NationStates Jolt Archive

...the band.

I went to see them last night and they rocked my face off. Seriously, I'm standing here with a mass of bloody pulp on the front of my cranium because of the high levels of face-off-rocking at that show.

So what's the best live show you've been to in recent weeks/months/years?

best live event: global gathering (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlx-Q7fKXxQ)

worst: faithless (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IneitBpSeWA)

Alice Cooper (and I'm excited about seeing him again next month :D). Bon Jovi, Madness, Iron Maiden and Ozzy also rank highly on my list of awesome gigs.

Best: Streetlight Manifesto at the Trocadero a year or so back.

Worst: A friend of mine's band playing at Birch Hill before it closed.


...on a related note, I hate the Starland Ballroom.

Best: Tool at Coachella in 2006, with like 80,000 other people. Intense.


Worst: Massive Attack opening for Tool at Coachella. I don't do trance-hop, and neither did most of other other people there (Tool fans, mostly). Bad call by the organizers.

...the band.
BR are an intensely good live band.

Though the top live performances I've seen are probably Underworld, Deftones, New Order, Prodigy and cLOUDDEAD.

If I had to pick one, I'd pick cLOUDDEAD, if only for the intimacy.

The best shows I've been to are:

The Headhunters - man that was great. I was in the balcony at The Filmore and the lights went down and fireflies erupted all across the floor. Clearly we were in the wrong place. We went downstairs and ended up in three different pipe circles, like the epicenter of some grand stoner vin diagram.

And the music kicked ass.

Buckshot LeFonque was also remarkably good. Trading fours between a sax and turntables was surprisingly entertaining.

Pharoah Sanders - Just fucking awesome.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band in a barn in Davis. Cozy (not the word I wanted but spell check kept failing me), exciting, almost felt like a real second line party. So much energy and good times that it overshadowed the fact that I was there with a girlfriend who had broken up with me earlier that week. Now thats a good show.

Tony Williams at Kimball's East. With Bill Pierce on tenor who called me over to talk to him during intermission. This actually happens a lot to me, I don't question it. It's awesome.

Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams tribute to Miles Davis, also awesome.

Just for who he was more than the music he played at the show: Miles Davis. It was just amazing to be in the same building as him.

Dizzy Gillespie - The music was great, and again, it was Dizzy fucking Gillespie! I drove two hours in torrential rain against the advice of friends to see that. Totally worth it.

The first time I saw The Cherry Poppin' Daddies after their first album Ferociously Stoned came out (still a good five or so years before they were picked up by Universal and had their one hit, a good two years before the 'swing' revival when they were being bunched up with Ska bands. It was beautiful. No swing dancers, no fedoras, just driving music with a horn section). Also my first mosh pit started when one friend I was with took another friend of ours and threw him at someone walking against the grain of the crowd.

Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams tribute to Miles Davis, also awesome.

Just for who he was more than the music he played at the show: Miles Davis. It was just amazing to be in the same building as him.
:eek:

You lucky bastard!

BR are an intensely good live band.


Do you mean a good band to see live, a good band that still is playing, or a good band that has performers who are not dead?

I haven't been to any concerts in a while. I saw a chamber music one a few weeks ago, but that's not really a band.

:eek:

You lucky bastard!

There was a 'jazz boom' right as I got my first car and I took total advantage of that and saw a lot of legendary performers, though Dizzy and Miles are far and away the top of that list. But it was pretty cool.

Golden Earring, last month :D

But The Misfits were also very cool :)

Do you mean a good band to see live, a good band that still is playing, or a good band that has performers who are not dead?
All three.

Iron Maiden!!!

Golden Earring, last month :D
Wait, aren't they the ones that did that Twilight Zone song? Are they still around? Were they at a state fair? [/really shouldn't be making cracks about one hit wonders...]

How can people find it so easy to choose? I really cannot decide, too many to choose from.

Though the worst live event I went to was probably that massive free outdoor fat boy slim gig just a few blocks away from me, it wasn't his fault though, the rain was so intense it was damaging the equipment and the speakers giving it a disappointing sound.

The best concert I've ever been to was Emperor, this past June. That was a tight performance, and somehow they're very... I don't know... classy, live. The whole thing had kind of a ceremonious feel, yet Ihsahn (lead guitarist/vocalist) is very appreciative of the audience. While still being very confident and in their element, it was easy to tell that they were happy that everyone in the audience had come to see them.

A close second would be the Immortal concert I went to in July. That was a gloriously metal evening.

Best: Streetlight Manifesto at the Trocadero a year or so back.

at summerfest in milwaukee this year, they came out a half hour early and announced that they were against all authority (whose van had exploded or something, so they didn't get there in time for their set). it confused a good chunk of the audience. i approved.

I have never been to any concerts myself.

Though not my best, I saw Strike Anywhere this last weekend and they rocked pretty hard. My best may have been The Mars Volta at the Berkley Community Theater in March. So much awesome. I am tempted to say that one of my worst is when a friend of mine opened for this really shitty band. My friend's band (old band now) played really shitty that night so I left with a bitter taste in my mouth.

The best? A tie between Muse and Pearl Jam at Leeds Festival 2006, and Reel Big Fish at Slam Dunk Festival earlier this year. Actually, Idlewild on their most recent tour were fantastic as well.

Best... hard to say.... probably "Ministry" in Nottingham, at Rock City... in 2000, maybe? The venue isn't the best, but the set was awesome, and Ministry have never been better.

Nine Inch Nails - a couple of times, very good gigs - although they were supported by Atari Teenage Riot at the London gig, and that was possibly the worst live show I've ever caught.

Pop Will Eat Itself, at the DMU Student Union...

The indy band "Prolapse"... a whole load of fantastic gigs... I saw them a lot of places.

So what's the best live show you've been to in recent weeks/months/years?

I saw a pretty bitchin' drag show a couple of weeks ago. Does that count?

Well, I've only been to Hanson concerts, so I can't say best or worst.

Recent? Not even close. Face-rocking? You betcha.

Kiss, tenth or twelfth show on their first tour. Yeah, even then they were an incredible show band.

Jethro Tull, opening night of their War Child tour. They were pumped. So were we.

The Allman Brothers Band . 350,000 fans at that show agree that they brought down the house ... or speedway, as the case may be. Earlier acts Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Marshall Tucker, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Black Oak Arkansas, and about 20 others made for a pretty memorable festival.

Shit. I'm old.

Epica/Kamelot last year at Studio 7 in Seattle. Excellent.

There was a ‘jazz boom’ right as I got my first car and I took total advantage of that and saw a lot of legendary performers, though Dizzy and Miles are far and away the top of that list. But it was pretty cool.
Very cool.


Ooh, and I have to add to my favourite gigs John Martyn playing to his home town crowd a couple of years back. He’s still got it.

best in order of latest, then stretching back.....

Goldie Looking Chain - Brixton
The Ramones - Brixton
Motorhead/Supultera -Hammersmith
Manowar - Hammersmith

Worst...

Beastie Boys - Wembly Arena
Guns and Roses - Wembly Stadium

P!nk during Beatstad,
and Krezip, who I've now seen three times, but they are great:p

PJ Gallagher last night. Much lulz were had. Especially at the bit about tampoons[sic], aka gee* bullets.




*Hard g. I'm sure you can figure out what it means.

In the last year I've been to two shows.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Saltimbanco.

I'm not very interesting, but the shows are..