Most Memorable Concert (Memory Related)
djkingotto
1,704 Posts
What is the most memorable concert/show you been to?Mine include but are not limeted to:Fresh Fest 1987. Sir Mix-A-Lot opened up for Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince, 2 Live Crew and some other dopeness i can't remember right now - you know, its a 20 year old memory. Also, this is the night someone threatened to shoot me if I didn't sell my tickets to him. Too bad I'm not a punk or he might have gotten over.Steve Miller at the Gorge at George 1994. We smoked tough during the intermission and when he came back out he played a 15 minutes version of "Fly Like an Eagle," with a cresent moon and little star floating right above the stage. Stoney.Run DMC and Beasties "Together Forever" tour 1987. Davy D opened the show. "Hi, I'm Davy D, I came to play some records for you." Also fell on my golden birthday and had my molars taken out the day before. Thanks Mom.Jungle Brothers at Graceland in Vancouver BC - 1996? Man, all the Native Toungues had the dope ass stage show. This was a little after their prime but they killeded it! Their routines are nasty and the way Sammy B was changing up the cut was out of the world (pun intended)!Stones Throw Tour - 2006 - I'd never seen someone mix and scratch with DVDs before. They were mixing classic rap videos and shit was bonkers!Old Dirty Bastard - 1998 - Oh shit! Dude showed up late and got off the bus and onto the stage. He had his bus driver and a very motley entourage on stage with him! Some old lady (seriously older lady like in her 50s) was dancing freaky on stage with him and rubbing him down with a starter jacket - again, bonkers!GZA - 2000? We (Silent Lambs Project) opened for him. It was a packed house and the whole place was moving to our shit! Hands in the air, heads bobbing, super live! Then GZA got on and the energy dropped like a sack of wet mice.King T, Whodini, LL Cool J and Public Enemy - 1988? PE always kills it. LL came out of a giant box on stage with Cut Creator and Bobcat rockin the 12's. King T was still new so it was dope to see him and Whodini, they kilt it too. The green eyed Dj cut up "Do the James" and the dancers did their thing and while cutting, Jalil and other dude came out and lifted him up by the legs until he was upside down cutting.Also glad to have seen Mel Torme, Cab Calloway, ODB and James Brown while they were still with us. Anything to share?
Comments
mine:
first concert ever was abc, salt n pepa, and c & c music factory. went with my 4th grade class when we won a local radio contest. the whole thing was my idea, so the cutest girlie in school sat next to me. incidentally she is now a petri dish.
more recent, the tortoise/beans tour. beans started with an md player in one hand and a mic in the other. then tortoise blew the house off. it was a hipster affair in the d, but it definitly was
I havent been to a show in a minute though
but i have plans to see EPMD/PUTS this saturday at the fillmore SF.
(i'm a former santa rosan)
Most memorable was definitely Pink Floyd at RFK in 1987. It was my 13th birthday and my mom bought me 10 tickets so that I could bring my friends. And she got seats with her friend across the stadium
The best show eva, although the memory has gotten a little hazy, was RUN DMC w JJ Fad, Public Enemy, & Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince as openers. It was at the Ector County Coloseum in Odessa (TX). My mom drove me and three friends 90 miles and dropped us off at there. I'm pretty sure it was 1988 so we were 13 or 14 at the time. Comedian Chris Thomas who was in the Public Enemty videos and some other stuff came out and did comedy. My first exposure to 'stand up comedy' (remember, small town, west texas, no HBO, no Comedy Central, No MTV). JJ Fad did about 4 songs and finished with Super Sonic. It was exciting for the sheer amount of Bass they were pumping. Then Public Enemy came out.. I was in to rap but had no idea who Public Enemy was.. wow what a shock "There were gentelmen on either side of the stage with fake uzi's". That loud squelching sound.. flavor flav's clock.. chuck d's sincerity.. all those guys in uniform. We were blown away. Then Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince came out. I was really looking forward to this because from the rap catalog that I had.. I knew that Jazzy Jeff was by far the best DJ there was. He did a lot of live scratching that was killer.. like breaking down some scratch sentences.. he did something with rock the bells and fresh prince said 'now slow it down' and he started making a slowed down beat out of it.. crowd went nuts. Brand New Funk killed also. And Ready Rock C came out and did the Sanford and Son Theme Underwater bit. RUN DMC completely owned the crowd for their entire set. They did mostly stuff from Raising Hell and the great songs from Tougher Than Leather like Mary Mary, Run's House, and Beats to the Rhyme. This was the first and one of the only concert experiences where I knew every word of every song. I think they finished with Raising Hell and they shot off these huge flame jets at the front of the stage.. we thought our faces were gonna melt it got so hot. I found the t-shirt I bought the other day in a box of junk my dad gave me - still fits!
That's easily the best show. Runners up would probably be seeing ZZ Top there in Odessa, seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan at one of those holliday inn ballrooms where they have wedding receptions, seeing Pink Floyd in Texas Stadium mid-90s, and the great Summer Shows in Austin at Stubb's - Flaming Lips & Ween.. oh yeah and seeing Rakim just last year and Grandmaster Flash here a year or so ago.
the ska legends tour with skatalites and prince buster and doreen schaefer is up there too
Schooly D/Fishbone - The Axis in Boston 1988 - Schooly played with a live punk band called Scram, all material from the Saturday Nite LP and totally killed the place, and then Fishbone put on a great performance as well. There was so much humidity in the room that Fishbone's electronic drum kit started to malfunction, sweat was literally dripping off the walls and ceiling.
Beastie Boys/Murphy's Law/Public Enemy - Capitol Theater NJ 1987 - Beasties in all their LTI insanity, bouncing off the walls, inflatable penis and caged dancer and all that. Murphy's Law handled the big stage well, and it was the first ever live performance for PE. They were by far the leat impressive part of the show. Chuck hadn't developed any stage presence yet so there was too much time between songs talking about stuff that the crowd didn't care about and waiting for Terminator X to start the next song. They came a long way as a live act because they were killing it a few years later.
Jesus And Mary Chain - Providence RI 1989 - The loudest show I've ever seen by far. They didn't have a drummer on this tour, just a drum machine which of course took a dump onstage 15 minutes into the show. They spent 5 minutes trying to fix it, then just leaned the guitars against the INCREDIBLY LOUD amps and left them feeding back and walked off stage. End of show. The house lights didn't come up for at least 15 minutes because they must not have realized the band wasn't going back on either, so it was just this insane feedback blasting the room for the whole interim. I blame this show for at least some of the tinnitus I have today.
Butthole Surfers - Numerous times between 88-91 - Back in the days when they had the mutilation movies, strobe lights, naked drummers and all the other wild stuff they used to do on stage. I was never brave enough to go to one of their shows on drugs, they were way too intense on their own.
I'm sure I'll remember more...
i saw these guys in detroit with basically a ten person crowd. they didnt care, and totaly destroyed the shelter. never kept up with em though. their guitarist had some pretty next level tuning.
that show is definitly up there.
drunk and stoned, by myself, but that's cool.
saw them again soon thereafter in denver, co.
drunk and stoned, with friends, and that's cooler...priceless!
Probably the first ever real rap group to play in Hong Kong. A 2 hour set playing everysingle hit song they had. No opening act just straight into the hardcore shit. They had Chuck & Flave (of course) but also X and the entire SW1 army on stage. AMAZING! All the rich kids had been bragging for weeks before the show how the had "front row seats" the show was in an ampitheater with row seating. As soon as the lights dimmed we bum rushed the securtiy and ran twoards the front. Everyone was just standing on the seats and arms rest, eventualy the first 3 rows of seats just broke down. I still rememeber seeing the horror on the faces of all the kids with front row tickets screaming at everyone to go back to their seats! Non stop hits from PE and serious crowd interaction. The best part of the show was when they had everyone put up their and scream "fuck the queen!" ahahahahahaah
Non stop dancing and jumping up and down. At the end of the show Flav started pulling random heads on stage to dance and get down. He even mentioned how "fresh" my Clydes were. My boy try to hand him a spliff and he said "can you do a favour for the Flav? Put that out!"
wild.
this captures the moment just as Dilla came down from the balcony upstairs to an unsuspecting crowd. there's my bad self in the front row area somewhere.
saw Asian Dub Foundation support Radiohead at Earls Court, was funny when they were yelling 'big up the jungalist massive'to a bunch of indie kids. otherwise a little unimpressed i must say.
my favorite concert memories:
it all happenned here in Amsterdam, back in the 80's 90's most bands just didnt come to NZ (and as far as soul, funk or hiphop was concerned FORGET ABOUT IT), so i had a BIG fucking checklist when i turned up here, the first year i got to see
Herbie Hancock
Isaac Hayes
P-Funk
Greg Nice
DJ Shadow
and a bunch more, i was a kid in a candy store and still am every time an act rolls around as i never thought id get to see 1/2 of them.
had the pleasure of seeing James Brown and Dilla last year and the Beastie Boys in a small venue for a 'secret' gig.
Hooray.
loud showcase in n.o.: wutang, mobb deep, alkaholiks, cella dwellas
stevie wonder performing solo on the piano
...damn, i have so many memories of shows but damn if i can remember who played. like ive seen large pro, jeru, bush babies, gang starr, xzibit, ras kass, blah blah blah.
though id still say the Loud showcase is my most memorable just because it was 94(?) and i was a rap music junkie and watching all 4 of those groups rip it on stage one after the other was insane.
One of my most memorable was Bad Brains at City Gardens, Trenton. City Gardens is memorable enough. Being right in front of the stage getting hit with H.R's dreads and almost getting kneed by him as well was pretty wild. The energy in that room was amazing. First of all after avoiding getting crushed against the stage by the surging pit and then avoiding getting eaten alive by the rabid crowd. I moved out of the pit to enjoy the rest of the show out of harms way. I think the Descendents played that show as well but Bad Brains left the impression on me.
One more... Leroy Smart at the Wynn Plaza in west philly 1987...The show doesn't start until after midnight. My buddy and I were two of four white people in the crowd. It wasn't your typical all ages crowd. It seemed like everybody was about 30 on up (I was 17). After being paranoid about bringing herb to the show we watched and older woman spark up and it was on. Baked and drinking ginger beer, Leroy Smart finally comes on and kills it. Of course for the ride home we had to smoke some more. After some fancy driving (stoned) we alluded five-o and made it home in the wee hours of the morning...good times
Travelled in a van all the way from Red Mountain with a bunch of pot smoking hippies. Drank big pitchers of beer and met a girl with big tits who wanted to get freaky.
Dr John - London 2005
Dude shows up playing two pianos at once. Has a skull sitting on top of one of his pianos. He took the crowd on a blues journey and managed to get so deep down low and full of the blues I thought everyone was gonna cry. Didn't have much money so smoked weed and ate dark chocolate right through the whole concert.
James Brown - London 2003
Everyone whose seen JB knows the drill. My wife was keen for him. I was wishing I was that nerdy looking white guy he had on stage that can twirl his trombone.
Blind Boys of Alabama - London 2006
The old guy who plays the drums forgot his pills and had to leave the stage and go off in an
jimmy smith - san francisco jazz festival, 95? came out in a pink suit and said: "i'm gonna play music for black folks."
stones- veterans stadium, late 80's....missed the opening band, which was living colour, but ironically went on tour with them in 2004.
tibetan freedom concert - randall's island - almost got trampled to death when the beastie's went on...lots of cool bands.
DJ Jazzy Jeff still killing it at the Scion tour in 2005 at age 40 something
DJ Shadow at Irving Plaza and the TLA in philly, very impressive.
that's all i can think of now.
I'm still pissed that wasn't my first show. My mom wouldn't let me go. She told me I can see them next tour....Van Hagar..I think not
Saint Vitus/Corrosion of Conformity/Mentors-June 1986-Antenna Club
my first "non-arena" punk/club show. I had been going to arena rock shows since 83, but this was the first up-close-and-personal club show. Saint Vitus were devastating, C.O.C. were righteous, and The Mentors were terrifying(the homemade pornos featuring El Duce shown on the club TVs while they played were very unsettling)
Butthole Surfers/Flaming Lips-1989-(forgot venue name)
total mindfuck that didnt let up for hours...awesome.
Sonny Rollins-1990-Caravan of Dreams
My first time to see a Jazz legend, he was phenomenal.
Jr. Kimbrough-1993-Memphis
fuck ambient/chillout bullshit..this was REAL trance music. So glad I got to see him before he passed.
Spiritualized(multiple times 1995-2000)
Every show was amazing...although one show at a small club gave me vertigo, their light show was a bit much for a venue that only held a couple hundred people..the strobes made my brain click off for a second.
Bjork-June 2003(2 shows)-Paris, France
A huge impulse to go...I found out about the show a couple weeks beforehand and just bought tickets to Paris and went. Both nights were amazing, completely different set lists...light shows..everything. Easily the best singer I have ever seen live.
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings-May 2004-Fort Worth
Incredible show.
Secret Machines-August 2005-Ryan Auditorium
While they were grat, this show was memorable because I was watching a band I used to be in from the stage playing in front of a couple thousand folks that were just freaking out. I think I was laughing and smiling the whole time. It was surreal to see these dudes I have known for a long time and played in clubs with playing a total rock show with big-ass light rig, tour bus, slacked jawed fans asking for autographs...fucking crazy...
Funkadelic in Dublin, 2001. Shreddin' it. George was out of it but everyone else more than made up for it. Bizarre topless muscle-flexing bloke with a wolf-rug headpiece is all the Mrs. remembers of it. Put yer tongue back in, love.
Pharoah Sanders in Manchester. Knowledge droppped. That tone. Music is the message.
Odyssey/Sister Sledge in a place called Quaffers Nightclub, in Bredbury, Manchester. Unlikely venue, but their live bands were killer. That would be 1989.
Incognito 25th Anniversary gig, London. 12-piece string section and Maysa Leak,
Jocelyn Brown, Chris Ballin on vocals. Gilles Peterson warming up. Probably the best sound quality of any gig I've seen.
Prince "Sign O The Times" tour. Maine Road. A proper show. Big basketball sequence. Probably the only gig I've been to with props and sets, routines etc. other than the music.
I think I need to see a gig with lasers befoe I die.
Homes, how could you leave me out of this story?
Here are the blanks: btav and I talked to our 4th teacher Mrs. Bailey about the contest the radio station 96.3 (R.I.P.) was running where you had to decorate your classroom with their bumper stickers and send a photo and win tickets for your entire homeroom class. So, we jacked huge stacks of them from Mc Donalds and with the help of her and our classmates, peppered the whole place with these stickers only to send it in and win the contest. Lawn seats, but shit yes, we won that motherfucker.
I remember when S n' P were gearing up for "Let's Talk About Secks" and the parent chaperones were diving onto the picnic blankets trying to cover our virgin ears.
Ahhh, yes...those were the days...
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Massey Hall
Bad Brains - Concert Hall
Public Enemy - Concert Hall
Jesus and Mary Chain - Concert Hall (got grounded real good after this one, got home at 4 am on a school night)
Gravediggaz - El Mo
Legends of Ska - Palais Royale
Ahmad Jamal - Top of the Senator
Lou Donaldson and Dr. Lonnie Smith - Village Vanguard
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Roy Thompson Hall
Drive Like Jehu - Rivoli
i was secretly waiting for you to read this and fall outta the chair.
i would kill to see that picture. all i remember was me, you, and azam with
man, the cubbies for our shoes, ms bailey's HUGEjolly rancher bag... and lisa c.'s mom coming into talk to use about alcholism... man. i remember that sh*t real vivid like.
Sorry to thread hi-jack, but what about the time we were drawing with magic markers, I was sitting across from my crush *nuj*, when I sneezed and blew snot all over my desk...
OK, back to concert experiences.
Rage Against The Machine/Wu-Tang/Atari Teenage Riot @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
And when M*sh* and I went to see this local hardcore band Earthmover at St. Andrews open up for a headlining band who's lead singer jumped off the stage and onto the floor with a skinhead, high leather boots, proceeding to lead those in attendance in what at the time seemed like a hatebreeding mosh circle. Being the only two people in colour at the concert, we dipped to the bar next door to call for a ride home with the swiftness.
i did this yesterday in class while talking to a girlie.
yea never went to a hardcore show after i hurd that... although i wouldve loved to see spit (split?). yea dood... *nuj* was the cutie. zaaqueer and her bang like twice a day. that guy needs to be quarantined
that rage show was pretty nuts too.. as soon as rage took the stage, a sea of people from all ends bumrushed the floor. security could do nothing.
def the only arena rock show ive been to that i enjoyed.
The Who at Shea in 86 or 87. The Who were okay, the clash were at their peak because London Claling had just come out, and Joan Jet, who opened, was insane.
Front Row arms on the stage at the Beacon Theater for a 4 hour Johnny Winter concert.
Alternative Tenticles 100 LP release party where the guitarist from the digits called everyone in the audience faggots and got pulled off the stage in the middle of a song and beatup.
Sonic Youth and Nirvana Halloween 1990 or 91.
The Pixies in San Francisco 1991.
The Mummy's in Golden Gate Park.
I'm just going to keep pretending that this isn't true. :::so jealy:::
now this brings back some memories.....ELM were one of my faves in my youth, still like their debut LP! So many good memories of Philly/NJ/NY/DC punk shows from that time.
Like you the most memorable for me is also Bad Brains, but it was the late 80s at Revival in Philly (nr. 3rd & Market), anyone remember that place? The atmosphere was just nuts, I remember staying off to the side most of the time so as to just enjoy the music/not get trampled and bruised up. My friends and I got there riduculously early to get in line outside, smart move too as I heard tons of people got turned away once it filled up.
Yeah I'm sure there could be a whole thread on City Gardens, I went there a lot whenever someone in Philly could get hold of a car to get there, always some sort of crazy scene. Who went to Club Pizazz in Frankford?
Show was great. Band did three encores and Steve Miller showed up to jam with them on encore number three.
Most memorable; The Pretenders 1981 Agora Ballroom Atlanta. Original line up. About 100 degrees inside the venue. Chrissie Hynde wore full leathers the whole show (I had my shirt off after two songs). She finally took off her jacket for the encores! I caught a drum stick and my buddy Greer got a handjob during the show. Band was off the hook.
Runners up: Tom Waits in Amsterdam 1987, Herbie Hancock Rockit tour on the Pier in NYC, Replacements at the 40 Watt in Athens 1984, Grateful Dead in Santa Fe 1983, O Rappa in Sao Paulo last year and many more.