Worst band you've ever seen?

[LSquared]

Two notablyt bad bands I've seen were both replacement warm-up bands.

Late 1976, Pittsburgh Pa (Civic Arena). Doobie Brothers with Boston. This was right as Boston was exploding on the scene. We were pretty pumped, but it was not to be. From the stage (not in advance) they announced that Boston's equipment truck had broken down, and they weren't going to play. The replacement was something like "Split Lips". Never heard of them before or since. The main thing I remember is the guitar repeatedly apologizing because he had a brand new guitar and he wasn't used to it. To be fair, I imagine playing infront of ~15,000 people on short notice could be a little stressful.... But rule #1 ought to be to avoid making excuses for why you stink.

Another was Patti Smith Group. Also in Pittsburgh, July 1978. New Leona Theater. The warm-up band was supposed to be David Johansen Group. I don't remember what the excuse was, but they didn't play. The replacement was a local bar band, "Iron City Houserockers". My main recollection is large portions of the crowd turning their backs and giving double fisted "single-finger" salutes. [aside: some internet research shows that was the last show at the venue]

 

[eyeballkid]

Nope. STILL Queens of the Stone Age!!
I even went to the show for free and Im mad!!
I can never get that hour of my life back.

 

[JoeWPgh]

I've seen the Stones a few times. I'd rank them as one of the best five and worst five I've seen in person.

 

[mellowinman]

White Lion opened for someone I saw in the eighties. I was so blown away, because they had the best sound I had ever heard. PERFECT. Every note, every nuance of every instrument mixed exactly right. Acoustic guitars right where they should be. All vocals on key, and timed perfectly.

How could anyone sound that good, and be so hatefully BAD? Their music was like a giant stone hand, crushing my heart, and crippling my soul. I almost lost my will to listen to or play music during that performance.

 

[Melonthief]

I keep expecting my name to pop up in this thread, I've done some pretty cheesy stuff.....

 

[Tanner5382]

Phish, Joe Walsh, Beck.

I assume that was during Walsh's super heavy, even for him, drug and alcohol period. I've seen him twice with the Eagles and once solo back in June. He was great each time. He is certainly the highlight of the Eagles shows, and his solo show was great. One of the best concerts I've been to.

 

[Einherjar]

I'll join the club of "I'm the worst I've ever seen". First show I ever had was at my highschool's dance. The powers that be agreed to let us play despite knowing we were trouble makers and played in a very abrasive punk band. (luckily they couldn't make out the lyrics, so we got to play a bunch of songs telling them how much we hated them and they just smiled and danced). All of us had been playing one year or less (we were in 10th grade. One guitarist was a year younger)... Our drummer and vocalist got way too stoned right before going on stage. Drummer was a Russian dragon (hurhurhur) and the vocalist literally forgot every line of every song we had. Even the covers! So it was a blur of incoherent noise with a bleary eyed vocalist squinting at a lyric sheet belting out the wrong vocals to every song. They loved it for some reason, and it's still a good memory because after the last song we dropped our instruments and pelted our classmates and teachers with premade water balloons and proceeded to run around tackling people. Still not sure how we didn't get suspended for that one. Great memory, glad no one recorded it

 

[Tactician]

Hoogie Boogie - makes you want to introduce licensing for instruments doesn't it? Bit like a driving license - you should be a licensed to be allowed to play in public without your parents. The parents of these guys would have crashed them over a cliff to save the innocent.

 

[rubbadubdub]

Ok, after previously slagging Meatloaf I'm going to confess to the worst gig at the Mean Fiddler. My mate rang and said that his crappy band had blagged a headline gig at the Fiddler, quite a famous London venue. His band had bottled it a week before so could I find a drummer to get a band together in time? I said yes and we found a 'vocalist' who had never even used a mic before. We were driven down to the gig by another mate which allowed us to get far too stoned. After soundcheck we got plastered in the nearest pub. There were several bands on the bill including the Fabulous Meercats (who had loads of posh kit and a recent cover of Melody Maker I seem to remember) and The Levellers. The latter were not yet signed but filled the venue. They also blew the lid off the place.
Our singer drank a bottle of whiskey and collapsed before uttering a single word, the monitor engineer had to switch my amp on and the guitarist wore a see through shirt through which you could see several large boils. I feel sorry for our drummer because he stayed sober for this gig for a change. I couldn't even feel my strings though I remember the dude from the levellers asking for several requests including All Along The Watchtower. We couldn't even play Can't Explain or Daytripper! We also trashed the dressing room and the sound dude had to pull the plug on us. Rock and Roll.
Somehow after all this I managed to pull a stunning blonde and was about to get a lift to Brighton in the Levellers bus but our own driver dragged me protesting to our own van and back to reality. I played the same venue some years later in a real band and fortunately no one from the venue recognised me.

 

[AltGrendel]

Not trolling but honestly Dylan's singing always sounded TO ME like a Korean woman beating a goat to death with a live cat....

Yoko Ono, worst ever.

 

[Trayster2]

What about Bob Dylan's recordings led you to believe that he would be good live?

I was hoping he'd play his early stuff. He didn't.

 

[Melonthief]

Yoko Ono, worst ever.

Hahaha! Ok you can't really complain about Yoko being bad. There was never any chance that was going to be a good show. That's like answering a thread about the worst meal you ever ate-"we'll, I once had s bowl of cat puke.."

 

[tdub0199]

Black Label Society had a terrible sound when I saw them in 2010, all you could hear was Zak's guitar and nothing else.... It was ear piercing loud and I had to leave.... Sevendust opened for BLS that night and sounded GREAT!!!!!

Alice In Chains sound was terrible when I saw them in 2011.... all you could hear was Jerry's guitar.....

I guess it could have been blamed on the sound guy but terrible = terrible none the less....

 

[Melonthief]

Black Label Society had a terrible sound when I saw them in 2010, all you could hear was Zak's guitar and nothing else.... It was ear piercing loud and I had to leave.... Sevendust opened for BLS that night and sounded GREAT!!!!!

Alice In Chains sound was terrible when I saw them in 2011.... all you could hear was Jerry's guitar.....

I guess it could have been blamed on the sound guy but terrible = terrible none the less....

+1 on black label. Saw them last year, exact same story. So loud I got dizzy.

 

[tdub0199]

I have to say I'm quite disappointed that no one seemed to have gotten this reference



Saw the Deftones in 99 with Pantera and Black Sabbath on their reunion tour. They sound was was so bad that they sounded like a bad garage band playing out of a broken P.A. system. But as soon as Pantera came out, the sound was so incredible that the Deftones lack of sound had to have been a purposeful screw over by the venue. Unfortuntely they used the bad sound as an excuse to play like ****.

I have heard several times that the Deftones were quite bad live but I saw them in 2011 and they sounded great!!!!

 

[tmdazed]

+1 on black label. Saw them last year, exact same story. So loud I got dizzy.

Same, saw them opening for Judas Priest last year, they sounded like the mud from the bottom of an outhouse pit. i thought Priests soundman had hit the suck button and jammed it in place , but after reading a couple of these responses from across NA and see it was not the case, JP sounded great, tight, crystal clear sound and put on a great show, BLS not so much. Though I am convinced Halford is really just a robot they had built to tour with and the original is in a rest home in England.

 

[jbybj]

At 57 years of age, I have seen ALOT of bands. I still have most of the ticket stubs too.
But the absolute worst show I ever saw was The Grateful Dead in 1971 at Daniel Meyer Coliseum on the campus of Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX.

Too loud, too long, and sounded like one massive groan mixed in with a hum.

The one time I saw the Dead was a New Years Eve show at the Cow Palace in San Bruno, I think it was 1978. I had an awesome nap from 1am to 3am, woke up and left while they carried on.
Seeing the Dead while NOT tripping, is like listening to Reggae while NOT being stoned, it just doesn't work..........

 

[Melonthief]

Same, saw them opening for Judas Priest last year, they sounded like the mud from the bottom of an outhouse pit. i thought Priests soundman had hit the suck button and jammed it in place , but after reading a couple of these responses from across NA and see it was not the case, JP sounded great, tight, crystal clear sound and put on a great show, BLS not so much. Though I am convinced Halford is really just a robot they had built to tour with and the original is in a rest home in England.

That's the tour! Odd though it was BLS ( way too loud) Thin Lizzy (perfect volume awesome sound) and Judas ( back to way too loud) I am crazy about JP but we had to leave 3 songs in because of the punishing volume.

 

[Raymeous]

Vinnie Vincent Invasion opening for Iron Maiden. The best thing they did was leave when getting "boo-ed" off the stage.

 

[Melonthief]

I wonder if it was VVI's music or the pink guitars and scarves and lipstick that got him booed off! Not exactly the type of thing that would sit well with maiden fans..,,,,,