Best concert you've ever attended?

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Haha Yeah, so they were playing on stage and they had this huge screen with all these psychedelic colors and animations and stuff behind them. So we're watching the concert and they're playing every dreamy song on the Dark Side of the Moon album, of course. And then about 3/4 through the concert, suddenly, this huge white rocket lights up in the back of the arena. We turn our heads and we see it behind us! There's a spot light on it. And fire started coming out of the back of it, and it flew across the entire length of the darkened arena, zooooooooooom!, and then crashed into the seats in the front towards the back of the stage. Completely blew our minds. Obviously, it was on a wire, and obviously, the seats were empty. But in the dark and in our state of mind, it looked 100% real. Pretty friggin' wild.
 
Anybody post on BGO who could say something like…

“Glenn Miller Orchestra…1940 at the Ritz” “Sing Sing Sing was just swell…holy mackerel were they good!”

:p
 
How about Blues Brothers? Green Onions?

...Now you go to Germany, you've got your Bach,
Your Beethoven, your Brahms
Here in America, you've got your Fred McDowell
Your Irving Berlin, your Glenn Miller and your Booker T & The M.G.'s...
 
Hard to pin down.
One of the first " best " I'd say was Cheap Trick opening for REO Speedwagon in I think '85. Any one of the three Stones shows I saw, would be up there. Seen the Cars, ... 38 Special ( my first concert ) Willie Nelson, ...and Donna Summer a couple of years before she died ( Not my idea, but still glad I went ).
If had to choose all time best it would probably be one of the numerous Black Crowes shows I attended over the years. So, maybe the Norva ( Norfolk ) in 2006. Show I couldn't make happen simply because I was too young ( if that counts ), it's not even close ...

Led Zeppelin.
 
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Spearfeather said:
Yeah, I remember you saying that.
That guy's had his moments of being a real piece of work. So, regardless, I'm sure he deserved it, for something. :D
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Hey, talent appreciates talent. I love their work, especially because they're local. But being an asshole (in public, in the area of folks who followed and made you famous) is hubris to the Nth degree.
 
Too many to name.

Seeing the Stones from that 3rd row in 1981 at the Capital Centre was fantastic.
Those Beach Boys Mall gigs were loads of fun.
Frank Zappa from the 2nd row at the Warner Theater.
The Ramones at my college gym.
Randy Newman at the Library of Congress.
Numerous Allman Bros and Grateful Dead concerts.
Jean-Luc Ponty at the Birchmere.
Seeing Miles Davis jam with Carlos Santana.
Seeing BB King jam with Jeff Beck and Peter Frampton.

I could go on ...
 
The Ramones damn near killed me. (horrible accident, nevermind, I'm fine)

BB was awesome. So was Frampton.
 
Saw Bad Company in Mobile Alabama while I was going to A school in Pensacola. Had to buy the tickets from a scalper. Paid $50 for five tickets.

Saw Frampton right after he put out the Comes Alive album. He was playing outside at American University in DC. AU is only a short drive from the Maryland state line, right up Mass Ave. Incredibly, the concert was free. You could hear the music all over the campus. Pretty Awesome. This was April, 1976. I was home on leave, about to ship out to Okinawa.

Saw the Ramones at the Wax Museum. We were in the pit. Bunch of marines kept deliberately crashing into us and everybody else. It was obvious they wanted to start a brawl. Pretty wild.

Saw B-52's at least three times. They played at Ritchie Coliseum, U of Maryland. People pogo-ing across stage and swan diving face first into the crowd below. At first the crowd broke their fall, but then the crowd started getting out of the way and they'd just slam face first into the hard cement deck. Great show.

Saw Fleetwood Mac at the Cap Centre when they were in their prime.

Saw Sneaker Pimps at the nine thirty. This was after they kicked Kelli Dayton off the band, unfortunately.

Saw Jimmy Buffet at least eight times - from Wisconsin to Florida and a bunch of places in between including Wolf Trap and Merriweather, of course.

All these band names trigger my memory. :)
 
Been thinking about this one for a while. So many shows I’ve been to…so many memories.

Best show? Can mean different things to different people. The one that sticks out in my mind is J. Geils Band at McDonough Arena on G’town campus, 1979? 2,200 people, no opening act, and they played for three hours. We were on the floor next to the sound board, and danced on our chairs the entire night.

Van Halen opening for Black Sabbath in St. Pete in 1978…two of the four Zeppelin shows at Cap Centre in ‘77…Queen at Cole Field House ‘77 or ‘78…Stevie Ray at The Bayou in’79, and at Sea World in San Diego in ‘89 where his brother, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds opened…McCartney at RFK…NRBQ probably 20+ times in various locations across the USA…and just a couple years ago got to see Christone Kingfish Ingram, with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Buddy Guy in Roanoke, on the Backroads Blues Tour.

Always looking for a good show, and if you like the blues, and/or incredible guitar playing, you’ve GOT to see Kingfish!

Oh wait, how could I forget. On my 21st birthday in 1981, at a place called Emerald City in Cherry Hill, NJ the local Philly rock station had their birthday bash. Greg Khin band was the headliner, along with two opening acts. The second of those was Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. They blew that place away, and I fell in love that night!

Last one. Saw Greta Van Fleet at The Visualite Theatre in Charlotte 5 years ago. Surprised that place was still standing after that show!
 
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Oh yeah, I forgot about Sheryl Crow. This was Seattle, 1997. My Dad retired in the Seattle area. Seattle is known for music. Lots of bands originated there such as Heart and Nirvana, etc. There is some kind of festival called Bumpershoot the last weekend of August, ever year. As I recall, the idea is you pay a fee and then you enter this very large area and they have all sorts of cool stuff going on and in this case, Sheryl Crow was playing outdoors. It was free provided you paid your fee to get in. This was shortly after she released her self titled album. So we get to the area she's going to play in way early. We sat on the grass. But as soon as she came on stage, everybody rushed up to the front, which I wasn't expecting. So we rushed up too. So we're at the fence thing and there's a safety area keeping us away from the stage, with security guys standing there. It's maybe 20 feet wide, protecting the front of the stage.

So she is playing and everything is fine, and then eventually she wants to take a break. So she throws her guitar pic towards the crowd. But because of the safety area, it didn't reach the crowd. It landed in the dirt of the safety area. One of the security guards walks up and picks up the guitar pic.

So everybody is at the security fence thing has their arms outstretched because they want the guitar pic. This includes my little sister who is 33. I've just turned 41 btw.

So the security dude spies my sistern and he motions everybody away who is near my little sister. She is right at the security fence thing. She looks pretty cute for 33 I guess - wild blondish curly hair. Pretty skinny.

So the security guy gives my sister the guitar pic!

It's plastic and it's bright red. It's shaped like a heart. And it has "Sheryl Crow" embossed on it.

Pretty cool. As far as I know, she still has it.
 
There's a hiccup in the video toward the end, but hang in there.
I was at this show, seen him twice. Fabulous shows I forgot to mention earlier. He's really good.

 
This thread got me thinking about how lucky I was to grow up in the DC area during the 70’s and 80’s when the music scene was incredible. Seemed as if there was a show worth seeing every night. So many great venues too. Cap Center, Warner Theater, Lisner Auditorium, Wax Museum, Louie’s Rock City, 9:30 Club, Whitey’s, The Roxy, Birchmere, JV’s, Danny Gatton’s Beneath It All, just to name a few that I can remember. Can’t remember the name of the club that was on M St. in Georgetown, just after you came over the Key Bridge into Gtown from Rosslyn. Saw a ton of shows there.

My best friend in the world, who is still an active musician in central Virginia, played in bands in the DC area, and I could regale y’all with stories for days. Good local acts in DC too. Danny Gatton is still, to this day, one of the greatest guitar players I’ve ever seen. Tom Principato, Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin, The Nighthawks, and who could forget Root Boy Slim…”Put a quarter in the juke, Boogie till ya puke!”

Man, did I have some crazy fun in those days!
 
A few stick out in no particular order:

1. Page and Plant on the Unledded tour. We had tickets to the Philly show (Guitar for the Practicing Musician took pictures at this show and was in that issue). We had tickets in the way, way back. We get to the door to go inside and someone with laminate pass asks us a couple trivia questions, which we got right, and gave us tickets. They moved us from where we were to 2nd and 3rd row seats (we had 12 people) right in front of Jimmy Page. That made it an already great concert unforgettable.

2. Aerosmith in Hershey in 1994 the last concert before the Woodstock II concert that year. Jackyl opened up and were surprisingly good, more on them later. At any rate, my buddy, his parents, and I went to the Chocolate Factory before the concert to get something to eat. They used to have a food court there. I was in line to get a sloppy joe, chocolate chip cookie, and soda. In walks Joe Perry, then Steven Tyler, and then Joey Kramer. We got to chat with them for about 10 minutes. Super nice guys and were my favorite band at the time. I was 16. They asked if there was anything in particular we wanted to hear tonight, more of a deep cut. Without hesitation I said Mama Kin and Toysi n the Atttic. They played both with a shoutout prior to playing them.

3. Black Crowes and Jimmy Page in Philly (I guess you could say Camden, NJ at the ampitheater). That was just a great concert. No great story, just a great concert.

4. Jackyl at this little club near me called Tubby's. It has since burned down. At any rate, Jackyl was fine, got to meet them after. Good dudes. However, one of the openers knocked my socks off. They were unsigned at the time and you could just tell they would be soon. It was Crobot and about two months later they were signed. They were incredible. Easily, the best opener I ever saw. The singer (Brandon Yeagley) is excellent. Turns out they were from a little town near Pottsville and turns out we know some common friends. If you haven't ever heard of them, check out the album Something Supernatural. Their other albums are good too, but that one is full of sweaty, funky, pentatonic, minor stoner, groovy, muscular riffage. Fucking phenomenal shit that falls below the radar because it's something that doesn't have mass appeal. They ended up a couple albums later with an active rock radio hit with a song called Low Life. Their guitarist Bishop comes up with some awesome riffs.

5. Van Halen 2008 at the Meadowlands Arena with Roth. No Mikey but it was still cool to see the other three together. Eddie still wasn't sober but was a great night. Couple weeks later Eddie was in rehab and was sober after. As a lifelong, massive VH fanatic, at my age (too young to see mach I) it was all we could get.
 
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Standouts in no particular order:

1. Live, Throwing Copper Tour, Hershey Park, PA, 1995.
2. Hootie and the Blowfish, MTV Unplugged, USC Horseshoe, Columbia, SC, 1996.
3. AC/DC Black Ice Tour, Simmons Arena, North Little Rock, AR, 2009.
4. GNR, Not in this Lifetime Tour, War Memorial Stadium, Little Rock, AR, 2017
5. Shinedown, Dance Kid, Dance Tour Simmons Arena, North Little Rock, AR, 2025. (Shinedown is fantastic and it was my second time seeing them. Took the whole fam and even my wife who much prefers Pop-R&B, type music bought a concert tee.

Honorable Mention for favorite and least favorite:

Lolapalooza 1994, Charlestown Races, Charlestown, WV. Green Day - who was still relatively unknown (one MTV video at that point), open at at like 2:00 pm. It was my friends and like 5 other people in the Pit for Green Day and they were fantastic. George Clinton and P-Funk were incredible and really stick out many years later.

However, WV was the 9th circle of Hell heat wise and I didn't drink enough water. I had to leave before Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins (who I loved at the time) played their sets. I still can't believe I paid all that money (19 at the time) to see those bands and left before the co-headliners got on. I guess it could have been worse - I could have been dead. I have never been so dehydrated and sun-sick in my life. My PCP said I probably should have gone to the hospital. But at least I got a tee shirt though...
 
Slotball said:
This thread got me thinking about how lucky I was to grow up in the DC area during the 70’s and 80’s when the music scene was incredible. Seemed as if there was a show worth seeing every night. So many great venues too. Cap Center, Warner Theater, Lisner Auditorium, Wax Museum, Louie’s Rock City, 9:30 Club, Whitey’s, The Roxy, Birchmere, JV’s, Danny Gatton’s Beneath It All, just to name a few that I can remember. Can’t remember the name of the club that was on M St. in Georgetown, just after you came over the Key Bridge into Gtown from Rosslyn. Saw a ton of shows there.

My best friend in the world, who is still an active musician in central Virginia, played in bands in the DC area, and I could regale y’all with stories for days. Good local acts in DC too. Danny Gatton is still, to this day, one of the greatest guitar players I’ve ever seen. Tom Principato, Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin, The Nighthawks, and who could forget Root Boy Slim…”Put a quarter in the juke, Boogie till ya puke!”

Man, did I have some crazy fun in those days!
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This ^

It was a great time. There was something for everybody: Punk, Blues, New Wave, Country, Rockabilly, etc, etc. It was like San Francisco in 1967 or Seattle in 1990- just more varied.

And at the same time the Skins were dominant.

The Golden Age of DC.

Well the years is rolling by
Heavy metal and Glitter Rock
Had caught the public eye
Snotty boys with lipstick on
Was really flyin' high
And then they got that disco thing
And New Wave came along
And all of a sudden I thought the time
Had come for that old song
We used to play in Joe's garage
 
I noticed that a few have mentioned the Ramones.

I saw them in some bar in San Diego right before they retired around 95-96. Lots of bands played in bars in SD, saw Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam in one of those bars too, among many others.

But that Ramones show was the rowdiest and loudest thing I've ever experienced in my life. My wife at the time, 1st wife, was there with me but the people were so packed into the bar and they were trying to mosh with 0 space so she was getting crushed. I spent most of the time trying to keep her from getting killed. And the sound system was so loud I had ringing ears for 5+ days after it was over.

I like to play my stereo loud too, but that shit was just ridiculous. After that I always remember to bring some earplugs.
 
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