Best and Worst Concert

The best concert I ever saw was a concert I was invited to on a date..2 people I thought I did not even like at the time..Sting and Annie Lennox. Sting came out in a three piece suit and killed it. He sang for hours. Annie Lennox was the most phenomenal singer that I have ever heard. Her voice is so pure. Even better in person. She did the entire concert in 7 inch stilettos.
I had never been so moved at a concert.

The worst concert I ever saw was my favorite singer of all time: Bruce Springsteen! I saved up and bought a $600 ticket and was so excited.
He was horrible. It was just him and I guess at that time he was on the outs with the E street band because he did not do one of their numbers. He just did a bunch of lame stuff that I had never heard of. He ran around and played each instrument himself and it was so sad. Then his 9 and 10 year old kids came out and tried to play some instruments too...and they played a bunch of kids music..and they kept talking about Jesus which was fine and all but not what I was expecting.
I left early after looking forward to the concert for months.

Anyway, I just bought a bunch of tix to my favorite groups..most of which were popular several years (or decades) ago..and I was just curious what were your best and worst experiences?

Fun thread. I would say that my BEST experience was a Springsteen concert in Houston this past May. I lucked into general admission PIT tickets and stood at the base of the stage. Snapped a picture of the setlist before they started to play-and enjoyed every change he called for during the night. Great venue--a pavilion in the Woodlands. Had the great energy I was hoping for--I mean--a 63 year old rocker doing a non-stop three hour show?? Went to the concert knowing I had PIT tickets-but had no idea I'd have an elbow on the stage. That narrowly beats out the FREE concert (standing in the rain) in early April--NCAA officials braced for 30,000 and there might have been 10,000 due to rain!

Worst show sadly also Springsteen--as Maggie May noted above. I believe it was out at the NOKIA theater in Grand Prairie. He was supporting a solo album-and I brought my (then) wife with me-and two friends. I was SO embarrassed--THIS was the artist I bragged non-stop over. It was tough to sit thru..I remember him talking about his neighbor and somehow linking it to a song called "Silver Palomino." God awful but had huge expectations. As I recall he was supporting the Devils and Dust album at the time.

Good thread MM

Springsteen and E Street Band is always a good show. When Springsteen goes solo ... the energy is not there. The songs are good but without the energy ... its not good.

One of the best I saw was Jimmy Buffet at the Southern Star Amphitheater at AstroWorld. He was touring and not promoting an album. Good concert, excellent energy.

The worst was AeroSmith at Smirnoff one November. Talk about phoning it in. I was pissed when I left. I felt cheated.

Best was a tie: Rolling Stones in mid 70's and Little Feat in late 70's. Lowell George and the boys were musical, technical geniuses...

Worst was a Grateful Dead concert when they ditched their FANTASTIC sound system of over 500 medium size speakers and went commercial with the standard set. It wasn't that bad but the sound difference was there. Never figured out why they did that...cost maybe.

Maggie, you're such a rocker !

The worst: it was so long ago but it's easy to remember. Carly Simon at the Emory University gymnasium in Atlanta, Ga.. Yep, that's right, a freaking gym. She had just cut her first and really only good album and she hadn't built a following. Must have been 200 - 250 people there and she was scared shitless performing. She would actually scold her band between songs.

The best: 3 way tie - all The Stones. Their last tour in the states, Boston Garden, 50 and Counting Tour. Mick still had it. At the Texas Motor Speedway a few years back, Bridges to Babylon Tour I think, Dave Mathews did a great duo with Jagger - " Wild Horses ".

But probably the best of the 3, 2006, Zelker Park in Austin, A Bigger Bang Tour. Over 40 thousand fans running around on the grass doing unmentionable stuff. Jagger was running full speed the whole night. When Lisa Fischer chimes in with support vocals on " Gimme Shelter ", the hair on the back of your neck sticks up.

It's kinda strange. Every time you see The Rolling Stones, you think you just saw their last performance. Nadda ! They just finished a date in New Zealand a few days ago.

Wait a minute ... the worst were the fucking Doobie Bros. in '84. They were on a farewell tour, the first of many. The Doobies only played four songs, concert lasted 45 minutes. Complete waste of time, even the potheads were pissed ...

Nothing else comes close. Everyone has heard of Woodstock and most have heard about Monterrey Pop festivals but the best was here. I was on leave from the military getting ready to go to Panama for Jungle Warfare and Jungle Survival schools. I would be in Vietnam in less than six months.


The Texas International Pop Festival was held on an old drag strip. The camp grounds were at Lake Lewisville. Imagine hundreds of people skinny dipping. I don't remember which night. There was a lot of substances that we can't talk about. At the camp grounds, they had bands that performed for free. Even though he didn't perform during the festival, Jimmy Hendrix jammed with BB King and a band called Spirit. I was sitting within 10 feet of them.

Worst was the Rolling Stones after they released Angie. Jagger came out on stage with makeup looking like a drag queen. He was booed off the stage.

impossible question to answer, given the many shows I have seen.. around 250 in total.. but a few that come to mind, for best..

(1) Fleetwood Mac, 1977, my first..

(2) the Bee Gees, 1979, when they played their first show since Staurday Night Fever was released, starting the tour in Fort Worth.

(3) Michael Jackson, 1988..

(4) Clapton Guitarfest, 2004, Cotton Bowl

(5) Ronnie Spector, 2010, Minneapolis

worst? I will go with Waylon & Willie, 1978.. Waylon was drunk, as usual, and played 4 songs, then split after Willie joined him for "Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be Cowboys".. Willie took over, and played.. and played.. and wouldn't stop playing.. I realize he had to fill some of Waylon's aborted time, but I was sick of Willie when the night was over..

Envious OldLRRP. What a great lineup and it just dawned on me what your handle represents. Duh! My utmost respect goes out to you for your service.

CT, ditto. Hard to narrow it down. I'll list a few of my favorites:

1) Genesis, mid 80's. Incredible performance and amazing light show
2) Cheap Trick - I've seen them numerous times but my favorite was probably the first time in 1978
3) Dweezil Zappa - Zappa plays Zappa. Basically Frank's son put the band back together and played a bunch of his dad's stuff. I actually liked Dweezil's show better than when I saw Frank.

Worst and Best:

Rolling Stones around 1981 in the Cotton Bowl. Pouring down rain through the whole show. Made it hard to enjoy.

Great thread. Thanks OP

Rolling Stones around 1981 in the Cotton Bowl. Pouring down rain through the whole show. Made it hard to enjoy. Originally Posted by Rock'er

I hate to, ahem, rain on your memory, but it was not that way.. as background, the Stones played 2 shows, Halloween and November 1st.. and it was 1981.. ZZ Top opened.

I was at the same show you were..Halloween.. the following day was sunny, great weather.. the show we attended was overcast, threat of rain throughout.. however, the actual rain was sporadic, at most.. early in the show, a light rain for 2 songs.. if you recall, Jagger said "please God, make it stop raining".. and it stopped.. untill the final song, when it rained fairly hard.. the Boys normally came out for an encore, but the rain picked up, and there was no way.. show over.

Geez Maggie...you never saw Rod Stewart??

Geez Maggie...you never saw Rod Stewart?? Originally Posted by Prolongus

she did.. last May

impossible question to answer, given the many shows I have seen.. around 250 in total.. but a few that come to mind, for best..

(1) Fleetwood Mac, 1977, my first..

(2) the Bee Gees, 1979, when they played their first show since Staurday Night Fever was released, starting the tour in Fort Worth.

(3) Michael Jackson, 1988..

(4) Clapton Guitarfest, 2004, Cotton Bowl

(5) Ronnie Spector, 2010, Minneapolis

worst? I will go with Waylon & Willie, 1978.. Waylon was drunk, as usual, and played 4 songs, then split after Willie joined him for "Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be Cowboys".. Willie took over, and played.. and played.. and wouldn't stop playing.. I realize he had to fill some of Waylon's aborted time, but I was sick of Willie when the night was over.. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

That first Clapton guitarfest was amazing. Fantastic lineup, but man was it hot out there.

One of my recent favorites was John Fogerty at Verizon Theater. He still sounds great after all these years.

That first Clapton guitarfest was amazing. Fantastic lineup, but man was it hot out there. Originally Posted by Sleepy363

I couldn't believe Dallas scored that show, with the amazing list of artists... once in a lifetime-type opportunity.. do you have the DVD? I do, and I'm confounded everytime I watch it, because the camera shots in the audience are so close to where I was, and I wore a bright orange T-shirt.. easy to pick me out in the crowd.. but watching the DVD, there are a number of orange T-shirt wearing Guys! I haven't seen myself yet, and I'm sure next time I watch, I'll get distracted, trying to locate my damn orange T-shirt wearing self again!

That first Clapton guitarfest was amazing. Fantastic lineup, but man was it hot out there.
Originally Posted by Sleepy363

The one thing that pissed me off about that show was that there was a big storm threatening and after a really nice Clapton set, Jeff Beck came out and only did one song. The guy I wanted to see most and one freaking song. If the storm had showed up 5 minutes later and chased everyone off that would've been one thing, but they did a complete set change and had ZZTop do their set as well.