That’s just bad assed as all gets out. You win the thread!
- Judas Priest at The Palladium in NYC in 1980.
They played their best stuff and their sound quality and musicianship were superb, made even better by the acoustics in The Palladium
- The Blizzard of Oz at the same Palladium in 1981.
More great sound and during a time when Ozzie’s voice still worked well and Randy Rhodes was still alive.
One of my best shows was the Pogues at the Boston Opera House, 1986. It was the last show at that venue before it underwent extensive renovations, and man, it really needed them. I was in the balcony, and it was literally bouncing up and down when things got hot and heavy. Shane was his usual drunken charming self, reading the lyrics to Gentleman Soldier off a sheaf of papers and then tossing them into the audience. They encored with Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah and as the crowd poured out onto Washington St. the entire block resonated with a 2,500-strong chorus reprising it into the night.
The two best concerts I saw were both in 1994: Dread Zeppelin in Albuquerque, NM (I was doing clinicals at an Indian reservation in the region) and Sugar/Magnapop in the rural college town of Decorah, Iowa. Both shows were fantastic.
I feel like I should mention The Tubes, circa 1981, on their “Completion Backwards Principle Tour”, but it was more of a crazy, chaotic entertainment event, than strictly a concert. It had 6’4" lead singer transmogrifying mid-concert into a giant glam rocker called Quay Lude, it had an inflatable penis and an inflatable giant woman, it had audience participation, and on top of all that I was drunk going in.
I’m pretty sure that much of the music was good, too. I had a fantastic time either way.
Was it a fiftey foot woman in a five foot dress? You sound like you were a white punk on dope! I’ll talk to you later.
Damn those were great times for concerts.
That was indeed the song that her arrival kicked off.
I saw Sugar on that same tour, in Montreal. I think My Bloody Valentine opened. I didn’t know Dread Zeppelin were still going in 1994; I saw them with Mojo Nixon opening (and honestly, I was there more for Mojo) in 1991.
My favourite was at the Corona, a fairly small, almost intimate club, in Montreal in 2017 with Saxon and UFO. It was a fantastic show where I was able to lean against the actual stage.
And then five months later I saw Saxon (again) and Judas Priest in Ottawa and that was awesome too.
I saw them again later in 1994; that show was a dud.
For that matter, I saw Sugar the year before as well; Cell opened, a band I’ve never heard of before or since, except for a guy I worked with that summer who was really impressed that I’d seen Cell. THIS man had once lived in Austin, TX and while he was there, he saw GG Allin (our co-workers did not believe the stories he told about Allin’s onstage stunts) because “I just wanted to find out if the guy was for real.”
I would have traded my Caljam II experience for that. Wow!
Pretty awesome. Tull would have been fantastic to hear locomotive breadth live for the first time evah.
Santana Well Alright tour 1978 or 79 at the Sacramento Coliseum.
Kinks on the live tour in 1979 in SF and Red Rocks, and again in 1981 and 1982.
Led Zep with 50k of my closest friends in July 1977 at the Oakland Coliseum
Bob Wier Band in Boulder Colorado IIRC 1980. Freaking awesome. 3 encores. Bob came out before the final encore and said gimme 5 minutes so we can hook the amps back up. Also a different line-up and another awesome show at the UC Davis Freeborn hall (held a thousand or so folks).
Both George Thorogood and Devo in 1978 at the UC Davis Coffee House, which held about two hundred people. George doing the sound check to apethetic students trying to study and jumped on a few tables while soloing.
Bob Marley and Weather Report in 1979 at UC Davis Freeborn hall. Both incredible in different ways.
Red Hot Chili Peppers on the Real Men Coyotes tour in a dippy little club in Sacramento on a weekday with about 30 people in the audience in 1984. And I cock blocked the chili peppers who were trying to get my drunk girlfriend to be a groupie. Plus the Chili Peppers had come to the college radio station I was GM of earlier. We spun a bunch of records together live for an hour or so. Monty was their road manager who’s job was to keep them from being arrested.
I know I’m missing tons and not even delving into the American Hardcore Scene, where I saw pretty much every band around.
Man, I’m envious. I got into groups like Hüsker Dü, Black Flag, The Minutemen and the Dead Kennedys late in high school, meaning after they’d all broken up. Either way, I would have been far too young to see any of them live, especially in their heydays. Had to make do in the early 90s with Bob Mould solo, Rollins Band and the like.
Probably not the best concert for anyone there but very memorable for me, as it was my first exposure to live rock. The band was called “Freewheelin” (spelled like that, I think) and they played in my high school gym around 1976. Just good old rock and roll cranked way up, with cool stage dynamics. Toward the end, they set off an explosion that probably scared the hell out of the teachers and administrators, or at least that’s how I remember remembering it, because it was an entertaining thought at the time. When it went off, I had some kind of sensory overload and didn’t know what was happening. Everything went white and silent, and it took a second or two to regain my senses. Heh, and isn’t that what rock’s all about?
My first real concert was shortly after that: Sammy Hagar opening for Boston. None of us knew who this Hagar guy was, and we were prepared to boo him off the stage. That never happened, because he and his band were very good. Boston, too. I remember an extended version of Foreplay amid clouds of fog onstage, and the keyboardist (Tom Scholz?) whipping off a cape with a flourish when it breaks to Long Time.
I remember when he opened for Boston. Only song we knew was I Can’t Drive 55. That show is listed above as one of my favs.
On another note, the best concert I never got to see live (but on video) was the Talking Heads on their Stop Making Sense Tour. I would love to go back in time and be there. Did any of yall get to see it? Was it as awesome as I think it was?
I forgot, LCD Soundsystem, on their comeback tour or whatever it was, was fantastic…my whole body vibrated during that. We had “backstage” passes, meaning we were where the food was but the band mostly wasn’t, but we did get to talk to one of the band members for a minute. The whole thing was great, and I was literally worn out by the end.
One of the best was the Reverend Horton Heat at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio in 2011. Got to hear semi-classics like “Nurture My Pig”, “Five-O Ford”, “Right Now”, “Please Don’t Take the Baby to the Liquor Store”, “Big Red Rocket of Love” and “Psychobilly Freakout”.
True, the venue struck me as a firetrap and it didn’t help that the opening act concluded their set by setting fire to a guitar, but it was still a memorable night of psychobilly.
Concrete Blonde with Andy Prieboy was amazing, perfect seats, sound, and performance.
Primus/Pixies/Jane’s Addiction was a dream bill that lived up to the hope, all bands we’re knocking it out of the park.
And every Blue Oyster Cult show is my favorite show 
Add me to the jealous club.
I first saw Tull during the WarChild tour (1974?). Going in, I only knew “Bungle in the Jungle” and my expectations were tepid. I was absolutely wowed. I’ve never been so unexpectedly impressed by any artist, before or since. Instant fan.
I still have the WarChild concert booklet.
mmm
It was! Thanks for the validation.
My first reaction when I saw this thread was “Well, I have nothing to contribute. Never had the money to go see bands.”
Then I remembered my ($8.00) Tull experience!
I’ve seen other bands, but even cheaper than that… I’ve gone to Milwaukee’s Summerfest, almost every day since '72, always getting there early, because virtually every day is a “Donate [something like cans of food], get in free until 2pm” (But hey, that meant I saw George Carlin get arrested…)