The Best Concerts You've Been To....

richardhomer

I went to see Peter Gabriel on his 'Back to Front' tour in Birmingham last night. I saw the tour in Manchester last year as well and in terms of sound, production/lighting and musicianship, those shows have set a new bar for me. The biggest surprise is how great Peter's voice still is at nearly 65 - and that even within the setting of a large arena, he managed to make the venues feel intimate.

There are many truly great performances I've witnessed over the years but overall, these two rank as the best.

What what are yours?

stickyfiddle

Hard to pick less than a dozen, but here goes:

Radiohead, Glastonbury 2003

REM, Glastonbury 2003

U2, Cardiff 2005

The Killers, Hyde Park 2009

Bruce Springsteen, Hyde Park 2012

Sigur Ros, Brixton Academy 2013

Gaslight Anthem, Brixton Academy 2012

The Who, Abu Dhabi 2014 (last weekend!)

not_the_dj

So many fantastic gigs, but these really were something else: 

 

Counting Crows - Wolverhampton Civic 1994

Alt - Wolverhampton Wulfun 1995

Waterboys - Brimingham Symphony Hall 2012 Bruce Springsteen - Coventry 2013 

Kate Bush - Hammersmith 2014

axisus

I'm just going to throw a weird one into the mix. Back around '82 I was at Art college in Norwich. I saw a new band 'King' on the Tube (TV program) and rather liked the music even though they looked ridiculous. They were playing live so we bought tickets. Next thing they had a massive hit with 'Love & pride' and everyone knew them. The gig was packed to the rafters with partying students and the atmosphere was AMAZING! I've been to plenty of other gigs but nothing touched that one for the buzz of it all.

digitalscream

Has to be Extreme at the O2 Academy in Birmingham. There wasn't really any fancy production or anything like that - just a perfect sound (and I do mean perfect), and a flawless-but-totally-relaxed performance by the band. 

Contrast that with the worst, which was Soundgarden at Brixton Academy. I'm not joking when I say that I simply couldn't hear any of the music. Just a loud (but indistinct) booming from the kick drum, and a faint buzzing from all the other instruments. Not a single song was recognisable. Half way through, we gave up and went round the corner to the chicken burger place.

Lixarto

I've been fortunate enough to see several artists no longer around - Thin Lizzy, Queen, Geo Harrison and Floyd amongst others - but just to limit it to two would be

Deep Purple Knebworth 1985

Neil Young Edinburgh 2008.

EricTheWeary

axisus said:

I'm just going to throw a weird one into the mix. Back around '82 I was at Art college in Norwich. I saw a new band 'King' on the Tube (TV program) and rather liked the music even though they looked ridiculous. They were playing live so we bought tickets. Next thing they had a massive hit with 'Love & pride' and everyone knew them. The gig was packed to the rafters with partying students and the atmosphere was AMAZING! I've been to plenty of other gigs but nothing touched that one for the buzz of it all.

I used to go out with Paul King's cousin during the period they were famous for 5 minutes. 'Best' is hard to say, seeing Thin Lizzy when I was 15 was amazing but if I could watch it all back now would the playing stand up, how naff were the lighting effects? I think like @axisus I'll go for something smaller and were there was a definite buzz ( although these were from periods of heavy drinking so it may have only been me buzzing). The Bhundu Boys, just lifted you up. Wow. Have had a look on YouTube before and couldn't find a clip to do them justice. And The Larks. Quite a bit of them on YouTube on kids tv shows, promo videos and the like but the bundle of energy I saw four ( I think) times got translated into a rather polite sub Madness . Anyway, here's one they didn't neutre too badly

mike_l

digitalscream said:

Contrast that with the worst, which was Soundgarden at Brixton Academy. I'm not joking when I say that I simply couldn't hear any of the music. Just a loud (but indistinct) booming from the kick drum, and a faint buzzing from all the other instruments. Not a single song was recognisable. Half way through, we gave up and went round the corner to the chicken burger place.

I saw Motorhead/In Flames/Girlschool a few years ago. I really enjoyed Girlschool, as they were loud, but not so loud you couldn't hear the music/playing.

In Flames were aweful, I could see the guitarists going hell-for-leather with riffing/soloing, same with Motorhead, but there was no definition to the sounds. And my ears were ringing for a couple of days after, which is one reason I always take ear plugs to gigs now.

Best were Alice Cooper (Every time he's excellent live), Queensryche (Mindcrime1+2 tour), Thin Lizzy with the Stone Gods, Iron Maiden (Again each time), Skid Row at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, Metallica at Milton Keynes (1999), Judas Priest at Sheffield, Megadeth at Norwich. 

Octahedron

Hmmmm. There's so many!

The first time I saw Black Stone Cherry at a little club in London supporting Hinder. I think it was the ULU? They were on it!! 

The Darkness at Wembley arena in 2004. 

The Darkness at Eaton's Hill Hotel (Australia) 2012

Airbourne at The Hi Fi (Australia), going to guess it was 2012 as well supported by another Aussie band The Casanovas

AC/DC at the O2 Arena on the Black Ice tour

Aerosmith at Download 2012

Steel Panther's always entertaining!

Any time I've ever seen Thunder they've always been consistently good!

As has Slash with Myles Kennedy.

Velvet Revolver were pretty good. 

So many good gigs, really. 

boogieman

I expect a lot of these are dusted with the nostalgia of them being 40 years ago, but:

The Who
Free
Led Zep
Pink Floyd.
The Faces (with Rod Stewart, when he was still cool)
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Weather Report.
Larks' Tongues era King Crimson.

All superb from memory.

ICBM

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Glasgow 2013

Heather Nova, Edinburgh 2003

Neil Finn, Glasgow 2001

Runrig, Loch Lomond 1991 (yes really!)

Deep Purple, Edinburgh 1987

not_the_dj

@ICBM was that Heather Nova gig on the Storm tour? I saw her at the Birminghan Glee club on that tour. I remember some fantastic high harmonies from the drummer.

ICBM

not_the_dj said:

@ICBM was that Heather Nova gig on the Storm tour?

Wow, someone else who has heard of Heather . Yes.

DulcetJones

Los Lobos 1985 in a small dancehall(300 capacity) touring their first album.  Amazing, considering I had seen The Who and Queen just a few years before and figured I'd seen it all.  Queen was with a very healthy Freddie but sadly, Keith Moon was resting in peace, although Kenny Jones played very well.

CloudNine

Ones that spring to mind as memorable:

Rage Against the Machine - Liverpool Royal Court 1993
Smashing Pumpkins - Liverpool Royal Court 1993
Pink Floyd - Earls Court 1994
David Bowie - Glastonbury 2000
Wilco - Barrowlands (Can't remember year)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - SECC 2013

markblack

The National - Spring and Airbrake, Belfast.

Deer Tick - The Scala, London

Jason Isbell - The Electric Ballroom, London.

Shed Seven (first gig) Queens, Belfast.

Grunfeld

Other than Michael Schenker at Reading festival in 1982, which was wonderful, my favourite gigs have been at small venues.

Silversun Pickups in some tiny place in Soho a few years back.
New Order in an old church in West London not too long after Joy Division ended.

And in each of those it wasn't necessarily the performance it was the atmosphere.  MSG at Reading was so cool because of the surprise return of the band's original singer that night.  We were already set to have a great night but when Gary Barden appeared with a "Surprise, surprise!" it just lifted to another level.

The New Order was cool because there was a feeling that we were all there at the start of something.

And the Silversun Pickups gig was weird... it was like everyone was on the one wavelength. 

Danny1969

Roger Waters - The Wall at Wembly Stadium last year - just jaw dropping sound quality and visuals plus the strongest album ever

Pink Floyd - MLOR tour 88 - When Gilmour came out and did the first bend on SOYCD through that huge Turbosound PA is just sounded like the voice of God

Def Lepard - Hysteria tour 87 - saw it twice in Southampton and Wembly 

CloudNine

Grunfeld said:

Silversun Pickups in some tiny place in Soho a few years back.

Ooh, I saw them a few years back. Similarly tiny venue, in Liverpool. Likely the same tour I guess. Was amazing. Always thought they would get a bit bigger than they have. Cool band.

axisus

Danny1969 said:

Roger Waters - The Wall at Wembly Stadium last year - just jaw dropping sound quality and visuals plus the strongest album ever

ENVY!!!!!!!!!!! Couldn't afford it

rlw

Absolutely the best gig ever for me was Asleep at the Wheel at Dingwalls (or whatever) a few years back.  Appalling weather broke the transport system and the place was only about half full but they played their hearts out and were bloody brilliant.

Lyle Lovett at Festival Hall was close.

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band at the Rainbow -fabulously weirdly oddly brilliant.

Virtually any Roy Harper gig over the last 40 years.

Juicy Lucy, Quintessence and Johnny Winter at the Roundhouse.
Joe Ely at The Forum.
Ten Years After at the Collosseum, not long after Woodstock - amazing.
Joni Mitchell at the Royal Festival Hall.