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Underground > Radio & Music >

Most Memorable Live Show

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Ganesh

19:52 / 31.07.01

Replying to the 'Morrissey' thread got me thinking about live performances which have particularly affected me - the ones where I've successfully managed to 'lose myself in the moment'.

I think the best live show I've ever attended was T in the Park in 1995 ('96?), Pulp's 'grand finale'. They'd just released 'Different Class' and ol' Jarv was at the height of his powers. I managed to elbow my way right down the front, to the mosh pit, and <gasp> some of Jarvis's sweat landed on me!

<Beatlesque girlie shriek>

I think the most memorable live show, however, was a few months earlier than that, when I caught Morrissey on his 'Boxers' tour (when he was going through that phase of plastering himself with fake cuts and bruises). Morrissey had long been a personal deity of mine but I didn't know anyone else who was into him. Entering the venue (Brixton Academy, I think), I was amazed (and slightly intoxicated) by the intensity of those around me, Moz's core following - and, as I've said, the fact that so many of The Faithful seemed really hard boozed-up, faintly intimidating working-class boys. There was an air of danger, somehow...

The gig itself was excellent. I managed to get pretty close to the front, but found myself hanging back from the real fans, who were all trying to get over the barrier and invade the stage (and around 95% of them were male). At the end, the audience rushed the barrier and mobbed the Mozster en masse.

It was swell.

What was your most memorable live event?

19:57 / 31.07.01

Marc Almond at Shepherd's Bush Empire, winter -95/96. Extremely good, sweaty and loooong.

22:22 / 31.07.01

sonic youth, philadelphia 2001. the feeling of community could probably be described better by someone on ecstacy, but hey, we weren't high(the people i was with anyway... mostly). the encore was pure feedback. it felt as if time and space were being completely ignored by 400-500 people.

23:31 / 31.07.01

it has to be the time when i was 16 and david yow from the jesus lizard announced to the crowd at a huge rock festival that i gave better head than any man he'd ever met.

23:35 / 31.07.01

Iggy Pop, 1999, the Metro, Chicago Ill. Fucking incredible performance, that man has so much energy onstage it's almost unbelievable.

The Return Of Rothkoid

07:21 / 01.08.01

There's a couple. I couldn't decide which was best.

Tom Waits, Beacon Theatre, NY, 1999. I'd been a fan for years, though living in Australia had pretty much precluded seeing the guy. Moved to the UK and discovered the dates - through some tour-manager wrangling, I ended up with house seats, about three rows from the front - better seating that Keith Richards and Lou Reed - and got covered in glitter. Smokey Hormel on guitar/banjo, Tom on megaphone, and an absolutely fantastic backline. Hugely long show that felt - uncheesily - personal. Replete with singalong. Amazing.

Dirty Three, the Three Weeds pub, Sydney, 1998. A smaller gig after the headlining shows at the Metro, a few days prior. Small tiled pub, with Warren walking around before the show musing on how everyone was decked out in finery (we weren't) and introducing himself to all and sundry. An immensely personal show, with people sitting on stage, and generous distribution of the band's rider amongst the crowd. I got "Everything's Fucked" played for me, and they finished by tearing the roof off the place with "Dirty Equation" - more fucking rock than Townshend. Crying, yelling, rolling around on the floor - it had it all.

The Necks: Purcell Room, London, 2000. Minimalist jazz, though not quite fitting either of those two words. Piano, bass and drums, two hour-long sets of one song each, entirely improvised. Self-deprecationa and the most telepathic communication I've ever seen between musicians; the music morphed imperceptibly, so it wasn't until the finale, with hammering keys, frenzied drumming and an assaulted bass that you realised that it all was borne out of a three-note riff. Sheer fucking genius.

07:26 / 01.08.01

Screaming Trees, The Marquee, London February 1993.

Wow. Intense. Everything exploded as soon as they began playing... I've never seen or heard anything like it since... even when I saw them in Newcastle.

07:59 / 01.08.01

Well, I had thought I'd seen a lot of good shows until I saw Tom Waits perform (Hummingbird Centre, Toronto, 2000)... That guy Owned everyone in the place. Felt like it never ended, and to concur with Rothkoid, it was totally personal and personable. wicked show.

07:59 / 01.08.01

I'm going to have to go for;

Lift To Experience, Leicester <ahem> 'International Arts Centre', last month.

This was their first British performance outside London in a weird little venue that used to be a Working Men's club. A couple of hundred music nerds and hipsters sitting in the dark on rugs. And Lift To Experience are, and I can't emphasize this enough, AN ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE LIVE BAND. Their album is a bit patchy and overblown and it just doesn't do them justice at all.
Josh T Pearson is like a one-man Godpeedyou blackemperor .. the noise he gets out of one guitar is simply unbelievable .. it's like the Jimi Hendrix Experience playing Wagner .. it's like armageddon, the rapture and the redemption of mankind expressed through the medium of feedback .. it's just the most intense music I've ever heard.. it's .. well.. you get the idea..

And I was sitting right at the front

13:14 / 01.08.01

brainiac supporting girls against boys at the highbury garage in spring 1995. i just remember walking in and going "WOW! that's what a gig should be like"

the moomey suzuki at spaceland in l.a. last august. rock and fucking roll. they all came on wearing tight black jeans, black shirts, skinny ties, cuban heels and sunglasses, with the greatest hokey intro:

guy #1: i do believe my watch is broken, mah brother. do you know what time it is?

guy #2: what time is it, brother?

guy #1: that's what i wanna know, what time is it, mah brother?

guy #2: it's.... it's...

guy #1: yes, brother?

guy #2: IT'S SHOWTIME!!

and then they launched into singing a song about today. absolutely brilliant.

that was the gig that adam was playing air guitar at, and the singer noticed and gave him his guitar to play on a coupla songs. it was ace

14:36 / 01.08.01

This is a weird one, but: Radiohead, Sunderland, 1992.

They were supporting Kingmaker; I’d obviously never heard of them and everyone was just stood around, sipping pints, waiting for the real show, the main act, to start. Radiohead blew the roof off the place, running around the stage like maniacs, giving everything to a practically empty room. I can’t remember much about Kingmaker now, but I’ll never forget Thom Yorke whispering ‘It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter at all… it doesn’t matter… FUUUUUUCK YOOOOUUUU!’. The whole room took a shocked, collective step backwards. I signed up to the mailing list and several weeks later got a postcard advertising the fact that ‘out soon: 4 Track EP – Creep’.

Strange to think of it now.

16:43 / 01.08.01

I've seen too many live shows to just have ONE. A few:

Peter Gabriel at Madison Square Garden 1986

Master Musicians of Joujouka at Town Hall 1995 (full ensemble, about 30 musicians and a crazy fucker dressed in animal skins dancing around)

Therapy? opening up for Screaming Trees and Babes In Toyland at the Academy, 1992

Therapy? opening for Henry Rollins AND TOTALLY STEALING THE SHOW BOTH NIGHTS at Irving Plaza, 1994

Iron Maiden playing a surprise gig as Charlotte & the Harlots at L'Amours in Brooklyn, 1987

Killing Joke at the Academy in 1994 and at the Limelight in 1995

Marianne Faithfull at the Supper Club on Mardi Gras 1997

Dead Can Dance at Town Hall, 1994 (I think also 1996...)

Alice Cooper, the Ritz (now Studio 54), my birthday, 1990

This year's best show is a toss-up between Therapy? at Maxwell's and Jah Wobble/Bill Laswell at the Knitting Factory.

wembley can change in 28 days

17:58 / 01.08.01

Rheostatics, the Reverb, the night that Diana died. Not that she had anything to do with the music; the lead eccentric told me after the show she'd been in an accident. But that was the night that Stolen Car became the best live song ever.

David Bowie, the Warehouse, 1997. I was so close I could see his toenail polish, and Gail's cover of O Superman killed me.
Tom Waits, Beacon Theatre, New York. Third Row. Ladies and Gentlemen.
U2, ZooTV outside broadcast tour when I was sixteen.
Dirty Three, Lee's Palace, last year. The first time I saw them, and I think my heart broke, leaving me with nowhere to put all those messy bits. It was like people from another planet coming and playing something from a different time.
And one more: Einsturzende Neubauten at the Astoria last summer. Amazing how they can draw out of metal and plastic the sounds of blood and bones.

03:14 / 02.08.01

Ierne: i am so jealous, jealous, jealous that you have seen dead can dance not once but twice!

like many others, i have seen so many good shows that it's almost impossible to pick just one...hmmmmm

the cocteau twins in honolulu in 94 - absolute perfect night, on the guest list and *rolling*...i was in a state of grace by the middle of the show. elizabeth fraser was angelic...her voice wound around my body and enveloped me in pure bliss. sugar hiccups and pur actually sank into my every pore and i left cocteau twin-fairy dust in my wake for at least a week afterward.

death in june in 97 was also a thing to remember. their first american tour and in pgh they played in a church! an acoustic guitar, some bells and a timpani drum (aw, hell yes, timpani rules). they came out in masks and played their first set incognito. the hubby and i had a great time joking about how funny it would be if they were actually just three guys from cmu playing a joke on us all. then the masks came off and it really was three guys from cmu *snicker*...seriously, though, dij was amazing, really truly amazing to witness.

i am still keeping fingers crossed for a dead can dance reunion someday soon. and i am also patiently awaiting my chance to see mr. tom waits in all his glory.

21:18 / 02.08.01

pixies - portsmouth guildhall - october 1990

astounding rock gig at blinding volume.

massive attack - royal albert hall - may 1998

almost a religious/sexual experience.

beta band - astoria - january 2000

"am i singing like a fool?"

13:09 / 03.08.01

Sonic Youth, 1988, The Empty Keg, Tampa.
At the time, I kinda knew what punk rock was, and I'd been to a couple local shows. This was a tiny club on the USF campus -- probably about 100 people there. The power went out twice - because they rocked that hard. First time in the slam pit for me. I was wearing goofy Chinese kung fu slippers, so I ended the night with wounded toes and a missing digital watch. Worth it.
I went on to see SY two more times, each time in a progressively larger venue (the college auditorium for Goo, then in the SunDome Arena opening for Neil Young). But this was primal electric madness.

Hmmm. First time I saw Jane's Addiction, it was a live show in Tampa. Same for Fishbone (they were still ska then). Great, great bands - I never woulda heard of them if I wasn't the Guy with the Station Wagon who'd drive you for ticket money.

John Lee Hooker, 1989, Carefree Theater, West Palm Beach.
I had no idea what time in the evening the show was, and events conspired against me. I was in Sarasota - a four hour drive across the state to my hometown. First, my friend Kim was late getting to my car. OK, I drive fast. Then, a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere when an orange truck flipped, dumping oranges everywhere. Then, the only time this has happened to me, a long freight train stopped traffic again.
I drive faster.
My first ticket, outside Okeechobee, was for 85 in a 55 zone. $120-some. No sweat -- you can go to traffic school and get it wiped off the record.
Second ticket, heading into Indiantown against the stream of cars as people leave work for the day - the sheriff actually pulls a U-turn to pull me over - $190-some. 77 in a 45.
But I got to the show on time. The Carefree is a huge, old-fashioned cinema, seats 500 or more. This night, it was like church. Only with an electric guitar.
The Old Man stood up for his encore, and everyone stood up with him.
It was totally worth it.

In Gainesville, honorable mentions go to Man or Astro-Man, who wore hollowed computer monitors on their heads and threw moon pies out to the audience, and the Causey Way, who made me a convert. Best shtick I've ever seen, and the music sounded like early Devo. Nice, psycho, electronic punk messiah.

13:12 / 03.08.01

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead: getting crushed to death (bruised ribs, happy feeling) by a few hundred loonies while they played the shit out of “Mark David Chapman” on the twentieth anniversary of the shooting.

Watching Saul Williams cast “Ohm” accapella.

Marillion playing anything unexpected from their vast back catalogue – a consistently moving and surprising live band. Not many bands buy cake for the crowd. Not many fans would choose to propose via the radio mic to a partner they met while following the band’s American tour. “Sugar Mice,” “Script For A Jetsers Tear,” “Freaks,” “The Bell In The Sea,” “Market Square Heroes” – magic when they play them.

16:26 / 03.08.01

Oh yeah, I also saw Marillion at the old Ritz (now Webster Hall) back in 1987. THAT was a kickass show.

I've never seen Massive Attack tho, so it's my turn to be jealous

08:24 / 04.08.01

I have. Guitarist couldn't groove with the rest of the band - 3D and Daddy G were inaudible - Horace Andy was utterly magnetic and celebratory (minor epiphanies were had).

They should just go the whole hog and be his backing band.

11:41 / 04.08.01

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the House of Blues in New Orleans. I was a freshman in college, away from home for the first time, and it was magnificent.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:34 / 31.03.03

Thought I'd bump this in light of Cholister's new thread - aha, you have to search for 'live' not 'gigs' to find it!

09:48 / 31.03.03

Thanks, Flyboy. Still, slightly different thread, I guess...

12:47 / 31.03.03

The best concert I ever experienced was of course, my first real one (i.e. not stadium seating): Lollapalooza '92! 14 Years old!

Lush! Jesus and Mary Chain! Pearl Jam! Soundgarden doing 'Cop Killer'!

And the highlight of the night, was seeing Ministry after only having heard 'Jesus Built My Hotrod' before. Damn they rocked! Oh yeah, the Chili Peppers too, but no one mattered after Ministry really...

Murray Hamhandler

17:31 / 31.03.03

Still, hands down: Neutral Milk Hotel, Pittsburgh, 1997. They opened for Superchunk, but I sure felt badly for Superchunk. Blew me away.

A close second the other night, though. A few local acts firstly: The Pieces (a decent Indy indie-pop band) and John Wilkes Booze. Th' Booze utterly blew me away w/a high energy show that lasted longer than all of their sets I'd seen previously combined, capped off by 15 or so minutes of insane revelry between band and on-stage audience members (myself included). Then I saw (and heard) Crooked Fingers for the first time. Rustic rock w/passion to spare. I was awed and moved. An excellent show w/just those three, but then...Spoon played. And they were everything I hoped for and more. Incredibly fun and just ass-kickingly good. And you could tell they were having a good time, which just made it all the more fun. Six hours of sustained good times and excellent music. Not too shabby.

17:35 / 31.03.03

50-50 split Therapy? for joy and moshing, Suede for sheer beauty, both Queens Hall Edinburgh 1994.

19:34 / 31.03.03

Most memorable? Oh dear god!
I was in a dance group thing and we were in a show, and we were followed by Daphne and Celeste. It was one of those times u want to hide and cry in shame that uv just been on the stage that they are now murdering. Atrocious, it really was.

23:18 / 31.03.03

I'll never forget the Legendary Pink Dots show last November in San Francisco. Talk about mind blowing. Sonic Youth in NYC and The Residents in Anaheim were close runner ups.

Math is for suckers!

04:35 / 01.04.03

converge, at the emerson theater in indianapolis. they were supposed to be opening for glassjaw, but glassjaw went on first so all the glassjaw fans could get out before all hell broke loose. converge were amazing, nonstop throughout the whole set. it also happened to be the first concert i went to that wasnt supported by a major corporation like dreamcast or pepsi or something like that. top notch!

01

18:17 / 04.04.03

Ministry, Helmet and Sepultura at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto in '92.
I pretty much shit my pants.

Chilli Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam at the Concert Hall in Toronto '91. Had no clue who two openers were.

Strung Out, Snapcase, and Rise Against at Croation Cultural Center, here in Vancouver '02. One of theee best punk rock shows I've ever seen in my life.

NIN at GM place. Van. '01
AC/DC. GM. Van. '01

18:55 / 06.04.03

I was with solid_state for the Tom Waits show (Sept 1999 Hummingbird Centre-Toronto) and have to agree that it was awe inspiring. Waits did five encores after playing a solid show. I've never seen a crowd so enthralled and the place was buzzing with anticipation for the next song.
Along the lines, Fugazi at the New Space in Dayton (July 1993) runs a pretty close second. These guys are the tighest band on the planet, bar none. And the crowd was great. A good sense of community and everybody was just gleeful to see them. Best Five Bucks I've Spent.

00:26 / 08.04.03

some of my favourite nights ever :

1)Crass and assorted anarcho-punk acts at the Sheffield Leadmill 1983 (i was 14 and it felt like i belonged for the first time in my life:i ran away from home and went to live outside an american air base and never went home!)

2)Butthole Surfers : leeds poly 85 or 86 (dugh!) - gibby and some strong acid - a perfect combination.

3)SPK at the sheffield leadmill 83 - the girl was whipping the crowd with a huge chain of metal:serious carnage.

4)Psychic TV in manchester 85 - they hit a certain frequency and the whole crowd tripped for what seemed like an eternity:everyone came round and was asking "what the fuck happened"! - true weirdness.

5)Black Flag in Nottingham 84 - theres a video of it somewhere - rollins in angry man stage : never better.

6)mark stewart and the maffia with 23skidoo 85 in leeds : what a line -up, sugarhill gang back-up with skip and the boys, mark screaming "operation pacification" at 120 dc : you had to be there!

7)sonic youth on brighton beach 85 or 86: in front of the zap club :
expressway to yr skull never sounded better as the waves lapped the shore.

8)the swans at nottingham garage 86 : the LOUDEST gig ive ever been to (shat on motorhead!) a tiny room and a stack of amps,the bass hit and the whole room turned to rubber.

fuck,i havent got to the 90's yet!

06:22 / 08.04.03

man, where's rob kader when you need him?

08:02 / 08.04.03

jackamo, if i may say so, that sounds like one seriously well spent 1980s..

08:45 / 08.04.03

jackamo, i think i was at that gig at the leadmill, was it a striking miners benefit gig? i'd never really heard punk before that, was i dunno 15 or something, dad was a miner so went along,really amazing night

went to the crass afternoon at the rio cinema in hackney recently and remembered how it all was

personal fave live show recently was keith jarret at the south bank, a man totally immersed in his music in a way i have not experienced, also white stripes playing to 200 people in dingwalls last year was a totally electric performance, raw intense and real.

question is really, what is it that makes a truly great gig great? the emotional involvement of performer and audience is a big part of it for me, but maybe also it's historical context for myself, the artists and what is going on outside plays a big part of it too.

08:58 / 08.04.03

in fact regarding that leadmill gig, the first act on were an icelandic punk collective called Kukl, with bjork as singer.
i tried to chat her up in the pub after, 15 year old mullet headed kid from an estate in rotherham, to me she seemed the most exotic and remarkable person i had ever seen, i was smitten. she pretended not to speak english. a good move in hindsite considering what a knob i was in those days.

andrew

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