Concert you never saw but should have

[TimSJ]

Had tickets to see the Grateful Dead, month or so before it was to take place Jerry passed.

[howard_the_duck]

Years ago I met a couple of girls at a hostel bar in Madrid. They knew the bassist for Bruce Springsteen and had backstage passes to the show. Their American friend had just been deported, so they had an extra ticket and offered it to me.

Meanwhile, I'm looking at the clock, it was 1.5 hours after the gates were supposed to open and we were a good 30-minute subway ride from the venue. Long story short, we arrived, were in line for the backstage entrance, and were informed that the guitarist had sent them to their hotel, which was 30+ mins away from where we were.

I was furious at the time but had a red-eye flight leaving to Paris that morning, so had to go and catch the last subway to the airport.

Still angers me to this day I missed out on a night of hanging out with the Boss by the smallest of margins.

[blender]

Another big miss was a festival in Sydney, Australia headlined by Midnight Oil and Tool. Too broke to go, but man...

[PaperBagger'14]

GWAR, there was always something that came up instead of going to the show. I’m hoping they do another tour and come through Calgary again, I really want to see the theatrics and ridiculousness of it all.

[Scroopy Noopers]

The Anger Management tour would have been cool to see, in particular Eminem and 50 when the genre was at its peak popularity.

[nomad]

Bob Marley.

Clash concert in Calgary in 1982.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

There’s definitely quite a few bands that I would’ve loved to have seen but was too young. Zeppelin, Floyd, Beatles, Nirvana etc.

After I missed Metallica in the mid 2000s I swear I would never miss another concert again if I really wanted to go. So in the last 10-15 years I haven’t really missed anything that I wanted to see. Within reason of course. I’m not flying to Europe to see a band that’s not touring in Canada. Then again it feels like my favourite bands aren’t touring as much.

But I can’t think of too many shows that I’m heartbroken that I had a chance to go to and didn’t. Of all my favourite bands I’ve seen pretty much one of them at least once.

[2Stonedbirds]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

GWAR, there was always something that came up instead of going to the show. I’m hoping they do another tour and come through Calgary again, I really want to see the theatrics and ridiculousness of it all.

GWAR was always a riot. Have went to about 8 or 9 of their shows... not since Brockie has passed though.
Ticket price is worth it just for the stage show.

[2Stonedbirds]

Passed up on Strapping Young Lad once ("oh I'll catch em next time") which is probably my biggest concert regret.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by 2Stonedbirds

Passed up on Strapping Young Lad once ("oh I'll catch em next time") which is probably my biggest concert regret.

If that was around 2006 I went to that show, it was at the underground and it was phenomenal. I seem to think it was misery signals who was the opener and they brought a whole ton of emo kids to a prog metal show. It was pretty entertaining.

[2Stonedbirds]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

If that was around 2006 I went to that show, it was at the underground and it was phenomenal. I seem to think it was misery signals who was the opener and they brought a whole ton of emo kids to a prog metal show. It was pretty entertaining.

That was the one. You glorious, lucky bastard.

[aaronck]

Does only finding out about it after count?

Queens of the Stone age played the Republik back in the late 90s- just before I knew who they were. Also a buddy got dragged to a show at the Mac Hall ballroom by some weird metal band who had a trippy video just starting to get airplay on Muchmusic named TOOL-
Also Jason Isbell played the Ironwood by himself to a very small audience in 2012 before he broke out- would have been phenomenal.

I have to remind myself how lucky I have been though, I've seen a lot of the shows/ bands people have listed here so I'm really not that hard done by

[Swift]

My wife and I had tickets for Snow Patrol at MacEwan Hall as we liked a couple of their albums at the time. We got to the venue and having just got off a flight from Europe earlier that day we were exhausted and decided we couldn't do it. We tried to sell the tickets outside but got no buyers and ended up just heading home. Not a huge miss or anything like that but still have a tinge of regret that we didn't just stick it out.

U2 are one of my favourite bands and I've seen them a couple of times (including at the Sphere last year) but I don't know why I didn't make more of an effort to travel to see them when they've been in western Canada.

I've also always put off travelling to see Sigur Ros when they're in this part of the world (usually Vancouver) but we've decided to definitely go see them next time, wherever that is.

[Swift]

Originally Posted by icarus

I think my older brother takes the cake though. He had a chance to go with some buddies to see Michael Jackson's Thriller tour on Halloween night in Seattle in 1981 or 82 and my mom wouldn't let him go.

There are some mixed memories here. Michael Jackson didn't have a solo tour until the Bad tour in 88. He did tour with his brothers in 81 pre-Thriller and 84, but neither tour stopped in Seattle (the latter tour did three dates in Vancouver)

Signed, pedantic Jackson fan

[Cycling76er]

Paco de Lucia.
Pavarotti. (when I was much younger living in Edmonton)
BB King.

All three of those I had a nagging feeling that I would never get to the see them if I didn't try to go at the time.

[Cycling76er]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

GWAR, there was always something that came up instead of going to the show. I’m hoping they do another tour and come through Calgary again, I really want to see the theatrics and ridiculousness of it all.

They played here in Winnipeg recently. Couldn't make it though

[Scooter]

Hendrix, The Band, Travelling Wilburys $$$$$$ shortage of funds

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Norm MacDonald at the Laugh Shop in like 2018 or 19.

I figured I’d catch him next time.

I saw him on his last stop through here, which might have been 2019 or 2020? He was my favorite comedian my entire lift but never saw him live. I'm so glad I finally did. He was great that night except there was a heckler yelling "NORM" and was disrupting his flow.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by Cycling76er

Paco de Lucia.
Pavarotti. (when I was much younger living in Edmonton)
BB King.

All three of those I had a nagging feeling that I would never get to the see them if I didn't try to go at the time.

i got to see bb king in 2012 in penticton - so cool to see him live!

i was working in calgary in 1997 when metallica came thru. i was offered tickets to the concert but unfortunately i was flying back to kelowna for a few days and wasn't in town for the show

in july of 1986 we moved from ontario to bc. we took our time crossing the country visiting friends and family along the way. while we were in winnipeg we visited with friends of my parents. their son and i immediately hit it off (he was a drummer). we were talking about music and he had gone to see bon jovi the night before and had a connection that got him back stage passes and afterwards he got to hangout and party with bon jovi. had i met him one day earlier i could have gone

[puffnstuff]

Originally Posted by blender

Tragically Hip at the Silver Dollar Action Center on the self-titled album tour 1990ish.

I saw the Hip at the Silver Dollar then. By far the best live show I was ever at.

I had a quick two day work trip planned and the guy I was meeting with was, still is I guess, a huge Rush fan. He had been to over 30 of their concerts. He had floor seats and offered to take me because I would be in town that one night and I was from Canada. Then one of my stupid kids arrived into this world 10 days early and my trip was off.