I was thinking this the other night, I've seen a bunch of concerts, some great some horrible (I'm looking at you Duran Duran). I'm going to put down the concerts that I thought were the top one's that I've attended and why. I'm not going to try to recall the years or anything like that because I'm old
1) Rolling Stones/Living Color - Cotton Bowl Dallas Texas. Steel Wheels Tour
Marketed as a Fairwell tour. This was one of the greatest concert moments in my life. First and foremost because Living Color opened for the Stones and put on a amazing high energy show. Second the Stones who I wasn't a huge fan of put on an amazing show. When they played Honky Tonk Woman, these two huge inflatible go go dancers blew up on stage and started to gyrate. The Cotton Bowl was an amazing place to watch a concert as 100,000 people must have been packed in that night.
2) Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band - Vancouver
If there's one act to see live it was Bruce Stringsteen and the E-Street Band. Beneath a lot of his socially concious stuff, Bruce is a great performer, this concert went about 3 hours and just when you thought it was over, Bruce bought out another encore. I went with a girlfriend and slow danced in a huge crowd to "The River". Bruce is also the consumet story teller between songs and Clarence and he had awesome on stage chemistry.
3) Bon Jovi with Skid Row - Calgary Saddledome
This had to be early 90's when Bon Jovi was all in on the glam metal. I was never a fan of Skid Row, but they did win me over that night. But Jon Bon Jovi wanted to make sure that everyone had a great night and they had a huge walk way over the crowd that he took full advantage of. The band was tight and talented, and in sync. Jon though had a weird thing where he sang to the audience between songs. They opened with Lay your hands on me which still has one of the best intro's that I've ever seen.
4) Ozzy Osborne - Calgary Saddledome
Great concert because Ozzy was completely incomprehensible and a crazy person. He also pulled out multiple encorse to reward the audience that night. They had an opening video that had Ozzy doing interviews with celebrities like Lady Diana that were hilarious. I remember that he saved his big gun songs like Crazy Train for the encore, he also pulled out some Black Sabbath songs. I went to this concert shortly after I left the Military, and me and a bunch of buddies went, knowing that this was probably the last time the whole gang would be together as or lives took us in different directions.
5) U2 - Calgary Saddledome I think this was the Elevation Tour
This concert was great, I didn't think I would like it, I loved it. One of the most understated starts to a concert that I ever seen with the band simply walking on stage and the house lights dropping. I went to this concert with a client and we smoked some of the most potent grass that I've ever had and I was tripping balls halfway through the show. Bono pulled a little girl out of the audience and danced with her. Musically one of the cleanest concerts I've been to. Bono was also amazing at getting crowd participation
6) Motley Crue - Dallas Reunion Center
Ok, I was pretty messed up for this one, but most of the audience was. We got thoroughly and completely drunk and wasted before we went to the concert and on the way there witnessed a liquor store robbery where the owner fought back. This was way before Vince Neil lost his singing voice. But I have never been to a concert that was so fricken fast and fun. This was hard charging heart rate changing metal at its best. They opened with Kick Start My Heart, and and got faster from there.
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7) George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers - Dallas Alley
For those of you that know the Dallas Bar Scene in the late 80's Dallas Alley was famous, and Alley Cats was notorious. They had live music every Saturday but never announced the Band. You just had to show up. One night we got Paula Abdul, another night you'd get a local band. But on one fateful Saturday Night we piled in and stood near the front of the stage as the house lights were turned off, then turned on and we saw George standing in front of us with his arms raised. This was one of the most fun and amazing concerts that I've been to. I've always said that nothing is better then intimate Bar Concerts, and I stand by that. I still remember him playing Who do you love and doing that guitar slide that makes your hair stand on end. As an added thing when we left the bar we were completely deaf, and stumbled outside to see a fight develop where one guy stabbed another guy in the chest with a broken crutch. Welcome to Dallas
8) ZZ Top - Texas Stadium (Private Show)
Once a year Deltek used to hold their conference and they always wrapped it up with a huge party, that year they rented the new Texas Stadium. So I got a tour of the Stadium, caught a couple of touchdown passes and kicked a fricken field goal. Deltek hired ZZ Top and they put on a great show, they weren't super high energy, but musically they were amazing and their bluesy crashing guitar and base combo is something to be seen and heard live. Of course the only bad thing is the Captain made a near morally bankrupting choice that night and was fortunate to escape with his life at the end of the show. Oh and Dusty silences and overly drunk and verbal heckler by firing a empty Jack Daniels bottle at his head with an accuracy that would have made Troy Aikman whistle in appreciation.
9) Colin James - Private show Toronto
I worked for another software company in the late 90's and every year we'd go on a retreat and the various venders like IBM and HP and Cisco would pay money to put on events. That year Mike Bullard put on a set for us and on the last night they rolled out Colin James. For fans of guitar players, Colin James live is a sight to behold, he is an amazing effort less smooth player who can rock on one hand and then go into a long Blues based series of songs. He's always been one of my favorite performers, and he was a perfect performer for a crowd of about 200 Computer Dorks. What made this cool is after the show I met Colin and offered to buy him a drink and sat talking with him for a couple of hours while we sipped Bourbon. It was one of the coolest experience in my life.
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The Guess Who did a Running back through Canada tour in 2004. I remember the Dome being packed for this one. IIRC they came out with a CD for these concerts.
Rolling Stones in Halifax were awesome. They had Sloan, Kanye West and Alice Cooper open for them. Amazing lineup.
Paul McCartney in Halifax as well. One of the best concerts ever. Loved when he was chatting with the audience about how hard it is to remember the lyrics and chords to all the songs, hoping that if he remembers the first chord, he might remember the lyric, then in the audience there are signs distracting him like "Will you sign my arm so I can hey it tattooed?" The. Of course called the girl on stage.
U2 in Moncton were awesome, with Arcade Fire opening.
Joel Plaskett at Smooth Herman's was the best bar performance/atmosphere I've ever experienced.
But with all that said.
Wiggles. /thread
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One that pops into my head is
Midnight Oil on their Diesel and Dust tour in October of 1988.
insanely good.
tough to decide though.
I'd have to break shows down to where the music and band were amazing, or ones that the experience itself made the night and the music was just a part of it and not what drove it.
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It was fun to type these out. I hadn't really thought of most of these in a long time.
U2 ZooTV - PNE Coliseum Apr 23/1992. Kind of the peak of U2’s popularity, they played a small tour of hockey arenas before doing football stadiums. So much excitement for this one. They put tickets on sale by phone only with 2 ticket limit and it took out all the phone systems in BC for an hour. I kept trying and was able to get tickets once the lines were back. The show they put on was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
Nirvana - PNE Forum. Jan 4/1994 - Hole Vancouver Commodore Ballroom Nov 15/1994. The shows musically may not have been the greatest, but a time I will always remember. Nirvana got a little better as they went, but started out kind of just going through the motions. Hole was interesting with Love kind of breaking down a lot of stage, but they played a pretty solid set.
Radiohead - Mac Hall - Mar 21/1996 - I saw them a few times in later years, but nothing will beat seeing them in that small of a venue
Tragically Hip - 7/26/1991 - Edmonton Convention Center. It was set up like a beer hall with tables in the back that they’d been serving beer all night. It was pretty drunk out by the time they came on. The surge of people halfway through the first song broke the stage, and they went away for another hour. The venue had run out of cups but they decided to keep selling beer, but only be the pitcher. It was almost midnight by the time they came on. Beer jugs were flying everywhere. They’d be landing on the stage and Gord would be throwing them back. He snapped a couple mic stands that night, and they put on a pretty great show, to the best of my memory.
Lollapooza Aug 31,1994 Gorge in George, Washington - Green Day/Nick Cave/Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins and the venue were my highlights
Rounding out the top ten would be Joe Strummer with the Pogues PNE forum, Pink Floyd Division Bell - BC place 94, Nick Cave - Beacon Theater in NYC, Pearl Jam @ Grizzly Stadium, Pixies at the Commodore Ballroom in 91.
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i have no clue of the dates/tours these bands were on - but all would have been in their most recent western canada tours. all shows would have been in either kelowna or penticton - so smaller venues - but all were great concerts:
volbeat/godsmack (kelowna). i'm not a godsmack fan at all (just never really listened to them and i only recognized one song they did... and that was an ac/dc cover - ha!) but volbeat was absolutely AWESOME!!
doobie brothers (penticton)
bb king (penticton) - this was his final tour. what a legend!
aerosmith (kelowna)
motley crue (kelowna)
i'm sure there are others but those come to mind first
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1. Chris Cornell at the John Anderson Ford Theater. This is a 1200 person mini version of the Hollywood Bowl. It was just Chris and his acoustic guitar playing to us in what felt like a backyard - amazing
2. The Hip at the Troubadour - amazing venue to see such a great band
3. Metallica at the Wiltern. Charity show in a small club, was the loudest concert i have ever been to. Flea played the encore with the boys
4. ZZTop/Tom Petty - Hollywood Bowl. 2 amazing performers at one of the best concert venues in the world
5. Bruce Springsteen - LA Sports Arena. Amazing performer in another great venue for music
6. Living Color/Guns N Roses/Rolling Stones - LA Coliseum. I went especially for GN'R - this is the concert Axl flipped out and announced he was quitting the band due to heroin usage by the others. Very surreal - too big of venue for my liking
Last edited by socalwingfan; 05-01-2020 at 08:37 AM.
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NOFX playing "The Decline" in it's entirety at the warped tour.
Matthew Good @ Coke Stage (avalanche tour). I've seen MG a few times, but this was one of the best live vocal performances I've ever heard, he was mint the entire show. Every other time I saw him I was disappointed because he never sounded that good again.
The Tea Party is most consistently great live band I've ever heard. They still sound as good as ever.
Alexisonfire (new MacHall, Accidents tour) best live sound I've ever heard in new MacHall, loud as hell and clear as a bell.
Mars Volta (new MacHall, Bedlam in Goliath tour), next to the MV, most bands don't even seem like they're trying. 2.5 hour show, 9 musicians on stage, no opening band. Was super pissed it was on a wednesday and I couldn't do mushrooms for the show.
Korn summer 2000. It was an epic show at the height of their popularity. I still get goosebumps watching crappy bootlegs on YouTube. It was the loudest show I’ve ever been to, bar none. Both for band loudness and crowd noise. I’ve never heard or seen anything like it since. When they closed with blind the pit looked like that famous clip of Woodstock where they played, just smaller.
I’ll never forget after the show, I was 15, these two older bikers turned around and told us it was the best goddamn show they’d ever seen, which included all the 80/90s greats like Metallica.
Roger Waters about 10 years ago at the dome. Played DSOTM in full and then played some Animals complete wi flying pig. I was in heaven.
Eric Clapton about a decade ago was phenomenal.
I’ve seen NIN in Vegas at the Hard Rock 3 times. What a venue. I love it there.
Grace Too at the first Hip farewell concert was great. Second loudest crowd I’ve ever heard and Gord’s primal screams were amazing. And I don’t much care for the Hip.
Any of the 3 Tool shows I’ve seen at the dome.
SOAD twice in six months around 05? 08 maybe? Right after hypnotize/memorized came out. Again at the height of their popularity. Dome was so full of energy.
Oh and that time the lead singer from Goldfinger jumped in the crowd, got punched in the nuts by an ahole fan, singer retaliated, so did fans, security got mad saying he shouldn’t have gone on crowd, goldfinger told security to #### off and played rest of show, albeit brief, with no security. Fans were pretty chill. That was odd.
I’d have to check my stubs to find some other gems. Those are what come to mind at the moment.
Last edited by Cecil Terwilliger; 05-01-2020 at 09:15 AM.
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Las Vegas: Steely Dan
Missoula: Berlin, OMD, B52s
Seattle: Reverend Horton Heat, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden
Denver (Riot Fest): TV On The Radio, The National, Slayer, Hot Snakes, Die Antwoord, Violent Femmes, Flaming Lips, Buzzcocks, Bob Mould, The Cure
1) Motorhead, Reverend Horton Heat, Nashville Pu$$y - 2009, Flames Central/The Palace.
Three bands that at face value wouldn't have much in common, but under the surface they had a common link of basic rock n' roll played LOUD. All three bands had energy to spare, and well, LEMMY!!!
2) Iron Maiden - 2008, Saddledome. I'd been waiting to see Maiden forever, and the Somewhere Back in Time tour gave me the chance. Maiden are incapable of ever putting on a bad show. Made all the more memorable for being the concert that turned Mrs Puppet into a metal fan.
3) Rush - 2015, Saddledome. My third Rush show, and also the last as it was the R-40 tour. Knowing it was their final tour - and now with losing Neil Peart - made it more memorable.
4) Headstones - 1995, a dive bar in Charlottetown PEI. Venue the size of my living room, Hugh Dillon with a personality/ego big enough to fill it and the band with talent to match.
5) KISS -1985, Lethbridge Sportsplex. My first real concert. They had taken off the makeup by this time and were clawing back. All the smoke, fire, explosions and noise had such an effect on the teenage brain.
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Tragically Hip - 7/26/1991 - Edmonton Convention Center. It was set up like a beer hall with tables in the back that they’d been serving beer all night. It was pretty drunk out by the time they came on. The surge of people halfway through the first song broke the stage, and they went away for another hour. The venue had run out of cups but they decided to keep selling beer, but only be the pitcher. It was almost midnight by the time they came on. Beer jugs were flying everywhere. They’d be landing on the stage and Gord would be throwing them back. He snapped a couple mic stands that night, and they put on a pretty great show, to the best of my memory.
I was at this show too! one of the craziest concerts I've ever been to. by the end of the night it was freaking scary how drunk everyone was, along with those pitchers flying around. Likely the closest I've come to being at a full on riot at a concert.
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cool idea, one of these exercises that I would probably come up with a different list each time, but some that came to mind (partially prompted by some of the suggestions above)
1. U2 Joshua Tree Montreal Big O October 1987- Have seen U2 several times, including the same Elevation show that is in the first post. yes the "BIG O" is a dump, but this was a band at the height of their powers, and was a great time of life and just a concert I'll always remember (Los Lobos opener)
2. Tragically Hip Marquee club London UK July 1991- Have seen the Hip so many times from venues big to small but this one ranks because it was such a surprise to stumble across and in an iconic and relatively small venue
3. Sloan Twice Removed concert Halifax (2012?)- ok yes I'm a big Sloan fan again have seen them many times, but flew into Halifax for a conference- my buddy picks me up at airport and says we are going to a medium sized venue to see Sloan play the iconic Twice Removed set sometime around midnight- just the surprise and setting of it all made this one worthwhile
4. Amnesty International Concert Montreal September 1988. so a few others have mentioned Springsteen. Really at the time I went to this show to see Sting (who was ok) and Peter Gabriel (who was pretty good) but ended up being blown away by 1. Tracy Chapman (essentially by herself in a massive venue) and 2. THE BOSS. I haven't seen him in concert again since, but really should
5. (tie) Pearl Jam/Soundgarden Edmonton convention center shows circa 93-94. Two separate shows but 'grunge' era megagroups in the early enough phase that they were still playing less than massive venues. great group of buddies at that time. great era
Honorable mentions
GNR- Edmonton 1993- for reasons that can't be discussed on this family website (Brian May opener)
Juliana Hatfield Winnipeg West End Cultural Centre, Summer 1995. Had just moved to Winnipeg and this great venue walking distance from my apartment- didn't know anyone in town, just wandered by myself and caught a favorite act stageside
Son Volt- Fargo 1997- same buddy as the Sloan concert- just hopped in the car drove all the way to Fargo caught the gig- was hoping to stay in a hotel down there but none available due to a baseball tournament or something so just drove all the way back to Winnipeg after the show- great night
Last edited by looooob; 05-01-2020 at 12:03 PM.
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Korn summer 2000. It was an epic show at the height of their popularity. I still get goosebumps watching crappy bootlegs on YouTube. It was the loudest show I’ve ever been to, bar none. Both for band loudness and crowd noise. I’ve never heard or seen anything like it since. When they closed with blind the pit looked like that famous clip of Woodstock where they played, just smaller.
I’ll never forget after the show, I was 15, these two older bikers turned around and told us it was the best goddamn show they’d ever seen, which included all the 80/90s greats like Metallica.
Roger Waters about 10 years ago at the dome. Played DSOTM in full and then played some Animals complete wi flying pig. I was in heaven.
Eric Clapton about a decade ago was phenomenal.
I’ve seen NIN in Vegas at the Hard Rock 3 times. What a venue. I love it there.
Grace Too at the first Hip farewell concert was great. Second loudest crowd I’ve ever heard and Gord’s primal screams were amazing. And I don’t much care for the Hip.
Any of the 3 Tool shows I’ve seen at the dome.
SOAD twice in six months around 05? 08 maybe? Right after hypnotize/memorized came out. Again at the height of their popularity. Dome was so full of energy.
Oh and that time the lead singer from Goldfinger jumped in the crowd, got punched in the nuts by an ahole fan, singer retaliated, so did fans, security got mad saying he shouldn’t have gone on crowd, goldfinger told security to #### off and played rest of show, albeit brief, with no security. Fans were pretty chill. That was odd.
I’d have to check my stubs to find some other gems. Those are what come to mind at the moment.
I still remember going to see Van Halen in the 80's twice, they always had a habit of booking opening acts that didn't make a heck of a lot of sense. In one they had a polka band opening for them. In the other it was Echo and the Bunnymen. I remember the lead singer for that band came on stage and I saw the bottle spinning out of the crowd like a shiny spinning super slowmo missile. It was also completely accurate as it bounced off of the singers head knocking him for a loop.
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When I was young it was all about arena concerts but IMO the best concerts I've been to have been in small venues. I much prefer being up close to the band than sitting in seats or way back on the floor.
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Personal Lists, the top concerts I've seen
