Your most memorable live show

[Bunk McNulty]

Sam & Dave Revue, Columbus OH 1968.
Santana and Fleetwood Mac, at the Boston Tea Party, Boston 1971.
Pharoah Sanders at Slugs (NY Lower East Side), September 1973.
NRBQ at The Bottom Line, 1982. John Candy in the audience.
Bass Desires with John Scofield and Bill Frisell, The RegattaBar, Cambridge MA, 1989.

 

[ardgedee]

Saw Negativland twice, once in 1989 and again around 2000. Both absolutely amazing, live performance art.

At the 1989 show (they had just released "Helter Stupid") they had everyone in the audience fill out and put on "Hi, my name is" stickers as we arrived, and invited us to mingle with each other as if we were at a community event at the local library. Which sounds weird (it was, a roomful of painfully hip kids alongside punks and avant-garde music nerds) but it set the vibe for an evening that kind of dragged us all through their particular vision of suburbia tainted by their very recent experience of being on the receiving end of a media frenzy. And they concluded with an a capella version of "Car Bomb", everybody reading from a printed list of car parts.

For straight-ahead rock, the Grateful Dead managed to put on one of the best shows I've ever seen and one of the worst, within two years of each other in the early 90s.

 

[Stewie]

Little Feat, Rickie Lee Jones...and the night Albert Collins asked if he could borrow a guitar when a local blues band was going to take a break. Sitting at the front and center table watching a pretty good bar band step it up and sound like serious pros

 

[Michedelic]

If three is allowable…
My home town used to have a summer ‘Jazz In The Parks’ program; I honestly can’t remember the year, sometime in the late 70’s/early 80’s…Joe Pass, solo; I sat in front of the stage, just astounding, him playing lead, rhythm, and bass all at once.

1985 or ‘86, Neville Brothers, just a perfect situation. Everyone I knew was there, or so it seemed…the dance floor was packed with familiar faces, I was in the middle of the most comfortable, compatible relationship I’d had so far(at least while it lasted), the spirits flowed, in the bathroom it snowed(hey, 80’s), it was like a private party.

Lastly, a once in a lifetime experience; I didn’t play but was part of the production in a very small way. You always hear someone going on about how a band changed their life, right? I had been a fan of Australian outfit The Church, way before “Under The Milky Way”. My initial exposure was seeing the video for their first major tune, “Unguarded Moment”, on MTV’s 120 Minutes. Fast forward to the early 90’s, I had moved to LA, and answered an anonymous bass player wanted ad, which turned out to be a live line-up of what had been a Church side project, fronted by a woman from the band Game Theory. Not only did I have the two studio albums, but I had seen them a couple of times in the clubs, plus I had some other 6 degrees of separation connections which I won’t get into as this is already a long story. Playing in the band was a harpist(this of course being way before Florence and the Machine), we hit it off, etc, etc. Band fizzles out after recording an album, she and I play with one of the Church guitarists(Marty)solo, she sits in with them on a few shows, then in 2011 she gets invited to play with them for a 30 year anniversary concert at the Sydney Opera House, complete with a university orchestra. We fly over for a week of rehearsals(there was an acoustic/electric harp on-site for her), then the show, for which audio/video was rolling. Once the smoke cleared, I got a credit on the DVD and album…’harp roadie’ is one of my skill sets. Also, in preparation, I charted out the set list for her, my handiwork briefly seen here at 3:14…


So, they can’t take that away from me.

 

[GSNOLA]

I was fortunate enough to have seen him twice. First time with Japan on the "Sons of Pioneers" tour - last night at Hammersmith Odeon, '82. Second time was with Robert Fripp and Michael Brooke on guitars, Trey Gunn on Stick and Pat Mastelotto on drums at Manchester Apollo, '93. Both highly memorable for different reasons.



I saw the Furs around the same time, probably late 1984, promoting the Mirror Moves album. Memorable because I ended up hanging out and talking bass with Tim Butler, who was more than happy for me to play is then-new Zon graphite bass.

Other memorables are David Bowie, "Serious Moonlight", Milton Keynes 1983, memorable for the scortching sun that pickled the wine boxes we smuggled in leading to several days of fart mistrust!

And Frank Zappa, "Broadway The Hard Way", Wembley Arena 1988. Memorable because I had no idea what to expect but it wasnt that!

Lastly I have to put in an honourable mention for John Martyn, who I saw several times between 1984 and 1996 at venues ranging from the Bristol Hippodrome (full band and 2000 seated) to Bath Pavillion (John with guitar and about 140 seated). John was always able to captivate an audience, no matter the size, and even in the big venues there was a sense that every song was a personal gift. Unforgettable!

I can’t echo your post enough. John Martyn was a galactic gift from somewhere else! I saw him in the Moir Hall in Glasgow when I was 18. It felt like time stopped. Amazing.

 

[JRA]

it's too easy for me to say "the three most memorable shows" were all james brown. but my first real concert (as a fan) was the beatles (indy, 1964) --- that's a memory!

another favorite memory is the time i saw wilson pickett and band playing to one table (us!) in a downtown detroit club. i don't know why the place wasn't packed, but i remember the thrill of being one kid in a 'special audience'.

 

[2saddleslab]

1989, The Rolling Stones Steel Wheels/ Urban Jungle Tour, Riverfront Stadium, 3rd row center [for $28.00].

 

[ardgedee]

Attended a concert of John Cage music that was part of a series of events in 1989 commemorating his career. During one particularly quiet, slow passage I was looking around the theater and happened to notice him two rows behind me, the same moment the percussion suddenly began making big loud noises, and Cage began laughing and clapping with glee.

 

[Koshchei]

As an audience member?

For me it's a tossup between three. The Roxy Music Country Life tour, Little Feat Dixie Chicken, or Gentle Giant touring Free Hand. Three shows I am amazed I had the opportunity to experience.

How about you?

Top five:

- Porcupine Tree touring Closure. Continuation
- Ghost touring IMPERA
- Dimmu Borgir touring Death Cult Armageddon
- Yngwie playing as a three piece in Toronto (tour manager screwed up work visas and half the band wasn't allowed into Canada) circa 2000? It was a good gig.
- Philip Glass premier for Violin Concerto 2: The American Four Seasons

 

[Killing Floor]

Jeff Buckley at a radio promotional event in Atlanta for 99X.

New Model Army, No Rest for the Wicked tour.

First time I saw Minutemen at 688.

Bonus round is The the with Johnny Marr as the guitarist.

 

[claudel]

Lots, starting with Link Wray and the Wraymen in the basement of a church in Annandale Va when JFK was still President.

Weather Report a few times.
Beatles
Led Zep opening for Vanilla Fudge

For straight-ahead rock, the Grateful Dead managed to put on one of the best shows I've ever seen and one of the worst, within two years of each other in the early 90s.

I saw them do that in two days... :^) A couple of times.
First Dead Show - Cafe Au Go Go, NYC - First East Coast Tour
Doors & Plastic Ono Band & an bunch of other bands, Toronto R&R Revival.

#1, though...

Hadn't heard a single note when we blundered in to this...

Heard the name. AYE not in stores yet.

Hopped the stage, wandered around, almost knoked Jimi on his ass and talked for a minute or so.

 

[wilberthenry]

I am definitely an outlier in that mine all involve very small venues and local original bands no one has heard of. Of bigger acts, The Jeff Sipe Trio with Taylor Lee and Mike Seal (fusion jazz) is probably at the top. Seeing Jimmie Herring with Sipe, Neal Fountain, and Matt Slocum is another.

 

[filmtex]

For me, it was The Who at the San Diego Sports Arena in 1971, seconded only by The Eagles opening for Jethro Tull in Oakland in 1972. Honorable mention- 999 at The Whiskey ~1979/80.

 

[sikamikanico]

U2, 2005, Vienna, Austria. My only stadium experience, and this was probably the band to see in that setting. I wasn’t a fan of their then current music, but of course they played enough of their early stuff, and they were masters of the stadium. That night they also played Live 8, so maybe there was extra magic in the air. I was supposed to see the Stones soon after, I imagine that would’ve been an even better stadium experience.

Jeff Tweedy, last night in STL. Maybe it’s just a fresh memory, and I’ve never heard of Jeff before (barely heard of Wilco), but a colleague who has some history with Wilco and Jeff’s music took me, and it was just a lovely, intimate small venue experience.

the top spot, however, goes to Roisin Murphy. I saw her in 2008 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This was in a smallish outdoor theater, and she totally mesmerized us. It was both intimate and grand at the same time, with her quirkiness weaving the two together.

 

[misterCRUSH]

Mine was easily Miles Davis, Aug. 30 1990 in Chicago. he was towards the end but nobody knew it. His playing and the band was electric. We had pretty good seats too, somewhere around the 20th row center. I never got to see Trane, Monk, Evans, Peterson, etc, but I'm grateful I got to see Miles. BASS.

 

[sawzalot]

In 1991 I bought front row seats to the Yes Union tour (with all eight members) from Ticketmaster for $40. A friend worked for a music distributor and got us passes to the backstage meet and greet. Very memorable.

 

[Darrell Vachon]

Top five:

- Porcupine Tree touring Closure. Continuation

I was at that Toronto show. First one of the tour. Outstanding!

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

Beatles at Carnegie Hall 1964. A wealthy mother of one of my classmates took the entire class into NYC to see the show. Could not have afforded it otherwise. It was great, the screaming made hearing them difficult but it was a joy to see them in person.

 

[Koshchei]

I was at that Toronto show. First one of the tour. Outstanding!

Yeah - in prog circles, it was the equivalent of a Beatles reunion!

 

[klaatu]

Allman Brothers Band twice when they were all living.
Mahavishnu Orchestra original lineup.
Utopia with original lineup.
Gamalon a fusion band from Buffalo, NY. Fantastic band that some here may know of.