What Were the Three Best Concerts You Ever Saw?

Kate Bush 1979
Genesis 1975
Roxy Music 1974

 

Hmmm....lets see - so many to pick from since 1978!

Deep Purple HOB tour 1998
Frank Marino And Mahogny Ruch(2006?) Hit the stage at 8 didn't stop until 11!
Joe Bonamassa 12/1/12(last night!) in Biloxi MS

I've seen so many, but right now, these REALLY stick out in my mind.

 

I've been fortunate to have seen hundreds upon hundreds of shows, so this is random, subject to change ...
in no order:

Crowded House, Key Arena, Seattle, Sept. 1991 (supporting Woodface) ... it was like a Beatles gig, crowd-intensity-wise
Pink Floyd, Paramount Theater, Oct. 1971 (supporting Meddle) ... classic "old" Floyd.
the Who, the Coliseum, Seattle, Dec. 1971 (supporting Who's Next) ... incendiary, literally!

Coulda woulda included:

King Crimson, Cow Palace, San Francisco, June 1974 ... jaw-dropping art-metal; heard "Starless" for the first time ...
the Moody Blues w. Seattle Symphony, Key Arena, Seattle, Dec.(?) '99 ... a magical evening, of music close to my heart ...
the Doors, Arena, Seattle, Summer '68 ... Morrison was "on" ...
the Pink Floyd, Eagles Auditorium, Summer '68 ... Piper, Saucerful Of Secrets w. light show ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra, Paramount, '72 ... jaw-dropping playing ... etc. etc.
the Rolling Stones, Coliseum, Summer '72 ... Exile On Main Street ...

... and a hundred other gigs. I was lucky to have music industry contacts, so many shows I got comp tickets and passes.

 

Top 2 ...

U2 : Unforgettable Fire Tour Summit, Houston TX- Feb 1985
Rage Against the Machine. Coachella Festival. April 2007

Then..
U2: Zoo Tv tour. 1992. Denver, CO

After this... there are just too many to list. Off the top of my head are The Cure, R.E.M., Springsteen, Bauhaus, Nine Inch Nails, Cloud Cult, Flaming Lips, Arcade Fire, Roger Waters, Rush, Maiden, Prince, Muse, Gabriel, Janes Addiction (up until 97), Devo, Portishead, TV on the Radio, The Decemberists, The National, Trombone Shorty, Peter Murphy, Sigur Ros, Jonsi, Janelle Monae, Pixies, Godspeed You ! Black Emperor, Joe Strummer, Placebo, and among many many more-- Morphine.

 

That was an amazing concert!

Buddy tore the place up, but I also enjoyed just about everybody who played that day. You mentioned Booker T already, and I thought Susan Tedeschi and Koko Taylor also put on a great show. That was one amazing day of music!

 

Bob Dylan 1965 Portland, Oregon Public Auditorium Barry McQuire opened
Freddie King and Howlin Wolf 1966 Bag of Nails London
Rolling Stones Hyde Park 1969 London, I saw many concerts in London in the mid '60's from what I can recall.

 

Barry McGuire opening for Dylan in 1965? That must have been something.
Like the Monkees opening for the Beatles in '66!

 

U2 - RDS Dublin 27.8.93 (Zooropa Tour)
Prince - O2 London 25.8.06 (21 Nights)
Live8 at Hyde Park, London (esp the Floyd).

Close behind: Morrissey (Wellington Town Hall 14.12.12), Bowie (Kings Hall, Belfast 1995), Nirvana/Breeders/Teenage Fanclub (Kings Hall, Belfast 22.6.92), U2 (Auckland 2011), Communards (Grand Opera House, Belfast 1986 - 1st ever gig) and Sean Murphy (in-store gig @ Evil Genius in Wellington, played acoustic delta blues for 3+hrs!).

 

Bruce Springsteen - LA Forum - Summer of 1978
The Clash - Hollywood Paladium - 1982
Talking Heads - Greek Theatre L.A. - 1984 (unveiling of "Stop Making Sense" concept)

 

Dylan and The Band - January 12, 1974, Montreal Forum
Any one of a dozen Springsteen concerts
Rockpile, Toronto 1980

 

Wow.

How was King Crimson?

 

To name just 3 will be tough. I have forgotten more concerts than I can remember and I can remember a lot! LOL

Anyway here are 3 I distinctly remember. Years approximate. All concerts Pittsburgh unless otherwise noted.

Doors May 2, 1970
Allman Brothers 1971 ish just before the death of Duane.
Crossroads Festival 2010 in Chicago

Honerable metions:
David Bowie Ziggy Stardust show 1973
Rolling Stones / Stevie Wonder 1972
Emerson Lake & Palmer opening for Procul Harum and blowing Robin Trower and company away 1971
Yes opening for Edgar Winter's White Trash and Edgar with Rick Derringer made sure it wouldn't happen to them! 1971ish
Mountain opening for Jethro Tull during the Benefit tour 1971ish
Who during the Who's Next tour 1970ish
Frank Zappa and the Mothers 1973

I saw a lot of great shows during the span of 1970-73. Most were comp tickets which is another story.

I was musically blessed.

Rick G

 

Van Halen w/ DLR at COBO Arena in 82 & 84.
David Bowie at the Palace. Mid 90s.
Black Crowes at the Ritz on their first club tour.

Also...Son Volt, Wilco and Warren Zevon. So many great shows. Some I don't remember so well. I was busy having fun, dancing, talking to girls and being young.

I should mention Ozzy at Cobo DOAMM tour w/ Randy Rhoads.

 

Wow, a high bar criteria! But still tough to say.

I can tell you one that was special: taking my mom to see Elton John for her birthday, and ending up sitting with a bunch of my college friends. She knew them all, and later told me it was a really wonderful evening not just because the concert was great, but because it was so nice to interact with my friends as fellow adults.

Another truly magic show was a Grateful Dead show at Alpine Valley. A huge traffic jam had us coming in on foot during the acoustic set. The sun went down, eventually the lights came up, and I believe it was 27,000 all started jumping up and down as the pulse of "Samson and Delilah" pumped out over the P.A.

A third that keeps coming to mind as I read this was Iron Maiden's "Somewhere In Time" tour: drove several hours to Chicago, lights went down, strobes flashed on the Blade Runner-esque set, and a great show ensued. The sound was HUGE, I had measured >126 decibels on the previous tour, crazy loud even with earplugs. The stranger I had traded a ticket to for a ride became a friend who later treated me out of the blue to Ratt from the 3rd row.

 

The Breeders/Imperial Teen - 2002, Lee's Palace, Toronto. No question.

Followed very closely by:
Kraftwerk - 2004, Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto.
Prince - 2010, MSG, NYC.

 

The Who - Montreal 1980 Favorite band. Left for the road trip right after my last final.
Springsteen – Saw him 8 times in the 80’s and recently. Pick any one. Perhaps at MSG a couple years ago even though I was sick as a dog and had a coughing fit after every song.
David Johansen early 80’s in a bar on my 21st birthday. It was a wild night.

A few that I’ll tell my grandkids about:
ACDC with Bon Scott opening up for BOC and Thin Lizzy.
The Ramones in 79. Loudest concert ever.
James Brown in a bar.
Queen in 1978 when I still liked them.
The Talking Heads in 1979 in a small auditorium.

 

James Brown - ParkWest, Chicago early 80s. Like a messenger from another planet. Still in awe.
Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band - Seton Hall, NJ '75 (too many Springsteen shows to compare, but this was my first)
Paul McCartney - Wrigley Field, Chicago

honorable mentions: Todd Rundgren, anytime. Lou Reed in the Robert Quine era. Lowen & Navarro in a tiny club (Schubas) a few years ago, two guys and two guitars and magic.

 

Southside Johnny - small club in Jersey, 1977

Samples - Mishuwaka Theatre - Poudre Canyon Colorado 2003

Tom Rush - Loveland, Colorado - 1998

 

1)Mahavishnu Orchestra, 1972, Central park, NYC- For a 16 year old, this was mindblowing in the extreme. Changed the way I hear music forever.
2)King Sunny Ade(Black Uhuru opened)-The Pier, NYC (1982?)After a smokin' set by Black Uhuru, a lone musician stepped on stage with a drum under his arm. He proceeded to bang out a rhythm, then another musician came out with another drum, banging a counter rhythm to the first, then more musicians came on, in ones and twos, playing guitars or percussion, until there was about 17 musicians on stage playing a surging wall of rhythm(with the audience in gyrations). Then King Sunny Ade entered and somehow brought it up a notch, and what followed was a rhythm explosion I've never seen or heard again
3)Allman Brothers, 2009, with Eric Clapton as guest, Beacon theater, NYC- I wanted to go two nights in a row that year, and I tried(In January, when tix went on sale) to get tix for a Friday/Saturday so as not to use a vacation day, but no go. I settled for a Thursday/Friday, arranged the Friday off, and lucked into BOTH nights of Clapton with the ABB. Musical magic, and I spent all of Friday floating on air
Honorable mentions- Sonny Rollins, Carnegie Hall, 1974. Freddy Hubbard was supposed to be the guest, but was a no show. Instead, Mingus and Diz showed up! Sonny Rollins, Village Vanguard(1973)- saw hi three times in one week and his set was different and the improvisation was magical every night! Jeff Beck, 2009, Irving Plaza- unreal set with a great band
There's many more, but the Op only wanted three.

 

1. The J. Geils Band w/U2 opening - April 1982, Knoxville Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, TN
2. U2 - May 1983, Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL
3. Paul Westerberg (w/Tommy Keene as lead guitarist) - September 1996 (forgot venue), Houston, TX

 

This is tough..
The Rolling Stones at Maple Leaf Gardens 1972 (Stevie Wonder opened)
Festival Express Exhibition Stadium Toronto 1970
Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue at Maple Leaf Gardens Toronto 1975 (I think).

I left out Cream, Hendrix, a dozen Springsteen shows, Blind Faith, Zeppelin, The Monkees in 1966 and a hundred other shows.
Glen

 

Fun thread idea

1. Roger McGuinn April 1991 in Cleveland at the now gone Empire Club. I was 20 yrs old a junior in college, didn't show my fake id at the door cause the music was more important than drinkin and I didnt want to risk ejection but the cute server didn't care she kept bringing us beers right at the front of the SRO crowd while McGuinn played Byrds tune after Byrds tune, in addition to his new songs from Back from Rio. His backing band, the Headlights were also his opening band and to this day remain the greatest previously unheard support act I've seen. Roger played a full electric set. Left that show exalted out of my mind

2. Love/ The Zombies 2004 Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland.

Living in Columbus by this time (as now) and went up to catch a UFO show with a buddy. Grabbed a copy of Scene magazine which had an article about the Zombies reunion. I said "Huh" and didn't think much of it until later when I grabbed it for my 10-200. Read the article about their upcoming performance and at the very end it mentioned that Arthur Lee and Love were opening. Told my girlfriend we're coming back to Cleveland in two days, I am not missing LOVE.

Got to the show and fell in love with the venue. Love came on and I was going out of my mind, I never thought I'd see Arthur Lee live. Everytime I went to the bar for a beer, I got a shot as well, and I was feeling pretty good when the Zombies came on. I remember thinking, poor Zombies have to follow love. I knew exactly 4 Zombies songs at this time (you know which ones I mean). You know how this story ends. Became a huge Zombies fan, bought O&O the next day.

 

I gotta say that some of your lists make me downright jealous!

Tough, but here are mine:

Grateful Dead - 6/21/93 - my first and only time seeing the Dead

Cure - Dream Tour Chicago 2000

McCartney - Driving Tour Chicago 2002

 

Pink Floyd at the Rose Bowl 1994.
Iron Maiden at the Long Beach Arena 1985.
Jefferson Starship at the Greek Theater 1979.

 

So many to just pick three so I'll go for life-changing/inspiring:

AC/DC Ginninderra High School 1976 *
Dead Kennedys ANU Bar 1883 #
Barry Gibb Sydney Ent Cent 2013 #

*life-changing
#inspiring