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Your Most Surprisingly Good Concert?

#61
Richland123 said:
Quite a few acts have impressed me that I was not expecting. Here are a couple.

Back in the early 70s, I went to see Humble Pie. The opening act could not make it and there was a different opening band I never heard of before called Gentle Giant. Well, I was amazed by them and have been a fan ever since.

In the early 80s, I went to a Loverboy concert and the opening band was Huey Lewis & The News. They were fantastic, super tight, and full of energy.
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Ha! In the mid-80's, I saw Huey Lewis and the News as the headliner. Opening act was some virtually then-unheard of guy called Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble. Holy $hit! Stevie in his pre-sobriety days DIDN'T SUCK!

Stayed for the Huey show, but fell asleep after SRV.


dcr
 
#62
chuck norriss said:
I should clarify--early 2000's, bald African American dude, a lot younger looking than Satriani.
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Oh OK. Never knew anything about that phase, but based on Wikipedia, you're probably talking about Vic Johnson, when Hagar's band was called "The Waboritas." Michael Anthony was not officially a member of the group but apparently made frequent guest appearances with them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waboritas
 
#63
Page and Plante.

A friend got the tickets and convinced me to go. I was thinking, "well, no JPJ, no Bonham, so it's not Zep, and it may very well suck"...

Well, it certainly didn't. My mind was blown clear out of my head. They played with not one, but two symphony orchestras. The Pharaohs of Egypt on one side and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra on the other. When they played Kashmir, I was transported to a Heavenly place.
 
#64
Here is another vote for Hall and Oates. I had never heard of them but went with a friend who was a big fan. The opening act was Kenny Loggins on his first tour after Loggins and Messina. They played OK, but the show was rather sloppy in terms of production values. At the intermission, I mentioned to my friend that I really didn't understand why rock bands couldn't (or perhaps more precisely, wouldn't) put on a show that was as polished as what you would expect from most other theatrical productions. Then - Bam! Hall and Oates came out and put on an unbelievably well put together show. Great songs, vocals, amazing band, lights, sound, everything. I was very, very impressed.

A few years earlier, I was attending college in Atlanta and another friend gave me an extra ticket he had for a Thursday night concert for a group that I had never heard of. It was drizzling out, we had to walk 5 or 6 blocks, it was a school night, I was going to turn him down. Who had ever heard of Ike and Tina Turner? Holy crow, what a show! Ike and the Ikettes got the room jumping...then out a cloud of dry ice mist and swirling lights explodes Tina! Their version of Proud Mary had just been released and hadn't got much airplay yet. Absolutely amazing.

Cheers,
Dennis
 
#65
Richland123 said:
A band that I never heard prior to my first show I saw them at was The Newsboys. They headlined the Creation Festival back in 1998 and they were entertaining and put on quite a spectacular live show with rotating dual drum sets and more. I became a fan based on that performance and even though they have had multiple lineup changes, they still are good live.
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My first concert ever! :hyper:
 
#67
In late '70's or early 80's went to see 'Rennaisance' based on the strength of their One Big Hit - 'Prologue'. I still like it but let's face it - One Hit Wonders. Gave 'em a chance, mneh.

But the opening act was Al DiMeola, in his Casino days. I haven't even bought the single of 'Prologue' but I have pretty much everything Di Meola has recorded.

My first and only real 'rock concert' was Rory Gallagher -> Fleetwood Mac (in the Peter Green days...) -> Deep Purple. That was memorable - but not surprising ;-)
 
#69
Another band that surprised me was Cinderella.

I was in Toronto and decided to go to an 80s multiple hair band concert at the Molson Amphitheatre. Cinderella was on the bill, and, while I liked a few of their songs beforehand, I was not much of a fan. They were really good and I was not expecting that.
 
#70
Richland123 said:
Another band that surprised me was Cinderella.

I was in Toronto and decided to go to an 80s multiple hair band concert at the Molson Amphitheatre. Cinderella was on the bill, and, while I liked a few of their songs beforehand, I was not much of a fan. They were really good and I was not expecting that.
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I find that Cinderella is an often mis-categorized band. Yes they were in the whole hair band genre but they are great band. I'm not one for most of that genre but I do like Cinderella. Its good stuff.
 
#71
ArtechnikA said:
In late '70's or early 80's went to see 'Rennaisance' based on the strength of their One Big Hit - 'Prologue'. I still like it but let's face it - One Hit Wonders. Gave 'em a chance, mneh.

But the opening act was Al DiMeola, in his Casino days. I haven't even bought the single of 'Prologue' but I have pretty much everything Di Meola has recorded.

My first and only real 'rock concert' was Rory Gallagher -> Fleetwood Mac (in the Peter Green days...) -> Deep Purple. That was memorable - but not surprising ;-)
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Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green - man, I'm really envious of that one.
 
#72
Fretless1! said:
Jackson Browne. I know, I know...
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I saw Jackson Brown a couple of times (twice in the same week), and I thought he was great. One of those guys who's records are totally different to his live shows.

I would've loved to see The Grateful Dead. I never liked their albums much, but I've seen a couple of bootleg live concerts that were very cool. I know a few people who did see them live, and they both say "you can't explain a Grateful Dead concert", you have to have been there. Sadly, I never got to see them.

I did get to see Stevie Ray Vaughn in Texas not long before he died, and he was fantastic. I also saw Roy Buchanan about a year before he died and he just blew me away (and everyone else who was there). He should've been an international star with his talent, but that's the music business I guess. Maybe if taken up the Stone's invitation to join them, he'd be a household name. Who knows?
 
#73
Zac Brown band at Loken festival. Everyone was saying "some country dude" so I was thinking, maybe some good blues or some old country, I have great love for Hank Sr. and Johnny Cash, etc. But Zac played a bunch of groovy reggae-infused jam tunes, got pretty funky for a while, and generally put on a top-notch jam band style show, with lots of references to all kinds of music but the focus on interaction and chemistry on-stage. He had members of String Cheese sitting in with him and they sounded better with him than they did in their own set! It was cool to see some pros actually jamming on tunes that they knew, but had never played together, and pulling some great music out of it. It's always fun when everyone is surprised, including the band.
 
#74
My brother gave me a button for Christmas that said "I may be old but I got to see all the cool bands". I didn't see all of them, of course, but back in the day I did see:

Fleetwood Mac after Peter Green but before Nicks and Buckingham joined (and after as well but I didn't like them as much)
The Allman Bros. with Duane and Berry
Pink Floyd on the Ummagumma tour
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Humble Pie
Jefferson Starship
Paul Revere and the Raiders
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Grateful Dead several times
Traffic
Savoy Brown on the Street Corner Talking/Hellbound Train tour and several other times
Buffalo Springfield
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Jethro Tull on the Thick as a Brick tour
Blue Oyster Cult right after their first album and several other times
Black Sabbath
Captain Beyond
The James Gang
Rhinoceros
It's a Beautiful Day
Aum
REO Speedwagon
Seatrain
The Soul Survivors
Frank Zappa
Led Zeplin
The Who
Jimmie Spheeris
Rory Gallagher
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
AC/DC
BB King
Ted Nugent
Ray Charles

… and others I can't rattle off the top of my head. Those were the days, my friend...
 
#75
ggunn said:
My brother gave me a button for Christmas that said "I may be old but I got to see all the cool bands". I didn't see all of them, of course, but back in the day I did see:

Fleetwood Mac after Peter Green but before Nicks and Buckingham joined (and after as well but I didn't like them as much)
The Allman Bros. with Duane and Berry
Pink Floyd on the Ummagumma tour
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Humble Pie
Jefferson Starship
Paul Revere and the Raiders
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Grateful Dead several times
Traffic
Savoy Brown on the Street Corner Talking/Hellbound Train tour and several other times
Buffalo Springfield
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Jethro Tull on the Thick as a Brick tour
Blue Oyster Cult right after their first album and several other times
Black Sabbath
Captain Beyond
The James Gang
Rhinoceros
It's a Beautiful Day
Aum
REO Speedwagon
Seatrain
The Soul Survivors
Frank Zappa
Led Zeplin
The Who
Jimmie Spheeris
Rory Gallagher
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
AC/DC
BB King
Ted Nugent
Ray Charles

… and others I can't rattle off the top of my head. Those were the days, my friend...
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Wear that button with pride my friend.... This is some list!
 
#76
I have two.

Faith No More. Saw them open for the Chili Peppers with some close buddies. Their song "From Out Of Nowhere" had been out for about a month and was in heavy rotation on Headbangers Ball and the radio. There was a first band, and we caught the last half of their last song. The tickets said Red Hot Chili Peppers with special guests. I was asking random people if they knew who was playing next. No one knew. I finally came across a guy who said "Some band with a weird name. They've got that From Nowhere song." "Cool, thanks man." I was thinking to myself "I HATE THAT EFFING SONG!!!" They come out and open with it and it was a whole lot heavier than the MTV and radio versions. "Ok. This isn't bad." Four songs into their set, I was really, really digging them. "Wait a minute. Is everyone else enjoying this as much as I am, or is it because I'm tripping?" I failed to mention that I was on two hits of lsd. I got on my toes and did a slow 360. Absolutely everyone was moving. It looked like a stormy sea of heads. "Cool!" Got back to enjoying myself. They were remarkable. Completely blew the Chili Peppers out of the water. Halfway through the Chili's set, the place was already halfway emptied.

Type O Negative. I'd had two of their albums - Bloody Kisses, October Rust - for about a week (Columbia House), but was generally unfamiliar with them. They were kind of an underground secret. My girlfriend, now wife, and I went to a seafood store to get some scallops. I decided to wait in the car. I was listening to the radio and a commercial came on for the show they were playing that night. The commercial called them "Satan's Beatles" and I knew I had to go. My wife was going to stay home but went with me at the last minute. They were the only band. They were super tight, sounded incredible, and put every ounce of energy they had into the show. I didn't know any of their songs. The only ones I recognized were covers: Back In The USSR, Bad Moon Rising, Black Sabbath. The singer-bassist, Peter Steele, was 6'8" and built like a pro wrestler. Leather pants, no shirt, big ass chain for a guitar strap. The keyboardist, Josh Silver, had very very curly hair that hung down to his ass. May have reached his knees when wet. I've never seen a keyboardist bet the hell out of his gear like that. True heavy metal keyboardist! We left with our minds blown. When we got home, we sat in front of our house in my Bronco, bubbling my 18" Tokemaster. I put October Rust into the Discman, popped the cassette adapter in, and we listened to the entire album cranked, headbanging the whole time. Those guys were awesome. Miss them greatly. :( Rest in peace, Pete.
 
#79
I, recently, scored 2 free tickets to see Tower Of Power. Now, I already expected that they would be great and they sure did not disappoint in any way. Everyone in the band was on an incredibly higher level than most players and the band was extremely tight and polished.

However, I took my 78 year old mother, who had no idea who Tower Of Power is, and she enjoyed it tremendously and during the fourth song she turned to me and said they play music that makes you want to get up and dance. After the concert, she could not stop talking about how great the band was.

That is one of my coolest music moments of my life to share that experience with my mother! :hyper:
 
#80
Randy Newman, of all people.

A friend of a friend was a marketing director or something at a local theater. She had two tickets that she had offered to someone, but they turned her down so she just gave them to my friend and me on the day of the show. I went in thinking "Meh, this'll be an interesting way to kill some time." Turns out it was an awesome show.

For the first half of the show, Randy actually conducted an orchestra for the scores he had composed for several films, and a screen behind the orchestra played clips of the movies. Then there was an encore followed by him at the piano with a string ensemble backing him up playing the radio hits. It was a surprisingly good show, to say the least.

Most surprising bad show? Dave Matthews Band. You hear about their following and these great shows. I went an saw them, and Dave was drunk/high out of his mind. They played maybe 8 or 9 songs total, but each one was something like 15 minutes long. I know, I know, they're a jam band...but I have my limits.
 

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