A tie: ZZ Top, 1991’s Recycler tour; and An Evening with Rush, 1997
Slayer at 1993’sMonsters of Rock was pretty effin’ awesome, though. What an entrance!
metallica’s black album tour…and the Barenaked Ladies.
“Screw you guys…I’m goin’ home!”
Man, it’s hard to choose…
Red Hot Chili Peppers/Faith No More/Royal Crescent Mob - Halloween '86
Fishbone/Chili Peppers - May '87 (one of the last RHCP shows before Hillel Slovak OD’d)
The Roots - any show. Anyone who says hip-hop has no musical content, do yourself a favor and see this band
Bad Brains - I Against I tour (No rock band will EVER mach their intensity)
Worst show hands down was Bowie’s Glass Spider at Giants Stadium. The definition of everything wrong with seeing a concert in a football stadium. And why did Lisa Lisa open up?
Ever since I started playing professionally live music isn’t the same. I get all caught up in the technical stuff and don’t enjoy the music as much. That sucks.
[list=1][li]Huey Lewis & the News - Amazing but true! [ul][]Their a cappela songs were very impressive. []Huey climbed through the equipment on the back of the stage to play to us with restricted view seats. They played at least 6 encores until they were beat. (Huey jokingly begged at the last one “I tired!”)[/ul][/li][li]Billy Joel - Powerful performance. Also, he had 4 keyboards on the 4 corners of the stage and would rotate around to play to everyone, even those with restricted view seats.[/li][li]Pink FLoyd - I wasn’t stoned, but I sure felt like it. Great SFX.[/li][li]Melissa Etheridge (twice) - not just because the lines to the mens rooms were non-existant. This woman rocks![/li][li]Moody Blues - takes me back to the 60’s & 70’s every time.[/li][li]Beach Boys (twice) - I knew every tune, and the crowd was one big party. Saw them at Mile High Stadium, then less that two weeks later on the Mall in DC.[/list=1][/li]
(As one of my friend’s moms said after the Denver show: “All I had to do is breathe deep to get high!”)
The Allman Bros. A religious experience…
John Hiatt - he cares about his show, his audience.
Worst: Robert Cray. He never even acknowledged there was an audience. Saved that night by the opening act: Delbert McClinton.
The reason gentlemen prefer blondes is that there are not enough redheads to go around.
Pearl Jam 1995, 6th row
Smashing Pumkins at my college for a crowd of about 500 right before the double disc came out. It was a warm up concert before they went on tour. They wanted to play all the new songs live. I remember leaving thinking the song about Tonight Tonight was cool
Chemical Brothers live was awesome!!(especially on X 
)
Every Phish concert I’ve gone to has been great.
Didn’t care for Blues Traveler. (Only so many harmonica solos before you go nuts).
I saw a Led Zeppelin tribute band that was awesome, they had all the authentic instruments and clothes, and they sounded great.
I have to agree with Asstro, ever since I started playing guitar, whenever I see a concert I can’t stop trying to figure out what pedal/amp they’re using, etc.
I saw Supertramp during their Breakfast in America tour. That was great, and they put on a great show. I saw them again last year, and they were still pretty good.
A couple of years ago my wife and I flew to Vancouver with front-row center tickets to the who perform Quadrophenia. The ‘mod’ and ‘rocker’ were played by Billy Idol and Gary Glitter. After they were finished with Quadrophenia they did a whole set of a lot of their big hits. It was awesome.
Jethro Tull. My first ever indoor concert.
Brian Auger. Surprise element, free on campus, just made my whole week that time.
Stones, once.Mere size has a crushing effect.The Stones, of course were minute on the far off stage.
Taj Mahal-never seen such a grip on an audience, we were playdough in his hands.
The Dead
Frank Zappa
Bob Dylan
Pat Metheny
Miles Davis
Allman Bros
Chuck Berry
In roughly that order.
“Owls will deafen us with their incessant hooting!” W. Smithers
Have to give it a 3 way tie:
1 - Harry Chapin 1977 Norman OK - Had become a MAJOR fan about 1 year earlier.
1 - Harry Chapin 1978 Norman OK I wish this string could have gone on forever…
1 - Billy Joel 1995 Nuernberg Germany. This was a FREE concert for all active duty soldiers and their families. I went, figuring, yeah, he’ll play for half an hour, & I’ll have gotten my money’s worth. The man played…and played for over 3 hours. Played Goodnight Saigon with a backup group of Vietnam vets, & you’ve never heard so little from so many for so long. Played Unchained Melody for the families with soldiers in Macedonia & Saudi Arabia. Played Piano Man, and sang it, too, which he hardly ever does anymore.
Other great ones:
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Wolftrap 1997
Moody Blues (with Jimmy Spheeris), OKC 1977
Cat Stevens OKC 1977
Linda Ronstadt, Norman OK 1978
Toby Keith, Wolftrap 1997
Peter, Paul, & Mary Wolftrap 1991
Brooks & Dunn + Reba Capitol Centre, MD 1997
Willie Nelson Wolftrap 1996 His voice is so distinctive it’s easy to forget his virtuoso guitar work.
2 amazing days at Ft Meade MD (Southwest fest) - Collin Raye, Mark Chesnutt, Lee Roy Parnell, Aaron Tippin, Neal McCoy, Lisa Brokop, Ty England, Shenandoah.
Forgettable:
America
Jerry Jeff Walker - 2nd set. Bad idea. He forgot the words to songs HE wrote…
Bob Dylan Wolftrap 1998 He had it. He doesn’t any more. He was 3/4’s through Tangled Up In Blue before anyone recognized it…
And the one I wished I’d gone to - Eagles, KC Missouri, Hotel California tour. I opted to go home from ROTC summer camp & see my future hubby instead.
Not hard to figure out my kids were born early 80’s, huh?
Sue from El Paso
members.aol.com/majormd/index.html
I’ve seen some great ones this year:
Bob Dylan at Bogart’s in Cincinnati (religious experience)
Bruce Hornsby (solo)
Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
(both at the KY Theatre, part of the Troubadour series, for which I am a volunteer)
Best ever? That’s tough.
–Phish in Dayton, December 1997 (and the other five of their shows I’ve been to, but this was the best)
–Indigo Girls, April 1998, here in Lexington. I was stage security. Joan Baez came out to sing with them, and as they did “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” she noticed me singing along, looked at me, and smiled. Great moment.
–Clapton, October 1994 (the “Nothing But the Blues” tour, with Jimmy Vaughan opening)
–Suzanne Vega at the KY Theatre.
–U2’s “PopMart” show in Columbus.
The list goes on. . .
And my favorite to tell about–Rolling Stones, Memphis, July 4, 1975. Not that I remember it–I was three months from being born at the time.
Dr. J
Purple Rain Tour - Prince at that time.