Best/Worst gig you have been to

[Peloquin]

An idea from the other gig thread (sorry if this has been done before), what was your favourite gig and your last favourite?

 

First time I met The Misfits was awesome but my favourite gig was probably "The Spermbirds" (German punk band) in Planet X, Liverpool. I was on stage singing with them . Great night.

Worst was Guns and Roses. I never liked them but Wife wanted to go. Dreadful.

I went to see Carter USM and they were so boring I fell asleep. They didn't have the band setup then so it was just JimBob and Fruitbat standing with guitars playing to backing tracks.

The support were very good though... Senseless Things.

[Munurmunuh]

7 minutes ago, Peloquin said:

Carter USM and they were so boring I fell asleep

Finsbury Park (literally) 1993, the boring lowlight of a pretty boring day

[Waddo Soqable]

I saw Tom Waites in Manchester,  either late 1980 or (more likely) 1981. That sticks in my mind as an excellent show...

[FinnDave]

I don't often go to see bands, but the best night out I can remember was seeing the Leningrad Cowboys in 2007 in Kouvola, a small town in southern Finland where I used to live. Only a small venue (ice rink) and fewer than 2000 people, but they give it their best and we got the full show from just in front of the stage.

Worst gig was Hawkwind in Oxford in 2015, but that might be because I was coming down with pneumonia and spent most of the gig sleeping on a chair in the bar.

[Munurmunuh]

Best gig - by miles - Grandaddy at Manchester Uni, about 2002, touring The Sophtware Slump, the most extraordinarily blissful atmosphere.

[skb558]

Favourite - Springsteen solo 1996, Birmingham Symphony Hall, 8th row, slap bang in the centre. Jaw-dropping.

Least favourite - Van Halen 2006, Toyota Center, Dallas. Worst sound I’ve experienced at any gig in 40 years.

There have been a few shockers and some very, very good ones in between but those two just clinch it. 

[Lozz196]

Best - Sex Pistols at Finsbury Park 1996, something I never thought would happen, they’d been my fave band since 1977 so the expectations were hopeful that they’d be good - and they weren’t, they were superb.

Worst - Siouxsie & The Banshees, Hammersmith Odeon 1985/6. She’d broken her leg so performed sat in a chair and the rest of the band just stood there. Totally uninspiring so went to the pub instead.

[BillyBass]

Best gig: The Damned at the Electric Ballroom, Camden Town, December 22nd 1979.. cracking gig, Lemmy came on to help out with 'Ballroom Blitz' towards the end

Worst: Adam and the Antz at Cleopatras in Huddersfield on the 'Antz Invasion tour', would have been April 1980.  Fights constantly breaking out throughout the gig, the local skinheads versus us.

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by BillyBass

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, Peloquin said:

I went to see Carter USM and they were so boring I fell asleep. They didn't have the band setup then so it was just JimBob and Fruitbat standing with guitars playing to backing tracks.

The support were very good though... Senseless Things.

My old band The Shout used to gig regularly with both of those. I was usually hammered so can’t really remember what either were like.

[Nail Soup]

Best gig: hhhmmm one of these three I reckon:

• The Magic Band (Post Beefheart) 2002 London
• Dahka Brahka Couple of years ago London 
• Goat Couple of years ago London

 

Worst: Hard to say but I'll go for Stump, late 80's I suppose.

I assume the band played OK, but he soundman forgot to put an audible amount of guitar or bass into the mix 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Nail Soup

[Waddo Soqable]

10 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

Best gig: The Damned at the Electric Ballroom, Camden Town, December 22nd 1979.. cracking gig, Lemmy came on to help out with 'Ballroom Blitz' towards the end

Worst: Adam and the Antz at Cleopatras in Huddersfield on the 'Antz Invasion tour', would have been April 1980.  Fights constantly breaking out throughout the gig, the local skinheads versus us.

 

The Damned always did a v.good one on the occasions I've seen them, this would've been in the "Roxy" era when Capt S. was still on bass..

[BillyBass]

1 minute ago, Waddo Soqable said:

The Damned always did a v.good one on the occasions I've seen them, this would've been in the "Roxy" era when Capt S. was still on bass..

I've probably seen them play about 15 or 20 times, never a bad gig.  The Electric ballroom gig stands out, as does another at the Greyhound on Fulham Palace Road, probably in 1980.  They would always put on a show.

[chris_b]

Best? Possibly The Crusaders in 1976 at the Victoria Palace when they were touring the Those Southern Knights album. They had Larry Carlton on guitar and the amazing Pops Popwell on bass. Or maybe the first Cream gig at the Marquee in 1966. Or James Brown with Bootsy at the East Ham Odeon in 1970.

 

[Doctor J]

Best? Can't honestly remember. I've gone to so many great gigs since the 80's. The most recent one I came away from thinking "That was truly extraordinary" was Therapy? supported by Ondt Blod in Hamburg a few years ago. I had never heard Ondt Blod before and had sort of a Jake Blues in Church episode. Therapy? afterwards were just incredible.

Worst? Either Ian Brown on his first solo tour or a recent package thing with Limp Bizkit and some other garbage. One of the other band's roadies walked around with a goblin mask on. Relentlessly and maliciously dreadful, both.

[Skybone]

Best gigs?

Too many to recall, most happened at the aforementioned Planet X in Liverpool. Other notable mentions, Faith No More in a small venue with Chuck singing. GWAR. Mental band, superb gig. Explaining to the Taxi driver why I was covered in fake blood. Black Sabbath 1997 Reunion with Bill Ward.

Worst gigs?

Metallica Justice for All gig, just seemed to be going through the motions (Danzig were great though), Slayer South of Heaven tour, played my 4 favourite songs first, so I left part way through the 5th.

[BillyBass]

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

the first Cream gig at the Marquee in 1966. 

Bloody hell, that is a gig to show off about!  I sometimes boast to younger people about seeing Joy Division but that doesn't come near Cream at the Marquee.

[ubit]

9 hours ago, FinnDave said:

but the best night out I can remember was seeing the Leningrad Cowboys in 2007 in Kouvola, 

I love The Leningrad Cowboys!

The worst I have seen was not complete concerts but part of a concert.

Tank in Glasgow Apollo in '82 They went down so badly that when the drummer threw his sticks into the crowd they sailed straight back to him.

Support to Death Cab For cutie was a band called Chastity Belt. All girl band and it was toe curlingly bad. absolutely no effects on the guitar and you could hear every plink and mistake. They gazed at their shoes and amazingly got a decent reception. They were rank!

Sigue Sigue Sputnik at the height of their popularity. They were dreadful. I think Tony James had assembled a group of people who looked good rather than decent musicians. You could tell he was the only one who could play.

The best was Diamond head at the same gig that Tank supported. They did about 5 encores and one was after the lights had come on. The atmosphere was incredible!

[bartelby]

Far too many best gigs but key ones would be:
Anna von Hausswolff - Any one of the 5 times I've seen her. 
The first time I saw Goat, at Supersonic Festival, such a buzz about their performance and they totally delivered.
Dio, back on the Dream Evil tour. Had drum solos, guitar solos, audience participation stuff, a giant mechanical spider coming down from the lighting rig, lasers. It was everything a metal gig should be.

But the stand out band for me would be The Wonder Stuff. I've seen them 60 or 70 times (I've seen other bands more) and they've never done a bad gig, IMHO, I've left every show wanting more.

 

Worst gigs:

Goat, in Bristol, on the Requiem tour. They took an hour to take the stage after all the gear swap had been done. Then just seemed to go through the motions. I know they're a collective of musicians, so I guess it all depends on who is in the band at the time. 

Radiohead, Cov Poly, they were supporting Kingmaker and were dreadfully dull and up their own derrières.

The Fall in TJs Newport. I'm not a fan of Mark E Smith, and this just cemented my opinions of him...

[tegs07]

Not the best or the worst but definitely the oddest and most bizarre. Laibach mid 80’s London. From memory the gig opened with a bloke chopping up piles of wood on stage. Whole experience was surreal and confusing but then so are Laibach.

[Cat Burrito]

My favourite gig was The Rolling Stones in Stuttgart 2018. My friend who runs his own business was going through a marriage break up and paid for everything. We were in the front row and even stayed at the same hotel as the band. The whole weekend was amazing. I was a Keith Richards fan but up close I realised my respect lay firmly with Mick Jagger. I previously had refused to see them a I didn't like the high ticket prices but I guess my principles were firmly compromised the moment I wasn't paying!

The worst band I saw was Motley Crue around 2005. I always struggled with them but my ex-wife was a fan. Drummer Tommy Lee had "Tommy's Titty Cam" where he'd scan the audience and get girls to pull their tops up. At the risk of appearing like I am trying to be woke, it was bullying. I went out for a breather and there was a girl crying to her mate. She'd refused to lift her top up and had been booed by the audience. It was really low rent. To eclipse Vince Neil's dreadful vocal, it must have been something! I also remember Nikki Sixx addressing the audience about how much they love British music "We love The Stones" (massive cheers), "We love The Yardbirds" (massive cheers), "We love T-Rex" (massive cheers), "We love Elton John!" (tumbleweed). Know your audience.

[SumOne]

The most  'in the moment' and life changing musical experiences I've had have been listening to DJs at clubs and raves and festivals, hazy memories but some of those times were so far beyond my day to day life now they seem almost from a different life.....No gigs have ever topped that for me, always seem a bit too 'real' to be life changing (thinking about needing to get to the bar/toilet, people barging by, bands starting late and not playing the tunes you want, thinking about the queue for the coats and missing the train home etc) but a few excellent live band experiences have been at festivals where I've been more in the zone:  Prodigy at Download 2006, Kraftwerk at Big day out 2003, Pulp at Glastonbury 1997.

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by SumOne

[LukeFRC]

Best - Frightened Rabbit at Queens hall Edinburgh, after midnight organ fight had gone big and a sort of homecoming 

 

worst- as a student I used to work doing Leafleting, surveys or ticket ripping so I got paid to see a lot of gigs. The worst was fightstar, the fella from busteds band. He had been attacked on stage the night before so security was crazy (getting to the venue office to get paid was a pain) But the music was pretty bad. The support was even worse, just not ready to gig standard. 
 

oddest- I turn up at a venue Mid Edinburgh Festival so most nights I’m going to a gig, and to be honest unless I’m excited about the band I just turn up with an open mind to be surprised, anyway I turn up to find a 5piece rap group locked outside hammering on the door, manage to get them and myself in to find the headliners soundchecking, big band, very proficient, arsy guitarist who’s moaning that he’s in front of a horn section...Some kind of Funk cover band? and a tiny girl sat crosslegged knitting in the middle of the floor. She got up and sung one of the songs, vaguely recognised the song, any way, the band came across as a bit full of themselves but she was nice enough. Hardly anyone came to the gig, I can’t remember staying for much of it. The rap group were good.

of course the next day I found out that the tiny lass was Amy winehouse and band led by mark ronson went on to sell a few records... 

[Steve Browning]

Worst gig - I can offer 4 (although 2 are supports) - Meat Loaf (Brighton Centre), National Health (supporting Steve Hillaqe at Lancaster Uni), Supertramp (Brighton Centre again) and Doctors Of Madness, supporting the wonderful Be Bop Deluxe.

Best gig - hard to narrow down - Queen on their first headlining tour, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Rory Gallagher at the Marquee, Dr Feelgood at Portsmouth Guildhall (the John Mayo version).

[cheddatom]

I saw Martin Grech support Oceansize downstairs at Rock City. Martin Grech did 15 minutes of absolute adrenaline rush. I was transfixed. When he left the stage I was dazed, I couldn't believe what I'd just witnessed

Then Oceansize came on and did a very average, very long 90 minutes. I probably would have loved it if it wasn't for Martin Grech stealing the show

[Rich]

I’ve been to several great gigs, but there are a few real stand-outs... It Bites at the Astoria on the Once Around The World tour, just unbelievable... Level 42 back in the very early 80s when they were still "who?"... probably the single best one was Mike Stern at the Jazz Café. MS was absolutely on fire that night, plus he had Alain Caron on bass, the best fretless playing I have ever seen... one of AC’s solos was so damned melodic, the tune actually got stuck in my head and I found myself whistling it next day. 

Worst/most disappointing gig ever was Pat Metheny's Trio, 10th April 2000, Birmingham Symphony Hall. A great trio, Pat with Larry Grenadier & Bill Stewart, it should have been amazing... but I have never in all my days seen such a poor choice of venue. A jazz trio in a gigantic symphony hall, FFS. Place was 80% empty and there was absolutely zero atmosphere. The same band & set at Ronnie Scott's would have been superb, but as it was it was flatter than a crepe. In fact, 'crepe' pretty much sums it up as a live experience.