Any concert at Redrocks is in competition for the best concert ever, and I'm not a die-hard rock fan, but seeing Tom Petty there was a standout. New guitar every song, lazers up on the rocks, realizing I know the words to every song; just an all-around great experience. And I went with my Dad, and smoking a few joints with him was epic.
I saw A Perfect Circle in 2003 and Lincoln was the last stop on their tour. It was a week or so before Christmas and Maynard came out wearing a Santa suit and wore it for the entire show. During the breaks he would stop and tell jokes and tossed out candy canes and cookies to the crowd. At one point they stopped for like 5 minutes and James Iha told the worst jokes ever, and Jordy White played the "Freds got slacks" song from the Will Ferrell SNL skit. I have the whole show in mp3 if anyone wants it. The coolest concert would have to have probably been when I saw The Mars Volta, Queens of the Stone Age and Red Hot Chili Peppers. All 3 bands absolutely killed it live. Spoiler Spoiler Shittiest concert was one of those rockfest tours that go around in the summer. The weather was shitty and it was raining on and off the entire day and right before the first of the big name acts was getting ready to walk out lightning struck the stage and blew all the sound equipment. Concert over.
This band. This set. This concert, will go down in history. 600,000 strong for one night at Downsview and AC/DC was larger than life possibly could be, stealing the night from the Stones and The Guess Who. I was proud to be in attendance right near the front, and it was a peaceful and thoroughly incredible night:
I saw Slipknot here in Vegas on halloween. Slipknot just by itself puts on a crazy show, but it was insane. Everyone was in a costume or some crazy makeup. I was in the pit and there were just tons of fake blood flying everywhere. It was the Pearl inside the Palms, so any seat you had was a great view. This video was shot from the "bad" seats if you can believe it. Not a lot of people like them, but I love em cause they go hard every show. In that video Joey gets lifted and spun on the drumset. On July 16th, I have tickets to the pit to see Lamb of God, Korn, Rob Zombie, etc at the Mayhem Fest. Can't. Fuckin. Wait.
I'll never forget April 30, 1984: Seattle Center Coliseum The mighty Van Halen Fourteen years old with my little brother, saw my first naked boobies and drank my first shot of whiskey. This was sadly Van Halen's last great tour with David Lee Roth. Sammy Hagar is a super nice guy, but a David Lee Roth he is not. Alt Focus: I saw Public Enemy and U2 in Vancouver and the acoustics sucked giant donkey balls. You couldn't even tell what song they were playing. No naked boobies either.
The two most memorable for me have definitely been Roger Waters and Van Halen. Im a little younger so there was no way I was gonna be seeing these guys in their prime but they can still put on a hell of a good show. Waters did the whole Dark Side album with a good selection of the Floyd catalog and I saw VH when they were with David Lee Roth on their recent tour. EVH plays the fuck out of the guitar still and the wall of sound they were putting was incredible
For me it was probably seeing Pink Floyd during "The Wall" tour at the LA Sports Arena, or seeing The Rolling Stones at Anaheim in 1978 for the "Some Girls" tour. Both times tickets were hard to get and I just sort of lucked into getting to go. I was a huge Pink Floyd fan at the time and they were not scheduled to play anywhere but New York, Los Angeles and London. I had a friend going to school in LA at the time and was able to score four tickets. The concert was in December right after school let out so it was time for a road trip. The Rolling Stones were also not originally scheduled to play in Northern California. My same friend said he would have no chance to get tickets and said I should try to get them up here at a ticket master. I drove to the nearest dealer on the day the tickets went on sale and just walked up and got two. My friend said the ticket lines were so long everywhere in LA that it was a lead story on the news. Just last year I got the opportunity to take my twin sons to see The Offspring and 311 at a punk festival. Just watching them have fun at their first concert made it pretty good memory for me.
Apparently my mom had connections at ticket master when she first started dating my dad. He liked photography and would go to every big act to get pictures, back when no one cared and you could bring professional cameras to front row seats. He had pictures front row pictures from Pink Floyd during their original DarkSide tour, Alice Cooper, The dead, Jethro Tull, and Jimi Hendrix. The only time he had someone steal his prints during development? Sonny And Sher. During the Alice Cooper concert somebody dove at the stage and landed on his friend's girlfriend. His friend beat the shit out of the guy and Alice stopped the concert to tell him that they were crazier than he was. This was the coolest story we got out of him, I think he might have been too high to remember the rest.
I’m going to buck the trend here and talk about the worst concert I ever attended: Weezer The date of this concert was September 12, 2001. It probably should have been a huge red flag, but I grew up in Northern California, and at 17 we weren’t exactly the most socially conscious people ever. Apparently also not socially conscious are 10-13 year old girls who made up 90% of the audience in the wake of the Green Album, and maybe the planes flying into buildings fear or whatever. The venue held probably 10,000 and was maybe 1/3rd full. And just for a little extra perspective, this was the first show of the tour. The opening band had a hot as fuck female lead singer and were maybe the worst band I have ever heard live. It was grunting into a microphone over bad music. The middle band was hard rock band, Cold. There could not have possibly been a worse combo. Another guy from my High School went to this show just to see this band and left right after. I would suspect everyone else in attendance wished they could have arrived right after Cold finished. They weren’t an awful band, but there was little to no cross over appeal. To add insult to injury, Cold was released from the tour and Tenacious D was added after 3 shows. Finally Weezer came on and holy shit did they suck. I had already seen and enjoyed them live, but I think that was before Rivers had died inside and begun the tailspin of terribleness that Weezer is now. Again, just to kick us while we were down, the bass player had quit the band weeks before the tour started and was replaced by a greasy roadie (think the neighbor in Office Space, but 100x greasier). No fun banter, no showmanship, just a bunch of songs played in a row with no feeling or emotion. Fucking awful. We did manage to climb out of the rubble left in this concerts wake, but 9 years later and I am starting to suffer from lung problems. I’ll definitely Never Forget.
Muse @ The Pageant in St. Louis. Hands down. They played Muscle Museum and added a nice 6 minute guitar solo that was simply mind blowing. The rest of the set was also fucking great and the light show and effects were well above par.
So over the course of one summer I had my two best concert experiences. I could give two shits about 311. I thought they were a talent bankrupt band. Then I met them. A former acquaintance was well connected in the music world and wanted to show off. So at this festival where several bands were playing I got the opportunity to have lunch with they guys from 311. Humble, kind, smart, funny people. Then the show. What a great goddamned show. I watched it from the side of the stage. Great showmen, interacted with the crowd, super into their craft and really loved their fans. This is Tim their lead guitarist. Then the show of all shows was tool a few weeks later. I went backstage and smoked a joint with Justin Chancellor who is a hero of mine. The man is just an amazing bassist. We talked about our musical influences, what got him into playing. Turns out he had just come back stage to grab some wine glasses and we talked for 45 minutes. There was a chick waiting for him on the bus and he was sitting there humoring me. Cool, cool guy. Then there was the God himself - Mufuckin Danny, the greatest drummer to ever walk among mortals. Super kind guy. We bonded over our love of the Lakers:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu0wXZX6O3Y&feature=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu0wXZX6 ... re=related</a> My second NiN concert, first one was Amherst Mass and I got lost on the way home for 3 hours.
Flogging Molly on New Year's Eve two years ago. Great show, they played for a good two hours and cut-out in the middle of a song at midnight and broke into a spontaneous performance of Auld Lang Syne. Crowd was great and friendly, had beers being handed to me, went out afterwards to some great parties. I've seen them a couple of other times and it's never a disappointing show.
The best show I've ever been to is Pink Floyd Division Bell tour at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 94. 17th row on the field. Rage Against the Machine was a close second in Akron, OH in 96. The pit at that one was intense. It was angry and intense but not violent. Mirrored the music. I've seen Tool and A Perfect Circle so many times that it's hard to distinguish one show from the next. All were amazing. One of the most enjoyable concerts was Zakk Wylde when he toured solo for his Book of Shadows acoustic album. He played on a stage at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights with a couple hundred candles burning. Him and Nick Cantonese(sp?) sat on stools and played acoustically. Great atmosphere. During the opening acts, I sat in the back on a pool table next to a guy I find out is Nick just shooting the shit and he just up and says he needs to go, this is before Zakk goes on. Then he ends up walking out and getting on stage when Zakk comes out. No idea who Nick was at the time. Ended up getting to hang out after the show with some of them and have some beers with them all. Just a memorable night. Mike Doughty solo after Soul Coughing breaking up was pretty memorable as well. It was in support of his album Skittish. I always love seeing musicians that I highly admire in very small, intimate environments. I saw Garth Brooks once with my mom, sister and a couple other of my neighbors. That show sits at my number three of all time. The energy there was re-fucking-diculous. He played for 3 and a half hours nonstop. High energy. Everybody was so into the show. I became a fan after that. One of the first dates with my now wife was to go see the John Butler Trio in DC. Great show, great atmosphere and a great night with somebody who I knew after that night was a keeper. So many memories of some great shows. The ones listed above are some that remain vividly in my thoughts. I kind of miss going to concerts like I used to. I've been fortunate to have seen some great shows. My main concert going years were from about 92 to about 2005. I now go to a couple shows here or there when there is something that I just can't miss. Back then, I would go to any and everything I could.
That's me, about 20 rows out on the field, 37.5 people from the left, with my ex-fiance. When the crowd found out they were filming this for the video they went apeshit. Great concert.
I once saw Herman's Hermits in concert. At one point they started playing some oldie, I can't remember what, and then about 30 seconds in, with everyone singing along they just stopped, and the lead singer shouted "That's not one of our songs! All of you singing along didn't realize that's not us!" Then, in the middle of another song they stopped because they forgot to do the part where you spell out "Henry" in Henry the 8th, so they went back and did that part, and then finished the song they were on. I haven't been to many concerts, but I thought that was pretty cool that they could just dick around on stage like that.
I begged for months for tickets to Phil Collins' ....But Seriously show at the Capitol Center for my 14th birthday, first and foremost because he is a fantastic drummer. My poor mother probably (literally) whored herself out but she got me those tickets. It remains one of the most spectacular nights of my life. Granted we in the nosebleed balcony, but we were at the front of the balcony and we were just to the right of the stage so I had a pretty good view. Midway through the show, he got into a drum-off with Chester Thompson and it was so awesome I nearly shit myself. He puts on an awesome show and I will never forget it as long as I live. He is, unfortunately, in terrible shape physically and will never sit behind the drums again. That makes me incredibly sad. I'm a dork. I came to terms with that years ago. I also saw The Jackson 5 Victory Tour at JFK Stadium for my 8th birthday (I was a huge MJ fan). We had taken a train to Philly under the guise of meeting my dad on a business trip. My sister was 15 and didn't want to go, thus she pissed and moaned the whole trip making it miserable for everyone. They took me to Bookbinders for my birthday dinner on the 27th and the concert was on the 28th. My dad handed me a card and my rotten little ass said "That's all I get? A CARD?!" I opened it with a sigh and a roll of the eyes and kind of pushed the concert tickets to the side without even really looking at them. Kudos to my dad for not snatching me up by my ungrateful little neck and choking the shit out of me. Once they explained to me what they were, I shrieked like the little girl that I was. I unfortunately only remember bits and pieces of the show itself. We were maybe 20 rows back on the floor and I spent nearly the whole show on the shoulders of my 6'3" father. He still claims it is one of the most physically painful things he has ever endured. Walking down to our seats, my mom stepped in the cavernous crack between the aisle seat and the stairs and had a nasty bruise from her knee to her hip. I actually saw Michael Jackson do the moonwalk right in front of me! We were staying in the same hotel that he was supposedly staying in and spent most of the night in the hotel lobby hoping we would see him walk in and get an autograph but we never did. What I remember, I remember fondly.
The most memorable concert I've attended was seeing Mark Knopfler last week in St. Louis. Although some of his new songs are rather slow, he still mixes in enough of his faster songs and the classics from Dire Straits to make it a well-rounded show. He has assembled a world-class group of musicians, two of whom were in Dire Straits with him - Guy Fletcher and Danny Cummings. The acoustics were perfect in the Fox Theatre - by far the best I've ever heard, and in a completely different league compared to a stadium concert.
I think I have to go with Merry Mayhem, 2001 in Hartford, CT. Ozzy and Rob Zombie, with Mudvayne opening. I have never been a huge Mudvayne fan but damn can they put on a live show. The contact high I was getting from all the weed around me probably helped sweeten the experience too. Rob Zombie was of course amazing. He was in top form and there was a huge fire breathing metal robot in the back. I'd have to say that the highlight was Zakk Wylde. At one point Ozzy just stepped aside and let him jam for 10+ minutes. Some of the most amazing shit I've seen live. I was about 20 feet from the stage and was in awe.
I did not start going to concerts until I was 21 years old. Since then, I have been to many, and it is hard to pick the best. The first concert I ever went to was on New Years Eve, 1999. The Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt. It was pretty epic. Excerpts from it were released on an Eagles box set a year or two later. It was also the last time that Don Felder ever played with the band (and likely will ever play with the band), and so I got to see the last hurrah of the Long Run crew. I have been to a number of all-star benefit shows with lineups to die for, including: Recording Artists Coalition benefit: Sheryl Crow (with surprise guest Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks), John Fogerty (from CCR), surprise guest announcer Tom Hanks, Stevie Nicks (with surprise guest Tom Petty), Billy Joel, and the Eagles. The 2002 Bridge School Benefit: Neil Young, James Taylor, Foo Fighters, Ryan Adams, Tenacious D, Thom Yorke from Radiohead, LeAnn Rimes, Jack Johnson, and Vanessa Carlton. The 2007 Bridge School Benefit: Neil Young, Metallica, Tom Waits with Kronos Quartet, My Morning Jacket, Tegan and Sara, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Mayer, and Regina Spektor. Carl Wilson Benefit: Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, the Wondermints, Sugar Ray, Matthew Sweet, In Bloom, Carnie and Wendy Wilson, and Van Dyke Parks. Billy Hinsche and Lee Sklar were in the "house band." For the big singalong at the end, Jackson Browne, Bill Medley from the Righteous Brothers, and America jumped onstage (they had just been there to watch). Until 2007, Tom Waits had been my white whale (a personal favorite of mine, the guy NEVER tours and when he does it's two shows in Tuscaloosa, Alabama or some shit). The Carl Wilson benefit was especially cool because it was right when Brian was finishing the SMiLE album (after a 37-year hiatus), although nobody knew he was working on it. The band played many of the major pieces from SMiLE for some of the first times ever. Van Dyke Parks, the co-lyricist on the album, also gave a rare public performance. I have seen a few acts that I consider especially legendary: Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and a few others. If I ever have kids, I want to be able to tell them that I once got to sing All Along the Watchtower with the guy who wrote it. A few personal favorites are acts that tour infrequently or are just sort of novel in some way. Randy Newman was a great one because when the ticket says "an evening with Randy Newman" that's what you get. It's you, Randy, and a piano. He doesn't always remember all the words, and he doesn't always remember all the chords, but that's OK because you're all just sort of hanging out. I saw Steve Martin on his recent banjo tour. And my vote for greatest novelty act of all time: I once saw the Rock Bottom Remainders. They are a band composed entirely of famous authors (Dave Barry is sort of the de-facto bandleader. Amy Tan (Joy Luck Club) plays tambourine, and so on). They get a real musician to play with them (this particular time it was Roger McGuinn from the Byrds) so they sound marginally better than a band composed of famous authors who are not professional musicians. If I had to pick one single show that was the greatest, though, I'd have to say it was Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. I am not religious, but that was the closest thing I have ever had to a religious experience. I think Bruce Springsteen may be some kind of minor deity. Phil Spector may have invented the Wall of Sound, but Springsteen owns it. As if any extra highlights were needed beyond just playing Prove it All Night and Born to Run and Jungleland and the like, well, I got to see this.