Best concert you ever attended?

[grislyatoms]

Queensryche for me, no contest. Fantastic show. Runners up: Scorpions
I've been to a gazillion concerts. Surprisingly worst: Fleetwood Mac. They didn't want to be there, and it showed.

[grislyatoms]

The "one that got away" - Soundgarden. I would have loved to see them.

[Monkeyleg]

Having come of age in the late 1960's, I saw a lot of the legendary acts. Without a doubt, though, the best concert was the 1972 Rolling Stones "Exile" concert in Indianapolis (also called the "Stones Touring Party" by critics). It incorporated a lot of the act from the 1969 tour featured in the movie "Gimme Shelter", but without the Hells Angels, beatings, knifings, or ugly naked people crawling on everyone else in the audience to get to the stage. 

Stevie Wonder was the opening act.

Second best would be Springsteen in 1984 on the "Born in the USA" tour. What can I say? I was a late bloomer when it came to Springsteen.

[grislyatoms]

Having come of age in the late 1960's, I saw a lot of the legendary acts. Without a doubt, though, the best concert was the 1972 Rolling Stones "Exile" concert in Indianapolis (also called the "Stones Touring Party" by critics). It incorporated a lot of the act from the 1969 tour featured in the movie "Gimme Shelter", but without the Hells Angels, beatings, knifings, or ugly naked people crawling on everyone else in the audience to get to the stage.  

Stevie Wonder was the opening act.

Second best would be Springsteen in 1984 on the "Born in the USA" tour. What can I say? I was a late bloomer when it came to Springsteen.

Hmm, 1972 i was 4 y.o. Lol.  Missed that one. Would have liked to see Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." though. Another one I missed.

[Monkeyleg]

Surprisingly enough, considering their age, another of the best concerts was the Stones in 2005 with Buddy Guy and Lisa Fischer (fantastic vocal on "Night Time is the Right Time").

The other big name acts we saw just didn't measure up to that level of showmanship.

The one I really regret missing now is Stevie Ray Vaughan.

[Viking]

Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, Sick Of It All, G.B.H., Dropkick Murphys,Flogging Molly.
 Shows I missed: Bad Brains, Agnostic Front.

Worst: shitty opening acts before Dropkick Murphys when I saw then in Gothenburg back in 2008.

[mtnbkr]

The 2nd Lolapalooza was great.  Motley Crue, during their "comeback tour" or whatever it was called in 2005 was amazing.  Kiss was always a good show. 

Jimmy Buffet was always great as well, but his ticket prices have gotten insane.  I'm not paying $50 for lawn seats. 

Chris

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

fogelberg in 80 or 81

toured by himself  piano and guitar  alternated no other musicians   did some acapello as well.  not many could do that

stones in 80 at warner theatre was second best


and the worst for me was also fleetwood mac

[Lee]

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour
Eagles - One of these Nights
Hank Jr- technically it was a tour (Family Tradition...I think) but was at a bar. We had a table about 5 feet from the stage. We all got drunk along with the band, and sang till the wee hours. It was a total blast. At the time, I didn't know anything about him, other than his dad was Hank Williams. I thought it would suck. Couldn't have been more wrong...it was an amazing night.

[Tuco]

Technically most impressive - Jethro Tull 1984 (or 83)
Most memorable - Iggy Pop's triuphant return - 1981 in Detroit
Musically enjoyable - Branford Marsallis or Joe Jackson
Loudest  - Motley Crue - 1985  (although the 1988 Grateful Dead Summer tour was very loud, and higher fidelity)
Most Favorite - Eric Clapton 1981 with Albert Lee and Duck Dunn in the band.
Least Favorite - Steven Stills solo - That guy just can't help being an a$$h01e
Most professional entertainer and all around well performed and produced show - Bob Dylan

Honorable Mention and plain old "Glad I was there"- Willie Nelson.

[HankB]

I saw the Chicago Symphony Orchestra play back when I was in high school . . . very fine indeed, but shortly after they began a big fat woman came waddling out onto the stage, shrieking at the top of her lungs as if she were having open heart surgery without anaesthesia, in a voice that was about as pleasing as the sound you get by running your fingernails across a chalkboard.

[Doggy Daddy]

Pink Floyd.  The Animals tour in Cleveland. ('76?)

Tough choice for second.  Could be Genesis (Lamb Lies Down tour, Columbus), could be Jethro Tull, could be Frank Zappa.


DD

[Physics]

The best: Nine Inch Nails with A Perfect Circle opening (The Fragile tour).
The worst: Tool (Lateralus tour) with Sevendust in at second.

I also feel privileged to have seen Pantera before Dimebag Darrell was killed on stage in 2004 while playing with Damage Plan.  Plus, Phil Anselmo is freaking awesome.  Down and Superjoint Ritual are both awesome live.  

Soulfly has always put on a great show, as has Hatebreed.

Slayer is amazing live, as long as you like getting the *expletive deleted*it kicked out of you and you aren't sitting far enough back to actually hear Tom Araya "singing".

Amon Amarth was an all around great show too, and the venue was perfect.  Of course by that time I'd seen Slayer ~7 times so standing front row center was easy as pie.

[Scout26]

Molly Hatchet '80, Market Square Arena in Indianapolis - "Where every band sounds like a K-tel record played in Hockey Rink!"

Took Lori Ritterskamp. 

Don't remember the show, what songs they played or who the opening act was.





She was a really good kisser....

[charby]

Most Fun: Foreigner in 1993 (Riverfest, Ft Madison, IA)

Best Sound: Brooks and Dunn 2004 (Hilton Coliseum, Ames, IA) or Motley Crue 1997 (Five Seasons Center, Cedar Rapids, IA)

Best Stage Presence: Aerosmith 1998 (Hilton Coliseum, Ames, IA) or Tom Petty 2005 (Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, IA)

[Hawkmoon]

Best and worse were both several decades ago. Best was a John Denver in the New Haven (CT) Coliseum. Worst was Chicago in the New Haven Coliseum.

[K Frame]

Damn it, lost my reply...


Best, by far, was Jethro Tull at the New Haven Veteran's Memorial Colliseum, October 1984.

Very close was Pink Floyd at RFK in Washington, DC, summer of 1994 or 1995.

Also pretty good were Howard Jones and The Hooters, whom I saw in college in the mid 1980s.


Worst was, by far, Warren Zevon, also in college. Showed up completely skunked off his ass and could barely sing.

[Kingcreek]

I started concerts around 1970.
Best ever was Eric Clapton when he did the first set all acoustic and started it off solo. Later Clapton was joined by Billy Preston on the big Wurlitzer, really great show. also saw Jethro Tull, ZZ Top, (the first)AC/DC, Van Halen, Ted Nugent, Earth Wind and Fire, REO Speedwagon, Charlie Daniels band, Edgar Winter, Jimmy Buffet, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Willie Nelson, etc... Dan Fogelberg was great.
Worst was Jery Jeff Walker. He was so drunk he kept falling off his barstool and couldn't perform at all, he got boo'd off the stage and the backup band came back on and were better anyway.

[Grebnaws]

My award for best sound goes to the Helloween/Gamma Ray concert at a now defunct venue in Mokena. The place wasn't great but the sound quality for that show was far and away the best I had ever heard. Perfecty balanced, crystal clear, and loud! My favorite show is a toss up between The Scorpions and Judas Priest.

[Physics]

Molly Hatchet '80, Market Square Arena in Indianapolis - "Where every band sounds like a K-tel record played in Hockey Rink!"

Took Lori Ritterskamp. 

Don't remember the show, what songs they played or who the opening act was.





She was a really good kisser....

Wait you knew my mom?

Dad?

[Balog]

My favorite is probably Amon Amarth from last year. Double set, with the first being Surtur Rising in its entirety and the second being a selection of the rest of the catalog.

Second is definitely Punch Brothers from a couple months ago. Don't really listen to much bluegrass, and going in I'd heard Rye Whiskey and maybe another song or two off Antifogmatic. I wasn't expecting much, but they melted faces. Amazing mandolin playing from Chris Thile, and Noam Pikelny their banjo player is a prodigy. Really awesome show, great energy.

In 09 I think I saw Om at a crappy little dive on Capital Hill. Al Cisneros on a bass and vox, accompanied by a drummer. Simply mind blowing. They had to mic every single piece of the drum kit to keep up with Al's enormous bass rig (pair of 4x15's, pair of 4x12's, every cab with its own power amp) and even with just the drums in the PA it was the second loudest concert I've ever attended. Only drawback were the openning "bands" which appeared to be just the sound engineers getting a chance to get on stage and suck horrifically.

[Fitz]

Rock the Bayou festival a few years back. Awesome for a few reasons. Number one, great bands (including queensryche and Ratt.)

Number two, i played it. Got to hang backstage, meet legends, and most importantly, fall further in love with the woman who is now my wife. It was a fantastic, exhausting weekend.

We had a show in austin two days prior, and then two days of the festival, then a show that night in amarillo. I was exhausted.

[brimic]

Godsmack/Metallica

[never_retreat]

Deep purple/Ted Nugent/lenord skinard. Skinard sucked.

Metallica/suicidal tendency/Danzig. What? I can't here you.

Def Leopard.


Worst show, Areosmith at the PNC center in NJ. To loud and bad sound.

[Fitz]

Deep purple/Ted Nugent/lenord skinard. Skinard sucked.

Metallica/suicidal tendency/Danzig. What? I can't here you.

Def Leopard.


Worst show, Areosmith at the PNC center in NJ. To loud and bad sound.

ARGH

*lynyrd skynyrd
*suicidal tendencies
*Def Leppard