The most boring concert you've ever been to?

I tried for years with Van Morrison. Different tours, different venues. Every one of them was a snoozefest.

 

I took my son to see the TobyMac/Chris Tomlin show in 2010. It was billed as co-headliners, but Tomlin went first. That was a LONG hour. TobyMac more than made up for it, giving us plenty of value for our entertainment dollars.

JcS

 

True. I wasn't very familiar with his material before the show and I've not dug deeper since. It was really dull though compared to what was in the London air back in those days.

 

Probably Rennaisance, as when I saw Pentangle open for them I left a few songs into their set. Even though I owned and enjoyed one of their albums.

 

A Bob Dylan concert in Dublin about 15 years ago. He never said a word for the whole concert. And was out of tune.
Ironically I was at a Neil Diamond concert a few years ago and it was incredible, remembering what Dylan supposedly said to Diamond at the Last Waltz concert.

 

I saw the same show at JFK stadium in Philly around that time, and had the same experience. 100,000 people in a crumbling football stadium listening to muffled mush. I vaguely remember thinking "what the hell am I doing here?"

 

Same. Had great seats and still was bad. It was clear there were issues between the band members.
Saw them earlier this year w/o Glenn and they were much looser. Hate to think it was him but ...

 

I have two..........not sure which was more boring.
Mumford And Sons- I'm not a fan, so I realize that is a big part of the problem. But I'll be damned if they have more than one song in their repertoire.....song after song after song sounds the same.

Jethro Tull- I hate to mention this one because I'm a huge fan. I saw them around the year 2000, and I'm pretty sure it was their J-Tull Dot Com tour.......Yikes, boring doesn't begin to describe their performance. They played some incredibly obscure and lame songs.......many people began walking out after about 30 minutes into the concert, and the dude sitting next to me was actually snoring loudly. At the end of their performance the band played about a ten minute medley of their more well known songs. No encore, no energy, no passion, and about an hour of lame music which cost me and my wife about $200 for tickets. I was more than disappointed.

 

The Cars in 1984. They had no stage presence and most of the back up vocals were sampled.

Also Jean Luc Ponty sometime in the early '80's. We left during the 3rd song. It was like really bad New Age music.

 

Probably Marillion at the Liverpool Philharmonic back in April. Probably my fault as I've lost touch with their material, and only recognised two or three songs. Huge early Marillion fan, later stuff not so much. Didn't help that Steve Hogarth isn't the most charismatic singer. Wasn't a terrible gig, just passed me by a little.

 

I've only ever seen Dylan live one time, which was about 4-5 years ago in Singapore. I was prepared for the worst based on everything I had heard from friends who had seen him, but I have to say, it was a spectacular show. He was really into it, and he played guitar on a few tunes too and seemed to be having a good time.

My pick for most boring gig would probably be String Cheese Incident in Troy, NY around 2001/2002. My friends all thought it was the best show ever (they were tripping) and I was just waiting for it to end (was not tripping). It was really really dull, however, the opening act Madeski Martin and Wood were absolutely astounding. One of the best opening acts I had ever seen uptil then. Saw them headline the Palace Theatre in Albany shortly after that.

 

Interesting. I saw him in 1998 & 2000 at Newcastle Arena and loved them both. I gave 2004 a miss as I couldn't afford it, but a couple of friends went and left early, saying it was boring. This confused me as walking out on Bob seemed wrong after the last couple of times and they are both fans. They must have been right!

 

This feels like sacrilege, Bruce Springsteen NY on I think Clarence Clemons last tour. Bruce did all the hits and did lots of stage banter but I was bored silly.

 

REM

 

To each his own. I've seen Ponty more than a dozen times over the years including the early '80s tours, and nothing was ever remotely like "bad New Age music".

 

Bob Dylan Manchester 1966

 

Seeing the Dead on an off night was like sitting through all 8 hours of Andy Warhol’s Empire State Building, and I saw them on a few such nights.

 

Probably one of the many Moody Blues shows I went to during the 90s where they played everything as close as possible to the way the records sounded, which makes it uninteresting to me, but my wife likes it that way.

Even the between song banter didn't change much if at all, year over year.

 

Lessons Learned From This Thread:

1. Don’t go see a band perform live if you don’t like the band

2. Don’t go see a band perform live if you don’t like the band’s music

3. Don’t go see a band perform live if you don't know the band nor their music

 

Emmylou Harris in Santa Rosa, California at the Luther Burbank Center. My partner fell asleep, he’s done this at a couple of shows before, this time I let him sleep. I love her recorded work, but even I was bored at this show.

 

It was actually your earlier post about Neil Young that inspired me @Man at C&A ! I was at that gig as well and absolutely loved it! I thought he was a force of nature but horses for courses eh

 

Gotta go with the Jerry Garcia Band. Went three times. Left after the first set three times.
I love Jerry. I listen to the Dead all the time. But even if Garcia was awake, the JGB just bland, inert, and soporific, and I deeply missed the variety and leavening of the Bobby tunes.

 

Yep. The vibe of the whole show was just....Off..
I saw at least three fights in the lobby after the show and they were mainly between spouses.... Just weird ..

 

Son Volt was extremely dull when I saw them touring the first album. I lasted about 5 songs and had to leave.

 

Tori Amos, Newcastle City Hall around mid nineties. Fell asleep for twenty minutes.