Best/Worst Gig(s) You've Been To

Trollheart · 08-06-2018, 03:06 PM

Although I very much enjoyed Peter Gabriel's "Secret World Tour" in 1987/88, I'd be the first to admit that it relied pretty heavily on effects, multimedia and a superb lightshow, not that any of that is bad. But for pure, simple rock music it was hard to beat Rory Gallagher at the SFX Centre (a converted school hall I believe) back in probably around 1983; just one man and his guitar with his backing band, rocking the house down. I also enjoyed Steve Earle and BB King at the National Stadium, another smaller venue.

As for worst? You'd probably be surprised if I said Hawkwind, but yeah. I was visiting London for about four or five days and had booked tickets for Marillion and Manowar, 1984. Marillion's new album was back in my hotel room, not even listened to yet (and this was when the only way you could listen to an album was by playing the record or buying a cassette tape; no previews on YouTube, no downloads, blah blah when I were a lad etc etc) so although I enjoyed the gig I didn't know the new songs, and of course most of the material was from the new album.

The only other band playing within that timeframe that I was even vaguely interested in was, yeah, Hawkwind. Now, I had listened to about three of their albums, some of them compilations, so I knew very little of their material. But that wasn't really the issue. As I'm sure you all know (but I did not at the time) probably about 99.99% of attendees at Hawkwind concerts are high, and boy did that smoke make me sick! I've never liked the smell of cannabis, and it was everywhere. It's even possible I got high on secondhand smoke, as I kind of don't remember much of the gig, other than I think Nik Turner flying around on a wire playing his sax.

So, what stories ya got about best or worst gigs?

**Frownland** · 08-06-2018, 03:11 PM

Best - Shabazz Palaces at the Regent - Crowd was super into it, sound was perfect, awesome visuals, and Shabazz was on point.

Worst - I went to a restaurant as a kid where Jimmy Buffett played a free show. It might have been one of his restaurants. A very pure form of hate was created that night when they broke into Salt...for the third time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

It's even possible I got high on secondhand smoke

Siggable tbh

**Janszoon** · 08-06-2018, 03:48 PM

Best: Flaming Lips at the Aragon in Chicago on New Year’s Eve 2003/2004. They played with The White Stripes and Blanche, who were both great that night, but The Flaming Lips stole the show. Since it was a big New Year’s party everybody in the crowd was really into it and partying hard. At midnight, The Flaming Lips and The White Stripes did an awesome version of “Seven Nation Army” together.

Worst: Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band at Great Woods in suburban Massachusetts in 1992. This venue is one of those big outdoor pavilion places that have terrible sound. We had lawn seats and it was freezing out and the band, no surprise, sucked. We spent the whole time walking back and forth across the mostly empty wasteland of the lawn trying to stay warm.

Aux-In · 08-07-2018, 04:41 PM

Best: There was a Nirvana cover band that used to play at a seedy bar on the other side of town. This bar was a popular venue with the local rock scene, as they used to partner with the main rock station all of the time. Still do, I assume. Big names play/ed there as well, but for the most part, it's a small venue. I have been to plenty of big gigs, but there was something about the atmosphere at this water hole, not to mention the crowd that would attend this cover band's shows. The lead brah was much taller than Cobain, but he looked the part for the shows (long blonde hair, loose sweaters and all). I crowd surfed multiple times during their performances; always was a blast seeing those guys. The dude retired the band after his 27th birthday if I remember correctly.

Worst: Forget the name of it, but it was a multi-mix show of a bunch of rock acts. I want to say from classic rock through the '90s/late 2000s. Anyway, Fear Factory was there as one of the opening acts. They were the subset of nu metal bands that I never got into. The crowd was sparse and I remember the lead singer being pretty pissed that the crowd just wasn't feeling it, so he took a minute or two to berate them on their lackluster cheer. Lame.

^^ At the end of the show, during the main act (not during Fear Factory), I literally saw a guy piss in a cup and throw it into the crowd.

The Batlord · 08-07-2018, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Siggable tbh

**Frownland** · 08-07-2018, 04:53 PM

Almost as funny as the image in my head of a very stoned TH having his mind absolutely blown by a saxophone player flying around on a wire.

SmokeAndMirrors · 08-09-2018, 06:46 PM

Best Gig: Decibel 2012 Tour with In Solitude, The Devil's Blood, Watain, and Behemoth. I also did acid for that show, and it was an amazing personal experience as such.

Worst Gig: This cheesy thing called Satanhaus. I don't even wanna go into it, it was just bad. Really bad. Like bad enough I went through three drinks at the bar during their set bad.

Key · 08-09-2018, 07:48 PM

Best: Tool during their 10,000 Days tour. I've seen a lot of shows in my life and that one in particular stands out. Lightshow was amazing and Maynard sounded great.

Worst: that's a tough one but I'd probably go with Disturbed during the Mayheh Fest performance. They were very stale and went by the book. Nothing exciting or anything.

This list could probably change depending on my mood but right now I'd say those are what I'm going with.

Chula Vista · 08-09-2018, 08:30 PM

BEST:

Page and Plant at the old Boston Garden in 1994. Zep had been banned from the venue since 1975. Most electric crowd I've ever been a part of. 8 of us rented a limo to get into Boston and on the drive home we all felt like we were on ecstasy. Took hours to wind down. (was the last event ever held at the Garden before they tore it down)

Peter Gabriel / So tour / Worcester Centrum. 2nd row, center stage. Mesmerizing stuff. Gabriel has such an amazing voice and Tony Levin is simply the coolest. Linda still brags about grabbing Peter's ass when he did his 'falls backwards into the crowd' thing.

DiMeola, De Lucia and McLaughlin at the Opera House in Boston. Steve Morse was the opening act, and joined the other three for the encore. 7.5 billion acoustic notes were played that evening. Non-stop goosebumps.

Allan Holdsworth. Dixie Dregs. King's X. All at small clubs in and around Boston. The kind of shows that leave you buzzing for days.

Rush on their Farewell to Kings tour at a pretty small venue in Fitchburg MA. This was back when Geddy only used a small synth for single notes. Elbows on the stage and getting drenched in Lifeson's sweat all night. On acid too. The hammer of the gods that night.

Charlie Farren (Joe Perry Project, Farrenheight) at a tiny club in my home town. Coolest opening to a gig ever. Everyone is looking at the stage waiting for things to go down and suddenly you can hear him singing and playing acoustic (sans amplification). Turn around and he's in the back of the house slowly walking through the crowd doing the song. One of the best live voices I've ever heard.

Queen on their News of the World tour at the Boston Garden. Nuff said.

Angel Romero with the San Diego Symphony. Went specifically to hear Concierto de Aranjuez - greatest classical guitar piece ever. More goosebumps. Funny: Lin and I arrive and it's valet parking only. Lots of premium sedans like Lexus, BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes, etc. And we pull up in an Xterra.

WORST:

Aerosmith in the late 70s at Boston Garden. Tyler was so drunk it was ridiculous. They played for about 45 minutes and it was a mess. The encore consisted of the band, sans Tyler, coming out to do a 3 minute song with Perry singing. At least the warm up act Rick Derringer killed it.

**Frownland** · 08-09-2018, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chula Vista

on the drive home we all felt like we were on ecstasy. Took hours to wind down.

The Magic Band, Acid Mothers Temple, Shabazz Palaces, Abstrack, and Public Image Limited all gave me nights like that. The absolute best.

Quote:

DiMeola, De Lucia and McLaughlin at the Opera House in Boston. Steve Morse was the opening act, and joined the other three for the encore. 7.5 billion acoustic notes were played that evening. Non-stop goosebumps.

Jealous af. Seeing de Lucia alone would be mindblowing.

08-06-2018, 03:06 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Best/Worst Gig(s) You've Been To Although I very much enjoyed Peter Gabriel's "Secret World Tour" in 1987/88, I'd be the first to admit that it relied pretty heavily on effects, multimedia and a superb lightshow, not that any of that is bad. But for pure, simple rock music it was hard to beat Rory Gallagher at the SFX Centre (a converted school hall I believe) back in probably around 1983; just one man and his guitar with his backing band, rocking the house down. I also enjoyed Steve Earle and BB King at the National Stadium, another smaller venue. As for worst? You'd probably be surprised if I said Hawkwind, but yeah. I was visiting London for about four or five days and had booked tickets for Marillion and Manowar, 1984. Marillion's new album was back in my hotel room, not even listened to yet (and this was when the only way you could listen to an album was by playing the record or buying a cassette tape; no previews on YouTube, no downloads, blah blah when I were a lad etc etc) so although I enjoyed the gig I didn't know the new songs, and of course most of the material was from the new album. The only other band playing within that timeframe that I was even vaguely interested in was, yeah, Hawkwind. Now, I had listened to about three of their albums, some of them compilations, so I knew very little of their material. But that wasn't really the issue. As I'm sure you all know (but I did not at the time) probably about 99.99% of attendees at Hawkwind concerts are high, and boy did that smoke make me sick! I've never liked the smell of cannabis, and it was everywhere. It's even possible I got high on secondhand smoke, as I kind of don't remember much of the gig, other than I think Nik Turner flying around on a wire playing his sax. So, what stories ya got about best or worst gigs? __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

08-06-2018, 03:48 PM	#3 (permalink)
Janszoon Mate, Spawn & Die Join Date: May 2007 Location: The Rapping Community Posts: 24,593	Best: Flaming Lips at the Aragon in Chicago on New Year’s Eve 2003/2004. They played with The White Stripes and Blanche, who were both great that night, but The Flaming Lips stole the show. Since it was a big New Year’s party everybody in the crowd was really into it and partying hard. At midnight, The Flaming Lips and The White Stripes did an awesome version of “Seven Nation Army” together. Worst: Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band at Great Woods in suburban Massachusetts in 1992. This venue is one of those big outdoor pavilion places that have terrible sound. We had lawn seats and it was freezing out and the band, no surprise, sucked. We spent the whole time walking back and forth across the mostly empty wasteland of the lawn trying to stay warm. __________________ A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man Time & Place 25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die last.fm

08-07-2018, 04:53 PM	#6 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,548	Almost as funny as the image in my head of a very stoned TH having his mind absolutely blown by a saxophone player flying around on a wire. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

08-09-2018, 06:46 PM	#7 (permalink)
SmokeAndMirrors Music Addict Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: In the Void Posts: 174	Best Gig: Decibel 2012 Tour with In Solitude, The Devil's Blood, Watain, and Behemoth. I also did acid for that show, and it was an amazing personal experience as such. Worst Gig: This cheesy thing called Satanhaus. I don't even wanna go into it, it was just bad. Really bad. Like bad enough I went through three drinks at the bar during their set bad. __________________ "Like whispers in the dark..."

08-09-2018, 08:30 PM	#9 (permalink)
Chula Vista Toasted Poster Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal by way of Boston Posts: 11,332	BEST: Page and Plant at the old Boston Garden in 1994. Zep had been banned from the venue since 1975. Most electric crowd I've ever been a part of. 8 of us rented a limo to get into Boston and on the drive home we all felt like we were on ecstasy. Took hours to wind down. (was the last event ever held at the Garden before they tore it down) Peter Gabriel / So tour / Worcester Centrum. 2nd row, center stage. Mesmerizing stuff. Gabriel has such an amazing voice and Tony Levin is simply the coolest. Linda still brags about grabbing Peter's ass when he did his 'falls backwards into the crowd' thing. DiMeola, De Lucia and McLaughlin at the Opera House in Boston. Steve Morse was the opening act, and joined the other three for the encore. 7.5 billion acoustic notes were played that evening. Non-stop goosebumps. Allan Holdsworth. Dixie Dregs. King's X. All at small clubs in and around Boston. The kind of shows that leave you buzzing for days. Rush on their Farewell to Kings tour at a pretty small venue in Fitchburg MA. This was back when Geddy only used a small synth for single notes. Elbows on the stage and getting drenched in Lifeson's sweat all night. On acid too. The hammer of the gods that night. Charlie Farren (Joe Perry Project, Farrenheight) at a tiny club in my home town. Coolest opening to a gig ever. Everyone is looking at the stage waiting for things to go down and suddenly you can hear him singing and playing acoustic (sans amplification). Turn around and he's in the back of the house slowly walking through the crowd doing the song. One of the best live voices I've ever heard. Queen on their News of the World tour at the Boston Garden. Nuff said. Angel Romero with the San Diego Symphony. Went specifically to hear Concierto de Aranjuez - greatest classical guitar piece ever. More goosebumps. Funny: Lin and I arrive and it's valet parking only. Lots of premium sedans like Lexus, BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes, etc. And we pull up in an Xterra. WORST: Aerosmith in the late 70s at Boston Garden. Tyler was so drunk it was ridiculous. They played for about 45 minutes and it was a mess. The encore consisted of the band, sans Tyler, coming out to do a 3 minute song with Perry singing. At least the warm up act Rick Derringer killed it. __________________ “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

08-07-2018, 04:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
Aux-In Wrinkled Magazine Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: In Time Posts: 467	Best: There was a Nirvana cover band that used to play at a seedy bar on the other side of town. This bar was a popular venue with the local rock scene, as they used to partner with the main rock station all of the time. Still do, I assume. Big names play/ed there as well, but for the most part, it's a small venue. I have been to plenty of big gigs, but there was something about the atmosphere at this water hole, not to mention the crowd that would attend this cover band's shows. The lead brah was much taller than Cobain, but he looked the part for the shows (long blonde hair, loose sweaters and all). I crowd surfed multiple times during their performances; always was a blast seeing those guys. The dude retired the band after his 27th birthday if I remember correctly. Worst: Forget the name of it, but it was a multi-mix show of a bunch of rock acts. I want to say from classic rock through the '90s/late 2000s. Anyway, Fear Factory was there as one of the opening acts. They were the subset of nu metal bands that I never got into. The crowd was sparse and I remember the lead singer being pretty pissed that the crowd just wasn't feeling it, so he took a minute or two to berate them on their lackluster cheer. Lame. ^^ At the end of the show, during the main act (not during Fear Factory), I literally saw a guy piss in a cup and throw it into the crowd.

08-09-2018, 07:48 PM	#8 (permalink)
Key . Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 13,153	Best: Tool during their 10,000 Days tour. I've seen a lot of shows in my life and that one in particular stands out. Lightshow was amazing and Maynard sounded great. Worst: that's a tough one but I'd probably go with Disturbed during the Mayheh Fest performance. They were very stale and went by the book. Nothing exciting or anything. This list could probably change depending on my mood but right now I'd say those are what I'm going with.