What Were the Three Best Concerts You Ever Saw?

CSNY Y2k tour
Neil Young Broken Arrow tour
Neil Young Trans tour

 

Springsteen & E Street Band- Hershey 08

Iggy Pop- Towson, MD 10/01

Phish-Worcester 12/31/93

 

Wings - Kingdome June 10, 1976
Grateful Dead - Red Rocks Sept. 6-8, 1983
Jimi Hendrix - winterland Oct. 12, 1968

jerol

 

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Lehigh University - 1972
Paul McCartney - Dallas, Tx. - 2009
Bob Dylan and The Band - Ft. Worth, Tx. - 1974
Jethrio Tull - Ft. Worth, Tx. - 1973 (Passion Play)

Couldn't narrow it to just three, I've been to at least 100 concerts.

 

XTC & The Talking Heads - Beacon Theater NYC– New Year’s Eve 1978 - 79
Pink Floyd - Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City NJ 1975
Iggy Pop & The Ramones - The Pallidum , NYC - 1978
Sorry i have to add two more shows - The Stones - 1989 - Shea Stadium NY - Steel Wheels Tour
The Who & The Clash - Shea Stadium 1982

 

Grateful Dead 3/27/88
Grateful Dead 7/9/89 (0r the JFK show that week if I have the date wrong)
Grateful Dead 10/8/89

And there were a lot of other Grateful Dead shows between spring 88 and summer 1990 that would be real close to those. They were on fire for about 2.5 years there.

I've seen over 1000 concerts including 188 by the Grateful Dead from 1980 to 1995

 

1 Bob Dylan - Portsmouth - 2000
2 REM - Glastonbury - 1999
3 Cat Stevens / Yusuf - London - 2014

 

Roger Waters – Mansfield, MA 2006
Phish – Two way tie between 11/3/94 UMASS Amherst and 11/27/98 Worcester Centrum
Medeski, Martin & Wood – Tipitina’s, New Orleans, LA 1996

Runners Up

Van Morrison - Orpheum Theatre, Boston 2001
Traffic – Mansfield, MA 1994
Ben Folds Five – Patrick Gym, UVM 2000
Neil Young - Worcester Centrum 1997

 

Sometimes it's the music,sometimes the venue or sound systems and techs,others it's the weather or your mood or company that makes a great concert. Taking all that into consideration it's the smaller more intimate shows that have had the greatest impact on me. The ambience,finese, and intimacy...not the power and the glory of say a Springsteen or U2 show.

Best show ever...Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill in April of 97 or 98 when they were promoting The Lonesome Touch. They played in an old 1800's church on a warm,rainy night with the windows open along the sides of the building. So, you got the natural acoustics of the room with the soft rain falling as a backdrop for Cahill's Collings OM guitar and Hayes wonderful fiddle. The mood was ripe and they played the room right into your soul. Place was packed with no more than 100 people and they wove a spell that I've never experienced before or since ....totally acoustic no mics or pickups.

Norman and Nancy Blake with James Bryant at Lock Haven U.,PA back in the late 70's/early 80's. There is YouTube video of this tour and Norman is The Man! Nancy is The Woman and James is The Man too or 2.

Three could be any number of shows ...
Gordon Lightfoot at Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh promoting Cold On The Shoulder
The Band July 74 Three Rivers Stadium
Jackson Browne at Syria Mosque For Everyman tour
Allman Brothers Band summer 74 Civic Arena Pittsburgh (with dome open)

 

Man, I've seen so many great freaking shows over the last 20 years it's hard to pick just three, but if I have to...

Paul McCartney - Fenway Park, Boston 2013
Damon Albarn - Royale, Boston 2014
R.E.M. - Great Woods, Mansfield, MA 1999 (last show of the tour, 3rd time I saw them on this tour, and they played a few songs they hadn't done in YEARS, including the first "Radio Free Europe" in over almost a decade).

Honorable mention to: Blur (Avalon, Boston 2003), Gorillaz (Agannis Arena, Boston 2010), Beck (Orpheum, Boston 2000), Supergrass (Paradise, Boston 2004), Radiohead (Suffolk Downs, Boston 2001)...

 

Paul McCartney - Houston, 2012
Chicago & The Beach Boys - Houston 1975
Peter Noone (Herman's Hermits) Galveston 2010

Several others that I loved, but for one reason or another, these three were my favorites.

 

KISS - Pensacola, FL, 2009
DeLuna Fest - Pensacola, FL, 2012 (Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Joan Jett, Guided By Voices, Gaslight Anthem, etc.)
Rush - Tampa, FL - 2015

 

Peter Gabriel - US tour - Summer 1993, LA Forum
U2 - LA Sports Arena - April 1987
Pat Metheny Group - Speaking of Now tour - UCSB - 2002 (?)

Runners up:
Rush - Vapor Trails Tour - 2002 - Irvine
Sigur Ros - 2008 - Greek Theater LA. Magical!!!!!

 

This is a tough one...

The White Stripes - September 24, 2005 at Keyspan Park
- Jack White at the absolute peak of his spontaneous creative intensity. Touring in support of my favorite White Stripes album, Get Behind Me Satan. They/He would never be this good again.

Stevie Wonder - July 7, 2008 at The Hollywood Bowl
- The show that opened my eyes to the true greatness of Stevie Wonder. His first performance at The Hollywood Bowl after a 12-year hiatus from touring, made even more special by the inclusion of a full orchestra. Attending was a last-minute coincidence while my wife and I were visiting friends in LA. I'm very, very glad I happened to see the ad for the show in the newspaper the day before.

My Morning Jacket - December 31, 2008 at Madison Square Garden
- A New Year's celebration with My Morning Jacket and 20,000 of their closest friends. This was before they renovated the inside of the Garden, so you could still freely walk around the arena and visit friends in other sections. The whole affair felt like a big party.

Honorable Mentions:

The Strokes - October 31, 2001 at Hammerstein Ballroom
- The second of a two-night homecoming after the astronomical success of their first record, Is This It. Most of my memories of the show itself are long lost thanks to way too much vodka consumed before the show, but The Strokes were the absolute height of New York cool for my friends and I as we started our second year of art school in Brooklyn.

Beck - October 30/31, 2002 at The Beacon Theatre
- Touring in support of the excellent Sea Change. Beck opened the show with a solo acoustic set and was later joined by The Flaming Lips, who served as his backing band.

Mars Volta - July 18, 2003 at Irving Plaza
- A full performance of their astounding debut album De-Loused in the Comatorium. Absolutely stunning. I felt like I was seeing Led Zeppelin.

Roger Waters - September 13, 2006 at Madison Square Garden
- The first night at MSG got such rave reviews, I had to see for myself. The performance of Dark Side of the Moon with Nick Mason was phenomenal.

The Flaming Lips - July 26, 2010 at Central Park SummerStage
- After allowing their setlist/stage show to become stale over the years, they completely revamped and reinvigorated with the release of Embryonic. The result was a psychedelic explosion of sound and energy.

Rye Coalition - February 19, 2011 at Maxwell's
- Their first show in 5 years, celebrating the 70th birthday of their drummer's father. They played a 2.5 hour career-spanning set of balls-to-the-wall rock that never let up.

Jay-Z - September 30, 2012 at Barclays Center
- The third of a seven night run to celebrate the opening of the Brooklyn arena. My wife and I were up in the nosebleeds and our section turned into a huge party as soon as Jay hit the stage. The hits were nonstop and everyone was dancing and singing along to everything he pulled out.

Queens of the Stone Age - June 7, 2013 at Brooklyn Masonic Temple
- A "secret" show to celebrate the release of ...Like Clockwork. They played the entire new album, as well as a few favorites from Songs For the Deaf. The show was brutally loud. When it was over and everyone else filed out to go home, we stuck around and partied with the Masons in their basement bar for a couple hours while a guy spun Parliament hits on a turntable in the corner.

Stevie Wonder - September 28, 2013 at Central Park's Great Lawn
- Another stone cold stunner from Stevie and company.

 

John Lee Hooker, the Church Key, Madison, Wisconsin, September, 1976
Sun Ra, Merlin's, Madison, Wisconsin, December, 1981
Aretha Franklin, Summerfest, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July, 1981

 

Paul McCartney and Wings-Landover, Md- May 1976-from the front row back to back nights
Rolling Stones-North Myrtle Beach, SC June 1978 in front of 1900 fans
Bruce Springsteen-July 1978--the Darkness tour-Columbia SC

 

My concert memories are WAY less organized than most of you folk, and as soon as I start thinking about this topic my mind starts shooting off in every direction at once.

The only definite inclusion is Richard Thompson, and of the several times I've seen him live I'd probably go with the first, back in the early 90s, with a full band, in New Orleans, playing in a Masonic Temple on the 13th floor of an early 20th century 'skyscraper'. I was already a big fan, but I had no idea who would be touring with him or what the set list would be like, so I was stunned when I realized that Dave Mattacks was there on drums AND that they were going to play 'Now Be Thankful.' It would be very easy to fill a top three just with Thompson performances.

Next up, I feel like I have to save a place for the most unique and transcendent performance I've ever seen: Tony Conrad and some local guy playing a single note on amplified violin for an hour or so, again in a temple (what is it with temples?), with the small audience scattered around the room. If you've heard Conrad do this, you'll know just how amazing it can be, but it's not going to be easy to explain. Basically, when the performers tune in to one another just right, the harmonics in the room go off like the most astounding aural fireworks display you could (not) imagine. It was like being right in the middle of an invisible cosmic battle, with the sound coming from EVERYWHERE (except the performers and the speakers) and burrowing deep inside you. Truly I've never heard anything else like it. . .

. . . Except perhaps an orchestral performance of Ligeti's 'Atmospheres'. It's the only time I've heard this piece performed live, and the effect is nothing like any recorded version I've encountered. Again, those harmonics occupied the entire room and gave the music an overwhelming 3D presence that went way beyond 'surround sound'.

Filling a third spot is just about impossible. There are local acts I've seen many, many times who have given outstanding performances - I'd probably have to single out Straitjacket Fits around the time of Melt (though when I saw them on their first national tour they were one of the worst live acts I'd ever seen); old favourites who seldom disappoint (Wire, Kristin Hersh, The New Pornographers - if you want a good night out, the latter seem to be incredibly reliable); unforgettable one-offs (Max Roach doing a solo gig, including one number performed entirely on a single high-hat and its stand; just about any Fall performance is going to be unforgettable for one reason or another, but the only one I've seen that was truly great was an 'Extricate' era gig - that line-up was amazing); and a couple of recent standout concerts by Parliament-Funkadelic and Television.

Actually, that Television gig probably deserves the third place, a fantastic concert where the highlight was an epic performance of a song I'd never heard before ('Persia'). The deciding factor is that the support act was Ed Kuepper, effortlessly tossing off one underappreciated classic after another.

 

I'm hugely jealous of those that are listing the Beatles, Cream, and Talking Heads, but especially Howlin' Wolf!

My list:

Black Sabbath with Dio, (OK, they called it Heaven & Hell, but we know who it was)/Alice Cooper, Orlando, FL, 2007
Deep Purple - Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 2001 – released as a DVD, Perihelion
John Nemeth, Gainesville, FL, 2010

 

Rush - Snakes and Arrows Tour (at RedRocks)
Steve Wilson - Raven Tour
Marillion - Misplaced Childhood Tour (Fillmore)

Runner Ups:
Scorpions: Blackout Tour
Genesis: Invisible Touch pre-tour (including Suppers Ready)
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing Tour

 

Ten Wheel Drive...that just popped into my head!

 

BTO - St Louis late 80's
Creedence Clearwater Revisited - Ocala FL - 2010
Kenny Rogers - Anchorage Alaska - mid 80's

 

Yes - 11/29/1974 at the then newly opened Lakeland Civic Center, Lakeland FL
Yes - 6/26/1976 at Tampa Stadium, Tampa FL
Yes - 9/23/1984 at Irvine Meadows, Irvine CA

Well, I did go to many other concerts other than Yes, but they were the most memorable and enjoyable for me.

 

Roger Waters The Wall
Paul McCartney 2010(Venus and Mars made me cry)
The Who live at Leeds/2014
*** honorable mentions: KISS(2012) , Ringo Starr and All Stars(2013), Robert Plant(2012), Paul McCartney first Out There tour concert was also really amazing.(2013)

 

Paul McCartney 2013 at Safeco Field with Sirvana as an encore