Share your miserable concert experiences

That one was pretty bad. But the worst I’ve ever seen was Cher back in the late 80s. In retrospect, the show was exactly what I should have expected, but back then I was young and naive and all the concerts I had seen to that point had been solid artists doing solid work. I was taken to the Cher concert by my aunt, at the last minute when her friend backed out for some reason, so the upside was that I got to go for free. Too bad about all that time I’ll never get back… The show was mostly lip-synched, including one song where whe serenaded herself with a two-part Cher harmony-kinda thing with her singing to one of her dancers who was dressed up as her, them joyously singing her parts back and forth. Man, that sucked. Liberally interspersed throughout the show were video snippets of the Sonny and Cher Show and every movie she had ever made. Seriously, if I wanted to see that much of Moonstruck, I could’ve rented it at Blockbuster! Her performance was, top-to-bottom, crap and I felt pretty ripped off, even having not paid anything for it. The one bright light in the show was her opening act, Dom Irera, who I think is one of the funnier stand-up comics out there and who put on an hilarious show. But after he stepped off stage, the non-stop suckage began. Yuck.

This makes me thankful that I bailed on going to the Toronto stop of the Doom / Mos Def tour (incidentally, our original show was also rescheduled… which never bodes well, IME).

I think the most miserable concert experience I ever had was probably way worse for the performers than it was for the audience… Architecture in Helsinkihave a really silly, chaotic sort of style to their music, and we went to their show expecting a fun and exuberant performance.

Unfortunately, it seems the band had literally just flown in from Oz that morning, because they looked completely jetlagged. At one point, it looked like one of the guys looked so ill I thought he’d puke onstage, right then and there. He didn’t… which is too bad, because it might’ve added a little excitement to the show if he had. Boooooring.

I’m sure they’d be an absolute hoot on a good day, though… too bad I’d have to fly halfway around the world to experience that. :frowning:

Actually, come to think of it, that was topped by a craptastic show by The Fiery Furnaces at Lee’s Palace a few years ago.

The sound guy wasn’t doing a very good job (and the sound at Lee’s is legendary for its crappiness)… there were a few instances where I thought that Matthew Friedburger might actually drop his mic and run over to the sound booth to beat the crap out of him. On top of that, Eleanor kept whining about the fact that she had a sore throat. They basically sulked their way through their set, ignored the audience, and then went home. I haven’t listened to a single track of theirs since then, because their jerkishness ruined their music for me. :frowning:

This past year, Earth Wind & Fire came to Indianapolis in a double-bill with Chicago. As we understood it, they would play some stuff together, then each band would do a set, then they would close with more stuff together. All well & good; my husband & I are both big EWF fans, and enjoy Chicago, particularly the older stuff.

The opening was pretty good. EWF did the first set, and rocked the joint. It was AWESOME. All the horns, Phillip Bailey (still) singing falsetto, fantastic. Then Chicago came on stage.

It started out kind of ok, but low key. It then segued into something resembling either a prom nightmare or a coma - they did a 15 minute medley of all their 80’s ballads. Yawn. We went for a walk around the inside of the Arena & bought an EWF t-shirt.

We went back in time for EWF to come out and join them again for the closing. Again, fantastic.

After this experience, I’ll go see EWF again, anywhere. Chicago, meh. Not so much.

My worst was going to see Ron White in concert at an Indian casino.
It’s one thing not to be able to hear the words at a music concert. (assuming you can hear the music)
It is quite another to not be able to hear the words at a comedy concert.
We asked, begged, we yelled to get the volume up.
No dice.
What a waste of money that was.

I’ve seen some really disappointing shows, but only one that I could call miserable.

A bunch of us went to see Blue Oyster Cult (then touring as Soft White Underbelly) at the old Saddle Rack in San Jose. We were standing in line before the doors opened and suddenly my girlfriend had some kind of fainting spell. She said she felt woozy and practically collapsed into my arms. I wanted to take her to the hospital right then, but she refused and said she’d be okay. Once we got inside, she said she felt better, but I think she just didn’t want me to miss the show. We made it through the concert, but I was so worried about her that can’t remember a single song they played.

Heh. I went to see the Replacements play an early evening gig at the Lawndale Arts Center in Houston some time back in the '80s. As I walked up to the door I noticed some skinny guy laying passed out in the mud next to the entrance. I thought, “Man, did he ever peak too soon”. Imagine my surprise when he staggered up on stage and began singing lead.

They got to about the fourth song when the organizers, with whom there apparently was some dispute, told them they couldn’t play any more. They started another song anyway, at which point the power got cut off. Then chairs started flying. Good times.

That wasn’t the worst concert I’d ever been to, however. That would be ZZ Top at the Johnstown, PA War Memorial Arena, maybe '80 or so. Most of the crowd was completely shitfaced, and utterly demented. The band got about two bars into the first song, when an M-80 firecracker sailed up on stage and blew up in the bass player’s face. They went ahead and played anyway, but they were, frankly, awful. The exerience, such as it was, was not notably enhanced by the inebriated gent who sat directly behind me, slurring out YYYYEEEAAAHHHHHH!!! at random moments throughout the entire show, then eventually puked all over my girlfriend.

Hmmm, I swear I posted this hours ago, it must have been eaten…
Anyways my two are
The Smashing Pumpkins. Billy has a great voice, at least in the studio, but for some reason, in concert, he felt the need to SCREAM every single song. Awful

Fleetwood Mac. Those people don’t even belong on stage anymore.

March 1990, I was home on leave between completing AIT (Army training) and being shipped off to Turkey for a year. Some friends and I went to see Jesus and Mary Chain in Chicago (I don’t remember the venue).

It took a while for the show to start – no big deal – and the opening act was decent, kind of a punk reggae band. Between the acts, they were piping music over the sound system and I Wanna Be Sedated came on and I was singing it with my friend. The crowd was moshing back and forth and so I was pushing into him as well.

Suddenly, I was grabbed in a a headlock by a HUGE bouncer who dragged me away saying “That’s it for you, you’re fucking out of here.” I was thrown out a side door as confused as anything else. I hadn’t been drinking and I don’t do any drugs or anything, so I wasn’t all hepped up on something. In theory, I probably could have talked myself back in at the fron door but for some reason I didn’t.

From what I understand about the show, I actually didn’t miss that much.

George Thorogood at the UIC Pavillion in the late 80’s or early 90’s. Nothing at all wrong with the music or the crowd. It was the volume. I knew that guy was LOUD, but this was unbelievable. Had to move from decent seats on the floor not too far from the stage to seats way up high and in the back. Still had to plug my ears. I’m normally ok with loud. This was literally painful.

ETA: Nina Hagen was just ridiculous. 20 minutes singing along with a turntable. Regular ticket prices.

How I nearly got into a brawl at the House of Blues during a Genesis tribute band concert. Keep in mind that I’m a bespectacled, pudgy, quiet, vaguely nerdy girl or you probably won’t get the full effect of how much rage and frustration I was feeling at the time.

To the OP, have you gone to a lot of hip-hop shows? I’m not asking snarkily, because my experience is very limited, but I’ve been led to understand by friends who are fans of the genre that your experience is fairly typical of hip-hop shows by and large. The few that I have been to over the years would definitely bear this out, with horrible sound and painfully (or mercifully?) short performances. Hip-hop began on the streets and in clubs, of course, but these days it’s become such of a studio-driven format, and it seems to me that the performers lack that sort of concert ‘give the fans their money’s worth’ attitude. Not that this is limited to hip-hop, by any means, as I would say that at least 90% of the concerts I’ve seen in the last five years were shit.
Maybe it’s another thread, but anyone been to any really great hip-hop shows?

Eric Burdon in London in the 70s. So off his face that he was making up new lyrics to old Animals songs except when the kindly young guitarist was telling him what the lyrics were. Made more disappointing because of my expectations and his legendary status. I think the audience were too horrified to boo.

Maybe not miserable, but it pissed me off.

I once went to a concert for Joy Electric, a Christian-ish electronic band. I know that combination sounds awful, but I actually like their stuff and was looking forward to hearing them.

The opening band, though, was some sort of generic Christian rock group. They were okay, but sounded like any other mainstream rock band out there, and frankly I thought they were boring as hell. But then they finished their second to last song, and the main singer gets up and starts PREACHING at us. And I don’t mean in a “god loves you all!!” kind of way. I mean in an “all you nonbelievers sure are missing out on this whole awesome afterlife thing” kind of way. He said something along the lines of “I know there are those of you out there who don’t believe, and it makes me sad.” It was condescending, bible-thumping bullcrap. Even my Christian friends were insulted.

Then the second opening band was awesome, and Joy Electric came on and were fantastic, so all was well. But that sermon at the beginning still chaps my hide whenever I think about it.

This is nowhere near as bad as most of yours, but I am still bitter about being in the second-to-last row at the Worcester Centrum to hear Dave Matthews Band, and still managing to have a beer spilled down my back. Yuck.

The show was not that great either. They started playing the same riff over and over again, for about 30 minute. Yeah. Funny thing though, I saw them at Foxborough a few weeks later, and it was awesome. A totally different show. I guess Dave is one of those hit or miss performers.

Oh, and I just remembered a time in college I went to hear a friend of a friend play, and our car was broken into while we were listening to the main act. That sucked.

I wasn’t their fault, but my miserable experience was at an outdoor concert by Dire Straits in the early '90s.

It had been a stinking hot day, so I was there in t-shirt and jeans. Before the concert started the weather rolled in. Temperature dropped from stinking hot to bitterly cold. Then the rain put the final nail in the coffin.

The performance was fine, but I was so cold and uncomfortable that I really couldn’t enjoy it. When I got home I think I must have spent half an hour in the shower trying to warm up.

My two worst concert experiences both involved drugs, but not mine.

Grateful Dead - Got run over and tore up by a fellow concert-goer who had done the brown acid and decided to rush the stage. From the back row. At an outdoor venue.

Jimmy Buffett - A guy sitting behind us had been heavily into the tequila before the concert. He spent the first set screaming out nonsense at the top of his lungs until I turned around and threatened to cold-cock him if he opened his mouth again. Then he puked all over the back of my seat, so I did. It was worth getting asked to leave.

I had the same experience with The Mahavishnu Orchestra. They cranked up the volume, which made little sense for a jazz-rock improvisational group. One of the ushers warned me – their violinist has been a member of the Flock, and evidently they also put everything full blast.

Another bad on was the Manhattan Transfer. They had just switched over from their original line-up with Gene Pistilli and were moving toward a classic jazz group. But it sounded as though they hadn’t bothered to rehearse together before; it was terrible.

Yikes. I would have liked to have seen the Musical Box do The Lamb, but that experience would have sent me into a frothing, murderous rage.

Van Morrison recently, doing Astral Weeks. He just seemed bored, (which soon spread to the crowd) & couldn’t wait to get offstage. Mumbled lyrics, sped through or completely slowed tempos. No fan acknowledgement or interaction. Real disappointment & a waste of 100 bucks. Later learned his primary motivation was that he didn’t own the publishing rights for these songs, so he had to record new versions to gain the rights & earn royalties from them, and did it ever show! :frowning:

I read this as joyously swinging her parts back and forth. Which I suppose wouldn’t have been too bad.