey Hall (1970), and Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Aragon Ballroom, Chicago (1968), all superb concerts.

 

[Hippasus]

Toxic Holocaust
Nunslaughter
Venom
Mayhem
The Casualties
Ministry

 

[Mike C]

I should have included Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps, Maple Leaf Gardens (1978), Neil Young solo at Massey Hall (1971), The Band at Massey Hall (1970), and Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Aragon Ballroom, Chicago (1968), all superb concerts.

I saw Neil in Chapel Hill NC in either '90 or '91 where he didnt say one word to the audience except "Thank You" at the end

Saw Dylan do that once too

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

This is a no-brainer for me, especially because I haven't been to too many concerts. The Avett Brothers on New Year's Eve 2014. It was basically a greatest hits of a band whose songs are almost all spectacular. Live and Die, Laundry Room, Shame, Murder in the City, Rejects in the Attic, Paranoia in B-Flat Major are all bangers. Ramin Karimloo showed up out of nowhere to sing along with Murder in the City and then do Bring Him Home from Les Mis. The other covers they did were just perfect (Down by the Riverside, Auld Lang Syne at Midnight, Happy Trails to cap off the encore).

At the time I worked with someone who also worked in the box office for PNC Arena, so she was able to get me fantastic tickets (200 level, first row, near the stage) at cost. It was my first time seeing them live, and they also happened to record the concert for their most recent live album, so I can re-live parts of it whenever I please.

All in all it was a magical night. They played 30+ songs and left me with some lifelong memories.

 

[kihei]

Toxic Holocaust
Nunslaughter
Venom
Mayhem
The Casualties
Ministry

I never saw any of those, though I wanted to see Ministry.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I never saw any of those, though I wanted to see Ministry.

Oh, you tell me you haven't seen Toxic Holocaust live?!

I've seen Dillinger Escape Plan and quite a few metal shows, I've seen Merzbow, but the hardest show I've ever seen live was The Locust, that was something!

 

[kihei]

I saw Neil in Chapel Hill NC in either '90 or '91 where he didnt say one word to the audience except "Thank You" at the end

Saw Dylan do that once too

Eric Clapton did that at Maple Leaf Gardens the first time I saw him solo. I think he is chatier now. Freddie Mercury and on several occasions Mick Jagger were chatterboxes, though.

 

[Neutrinos]

Sloan puts on a great show! I've seen them a couple of times...

Edgefest 2001 with The Tea Party and then Tool closing out the show was pretty epic!

But my favorite concert experience was seeing The Beach Boys about 8 or 9 years ago

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

The absolute best concert for me is any NIN show I've been to. Sound amazing, variety of accompanying visuals, long and varied set lists.

rounding out the Top 5

2. Summer Sanitarium 2001 - Metallica, Korn, Kid Rock, Powerman 5000, System of a Down
3. Soundgarden and NIN co headliner tour
4. Twins of Evil - Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson
5. Garth Brooks

 

[93gilmour93]

Tool
Behemoth
Dimmu Borgir
Guns n Roses
AC/DC
Soundgarden
Marilyn Manson (Antichrist Superstar tour)
Eluveitie
Rob Zombie
Ministry
Slipknot
Motörhead

 

[Hippasus]

I never saw any of those, though I wanted to see Ministry.

It was a pretty big theatre-like venue with a huge floor space. Someone hit Al Jourgensen with a beer bottle. He was about to stop the set. He said "Nice shot" but was clearly pissed off. If I recall correctly, he changed his mind after a few minutes. It was definitely a good show and made a big impression on my high school self. I didn't mosh much back then, but the mosh temporarily came to me! This was in the mid 90s after the Filth Pig album. Very heavy and slow groove-laden guitars. It was super slow and heavy, even by doom metal standards.

 

[Hippasus]

I saw Toxic Holocaust twice and got injured twice. First time was from stage diving right onto the concrete and the next time from a circle pit. I used to go the opposite direction of circle pits. Also at Nunslaughter. Very smart. The riffs were just too good. The Casualties had an awesome pit even though it wasn't that packed. People were falling over each other but no one got hurt. It was the manifestation of chaos made out of human bodies.

I also had the pleasure of seeing Slayer a couple times, Discharge, Deicide, Decapitated, Napalm Death, and Carcass.

At Deicide, Glen Benton told the crowd to kill me because I cheered the Hoffman brothers, who were no longer in the band, when he brought them up. Nobody did anything to me because they probably knew the Hoffman brothers were awesome.

 

[Mike C]

Eric Clapton did that at Maple Leaf Gardens the first time I saw him solo. I think he is chatier now. Freddie Mercury and on several occasions Mick Jagger were chatterboxes, though.

Slow hand went through that heroin phase where Albert Lee had to play all the leads. He sober about 35 years. Has a house in Ohio and shows up to local AA meetings as a regular alcoholic

 

[kihei]

A

Sloan puts on a great show! I've seen them a couple of times...

Edgefest 2001 with The Tea Party and then Tool closing out the show was pretty epic!

But my favorite concert experience was seeing The Beach Boys about 8 or 9 years ago

Here's a story for you. My summer job through university was working in the steward's department of a very big ship that travelled between Michigan and Milwaukee hauling freight cars, automobiles and passengers. The ship was larger than the one that I would take to Europe some years later. It was about a six hour crossing The Beach Boys had played a concert at County Stadium in Milwaukee and opted for the waters of Lake Michigan over a much longer car ride through Wisconsin and Illinois to get to Michigan for their next concert. Once they got on board they all sat down on deck and gave an acapella concert of three tunes, (except for Surfin' USA, I've forgotten the other two tunes). They spent the night, barefoot, in a corner of the large indoor lounge area, shooting craps and drinking contraband booze from paper bags. At the time, pre-Pet Sounds, I thought they were lame as hell. Brian Wilson would change all that, and I later saw them in concert a couple of times in Toronto.

 

[TNT87]

Every AC/DC concert I went to starting in 1991.

 

[Lshap]

Getting old sucks. Having witnessed history makes it slightly less painful.

My first concert was The Eagles on their Hotel California tour. Tickets were $8. Saw them again about 40 years later on Glen Frey's last tour. Those tickets cost... slightly more.

Got a special invitation to The Police's official Synchronicity video filmed here in Montreal in 1983. Only 500 tickets were given out exclusively by radio stations and various promos. Small club. No seats. We stood for two hours, cheering, moving, witnessing Sting and the band at their peak. There was an intermission and while people went to the washroom, I walked forward and enjoyed the second half about 15 feet from the stage.

 

[kihei]

Getting old sucks. Having witnessed history makes it slightly less painful.

My first concert was The Eagles on their Hotel California tour. Tickets were $8. Saw them again about 40 years later on Glen Frey's last tour. Those tickets cost... slightly more.

Got a special invitation to The Police's official Synchronicity video filmed here in Montreal in 1983. Only 500 tickets were given out exclusively by radio stations and various promos. Small club. No seats. We stood for two hours, cheering, moving, witnessing Sting and the band at their peak. There was an intermission and while people went to the washroom, I walked forward and enjoyed the second half about 15 feet from the stage.

The Police first played The Horseshoe Tavern on Queen West here in Toronto in 1979. Club holds about 350 people at a guess. 30 people showed up for the band's first gig at $3 per ticket. Sadly one of them wasn't me. In retrospect, astounding.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Those reasons will go beyond (or solely?) artistic reasons:

- Stereolab at Montreal's MTELUS downtown almost a year ago. I struggle in close, massive crowds so I tend to avoid concerts. Stereolab came here and didn't fill the place up but you had more than enough people to create an atmosphere and enough space that my wife and I could share a bottle of good wine and dance (not with each, but next to each other) throughout the entire concert. Awesome night.

- Tom Segura at Montreal's Theatre St.Denis in the latin quarter. Just belly laughs from start to finish. Funnily enough, I find his specials weak. Simple, silly stories told with an affability that's hard to resist. With my wife as well, who laughed as hard as I did. Got the tickets for free last minute because my cousin and her husband couldn't make it due to illness.