My two worst: 1) Oasis- their last US gig, ever (until the lucrative reunion tour...) George Mason University 2008. I waited years to see them and was so disappointed. Liam sounded awful, and spent the evening yelling at the sound board guy. The band looked totally uninterested. Opener Ryan Adams & The Cardinals blew them away. 2) The Black Crowes- Pittsburgh, 2006. Another band I waited forever to see. Like 15 years forever. Chris only sang about half the songs, and lots of their songs ended with minutes of feedback. I left the show early.
Asia - first tour, 1982. Had my father drive my friend and me to the show and I can remember even on the way I wasn't that excited about the show. I had bought the album and liked it somewhat, but I wasn't enthralled with it, either. It seems like we went to the show because it was a concert and back in the day, that's what we did: we went to concerts. Overall, a boring show that had a juggler open (of all things), and the band proceeded to play cuts from the album along with selected tunes from their past outfits (for instance Steve Howe did "The Clap" which segued into "Mood for a Day"), and a few others that escape my memory (no The Buggles tunes, though! I remember that much). Anyway, yeah, it was real dull and goes down as one of the worst shows I've seen. The Cramps - touring for Stay Sick! (1990) And could not have cared less about them. Just a really boring show and most of that was my fault for not knowing the band's material better before I decided to go. I think I might have even walked out early because I was disinterested. Honorable mentions: The Moody Blues The Other Side of Life tour (woof!) and The Jesus and Mary Chain for Automatic! (who lasted about two tunes before Jim Reid was crawling across the stage screaming at a fan to "GIVE ME THAT JOINT!" Huge feedback mess and the band promptly left and never returned). Good times!
Rolling Stones, this year. No legroom in the basketball arena seats, wedged in like a sardine. Drunk biker mama behind me stoned off her ass, spilling beer down my back. **** in front of me filming the video screen with his smartphone the whole time, holding it up to block my girlfriend's view of the stage constantly (I almost kicked it out of his hand over the balcony about three times). Oh, and the Stones sucked, which didn't help matters any.
I was at a Cars/Joe Cocker show at McNichols Sports arena in Denver in the late 70's. There were some Jack asses throwing m-80's or cherry bombs from the upper level. I was cringing, thinking any second I was going to be blasted. It didn't help that I was trippin' balls.
Someone kicking my chair all the way through Sonny Rollins in 2011. Show was great, just wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I could have.
Im an *******. But I love my music. I remember I was at some punk concert. And my sig other and I were standing close to the stage and some dudes decided to start slam dancing and **** like that and one of them ran into her. I was about to slam their heads into the f*&king wall. I should have expected this (as you could tell I had not been to many punk shows) but I was such an ******* that day. "Watch where your dancing *&^^%^&*." (the music was pretty cool.)
I've had quite a few, but the worst was Gil Scott-Heron at BB Kings NYC about 3 years ago. Stage was set for a full band......he was 2 hours late.....came out only with a woman keyboard player......show was 6 songs over 45 minutes, one of which was the keyboard player herself......and that was it.
I dont know if this counts.... I saw Fugai once (the band whose albums included Steady Diet of Nothing, End Hits etc) (I reaally need to get a new keyboard). The openers were Air Miami. I had no idea who they were. 6 months later I discovered a band called The Unrest (Perfect Teeth, etc) through a friend and fell in love with their music instantly.. I was in awe. If I only would have known I would have paid more attention to that Air Miami set. I remember Mr. Robinson was wearing a Washington Capitols jersey.
Sepultura, Helmet, and Ministry. I am not a big guy. Your average clean-cut, middle sized white guy. Didn't think the new-nazis were going to let me out alive. Plus the lead guitarist kept staring at me in a really creepy unfriendly I am going to kill you sort of way, trust me I am not imagining it. It was really nasty.
Aerosmith in Philadelphia 1978. Waited for hours in the freezing cold to get in since we had general admission seats. Ended up in the second level and 4-5 songs in Steven Tyler got hit in the face by a bottle. End of show. Not a good start since this was my first concert ever.
Ronnie McDowell, who recorded some very listenable country pop in the 80s ("Older Women," "Watching Girls Go By," et al.). He clowned around, told bad jokes, brought his 10-year old son on stage to sing, kept talking to people in the front of the audience, probably didn't sing six songs in an hour.
Worst rock show may have been Ten Years After at the L.A. Forum in the early '70s. The crowd was way, way drugged out, mostly on downers and alcohol, it seemed. Early on in the show, the guy next to me leaned over and barfed on my shoes. I just couldn't get back into the show after that for some reason. Worst non-rock: a "comeback" concert by Yma Sumac, the legendary "Peruvian Princess" at a small club in Boston, must have been the mid '90s. She was quite old by then and not in good physical shape, yet she wore what I think must have been her stage outfit from back in the day, which was open from neck to crotch, and showed quite too much decolletage for her (and our) own good. Her voice was gone gone gone. She had a pickup band that she seemed to have never rehearsed with who had no charts and were trying their best to wing it. She seemed to be trying to sabotage their efforts at every turn, and would then make nasty cracks about them to the audience while glaring at them. At the end of the show, the pianist mimed aiming and shooting a gun at her as she retreated. It was very odd from our point of view, and not very pleasant.
Ryan Adams at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore. It was around the time of Cold Roses. He was obviously pissed off at the band and kicked them off stage. He then wandered around stage between guitar and piano and played a handful of tunes. He abruptly left stage to supposedly get a steroid shot for his arm that had been broken. When he returned, he attempted to "make it up" to the audience by coming into the audience to play acoustic. That would have been amazing if you were one of the few rows of folks who could here him. Everyone else couldn't hear anything. There were dozens of us leaving early that night.
Watching Al Roker sing Sweet Caroline with Neil Diamond on the Today Show, as if they were suppose to be Phil & Don. YUCK. I quit watching Today after that.
Van Morrison at NO jazz fest in 89 or 90-he phoned it in. I was a huge fan so was hugely disappointed.
Your idea of the word "concert" differs greatly from mine. But if this stopped you from watching TV in the morning, good on you
Aerosmith and Jeff Beck in the Kingdome Seattle 1976? Terrible sound if fact Jeff Beck joked saying something like "welcome to the worlds largest echo chamber" you could literally hear the reverb from the upper levels when we were down on the floor.
Black Sabbath with Glenn Hughes in Providence. He was having throat problems ans the place was half full. It wasn't pretty.
I saw Taj Mahal at an outdoor festival about 10 years ago, I didn't even know who he was at the time other than a "blues artist from the 60s" (as described by a friend). Whatever blues songs I heard that day were way too overpowered by the Caribbean and African rhythms, to where it was difficult to follow what you were listening to. In retrospect it would have helped if I'd already known the material being played and the fused world music elements weren't so high on the mixing board. Later I saw his performance on The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, and then listened to his S/T album... wow, straight up blues rock, and it just blew my mind. His performance in Circus was easily my favorite part of the film.
George Clinton a few years ago in SF. Avalon Ballroom, Sutter side entrance. He was late. Almost 3 hours late. Came on stage around midnight. Actually started singing much later. Band vamped, forever. Left around 1 am. Though I love my P-Funk records, I vowed to never see him again. Didn’t help that the Avalon (now called Regency, I think) let people bring huge bottles of booze which littered the floor you had to sit on. Rude staff that night.
Gee, I always thought that a concert is a live performance before an audience. It didn't stop me from watching TV in the morning only The Today Show.
Al Green in Biloxi in 2004 or early 2005? He was high on something that night and it wasn't the Lord. He would bend over and rub his legs and make a hissing sound in between every song. He 'sang' a total of 8 songs the entire show. And, by 'sang' I mean that he didn't complete a single vocal performance of the 8. For example.. Let's........ gether... Lovin you..... times are... sad..... Now, how in the heck are you supposed to get Let's Stay Together's chorus out of those words.. Every time he did the leg rubbing and hissing thing, the back up singer would look at the bass player and roll his eyes and shake his head. I had front row seats that night and I wanted my money back. I was pissed. Second show.. Ryan Adams at the House of Blues in New Orleans. I loved the show, but apparently others didn't.. He commented with MUCH vulgarity that he hated the f'ing House of Blues and that he would never play one again. He commented that all the people want to do at the bar was try to pick up a chick to take her home to f her. He gave them five minutes and then they should get the f out of here and go home and do it. Then he continued playing. In Ryan's defense, the people at the bar were extremely loud when he was playing a slow piano number. But.. I've never been cursed out by a musician before. Awesome!
