Best and worst concert experiences...

[rootabaga]

Saw this on a car forum and thought it was a pretty good idea.

Best is easy: The Boss, playing Arco Arena about 25 years ago. He took a break here and there and let his band members do the same, but he was playing for just about three hours, always a showman. Just a terrific show.

Worst is a bit tougher, and I'd give it a tie. George Strait came out to a square stage. Band was placed in the middle, there was a mike in the center front of each side of the square. He'd sing a song or two at each mike, then move to the next. He never smiled, never joked, never talked, never introduced his band, just sang, pretty low energy, finished up his set and left. That ties with Twisted Sister, who came out all pretty loaded, and the lead singer (can't recall his name now) slurred words and cussed out his audience, insulting them and just randomly cursing, some pretty foul stuff. Bad musically, bad showmanship, just an asshat. They opened for Iron Maiden, who then came out and did an outstanding job. Made me wonder how the whole tour went.

Anyway, that's a setup...what's yours?

 

[Clementine_3]

Best is actually a tough one. I've been to a few great shows over the years. I'm going with two, David Bowie and Gary Numan.

Bowie was a loooong time ago and, well, it was Bowie. He put on a great show, and it was a show. Honestly though, all he would have had to have done was walk out on stage and I would have been happy!

Numan was a few years ago. He was really sick with laryngitis so couldn't sing long/well but that actually didn't matter. It was a medium sized club and packed with die-hard fans. He came on stage and immediately apologized for probably having a bad show then said we (the audience) had a lot of work to do. The first half of the show was all 'oldies' so he made us sing them, he helped a little. He was having a blast, you could just tell, and so were we. He talked and joked a lot. The second half was all new stuff that he was working on and his latest album. He tore into those, held nothing back even though his voice was shot. I just had a lot of fun that night.

Worst would be Smashing Pumpkins. I took the kid, it was his first concert, and it was just a mess. Billy Corgan was sick (what is it w/me and sick singers?) and clearly didn't want to be there. The band was good but he sucked. They only played a really short set and called it a night. I was so disappointed but the kid loved it.

 

[tube517]

Best: U2 - 1985 Unforgettable Fire Tour April 10, 1985 Hampton, VA - A religious experience. 3 months before Live Aid. They had the whole audience in the palm of their hand. Easily the best and most memorable concert I ever saw.

Worst: Soundgarden - 1992 Tour Washington DC - Sound sucked. Cornell was off. Set list was boring. I drove 3 1/2 hours to see a terrible show

 

[Clementine_3]

I saw U2 before they exploded into U2 at a tiny local club. I knew they were going to be huge. That was a fun night for sure.

 

[Davdi]

Best: Princes Trust 30th Anniversary at the Tower of London: the remaining BeeGee duetted with Ronan Keating, Annie Lennox, Ozzy doing Paranoid (What else) while looking totally wasted. A great night, only spoilt by 5 pounds(!) for a bottle of Rolling Rock.

The Worst: Nine Blow Zero in a club too small for their PA.

 

[SavageRobot]

Think I may be a bit younger but here's my 2 pennies
Best would be not really a concert but Sonisphere 2014, absolutely destroyed it, headliners were Prodigy on Friday, Iron Maiden Saturday (Bruce Dickinson even put on a show and did a dogfight before they came on stage) and Metallica, absolutely awesome set, was all peoples requests. Then aside from that the rest of the fest was awesome line-up too, never a dull moment...and very, very drunk haha.
The worst isn't really due to music, it was one of our local gigs we used to do, small profit and raise money, and somewhere to go and rock out and get drunk when we were kids. I got on stage, about to crowd surf, swung arms in the air and jumped...the crowd parted...I accidentally punched the singer in the face when I threw my arms up, so much guilt