Now....what was your BEST CONCERT EVER?!?!

[jabps]

I've seen close to a 1,000 shows during my lifetime...either by working them, playing on the bill or seeing them from the audience and by far the best concert I ever saw was KISS @ Center Stage in Atlanta on the warm up for the Revenge tour.

Small hall...800 - 1,000 capacity I think, sold out. Never seen a bigger sounding, tighter sound band than them that night. I've seen them over 40 times and they've never come close to sounding that good. Just a small backline on both sides...no special effects...that was the best live concert I've ever seen.

You name 'em and I've probably seen them in some capacity but that's the one that always stands out as "the best".

 

[Anonymous]

California World Music Festival '79 - LA Coliseum

Went to see Aerosmith, but was interested in hearing their opener, Van Halen as well since I hadn't seen them live before. I had heard the records and especially dug VHII, but I still thought "Eruption" was some kind of synthesizer trick. VH came on and I sat there watching Ed ripping it up at the top of his game with my jaw dropped the entire time. He was flying around the stage and he had these knee pads on and kept doing running leaps down onto them and sliding across the stage, the whole time playing these amazing solos and rhythm fills. I don't know how his knees survived the night or how he could play the stuff he was playing flying around like that. Best rock-n-roll guitar performance I've ever seen. I realized at that point that the bar had been raised considerably. After that night, I started practicing a lot more, I can tell you that... The energy coming from the whole band was amazing.

Aerosmith came on after this and looked drugged, sad and tired. They were completely blown off the stage and they were one of my favorite bands at that point...

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

easy....

Black Sabbath & Pantera in Dallas at reunion arena.... both bands tore the fuck out of that place.

second place?

Last Saturday: Megadeth, Testament, & Exodus - fucking unbelievable show.

I am pretty sure my new "Best concert" is going to be in August when Slayer, Megadeth, Testament come to Detroit!

Saw the show at the Palladium in LA two nights ago. Megadeth and Testament destroyed! "Five Magics" was a highlight for me.

Steve

 

[OldSkoolNJ]

I am torn between
Clash Of The Titans tour Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth.. Layne threw his rings in the audience and I caught one..

Pantera Far Beyond Driven with Prong and Sepultura..
After the show Dimebag & Vinnie came out of their tour bus and hung out on the hood of my car cuz I was blasting Sepultura Arise,
We shared some beer and Jager they share some weed..
Phil came out with a chick under each arm and just said I wanted to thank you guys for coming, go Worship the devil or whatever you guys do. then went back to his bus...
Then the parking lot noticed they were around my car and they had to leave...
Still have my cig pack Vinnie signed and the Moosehead bottle Dime signed

 

[headlessdeadguy]

A few stand out.

Bonamassa last year. I took my 9 year old to his first show, he was in awe the entire 2 hrs (as was I).

Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament summer of 08' in Pittsburgh. I took my oldest son who was 15 at the time, just thinking about watching Sabbath and Priest with him still gives me chills.

Megadeth, Sanctuary, Warlock in 87'
Ozzy, Metallica (MOP) 86'
Agent Steel at my folks bar in 03'
Slayer, Overkill, Motorhead 87'
Skeletonwitch 09'

Agent Steel,kick ass!!! i saw them in 2003 playing a "live" show out of a small record store in Phoenix,Arizona...a great,memorable show as i loved that band back in the mid 80's,yet never got to see them "live"



EVIL EYE/EVIL MINDS

Yeah man! They were in Michigan for a festival and I contacted them to see about doing a show in Columbus and they were into it.

Cool part was they came to town on my friend Jons birthday (he happens to be a huge Agent Steel fan).

They played all the classic stuff and most of the (then unreleased) new album. Played like an hour and a half for me and around 30 other people.

 

[jabps]

California World Music Festival '79 - LA Coliseum

Went to see Aerosmith, but was interested in hearing their opener, Van Halen as well since I hadn't seen them live before. I had heard the records and especially dug VHII, but I still thought "Eruption" was some kind of synthesizer trick. VH came on and I sat there watching Ed ripping it up at the top of his game with my jaw dropped the entire time. He was flying around the stage and he had these knee pads on and kept doing running leaps down onto them and sliding across the stage, the whole time playing these amazing solos and rhythm fills. I don't know how his knees survived the night or how he could play the stuff he was playing flying around like that. Best rock-n-roll guitar performance I've ever seen. I realized at that point that the bar had been raised considerably. After that night, I started practicing a lot more, I can tell you that... The energy coming from the whole band was amazing.

Aerosmith came on after this and looked drugged, sad and tired. They were completely blown off the stage and they were one of my favorite bands at that point...

Steve

LOL...Aerosmith "was" drugged, sad and tired. That's a great story. Evidently VH did that to alot of bands early on. Living here in Nashville I've always heard the story that when VH was opening for Sabbath...when the tour came through Nashville, Ozzy was lost. Evidently the story goes that he got left in the hotel room in another city and the band didn't realize he was gone until soundcheck that night.

VH did their set all the while the Sabbath crew was hoping Ozzy would eventually show via flying in....regardless he never made it and VH ended up playing there set again while adding various covers. From what I hear nobody asked for a refund and nobody really cared because VH blew everyone away that night.

 

[vultures]

IN FLAMES and Gojira and some other crappy band in NYC a year or two ago. In Flames is my #1 band, but that was the first time I saw them and it blew me the fuck away. I would kill to see them again

 

[JTyson]

Hard to pick! I've seen 3 concerts that really stick out - 1. Dio on the Last In Line tour, Vivian Campbell was on fire and his tone was incredible. 2. Joe Satriani on the Flying in a Blue Dream tour 3.UFO on the Walk On Water tour - Schenker was so on it was unbelievable. In a small club and I was directly in front of his amps - that was probably my favorite.

OOoooo..... forgot about that one. the last in line tour with vivian was killer

 

[mboogman]

easy....

Black Sabbath & Pantera in Dallas at reunion arena.... both bands tore the fuck out of that place.

second place?

Last Saturday: Megadeth, Testament, & Exodus - fucking unbelievable show.

That was my first date with my wife, back in '99 in Dallas at Reunion Arena. Truly an amazing concert. I think Pantera might be one of the tightest bands I've ever seen.

As far as the absolute best, It would have to be Dream Theater on the Chaos in motion tour in Chicago at the Rosemont theater a few years back.

 

[gbsmusic]

1 Dio 1985 I just started playing guitar and Vivian Campbell played about a 15 min solo that just blew my mind!! I didn't know a guitar could be played like that until that night!!
The Eagles HFOver was also incredible, I have never heard a band sound so true to the original music before or since!

 

[Atropos_Project]

There have been a a few I can think of but the first one that always comes to mind is TOOL in 2001 at the palace of aubrun hills when lateralus just came out. That show was so great I haven't missed a TOOL show since then, locally of course. I still haven't seen a band who sounds better live

The Lateralus tour was absolutely amazing.

 

[fearhk213]

Don't know if I can pick just one 4 stand out for me. In no particular order....

Tool, 10,000 Days - Killer! The whole production and perfomance and how they blended together was magical. I couldn't believe the vibe they created in a coliseum.

Meshuggah, Chaosphere - To date I don't think I've ever seen a band perform that flawlessly live. You'd had sworn they just popped the cd in and weren't really playing

Mastodon, Crack the Skye - Played the album straight through without stopping & I (& the crowd) loved every minute of it! They had a killer vibe going as well.

Victor Wooten - I've seen him twice and left slack jawed both times. Very entertaining shows and the amount of talent that he brings to accompany him on stage is incredible too. Watching him play Classical Thump just flat out

 

[mctallica1]

Great thread!

I have been lucky to see A LOT of great shows, but the one that stands out the most was:

The Ozzfest that had the following 3 bands close the show....

Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Black Sabbath



So much awesomeness on one stage, one right after the other was almost too much to bear!

 

[Digital Jams]

For hair best overall show for me was Livecrime, just incredible.

For guitar work and tone DLR Eatem and Smile with Vai, best big stadium tone I have ever heard and it was a Meet the New Boss experience.

The Cure, Disintegation tour....a sea of black and the sound was incredible again.

The Police Ghost in the Machine tour, when they were on top of their game and they still had about 10% left for not killing each other.

The Ramones...had most of my shirt ripped off, two cuts on my face, and a rear pocket ripped off from stage diving but is was killer

Rush Signals and MOving PIctures..............my eye opener regarding music.

Marcus Miller band....all hail the king of bass tone and only Marcus could pull off wearing parachute MC Hammer pants and a wife beater and make it look good



yeah more than one.....bite me.

 

[thunda]

the best *I* enjoyed was in the late 80's in Nashville: The Fabulous Thunderbirds opened, followed by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, capped off by B.B. King. At the end, they all got up on stage and jammed.

ty

 

[Mailman1971]

the best *I* enjoyed was in the late 80's in Nashville: The Fabulous Thunderbirds opened, followed by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, capped off by B.B. King. At the end, they all got up on stage and jammed.

ty

I love the Thunderbirds!! Sounds like a great show!

 

[thunda]

It was killer. You weren't allowed to use flash cameras, but I had a Nikon camera ("Love to take the photograph..."){ sorry but I couldn't resist} with telephoto lens and some 1000 speed film (I really miss that stuff! ) and got some great photos!

 

[Mailman1971]

I was listening to "Tuff enough" the other day......
Great great band!

 

[troublehead]

Pantera with Trouble opening in a very small club in San Antonio right around the release of Vulgar. (early 90's)

Runners up:

The bowling alley show I saw with Anthrax, Exodus, and Celtic Frost (mid 80's)

Mercyful Fate and Cathedral (early 90's)

Manowar and Immortal was really cool.........and LOUD (early 00's)

 

[stephen sawall]

The Cure, Disintegation tour....a sea of black and the sound was incredible again.

That tour and the Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me tours were both really good from all the times I saw The Cure. They were very good just a few years ago when I saw them.