My wife assures me the Rush concerts we saw were the best.
I don’t know any of the songs and couldn’t understand a word they were singing.
I think the best I saw on my own were early Blues Traveller, just when their 2nd album came out, and a guy named Chris Smither.
After the show he was in the lobby talking and shaking hands with people. Super nice guy.
I agree with your wife. And if you weren’t singing along to every word of YYZ, you’re a rube.
That would require I know the words to YYZ. :)
You already do. Trust me, look them up.
I missed my chance to see Rush, but I did get to see Primus covering Rush, and that was pretty dope
Easy. The Wall! The Roger Waters 2010-2013 tour, not the Berlin one, lol
It’s a shame he’s a total POS in real life
Rob Zombie put on a hell of a show back when I saw him a decade ago. More recently, Municipal Waste was sick. Their mosh pit was a blast.
I saw him at the show where Marilyn Manson passed out on stage. He put on his amazing show then went on to handle most of Manson’s set.
Ooof. Tough question.
Probably one of:
Iron Maiden, Sheffield City Hall, Somewhere on Tour, 1986
Metallica, Sheffield Arena, 1992
Depeche Mode, supported by Sisters of Mercy, Crystal Palace, 1993
Sisters of Mercy, the Fenton pub, Leed, 1996
Primal Scream / Alabama 3, Rock City Nottingham, 1998
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Brixton Academy, 2001Big arena things like Metallica at the Sheffield Arena are so different to intimate pub gigs like the Sisters of Mercy at the Fenton that it’s really hard to compare.
This is a really hard question, so many gigs to choose from. I’d probably choose a VNV Nation gig I went to in Slimelight, London. They were famous (in the goth scene, at least) at that point but did an intentionally small gig for the old fans.
A close #2 would be The Dead Milkmen at a gig in Marburg back in the 90s. Was the first time I heard the grunge sound, and I thought it was excellent.
So much good music, so little time…
Damn it, I forgot Bauhaus. Is it too late to change my mind?
Probably when I saw Snarky Puppy in my hometown of Aalborg, Denmark. In the jazz-fusion world they are very well-known, but I never expected them to do a stop in my town of a 100.000 people. I brought a friend who had never heard their music before at all, and we got 2nd row seats. He was blown away, and afterwards we got selfies with Michale League, the bassist of the band.
A couple of standouts were The Clash in 1982 at the St Paul Civic Center.
2024 The Kills @ First Avenue in Minneapolis. The filthy things Jamie did to that guitar.
I bet we were at some of the same shows if you were doing First Ave/Fine Line/Turf Club/Uptown Bar in the '90s.
I’ll take Replacements at 7th Street Entry in early 1986. Westerberg did If Only You Were Lonely solo acoustic as an encore while getting pelted with beer bottles from off stage.
Most memorable (in hindsight) would be Stevie Ray Vaughan at Alpine Valley the night before the helicopter crash.
Replacements are one of my favorite bands but somehow I’ve never managed to see them live. Still think they shoukd have played the super bowl with Fancy Ray instead of that Bruno guy.
Gorillaz, Demon Dayz Festival LA in 2018. There was so much going on, so many artists to see and it was a blast. Damon gave it his usual best and the song selection was on point
This Flaming Lips show was quite an experience. They played the entire album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots , took a bit of a break, then played a whole other set. So much confetti.
There’s a bar/cafe 20 mins away that has a stage and live music most every night. The crowd’s only between 5-30 people depending on the act. Last month I caught a local goth band with two industrial duos from out of town opening, it was my favorite concert in recent memory. Support your local music scene!
Saw The Pretenders a couple of weeks ago and it was really really good - better than i expected. Saw Echo and the bunnymen recently and that was fun. My family loved seeing Peter Murphy - i drove 13 hours to get home for it and it turned out to be SRO. Jon Anderson in a very small venue was great.
I saw them a few weeks ago too, opening for Foo Fighters. I was quite surprised at how good they all still sounded
MUSE - Simulation Theory
Removed by mod
Hard choice, so so many, a few highlights
X and Black Flag, Cookoo’s Nest, 1979
Pretenders, Perkins Palace, 1981 (Bruce Springsteen joined for encore, Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher)
Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense Tour, Greek Theatre, 1983
Dave Nelson Band, Galaxy Theater, 1999
Buffalo Springfield, (opening act Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings) Wiltern Theater, 2011
Chick Corea and Bella Fleck, Royce Hall, 2014
I once sent a friend this clip to explain who I was going to see that night- Austin Lucas. He’s one of the artists I tell people about when they think that all country music is the same. Great singer, great storyteller. I had to explain to my friend that Emily Barker wouldn’t be there, as awesome as that would be, but I was still super psyched to finally see Austin in person.
He transformed that small back room in a dingy London pub into a raw hug of emotional energy. He was off the stage, circled by a small crew just vibing and loving what he was sharing, watching the tears in his eyes.
And then he said his friend was in town, and he’d like to welcome Emily Barker to come and sing.