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Worst band you've ever seen?

#62
Not the worst, but DEFINITELY the most boring, and the most surprising due to the realization of how damn bored I was which truly I did NOT expect. A few years ago I went to see Steve Vai at the House of Blues in New Orleans as a last minute seat of the pants idea...I knew he would be accompanied by Billy Sheehan and Tony MacAlpine. Sounds pretty interesting, right?

That was the most mind-numbingly boring concert I have EVER attended. It was like being slowly roasted in hell. Sure, Sheehan was great...but not even his virtuosity could save me from the absolute horrid abyss that is Steve Vai's music. Oh God.

Mr. Vai played well, much smoother and controlled than when I saw him in 1986 with David Lee Roth (Vai sucked live then), but his diva delivery-with a fan on him at all times to blow his hair mind you-made me want to punch a dwarf. Not that I dislike dwarves. But I was so damn bored I could feel my toenails growing.

Vai's originals are the musical equivalent of reading a 14 volume insurance seminar's word-by-word detailing of a 1973 cost analysis of the dangers of performing corporate flood risk assessments as they pertain to operations in Yugoslavia vs. Trinidad and Tobago written in Latin.

Why didn't I just leave, you ask? Well...

I was next to the soundboard, and I saw "Shyboy" written on the setlist a few songs from the end of the show. It was one of the only songs I knew on the list, so I figured I'd stay for that. So, I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. And waited. And started to look for a dwarf to maul. And waited. And waited. Waited a bit more...

THEM F*CKERS NEVER PLAYED SHYBOY!!!

Turns out they f'n skipped the ONLY song I had an inkling to even want to hear!!!

I was so pissed, I'm even gettin' a 'lil pissed just thinkin' 'bout it. Here I waited what seemed like 9 hours to hear the only redeeming song on the setlist, and the bastards skipped it.

As much as I love Sheehan...I'm SOOOOO glad there wasn't a 'lil dwarf man at that show. I'd be in jail right now.
 
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#63
the reunioned Soundgarden playing some live concert on Palladia music channel. nails on a chalkboard. the sound was awful, Chris Cornell is a little too over-the-top with his wounded-dog yelping, lame guitar playing and tone....

i had never heard of Blake Shelton. man, that guy can sing. saw some live intimate show of his (again on Palladia) and he was just down-to-earth and talented.
 
#64
Autograph opened for Van Halen on the 1984 tour. First time I had ever seen someone get boooooooed off. I will never forget all the crap being flung up there.

The Cult opened up for Billy Idol back in the day. They were pretty horrible that night.
 
#67
Saw some crappy punk bands in the late '70s but it was part of the whole scene and was expected on some multi band shows.

But the worst were always drug or alcohol related, Junior Wells a husk of his former self in Stockholm, couldn't sing or play harp anymore and too drunk to stand, with a cooking Chicago blues band that was openly disgusted with him. Chet Baker in the early '80s coming on stage an hour late so high he couldn't play a note, wandering off stage after 5 minutes saying he forgot something in his hotel, never to return. There were a few others but none as bad as these.

Nazareth playing twiddly electronic music at a '70s multi-band nostalgia festival concert was pretty excruciating and inexplicable, and seeing Chuck Berry with a pickup band that didn't know his music was pretty depressing.

I can't count the number of times great bands were let down by awful sound, strangely enough more often the last few years with poorly set up line arrays and plain awfully balanced and sludgy mixes or pounding bass drums that leave no room for the other instruments to be heard.
 
#68
Saw the Black Crows back after they broke big. Big disapointment! They outright sucked! Singer was awfull. None of the tunes sounded remotely like the cd.
I felt used for buying a ticket to that sack -o- crap!
 
#71
I paid $25 to see Robert Fripp play music, but all he did was stand next to a stack of processors for an hour. I would gladly have sat through the video for "The Final Countdown" by Europe twenty times.
To boot, it was at a club, we couldn't find seats and had to stand the whole time. I felt like I was being punished.

Edit: Recalling now, he did not actually stand there the whole time. He actually left the stage for most of the time, and the stack just sat there, blinking lights and repeating random notes into infinity. He only occasionally came out on stage (people cheered) and then spent an hour after the show saying that most people who wanted to be professional musicians only did so because they wanted "to be on holiday" for the rest of their lives.
 
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#72
PWRL said:
I paid $25 to see Robert Fripp play music, but all he did was stand next to a stack of processors for an hour. I would gladly have sat through the video for "The Final Countdown" by Europe twenty times.
To boot, it was at a club, we couldn't find seats and had to stand the whole time. I felt like I was being punished.

Edit: Recalling now, he did not actually stand there the whole time. He actually left the stage for most of the time, and the stack just sat there, blinking lights and repeating random notes into infinity. He only occasionally came out on stage (people cheered) and then spent an hour after the show saying that most people who wanted to be professional musicians only did so because they wanted "to be on holiday" for the rest of their lives.
Click to expand...

Fripp played some great guitar, but man could he talk crap to anyone who would listen.
 
#73
The worst I've ever seen was at my High School's annual battle of the bands. This band was called "Euphoria" and was made up of some pretty well liked students. They start in with a rendition of Holy Diver. (RJD had just recently passed) This must have been a spur of the moment decision because the lead singer was reading the lyrics off of what was clearly a napkin. Then the song just falls apart halfway through and they spend the next 20 minutes randomly soloing and showing off how good they think they are. No more songs, no structure, just everyone standing around while one or two of the others do something having nothing to do with what the other is doing. It doesn't take long to realize that the band had gotten really nervous, and decided to remedy the situation by getting high in the back of someones car.

The worst professional band that I have ever seen was Passion Pit opening for Muse. They weren't really horrible, they just didn't seem that into it and everything sounded exactly like it does on the recording, like it was all coming out of the DJ's computer. Muse killed.
 
#75
One Drop said:
Fripp played some great guitar, but man could he talk crap to anyone who would listen.
Click to expand...
And that's just it. I didn't know what the show was going to be about, and I did get his point, but I would never have paid to just stand there for an hour for whatever it was he was trying to prove that day. If I knew he was going to actually be playing music, that would be much more positive and enjoyable.
 
#76
I saw the White Stripes at the Pageant in St. Louis in 2002 they had a band called Clone Defects opening for them. . . and they sucked. The only high points of their set was when the lead singer was spinning his mic around and hit his lead guitarist in the back of the head. A song or two later he ran off-stage to their merch table, grabbed a few shirts and ran back to the stage. He missed his step and wiped out, everyone laughed.

 
#78
I don't know the worst local band, because when they're bad I don't take note of their name.

But for bigger bands. The worst I've seen was probably MGMT. The band was all high, and seemed burned out. The two lead guys were on acid or something, one of them was just not present in reality. It wasn't a train wreck, but they weren't tapping into any pocket.
 

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