I recently saw Don McLean in concert for the very first time. Exceptional talent.
And when he broke into American Pie…well, it was magical. Surreal. Damn near unbelievable.
The audience participation gave the band a great show. Everybody was singing, people were dancing, and when he sang “my hands were clenched in fist of rage” the entire audience gave the old black power salute. Totally mesmerizing.
If you ever get a chance to see Don in concert, go.
What’s your favorite live song?
Tough question - I think it’s a toss up between the Rolling Stones doing “Midnight Rambler” in the fall of 1969 on the “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” tour and David Bowie doing “Rock and Roll Suicide” in spring of 1973 on his “Ziggy Stardust” tour.
I guess I give the edge to the Stones, because I hadn’t heard “Midnighr Rambler” before.
For me, without a doubt, Peter Gabriel’s “Signal to Noise.” The music, the visuals…it was amazing.
Second place is “Oh Live (There Must Be More)” by the Alan Parsons Live Project. They rarely perform this one in concert (unless that’s changed recently) and I was lucky enough to be in the front row, literally close enough to lean on the stage during the performance. Wonderful.
Neil Young singing “Heart of Gold” in Ottawa circa 1986. At one point he just stopped singing and the audience took over. Then Neil said, “Man, you guys are putting me out of a job.” It was magical.
Wow for the win, although I am sure we’ll get some folks who saw the Beatles, or the Doper Crotalus who will drop the mic discussing his getting to see Zep and The Who together. 
(yes, I am jealous).
I saw Peter Gabriel on Security and that was pretty amazing. But while I couldn’t tell you the specific song, I saw Mark O’Connor (jazz fiddle), Frank Vignola (archtop guitar) and **Chris Thile **(mandolin; won the MacArthur genius grant) jam on Django Reinhardt/Stepane Grappelli Hot Club jazz. Transcendent playing I will never see the like of again.
I saw Placido Domingo and Montserrat Caballe sing Il Trovatore in New Orleans. A real opera by great performers is awesome.
Three occasions come to mind when traveling, of hearing talented but amateur fellow travelers singing for their own pleasure, which I happened to overhear ( in Ecuador, Paraguay and Kyrgyzstan), and I think I enjoyed that more than any professional concert I’ve ever been to.
Probably the most electrifying single song I recall was Sly and the Family Stone’s performance of Dance to the Music at Woodstock, which had hundreds of thousands of people up and dancing beneath the sky in the middle of the night.
Hendrix’s performance of Star-spangled Banner on Monday morning was also very memorable, though I’m not sure I’d call it the “best song.”
The Who’s performance of Tommy at Woodstock was also great but not a single song.
I saw The Who and the Doors together at the same concert in 1968. I recall Morrison doing both Light My Fire and The End but they were probably not his best performances.
It’s certainly one of the highlights of the movie!
Did you get to see Santana do “Soul Survivor” as well?
When Van der Graaf Generator reformed in 2005, having last toured in 1978, and played their first gig at the Royal Festival Hall in London people came from all over the world.
Great gig, and they finished with Wondering, possibly my favourite song of theirs! Beautiful song, and a great end to the night.
Yes. I saw almost every group. I unfortunately got there too late to see Richie Havens, the opening act.
Last night’s rendition of Hurricane Season, with the Trombone Shorty sextet has to rank up there for me. The guy really lights up a crowd.
So memorable performances and standout songs…if I have to pick just one, I’ll go with Something’s Happening–Peter Frampton, Winterland 1975.
ARMS Benefit, LA Forum, 1983
The penultimate song was Jimmy Page doing a solo instrumental version of “Stairway.” At the very end Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton stepped up for the final 30 seconds or so. After a 5 second pause for awe, they kicked into an extended and absolutely blistering work-up of “Layla.” None of the laid-back, easy-going bullshit here - this was three giants dueling on one of the classic songs of Rock. Still gives me chills.
Long time ago, but when I saw Jethro Tull in Houston they opened with Thick As A Brick and played it for twenty minutes. TWENTY MINUTES! When they finished, they all stood there silently for a moment, then Ian Anderson said “And now for our second number…”. That cracked everyone up.
I distinctly remember the Talking Heads doing “The Girls Want to be With the Girls” at the Paradise club in Boston, summer 1978, being right up at the stage and it being great.
Also Same Venue: Guided By Voices doing “I am a Scientist” in 1994/5. I shed a tear.
It’s hard for me to pick just one, but none of them will be as historic as the ones mentioned here. I wasn’t of concert-going age until the early '80’s, and my folks wouldn’t let me go when I was living at home. I was very glad for the summer of the comeback bands in the late '90’s because it let me update my concert resume from that time.
Anyway, some of the great live performances I recall:
Clapton - “White Room”
Dio - “Holy Diver”
Rush - “2112”
Pat Benatar - “Hell is for Children” (oh my God what a powerful voice. One of my resume-updaters. Kansas opened for her and sucked horribly; she literally blew them off the stage.)
Styx - “The Grand Illusion” (another comeback summer tour)
Eagles - “In the City” (from the Hell Freezes Over tour)
Scorpions - “Rock You Like a Hurricane”
Maiden - “Number of the Beast”
Metallica - “Master of Puppets”
…and a band I’m sure you’ve never heard of that lasted for about a year on the Whiskey circuit named The Ventilators - “Love Drug.”
I’m also sure there are more, these are just the ones that come to mind.
In early 1989 I saw Arlo Guthrie at the Uptown Lounge in Athens, Georgia. Hearing Alice’s Restaurant live was a wonderful thing. Most of the audience was my age, and most of us had heard this music only because our parents listened to it. But there we were, a bunch of 18-25 year olds, joining right in when the guitar came back around. I loved it.
A little less mainstream (if Woodie’s boy could be called that,) but I saw Living Color at the same venue around the same time, as they were touring to support their new album. My hearing will never be the same, but hearing their live performance of Cult of Personality was worth the damage.
Pixies at the Reading festival in 1990, headlining on the main stage on the Sunday night. A weekend of beautiful weather and ambitious endeavour capped off by them closing their set with “Where is my mind”? A perfect moment.
Arlo Guthrie singing “Alice’s Restaurant” while the crowd sang along. Joan Baez sang along, too, but she was drowned out by the crowd.