Favorite band to see live in concert?

I’m gonna go reverse chronological order: Julian Lage was the last best show I have seen. Before him St Vincent, RTJ, Gogol Bordello, Angel Olsen. All great shows.

I saw Pat Martino a few times over the last decade of his life. He was still really good live, although I could tell that his chops were getting a bit worse. I took every chance to see him. I really love his music.

When they were touring over 10 years ago, LCD Soundsystem put up some really good shows.

Nick Cave and the bad seeds have done some of my favorite shows of all time, and Einsturzende Neubauten were pretty amazing too.

I was lucky enough to see Lou Reed in 2009 and he was just incredible. Such a memorable performance.

I saw Sonic Youth several times in the late 90s and early 2000s. Fun shows but I don’t think I really care about their music anymore.

I saw Chumbawamba back in the 90s and that was a fun show. Kinda random I know.
 
giovanni said:
This is the coolest stuff! You mentioned a lot of my favorite artists, from jazz to rock…
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Those are just some high points, I probably saw about half the Woodstock bands and a whole lot of other classic jazz fusion bands, and tons of the biggest straight ahead jazz acts as well. And rock and fusion shows used to really mix up the billings in crazy ways, so I saw Fleetwood Mac as a third billed act, Miles opening for Metheny, and nearly half the ECM acts at one show in New York. Mahavishnu even opened for T-Rex in The Spectrum in ‘72, go figure. It used to be cheap enough to go see shows that we’d take lots of chances on barely known acts or even stuff we thought we didn’t like, that Bowie show for example. I was walking by the Tower Theater on my way home and some poor guy was out front holding an extra ticket after the show had just begun, and all I had was five bucks, but he was happy to only lose a few bucks. And of course Bowie absolutely killed.
 
drgonzo1969 said:
Just curious to see what some of your favorite live bands or experiences are? For me, it's High on Fire. I saw them for the first time back in 2007 or 2008 at a little bar in Lawrence, Kansas called the Bottleneck. It's a small venue that holds maybe 200 people. They had such killer energy and hung around and talked to fans after the show. lots of dudes look to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen or John Mayer as their guitar heros. For me, it's Matt Pike. He sparked my love of amplifiers. I have mad respect for all those that came before(i've seen clapton at new orleans jazz fest) but Matt Pikes riffs and tone speak to me on another level. What bands or guitar players inspire you guys?
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I saw Fatboy Slim at the Bottleneck back in the day ... spent a year fighting an engineering degree at KU that I never finished due to burnout.

My favorite live band was Gwar. Could give a fuck about their songs tbh ...just a fun fucking show (especially when you burn one in the parking lot just before the set). My favorite live experience was Manson on the Antichrist tour at the round mound of sound (Cotillion Ballroom) in Wichita, KS. The bible thumpers were outside begging to buy your tickets (at face value) to save your soul. You can't manufacture that sort of bible belt publicity if you wanted to.
 
Passinwind said:
Those are just some high points, I probably saw about half the Woodstock bands and a whole lot of other classic jazz fusion bands, and tons of the biggest straight ahead jazz acts as well. And rock and fusion shows used to really mix up the billings in crazy ways, so I saw Fleetwood Mac as a third billed act, Miles opening for Metheny, and nearly half the ECM acts at one show in New York. Mahavishnu even opened for T-Rex in The Spectrum in ‘72, go figure. It used to be cheap enough to go see shows that we’d take lots of chances on barely known acts or even stuff we thought we didn’t like, that Bowie show for example. I was walking by the Tower Theater on my way home and some poor guy was out front holding an extra ticket after the show had just begun, and all I had was five bucks, but he was happy to only lose a few bucks. And of course Bowie absolutely killed.
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Oh man. I saw a Van Gogh art installation thing at the Tower Theater, and I got to stand on the stage. I was a bit teary eyed, to be honest. All I could think of was the Thin White Duke, and one of my favorite versions of Suffragette City…real paranoid…
 
Blooze said:
Those little bars are the best. Always used to hang at the Rock Island in Wichita back in the late 80’s.
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Oh fuck ... the old one on Oliver?
that was totally not me underage as fuck on quarter well night
Ironically, this venue is where I saw Gwar ... it was not quarter well night that night
 
Coda said:
Oh man. I saw a Van Gogh art installation thing at the Tower Theater, and I got to stand on the stage. I was a bit teary eyed, to be honest. All I could think of was the Thin White Duke, and one of my favorite versions of Suffragette City…real paranoid…
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I saw some great shows there in the year or so I lived in Upper Darby, that one definitely stands out though. Kind of a similar vibe to the Capitol in Port Chester as an old school theater, always loved that sort of venue.
 
Barry said:
I was a Big fan of Neil's early stuff, not so much on his latest works.
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Isn't that always the case with classic acts? I saw Neil a few years ago, and he hardly played any "hits"... but lots of new songs about GMO and seeds and such. Still I was happy to see him.
 
spi said:
Isn't that always the case with classic acts? I saw Neil a few years ago, and he hardly played any "hits"... but lots of new songs about GMO and seeds and such. Still I was happy to see him.
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I agree we need to be good stewards of the environment but look at the melodies he wrote back in the 60's and 70's this stuff today is just rage backed up with noise, if he wants people to hear his message put some effort into the lyrics and music.
 
I’m with that aged, incredibly lucky concert going group that got to see the major rock and jazz bands of the late 60s to mid 70s. But I think the most remarkable rock band shows I’ve seen were Gomez, from their early bigger tour (with the 6th full time guy on extra percussion and synth) days on until maybe 5 years ago. I’ve been able to see probably 20 concerts of theirs over the years.

Another standout, single performance was Cheep Trick, in a Madison, WI bar, before they had an album out. I was told i would be impressed. I was. They pretty much played the first two albums, (in retrospect), incredibly tightly, and still exhibited their quirky personalities. They also might have had the best sound system I’d heard up until then.

Not a band, per se, but Richard Thompson comes around to my town at least once a year, doing audiences’ choice concerts. Not limited to his music; people request songs from any one and any style. He has an assistant that prints out the lyrics and chords. Watching him play a new (to him as a performer) song is a delight. The first chorus, he’s mainly strumming, and by the second, he’s working in either the lead lines or the bass lines, all the while taking ownership of the song through his singing. Yeah, he may be my favorite band ever.
 
Back in the mid to late 90’s I went to this thing called ngsw. Saw two of my most impactful concerts there. One was an instructor I think his name was Jody fish but I could be wrong did a concert/demonstration of chord melody jazz standards. Completely blown away by it I started listening to/trying to learn some jazz stuff.

Also victor wooten and Steve Bailey were doing their bass extremes thing the first time. They did a clinic there which I didn’t go to but that evening they did a concert in what would be best described as a large conference room. It was pretty incredible.

Less inspirational to my music journey. Iron Maiden shows are an absolute blast highly recommend just some good fun. And the claypool lemon delirium another standout show.
 
Alan W said:
Not a band, per se, but Richard Thompson comes around to my town at least once a year, doing audiences’ choice concerts. Not limited to his music; people request songs from any one and any style. He has an assistant that prints out the lyrics and chords. Watching him play a new (to him as a performer) song is a delight. The first chorus, he’s mainly strumming, and by the second, he’s working in either the lead lines or the bass lines, all the while taking ownership of the song through his singing. Yeah, he may be my favorite band ever.
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Brilliant player and songwriter, I'd love to see him again sometime as it's been something over 45 years. Pretty much my younger brother's favorite as well.

As far as currently working acts, Michael Manring has to be near the top of my list. I saw him do a birthday party house concert for ten people in Boise several years ago, then a sold out ~250 seater the next night. Just solo fretless bass, and spellbinding. His clinics are really fab too.
 
Hardest ive ever been blown away was seeing Harvey Mandel open for Jeff Beck on the Wired tour and also seeing Max Webster on the High Class in Borrowed Shoes tour.
 
I missed out on a lot of bands, including some huge acts in the last few years, simply because I can't afford to drop hundreds. Sabbath, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Paul McCartney.

Back in the 90s I saw Pantera - front row, right in front of Dime and his rig, my ears were ringing for a week afterwards and I'm sure that gig did some damage to them.

I saw Metallica in Turin in 92 or 93 on the Black album tour. Opening acts were an Italian band called Extrema, The Cult, Suicidal Tendencies (Trujillo on bass years before replacing Jason Newstead), Megadeth with Nick Menza and Marty Friedman touring Countdown to Extinction. 3rd or 4th row. Unforgettable.

I saw a summer festival in Milan with Rollins Band, so powerful. A year later I was too poor to go so I rode my bike close to the venue and stood outside listening to the Presidents Of The USA.

I went to see Primus on the Tales From The Punchbowl tour. Worst experience ever. The band was amazing but I couldn't hear anything because the two idiots standing in front of me talked through the entire gig, dissecting what Tim Alexander was doing. Drummer nerds at their worst!
 
andare said:
I went to see Primus on the Tales From The Punchbowl tour. Worst experience ever. The band was amazing but I couldn't hear anything because the two idiots standing in front of me talked through the entire gig, dissecting what Tim Alexander was doing. Drummer nerds at their worst!
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That's a damn shame.. My bandmate's brother hasn't ever really gotten to hear a show of ours because their uncle always shows up and can't wait until the end of a performance to talk about it 🙃 *obviously missing Primus is much more tragic in your case
 
andare said:
I went to see Primus on the Tales From The Punchbowl tour. Worst experience ever. The band was amazing but I couldn't hear anything because the two idiots standing in front of me talked through the entire gig, dissecting what Tim Alexander was doing. Drummer nerds at their worst!
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Earlier this year I saw Melody’s Echo Chamber after a decade of waiting for the opportunity. While the half of the show I could hear was incredible, I couldn’t hear the other half because the assholes behind me spent the entire time loudly talking about topics ranging from how they were going to see Jenny Lewis next month, to the color of Melody’s shoes, asking “oh do we know this song”, their regrets about not being tall enough to do pole vaulting, and complaints about other dumb petty shit I didn’t pay to hear.
 
Bumping this old thread.
Saw Crosses a few weeks ago. Without the bass player, it was very lackluster.
Going to see The Armed tomorrow, whom I've heard put on an awesome live show. Hopefully it makes up for watching Chino play to backing tracks for an hour. And tickets were only $25!!! I didn't think I'd every pay a reasonable amount to see a well known band again. Especially one with 11ish members!
 
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