Just curious to see who yall think is the best live..... Now although I wasn't actually there, I've watched Led Zeppelin's recently released DVD extensively and those guys especially Robert Plant are just AMAZING! That DVD is better than a lot of actual concerts.
Public Enemy in a small club. It was a "practice" of sorts before they were to open for U2 a few weeks after that. I've seen 3 Janet Jackson concerts over the years, each better than the next. She's a great performer and puts on a terrific show.
Dream Theater, New York city, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence tour. I flew out there just for that concert because I heard the second showing in New York was going to be a "special show." Well, it was. The band played most of the first CD of that double CD album and the entire 2nd CD, from beginning to end. They played a boatload of other stuff as well, and to top it all off, played the entire Metallica Master of Puppets album. When all was said and done, they had played for nearly 4 hours, all of it ****ing great. I don't think I will ever go to a better concert.
i am completely obsessed with Led Zeppelin right now. just finished "Hammer of The Gods" - awesome book. those guys were so much cooler than anyone i know, it's not even funny. poon-tang people, poon-tang. i fully intend on purchasing the "How The West Was Won" DVD/CD set. hell, i'm downloading some live videos of them as we speak...... errr, i mean borrowing them from a friend. yeah, that's it... uhhhh, greatest band ever? ya damn straight. oh yeah - best concert was probably my first 311 show. their shows are pure energy. but DMB would be right up there too.
Have to agree... I worked the Dream Theater show on their Images and Words tour at the Tower..they were freaking awesome. As technically devastating as they are on album, they are even better live. Have you noticed they seem to like devoting whole parts of their sets to bands that influenced them? I have a bootleg of them in Paris doing half the show with their stuff, and then the other half all Iron Maiden. The sound quality leaves a little to be desired, but they kicked ass covering Maiden. It is really hard for me to decide who is better live..I have seen more shows than I can remember...and a whole lot of them were great. Van Halen was great live Metallica was great back in the day Pantera, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Tesla were all great live. I always knew it was a great show when my whole body hurt for days afterwards.
My favorite shows that I've been to consist of two secular bands and three Christian bands. Secular: Pearl Jam - Cynthia Woods - April 2003 Better than Ezra - Hurricane Harry's (College Station) - Sept. 2002 Christian: Delirious - Cornerstone (Bushnell, Ill.) - July 2003 Buck - Atlanta Fest (Atlanta, GA.) - June 2002 Stavesacre - One Fest (Memphis, Tenn.) - June 2001
Ha! My senior year in high school. I'm a percussionist (hell, a music major in fact) and we got Louie Bellison to come to our school to play with the band. HE came the day before and we had a rehearsal where he asked me to play his drums so he could get a sound check. Wow! Then, the night of the concert, before it started, I went to tell him how great this experience was for me. We ended up talking about drumming for 45 minutes -- drummers from the past, the future, everything. Then, at the concert, he went out there to play his first number, grabbed a mic and mentioned how great it was to be there. Then he introduced me to the crowd and invited me to sit behind him all night at the concert. Incredible. For everything that's said about the man's musicality, his humanity is even more impressive. A month later, he was performing at a festival my band went to. I went up to him and said, "You probably don't remember me...." and he interrupted me saying, "James! How are you doing?" Here is a man who has played with LEGENDS and is one himself, and he remembered me, a 18 year old high school senior. About a year or two later, he was in a pretty serious car accident and I sent him a get well card, he actually responded personally. Wrote an article about that experience that was published in a magazine actually. Great experience. Second up: Michael Brecker, Boulder, CO in 2000. The man is a sax God. He was up there playing this huge solo, stopped, went over to a mic and said, "Crap, you people have thin air here!" and then went off for another hour. In-cred-i-ble. McCoy Tyner in Greeley, CO that same year was damn good as well.
I have to divide it into two...best concert and best club show. Best Concert: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, December 1978 @ The Summit. "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour. This is the concert that made me want to play music professionally. Ticket said concert starts at 8. Bruce and the band come on at 8:30 and play until 10:00PM. 30 minute intermission. They come back and play from 10:30 PM until 1:30 freaking AM. Twenty encores. At 1AM the Summit management turned on the house lights to try to get Bruce offstage, and he still played for another 30 minutes. In between encore #10 and 11, he says..."if ya clap real loud, I might play some more!". I never saw so many people standing on their chairs and dancing in the aisles. Absolutely unbelievable. Best club show: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble at the Rome Inn, Austin, August 1979. Sunday night, $2 to get in, 75 cents a longneck, SRV and DT play all night, and there is never more than 20 people in the place the entire night. Like I've said in earlier posts regarding this show...it almost made me put down the guitar forever, because I was so intimidated by how good SRV played. Luckily for me I didn't, but Jesus the man's fingers were so freaking fast it was hard to fathom at the time. This was the first of 30-35 times I saw SRV in my lifetime.
In no particular order...though I am partial to Neil and FZ Frank Zappa, 10/11/75, Hofheinz Pavillion, was incredible. Post Mother's days, but a great band nonetheless. Stevie Ray Vaughn in a club called the Crossroads in Nacogdoches Texas circa 1978. Tiny place where you were no more than 10 feet away. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Third Best Garage Band in the World Tour (with Sonic Youth opening), The Summit, mid-80's. Feedback and screaming guitars. Black Sabbath (before Ozzie was booted), Sam Houston Coliseum, late 70's, maybe 78, Van Halen was the opening act. Blew Van Halen off the stage. Pink Floyd, Jeppensen Stadium, late mid to late 70's, not sure when, it was pouring down rain, the Animals tour, big pig floating in the sky... ...yeh, I'm an old geezer.
Can't list just one, here's my most memorable: Anthrax/Public Enemy/Primus - International Ballroom 10/90 Nirvana - Sam Houston Colliseum Lollapalooza 2 - BFE outside Houston Robert Earl Keen - Floore's Country Store, Helotes, TX 1994 Hollisters - Fab Sat Lounge Skatenigs - Fitzgerald's Pink Floyd - Rice Stadium in a torrential downpour Fugazi - some place in Houston that used to be a roller rink Smashing Pumpkins - Southpark Meadows, Austin, 1994 Merle Haggard - Rockefeller's Willie Nelson - Backyard, Austin Jerry Jeff/Gary P. Nunn/Terry Allen - Luckenbach Norah Jones - Hobby Center Grateful Dead - Eugene, OR, 1996
In no particular order... Suzanne Vega - Rockefellar's in Houston - 1990 Black Crowes - Coliseum in Houston - 1992 Joe Satriani - Xcess in Houston - 1990 U2 - Erwin Center & Antone's in Austin - 1987 Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force/Talas w/Billy Sheehan - Cardi's in Houston - 1985 (hey, I was 15, whaddya expect? ) Chick Corea Acoustic Band - Rockefellar's in Houston - 1990 King's X - Xcess in Houston - 1990 There are other local acts that I saw and loved but those are the major one's that come to mind.
I saw Living Color play at Club Xcess on Richmond right after "Cult of Personality" came out. They had amazing energy for such a small venue. Ice Cube & Black Sheep at the Unicorn was cool cause I got to meet the Ghetto Boys and hear "This or That" live. The Benson and Hedges Blues fest at the Summit in 90, I think. John Lee Hooker, BB King, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Etta James, Johnny Winter and others. In college I was the music director of our campus "10 watt tower of power" radio station and I got to interview the Dead Milkmen before a show and then they dedicated the set to me on stage which was real cool. And I actually saw GWAR at the axiom... oomp
i can't pick just one, so I will give a top 5 5. Pantera, Feb 1, 2001, NM Convention Center, Albuquerque,NM 4. Rush, Aug 21, 2002, Journal Pavilion, Albuquerque, NM 3. Firecracker Five (Papa Roach,Linkin Park,Disturbed,Slipknot,Drowning Pool) July 4, 2001, Lubbock, TX 2. Pearl Jam - Oct 18, 2000 , United Spirit Arena, Lubbock, TX 1. Tool - Nov 18,2002 -Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, NM
