Best Gigs You've Been To

[wcorkcanary]

Roadied for the Groundhogs for a while , early eighties, Souixsie and the Banshees in Bochum '82, Split Enz west Runton Pavillion '78 ish. Also did a gig in Whitehaven (i think) Xmas 85 for the gHogs, they were support for Quo, Got paid extra by Parfitt and Rossi to help keep fans off the stage....great night before , during and after the gig...and i'm not a Quo fan.

Best of all though was working at Wembley for the Freddie Mercury bash, had the honour of refusing entry to a special area to Jonathon King, didnt like him at all, he had so many access passes, but not to the area i was running( he even gave it the old 'dont you know who i am'...i did ,but that made me even more determined to keep him out) , felt a little twinge of schadenfreud when he was sent down for his personal tastes years later, odious cretin.

 

[gerryinromania]

Mine go back a long,long tme...Beatles in Portsmouth in the 60s....In Kinds Lynn at the Corn Hall  Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, Cris Montez....Saw Madness somewhere Ian Dury...Dexys Midnigt Runners..........Lone Star, you mentioned Mad Al Yankowich.Bet his shows were really something else. Was only You Tubing some of his stuff the other day,crazy man

 

[Scott]

Reel Big Fish were pretty epic, and looking forward to going to see The Specials at the UEA next month, and Grandmaster Flash!

 

[Tomasz Blazak]

Reel Big Fish were pretty epic, and looking forward to going to see The Specials at the UEA next month, and Grandmaster Flash!

I interviewed Reel Big Fish for a Youth radio station when I was 15. They were absolute bellends. Support from the Starting Line and Sugarcult was good though.

The best I've seen live:

Original Black Sabbath Lineup at Ozzfest 2001

Marilyn Manson put on a hell of a show at Download 2003 (not my thing musically, but got to respect the incredible showmanship)

Foals at Rock City Nottingham (epic both times I've seen them there!)

Alanis Morisette at V2002

Chemical Brothers at V2002

Not technically a band but still a gig - Gatecrashers 20th Bday at Donington last year - immense lineup of old school trance - Mauro Picotto, Ferry Corsten, Paul Van Dyk etc

Seen Manic Street Preachers twice - Once at VFest and once at NIA - Amazing both times

Millions more.

Really looking forward to seeing The Fray in Birmingham a week on Saturday. One of my favourite bands ever and not managed to see them live until now.

 

[Matt Gascoine]

Nirvana- Norwich arts centre

Manics-  Norwich arts centre

Radiohead- Manchester

Tool- London

Terrorvision & Feeder- Oval rockhouse

 

[morty]

Nirvana- Norwich arts centre

Manics-  Norwich arts centre

Radiohead- Manchester

Tool- London

Terrorvision & Feeder- Oval rockhouse

Ooft, kudos for Nirvana!

 

[Lone Star Canary]

Lone Star, you mentioned Mad Al Yankowich.Bet his shows were really something else. Was only You Tubing some of his stuff the other day,crazy man

They're a lot of fun, and very family friendly.  It's funny looking at the crowd composition... you have a bunch of teen/pre-teen kids, then you have older guys like me (I'm 44) who WERE those teen/pre-teen kids who grew up listening to Weird Al Sunday nights on the Dr. Demento Show 30-35 years ago.  At least now I can take my boys along, and us older real fans are discernible from parents just there with their kids by the fact we're in our Hawaiian shirts and singing to the old songs.

His shows are like most in that they are a mix of new and old material.  His backing band mates have all been with him a long time, so they are all very tight on stage.  He'll have several pauses through the show for costume changes, but the time is not wasted as he fills them with videos on the back screen - usually his fake interviews, like this one with Eminem:


Unfortunately for y'all he's only toured Europe once, in 2010 - one show in Amsterdam and four in England.  I think though with the internet allowing his popularity to grow more and more internationally that he might get over again when he starts touring again in 2015.  Save the occasional fair/festival appearance he's taken the last year off, which is an eternity since he's always on tour with his group.

 

[Agent Dale Cooper]

Not sure how to embed a video like you cool cats have done, but this was one of my favourite ever gigs - managed to blag my way on stage with The Flaming Lips in Porto. If you don't know the band or the song then this probably won't convert you (especially as there's about three minutes of preamble before they play the song properly),but it's a moment that will live with me forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HfW06E73lk

 

[splutcho]

ADC - I've done it for you, but in future, click the box to the left of the "font" option, click the drop down arrow to media then enter the video URL in the box

 

[splutcho]

And also, that's really cool. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was one of the first albums I ever bought.

 

[Lone Star Canary]

Not sure how to embed a video like you cool cats have done, but this was one of my favourite ever gigs - managed to blag my way on stage with The Flaming Lips in Porto. If you don't know the band or the song then this probably won't convert you (especially as there's about three minutes of preamble before they play the song properly),but it's a moment that will live with me forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HfW06E73lk

The Flaming Lips are pretty much the best rock group to ever come out of Oklahoma (not sure how you'd count J.J. Cale/Leon Russell and the whole "Tulsa Sound," but to me it's more blues than rock).  I was attending the University of Oklahoma when they dang near burned down the American Legion Hall in Norman during a concert.  Back then it was them, The Nixons, and the Chainsaw Kittens headlining the local scene.

 

[Agent Dale Cooper]

Thanks for the embedding help, Splutcho. It was an amazing gig – seen them a couple of times before, but actually being on stage with all the ticker tape and confetti cannons and dancing animals... just wow!

A lot of people don't realise they've been going for 30 years now and started out life as a punk band – their back catalogue is certainly pretty diverse!

 

[Tomasz Blazak]

I'm not a flaming lips fan, but I love that song. Never seen a live version before - looks amazing!

 

[splutcho]

I won't start a new thread, but what gigs have people been to where they've left really disappointed?

Guns N Roses at Reading Festival in 2010 stands out for me. Over an hour late before Axl waddled on already out of breath and really struggled to make it through the set. Really embarrassingly bad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3PwmPd95mw

 

[Leedscanary]

Admittedly not his finest hour, but Axl Rose will always be one of my heroes. Legend.

 

[morty]

The Happy Mondays.

Absolutely awful live.

Ditto Shaun Ryder when I saw him solo supporting The Charlatans at the UEA (they were amazing)

 

[splutcho]

For those that like it a bit heavier. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vivvz6SJfac

This was the second (and better) time I saw them, it was quite a big deal for me as I was a huge fan as a kid/teenager and by the time I was old enough to really start going to gigs they had split up on bad terms and I never thought I'd get the chance to see them live. Didn't disappoint either. One of those bands that I will continually go and see as long as they're still playing.

 

[ZLF]

Nirvana- Norwich arts centre

Manics-  Norwich arts centre

Radiohead- Manchester

Tool- London

Terrorvision & Feeder- Oval rockhouse

impressive - not oasis at the arts centre or rem at the uea??  (No - nor me)

Inspiral carpets and ride in cambridge were a little special and always love Editors 

 

[Matt Gascoine]

although not everyone's cup of tea U2 at Wembley was awesome

 

[Tomasz Blazak]

For those that like it a bit heavier. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vivvz6SJfac

This was the second (and better) time I saw them, it was quite a big deal for me as I was a huge fan as a kid/teenager and by the time I was old enough to really start going to gigs they had split up on bad terms and I never thought I'd get the chance to see them live. Didn't disappoint either. One of those bands that I will continually go and see as long as they're still playing.

I saw SOAD at Ozzfest 2002. Their set got cut short by about 20mins as one of the lights fell down but they were awesome.