[Thanos]

I posted this thread on another forum a few years back and got a good response from the participants. Thought it might be a good idea to dredge it up and try it out here. Keep in mind that I have a very weird type of memory. I'm not sure what causes it (got dropped on my head too many times as a baby, mom drank and smoked too much whilst I was still a helpless fetus, killed too many brain cells on my own with beer and psychedelic substances, took a fastball from about ten feet away right into a temple back in Grade 4, or whatever else) but I remember things that happened a long time ago like it was yesterday but. In general, I can't remember what I had for lunch two days ago. It is what it is. Early-onset dementia or not I really don't care anymore.

I was thinking that we could use an omnibus sort of thread where we describe the concerts that we’ve seen throughout the years. No rules attached, just quickly say what you remember about the show and include some anecdotes about whatever cool/funny/sick/weird things that you can remember happening during the event.

1) Def Leppard – Pyromania tour, 1983
My very first concert. Uriah Heep version 9 was the opening act, and to my Grade 10 high schooler mind they looked really old and boring. I bought a trademark Joe Elliot Union Jack flag shirt at the concession booth. Even though I’ve hated Leppard for going on about twenty years now, thanks to all those pissy and insipid ballads they started doing, back then they seemed kind of awesome to someone who was still just a kid. Overall the show was good but I was in a heightened state of paranoia because, at the same arena a few months earlier, my buddies had gotten robbed of their tickets and cash at knifepoint at a Black Sabbath concert. Don’t look the headbangers in the eye and they won’t sense your fear was the rule I was going by.

2) Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith tour, 1984
Great show. I marked out like an idiot when Rob Halford brought the Harley out on stage for the finale. Dave Holland (now in prison in England on some kind of kiddie porn-related conviction) tossed a broken drum stick into the crowd and I nearly caught it but the fucking thing bounced off my thumb and I lost it. We stood on the floor instead of the seats and it made the whole show seem that much better. The execrable Great White was the opening act. Who knew that some twenty years later these truly shitty pricks would be making a specialty out of burning their remaining fans to death in ill-advised pyro displays inside of crowded nightclubs. At the end of their act, in a gesture of typically arrogant rock star reach-out-to-the-little-people stupidity, GW’s lead guitarist started touching the upraised hands of fans at stageside. One of the guys I went with, who I always felt was a completely detestable asshole almost 99% of the rest of the time, slapped the guitarist’s hand as hard as he could as soon as it got within reach. The guitarist started swearing at him and flipped him off. Most of the crowd started laughing. The dude I knew was a total prick but thanks to him that moment was damn funny.

3) Van Halen – 1984 tour, 1984
An OK show, music-wise anyway, thanks almost entirely to Eddie's magic. A fight broke out right behind out seats and we all got covered in what smelled like rum-n-coke when someone’s Big Gulp cup got smashed open during the melee. David Lee Roth did about ten clothing changes during the show. He came out once in what appeared to be just some of his then-trademark fringed leather chaps but he had nothing else on underneath them. He did some Shawn Michaels HBK-esque superkicking and, with his junk inadequately concealed by a groin strap, we all got a really terrifying view of what appeared to be a pair of well-shaved testicles. Dave also did some typical rock ‘n’ roll BS on-stage banter throughout the show. “Fuck, you guys are so loud that you make Texas sound like Pakistan! There’s sure some hot pussy in the crowd tonight! Alex (Van Halen) ‘s so drunk tonight that he couldn’t even hold up his dick, much less a drumstick!”. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Rock stars can sure generate some stereotypically inane and stupid moments where it becomes so easy to genuinely hate them. And this was one of them. C'mon Dave, gimme a break.

4) Triumph – Thunder Seven tour, 1985
An absolute fucking horror show, at least at the beginning. Some Australian pop band called Angel City opened the show. The lead singer did this weird lizard-like leaping about on stage. That, and the excessive synthisizers, really set off the headbangers in a negative way. They started throwing drinks at the stage. The band walked off about three songs in and the lead shouted “Fuck you, you xxxxx!” into the mic, just as a beer can nearly hit him flush in the face. An announcer got on the PA and warned that “if any of you idiots dare throw anything at Triumph we’ll shut the show down and send the goddamn police in after you!”. A hesitant Triumph appeared, but things had cooled down quite a bit by then. Rik Emmitt really had to be one of the best guitarists of the time. Good stage show too with a lot of killer pyrotechnics for the time. We were sitting about ten rows up to the side. One of my high school buddies was in the seat right below me. In a Herculean display of dope-smoking bravado he conched back an entire vial of weed oil all by himself. Halfway through Triumph he was in his seat curled up into a fetal position and stayed that way for at least an hour. At school on the following Monday he said he couldn’t even remember going to the concert, much less anything that had happened at it. The only thing I was beginning to wonder come Monday was why in the fuck I was still hanging out with people like that.

5) Judas Priest – Turbo tour, 1986
This show was actually kind of a bummer. We got free luxury-box tickets courtesy of someone’s dad but, as opposed to the vibe of floor seating, it kind of sucked the life and fun out of the whole thing. Yeah, there was a bar, at which I proceeded to get as shitfaced as much as my amount of cash would let me, but that was about the high point of the whole evening for me. We were just too far away to get a good view of the stage. A young Bon Jovi, on the verge of major stardom thanks to the soon-to-be-released Slippery When Wet album, opened the show. Pretty boys who use way too much hair-spray, for any fucking reason, always pissed me off, so I stayed inside the box lounge watching hockey playoffs and drinking beer during their set. Judas Priest was much better but the evening was too far gone for me to care too much about. At least it was free and the only things I had to pay for were a couple of very good arena hot dogs and about fifteen beers at the lounge.

6) Motley Crue – Girls, Girls, Girls tour, early 1987
I was actually more into this one because Whitesnake was the opener and I was huge on them at the time, thanks almost entirely to the wang-engorging awesomeness of the Tawny Kitaen-featured videos from their most-recent album. That, and because I really wanted to hear “Slow ‘N” Easy” live, which I still consider it to be one of my all-time favourite songs. But I was soon deeply disappointed. I thought Whitesnake, who had some major connections to the less-publically-raunchy British rock scene of the 1970's, would have had some sort of substance to them. But it turned out to be just more of the same dull arena-rock douchiness. Big haired, spandexed-up old guys like David Coverdale suck. And he went all David Lee Roth with more of the ridiculous “lot of pussy in the crowd tonight!” bullshit babble between songs. Motley Crue came out after and put on a fairly enjoyable set. They had two incredibly hot California blonde chicks in leather as backing vocalists. But I’ve always had a real love-hate relationship with the Crue. Basically it comes down to a lot of good songs being performed by at least three of the most despicable individuals to ever come out of the Los Angeles metal scene. Tommy Lee is a wife-beating sack of shit. Nikki Sixx is a useless drug-addict who should have died off about twenty years ago. Vince Neil, especially and even well into his middle age now, is nothing but a sickening fucking drunk-driving manslaughtering punk. When I first heard him say “Fuck the rat race, man!” (coming from some ignorant little party-boy night-clubber prick who’s never gotten his hands dirty at a job in his entire worthless life) on Crue’s cover version of “Anarchy in the UK (USA)” I wanted to climb through the stereo speakers just to murder him. Like I said, lots of good songs. Too bad they weren’t created by people who aren’t such a group of thoroughly disgusting assholes.

7) Triumph – Sport Of Kings tour, 1987
Can’t remember the opening act. An OK show I guess. Nothing too special and nothing too horrible either. But, in a single moment of bizarreness that brought the memories of the nightmarish 1985 show back, someone in the front rows tossed a sparkler at Rik Emmitt's face. Rik freaked out, quit playing, and started yelling at the asshole. Some of the other fans began pounding on the guy. Security came to his rescue and dragged him away bleeding as people showered him with drink cups and other shit. Rik calmed down and seemed impressed with the display of impromptu fan-derived justice, and the band finished the rest of the show without any further negative incidents.

8 ) Fleetwood Mac – Greatest Hits tour, 1988
Out of character for a sorta-metalhead wannabe like myself, but this turned out to be a surprisingly refreshing show. We got box seats and I again proceeded to get as hammered as possible. Fleetwood turned the volume way down so we could actually hear the songs without the ear-ringing deafness lasting for the rest of the week. No Lindsay Buckingham, but Stevie Nicks was entering her MILF days and looked incredibly hot. A dozen different fans must have gone up to stagefront and given her flowers. Mick Fleetwood did this fucked-up thing where he wore what looked like a straightjacket covered all over in electronic mini-drums across his torso. He whacked away at them in some sort of solo tribal method thingy that was surprisingly entertaining and humourous. I thought that while he was doing it that it sure would have been cool to have shown up on acid for it. A very slick and professional show from a veteran act, and a very nice change of pace from the usual juvenile and self-serious heavy metal gong show that was really starting to bore the hell out of me.

9) Robert Plant – Now And Zen tour, 1988
This was as close as I was ever going to get to seeing Led Zeppelin so I might as well enjoy it. Robert tried to push it a little bit with some of his lower-quality solo material, which provided a couple of piss-break moments. But what the fuck, no big deal. There was more than enough of the old Zep awesomeness to make up for it. Like I’m going to get pissed off at a “Kashmir” encore being done by the human equivalent of an air-raid siren. A good evening all around.

10) Eric Clapton – Journeyman tour, 1989
This was probably the best concert I ever saw. Total professionalism from top to bottom. Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits was the guest/back-up guitarist and they tossed “Solid Rock” and “Money For Nothing” into the song set. Eric had Nathan East playing bass for him and the guy sang the Steve Winwood lyrics for “Can’t Find My Way Home” just as good as Steve did back in the late 1960’s. An absolutely incredible show from one the best in the entire industry. "Owned" was probably originally coined just to describe Clapton. One silly moment occurred when a fight broke out right in front of the stage. Kind of a strange place for a couple of big boys to start whaling away on each other considering that Eric was right in the middle of “Sunshine Of Your Love” when the scrap started.

11) David Bowie – Sound And Vision tour, 1989 (?)
Just like Clapton, excellent from start to finish. Strictly greatest hits but even Bowie knew by then that no one was really interested in any of his new stuff. No pyro or any other visual bullshit, just good music from one of the all-time greats.

12) ZZ Top – Recycler tour, 1990
A barely tolerable show only if one looked at it strictly from a greatest hits viewpoint. ZZ looked really bored though and were just going through the motions. Pretty much a dead show with a dead crowd. We got the free box seats again which, of course, gave me the opportunity to once again get pissed-up big time. That and the house party afterwards at a buddies place were the only high points of the night though.

13) Robert Plant – Manic Nirvana tour, 1990
Robert’s stuff with the new album had come a lot closer to the Zeppelin greatness than any of his earlier solo work did, so it meshed much better with the Zep tunes. An all-round good show. Good crowd too, very loud and appreciative without any of the shitty behavior that I’d come to expect at metal/hard rock shows. The big hair and spandex shit was thankfully well into it’s death throes by then anyway. The more basic long hair/ t-shirt/tight denims look most of the girls in the crowd were sporting made them all look a hell of a lot hotter than any of that previous over-done garbage from the mid-80’s ever did. This one was sort of memorable for another reason besides Robert Plant and chicks with great asses. I was always just a beer and booze (and, very infrequently, psychedelics) guy. I don’t even smoke cigs and never ever had the desire to either. But for some unknown reason, there was so much pot and other shit being smoked at this concert that I came out of it totally fucking buzzed just from being exposed to the second-hand variety of it. We went to a party afterwards and got even more loaded, which made the whole night damn near perfect.

14) Queensryche, Empire tour, 1991
I'm not sure if metal had a momentary die-out in my town or if the radio station doing the promotion fucked up really badly but Queensryche only sold about 3000 tickets in a 20000 seat arena. Geoff Tate came out with this What. The. Fuck. look on his face when he saw that the place was almost 90% empty. Good show though. I thought that they were about the most technically competent band I'd ever seen, and Tate's up there with Halford in having one of the better voices that metal ever produced. The first half of the show was all new songs off of Empire and a handful of their older ones from the mid-80's. The second half was a beginning-to-end performance of Operation: Mindcrime that was accompanied by some very decent lighting and a strange big-screen animation show. Very good performance by the boys all around. I sure felt sorry for them for the nearly empty house though. Seeing that would have left a sucky feeling for any performer.


15) Van Halen - F.U.C.K. tour, 1991
An evening that was bizarre to the fucking core. In no particular order of precedence:

a) Some guy either got shitkicked half to death or OD’d or something else because there was a huge cluster of police and paramedics right at stagefront before the opening act came out. They took him out on a stretcher and from what I could see the dude looked messed up really bad.

b) Alice In Chains opened. I had their Facelift album but still couldn’t recognize any of the songs thanks to the overwhelming distortion caused by the volume they played at. Layne Staley must have been going through some kind of heroin withdrawal right at that moment because halfway through their set he started freaking out on a couple of fans on the floor who flipped him off or something. He started screaming shit like “Faggots, fucking faggots! How about someone kill those two fucking faggot cocksuckers for me?!?!?!?!!!”. And then he went on like that between every song for the next 20 minutes. Weird beyond belief. After their set I said to one of my buddies, “if this were Dawn Of The Dead, then Alice In Chains would make the music that the zombies listen to”. They became a better band later on, but they sure provided a fucked up experience on that particular night.

c) Van Halen came out and did their usual proficient Hagar-era show. All the silly bluster and “hot pussy “ comments from the David Lee Roth days were long gone. They even tossed in “I Can’t Drive 55” and “Bad Motor Scooter” from Sammy’s solo and Montrose days, which totally fucking owned. They only drawback was that they came out wearing things like Bermuda shorts and dayglo wife-beater T’s and were so fucking mellowed out (well, mellowed-out for Van Halen anyways) that it was like they were mentally and permanently stuck on vacation at Sammy's place in Cabo Wabo. It was an uncomfortable way of finding out that I paid $50 bucks just to see some rich old guys who were only doing this because they had nothing else to do with their lives anymore. The somewhat disturbing realization of this took away some of the goodness from what was actually a musically and vocally excellent set.

16) Tragically Hip – Fully Completely tour, 1992
This was done in a shitty hockey arena with shitty seating so we went out on to the floor. This was actually my first encounter with the infamy of the front-row pit where's everyone's crammed together and doing wacky crap like stage-diving and jumping up and down in a mass collective. Warning to all: if you think that you're going to end up in the pit do not ever go to the show wearing a leather fucking jacket. I overheated within about three songs of the opening act’s set, began to freak out (and not in a good way but in a trapped-animal "I'm-gonna-die I'm-gonna-die I'm-gonna-die" sort of way), and practically had to panic-fight my way out of there. I collapsed up against the rink boards and sat there exhausted for almost the entire show. I think that the music was OK and no one in the crowd did anything memorably awful, but the whole thing just got totally overwhelmed for me by the pit experience. A totally bad memory that I wish I could someday forget ever happened.

17) Bush (or Bush X) – Razorblade Suitcase tour, 1997
I’d given up on concerts for a few years, thanks mostly to the lifelong PTSD I think that I got from the Hip debacle (see below for more details). I was tired of having my ears ringing for a week afterwards, my old crew of buddies had mostly disappeared out of my life and, being an unemployed student for a couple of years (and then, after that, just unemployed; 1990’s recession – yay?), meant that I just couldn’t afford it anymore. Bush (or Bush X, or whatever the fuck they were being called thanks to some copyright fuck-up) really didn’t mean all that much to me. I liked a lot of the post-Nirvana ‘90’s sound but I never would have coughed up the money to go see Bush on my own. If it weren’t for the people on the mixed softball team I belonged to at the time going I wouldn't have even known that they were coming to town at all. But I went just for something to do and to hang out with a couple of the nicer girls from the team. To tell the truth, the show did not disappoint. Bush might have been a fairly generic pseudo-grunger sort of band, but live they were really something else. Great light show with their set. Terrific sold-out crowd too. Whatever the drawbacks of his band might have been, Gavin Rossdale did something that I’d never seen before at any concert, except maybe for Clapton. He played the guitar so well and so fast that I thought he was about going to set the goddamn thing on fire just from the speed alone. From the standpoint of proficiency and professionalism, this concert was definitely on the higher point of the scale. All in all, an excellent night.

18)Andrew Dice Clay, 2008
Yep, it’d had been over ten years for me since I last went to one of these events. Something began happening to me in the 1990’s (which probably goes back to the Tragically Hip disaster in 1992) that still bothers me today, and has pretty much put a permanent end to concert going for me. I started borderline freaking out in crowds. I went into a mall one day during the Christmas season back in 2000 or whenever. The fucking place was packed to the rafters with shoppers. Almost immediately I had an anxiety attack and nearly went into a full-blown panic. I lasted in the mall for about five minutes but practically had to run back out of the entrance I’d just come in through, and I didn’t even start to calm down until I’d gotten the car well out of the parking lot. Scared the shit out of me and still does. So, it’s pretty much goodbye forever to concerts and sporting events. I just can’t hack the crowd sizes and claustrophobic environment anymore, especially in the bigger venues.

But I had to make an exception for the Diceman. I’ve been nuts for this guy since about 1988 when his first early HBO shows and VHS’s came out. I know it’s filthy as hell and as evil and mean-spirited as it can ever get, but to me it’s also as funny as fucking hell. Dice came to town and came close to selling out a 2000-seat theatre, which is damn good for a guy who almost had his whole career killed thanks to the hypocritical politically correct entertainment media bullshit of the early 1990’s. His show was beyond hilarious, with all sorts of crazy crap ranging from house parties (“Today, all that happens at parties are people dressed in earth tones standing around talking about all the stupid shit their cell phones can do. Back in the 1980’s parties were actually fun. You’d get drunk, you’d fuck your best friend’s wife in the closet, the load you just shot down her leg would drip out from under the door, and by the time you got back everyone would be dancing” and “ I hate shaved pussies. I liked them better back when there was so much hair that she looked like she was growing a pair of bat-wings under her panties”) to his trademark dirty poems. The audience participation level was great too. I actually got Dice to yell right at me when I shouted out “do some more cum-shot jokes!” at him and he told me to go fuck myself. Hey, it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to an actual celebrity speaking to me. The whole thing ruled. I might never see another concert ever again, but at least the last one I saw was worth every effort to go to.

And that’s it. Sorry for the long read but it’s been a big block of time for me with a lot of events and insane moments that occurred between now and then. I’m just surprised that after killing so many of my brain cells with beer and Jim Beam (and other things) that I’m still able to remember so much of it at all.

[Jabberwalker]

The best one was the Pink Floyd dark Side of the Moon concert at the Autostad in Montreal circa 1975(?)

lots of other interesting ones ... one that comes to mind was seeing Genesis fronted by Peter Gabriel doing "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" at the Mtl. Forum ... around 1973. That was surreal performance art.

[CDN_PATRIOT]

1) U2 - 360 Tour (2009)

After more than a decade of trying to get tickets to see my favourite band,
it finally happened when they started their 360 Tour. The concert went well
beyond my expectations, and I was quite emotional to be there, to say the
least. Snow Patrol opened the show. Also pretty cool.

2) Rammstein (2011)

Always wanted to go see them, but their tours had rarely ever come to Canada.
They are one of the most awesome live bands I have ever seen. Totally worth
every penny.

3) U2 - 360 Tour (2011)

Bono had suffered a back injury in 2010, and had pushed off the tour dates
til 2011. I wasn't able to get a ticket until after said accident. Some people
had went for refunds, and that gave me an opportunity to snag a ticket. U2
played more of their hits in this show, as well as the more obscure tracks
from earlier albums. Another emotional, memorable performance beyond expectations.
Interpol (who I had never heard of until then) opened the show, and I became a fan of theirs on that day.

4) Moody Blues (2011)

One of my favourite bands that I never thought I would ever get to see. But,
I managed to snag one of the last few tickets, and the whole evening was
something special.

-J.

[Thanos]

I'd make every effort to break my crowd-phobia to see Rammstein. And Clapton again. I used to think that way about Rush too but Geddy's voice is too fucked up and weird now to make it worth the effort.

[xerxes]

Totally jealous of you having seen Clapton, Bowie, Plant and the Diceman.
Though I can't say I had as many negative experiences as you did Thanos.
My list:

1. Coldplay - 2002- Rush of Blood to the Head Tour
The first big concert I ever went to. Got lucky and scored second row seats. This was when they weren't super huge yet and it was possible to get tickets without knowing someone. The opening band was instantly forgettable but Coldplay put on a damn good show. Of course, I had no frame of reference then, but they had a really good rapport with the crowd and I had a good time.

2. Various years at UFV
I went to UFV and ever year they had a concert for all and I got to see some great Canadian bands over the years.

Bif Naked - She's a great performer and can really pump up the crowd.
The Tea Party - Damn good live
Holly MacNarland - Girl can sing

Those were the good ones, The opening bands to those were shit.
One year was Headly and goddamn they sucked. Not only was the music terrible but the lead singer "guy" was wearing manpri's and had his tank top tied up like you would for a Daisy Dukes ensemble.

Matthew Good. I was excited to see him because I like his style of music but I also remember thinking to myself that his music really wasn't for the drunken university crowd. I was right. About 45 mins. in people started throwing shit at the stage and he told us all to go fuck ourselves and stormed off. So UFV is the reason he won't ever play universities ever again.

2004 - Linkin Park/P.O.D - Meteora Tour
This was back when Nu-Metal was still mildly respectable. Lucked out a bit on this one. I was one the floor and close to the stage, but managed to avoid the obligatory mosh pit brain-damaged cretins. They were decent as was P.O.D.

2008 - Sloan - UNBC
UNBC was opening the new on-campus pub and somehow got Sloan to play. They're really great live especially in small settings like that. Naturally, some fool got drunk and started being an asshole right in front of the stage. So Chris Murphy cracks him on the head with the mic. Which was awesome.

2009 - AC/DC
I was really stoked for this one. It's AC/DC after all, am I right? I had fun but there were a few things that dragged it down for me. It was at the old BC Place which had terrible acoustics which meant I couldn't hear shit except noise. I was in the nosebleeds surrounded by a bunch of old drunks and their fat wives which didn't enhance the experience. And lets face, AC/Dc's had the same set-list for 30 years now. But then again, those riffs and solos are ageless even if the Angus Young stretches 'Let There be Rock' into a 20 min overdone solo.

2009 - U2 360 Tour
Also at BC place. I mention that because in comparison to AC/DC, I could actually hear the concert. So it would seem U2 has better sound engineers. Yes U2 aren't like they used to be, but given I was too young for U2 in their prime, this was still pretty cool. The only problem I has was the opening act; the Black Eyed Peas. Fuck WIll. I. Am. Fuck Fergie and the rest of them, they don't deserve to be in the same timezone as U2.

2009 - Regina Spektor
Major change of pace here. If you haven't heard of her or her music, look her up, you'll see what I mean. She is great though. I had such a great time. First of all I was on date so before the show we went to this great restaurant I know on Burrard St. The show was great too. Different crowd though (of course). It was at the Orpheum which means its Yaletown, and given the artist, there were a lot of yuppies and lesbians in the crowd. Nevertheless, it wes great show. Regina Spektor is simultaneously mellow and a lot of fun to watch. The only bad part about that night? It had to end...

2010 - Rammstein - Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da tour
Had to go to Tacoma to see them but it was SO worth it. It was a Canucks playoff night and there were a bunch Canadians in the hotle next door all watching the game, pre-drinking waiting for the show to start which was fun. If you ever have the chance to see Rammstein go. even if you can't understand the lyrics, just go. The pyro show they put on is epic especially for the song 'Feuer Frie' when they all put on masks that shoot flames. How they haven't all BBQ'd themselves I don't know. What was really cool was what they did for the song 'Wiener Blut' (which is about the guy in Austria who held his daughter captive and had a bunch of kids with her). The arena went dark and a bunch of lasers were the only light. Then the lights came up and it was a bunch of dolls with lasers for eyes. Then at the end of the song they all blew up. So fucking cool. The only downside was the crown. It was a white trash/wannabe white-supremacist/ loser goth convention.

2011-Megadeth/Motorhead.
I was really surprised these guys came to Abbotsford. Because if you know this town, you never would Megadeth is the kind of band that would play here. I mean who's next? GWAR? Slayer? Anyway, I was there to see Motorhead and Megadeth and they didn't diappoint. Motorhead..Lemmy Rules! That is all. Though it was sadly only a 45 min set. And despite Dave Mustaine being crazy as a bat, he can still shred and put on an awesome show. I was real close to the stage and still managed to avoid the mosh pit. Again just like Rammstein, this was a white trash convention and I saw maybe one chick who even moderately good looking with normal coloured hair and without a hundred holes in her face.

2011 - Rammstein again
Finally they play a show in Canada. See above for a review. The only difference was a much better crown (less white trash) and a much better looking crowd.

2011- Rush - Time Machine Tour
My first Rush concert. I'd always missed out on tickets before and now I finally get to see my favourite band and the didn't disappoint. The played all of their big hits as well as the entirety of Moving Pictures from front to back. It was so fucking good. I kept running into people afterwards who'd been to Rush before who said that was one of their best shows ever.

2011- Roger Waters - The Wall
I was too young for Pink Floyd back in the day; I was only 10 when they broke up so this was my only chance to see them. And let's face it, Roger Waters is Pink anyway.
This was simply the best concert I've ever been to. First, it was The Wall from front to back in its entirety. Waters had a really fancy sound system in place so when the choppers from Another Brick in the Wall start up it really sounded like there were a lot of choppers all around. They had a giant wall actually going across the stage which was built up during the first half and then broken down in hte second. Roger Waters was amazing, the music was amazing. There were so many people around me smoking pot I got a wicked contact high. Awesome, just awesome night.

2011 - Metallica
Yeah yeah, ever since they cut their hair they've kinda sucked, but again, this was my first chance ever to see them and they didn't disappoint. This was the show they filmed for their recent concert film (though you won't see me in it. I was in the nosebleeds). They were an hour and a half late to start like all good rock stars but it was worth it. They absolutely killed it. The crowd was liquored up and in a crazy good mood. Second best concert ever.
Also in 2011 I saw City and Colour (who is really good live) as well as The Shins.

June 2013 - Black Sabbath
Again, too young for Sabbath back in the day, but then again, this was a chance to tick an item off my bucket list I never expected I'd be able to. Yeah, Ozzy's old and can't move like he used to and he mostly shuffled across the stage than anything else. BUT, Tony Iommi (my guitar hero) can still shred and Geezer can still play a mean bass and the drummer from RATM can hammer out a wicked drum solo too. I have to say I was heartened too, by all the kids I saw there. It gave me hope that the next generation still knows what real music is.

[xerxes]

Thanos Thanos:

I'd make every effort to break my crowd-phobia to see Rammstein. And Clapton again. I used to think that way about Rush too but Geddy's voice is too fucked up and weird now to make it worth the effort.

Do it. Here's small taste of what you're missing:

[Thanos]

The cool part about the Clapton show was that he paid attention to every part of the arena. We kind of got seats that were to the side-and-slightly behind the band, so we saw nothing of them from the front. (This was fun in and of itself, because the one guy's evil bitch of a girlfriend at the time gave the guy who bought the tickets on his credit card (the show sold out in less than a day) a bad time about the 'shitty' seats. He called her a 'goddamn fucking vicious cute' right to her face in front of everyone, made her start crying, and refused to be in the same room with her ever again afterwards. ) Clapton made the effort to include everyone though. Thanks to the wonders of wireless guitars he circled around the sides and back of the stage at least four or five times during the show. Needless to say it was greatly appreciated and we all dutifully marked out each time he made the rounds.

[commanderkai]

None. I'll keep it that way too. I hate the club/noisy bar scene, and I see a concert as just being a more crowded, louder, and all around annoying place.

[fifeboy]

The Doors in 1968 (I think.)
Joan Beaz in '73
Judy Collins in ?
Ian Tyson in about 09 or so.
Keith Harkin last spring
Archie Fisher at the WFF in |'73
The rest will come back to me someday

[Jabberwalker]

$1:

The rest will come back to me someday

... depends on how good concerts they were and your state of your mind while watching them, eh wot?

[housewife]

Wow impresive lists

I saw Prism in Fort Frances And again in Comox.

In college I worked for the student union so I worked a bunch of them. Not very impressive when you are working the door. So I sorta heard Doug and the Slugs, Boser and Blue to name a few


My list sucks

And now I just can't be bothered too meny people. I'm allergic to alchol now and that makes me the DD. And that got really old really fast!

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Well, I'm not going to go into full blown descriptions of every concert I've seen as A)I've seen a TON of them and B)I was pretty blasted for most of them

My very first concert was Ozzy in 1982. That same year, I saw Ted Nugent, Loverboy BOC and Heart all in one show at Winnipeg Stadium.

Since then I've seen Ozzy twice more, KISS 5 times, Iron Maiden 2 1/2 times, Triumph, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper twice, Metallica twice(3 times counting them warming up for Ozzy), The Who, Pink Floyd, Judas Priest twice, AC/DC 3 times, and Motley Crue

Without a doubt, the very best concerts were Alice Cooper. Half concert, half magic show and half horror show, it's a delightful assault on all the senses.

One of the best shows was the Powerslave tour when Twisted Sister opened for Maiden. Aside from the radio friendly, "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It", those guys wrote some kick ass music and kicked ass live. Probably the best warm up act I've ever seen.

And KISS? Let me tell you something, besides their concerts being absolutely amazing, you haven't heard a concert crowd ROAR until you've heard KISS play "Detroit Rock City" at the Joe Louis Arena. The place goes abso-f*cking-lutely bananas.

[Zipperfish]

Allrighty. Let's start wiiht the most impressive, if not the best:

US Festival, 1983
Motley, Crue, Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Triumph, Scorpions, Van Halen.

I was sober for this whole thing, on account of I asn;t old enough to drink and my older brother was chaperoning. But I still don't remember too much. Sensory overload--there were some 450,000 people there, many of teh eye-popping variety. Missed Motley ("Who the hell are those guys") Crue. Quiet Riot sucked big time. Brief interest during the anthemic "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)."

Ozzy--well no Randy Rhoads. Bute this new guy, Jake E Lee, played his debut. Awesome job. Mr. Crowley, Paranoid, Crazy Train. Yeah, baby.

I think Trimumph was up next--great job. I was right up front for that one. Judas Priest--the Harley came out on stage, that was epic. Scorps I don't remember. Whatevs. Then some big laser light hippe thingie and on comes Van Halen. Huge disappointment. Roth was so liquored he couldn't remember the wrods and I'm pretty sure I could have done a better job than Eddie on Eruption. On the plus side, Diamond Dave did cajole a lot of nubile gilrs into taking their tops off.

Minor riot after--nothing Canuck-like.

That's it for now. Oh, except Muse, on their latest tour--one of the best concerts ever. Highly recommended. Surprisingly heavy and loud. And unbelievable visual effects.

[Thanos]

Anyone who says that Dave was better in VH than Sammy was never had the dubious honour of seeing him in concert. Whatever Dave did right on the album recordings completely disappeared when he was on stage. Sammy wasn't as dynamic as Dave but at least he was a professional. Dave always was just a cliche-spouting drunken slob.

I never wanted to ever go to one of the outdoor mega-concerts. They always seem to be too huge that there's no point to it if you actually want to see the band. Given the make-up of the crowds too, all these years after Altamont, it seems like they're just a recipe for a disaster anyway. OD's, drunks, heat-stroke, over-flowing toilets (like what triggered the rioting at Woodstock 99), and more potential for girls to get raped than in practically any other place they'll venture into in the rest of their entire lives. No thanks. As my own history shows, arena shows can be bad enough.

[Zipperfish]

Thanos Thanos:

Anyone who says that Dave was better in VH than Sammy was never had the dubious honour of seeing him in concert. Whatever Dave did right on the album recordings completely disappeared when he was on stage. Sammy wasn't as dynamic as Dave but at least he was a professional. Dave always was just a cliche-spouting drunken slob.

I never wanted to ever go to one of the outdoor mega-concerts. They always seem to be too huge that there's no point to it if you actually want to see the band. Given the make-up of the crowds too, all these years after Altamont, it seems like they're just a recipe for a disaster anyway. OD's, drunks, heat-stroke, over-flowing toilets (like what triggered the rioting at Woodstock 99), and more potential for girls to get raped than in practically any other place they'll venture into in the rest of their entire lives. No thanks. As my own history shows, arena shows can be bad enough.

Yeah I went to a bunch of them for a few years and then just wouldn't go anymore. They almost all sucked.