The most boring concert you've ever been to?

Steely Dan The Gorge sometime in the mid 90's.
Really, really boring until they played a couple of their old hits during the encore.
Didn't want to go but a pal bought us tickets as a surprise thinking we'd all love it.
Didn't have the heart to say I'd rather stay home and do weeding.
The thing is The Gorge is like an all day ordeal plus the drive from and back to Seattle.

 

Ponty is one of those guys that either you're into him or you're not. I happen to really like his early stuff, but the later (later being 90's and beyond) I couldn't get into. But I can drop the needle on Enigmatic Ocean or Cosmic Messenger anytime, anywhere and be mesmerized.

 

Public Image in Sac, last year.

Left after a couple songs- Lydon was reading the lyrics off a music stand, and if he couldn't be bothered, neither could I.

 

Newcastle has far too many entries.... Neil Finn, One Nil tour Newcastle City Hall, and I love Neil Finn. It was just dull.

Harry Connick at Newcastle was **** as well but not really dull as there was droves of people abusing him and walking out. It was during his jazz funk bass playing days

 

The "Dear Jerry" show at Merriweather Post a few years ago was pretty dull as well..

Fairly hot during the day, a 25-30 degree temperature drop in the eve, long waits between acts, sound issues, bad pairing between artists and material (Grace Potter singing "Friend of the Devil" ) and a hopeful reunion of the "Core Four" that didn't materialize...

Judging by how hard it was to move around, the venue appeared to be BADLY over sold ..

I feel bad for the folks that traveled a long way for that one...

 

Once went to Bob Dylan at an outdoor fairground in Ct something back in the late 80’s or early 90’s.
It was raining. He came out late in a hooded coat with the hood up.
He rushed through a shortened set with barely a pause between songs and was gone. No encore. No nothing.
Classic Dylan attitude.
I have seen him many times over the years. But that was the pits.

FWIW- I saw him when he had Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers backing him up and that concert kicked ass.

 

Yeah but what if you are a lifelong fan and you are handing over nearly €100 to this guy. Surely you are entitled a bit of a performance.

 

I recall seeing ELP & Jethro Tull back in '97 - that was painful.

 

I've discovered plenty of bands playing live I wound up liking, even though I'd never heard them before.

Bad tip.

 

I was there. Lake Compounce CT. It indeed stunk.

 

This made me

 

That was that tour. I also saw Wilco touring behind AM. I remember saying, I liked Son Volt's album better but that Wilco was better in concert.

 

Per Henrik Wallinn & Han Bennink at the Amsterdam BIM-huis, 4th of January 2002.
It was almost fascinating how boring music could could be. It was at the ''old'' BIMhuis; the wardrobe was close to the stage and I thought I heard some bored kids mistreating a piano. When we were sat it appeared that Per Henrik Wallinn was already behind his piano, a bassist arrived and Han Bennink sat down behind his small kit with dozens of sticks, percussion instruments and toy horns.
In my defense I have to say that I wasn't really at home in the Jazz-scene; I like cool jazz, some jazz-rock, but things like free-jazz I found a strange and somewhat scary beast. So for the next 2 1/2 hours I was treated to vague runs on the piano keyboard (with the odd smidge of a melody), drum-gymnastics and a general avalanche of sounds. The only moments of rest were from the bass-solo's.
It seemed to last a week....

 

Fair enough, however none of the above apply to the 3-4 shows I've walked out on over the years. They were all shows/artists I was really looking forward to. Fortunately those have been extremely rare exceptions to my concert going experience.

 

For me it's a tie between Santana (in 1994) and Neil Young (on an acoustic solo tour in 1992). Both played completely uninspiring sets, and few bone-fide hit songs.

Any thoughts on Santana's setlist below?

Bacalao con pan
Life Is for Living
Contigo (With You)
Angels All Around Us
(Da Le) Yaleo / Hannibal
Transmutation
Industrial
Thoughts
Sonny Sharrock
Peace on Earth ... Mother Earth ... Third Stone From the Sun
Luz, amor y vida
Guajira
Savor
Make Somebody Happy / Get It in Your Soul
Wings of Grace
Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Oye como va
Soul Sacrifice
A Love Supreme
Europa (Earth's Cry, Heaven's Smile)
Jin-go-lo-ba

Uhhh!

 

Yep. Saw him at Memphis in May several years ago.. He played ZERO of his hits and just seemed to improv Jazz scat for 95 minutes... Vowed never to pay to see him again ..

 

I will say, the OP said "most boring." There have been some Dylan shows I've seen that were so bad they actually ticked me off, as there is no excuse for a performer doing what he was doing unless it was contempt for the audience. So "bored" wouldn't really apply to those. But I have also seen some fabulous Dylan shows, which made the terrible ones that much more frustrating. I guess the only boring Dylan show I saw would be my first, on the Down In The Groove tour.

 

Van Halen, A Different Kind of Truth tour. Left half way through.

 

Slash a few years back.
Played way too many newer songs & stretched "Rocket Queen" out to like 25 mins.
BORING!!

I'd seen him before when he first started working with Myles & enjoyed the show but not this time.

 

I was there. And it WAS boring.

 

Pretty much any brutal/technical death metal.

 

I say this as a big fan so it pains me to say this but I saw Badfinger in 1972 and they were ..good but kind of listless or...something.

It's hard to put my finger on what it was. They played and sang well but somehow it was like listening to their records, no more no less. Maybe it was the mix, maybe they were tired.

I have no idea all these years later but it seemed like they were going through the motions, but because they were so great, going through the motions was still going to be pretty good.

We had a thread similar to this a few years ago and someone else had the same feeling when they saw the band.

Also, here's a short review of the actual concert I attended:

 

Dolly Parton......

Don't get me wrong the music was fantastic, however inbetween every 3 minute song was a 10 minute monologue by Granny Parton.

If she had just played the music we could have been done in 35 minutes and I would be claiming it as the greatest show of my life.......instead I was losing the will to live.

 

Dylan, Wembley Stadium 1983.

You know you're having a **** day when UB40 are the highlight!

 

Dylan at Red Rocks a couple of years ago.. It was really boring.