Most disappointing concert you've ever been to

Cafe Society
21

Bob Dylan way back when. I managed to get front row at The Stanley in Pittsburgh. I’d never seen him live and I was so excited. It was during his “religious” phase.

Opening act was a gospel band. People were surprised. At the end of their first song people were chuckling, thinking it was a joke. Then they played a second, then third song. People began booing and calling for Bob.

After a long opening set, Dylan came on stage and launched into a song nobody wanted to hear, with the gospel group as his backup band. It was awful. Only songs from his religious album.

I’ve since seen him six times, including JazzFest and he made up for it.

22

Elton John in the early nineties. He was fine, actually, and did the songs I wanted him to do, but I was expecting him to go charging around in a duck suit or something, and he just sat at the piano.

23

Mazzy Star back in the 90s at the Metro in Chicago. Hope Sandoval draped herself over the mic and mumbled even more mumbly than her recorded self so you couldn’t really see her between the dim light and her posture and you could barely hear her. Metro is a pretty crap venue on top of it. Part way through the set, the strap on her dress inexplicably broke and she wandered off stage for 10 minutes while the band sort of noodled around and she presumably found a safety pin. The only words she spoke besides song lyrics were a mumbled “goodnight” before walking off stage for good at the end.

To be clear, I’m fully aware of Mazzy Star’s style but I’ve seen many a 90s mopey alt-rock chauntress and they all managed to put on an entertaining show, say some banter between songs and make seeing them live feel better than playing an album at home. Back around 2015, my sister-in-law was going to see Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions and I told my wife the story from twenty years earlier. A few hours later, her sister called with “That was the worst goddamn show I’ve ever seen…”

Edit: I see I posted the same in the earlier linked thread but, hey, I haven’t had a worse show since!

24

I see that I shared my Motorhead experience (very similar to yours) in the 2018 thread. The concert was in a small gymnasium, we were 20 feet away from the amps, and it was just pure noise and distortion.

25

I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and as a young kid I was exposed to what is now classic rock by my dad. Good measures of the usual suspects, Beatles, Stones, Floyd, The Who, etc, but his favorite band was The Doors.

Fast forward to my senior year of high school. Oliver Stone’s Doors movie is in theaters and there is a renewed interest in all things Morrison. I was at the local Harmony House record store (when those were a thing) and saw a flyer for a show in a small nearby venue that Ray Manzarek was playing, and it being very close to my dad’s birthday, I snapped up some tickets.

When the show came, it was in a bar with about 40 chairs set up in front of a grand piano. The show ended up being all solo jazz with poetry readings to music interspersed throughout.

The show was cool in it’s own way, as the poet was Michael McClure and the opening act was John Sinclair (I had no idea who either person was at the time but am very aware now). But coming in, both my dad and I were expecting him to at least bust out a couple of Doors songs and were disappointed at what the show ended up being. In fairness, Manzarek asked for requests at one point and after hearing 20 Doors songs get shouted out, he explained he’d love to make us happy with Riders on the Storm or whatever, but he had no organ or band so it wouldn’t work.

Ten years later I saw Robby Krieger at a different venue and it was 90% Doors stuff. A few years after that, I saw Krieger and Manzarek with Ian Astbury on the D21C tour and it more than made up for 1991.

26

Yes. No energy. It’s like their feet were glued to the floor.

27

The most disappointing concert I attended was also one of the best. We got tickets to see Jefferson Starship (I think they had already changed their name) in early 1974 in Midland Theater in Kansas City. The opening act was a band that none of us had heard of, called Kansas. They absolutely rocked the joint for over an hour, and everybody was blown away. Then we waited about 45 minutes for Starship to come on stage; when they did, Grace Slick was slobbering drunk. She forgot the lyrics and made insensible jokes. Starship played for maybe an hour and walked off with no encore.

28

A lot of older artists with huge catalogs do this, especially country artists for some reason, to get more songs into the performance and to avoid a lot of annoying letters about “Why in the world didn’t you play [old song] at your concert??? It was one of your biggest hits!” Otherwise they’d literally be there all night.

29

None that I totally regret going to, but had knocks against them.

Bob Dylan in 1988. The Alarm opened, they were fine. Dylan did like an hour of hits in a generic kind of way. I wasn’t even a huge fan, so I wouldn’t have spotted any deep cuts, but I recognized pretty much every song he did. Just kinda boring.

David Bowie, Sound + Vision tour in 1990. This is a bit heartbreaking. I’m a colossal Bowie fan now; I even have the cover of the Blackstar album tattooed on my arm. In 1990 I basically knew the hits, but recognized, I should see this show, he’s saying that he’ll never do these classics again (a downy lad I was and twee, to fall for that old one). The tickets were pricy for 1990, to say nothing of the t-shirt, which cost $30 and shrank to Ken doll-size after one wash. There was no opening act. Some stops on that tour featured the Montreal dance troupe La La La Human Steps; they weren’t at this date (or they were just projected on some video screens). The band came out, he was charming as ever, and they proceeded to play, basically, the ChangesBowie compilation, every song sounding exactly like it does on record, and the song he’d contributed to the the-recent Adrien Belew record. And that was pretty much it. I know it was a big sell-out (in the negative sense of the word) tour, but even my pre-fanaticism self knew that the show had been oddly generic. Years later, when I was a serious collector, I’d listen to bootlegs or official live albums and think to myself “Man, I wish I’d seen THAT David Bowie.” Strangely, just this past weekend I picked up a boot from that tour, recorded in the U.K., and it was fantastic.

I’ve seen Bob Mould five times: once on the Black Sheets of Rain tour, once with Sugar on the FUEL tour, one solo acoustic gig, and twice on his general post-Sugar solo tours. The last two shows were dull as hell, just a roar of sound with a few recognizable songs. I love Bob, but I’ve sat it out when he’s come through town since then.

The first time I saw Lady Sovereign, she was opening for The Streets. That show is among my top five ever. Incredible show from both acts. When she came back as a headliner the following year, she was totally burned out from a long stint as Gwen Stefani’s opening act, and reportedly had suffered a breakdown or two along the way. She was really out of it and couldn’t deliver. Thankfully, I saw Sov a third time a year or so later and the fire was back.

30

The first for me was a Roy Buchanan concert at Dollar Bill’s in Kingston, ON in December 1981 or 82 (it was during Christmas exams at university but I was able to carve out the time for it). I was expecting, obviously, some really awesome blues guitar. Instead he had some singer who was sort of an Elvis-ish soundalike and almost all the music was sort of rockabilly. He came on stage quite late, took long bloody breaks, and left without an encore. It was a bloody horrible rip-off.

Another really disappointing show was Madeleine Peyroux at the Montreal Jazz Fest a couple of years ago. I think she was another late starter who put in an “I don’t give a rat’s ass” performance. My wife and I left after about two songs.

31

An acquaintance of mine saw him twice. He’s probably 30 years older than me and he told me this back in the 90’s, so I’m assuming he saw him in the 70’s. He said the first time he saw him, it was an amazing show. The second time he saw him, he was so drunk he couldn’t sing.
I feel like I’ve heard people tell that same story about Jim Morrison as well.

Looking at those older threads, I’ll just cut and paste an old post of mine because it’s still the same answer:
My worst concert was easily Fleetwood Mac (again, sometime in the last 10 years). When Lindsey would take the mic it was okay , but the rest of the show was pretty awful. The music sucked, Stevie sounded terrible, it wasn’t even worth seeing them to say I saw them. I have to assume they were having a bad night because I’ve never heard anyone else say they’re bad live.

32

Well 2/3s of the concert was good. Mahogany Rush opened (not Rush) and they were really good. Next up was Montrose, original line up with Sammy Hagar who was more or less unknown at that time, they were awesome.

Then came the main act, Black Sabbath. Ozzie was soo fucked up he could barely stand. After a few minutes people were streaming for the exits like the building was on fire. The aisles were crowded and there was a danger of a stampede, that bad, it was. I never spent another dollar or any time on that group.

Sept. 13, 1975 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

33

I’d love to have been at the David Live gig. Excellent album.

Anyway …
Saw John Martyn a while back
at Cambridge Corn Exchange (UK)… The sound was atrociously appalling, like wot it often is at this venue…
Still, glad i got to see him.

34

The “A Reality Tour” live album, recorded in Dublin, is just wonderful. To have been in that audience would have been incredible.

35

At a stadium concert, the singer had laryngitis or something and was unable to sing. She sang, anyway, in little more than a scratchy whisper, and she couldn’t hit any notes.

More subjectively, the worst was a Frank Zappa concert. The first 20 rows or so of seating had been removed and there were far too many of us standing in that space. It seemed like a fine idea (more dynamic) and it was fun for a while, but the crowd became too rowdy. Some spectators started jumping around and trying to dance, and eventually everyone was being pushed back and forth and side to side. It felt very much like being tossed about in rough waters. We spent most of the concert just trying to avoid being knocked down and trampled, and my thighs were very sore the next day.

36

Ahhh, I saw Stevie Nicks (free tickets from friends who were going). The crowd consisted of 20,000 Stevie Nicks fans and me. There were people there wearing wedding dresses (a Stevie Nicks thing?).

Anyway, Ms Nicks had throat issues. She’d whisper/sing the first few lines of a song, then apologize for her health issues and talk (whisper) for ten minutes, then sing the outro. It was a joke, but everyone there was into it.

One of the other guys in the group had brought hits of acid for him and his gf. She turned down the offer, so her bf ate them both, then wondered off. At the end of the show he was still nowhere to be found. People organized a search party. I pointed out he was an adult, and left.

37

Given that I went with high hopes (because they were riding high at the time), I’ll nominate The Slits on the 1979 Simply What’s Happening tour. They just weren’t good - couldn’t play their instruments, had very few good songs. Actually Don Cherry (father of Neneh and Eagle Eye) was the opening act and he was even worse, but I had no expectations of him.

Honourable mentions from about the same era: Van Morrison (seemed very pissed off at even being there); Rockpile (one I had been looking forward to - no energy, went through the motions); Wreckless Eric (hopelessly drunk, remarkably poor sound).

Non-mention because nobody had even heard of them at the time: Dexy’s Midnight Runners.

j

38

I’ll skip past my awful Bob Dylan and Van Morrison experiences since millions of others have probably also suffered through the lack of engagement and insufferable altered arrangements of their most popular songs. Instead, I’ll go with a Jan and Dean concert in 1981. A decade and a half after his car accident, Jan was still barely capable of standing up, let alone singing. It was probably a great, “Oh, look how brave he is!” moment for some, but for someone who loves the music it was embarrassing and heartbreaking.

39

I saw one of the last shows Aretha Franklin did. It was apparent when she came out she wasn’t feeling well. She was crabby during the show and had to sit down several times. She ended up cutting the show about 6 songs short.
Same thing happened when I saw Issac Hayes. He cut his show in half because he wasn’t feeling good. While I felt bad for both performers they should have cancelled. When you’re sick you’re sick.

I have a thread somewhere about a Kenny Rogers show I saw. He forgot the lyrics to songs he wrote and/or sang for decades. I was embarrassed for him.

Saw Vince Neil on one of his solo tours. After 2 songs he was gasping and huffin and puffin. I thought the fat bastard was going to vapor lock on that stage.

The Spin Doctors are a bar band that got lucky. Saw them during their heyday. They sucked

40

Ramones at the Hollywood Palladium on their farewell tour. Great energy, but the sound mix for the first 45 minutes sucked. Just a wall of sludge punctuated by CJ screaming “1-2-3-4” every two minutes making all the songs sound the same (Yes, I know. You don’t need to make the obvious joke). Then, suddenly, someone at the soundboard pulled their head out of their ass and the sound quality improved dramatically. The second half of the show was great.

The Kinks at the LA Sports Arena in 1985 (“Word of Mouth” tour). The opening band were local heroes The Blasters, and they rocked the house. When the Kinks showed up, Ray must have been having a bad night. Surly, rude, short set that was barely over an hour. I thought we were going to get one of the infamous Davies brothers on-stage fist fights at one point, but it was not to be.
Fortunately they came back 6 months later in the summer and played Irvine Meadows Amphitheater and were absolutely amazing. Saw them a total of 6 times over the years. 5 times they were great, but that second time was a dud.