Share your miserable concert experiences

[Caprese]

@Caprese

security came and took us away.

Oops.
Make that “took them away.”
We got to stay and enjoy the last ten minutes or so.:rolleyes:

[MPB_in_Salt_Lake]

@Rhythmdvl

Actually, the nasty part isn’t the Dead show so much as the opening act. Some time in the early nineties they toured with Sting. I’m not all that much of a Sting fan, but I wasn’t particularly against him. But that tour had a lot of awful moments. First, his credibility shit the bed. It’s odd to go on tour with one of the most free-flowing, improvisation bands in the world and put on a relatively flat, static show. Jerry and Bobby would come out on and play a bit here and there (I caught about fifteen or so shows on that tour), but no matter what they tried no one else left the safety of the song. Meh. The most uncomfortable bit was when Sting spilled a bit of tea. Every. Fucking. Show. There he was in this oh-so-chic overalls sipping his tea from a casually placed china cup, and he’d spill a bit and look out at the crowd in a cutesy I’m so cwumsy! Whatever shall I do? look. Blech.

The absolute worst, though, were the Sting fans. Dead shows were tens of thousands of the most laid back, chill music fans around. Yeah, yeah, no collection of people is without a standard proportion of assholes, but the general culture was very relaxed. Then his fans started showing up in hairspray and heels. Teased hair and high heels don’t go so well at an outdoor venue (think floor at a football stadium), and really didn’t fit in with the overall vibe. Done-up folk were never a complete anomaly (Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac and all), but the hoards of rude, pushy, nasty Sting fans made for a real shitty summer tour.

It’s so funny how two people can see the same thing and have two completely different reactions to it.

In all of my years hearing the Grateful Dead play live, I saw several outstanding, trancendent opening acts, including the Neville Brothers, Branford Marsalis, Ornette Coleman, Dave Matthews Band, Santana, Steve Miller Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Traffic, Los Lobos, Crosby Stills & Nash, Indigo Girls and several others-----I also saw the three Las Vegas shows where Sting was the Dead’s opening act (the first shows he ever played with the Grateful Dead) and felt he was among the best musicians that ever opened up for them.

I thought Sting’s sets were full of energy and drive, and were a welcome addition to some of the older acts that the Grateful Dead would often have as opening bands. With the Grateful Dead, there was always an element of chance (each show unique, and many nights when the music was uninspired, to say the least) and the opening act could really set a mood that the Dead would then follow.

It wasn’t for everybody, but for those of us who ever heard the Grateful Dead at their free flowing, improvosational, passion-infused best, it was an experience that will never be forgotten…

[mack]

@Eutychus

Laurie Anderson at the newly converted Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, RI.

I was a big Anderson fan and as she doesn’t tour that often this was going to be a once in a lifetime thing for me. But the acoustics were so muddled that for most of the show you couldn’t understand what she was saying.

Which wouldn’t have been too bad since Anderson always had a big grab-bag of different instruments that she used in her shows. Not here. It was just … tell an anecdote … play a little on her violin … tell an anecdote … play a little on her violin … for two hours straight. None of the diversity that you found in even one quarter of something like “United States.”

Most boring concert I’d ever been to and a major disappointment.

Ooohh yeahhh…I did see a crappy Laurie Anderson concert. You just reminded me. I had forgotten about it.

I had seen Laurie Anderson in Denver when she toured around the time Mr. Heartbreak came out. Full band, awesome show, a life-changing experience.

A year or so later, I had a couple of friends up in Boston and heard she was playing up there at The Orpheum, so I drove up there with a brother and sister of my fiend. We had high expectations.

It was her, a keyboard, and three or four backup singers. The whole show I was like, “okay, open up the curtain now, bring out the rest of the band”. At least for the second set. No dice. My friend’s brother described it as Laurie Anderson and the Pips. I suppose the lameness of the show was partly my expectations of another Mr. Heartbreak show, but man was I disappointed.

[King_Bobo]

@Spoons

Except for the part about being “late teenaged punks,” this statement could be used to describe a Moody Blues concert I attended in Toronto in 1989. No life, no feeling, no interaction with the crowd, no encore. I’d guess they did the minimum they had to do as per their contract, and when they were done, they got the hell out. And it showed.

So sorry you had to see an “off” night for the Moody Blues. I love this band and have seen them dozens of times.
True, they do not do a lot of interaction with the audience - they just introduce the song, then SING.

I have never had the misfortune to see them on a bad night. They have always gracefully done one or two encores and have even signed programmes/ albums etc. after the shows.

I am surprised at your experience; my thoughts on their shows have always been so positive.

PS, saw them here in Calgary just a few months ago (?last fall) and it was as awesome as usual.

KB

[Larry_Mudd]

January, 1994.

I went to see The Butthole Surfers at the Pacific Coliseum. They were on the some band called Nirvana, for whom I cared not at all.

From the opening, it appeared that the Buttholes were going to put on a pretty great show. They didn’t get through the first song, though - some twat beaned Gibby with a shoe, and they packed up and went home.

So did I, after giving Nirvana the opportunity to bore my tits right off for about twenty minutes. Bleah.