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Looking for Superchunk videos reminded me of what was probably the most enjoyable show I’ve ever seen, the Superchunk/Polvo bill at Tucson’s Downtown Performance Center in 1994. I’m sure what I think to be a respectable list of shows I’ve seen will be trumped by some of you, but feel free to take a moment to use the comment section to regale us with your personal “best show ever.” Keep in mind, however, that God will know if you are lying.
Get Your Brag On: Name Your Best Concert Experience
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@thearcanemodel: i actually have a poster i snagged from this show (and took with me to several dorms and apartments) framed in my bedroom. because i am a dork with a contrarian attitude towards home decor.
@kicking222: White Stripes also makes my top two/three shows ever. I don’t see how Jack White’s fingers are still attached to his hands.
My other two aren’t too cool to name-drop, but… Ben Harper show in 2000 (Jack Johnson opened, but he sucked), and RHCP/Foo Fighters in 06
The first of the three-night stand of Lifter Puller reunion shows at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis. College radio kids: “Ladies and gentlemen, Lifter–” Band: erupting into “To Live and Die in LBI.” Un-fucking-real.
Just to show my age:
Bruce Springsteen, December 23, 1978, Seattle Center Arena (not to be confused with Key Arena). The last show before Christmas of the Darkness On the Edge of Town tour. No opening act. Four and a half hours. The final encore (the fourth, I think) came after the house lights had come up and half the audience had left.
Laurie Anderson, summer 1980. Outdoors in a bandshell in Seattle’s Volunteer Park. This was just after O Superman came out. She performed the entire 2nd part of United States.
Fugazi, fall of 1993, at the Bellevue YMCA (you have to know Bellevue to appreciate how truly bizarre that is).
The first Endfest, summer of 93 (I think), Bremerton. L7, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, every one of them roaring dunk, with a cloudburst in the middle of L7’s set, which helped feed the mudfight that went on all through (appropriately enough) Mudhoney.
It all depends on your age.
The best one might be the first one because you were so stoked.
Mine was Iggy Pop, not just because of the performance but the atmosphere made the experience memorable as opposed to the bored looking masses today.
I’ve seen The Afghan Whigs a number of times, but one of the best shows ever was at the “old” 9:30 Club with Howlin’ Maggie opening. Greg Dulli was sitting on the side of the stage doing shots of Jaeger. And they closed with I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.
Also, Archers of Loaf in the basement of a Sushi restaurant in Charlottesville (I don’t remember the name of the venue). It was possibly highest energy audience of all time. Everyone was drenched by the time it was over.
I feel old.
1982, age 12, RDS Dublin, AC/DC on the ‘for those about to rock’ tour. Followed closely by 1991 Monsters of Rock in Donnington. Most recent title taker: Angry Samoans, CBGB (rip) 9/9/2006. It made me proud to be a 36 year old hardcore fan who never threw out the cassettes of my youth.
@Cheap Shot:
My “first” was the Beach Boys playing after a Team America soccer game at RFK stadium. Certainly not the best, but unique!
@thearcanemodel: oh also, broken social scene, lollapalooza 2006. anyone who was there knows what i’m talking about. electric.
my personal faves
def leppard w/ europe
new order w/ p/i/l and the sugarcubes
:)
With no explantions: just the ones that immediately pop up in my mind.
1. The Smiths/Phranc 1986 PAC- Milwaukee
2. The Pogues 1988 Riviera- Chicago
3. Amnesty Show- 1986 Rosemont Horizon- Chicago
4. Reverend Horton Heat- 1989 The Toad- Milwaukee
5. The Detroit Jewel (my band opened!)- 1991 The Unicorn- Milwaukee
6. Nirvana (with my husband’s band opening) 1989 or 1990 The Unicorn- Milwaukee
7. Drugstore, xmas 1999 the Garage, London
8. Junior/Senior & Electric Six 2004 The Cactus Club- Milwaukee
9. Interpol 2002 The Cactus Club- Milwaukee
10. PIL 1986 The Eagles Ballroom- Milwaukee
11. The Cramps 1990 The Eagles Ballroom- Milwaukee
12. The Kinks 1981 & 1983, The Auditorium- Milwaukee
13. Pink Floyd 1988, Camp Randall Stadium- Madison
Others that pop up are: Robyn Hitchcock at Summerfest in 1990. REM as a VIP over thanksgiving weekend 1987. The Oiltasters reunion in 1991. Plus I saw every Brit new waver that toured in 1985, a friend gave us free tix…so we saw Paul Young, Howard Jones, Tears for Fears…..
I had tickets to CLINIC at the Empty Bottle for this past May, but the kid got sick and well…I’m old now and that comes first!
Mike Keneally – Upstairs At Nick’s – Philadelphia, PA – October 25, 1998. Still considered to be one of the finest performances of his career.
Fishbone, 1988, Cleveland OH, touring behind Truth & Soul. Never had more fun at a show.
Mudhoney and the Gaza Strippers, performing to an embarrassingly small crowd in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I had been going to shows at the now-defunct Concert Cafe for about two years, only seeing mid-level punk bands, and for reasons that still elude me, somehow they got Mudhoney to come through. They tore a fucking hole into that place, and the Gaza Strippers were a riot. Arm and Turner came back through with Monkeywrench a few months later, which was also phenomenal, but that initial blast was fucking epic.
Most entertained I ever was at a live show was at Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band during their (ugh! long time ago) “Born In The U.S.A.” tour. Everything you’ve ever heard about Bruce and his exciting marathon shows is/was true.
[And oddly, that wasn't even the first time I had seen The Boss live. When I was yea-hi, my Mom took my sister (and me) to see The Osmond Brothers (!) at the Indiana State Fair. Opening act: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band.]
Probably second on my list is U2 during their (ugh! do I feel old) “Joshua Tree” tour. The band had not yet become The World’s Biggest Rock Band, and Bono had not yet started his descent into jackassery. Opening act Los Lobos were delayed and late for their showtime, so U2 dressed up in camouflaging country-and-western gear (hats, boots, beards, etc.) and performed a 30-minute country set as an unnanounced opening act, “The Dalton Brothers”. I later found out this was only the second time in their career they had appeared live as their alter egos.
Also great live: Little Feat.
Probably the oddest concert experience I had was R.E.M. during their “Monster” tour. They were fantastic, but Michael Stipe performed the whole show with the lyrics to every song taped to a music stand. He bragged that he couldn’t be bothered to relearn the words to some of the “older” songs, but he visibly relied on these “cheat sheets” even for the then-new stuff. He typically would finish a song, say something like, “What’s next?”, tear off the sheet, announce the next song, and the band would start playing.
Probably the live concert memory I most cherish, however, involves a concert of which I only caught about 10 minutes. I was working as a bar manager in Georgetown, and the historic club The Bayou was just across the street. Slated to close to make way for a hotel / condo-thingy / movie theater, The Bayou was hosting something like its third-to-last show ever one Saturday night when I was working. When I found out it was Taylor Dayne performing that nite, I knew I would have to sneak out for a few minutes to catch part of her show. [My bar was the hang-out for employees of The Bayou, so we always were allowed in to see shows.] I caught “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love” and “Tell It To My Heart” and then felt guilty about sneaking out so I went back to work.
(whew! lots of words…)
every jimmy buffett concert i’ve been to.
@Rob Murphy:
I saw Drivin’ and Cryin’ at the Bayou! Great venue.
My most surprising one was… 8 (?) years ago. My friend Mike kept raving about this band who I had NO INTEREST in seeing. I knew nothing about them, mind you, but the idea of seeing an alt-country band was about as appealing as getting shot in the face. Very reluctantly, I went. Wilco then proceeded to kick my sorry ass and instantly make me a huge fan.
In terms of the best, though? In no particular order: Duran Duran in 2003, The Who doing all of Quadrophenia in the late 90’s, Chris Whitley in 2000, Echo and the Bunnymen in 2007.
@f1sh3r: Hello, my polar opposite.
Weezer on their 2000 club tour when i was 14 at the Sanctuary in Las Vegas. 275 equally nerdy dudes in a >175 capacity club losing our shit to the best hits from pinkerton + blue. life changing, obvi.
@slowburn: Damn, Ned, that’s a long article.
Too true!
Aside from MBV I’d say my next favorite show of all time was a Marc Almond solo set in 1999 or so — covered all phases of his solo career plus a dollop of Soft Cell classics, three hour set or close to it, great voice throughout. Man’s a born star and still one of my honest-to-god idols.
Oh man, this is quite hard. I’ve seen a wide swath of acts over a very short period of time (I first started regularly going to shows in my senior year of high school, late 2004), and comparing them across the board is very, very difficult.
Top 5, though I’m not sure what order I’d put them in:
1. Girl Talk at Club Lambi in Montreal, October 2006: Say what you will about whether this counts as a “concert” at all, but this was the first time he had been to Montreal, and he had yet to hit huge. Club Lambi is a tiny little club, and it turned into a massive massive dance party that spread throughout the club. It was approximately 900 degrees in there, I think.
2. The Hold Steady at Black Cat in DC (with Plastic Constellations and Swearing at Motorists), February 2006: The Hold Steady is my favorite band, but up until this now this is the only time I’ve seen them. Concurrently I was going through a nasty breakup with my first serious girlfriend, and so all the lyrics about stupid teenage things were hitting me in quite the right spot. It was a pretty religious experience without a doubt. I also snagged my first set list here!
3. Out Hud at Nanci Raygun in Richmond, VA (with Hella), May 2005: I got to see a band that now no longer exists at a venue that no longer exists, as well. Out Hud put on a show similar to the Girl Talk show above (sweaty nasty dance party in a small dark venue), and had my first experience with the gyrating dance machine known as Nic Offer. Also Hella had two members of their band have to leave before the show for a family emergency, so the two remaining members played a bizarre noise-improv set with their merch guy on vocals. Strange days.
4. Drive-By Truckers at Brown’s Island in Richmond, Virginia, July 2007: Another one of my favorite bands that I have had trouble seeing live played a free show at an outdoor venue on a muggy Friday night in Richmond last summer. They played for almost 3 and a half hours straight, covering nearly every song I was waiting to hear, including their best known tracks and more obscure stuff. It’s like they got the setlist out of my head. And they delivered the goods live as well, rocking hard and loud.
5. Bonde do Role at Sonar in Baltimore, May 2008 (with the Death Set and DJ Sega, Rye-Rye, and Blaqstarr): One of the most fun shows I’ve ever seen with a solid lineup across the board. Definitely one with the most crowd to band interaction at a personal level. The Death Set has a live show that’s as good as advertised, though pretty damn dangerous (at this show I was elbowed in the temple which opened a cut; the second time I was hit in the face with a guitar). Bonde do Role finally convinced me their music was undeniably fun, and their live show was pretty appropriate for their sound. I also found myself in the middle of a make out session with a member of the group mid-song while she was onstage, and I don’t know how that happened. DJ Sega’s set was great, bolstered by the surprise performances of Blaqstarr and Rye-Rye and with accompaniment by The Death Set’s drummer.
first ever show was probably the most life altering just because it solidified in my mind that being a record nerd was absolutely what i wanted, even if the show itself was probably really shitty (though i was too young to care): specials reunion tour 1994 at the fillmore.
any swearing at motorists show i ever saw (especially the one that was in my tiny ass apartment in 2001) because dave doughman is the craziest rock and roll showman around these days.
superwolf at the fernwood in big sur mostly for this interaction at the tiny general store attached to the saloon when i was buying a 12 pack of tecate:
will oldham (behind me in line): that’s my favorite beer in the world.
me: pretty tasty.
will oldham: gotta get it in the can too. fuck bottles.
me: yup.
This being a music blog in 2008 I’m surprised no one mentioned the Unicorns, Chromeo, Arcade Fire tour of 2004, which I saw downstairs at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA. A pretty unreal bill and a great show, but I’m sure the Andrew WK shows mentioned earlier were better.
For an all time favorite, I did like the Grant Park Radiohead show previously mentioned, but I’ll choose any of the five or so Dismemberment Plan shows I saw between 2000 and 2002 at the Magic Stick in Detroit over any thing else any day of the week forever, especially the one where Grand Buffet opened.
@whoneedslight: Tokyo Rose was the name of the sushi restaurant. It closed down as a venue several years ago and is sorely missed, though the restaurant has reopened under new ownership and it’s nothing like it was. I saw plenty of great shows in that room (including the incredible bill of Jeff Mangum solo/Guv’ner/Olivia Tremor Control/Cat Power with Steve Shelley and Tim Foljahn) but not that Archers show. You can read about the Rose in Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape book.
@walkmasterflex: I was at that Out Hud show, too, dancing right up front and drowning in sweat.
Porno for Pyros in Tijuana 1992
Their album wasn’t even out yet, so it was basically Jane’s with new songs and no Dave or Eric (though Eric might have played this show, I am not sure). Tijuana is perhaps the craziest and crappiest city in the world, definitely in North America, in a way it rules. The show was upstairs at Mr. Crown’s but some website says differently, whatever I was there and so were all my SD college friends. It was a riot to get in. Some hippy jerk was shoving in line so some Mexi pounded the hell out of him and everyone cheered. There are no fire codes in Tijuana, that I am aware of. It was solid bodies in the show. There might have been 500 people there, maybe 1,000. They would sell you 12 beers at a time, people were walking around with a 6 pack in each hand. There were no bathrooms, that we could find, you just went down a hallway. People were hanging from the ceilings and the club owners had to yell on the PA to get people down. The stage was low and went right into the audience. My friend lost his shoes but found two others that were the same as his just smaller. My girlfriend punched saw some dude she hated from school and punched him in the back of the head a few times and he never knew who did it. A show this crazy could never happen in the US. We all thought at some point we were going to die or at least be seriously injured or jailed and not make it home. That is a requirement for your all time greatest show.
It’s tough to choose among so many great memories, but I’d have to say my list would not be complete without the following:
Portishead – 9:30 Club, March 15, 1998. From Andy Smith’s hip-hoptastic opening DJ set to Beth Gibbons scaring the bejeezus out of me, this was one sublime evening.
Reggie Workman Ensemble – Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 6, 1998. They played selections from Coltrane’s Africa/Brass with a gospel choir. I cried.
Yo La Tengo + Other Dimensions in Music – Irving Plaza, September 25, 1999. Fake jazz blowouts and new material from And Then Nothing…. Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi get a lapdance. “Slack Motherfucker” and “Everything Flows.” Jon Spencer.
there are lot of other greats by YLT, Pavement, Sleater-Kinney, and the Grateful Dead – too many to mention.
Either Mogwai or GBV (with Brian Jonestown opening) at The Beta Bar in Tallahassee. Two rad shows that I could not believe were actually stopping through town and playing that hole in the wall. They were right near each other sometime around ‘03/’04 (I was drinking a lot and don’t keep my stubs).
It’s funny, I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of town and back to a “major city” to see more shows. I’ve certainly seen more, but the first two that come to mind were back there.
@Michaelangelo Matos: That sounds awesome.
This list is going to seem hipster dofus-y, but what are you going to do, they were fun concerts:
Pixies at Coachella – I never got the see them the first time around, and thought I would never get the chance. I was able to see them 3 other times on the reunion tour, including at the smallish Wiltern, but when they launched into Wave of Mutilation, I could not have been happier.
Arcade Fire at the Troubadour in LA – Like (most) everyone, I loved the debut album and had heard the buzz, but I was not prepared for how much fun they would be on that tiny stage. I paid 4x face value for 2 tix ($120 total), but it was worth every penny and so much more.
Bloc Party at the Palladium – I’ve never had so many other people’s sweat on me, but I couldn’t have cared less. My t-shirt and jeans were soaked through by the end of concert. It was disgusting, but so much fun. Dancing at a concert; who knew?
Exlposions in the Sky @ LA knitting factory, Winter 03′. Hadn’t heard much of them but my best friend and I were done with finals so we decided to check it out. Had chills the whole time.
@Michaelangelo Matos: I am unbelievably jealous.
@iantenna: re: s@m – so true, so true. i was hoping he/they’d get a bump from touring with the hold steady, but on their last chicago show, they only played to maybe twenty people. twenty people who were all extremely stoked, though. life imitating art. sigh.
One of the best was probably Ben Folds Five at Princeton University’s gym during their Reinhold Mesner tour. They had a concert to celebrate the end of the semester, it was students/staff only but I bought tickets off of a janitor and faked my way in. They played for over 2 hours to a crowd of maybe 200-300.
First of all – I think I was AT that same Polvo/Superchunk show. Maybe not,
though, if it was really 1994, unless it was in January or February. I know
for sure I saw Polvo @ the DPC, but don’t remember Superchunk playing that
show.
Second – i could try to say the best show, but it is nearly impossible.
Being on the verge of 40 and having seen a gazillion shows between 1982’s
Van Halen concert in Largo, Maryland and last night’s Coke Dares/Tre Orsi
show in Denton, Texas, it is hard to pinpoint one. Some: Seeing The Ex for
the first, second, third, and every other time; Shannon Wright; all Les Savy
Fav shows; Al Green, when I wept through the whole damn thing; seeing
Shellac for the first time, after years of listening to their records; oh,
god – this is impossible!
Fuck. How did I forget the final Piebald show from few months back? That was one of the more powerful nights of music/community I’ve ever been a part of.
@NickEddy: Oh man, I forgot JELLYFISH. SUCH a good live band! And Fugazi, and Flaming Lips, and and and . . .
OK, well I’ll chime in. My personal “best show ever” was seeing Depeche Mode, on the Devotional Tour, at Orlando Arena in Orlando, FL in 1993. I was 15, had an interest in music that had waned around 1988 when I realized the Top 40 wasn’t so cool anymore. My older sister had a copy of “Violator”, and I knew that pretty well, and I heard stuff from “Songs of Faith and Devotion” and “101″ at a friend’s house. So when my sister, her friends, and some of my friends decided to see DM, I joined in.
Absolutely blew me away; the energy, the incredible stage set-up, the rapturous response of the crowd to all these songs in unison. It felt otherworldly. I grew up Catholic, and all of this ecstatic energy and lyrics about sex and religion felt bad, but at the same time, incredibly cool and intriguing.
Afterwards, I started skipping lunch and using my lunch money to buy CD’s. In no time I had the entire DM back catalog, and was on my way to doing things like buying bootleg remix CDs and “live rare imports.”
sorry that I missed this thread yesterday…
I had many a great night at the Magic Stick in Detroit in the late 90s. The Old 97s with the Honeydogs opening remains a favorite. Jimmy Eat World/No Knife/Sarge was great. Cowboy Mouth was probably the sweatiest I’ve ever been at a show.
Jeff Tweedy solo at a church in Toronto in either 2000 or 2001 (i think it was ‘01) made me go home and finally learn to play guitar, though.
I’ve been going to shows since 1981 I think, and there are too many to recall, so it seems arbitrary. If I had to pick one, it would be from my earlier, more impressionable years:
The Replacements, Coachouse, San Juan Capistrano, California, around 1985. Tim had just been released, and Bob was still in the band. They played about an hour, then came on for an “encore” that was about an hour and a half. They were clearly drunk/high, pleasingly loose and loud, but not erratic. They played just about everything and then some. They switched instruments. They knocked over equipment. They worked their way through a case of beer. They clearly didn’t give a shit, they looked like they had slept in their clothes, but they were effortless.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see some great shows in my 26 years. Here are 5 that immediately come to mind:
1. Tower of Power – Greatest East Bay Soul/Funk band in the land. Several shows, but the most memorable being at the Rex Theater, Pittsburgh. Small venue, huge sound.
2. Kool Keith – Grog Shop, Cleveland, 2006. Actually showed up, and laid it down like only Keith can do. Stayed on well past last call, and would have kept going, but they shut him down. If you know Kool Keith, you KNOW.
3. Donald Fagen – Cleveland, 2005. No Steely Dan bashing! Great musicianship, as expected. Got all the solo stuff in, and covered some classics.
4. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Pittsburgh, 1996. One of my earlier shows, and I think my ears are still ringing. Highly organized noise.
5. Allman Brothers Band, Horde Tour 1994, Pittsburgh – This show was excellent, with Dicky still in the band… still their best line-up (Haynes, Woody) I’ve seen in 20 or so Allman’s shows since.
I’d love to list them all, but ah well. Good stories above, enjoyed reading the experiences. Radiohead in Cleveland next Tuesday… can’t wait.
Sugarcubs, Public Enemy and U2 at from the 10th row @ Dodger Stadium. (Achtung Baby Tour)
Wilco @ The El Rey (Being There Tour)
White Strips (Elephant and Get Be Behind Me Satan Tours)
Stevie Ray Vaughn (Opening for Huey Lewis! on the Sports Tour)….hey I was in high school.
hmm I could go with the shows I’ve seen that have the most cache, the most credibility…but I’m going to go with the ones that moved me the most, I’m grouping them by year (”04 is when I moved to Chicago, therefore making it year zero for the ability to see good shows!)
‘04: Graham Coxon at the Double Door
‘05: Doves at the Riviera (a great live band no matter what)
‘06: Radiohead at the Auditorium Theatre (it was great to see them at a small venue)
‘07: The Good The Bad and The Queen at Coachella, it was amazing and spooky and brilliant (and to see Albarn and Simonon? yep I died)
‘08: So far It’s a toss up between Working For A Nuclear Free City at Schubas, and M83 at the Double Door, and Jarvis Cocker at Pitchfork this year….Lollapalooza’s this weekend so this may change….And there’s always the show that’ll probably trump all shows, My Bloody Valentine in September!
I live too far out in the boonies to see many shows, especially with gas the way it is now, but Sleater-Kinney at the Metro in Chi, 10-11-02, was a stunning climax to the oddest day of my life.
Mr. Bungle at the Warfield in April of 1994. Aside from just being an awesome show, several noteable things:
At one point Patton climbed the speaker stack at the front stage left and jumped to the side both (If you haven’t been to the Warfield, imagine the box seat that Statler and Waldorf sit in on the Muppet Show) and barely grabbed the bunting on the front. He hung there for a few minutes before falling into the crowd.
After he got back on stage Trey got mad at someone in the audience and threw his guitar down and jumped into the pit to beat on him.
Patton stage dived into the drum kit during Time. The band all picked up pieces of the kit and wandered around the stage for about 10 more minutes making lots of random noise in a performance art sort of way and that was the end of the show.
@revmatty: Doh, 1992, not 1994. And I’ve got video, so it did happen.
All the times I’ve seen Pearl Jam are my greatest concert experiences. On the “mere humans” level the best was Anthrax at the Electric Ballroom in Knoxville, Tenn., Sept. 9, 1999.
Blink (no 182 at the time) at the Milk Bar, Jacksonville 1996. Best show of my youth.
Recently: The Perceptionists at Thee Imperial, also in Jacksongville 2005.
Also, Pet Shop Boys, Chicago Theatre, 2006.
Had a near religious experience at a Matthew Shipp/William Parker show in Anderson, Indiana. The music was so intense, an older gentleman fell out of his chair.
Close second was FYP/Mukilteo Fairies show at this underground club. About a dozen people were there though I’ve run in to at least twice that number who claim they were there. One of those shows.
1. Alkaline Trio at the I Lied My Face Off release show at the Fireside, back when their live ineptitude was still charming. They didn’t have many songs yet, so they played all of them. My fingers were pruned from the collective sweat by the end of the second song.
2. Against Me all acoustic set last Thanksgiving day. It was a benefit for Harvest of Hope and they had one of the guys that runs the charity introduce them and he was so nervous he could barely finish his speech. I talked to people that came from Colorado, Michigan and Florida just for the show. All of them lost their shit when the band came out
I just realized, after reading this thread that I should probably mention the Elliott Smith show @ Steamboat in Austin in 2003. It was a acoustic gig for a benefit, about 300 (?) people (you could only get tix at the door — it was kind of insane). It was one of the last shows he ever played. And it was probably easily the 10th time I’d see him, but it was definitely the most magical, wonderful thing — mostly because I finally heard him “I Figured You Out,” and I cried the entire time.