Sparks at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. The sound was customarily horrid, but their engineer apparently felt he could blast through the bad acoustics and overpower them with volume. It was ear splitting. I'm surprised I could hear after the concert. I did something I've never done before or since: I actually approached the sound person who, before I could say a word, shouted: "You can't talk to me". Maybe I had my fingers plugged in my ears and that gave it away. I saw Cockney Rebel and the Kinks later and they both sounded better.
recently i have found it a lot less enjoyable to go to concerts,i am not sure if it is my getting older but nowadays people seem incredibly rude...people have loud conversations during shows,so loud it actually makes it difficult to enjoy the music....people spill beer on me or bang into me and dont bother to say they are sorry and if i complain they look at me like i am the problem....i could go on and on because i go to tons of shows and love the music but find the whole atmosphere today very off putting sadly
sad to say, but that is my exact experience, too... and the ones that sing out loud are growing in number...I am beyond exasperated by these individuals...stay the **** home and sing over your records, I didn't drop 3 bills on a concert to hear your karaoke ****!
Stevie Ray Vaughan at Poplar Creek a few months before he went into rehab. He was sloppy, rambling, and boring.
THIS. I can sing along to an artist's songs for the rest of my life--if I'm spending the money and going to the hassle of going to a show I probably own 1 or 2 of their CDs. At a concert I keep my mouth shut unless specifically prompted to join in By Said Band. Not Rocket Science.
Normal, drunk dancing is almost excusable, but drunk/high hippie girl dancing...that's too much for me. Bumping into me every 10 seconds is not cool.
At a Rage Against The Machine show in '96 I got indirectly sprayed with mace (long story) by a Detroit city cop, it came really close to ruining the night for me but Rage put on a show I'll always remember. The mace in the face part was my worst concert experience!
Fifteen years ago had tickets for a Dylan/Phil Lesh show at the Portland Raceway in 2000. Had no interest in seeing Phil Lesh play bass notes for ninety minutes, so we arrived just in time to see the end of . . . Dylan's set. He traded spots with Lesh so he could get to a restaurant before it closed. Dylan with Charlie and Larry and he opened with seven acoustic numbers that night. I'm still angry about it.
i once fell asleep through a whole Rory Gallagher concert in 1981. I was following the tour and was sooooo tired i decided to take a 5min nap before the start. My friend with me did the same as myself. Nico could be a pain, she would come on stage when it was time, her time.
I had a similar experience seeing Aerosmith and 4 other bands at a Day On The Green in Oakland CA in 1978. They opened the outer gates and the crush of people picked me up and carried me along for about 30 seconds. I couldn't breathe at all. After that it was all good, but I was pretty scared. The next year I saw my second Dead show and it started OK but it seemed like they just lost interest along the way. At the end of the show I actually heard booing. Other than that I've been pretty lucky. I've seen many a crappy opening act, but the acts I paid to see almost always delivered.
"Emerson Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery tour, the Colluseum, Houston TX. Someone spiked my drink with a LOT of PCP and I spent the entire concert praying I wouldn't die." - what a shame. You were trying to shake off a spiking which made you miss one of the greatest tours ever. ELP on that tour brought every song they played to whole new level.
Deacon Blue at the Perth Concert Hall , late 80s . I made the mistake of wearing my Tottenham Hotspur scarf , lead singer stopped the show and told me to piss off and that he hates Spurs . Gave him the finger and went to the bar . Never heard the end of it from my mates . (West Ham , Liverpool , Man Utd fans ) Big Day Out , Claremont Showgrounds mid 2000s . I take my 2 daughters 15 & 14 to their first festival , 1 minute after walking in we witness a very violent brawl . 5 minutes later a huge guy dressed in a floral dress , heels etc ... comes up to me and tries to chat me up . Kids still get a laugh out of it . Now they are seasoned festival/concert goers and i hear all the gory details .
This happened to me at an Eagles show. Not funny ! But my vote would go to seeing a Roxy Music show getting cancelled by the fire department.
Mine was Smithereens at Chestnut Cabaret in Phila, 1986. Sound was so loud it was painful. Half the crowd left, everyone else was bunched way in the back. People would run up to the front, make a request, then hurriedly get out of the way of the sound. The band commented how everyone was in the back; in this case, I think they liked playing loud, but they didn't know how horrific it was. People told them it was incredibly loud, and DiNuzio would just smile this demonic grin.
sounds like the famous Jethro Tull tape from Sweden in 1969, where someone keep yelling "SON HOUSE" at Anderson, til he gets totally p'o'd and reams the guy from the stage.
I think my worst concert experiances were going to see the ELP / Jethro Tull tour of 1996, where it was absolutely painful listening to Ian Anderson sing and sound like Popeye The Sailor Man. Saw this tour in Philly, Central NJ, and then at Jones Beach Long Island, with most of the crowd leaving the latter 2 literally once Popeye & Co hit the stage. ELP was very tight on that tour opening for Tull while Anderson was in his Tull "character" hopping around the stage like a little girl... One funny anecdote though from these shows was, once ELP left the stage and Tull took over, Anderson would say goodbye to "a band that still has all of its hair..."
Humble Pie 1971 Long Beach Arena Ca. They played 40 minutes and left the crowd is going nuts they come back do a 3 minute encore and hit the exit. Shortest concert I ever attended I was bummed out because they sounded great but why was there set so short?
This was in North Carolina, I can't remember the band off hand but it may have been Allman Brothers or ZZ Top; we were standing up front by the stage, packed like sardines, when a wasted guy standing behind me whipped it out and started to pee. This happened pretty fast....a gal in front of me was getting a direct hit on her fanny and started screaming. I felt a warm spot hit the back of my calf and I wheeled around right as others realized what was going on. I grabbed his collar at his throat right as the gals huge boyfriend placed his hand on top of the guys head and 'pushed' him downwards towards the floor and some one yelling "Kick his ayasss...." amidst a flurry of whoops and hollers. The first blows grew to a flurry of punching fists, elbows, kicks and so on. It settled down and we all got back to watching the show. Later, while streaming out of the venue I and my friends saw the guy laying back against a wall: he literally looked like a cartoon beating: golf ball like bumps & welts on his head and swollen face. One buddy, who was southern, said something like "now a gentlemen would have 'scused himself from the crowd to do his business" Really quite funny, looking back.
Never had one bad enough to be interesting, but my brother did back in the 80's. A friend of his gave him two tickets to see Styx, whom my brother was a big fan of. They were playing a weekend gig at the Rosemont Horizon, I believe, just outside Chicago. So my brother and his date drove to Rosemont, parked the car, showed their tickets, and went inside. When they got to their seats, someone else was sitting in them. The people sitting there showed my brother their ticket stubs, and they were in the right seats. An usher was called over to sort it out, and it turned out the tickets my brother's friend gave him were for the previous night's show. My brother and his poor date were escorted out of the building. When they got to my brother's car, it was blocked in by other later-arriving cars, and he couldn't get out. They had to sit there in the car, in freezing weather, until the concert was over and they could move the car. I never had the heart to ask my brother what he and this girl, whom he had just started going out with and was very keen on, talked about for all that time, but I gather it didn't go well, as he never saw her again, as far as I know.
This one deserves some kind of prize. And your brother deserves some kind of medal, plus a five-year streak of good luck. That's the only thing I can come up with to restore the balance in the Universe.
Did anyone clean themselves off after this? I think I would have been giving up my spot, no matter how much I loved the band!
I went to see Diana Ross about a month ago. A rule should be passed so legends are prevented from falling that low. I didn't know she still needs to tour. It was sad.
Actually, three come to mind - Kansas Monolith Tour. Saw them the year before and the band was full of energy - electric. This one - no emotion, just going through their paces. Second - ZZ Top/Nugent 2003. A lot of concerts used to make it to Lakefront Arena in NOLA. I lived down the street(roughly a mile or two) and usually got GREAT seats. Well, this one - they stuck me in the first row seats 1-3. We were in front of the sound towers on floor level. I didn't sweat the whole night due to the air pushed through the cabinets, but damn.....even with earplugs, I was in PAIN. Third - Chuck Berry at the Fats Domino tribute show a few years back. Was really stoked to finally see him live. I made a promise to myself when I started going to shows - Fats, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis(The Killer) were must sees for me. Junior Brown opened, the Little Richard played a great set despite being in a wheelchair. Then.....Chuck comes out. There were huge screens on both sides of the stage. People who couldn't(or wouldn't!) attend could pay $10 for an internet feed. Well.....he hits the stage and within a few minutes, he's PHYSICALLY threatening the camera guy with his guitar. Not only did he want him off the stage, he didn't want "that GD camera on". Surely, he knew the thing was being filmed? Left VERY disappointed and wondered why I waited so long to see him perform. Jerry Lee disappointed me twice by basically playing a few tunes after his band played for 10 minutes, but this took the cake. On a side note......I can't get any emotion symbols. My latest responses have been just text.....HELP!
