Worst Live Performance?

[Croox]

Ozzfest 2000- Incubus blew chunks, maybe it was the outdoor pavilion here, but it was awful

 

[NS2A]

Ace Frehley around 1994. Ace was hungover bad from the night before and they literally pushed him out onto stage to do the show. Feedback all night long as he didn't soundcheck and he kept forgetting the words so the bassist would take over singing. Utter crap. So much so the venue booked him again later in the year! Apparently that show was better.

 

[6jase5]

U2

I've seen them 8 times, 7 amazing, but once in Philly they just put a turd on the stage and it stunk up the arena. They were 2 hours late, played for just over an hour (even a surprise appearance by Bruce Springsteen didn't help).

I've seen them 5 times since then, brilliant. Just an off night, and fans were obviously disappointed.

 

[bnutz]

Guns N Roses in '92 or '93 with Metallica and Motorhead at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. Motorhead was fine, then Metallica came out and RAWKED!!! the house. Everyone in the entire place was pumped- ready for G 'n R to take it home. They hit the stage and in the course of the first 30 minutes played, like, every ballad they ever wrote (I think 5) and KILLED the vibe in the audience.

Then Axl, getting the idea that people were less than super enthusiastic (sitting down, going to get drinks, etc.) started to berate the audience' "What the f***'s up LA?", etc.

So lame. I was really bummed. It was the only time I had an opportunity to see them and, at the time, they were one of my favorite bands. At least Metallica kicked ass. And I saw the show for free.

-b

 

[Joel S.]

The Roots and Erykah Badu.

Luckily it wasn't their fault, they put on really good shows, but the sound was horrible. There was so much resonance in the bass it was impossible to hear the vocals clearly, or even make out what the bassists were playing.

 

[tZer]

We have a thread about the best shows you've seen live, and this one I want to know what you think are some of the worst.

What I'm looking for here is bands that you like that seemed to have an off night, or the crowd wasn't what you thought it was.

Mine is was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. It was my third time seeing them and it was at a Bands of America thing. I wasn't participating, but my friends and I like to buy tickets to see some of the bands they have come through (saw Tower of Power a few years earlier, with Rocco! )
So, there's like 3000 hardcore high school marching band kids there, and like they've been taught for the past week of the camp to clap along to the beat.
That DOES NOT work for a band like the Flecktones, who don't play in 4/4 all of the time and are constantly playing with the time signature/feel.
It made the entire experience absolutely awful. Bela even told the kids to stop clapping because they were playing in some odd meter, like 17/9 or something like that. Unfortunately, they didn't stop clapping.
Those kids totally ruined my experience in seeing one of my favorite bands. I wish I could ask one of the band members what they thought of the crowd.


So, what are you worst live performances?

So which is it? The band's performance was bad or the crowd blew it for you?

I had a similar experience at a Flecktones show with a crowd member. We got there early and set up in the sweet spot - in front of the mixer at a nice table - prime seating for grown-ups to watch a really good show.

Sure enough - moron #462 takes a seat right next to us. Seemed OK at first, but as the show got rolling this guy took every opportunity he could to shout the most hillbilly, assbackward BS - Yes - he was enjoying the show, but apparently had problems understanding the difference between expressing appreciation and making a complete ass of oneself.

I moved.


But the worst performance by a musician/band was my Ted Nugent experience. Both he, his band and the crowd sucked beyond all bounds of suckiness. Ted's rhetoric the star, his songs were secondary, his audience who would have cheered for a steaming cow-pie (and did) ate it up and the rest of the noise he offered up was phoned in at best.

Worst show EVER.

 

[ilikethump]

Worst was at The Tabernacle in Atlanta. The Used were playing there, one of my favorite bands (fond memories of college parties etc) and I was psyched to see them live to see if he actually could scream/sing the way he does on all the recordings.

Well, the opening band SUCKED. Like, REALLY SUCKED. The lines they were playing could have been performed by a freaking monkey. The keyboard player would hold down one key, the bassist would play one note, the guitarist would play three different power chords. It was beyond awful. The singers were doing their best scream/sing stuff but they were prancing around in ways that just made them look exceedingly effeminate instead of like they were rocking out. In a futile attempt to get the crowd going, they were spinning the microphones around... which were smashed onto the floor. Which ruined the sound.

So when the Used came on, the sound was miserable. Considering I know most songs by heart, something is wrong when I can't identify what song they are playing until at least 45 seconds in. It was just a wall of grating noise that only sounded decent when you had your hands over your ears. Ugh. And then in an even worse turn of events, Bert (singer) had developed nodes on his vocal chords and as a result... couldn't sing. He tried his best, but it was sooo freaking obvious that the songs would be cut in half before a crescendo and suddenly merge into another song, or whenever he was supposed to scream he would hold the mic out to the crowd and pretend he was screaming. I don't think they played a full song that entire night, just bits and pieces all cleverly merged to prevent any actual singing.

The saving grace was that I had a flask of 151 because beers cost 7 dollars a pop. Blrgh. Goes to show you what a poor sound guy can do to even a band you love.

 

[PapaJustice]

James Brown.

Yes, I said James Brown. I saw him a few years ago and he was awful. He barely even played. Prior to his coming out to perform, there was a fat lounge singer (in a really tight dress), a comedian (who wasn't that funny), and a magician (who was incredibly boring). This was all somehow part of his act. James Brown didn't come out for about a half hour after the magician(who did bad tricks) and barely sang. He did one song, then started talking a lot. It was completely unintelligible... only word I could understand was "Jesus". He then barely did a few more songs. We left early because it wasn't worth the time.

Oh and during one of the songs the magician came back out and did tricks while James Brown performed. I really can't imagine a more abysmal and disappointing concert experience.

 

[warnergt]

Some of you will not like this answer but, believe it or not, the worst performance I ever saw was Weather Report with Jaco Pastorius. It was in the late 70's and well before I even considered playing bass. A friend who happened to be a bass player in a really good local band insisted that I go see this guy so I did. I saw them in Philadelphia at the Tower Theater.

I couldn't stand it. I pretty much like all kinds of music (some more than others) but this show was giving me a splitting headache which I never get. Jaco put his bass on the floor and was hitting it with a rope or something. It was pure trash. At one point, his echo effect caused the rope-lashed bass to emit a few tones that sounded semi-melodic. The crowd cheered. "Oh my God!" I thought. "Do these people think that's music?"

 

[Joeykun]

Van Halen "Women and Children First" Tour at the Cape Cod Coliseum, MA.

They were so loud you didn't know what song they were playing until a few bars in. Dave hardly sang and just talked his way through songs. Eddie was way too loud and my ears were ringing for days. "Lost control, Lost control, Lost control!"

Never saw them again after that. Now, there is no need to!

 

[ALiP BoB]

Anything Ashlee Simpson.

+1trillion to that!

and Blink 182.

 

[Johnny Mack]

cant say im a fan, but one of the best shows ive ever seen was from blink 182.

 

[rezin]

+1trillion to that!

and Blink 182.

so when did you see ashley simpson and blink 182 live?

 

[edmidlifecrisis]

Lots of really bad acts opened for headliners I've seen through the seventies and eighties. Some made it big after being opening acts. But they sucked.

Once I saw Johnny Winter in Port Chester, NY and got a splitting headache from the unbelievable volume. It was awful.

I think maybe (hazy memories) the worst opener I ever saw was a band called Wishbone Ash. Putrid. Another was Golden Earring. Horrid. The others I can't remember.

A couple of years ago I went to the Riverwalk Blues Festival in downtown Ft. Lauderdale to see a friend who plays blues harp with a blues guitarist named Joey Gilmore, who is a fine singer/guitarist sort of like a younger version of BB King. They played inside the Revolution Club and it was great. The outdoor stage, though, had some better known blues acts as well as a finale by Kim Wilson and Charlie Musselwhite, great acts. The house sound system was this huge wall of cabs in this outdoor plaza. The volume was so ear-splittingly high that I got a huge headache even wearing earplugs. Idiocy. Ear bleeding volume, how can you enjoy a show like that? I wrote to them afterwards that I'd never return. Even if my friend plays again, which he did.

Insanity.

 

[Spinal Tapper]

The Mars Volta.

2 years ago at the Arragon Ballroom in Chicago. Horrible sounding venue to start with, but I don't know what they were doing up there, or what they thought they were doing...just making noise, drums were off...I was terribly disappointed as I had gone with some people who had seen them previously and they said it was awful compared to the last time they saw them. I have all their CD's and love them, but this was super boring, and wayyyy toooo loud. These hippie kids in front of me were hippie dancing too. I hate that sh*t.

 

[DudeistMonk]

So, there's like 3000 hardcore high school marching band kids there, and like they've been taught for the past week of the camp to clap along to the beat.
That DOES NOT work for a band like the Flecktones, who don't play in 4/4 all of the time and are constantly playing with the time signature/feel.
It made the entire experience absolutely awful. Bela even told the kids to stop clapping because they were playing in some odd meter, like 17/9 or something like that. Unfortunately, they didn't stop clapping.
Those kids totally ruined my experience in seeing one of my favorite bands. I wish I could ask one of the band members what they thought of the crowd.

I saw Bela once, I was convinced 50% of the people there where bassists, really awesome night. I can't believe the kids didn't stop once Bela told them 2...I would have been furious.

The Mars Volta.

2 years ago at the Arragon Ballroom in Chicago. Horrible sounding venue to start with, but I don't know what they were doing up there, or what they thought they were doing...just making noise, drums were off...I was terribly disappointed as I had gone with some people who had seen them previously and they said it was awful compared to the last time they saw them. I have all their CD's and love them, but this was super boring, and wayyyy toooo loud. These hippie kids in front of me were hippie dancing too. I hate that sh*t.

I saw them 3 years ago at the Electric Factory in Philly...They where awesome when they decided to play something but they did dedicate half the show to feedback, I assume it would have been better if I was screwed up in some way...and if I was older than 20, you couldn't smoke in the under 21 section, it was the back of the venue and every time one of the feedback sessions started up on stage I would light a stogy and 3 minutes later the bouncer would pass by and I'd have to put it out...wasted half a pack like that. In their defense they did play a really long set which made up for all the "filler".

 

[Joel S.]

These hippie kids in front of me were hippie dancing too. I hate that sh*t.

lmao, a friend of mine does an awesome hippie dance impersonation. Not like it's hard, throw your hands up, and gyrate around to some random rhythm and tempo, but he nails it and it's hilarious.

This reminds me, the Schwag (Greatful Dead Tribute) are god awful. I saw them a few times, and no amount of liquor or umm... other things could make them entertaining. And there's always a herd of hippies hippie dancing in front of the stage.

 

[fenderhutz]

Worst was at The Tabernacle in Atlanta. The Used were playing there, one of my favorite bands (fond memories of college parties etc) and I was psyched to see them live to see if he actually could scream/sing the way he does on all the recordings.

Well, the opening band SUCKED. Like, REALLY SUCKED. The lines they were playing could have been performed by a freaking monkey. The keyboard player would hold down one key, the bassist would play one note, the guitarist would play three different power chords. It was beyond awful. The singers were doing their best scream/sing stuff but they were prancing around in ways that just made them look exceedingly effeminate instead of like they were rocking out. In a futile attempt to get the crowd going, they were spinning the microphones around... which were smashed onto the floor. Which ruined the sound.

So when the Used came on, the sound was miserable. Considering I know most songs by heart, something is wrong when I can't identify what song they are playing until at least 45 seconds in. It was just a wall of grating noise that only sounded decent when you had your hands over your ears. Ugh. And then in an even worse turn of events, Bert (singer) had developed nodes on his vocal chords and as a result... couldn't sing. He tried his best, but it was sooo freaking obvious that the songs would be cut in half before a crescendo and suddenly merge into another song, or whenever he was supposed to scream he would hold the mic out to the crowd and pretend he was screaming. I don't think they played a full song that entire night, just bits and pieces all cleverly merged to prevent any actual singing.

The saving grace was that I had a flask of 151 because beers cost 7 dollars a pop. Blrgh. Goes to show you what a poor sound guy can do to even a band you love.

Did he at least do his trademark vomit on the stage?

 

[j.a.e.r.i.p]

RHCP-WORST. SHOW. EVER! Showed up WAY late, sounded like crap, i'm no longer a fan.
Sonny Rollins-I LOVE older sonny...but at newport he soloed over I-IV for like fourty five minutes, he's pretty much lost it.

 

[j.a.e.r.i.p]

James Brown.

Yes, I said James Brown. I saw him a few years ago and he was awful. He barely even played. Prior to his coming out to perform, there was a fat lounge singer (in a really tight dress), a comedian (who wasn't that funny), and a magician (who was incredibly boring). This was all somehow part of his act. James Brown didn't come out for about a half hour after the magician(who did bad tricks) and barely sang. He did one song, then started talking a lot. It was completely unintelligible... only word I could understand was "Jesus". He then barely did a few more songs. We left early because it wasn't worth the time.

Oh and during one of the songs the magician came back out and did tricks while James Brown performed. I really can't imagine a more abysmal and disappointing concert experience.

I'm still jealous that you saw james brown.