What is your worst concert experience?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by beachboydw, Jul 11, 2013.

  1. Mark B.

    Mark B. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Concord, NC
    I agree totally. This was the second "real" concert I ever saw, and I was slack jawed with amazement from the very first drone of "Hoedown" until the last great chord of "Pictures". Simply amazing.
     
  2. Skoegahom

    Skoegahom Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Ozarks
    In the 80's my wife talked me into go to an Air Supply concert...

    While that should be enough in itself, droves of people left the concert because it was so loud that it was literally painful. People had their hands over their ears all over the auditorium. We stepped out of the venue and about 200 people were standing out there listening to the show which you could hear clearly. These days, I take Moldex ear plugs with me to shows in case they're needed. Sneer if you like, but I hear that ringing in your ears...
     
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  3. chumlie

    chumlie Forum Resident

    Dylan at The Akron Rubber Bowl. Sound system was beyond terrible. Only time I could hear him is when he plugged in and played with The Grateful Dead.
     
  4. MSG 1979

    MSG 1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT. work in NYC.

    Back when he was younger even, Chuck Berry was always hit or miss (the fact that he used local bands as back up hurt the odds of course). I got lucky a couple of times. The old Ritz in NYC 1980. Second show. Horrible late August thuderstorms raging outside and a very small turn out as he took the stage some time before midnight. The backing band was pretty good (better odds as there were so many good local bands in those days playing), but the shocker was after a lazy School Days and Brown Eyed Handsome Man (not mailing it in, but minimal effort). Being that is was a small crowd, whatever someone yelled reached him. He looked out at a pretty impassive crowd and said "Okay, so what do you want to hear?" A guy in front yells out "C'mon Chuck, play some Blues man!" This elicits an enthusiastic response from the rain soaked fans (terrrible night, it was pouring buckets). He pauses and challenges "Oh yeah? Like what?" Same fan smiles and says "Dust my Broom!'. Chuck gets a wry grin, turns to the band and counts it off....10 minutes of pure power and Blues phrasing. Unreal. He was fantastic! My mouth hung open. Still a show portion I will never forget. Never heard him play like that since. Every time I hear that standard played by anyone since, I smile and recall that night. Very lucky to be there that night.

    A few years later I caught him at The Savoy in NYC and while there were no Blues, but he was great. Just played very well and once again a skilled backing band. I saw a few others and they were of the usual variety. A few good moments, some even better, the rest...well, it was Chuck Berry plugged in and that was good enough.
     
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  5. Pkonz

    Pkonz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ottawa, on, Canada
    Keith Jarret around 81 in Montreal. Stopped mid set to admonish the crowd for coughing. Now I agree completely coughing during an acoustical set can be very distracting and annoying. I didn't have a cough but I did have a mild cold. I spent the entire show petrified I would cough. Like when you're at a serious event and something strikes you funny but you shouldn't laugh but feel it coming on... He also stopped mid piece later in the show because someone clicked the shutter on their camera but all I can remember of that show which I had greatly looked forward to was suppressing, hack, hack, hack......
     
  6. Lloyd

    Lloyd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH
    I'm curious about the timeline on this because I saw Adams on this tour at the HOB in Cleveland. He and the band were right on the whole night. The crowd, however, was full of suits who had no interest in the show--you can hear the general conversation throughout listening to it on the Internet Archive. Around midnight, the band finished a set and Adams said they would be back to play another set. When they left the stage a HOB manager announced that Adams would be back for a brief encore. It was "late" and his staff had to go home. One of the worst concert experiences I have had, through no fault of the artist.

    By the way, I was at a show where Jonathon Richman walked of the stage and did not return because the discussion in the bar area was too loud.
     
  7. If it was ZZ Top, yes. If it was The Allman Brothers, no way in hell.
     
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  8. Combination

    Combination Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans
    What do people hanging around at the bar usually want to do? It's not exactly exclusive to Ryan Adams.
     
  9. Zafu

    Zafu Cosmic Muffin

    OMG.. this is so bad it made me anxious just reading it ;p
     
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  10. The Guns N Roses riot at Riverport Ampitheater in St. Louis.
     
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  11. JL6161

    JL6161 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    Probably it was Led Zeppelin at the Chicago Stadium on Apr 9, 1977 when Page was sicker than all **** and had to call the whole thing off after not quite an hour.
     
  12. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Yeah, the "House of Pain". Consistently the worst concert experience in Chicago. Two venues - a choice between the large venue with no seating, and where you're never more than a few steps from an active and very noisy bar, or the "Back Porch" stage that appears to be the regular watering hole of some of the most entitled and noisy jerks in the whole city.

    My personal worst concert experience was a once-in-a-lifetime concert by Henry Frayne of The Moon Seven Times and Hector Zazou. OK, they are not chart-topping artists, but Frayne has produced some amazing music and Zazou worked with everybody under the sun. And they definitely deserved better than playing the freaking bar of the Abbey Pub. What was so awful is that Chicago is filled with excellent music venues, a dozen of which would have been far better choices than a noisy bar.
     
  13. Defdum&blind

    Defdum&blind Forum Resident

    May 10, 2011. Neil Young was playing solo at Massey Hall, Toronto for the Le Noise tour. Earlier in the day I listened to his solo live recording "Live At Massey Hall" on vinyl with my ex to get primed for the show. We were ready for a classic evening in a great sounding venue!

    At the concert the guy next to me kept singing out of key along to any tune he recognized. During many of the quieter portions of Neil's performance he felt free to yell "I love you Neil". This went on for about half the show. I was enraged enough to consider jumping on him to start a fight with this A hole but the prospect of getting in enough punches to shut him up and to get both of us tossed out wasn't in my favour as he stood about 6'-4" or 6'-5" to my 6'-1". Also the idea of embarrassing my ex and likely spending the night in 52 division (the local cop shop about six blocks away) was not something to look forward to. The dick managed to settle down after all the stares I and some of the others around him were giving him. The two women with him did look embarrassed but did nothing to quiet him. Two other women in the row ahead of us were frequently chatting and checking their phones for messages.

    This dick's behavior made the national news in Canada the next day. The following day while I was listening to my favourite radio station a CBC FM radio host (his name sounds like Dick Turdfried) stated he thought it was okay for this kind of BS. I haven't listened to the CBC since May 12, 2011.

    If the guy who sat next to me in seat RCB F85 is reading this, &UUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU!
     
  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    What made the show so bad? I was thinking about seeing her next week...
     
  15. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I'm surprised the venue didn't try to accommodate them - there had to be some seats available somewhere they could've used!

    When Springsteen did two solo shows in DC in 1995, I used Night Two's ticket on Night One and didn't realize my mistake until I had the same "hey, you're in my seat!" experience as your brother. Happily, the other ticket was in my car, so I just ran over, got it and returned - missed the first couple of songs but had no other issues.

    Dunno what they would've done if I'd not had the other ticket handy...
     
  16. MSG 1979

    MSG 1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT. work in NYC.
    That would have been terrible. Good save that you had the right one in the car. I actually parked next a guy at Nassau (Bruce show coincidentally in '08) who was screaming and freaking out. I had no idea what was going on. As I got out of the car, I caught it. He left the tickets at home! And he didn't live locally. He was screaming at this girlfriend (I guess whose job he felt it was to hold them). I had to go in and never found out what happened, but if he had extra cash he could have scapled a pair. But I have this thing when I go to concerts and check again before I'm "past the point of no return." Same with travelling and airline tickets and id's.
     
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  17. They weren't interested in accommodating them; my brother and his date were told the show was sold out, and were given the bum's rush out the door.
     
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  18. MickAvory

    MickAvory Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    The Ryan Adams show I saw was on Monday June 13, 2005. Just pulled my ticket out. And.. I've seen Jonathan Richman about 8 or 9 times. He's never done that at any show I've seen around here at diff. venues. Maybe the New Orleans crowd likes him, and doesn't care for Ryan Adams.
     
  19. mikaal

    mikaal Sociopathic Nice Guy

    Queen 1975 Perth Western Australia at the now defunct Entertainment Centre. Was wearing very fashionable flip flops and velvet flares!! Some guy had thrown up on the floor just as we were finding our seats and I slipped in his vomit and had to see my fave group while the stink of "chunda" wafted everywhere all night.
     
  20. mikaal

    mikaal Sociopathic Nice Guy

    And another!! ELO at the Perth Ent. Centre (again) around 1976. Most of the concert was the band just miming to the album A New World Record tapes!!
    Furious!!!
     
  21. modrevolve

    modrevolve Forum Resident

    Seeing one of my drum heroes Jon Brookes of The Charlatans collapse on stage during their show at Johnny Brendas in Philadelphia a few years ago. He was rushed to the hospital and a brain tumor was discovered. Luckily he is doing much better but the experience was heartbreaking..Ive met him a few times and he is a heck of a nice guy.
     
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  22. mikaal

    mikaal Sociopathic Nice Guy

    And yet another!!! Michael Jackson Burswood Arena 2006. While there was nothing wrong with the actual concert (I would have to guess as I could barely see anything), I was seated sideways in front of a concrete exit ramp and all my organs were displaced by the bass notes funnelling up the ramp way.
     
  23. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Oh, I'm not questioning the story - just saying I'm surprised. There's no way they'd couldn't have found two seats - there's no such thing as a "sold out" show, so they could've helped out if they'd wanted to do so...
     
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  24. mikaal

    mikaal Sociopathic Nice Guy

    Now lets go back to 1973...The Rolling Stones were set to come on at 7.30pm so devoted little us arrived at midday to get the best seats. If you have ever experienced an Australian summer you will know that it gets really really really HOT and by the time we were let into the grounds (Western Australian Cricket Association: WACA) most of had had either heat stroke or third degree burns or BOTH. I would say many cases of skin cancer were started that day!!!
     
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  25. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    This is one area where online ordering is a great thing: if you lose/forget your tickets, they can reprint them. I don't know how I did this, but at one Madonna show I attended in Miami, I lost my ticket between entering the arena and making it to my seat. I just went to customer service - they looked up my order and printed out a new one.

    That wouldn't have helped me at Bruce in 1995 - I'd purchased the tickets from a secondary seller, so there was no paper trail with my name attached.

    Didn't matter for night 2 anyway - I'd won a contest so I had front row tickets for that one, with the seats waiting at will call the next night! :pineapple:
     
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