Great Concerts

[coachvu]

I've been to a lot of concerts, but here are some of the best:

The Who (Quadrophenia, 1997, when John Entwistle was alive)
R.E.M. - Monster tour
Bob Dylan - seen him a couple times, but the Time Out of Mind tour was the best
B. B. King - never seen someone work an audience better
Eric Clapton - Pilgrim tour. The album was terrible, but it's hard to beat his classics
Rolling Stones - 40 Licks. Mick is still amazing
Van Morrison - absolutely fantastic band backing him up.

 

[tundrafour]

Mogwai and The Perceptionists are both pretty incredible live, albeit for very different reasons. I've seen Aesop Rock, too, and while he was good, if I were able to choose, I would definitely prefer to see The Preceptionists (or just Mr. Lif).

I've seen a lot of concerts, many of which were very good (and many of which weren't), but those two really stand out in my mind.

 

[Manny Calavera]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Bjork at the 9:30 club (or was it the Capital Ballroom?) in DC in 2000?

You sure it wasn't '98? I don't think she touched the USA in '99 or 2000. I saw her at The Capital Ballroom in 1998. Really great show. I also thought we were talking about recent shows (my list was this year) but if we're doing "best" I'd also include the Bjork show along with Sigur Ros and Radiohead at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Sufjan Stevens at the 9:30 Club late last year.

 

[Manny Calavera]

Originally Posted by tundrafour

Mogwai and The Perceptionists are both pretty incredible live, albeit for very different reasons. I've seen Aesop Rock, too, and while he was good, if I were able to choose, I would definitely prefer to see The Preceptionists (or just Mr. Lif).

I've seen a lot of concerts, many of which were very good (and many of which weren't), but those two really stand out in my mind.

Mr. Lif actually opened for Aesop when I saw them earlier this year. Should have included it on the list because it was a really great performance.

 

[rdawson808]

You sure it wasn't '98? I don't think she touched the USA in '99 or 2000. I saw her at The Capital Ballroom in 1998. Really great show.

Yeah, could have been. It was the Homogenic tour. Amazing. Oh, and what's his name opened for her....Mu-ziq. Mike Paradinas. I was very impressed by his ability to create such sounds just by twiddlin' those knobs.

b

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by Alter

I seldom go to concerts now but back in the day I used to see many. Most of these concerts were 1982-1996.

Orchestral Manoevers in the Dark


Out of curiosity, when was this? I would have loved to see them back in the late 70s or early 80s when they were very much a post-punk band. [I love their new wave/new romantic era stuff too, I should say.]

b

 

[Alter]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Out of curiosity, when was this? I would have loved to see them back in the late 70s or early 80s when they were very much a post-punk band. [I love their new wave/new romantic era stuff too, I should say.]

b

July 1984. Pretty full-on new wave by that point but I seem to recall it was a good show.

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by jonglover

Did the piano actually bleed?
It burned.

 

[romafan]

Originally Posted by Alter

I seldom go to concerts now but back in the day I used to see many. Most of these concerts were 1982-1996.

The Police
The English Beat
Killing Joke
The Go-Gos
Iggy Pop
Split Enz
Echo and the Bunnyman
The Fleshtones
Billy Bragg
Village People
The Clash
The Pogues
Sloan
They Might Be Giants
Red Hot Chili Peppers
UK Subs
MDC
The Pixies
The Breeders
Stereolab
Guided By Voices
NoMeansNo
D.O.A.
Robyn Hitchcock
The Pogues
The Smiths
Camper Van Beethoven
Cracker
Modest Mouse\t
Luna
The Replacements
Orchestral Manoevers in the Dark
The Rheostatics
Jesus and Mary Chain
Toots and the Maytals
Big Country
The Skydiggers
Billy Bragg
Great Big Sea
Moxy Fruvous
Barenaked Ladies
Social Distortion
Tom Petty
The Fleshtones
The Gruesomes
The Rolling Stones
Peter Gabriel
The Cure
Hoodoo Gurus
Hunters and Collectors
Modern English
Rancid
The Monks
REM
Spiderbait
Powderfinger
Furnaceface
Jimmy George

The Fleshtones & Pogues (listed twice!)! Yeah, baby! Pogues could be hit-or-miss, but the 'Tones always deliver - hardest working men in showbiz, w/ apologies to James Brown...

 

[Alter]

Originally Posted by romafan

The Fleshtones & Pogues (listed twice!)! Yeah, baby! Pogues could be hit-or-miss, but the 'Tones always deliver - hardest working men in showbiz, w/ apologies to James Brown...

Agreed! I saw the Fleshtones 4 or 5 times and they were some of the most memorable nights of my life. One time, in Montreal, I saw the strange combination of Billy Bragg, The Fleshtones and Echo & the Bunnymen. When the Fleshtones got on stage the crowd was shouting out for Echo & the Bunnymen (the headliners) but as soon as the Fleshtones started playing the crowd went nuts! Great show. I actually only saw the Pogues once but it was a great show in a small club (around 500 ppl), Shane was still singing and they were in fine drunken form.

 

[Mr. Checks]

alsnvn

 

[gdc_2008]

Thought I'd bump this to see who people have seen recently. I haven't been to a show in a long while....some of the better shows in recent years are Akron/Family at Tonic in NYC homecoming show after touring for their first album. I've seen the Super Furry Animals about 4 times now, though the first show I saw at Bimbos 365 in SF was the best....had the full surround sound set up. Saw Paul Weller back in high school on his second time to SF solo (was sick when the Paul Weller Experience came to town...)...

 

[Dakota rube]

Saw Clapton a couple weeks ago. It was his birthday. Robert Cray opened.

Clapton still is awesome. Although a bunch of people were bitching that he didn't play "Tears in Heaven". He did a bunch of Cream.

 

[JetBlast]

It was a good while ago but I went to see O'Malley's March perform at the historic Avalon Theater in Easton at their second-to-last concert before they disbanded. The lead singer was the mayor of Baltimore and was running for governor (he won, btw).

They did some beautiful Celtic and Irish music and put out a few CDs as well. It was great. I still remember that one of the vocalists said "this next song is slow and romantic so feel free to wave your cell phones in the air, since we can't have lighters here apparently." And everyone did, we all waved our cell phones and it was more beautiful than you would expect

JB

 

[BigHandMan]

Brian Setzer - with the full backing orchestra - at the Warner Theater in DC. Just a rocking show by amazing musicians. The opener was a French Canadian jazz group with a stunning, tall brunette woman as lead singer. Can't recall a lick of what she sang and didn't understand 1/2 of it because it was in French... but I certainly remember her.

It was a few years ago but was probably the best show I'd ever seen, and I've been lucky to see some great stuff.