Best Concert Experiences?
 

I'm going to see 311 in four days and it's got me to thinking about other concerts I've been to. Felt I'd share a favorite of mine, and hear from other people about theirs, etc.

I saw Ben Folds at a college gym (Johns Hopkins U), got there 4 or 5 hours early so we could stand in the front row. Duncan Shiek opened up with a couple of good covers and his one-hit wonder Barely Breathing. Best single performance I've ever seen (also happens to be my favorite artist, so no suprise there).

One of the better music festivals I've been to is two HFStival. Towards the end, Eminem put on a great show (about a week after Without Me came out), followed by Paul Oakenfold. It was amusing for me to see people put the weed away that they smoked for Eminem and get out the pills. ;)

Red Hot Chili Peppers gave a great show, I went to that about 6 months ago in Omaha

The best show I ever saw was Widespread Panic in Albany, GA in 2000. They played 2 sets that were each about an hour to an hour and a half.... the whole venue was on their feet dancing and singing and the people were super cool.... it was an all around great time...

I saw the GoGos back in the day... I had third row tickets. Inxs opened for them.

It was one of the better concerts I've been to mostly because of the seats...

I saw Bjork last night, and though she didn't play 3 of my fav songs, it awe absolutely aweome.

the jesus lizard at louge ax in chicago, or uncle tupelo at lounge ax in chicago, or wilco at lounge ax in chicago.

god, i miss that place.........

Kiss in '82.
Saliva last year.

Best: Weird Al Touring with sissors
2nd Best: Poodle hat tour


other than that all the memoirable ones ive been to have been local shows in basements and american legions

dj shadow at the house of blues on sunset. what an experience...the man was making music right in front of our eyes

- Ben Harper and Jack Johnson
- Phish
- The Crystal Method

Phish - Limestone, Maine '03.
2 Day festival with 3 sets each night..and one extra set played on top of a control tower. I don't think it'll ever be topped, definitely a once in a life time experience

Lacuna Coil and Opeth, best show ever, and met Opeth afterwards

Tool. All 3 of my attendences have been nothing but a great journey of the mind.

And omg you met Opeth. SWEETNESS!

Best concert i've been to is ZZ Top with Ted Nugent and Kenny Wayne Sheppard.

Ted just blew me away through his whole set...man was that loud.

A week from Friday im going to the Maiden/Motorhead/Dio show...that will probably be number one.

I went to see PowderFinger (this really kick ass aussie band) when I was in London. Man it was the best, seeing one of my fav bands on the other side of the world.

A few years ago, I went to see Third Eye Blind and that concert was great. Ended up in the Front Row, Center by the end of the concert. Fun shit.

Going to another Third Eye Blind concert on Friday. Can't wait.

Ozzfest 2k1 + front row seats(ebay owns j00) = best concert ever for me :)

edgefest, I forget what year, but it was awesome!

TOOL was awesome. This past Lullapalooza was totally awesome and i got to meet Tom Morello (a guitar god) and edgefest is always great. Also when i wanted to go to a Static X concert and tickets were sold out, so i jst went to the place where the show was and was gonna buy scalped tickets but ended up winning backstage passes from a drawing they were having. Wayne Static is really cool.

I don't know if it's technically a concert, but about a month back Christopher Lawrence, a fairly well known american trance dj came to a local club. It was great, the club wasn't packed so you could actually dance, he played an absolute monster set with flawless mixing, and afterwards we talked to him for 10 minutes and got his autograph. He was way more down to earth, not to mention much better technically than other big name dj's I've seen lately, i.e. Tiesto and Sasha. After that show I'm a much bigger fan.

I've seen a ton of great shows. Being from Michigan gives me the chance to see some great artists in their home town.

I have seen Bob Seger 4 times, Ted Nugent 3 times (twice on New Years Eve), KISS 3 times (Yeah, I know they're from New York, but Detroit is their 2nd home), Madonna in 1987 and Grand Funk Railroad last year here in Flint.


Other great concerts I've seen:

Paul McCartney - Flowers in the Dirt Tour

The Who - 1989's The Kids Are Allright Tour

Boston - Third Stage Tour & Greatest Hits Tour

Billy Joel - Stormfront Tour

Ringo Starr & his All Starr Band - several times

Myself and 200,000 others at Glastonbury festival in 2000 (before they put THE FENCE up). Weather was perfect.

The bands:-

Friday:

1 The Wailers - Perfect for a stoned afternoon.

G Love & Special Sauce - Must have missed this one.

Live - "ditto"

The Bluetones - Not bad British indie band.

Cypress Hill - Rocked my socks off.

Counting Crows - Missed this one as well.

Chemical Brothers - The best hour and a half of my life, so far.


Saturday:

Asian Dub Foundation - Not all Pakistanis are terrorists or shopkeepers (their words, not mine). Should have been headliners.

Brand New Heavies - Funky as fuck.

Semisonic - A bit slow for my tastes.

Reef - "Put your hands on, put your hands on..."

Ocean Colour Scene - The worlds greatest guitarist in action.

Leftfield - Dance music with dread power, awesome.

Fatboy Slim - The second best hour and a half of my life, so far.


Sunday: (much of this day was spent in the tent)

David Gray - Shaky headed crooner.

Happy Mondays - Streaker gets on stage and isn't allowed to leave. Forced to dance with the band.

David Bowie - 200,000 people in a field, the sun going down and Bowzer on the stage. Days like this don't come around very often.

anything with les claypool

Seeing jwoody's post made me remember the "Montsers of Rock" tour in 1988. It was (in order):

Kingdom Come - I had never heard of them either

Dokken - Pretty good, crowd wasn't into it yet

Metallica - Before they sold out

Scorpions - Rocked us like a hurricane

Van Halen - 2nd tour with Sammy


The show was great! The only problem was that Metallica was wrong for the bill. The metallica fans weren't really interested in seeing anybody else and vice-versa.

The other problem was that it was in the Pontiac Silverdome, an 80,000+ seat domed stadium. The acoustics sucked.

green day is an awesome show

i wish i could see tool or a perfect circle live... man

red hot chili peppers on june 6th 2003
incubus on october 20th 2002

i deeply love btoh those bands... and being a bass player i can say i love both bassists ... but dirk lance quit incubus about a week after the show i went to and it wasnt announcd until april 4th... i took it pretty hard because he is my favorite bassist... luckily i saw him shortly before he quit

STP at the Patriot Center (JMU) during their ...Songs from the Vatican Giftshop tour. They really tear it up live - easily my favorite band to catch live (seen them 2 other times.)

Aother great show was Dream Theater at the 9:30 Club in DC. They played the Metropolis Part II double album straight through - no breaks. Then they came out for an encore, played some of their standard "hits" and ripped through "Hot For Teacher". Plus the Dixie Dregs opened up the show. Almost too much guitarring for one night.

Once you've seen Pink Floyd live, no other concert comes close.

SRV back in the 80's. It was in a fairly small place(can't remember the name) and it didn't seem there was alot that even showed up. We were 5 row's back, almost center stage. It was an experience I'll never forget.

Van Halen with Sammy was also a hell of a show.

i'm jealous as hell, steelerz! (b/c of that SRV show)

ROLLING STONES in Sydney this year.

esp the encore of Jumpin Jack Flash.

i´ve never felt so much electricity in the air, ever.

Instead of making a whole new thread about concerts, I was wondering if anybody here has seen AFI in concert. Me and a couple friends are seeing them in October and I'm wondering what kind of a show they put on.

And for best concert experiences I'd say Green Day. Not many bands invite the whole audience in an ampitheater down into the pit. Wish I was alive back when I could've seen Pink Floyd or Zeppelin or somebody in concert.

Merc,
Wish you could have been there. Nothin but love for SRV fans!

I think that I'll have to throw the concert that I just came back from(my second Third Eye Blind one) in as my best concert experience now. It was fucking AWESOME...

My absolute best concert experience was seeing Bob Dylan last Oct. I got to sit on the side of the stage near the sound guy. The sound may not have been great, but the view was spectacular.

Seeing Bob Dylan and Paul Simon in concert a few years ago was very cool too.

Nickel Creek. They played two long sets. And then did an unplugged (no amps) request with the audience. It was truly a memorable show.

tool at continental airlines arena.

I'd have to say my best experience was when my old band opened up for In Flames... I'll never forget that night.

KISS.
Just saw them last week and they were just as awesome as they were 25 years ago.

I just got back from 311. My ears are still ringing, but barring permanent damage I would say that it was worth it. More to come later, possibly. Like, if you're really lucky.