10 Best Concerts You Have Seen?
pointman
1,042 Posts
So this is the topic of convo in my office today and I got to thinking about it and damn it's hard. I'm really just not sure what the best concerts/live shows I've ever seen are.What were they for you?
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Saw the Arkestra at the Tritone several times, but one show in particular blew my fucking mind. They were really on point that night.
I used to go to a lot of shows, but I can remember only a few of them.
LoveSexy tour '88
Wembly Arena, London
Maxwell/Alicia Keys @ Hammerstein Ballroom
Showbiz & A.G./A Tribe Called Quest/Boogie Down Productions @ The Apollo circa '92
Chaka Khan @ Wingate Field
Wynton Marsalis @ Fordham University
Kelis @ The Bowery Ballroom
Trans Am @ Irving Plaza
Omar @ S.O.B.
Mandrill @ Brooklyn Bandshell circa '97
PUBLIC ENEMY - New Years Eve 89/90 @ The World in L.E.S
i saw the Arkestra at Yoshii's a few years ago and they were incredible. They did a lot of the caravany sounding stuff like the stuff off of Angels & Demons at Play. there was one weird moment where they did that jiminy cricket song though which was kinda but they ruled otherwise
Will do my best I've thought up so far.
James Brown Bayou Place Houston His first tour once out of jail.
Fugazi 1996 Some roller rink in the Houston hood.
Jesus Lizard Houston Mary Jane's January 1998
Guitar Wolf 1997 Austin
Bad Brains OG line up 2000
Little Buck and Barbara Lynn Continental Club Austin 2006
F lamming Lips Houston Jones Hall 2002
I still have plenty of kinks to work out here. I know I'm missing some amazing things I've seen over the years I've yet to think of.
Beck in a private warm up show in front of friends and family.
The Mars Volta at the Orpheum in downtown LA. Their music isn't for everyone, but I've never seen anything like these guys live.
Beastie Boys & A Tribe Called Quest in 98
prince in san jose i think in 2004
mission of burma @ the fillmore
the ex @ the great american music hall
robyn hitchcock @ the great american music hall
wire @ the fillmore
big star @ the fillmore
tful282 @ the great american music hall
pere ubu @ slims
deerhoof @ the castro theater doing live accompaniment to harry smith's heaven and earth magic
Nirvana at Liberty Lunch, Austin, TX 1991
Sade at the Concord Pavillion 2001
Bobby Hutcherson at Mr. E's, Berkeley, CA ~2000
Sizzla (any of the multiple times that I've seen him)
Fishbone (any of the multiple times that I've seen them)
Rebirth Brass Band (any of the multiple times that I've seen them)
Primus (any of the multiple times that I've seen them)
Soundgarden, Austin City Coliseum 1991
U2 at the Houston Summit 1987
New Order at Astroworld, Houston, TX 1989
Oh shit. I remember this show, back before all they booked was Weird Al and Timmy T.
Oh yeah, rap-wise...
A Tribe Called Quest/De La Soul/Souls of Mischief at the Bomb Factory, Dallas, TX 1993
Mac Mall/Volume10 at Glam Slam, Los Angeles, CA 1994
The Roots at the Texas Union Ballroom, Austin, TX 1996
Devin the Dude (any of the multiple times that I've seen him, except the time he got kicked off of the stage at Austin Music Hall for all-too-blatantly smoking herb)
1.5ish) Massive Attack @ the Warfield, Mezzanine tour (when they still had a bunch of the original people in the group) There must have been some frustration within the band, they did start falling apart shortly thereafter- but it made for one of the most incredible live performances I've ever seen, and they're not even huge on my list of bands that i geek for.
2)Sonic Youth @ "this is not a festival", Greek Theater @ Cal- Last show they played before all their instruments were stolen
3)Radiohead @ the Fillmore, 1995 (the Bends tour)
4)David Holmes @ some electronic music showcase. His set =
made me want to dig records
5)Shadow and Babu had some scratch battle thing go down when they played together at the Phoenix theater in Petaluma that was melt. ahh, back when i cared about scratching...
i'm gonna stop b/c this could go on forever. I think I clocked me and the homie dstill goin' on about this comparing each other's concerts for about 2 hours the last time we talked about it.
Arthur Lee opening as a solo for Clapton Nassau Coliseum
Mountain New Years Eve Felt Forum
Johnny Winter/Muddy Waters/James Cotton Hofstra University
Hall & Oates '74 Bottom Line - Pre hits era
Led Zeppelin Madison Square Garden first U.S. Tour
Clapton/Santana/John McGlaughlin L.A. Forum
Allman Brothers 5 hour set Nassau Coliseum
Todd Rundgren & Utopia - Aragon Ballroom, Dallas '80
Thin Lizzy - Moody Coliseum
Ramones - Calderone Theatre '75
Be Bop Deluxe
Public Enemy '90
Gangstarr '92
Boogie Down Productions '92
Stereolab '94
Burning Spear '01
Capleton '02
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings '05
Abdullah Ibrahim Trio--1999 Chas SC
Jimmy Guiffre 3--1994 Chas SC
London Jazz Composers Orchestra--1995 Austria
Jackie McClean Sextet--1993 NYC
Ornette Coleman Trio--1993 NYC
Neil Young/Sonic Youth--1990 Chapel Hill
Jorge Ben--2004 DC
Brotzmann/Hopkins/Drake--1996 ATL
Primus/Tad--1991 Cola SC
Pavement--1992 Cola SC
Culture/Israel Vibrations--1988 Chas SC
Jesus Lizard/Jon Spencer BE--1993 Cola SC
Peter Kowald--1999 Chas SC
I went over.
- Donald-D, Robe Base & Ice-T (Circa 91) - In the crowd, hanging out was Ice Cube as well as Rhyme Syndicate. Freedman Forum, Anaheim, CA
First rap concert and never looked back, not a bad line up for being 5 minutes from Disneyland.
- Cut Chemist, PUTS and Breakestra (LA - 2005?) - Had never seen any of these 3. All killed it - was good to see some good LA shit.
- Clipse, Black Eyed Peas and NERD (NYC, 2005). Was on vacation in NYC and we were at Coney Island chillin. Copped a newspaper and saw the bill for this show. We headed toward the venue copped some scalpor tickets and watched the show. ?uestlove and Jay-Z made cameos and the crowd was hyped.
- Rose Royce, Ohio Players and Zapp (with Roger) headlining. Circa'97? Each band killed it. I was heavy into these band around this time and this is probably one of my favorite shows just off sheer performance.
- Gangstarr w/ Rage Against the Machine (LA Forum, circa 1999). Freddy F-O-X-X-X opened, Gangstar followed and Rage headlined.
- Smokin Grooves Tour - went twice (Universal Amphitheatre and Irvine Meadows, 1998?). Busta Rhymes, Fugees, ATCQ, Cypress Hill and Ziggy Marley.
- Spearhead with Digable Planets (1994/95?) - Right after Blowout Comb came out. Cool shit. Jazzy Joyce on the cuts.
- De La Soul (Group I've seen the most). Because of them I saw Common, Mos Def before they blew up. Mos hadn't even dropped the Rawkus shit yet (at least not that I knew of).
- Ozomatli, Santana & Man?? - Ozo got the crowd hyped and Santana RIPPED shit. Was very impressed how he took control of 30,000 people with not much talking - just music.
- Up In Smoke Tour (circa 2001/02) - Dre & Snoop, Eminem, Ice Cube (WSC), plus others. Gangsta'
- Group Home with Redman, Das Efx and Onyx (House of Blues Hollywood, 1996?). This must have been an industry show or something because there were a gang of people in the crowd and on-stage. As we entered, I remember seeing Tha Alkoholiks, Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, chillin, hangin out having drinks with other artists. After Group Home performed, Redman came out and did a set with Keith Murry and Erick Sermon. Das came out and did their thing with PMD in the background. Finally Onyx came through after a long ass wait. During the middle of their set there was a cluster of dudes surrounding Tupac, who looked pissed off about something. As Onyx was going through songs Pac's emotion didn't change until Onyx performed "Last Dayz", which brought out a smile and head nod to Tupac. Everything was cool the rest of the time but I never seen so many artists at a show. Other highlight was seeing Jam Master Jay come out with Onyx - only time I ever saw him.
Oh yeah???
Kraftwerk '90
and that Neil Young/Booker T '93 show that Rockadelic started a thread about on waxidermy.
yes
also
smokey robinson
cassandra wilson
david young -> local chi trumpet player
maybe on the h-h point prince paul (basically just as a DJ) pete rock (same) and naughty by nature
I saw that too, but I really liked the Crazy Horse shows that he was doing after Ragged Glory.
Prince
Rehearsal Show for Lovesexy Tour '88
St Paul Civic Center
Show was announced on Thursday afternoon that tickets would be on sale Friday 8am.
The show was the next night, Saturday. $10 plus a canned food donation for MN Food Shelf.
I was there... one of few anglos in the place so I stood out and you may have seen me... oh and I was on acid.
Shortly after that I saw the common sense/beatnuts show there, although I don't think the beatnuts showed up. Common's DJ (was it Roc Raida?) was
ah those high school days
Butthole Surfers:::::Dallas 1989 total mindfuck
Flaming Lips/Butthole Surfers:::::Dallas 1992.... so so good
Sonny Rollins::::Fort Worth 1993
Tom Waits::::::::Austin 1999
Spiritualized:::::Dallas 95, Galaxy Club
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings:::::Fort Worth 2003
Junior Kimbrough:::::::Memphis 1993
Metallica:::::::::::Memphis 1986
Meat Puppets:::::Flagstaff, AZ 1989
Alice Coltrane
Willie Nelson
Sonny Fortune/Rashied Ali
Six Organs of Admittance
Boredoms
High on Fire
Noah Howard
Acid Mothers Temple
Lightning Bolt
Brotzmann/Parker/Drake
keiji haino
alice coltrane
tina turner
cui jian
harry pussy
john brannon solo
butch morris skyscraper
james carter
2) The Pretenders - 1981 - Agora Ballroom, Atlanta
3) Replacements - 1984 - 40 Watt Club, Athens
4) Pere Ubu/John Cale - 1987 - Peabody's Down Under, Cleveland
5) NRBQ - around 1992 - New Years Eve show at Slims in San Francisco
6) Jorge Ben - 2004 - some venue in Lapa (Rio)
7) Fugazi - countless times in DC
8) Grateful Dead - 1983 - The Down at Santa Fe, NM
9) Pharaoh Sanders - 1981 - Student Union , Athens, GA
10) Tom Waits - 1985 - Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
I could do three more of these but I'll spare ya.
Beastie Boys/Big Chief/Fu-Schnickens @ Moore Theater, Seattle, 5/92
Michael Brecker Quartet @ Richland High Auditorium, Richland, WA, 1998 (w/ Ben Perowsky on drums)
Buzzov??en @ Hoedown Center, Richland, WA, 1992 or 1993
Christ On A Crutch, homecoming last show @ Hoedown Center, Richland, WA, 1992 or 1993
Clash Of The Titans Tour @ Spokane Arena, Spokane, Washington, 1992 or so (yes on Anthrax, Slayer, and Alice In Chains, no on Megadeth)
DJ Shadow/Anti-Pop Consortium @ Showbox, Seattle, 6/9/02
Frankie Goes To Hollywood @ Schnitzer Hall, Portland, OR, June, 1985
The Gits @ Hoedown Center, Richland, WA, 7/3/93 (I believe this was the last show (or one of the last) Mia Zapata did before she was strangled to death a few days later in Seattle. I later found out she wanted to meet and thank me for the positive reviews I gave her music)
Lenny Kravitz/Ozomatli @ Paramount, Seattle, 9/13/98
Loggins & Messina @ HIC, Honolulu, 1976
Medeski, Martin & Wood @ Moore Theater, Seattle, 4/1/99
Medeski, Martin & Wood @ Paramount Theater, Seattle, 4/12/01
Medeski, Martin & Wood @ Paramount Theater, Seattle, 4/24/02
Mission:/Boom Bap Project @ I Spy, Seattle, 8/23/01
Mudhoney @ Kennewick VFW Hall, Kennewick, WA, July 1991
Ozomatli @ Key Arena, Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA, 9/3/00
Ozomatli @ Showbox, Seattle, WA, 9/3/00 (same night as Bumbershoot show)
Ozomatli @ Showbox, Seattle, WA, 6/9/01
Ozomatli @ Showbox, Seattle, WA, 10/01
Robert Palmer @ Andrews Amphitheater, University of Hawai'i, summer of 1986
Pantera @ Pink's Garage, Honolulu, Hawai'i, July 1991
Pink Floyd @ Kingdome, Seattle, 12/8/87
Ravi & Anoushka Shankar @ Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 10/27/01
Sore Jackson @ Hoedown Center, Richland, WA, 1992 or 1993
Word Of Mouth Tour @ aro.space, Seattle, July (?) 1999