What's the best concert you've ever been to?

For me it was (love them or hate them, they can put on a great show) Marilyn Manson on Halloween night in Asbury Park NJ back in '97.

My friends and I spent half the night trying to figure out who was dressed up for Halloween and who normally dressed that way.

To top it off, MM himself didn’t spend half the night preaching his particularly painful diatribes about Christians, just played an awesome set.

I can’t say Grand Funk was the best, but I know it was the loudest… 20 years later, I still can’t hear…

Bryan Adams. Vancouver BC, 1997-98 (can’t remember). Great concert. Really got the crowd into it.

Metallica… although when White Zombie opened up for Pantera they literally stole the whole show and blew it away in my opinion. So its a toss up between the two.

Probably Collin Raye. I was on the floor, about 20 rows back, and he was so pumped during the show. I’d never been to a concert before, and wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was awesome.

HFStival, May 2000, FedEx field, Landover, MD. It was a cold, rainy miserable day, but I saw my two favorite bands at the time, Stone Temple Pilots and Rage Against the Machine, perform back to back. I’m so glad I saw Rage before Zack left.

Elton John/Billy Joel at Giants Stadium (5 years ago?)

Junior Brown/Bill Kirchen at the Bottom Line in NYC (4 years ago)

Primus at an outdoor festival show three years ago

kodo.

I saw Godspeed You Black Emperor this October, and they just blew me away. Hearing it live, with a crowd that was 100% into it, the music took on a life of its own. A fantastic concert.

Yanni (don’t laugh :mad:!). Sandstone Ampitheatre, Kansas City, KS. 1995.

Believe it or not, Yanni puts on a helluva show. I can guarantee you that I won’t hear a guy playing a didgeridoo when I go see Styx (without Dennis DeYoung :mad: ) at the State Fair this year.

What a weird crowd it was. There were pot-smoking hippies; there were Polo-shirt-wearing Republicans (like me); there were old couples, young Gen-Xers (like me), teenagers, little kids, middle-age couples, minivan-driving families… just about the whole demographic spectrum was there to hear some awesome music.

Cubanismo, last November. Even after I found out I got a 28, I still say the time was better spent at the concert than studying for my EE exam the next morning.

For me it’s a toss up between two:

Todd Rundgren and Utopia in 1976. One of the first uses (at least that I’d ever seen) of laser lights, plus they just completely rocked for about 3-1/2 hours. I don’t even remember who opened for them. Like anybody cared.

OR

AC/DC in 1995. I was on the 4th row, and actually high fived with Angus as he trotted down the aisle. It was a mind-blowing concert. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better time. Of course, my ears haven’t been the same since, but it was worth having to learn American Sign… :wink:

The Pogues, John Anson Ford Theatre, Los Angeles, 1989.

I was a high school senior, totally excited to see them. The seats were first come basis, so I was able to jump into the orchestra pit right in front of the stage.

I touched Shane McGowan’s shoe.
He baptized me with Jack Daniels.
I was picked up around the waist by a drunken 30-something, who said “it looks like you want to dance,” and I learned that my right hook was pretty good.
The sweater I wore that night was stretched and torn from the constant jostling in the pit.

It was a good night.

Edenfest, an outdoor festival outside of Toronto 4 or 5 yrs ago. The Saturday night line-up: Live, Porno For Pyros, Tragically Hip. Awesome.

Cheers,
Hodge

Rammstein, june 98, Chicago: the 4 hour drive up to Chicago was soo worth it, Till and Co. put on an amazin show, they even threw in their cover of Stripped…hillarious!

NIN, may 2000, St.Louis: Wow…wow…wow, absolutely amazing show, a catharsis, an epiphany, whatever one shoudl call it, it was beyond words.

VAST, feb 2001, st.louis: They opened for eve9…wtf?! But, nevertheless, an amazing show, Jon Crosby is the 2nd comin of Morrison(as far as sexual energy live goes) and he went into the crowd and did a whole song on our level…fantastic.

bands i still need to see live: Skinny Puppy/Download, depeche mode, the cure, vnv nation, front242, and einsturzende neubauten.

Best: Peter Gabriel, 1984, at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, during the “Security” tour.

Worst: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, a few years ago years ago, at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. Not so much because the music was bad (though Page was sluggish and out-of-it, while Plant’s voice was shot), as because…

  1. The A/C didn’t work, and it was 120 degrees inside.

  2. My wife and I were the only people present NOT smoking pot.

  3. Page and Plant were tired of all the POPULAR Led Zeppelin songs, so they played nothing but their obscure tracks (in short, they played only the Led Zeppelin songs nobody wanted to hear!).

Tossup among:

a) The Who, Pittsburgh Civic Arena, Oct. '79 (the night before the infamous Cincinnati concert)

b) Talking Heads, Red Rocks, Denver, CO, 1983(?) (“Stop Making Sense” Tour)

c) John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards, in some high school auditorium near Versailles, France, 1997.

Life-changing experiences all…

Bob Dylan, Bogart’s, Cincinnati, 1999.

U2, PopMart, Columbus, 1997.

Suzanne Vega, Kentucky Theatre, 1997.

As a conglomerate, the week of Phish shows I went to this past summer. If I have to pick one, I’ll say the first night at Polaris Amphitheatre, Columbus, 7-14-00. (Worst music venue I’ve ever had the misfortune to visit, though.)

The Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, 1994. Everybody was there.

Dr. J

Creed. Last november. went wth 2 good friends. Finger Eleven(they are awesome!!) and Sevendust opened up for them.
Spent “What If” on top of my friends shoulders, with both of us rocking out.

It was actually good bonding time with both of them too:)

Slayer / White Zombie - 1990(?) - Slayer were freaking metal gods at this point and Zombie was an unknown NYC punk band. You really need to see Slayer live to understand why they were/are such a popular metal band.
Pantera / Sacred Reich - 1992(?) - To see Pantera at a club freaking rocked. They rarely came to my area then, so this was a huge show. Sacred Reich was just a metal band I really liked that never got anywhere.
Pantera / White Zombie- 1995(?) - Its Pantera and White Zombie. Nuff said.
Weird Al - He always puts on a great show. Funny as hell.
OK, there are a couple of concerts there, but I have seen hundreds, so its hard to pick out any one.