Staying with music: Best live show?

[DeToxRox]

If you ask me the best show I've been too, it'd be Hellfest 2003 in Syracuse last year. We drove 9 hours from Michigan to be there for a 3 day festival that had 110 bands. It was amazing.

But the band that had the best show would have to been Long Islands finest, skycamefalling. One of the greatest hardcore bands ever, they performed for the first time in 8 months at the time, and for what was the last time ever. After 6 years as a band they had decided it was time to go and they did it with 2,000 of their fans in what was the most intense and emotional set i've ever seen.

As they played their final song together ever, they invited as many people as they could fit on stage. Around 50 fans were on stage with the band and other members of other bands screaming into the mic. Then as the song was winding down, they thanked everyone and said this last verse was it, and it just went insane. In 30 seconds literally 50 kids had stage dived. Bodies everywhere. All the bands equipment was thrown into the crowd as souveniors. It was awesome. No one was hurt, and the band playing on the stage next to them (they rotated so once one band was done, the next started) started a skycamefalling chant that was going on through their own first song.

It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.

[Airhog]

Offspring puts on a very good show, there is very little difference in their studio performance and their live show.

[Craptacular]

Weird Al

[ageofquarrel]

Murphys Law a hardcore band from NYC , but they are hit or miss. You have to see them when they are not headlining because they are usally too drunk to play.

Highlights when i've seen them at thier best:
-Dudes stagediving into a kiddie pool filled with about 6 inches of beer.
-During a song called Panty Raid the lead singer pulls a bunch of panties out of his mouth like a magician would do with scarves.
-somehow Jimmy Gestapo(singer) got a hold of a bunch of breast implants and was chucking them into the crowd.

lowlights have been when they were smashed and they played 3 hours worth of made up songs.

[k0ruptr]

311 puts on an awesome performance

[DeToxRox]

haha i saw murphys law before.

gestapo stopped singing, went in the middle of the pit and sat down lol.

it was pretty damn funny.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Most of the really good ones I could name are from what seems like an awfully long time ago, but with that admission ...

Best live performance -- Scorpions, Monsters of Rock Tour, 1980something or other.
Stands out in my mind as the most accurate recreation of studio work I've ever seen/heard on stage. Virtually note for note, vocally & instrumentally, the consistency blew me away.

Most memorable performance -- An unlikely pair of contenders get a tie for this one -- The Kentucky Headhunters & Stryper. KH gets a mention as being easily the most fun I've ever seen a group have on stage. It was a club date, right at the peak of their brief run of success, and their whole show just gave off a vibe that I usually describe as "the definition of what a 'band' is supposed to be like". Stryper, the black-and-yellow clad Christian Metal band earns a mention here because the aftershow featured the only full-blown brawl I've ever been caught up in at a concert, no harm done but a pretty good (and fairly long) funny story that I've told quite a few times.

Most enjoyable overall live show -- Tough call, probably any of the 3 Iron Maiden tours I've managed to catch over the years.

Favorite individual moment - Finally hearing Ronnie James Dio perform "Rainbow In the Dark" live about a year or so ago. Seems that every time he played Atlanta, something would prevent me from going, but I finally got that monkey off my back.

[Tigercat]

Better Than Ezra, I've seen them a few times over the years and they aren't my favorite band, but I saw them play an acoustic set at night, on the streets of the french quarter while a nice surealistic drizzle came down. It was actually an opening band act for an Al Gore 2000 stop of all things(As a side note I was there as part of a group, wasn't a huge Gore supporter or anything). Hearing the song King of New Orleans on the streets of the French Quarter with helicopters buzzing overhead and drizzle falling on my head, there was just something special about that.

[DeToxRox]

I love Dio.. but he's possibly the ugliest man alive.

[Ksyrup]

I saw Dio in 1987, with Savatage and Megadeth opening. Very entertaining stage show.

[Sporkimata]

Tom Waits-- freaking amazing show. No opening acts, lasted around two hours worth every penny.

Nick Cave and the Bad seeds--been to see them twice, great shows everytime.

[DeToxRox]

Tom Waits is a genius. He's simply incredible.

[Fritz]

The best "big" show I have been to is

July 2nd or 3d, 1986 RFK. Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty.

The best "small" show

1985, Long Branch Saloon (Knoxville). Guadalcanal Diary.

This was my first college type show and it had a lot of influance on my tastes.

[korme]

THURSDAY

[MrBug708]

JimmyEatWorld was a good show, but the music is more "The Middle" of anything really. Different strokes for different folks

[andy m]

braid, london, 1998.

http://www.braidtour2004.com/

[clintl]

Some that I remember from the past, and really liked:

The Blasters, about 1982
David Lindley and El Rayo X (early '80s)
X, 1984?
The Pretenders, mid '80s
Elvis Costello, solo in the late '80s (Nick Lowe opened for him on the tour)
Jonathan Richman (many times over the years)
Fred Eaglesmith (every year when comes to town)
Rodney Crowell (saw him for the first time last year, and he was great)

[DeToxRox]

Nice call Shorty, Thursday is pretty sweet live.

Its unreal how crazy it gets during Jet Black New Year.

[Sporkimata]

Beastie Boys was impressive too, most energetic concert.
Saw Nirvana too, a couple months before he offed himself. That was a pretty good concert too, had the Butthole Surfers opening for them.

[kparker15]

Two words:

Jimmy Buffet

[nfg22]

Best show I have been to, included Saves the Day, Moneen and Taken Back Sunday. BEst band to ever put on a show= Zebra Head, they put a good show on.

[Fritz]

Two words:

Jimmy Buffet

Never have two words wanted to make me swallow a cork and hang myself more.

[McSweeny]

hmmm let's see

Shane MacGowan far and away the best i've ever seen.

others include, Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, Green Day, Rancid, Swingin' Utters, Ducky Boys, The Tossers, and Darkbuster... could go on and on for quite awhile but i'll stop now

[k0ruptr]

incubus is awesome live too

[The Afoci]

Slipknot was probably the best ever. I saw them about 4 or 5 years ago in a pretty small place and it was insane. Static-X was the best concert I saw this year. They were so much better this time around than when I saw them a while back.

[Axxon]

The most memorable concert I was at was the Rolling Stones in the super dome in 1981. This still holds the worlds record for the largest indoor concert with 87500 attending.

What made it memorable to me was it was the first time I ever saw George Thorogood and the Destroyers. That was the best performance I've ever seen live. I became an instant fan as did everybody in the stadium. They literally stole the show.

Second best would be Pink Floyd in Tampa Stadium.

[Front Office Midget]

Blindside and MxPx are both awesome live, in my opinion

[Chubby]

Bush MTV Campus Invasion Tour w/Moby (couple of years ago, forget which one). Moby was alright even tho every song sounds the same to me.

Bush was AMAZING! Just an awesome show, during one of the songs Gavin ran to the back of the gym (was in the Oswego St gym) and sang the whole song in the bleachers back there at the top of them. Then during Little Things for the finale he stage dove and sung the middle to end of it while crowd surfing.

AWESOME show!

[Easy Mac]

incubus is awesome live too
The 2 times I've seen Incubus live, they were absolutely horrible... I was horribly disappointed.

Dave is pretty good live.
Cake is great live.
J-kwon put on a good show the other night (but it was weird being the only white people there).
I'm trying to convince my girlfriend to go see the Darkness with me on her birthday.

[sovereignstar]

The Mars Volta at The Quest, Oct. 2003

[sovereignstar]

THURSDAY
Heh. Just got back from seeing Thursday. Went to see Head Automatica, but they cancelled. :(