I hate you. 
I was just playing Ya-yas for my five-year-old son yesterday! He loved it. “Midnight Rambler” is the only track without vocal (or instrumental) overdubs, so we get to hear it like you did.
But we weren’t there. And you were.
Just…go away. 
I saw this on a Halloween night:tribute-to-the-best-song-in-the-world-lyrics-tenacious-d
It was pretty rad.
Cowboy Junkies and “Bea’s Song” at The Sage, Gateshead.
Same venue, “Tzivaeri” sung by Athena Andreadis.
Some years ago, at the closing night of the Houston International Festival (since gone bankrupt, alas). Joe Ely was scheduled as a solo act–hey, he was always great. But, to those of us sitting on the lawn, it looked as though the roadies were setting up quite a bit of equipment for one guy. Yup–he’d apparently convinced his pals to make the drive down from Austin. He hit the stage with a full band.
Then Joe sang Robert Earl Keen’s “The Road Goes On Forever”–the first time most of us had heard the story song. Joe doesn’t write that much, but turns any song into his.
Or maybe it was Taj Mahal’s first Houston show, at Liberty Hall. Everyone sang “Take A Giant Step” along with him without him asking. We just knew it was what he wanted.
Or Bruce Springsteen’s last night at the Hall–on the trip that convinced Columbia that he could reach crowds beyond the East Coast & was worth promoting. He knocked everybody out with his shows–but that night he sat down & sang “The Fever.”
Or Ramblin’ Jack Elliot at the same venue, with his story song–“912 Greens.” He took his guitar & walked though the room singing & talking. Proving that he could fill the room without amplification.
Or maybe hearing very young Townes Van Zandt sing his “first serious song” for the very first time at Sand Mountain Coffee House. “Waitin’ Round to Die.”
I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan back in 86’ at a theater at University of Illinois and I was sitting close to the front. He had been my guitar hero for about 3 years. I LOVED that guy. I believe he opened up with “Scuttle Buttin’” and then went right into " Say What". Two instrumentals in a row. It was evident from those songs that we were in for a treat. It’s one thing to hear a master guitarist on record, quite another to have him give a demonstration live. It was magical.
Stevie Ray as well. 1988, 2nd row center at the Philly Spectrum. Cold Shot. He opened for Robert Plant, who I had come to see. Vaughan stole the show, it was a blistering set.
I was living in New England at the time (late 1980’s) and Elton John was playing at the Centrum in Worcester, MA. (at the time, many acts were avoiding playing at the old Boston Garden because the acoustics were bad)
The date of the show just happened to be October 9, and since he was a good friend (as well as godfather to his son Sean) Elton played & sang an impromptu version of “Imagine” in honor of John Lennon, since it would have been his birthday.
Didn’t expect it, it was great and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
I would have to say I’m One by the Who , it’s an obscure song but my favorite. Seen it 4 times live, last was April 2014.
Frank Zappa at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (Vancouver, '84) doing “Broken Hearts are For Assholes”.
XTC at the University of Victoria auditorium ('79) playing “Making Plans For Nigel”.
Nile ('02, Seattle) doing “The Blessed Dead”.
One of the best overall concerts I’ve seen was a couple of years ago. Robert Randolph and the Family Band opened for Trombone Shorty. I honestly can’t say which band trumped the other, as both of them had the crowd on its feet from the opening number.
There are so many…
Harry Chapin doing “30,000 Pounds of Bananas” at Smith College in 1977 was amazing.
Bob Dylan singing “Forgetful Heart” with voice and harmonica only at Bethel Woods in 2009. Seems like a routine song to perform (an album cut from one of his later albums, Together Through Life), but I found it to be electrifying.
But I think the #1 live performance for me was an a capella “Amazing Grace” by Joan Baez, back in the 1970s, I believe at the Lenox Arts Center (memory of the venue, but not the performance, is a bit shaky). Gave me goose bumps.
Thought of another one - Men at Work doing “Mr. Entertainer” in Santa Barbara in 1983. It was the first live concert I’d ever gone to, and the song wasn’t on any of their albums. It went on forever, and the crowd really got into it.
Yeah, I think Stevie was the best performer I’ve ever had a chance to see, was lucky enough to see him a few times. My favorite was an encore of Lenny where he came out and sat down on the edge of the stage and just poured his soul into his guitar. Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, probably around 1985.
Goddamn, it’s been a quarter of a century since he died, and I still miss that guy.
Emerson, Lake, and Powell doing Mars, the Bringer of War in concert Miami, 1987.
Best song, maybe not. But back in the 60s I saw Iron Butterfly. They stretched “In-a-gadda-da-vida” out to about a half hour. The drum solo lasted 15 minutes, after which the drummer collapsed and had to be revived on stage. Real? Feigned? Who cares?
The only concert I ever saw that made me ask whether this was one of those magical events where everything came together like they remember in their biographies was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the Rochester International Jazz Festival in 2011. That was just after original member Howard Levy rejoined the group. Four people arguably the best the world at their instruments, each solo topping the last. No one song stood out. It was an equal high from start to finish.
Ah, yes. I. Ron Butterfly.
Several years ago, when my wife and I were seeing our first Richard Thompson show with his full band, I told her before the show that “If he plays Tear Stained Letter, I’ll be happy.” They actually opened with it, and when the song was over I turned to her and said “OK, we can go now.”
A few years ago when I saw him on the “Electric” tour, he played “Can’t Win” to close out his first set and pretty much had the audience in a frenzy by the end of the song.
And of course, any of the half-dozen or so times I’ve seen him play “Vincent Black Lightning” live, which never fails to mesmerize me.
Non- R.T. :
On one of their tours back in the early-to-mid 80’s, I saw Genesis perform “Supper’s Ready” in its entirety. That was pretty spectacular.
The same night that the Sprint Center opened in Kansas City with a concert by Elton John, Wilco was playing a few blocks south in an open-air venue. They put on an amazing show that night, finishing up with “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” as their final encore. It’s not one of my favorite Wilco songs but jeez I was drained by the end of it.
Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” I usually dislike the singer dropping out and allowing that crowd to sing to them, but it works here.
Ben Folds recorded a song called “Army,” which features a horn section. Live, however, he didn’t bring them along, so he had the audience sing the horn part.
I saw Mazzy Star in concert like 15 years ago. When they bust out their biggest hit, “Fade Into You,” Hope Sandoval sounds absolutely perfect and the crowd goes dead quiet. I don’t think I’ve ever been to another show where people were so enraptured that they actually totally shut up.
About halfway through the song, she coughs and loses her cool and flees the stage. She comes back later to finish the show but at least I got that 1/2 of a perfect song out of it 
Mid-70s, when Fleetwood Mac had added Buckingham and Nicks and were touring in support of their first album with the new lineup. It was an outdoor all-day concert in Indianapolis and they were the headliner at the end of the bill. While they were on stage, a furious thunderstorm began, full of thunder and lightning. They were playing “I’m So Afraid” which is kind of a dark and twisty number anyway, but playing to it while the wind and rain lashed us and the thunder boomed all around seemed to energize something in Lindsay Buckingham. He launched into an amazing display of guitar pyrotechnics to match those of Mother Nature and the song kept going and going until the storm passed over. The band was soaking wet and you could see they were totally exhausted. It was amazing. My friends who attended with me and I still talk about it all these years later.
More recently, John Butler Trio at Red Rocks, 2011, maybe? Everyone in the crowd was standing and singing along and the crowd seemed to take the musicians along with them. Again, one we talk about years later.