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Ok, How about shows that blew you away?


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Couple of others

Allman Brothers Band (original sextet) Feb. '71. A month before they recorded Fillmore East

King Crimson, 29 SEP 2019

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Kiss at McNichols Arena in Denver, 1977 on the Alive II tour.  I was 12 and it was my first concert.  I think my ears are still ringing today!  Also saw them in 1979 on the Dynasty tour and their 1996 reunion tour which was almost a carbon copy.

INXS at Red Rocks in 1986...  It was raining that night and the band was just ON!  Michael Hutchence wiped out on stage early on and just got up and kept on going.  Just an amazing evening and one of my favorite bands of all time.

Cheap Trick at Red Rocks in 2016.  They were supposed to open for Peter Frampton but he ended up being sick so Trick played solo for almost 3 hours, and the band was literally taking requests from the audience.  I've seen them dozens of times and almost all have been great shows (yes, there were a couple of duds too), but this night was truly magical and you could tell the band was just soaking in Red Rocks and the whole vibe of it.

U2 at McNichols Arena in 1987 on the Joshua Tree tour.  This show was filmed for Rattle & Hum too and U2 was on the top of their game for sure.  

Muse at the Pepsi Center in Denver in 2011...  Just an amazing show and the music/lights/spectacle was powerful to say the least.  If you ever get the chance to see them don't miss it!

David Bowie at McNichols Arena in 1990 on the Changes tour.  David, Adrian Belew, and the band were just awesome and the set list of greatest hits blew me away.

The Church at Rainbow Music Hall in Denver 1988.  Another one of my favorite '80s bands and I've always thought of them as the new wave "Pink Floyd".  This was on the tour where "Under The Milky Way" was new and fresh.

Tenacious D at Red Rocks in 2014 (or 2015).  Truly a great show and Jack Black and Kyle Gass just killed it.  So much fun and the crowd was easily half women, which shocked my wife!

Queens of the Stone Age and Royal Blood at Red Rocks in 2017.  If you haven't seen Queens do so, what an incredible live band and Royal Blood just blew me away too.  I had seen them the year before opening for the Foo Fighters and they were great then too, but the Red Rocks appearance was just at another level.

Last but not least, Pearl Jam at Red Rocks in 1995 on the tour where they tried to tell Ticketmaster to F off and only ended up doing about 6-7 shows before the tour went under.  I was in the 2nd row and the whole vibe was just amazing and the band was really on...  That was the first time I'd seen a Hamer Duotone too, as it was used on "Daughter".  

If you haven't seen a concert at Red Rocks, put it on your bucket list as it's the best venue in the world...  The sound, the surroundings, the whole experience.  🤘

 

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12 hours ago, kizanski said:

The only thing that would have made that show better would have been if Aerosmith hadn't shown.

Or if Ted didn't sing.  

 

For me, 1980 Cheap Trick, UFO and maybe Coney Hatch.  First show and made me love live music.   AC/DC with Fastway in '83.  Both bands were great.  And Live Aid in '85.  My brother picked up tickets a week before that had just been released.  Most of the performances were good, but it was more seeing this variety of acts, and a lot of cool performances and collaborations that day.   And the '95 Page/Plant tour.  Plant sounded great, Jimmy was playing well and had great stage presence.  A number of others, but that'll suffice for now. 

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It's been so many shows and my memory slips me. 


But I only saw Rush once, and it was really one of those show I never wanted to end. Magic.

Prince, every time. But the Lovesexy tour was special with the basket ball court, the Thunderbird on stage. And he and the band was on fire. And Prince Superbowl on youtube. Although I only saw it on the screen, still the best performance from anyone. Ever. 

Green Day, indoor show at a small arena. I don't know if you remember, but between the mega success of Dookie and the comback with American Idiot, the band had some tougher years where their audience declined. This show might have been for the Nimrod or Warning album. I had thoughts of not going. But it was work, and I had met the band before on the Dookie tour, so I headed down to see them. Man, this band can really play. I was blown away. So tight and just on fire. For a half full venue. Still one of the best shows I've seen from a rock band. 

Heather Nova, festival gig. Very present and in the now. Oyster tour I think. 

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Two gigs in the 90's. Both were like, well, and Explosion.

Rocket From The Crypt. 90's festival gig. On a rope, they got me hangin' on a rope.

Bootsy Collins 1994, indoor club gig. Once of the most fantastic shows I've seen. Horn section was Jerry Martini, and might have been Cynthia Robinson too. Keys by Bernie Worrell.  Odhran "The Bodhran" Rameriz might have been on guitar, need to look that up.

INXS club gig for Welcome to Wherever you are. On fire.

Def Leppard small club gig to promote Adrenalize. One of the first after they lost Steve Clark. Sad gig, but great.

Rufus Wainwright theater gig, Want One tour. The man is such a skilled musician, entertainer and singer. What can go wrong?

Madonna, two songs live at the European MTV awards Stockholm. She knows how to do it.

Thin Lizzy 1983. Last tour, and even though they had John Sykes with them (who overplays every note) they were great. 

Mötley Crûe Shout At The Devil tour, twice. Both great. 

Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion tour start, before the US tour. With Izzy.

U2 Achtung Baby tour.

David Bowie 1990. With Adrian Belew. What a guitarist. 

Radiohead, small club gig before they released The Bends. 

REM, evertime I saw them. Just a great live band. Miss them so much.

The Black Crowes indoor theater gig before the US tour of Southern Harmony. One of those gigs that blew me away for real. Seen them many times since then. Always great. But this gig was special.

Red Hot Chilipeppers. Californication tour was great. But when Flea played but naked, penis swining during the whole show on the One Hot Minute tour stop I saw, that was funny as hell. Hard to forget.

Steve Earle small club gig alone with acoustic guitar. Little Justin standing in the wing watching. That was a special gig. 

Nine Inch Nails With Teeth tour and Hesitation Marks tour. Awesome both times.

Afghan Whigs club gig Black Love tour, with Rick McCollum on guitar and he was just ripping. 

Faith No More, Angel Dust tour. 

Scissor Sisters. Twice. Both times fantastic gigs. Great live band.

Rolling Stones Steel Wheels tour.

Thåström and Peace Love and Pitbulls. Both NIN and Marilyn Manson stole a lot from this band. They were just LOUD, dangerous and industrial as hell.

Black Sabbath, original line up with Ozzy and Bill Ward.

Iggy Pop Blah Blah Blah tour in the 80's. The energy of Iggy never left me.

Foo Fighters, the gig when Dave fell of the stage and broke his leg, came back up and with the help of a medical doctor on site continued to play for over two hours. High as a kite on pain killers. One of the most crazy gigs I've ever seen. Sad for the folks who went home before Dave came back out on stage. 

Numerous great festival gigs with Massive Attack, Primal Scream, The Prodigy, Stereo MC's, Urban Dance Squad, Black Grape, Oasis, Chemical Brothers, Moby (great gig in the rain), Sisters of Mercy, Olle Ljungström, The Soundtrack of our Lives, The Charlatans UK, Manic Street Preachers, Backyard Babies, The Hellacopters, Emmy Lou Harris, Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Rammstein, Daft Punk, Joe Strummer, Motörhead, Suede, Bob Hund, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, The Latin Kings, Meshuggah, Velvet Revolver, Kris Kristofferson, The Roots, Snoop Dog, Gnarls Barkley. These gigs were all great. 

Can not remember if I ever saw The Ramones live. And that bums me out.

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Mine tend to be smaller shows.

The Cramps 80 or 81, Bogarts in Cincy. First, we were all underage with obviously fake IDs and almost didn't get in. Fortunately, the doorman took pity on us. The show itself was memorable, we parked ourselves right at the stage on Ivy's side (of course we did). There was a dude that came to the show only to heckle the band and did so until about half way when Lux stopped mid song, said something to the guy, jumped off stage and gave the guy the most well deserved beating ever. Nick came down to help, but it was over. Got back on stage and went on with the show.

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On 4/3/2021 at 8:09 AM, diablo175 said:

Most memorable would likely have been Kiss Reunion Tour at Core States Center 09/96. I was a huge fan as a kid but never got a chance to see them in their heyday (75-78) though, I did see them sans makeup (and Ace and Peter) in Pittsburgh in '87. But the '96 show was as good as it gets- they were reunited, energized, in their '76 era costumes and sounded f-ing great! It was filled with all the spectacle and bombast a former fanboy could hope for/expect.

Runners up would be Janes Addiction in Seattle '89, Type O Negative at the Troc Halloween (10/30 actually) '98 and Roger Waters doing the Wall in it's entirety Nov 2010.

 

I'm glad you mentioned this KISS tour. I did see KISS on the Alive II tour (with AC/DC opening) and the Dynasty tour. I can't tell you how pumped I was to see them in 96, and Louisville was the first indoor show after the first Detroit outdoor show. Our tickets were pretty good, 14 rows back. I can tell you I was grinning ear to ear for days. Felt like I was 14 again. I ended up seeing them 2 more times on that tour along with work travel.

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Ok, my memory's not all there due to the 70's  ( u know what I'm talkin' bout, fried brain cells ) can't remember dates and locations might even be off, but remember seeing Rare Earth at maybe McCormick Place ?  Robin Trower at the Riviera Theater and Al Dimeola with Paco de Lucia at Orchestra Hall, great shows, but to me, the best one was watching my oldest son playing with the Chicago Youth Symphony, same stage, sometime later, or was it earlier, Dang 70's !!

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Big Country, Toad's Place, New Haven, Nov 1993.

Had a girlfriend at the time that was into them too, which was pretty bizarre. We were both exhausted and almost didn't go. Glad we did. They were fucking awesome.

 

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2 hours ago, tweed said:

Ok, my memory's not all there due to the 70's  ( u know what I'm talkin' bout, fried brain cells ) can't remember dates and locations might even be off,

Wow, I read every response and it jogged my memory. Yeah, me too.^^^^^^ But...

Greatful Dead and Allman Bros at RFK in DC in the mid 70s. My brother and his friend went to the same show, left before and my friend. Gets into accident in Delaware Memorial Bridge, van impounded, etc. I leave to find him, never did. Went to visit friends in DC, got loaded on acid, went to concert. Tripping my ass off somewhat looking for my brother. Spent the day, it was 4th of July?, tremendous shows, Allman's close and it's dark. Turn around, take three steps and there's my brother.

Same time period it was John Sebastian and an up and coming Billy Joe at the Capital Theatre in Passiac, NJ. Sebastian was booed off stage and Billy Joel tore the roof off the place.

Loggins & Messina (don't judge) when they fresh on the Sittin' In tour early 70, Princeton, NJ. On campus, small hall, very close. They were so tight, great acoustics, magic! I fell in love with their music and passed it on to my daughters.

Mid to late 80s in a small beach-side club I saw Buddy Guy 15 feet from the stage, no seats as it was the dance floor of the small club. He was still in his prime and just worked it.

Early 90s Dire Straits "On Every Street" in Meadowlands Arena. Calling Elvis and Heavy Fuel through one of the best sound systems were excellent.

BB King 2003 at the Baker Ballroom in Dover, NJ 7 rows back. What a show!!

2010s Ray Wylie Hubbard in a small club in Nashville. No publicity, under $10 at the door. Small, intimate and he and his band were rowdy and locked in the pocket.

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And J. Geils, Bucky Pizzarelli and Duke Robillard in concert in Princeton NJ in the 2000s. Alexander Hall? Just the three of them, each with a guitar and an amp sitting on folding chairs just playing and talking for about 2 hours. Very different type of show.

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I remember it like yesterday.  But I can't remember the date.  I was the sales manager at Abney's Music in Orlando in those days.  We were a Heritage dealer.  Marv Lamb called me on what I remember as a day during the week. He said, "Graham is holding tickets at the front door for you".  We waited in line for about forty minutes.  They were turning people away for about twenty minutes before my wife, my friend Phil and I got to the door.  We were ushered to three of the eight or ten best seats in the house.  I remember my wife telling me the "Bathrooms are just over there".  That's why they were great seats to her!

The band had practiced the tour set on a soundstage at Universal.   Gary was heading to NY to play on the Letterman Show.  Gary's rig was a Soldano SLO and a "new" Marshall DSL head.  We all know they turned out to be unreliable and inconsistent, but Gary's sounded killer.  It was dark blue. I think he just played the Soldano on Letterman.

Graham let me play "Stripe".  That was the guitar later proven to be a guitar stolen from Ronnie Montrose years before.  I can  attest to the fact it was in the country before the Court order.  After that, if he brought it into the country, it would be "retained".  Graham showed me "Greeney".  But he told me that I couldn't play it.  I did touch it.   

They played all the Still Got the Blues stuff and a few After Hours songs.  He was my favorite of all time.  He was fifteen feet away.  I owe it all to the Heritage Guitar Company.  It's ironic.  If you never saw him play, you don't know.  Only Jeff compares.

 

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Pat Travers was still a 3-piece and the opening act for Jay Ferguson(!) and Rush. Never heard of him and never forgot that show.

Frampton came through just as the live album hit and played to a 1/2 full Coliseum. The echo in that barn sounded exactly like Frampton Comes Alive.

ZZ Top, Rush, Kansas, Heart, J. Giels, Leslie West, Ted, Journey, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon (until they sapped out), etc... were all on top of it late '70s/early '80s (from what I remember....).

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5 hours ago, LefThanDed said:

Prince + The Time + Vanity6  threw it down at  Carmichael Auditorium in Chapel Hill.

Just my imagining what that show was like blew me away.

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  Iron Maiden:  killers tour, talked about it many times...   face ripped off,  even tho maiden did not have

radio airplay in the traditional sense,  it could not have been more clear that they were going places...   

 

 Kix:   midnite dynamite club date in 85...  they played in front of maybe 100 people and played as if it were a packed 

MSG...   they blew everyone away.   Everyone must have told 10 friends because two months later,  they came back, played

the big room,   pretty sure it was 2000... pretty impressive word of mouth.         

 

   Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love reaction... club tour before their album came out.   fantastic.    I didn't know it

at the time but I had food poisoning and might have been hallucinating...  possibly saw god that night and he was

dressed as a greasy biker       a month later Motley Crue was dressed as dirty bikers,  not shocked.  

  

    

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Lots of great memories here, and not to double up too much, but...

  • +1 for Muse live. They've kinda been diminishing returns for me since their fourth album, but live they are dynamite. Seen them twice on the Resistance tour, and twice on the 2nd Law tour.
  • Beck on the Odelay tour in 1996 or so. Total James Brown polyester leisure suits and soul band vibe, absolutely NOT what I had expected.
  • Sigur Ros on the Takk tour in 2005 or so. Also unexpected, had a string quartet and fantastic lighting and staging. At the end of Untitled 8 ( a deafening crash of strings and feedback and blinding strobes and projections) it was stunned silence. Saw people literally weeping.
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I don't know if "blown away" is the right word but certainly pleasantly surprised by the Darkness at the 9:30 in DC.  They were tight as hell and hilarious.  It was a very fun show.  The humor and the tightness reminded me of a more campy OTT version of a Kix show.

Jeff Beck at the Boathouse in Norfolk, VA - I was very near the stage at times and I've never seen anyone play guitar better than that guy.  It's like whatever sound he has in his head comes out automatically with no effects, not even picks.  He did use a slide on a couple of songs.

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Beastie Boys - Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. Summer of 1986.
I was a big Beastie Boys fan since before their first record, and due to their constant redefinition over the years, I remain one to this day.
I was so psyched to see them. They put on a great show, with all of the college fratboy-inspired antics they employed at that time; the beer spraying, the caged dancing girl, etc.  They seemed to be having a great time as did their audience.
20-year-old me got what I expected and what I paid for from them. but the Beastie Boys wasn't the act that blew me away.

This group who I had never heard of before, "Public Enemy" was opening for them.
They were different.  They were not having fun, or at least that was their demeanor. 
Huge, beret and military fatigue-clad "guards" were stationed at attention in a few positions on the stage holding assault rifles, and as Chuck D and Flavor Flav went through their set list, the guards would fall into assorted different formations, somewhat mimicking military drills.

This wasn't Run-DMC or Kool Moe Dee or even LL Cool J meandering about the stage, swinging one arm back and forth.  This was a jarring visual, and combined with the no-nonsense attitude, the musical mastery and the command of the stage that they all...demanded... for me this was a stunning confluence of the audible and the visual.

The crowd, who had come to see the Beastie Boys, was of course predominantly white (this was a "rap" concert, but no one had ever heard of Public Enemy), and my buddies and I were 5 white guys from upper-middle class suburbs.  The mental image I have as I looked around the crowd was one I'll remember as long as the performance itself: a combination of shock, acceptance and elation.

I couldn't get their first record fast enough.  

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1 hour ago, Ed Rechts said:

@tommy p I was in Goochland just outside Manakin last week working a short contract visit. You live in a very cool area. And the BBQ is excellent.

What style of 'cue do you have up there in Manakin, Tommy?

Not sure why Rhett and Link skipped over the commonwealth in their musical primer, other than I suspect the 'cue up there is nearly identical to what's found in NC:  

 

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18 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

I was in Goochland just outside Manakin last week working a short contract visit. You live in a very cool area. And the BBQ is excellent.

Send me a message next time.  There are many BBQ places around here that are KILLER!  Which one did you go to?

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16 hours ago, Biz Prof said:

What style of 'cue do you have up there in Manakin, Tommy?

Not sure why Rhett and Link skipped over the commonwealth in their musical primer, other than I suspect the 'cue up there is nearly identical to what's found in NC:  

 

All kinds, my friend.  It seems that the Richmond area has decided 20 independent BBQ restaurants is just not enough and I agree!  New ones keep springing up all the time.  Almost every one of them has at least a NC-style sauce and their own non-vinegar based style.  Coming from a small town near the NC line, I have always preferred NC style sauce but so few really get it right.  Most places around here these days have several different sauces.  I'll put a little of sauce 1 on my sandwich, have a couple of bites, and move on to sauce 2, and so on.  Some of my favorite BBQ places are Jake's Place, Jadean's, Mission, ZZQ, and The Flyin' Pig.  I would recommend different ones based on what kind of sides or desserts you like .

Open invite to anyone traveling to Richmond for any reason: I'll be happy to recommend or take you to a great BBQ place and/or craft brewery.  I retired one week ago today so what else do I have to do?

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