• THIS IS THE 25th ANNIVERSARY YEAR FOR THE LES PAUL FORUM! PLEASE CELEBRATE WITH US AND SUPPORT US WITH A DONATION TO KEEP US GOING! We've made a large financial investment to convert the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and recently moved to a new hosting platform. We also have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!
  • WE HAVE MOVED THE LES PAUL FORUM TO A NEW HOSTING PROVIDER! Let us know how it is going! Many thanks, Mike Slubowski, Admin
  • Please support our Les Paul Forum Sponsors with your business - Gary's Classic Guitars, Wildwood Guitars, Chicago Music Exchange, Reverb.com, Throbak.com and True Vintage Guitar. From personal experience doing business with all of them, they are first class organizations. Thank you!

Your Best Concert Ever?

Aloha_Ark

Active member
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
154
Too many to remember. Can't recall the exact dates.

Allman Brothers Band - Fillmore East. The high lasted through the morning. This was music at its best, almost transcendental.

Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company - Fillmore East. Never had the opportunity to attend the first Monterey Pop festival, but this was a close second. Janis had so much energy she could have lit up the city without Con Ed.

BB King, Blues festival somewhere close to 2002-2004. When you see a band live, you can experience their groove from head to toe. BB gave me one of his picks after the concert. Yes, I was in row A, center. Not too often do I beat the Ticketmaster system. Nowadays, it would be impossible with bot attacks stealing all the good tickets.

Rolling Stones, Giants Stadium. Without a doubt, the best live rock band I've ever heard. Why? The discography! Very few bands get to write even 10% of what the Stones created. A mini stage popped up at half time. The Stones were front and center for the rest of the concert.
 

gibsonjunkie

Active member
Joined
Sep 2, 2003
Messages
150
For me, Neil Young, January 24,1973 at Madison Square Garden. We saw him in New Haven, and were floored by how awesome the music was. Then my buddy Mitch got tickets to this show. Show was opened both nights by Linda Rondstadt. Midway through the concert (I think right after Cinnamon Girl or Southern Man) someone ran out on stage and handed Neil a note. Neil then announced that the VietNam war was over. The place erupted! I still get goosebumps when I think about that.
 

viesun

New member
Joined
Jul 8, 2021
Messages
1
The 1975 concert in 2016 in London. I've been a fan since 2013, and when I was given tickets to their show, I was over the moon. Most of all I loved the performance of 'somebody else' it was magical. I now organize concerts and festivals for student bands in the UK. We travel around the country and negotiate with the owners of pubs, venues, and so on. I really liked the lighting system at this concert, and we ordered a similar one for our festival in 2019 from https://www.ontourevents.co.uk/event-lighting-hire. We often work with them. Conveniently, this company can call the development of 3d models because you often need to know how the lighting will work in some non-standard rooms and venues. It immediately reduces the level of anxiety about the event. Thanks to this concert, I realized what I wanted to do.
 
Last edited:

IMMUSICRULZ

Well-known member
Joined
May 25, 2021
Messages
616
My dad saw Fleetwood Mac on their Shake The Cage tour in 1988 that they did to promote their Greatest Hits album as well as their Tango In The Night album. Sadly Lindsey had already left the group by that time, to be replaced by Rick Vito and Billy Burnette.

They did lose a lot of popularity after that (or at least until the inauguration concert.)
 

rialcnis

Active member
Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
225
My dad saw Fleetwood Mac on their Shake The Cage tour in 1988 that they did to promote their Greatest Hits album as well as their Tango In The Night album. Sadly Lindsey had already left the group by that time, to be replaced by Rick Vito and Billy Burnette.

They did lose a lot of popularity after that (or at least until the inauguration concert.)
Reminds me: Years ago a very close friend of mine was Stevie's cousin, living in the San Fernando Valley. Stevie and Lindsey were not yet in Fleetwood Mac and had just recorded their first and only Solo album.

I met (saw ) them briefly when they visited my friend's mother's and father's house and had that new album proudly in hand. Stevie's family had previously lived in Arizona, where the Grandfather was an owner of Greyhound Bus. My friend was also a Nicks. I don't think anyone expected what was to come with their success.
 

Norton

Active member
Joined
Jun 18, 2019
Messages
150
Prince, at a small Latin restaurant in the Minneapolis warehouse district. He walked in with a bodyguard carrying a guitar, ask the house band if he could use their amp, played for almost 2 hours just by himself. Handed the guitar back to his bodyguard and walked out.
 

O Riley

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2021
Messages
85
Saw a lot of great acts including Hendrix in the late sixties/ early seventies but whenever someone asks this question I always think of the time I saw Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1977-78 (?) at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. It was a magical, religious experience.
I saw Marley and the Wailers in San Diego. Great seats up close, not that anyone ever sat down.
At one point, I thought it would be fun to go sit with the sound board guys, and asked if they wanted to smoke some?
Ey mon...ear...seet down...you want somting to drink? ... :giggle: ... That place was jumping, from start to finish.

But the best concert I can remember seeing was ~ The Rolling Stones ~ at the L.A. Forum. Late 1970 something..?..
Again, really, really great seats up close. Ronny had just jumped on board.

Keith and Mick were in extra fine form. Absolutely healthy and strong!

Not a single person left that show that night without saying that was the best show they'd ever seen !
 
Last edited:

jokerpoker

New member
Joined
Aug 23, 2023
Messages
6
Reading your concert experiences brought back some epic memories! Fillmore East – that vibe must've been out of this world. And Janis Joplin's energy? Man, I can only imagine the electricity in the air. BB King sharing his pick with you sounds like a dream come true – row A, center? Lucky you! I've got a story too. Once, I stumbled upon this hidden gem – a live event by the beach. The Santa Monica Live Event Production Services team was behind it, and let me tell you, they nailed it. If you're interested in how they do it, you can check out https://lalightingandsound.com/. It's like they understood the magic of live music and made it tangible.
 
Last edited:

MojoJones

Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
42
large_1968_mc.jpg


I'd have to argue that my first was the best, perhaps not so much for the music, as for being in the moment and being part of a historic event.

I was 12 and in junior high in 1968. I was a latch key kid and had plenty of unsupervised time before mom came home. I had already owned Disraeli Gears for about 6 months (it was the 60's and at that time Cream had hits on AM radio) and I had just purchased Wheels of Fire. It was all over the radio that Cream was coming to town for their final US performance around Halloween. No one at school would or could go with me. On my way home from school I impulsively hopped a bus to the fringes of the nearby college campus and bought a ticket, and then hopped another bus to the broken down old hockey arena where the concert was being held.

I had a nose bleed seat, a forgettable opening act played, then we waited and waited, because the bands flight from NYC was delayed. Fights started to break out and the ushers were cops, and people were getting busted. Finally the band showed about an hour late. When the lights went out I slipped out of my seat and rushed the stage. When I slid in, in front of the front row, no one took any notice of me, as I was a shrimpy twelve year old. Based on their reactions to the music most of them were likely tripping their asses off anyway and oblivious to anything but the music. I watched most of the show, which was only about an hour long, as they were late and had to play a 9:30 show as well, about 6 feet from Clapton, who I believe was playing a Firebird. I'm guessing they couldn't have played more than 5 or 6 long songs: I remember that they opened with White Room (their current AM radio hit), and jammed out on Politician, I'm So Glad, Crossroads, and then closed with the drum showcase Toad. (an hours worth of material!!!! Go figure songs were long in those days!)

I mostly remember Clapton closing his eyes and tipping his head back as he launched into his solos as if he was channeling something coming from deep inside him. To shrimpy little me, he was this god-like guitar shaman. Bands had no sound reinforcement in those days so Clapton's sound was coming from two 100 watt Marshall stacks just to the side of him, which were like a tsunami of sound coming at me. I could feel it viscerally, deep down in my bones... the raw power washing over me was electrifying.

During the interminable drum solo Ginger Baker kept breaking drum stick after drum stick, roadies kept opening cans of Budweiser for him with can openers (a bygone era before pull tab beer) and he would continue drumming with two feet and one hand, while attempting to down the beers, most of which wound up running down his long stringy beard and scrawny chest. I then got the bright idea that I could just walk back stage and get one of those broken drum sticks as a souvenir. This being the pre Woodstock, pre 1970's, pre professionally staged rock productions era, the entrance to the side of the stage was guarded by some high off his ass biker who was flirting with some sweet young things. I slipped right past them and found I couldn't get as close to the drum riser as I thought. And I bumped into a cool looking dude who I assumed was one of the session musicians listed on the Wheel's of Fire liner notes (I naively assumed they took those guys on the road with them!). He was dressed in the same kind of Hendrixy gaucho style as Clapton, and was quite personable, he actually talked to me for a minute or two like I was a real person, rather than just telling me "beat it kid you don't belong back here!" As he was obviously a rock star I asked him for his autograph -- which read "Stephen Stills, formerly of Buffalo Springfield."

I called my mom from a payphone to get a ride home, and was in some trouble, but it soon blew over. Single moms have a lot to deal with. My ears were ringing for the next few days. My takeaway unfortunately was that playing guitar was for shamanic rock gods only and it took me about another ten years to summon the courage to actually pick up a guitar. But that visceral experience of watching and hearing Clapton from up close is what eventually inspired me to pick up the guitar and play. The rest as they say is history...
 
Last edited:

lure555

Swirling Vortex of Sound, Classic Club
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
3,464
Two stand out. SRV with BB King almost a year before he died, and At The Drive-Inn when they were at their most popular. Both headliners had such incredible energy it was unbelievable. SRV was practically levitating!
 

bursty

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Messages
560
the 'best' concert ever is typically for me the last one I get to enjoy.
Saw my first concert on July 30, 1976; Blackmore's Rainbow with Dio and Cozy Powell.
Next month was KISS on the Destroyer Tour.
Not bad a for a 15 year old.

Over the past nine months I have seen seven shows which were from several musical genres but they were all fantastic shows.
The best one was the last one five weeks ago tonight; the Tom Keifer Band.
Tom is a supernatural born rock star; no doubt.
God bless Tom for continuing his musical legacy as a total bad ass of rock and roll exceptionalism.

 

Elmore

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 10, 2003
Messages
1,885
Yes, in the round, 1979. Tormato tour. The venue was The Omni in Atlanta, Ga.
 
Last edited:

fretwire

Active member
Joined
May 21, 2003
Messages
1,429
Zeppelin in DC 1977. A lot of folks think that tour sucked, but for an 18 year old just starting his major concert experiences...it was magic for me!
Then there was Bon Scott era AC/DC opening for UFO with Michael Schenker 1979. That show blew me away. Been playing guitar ever since!
 

renderit

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
11,035
For me it was Poco.

Saw 'em the first time then hit every concert they did I could drive to.

Rusty Young on Pedal Steel was inspiring, but also banjo and guitar.

Most of his band mates got all the attention later, but Rusty was a notch above.

Super musicians.

Then it would be Johnny Winter.

He would come up on stage alone after 2-3 warm up bands and sit with an acoustic and that metal snake around his neck and play slide (with the snake) for 3 minutes and you realized no one that came before him would EVER have that much talent.

Then the Earl Scruggs review. His family could play the shit outta ANYTHING with strings. All of them. Anything.

Then probably the Allman Bros. Wowed always.

Then the Eagles.

Then Bowie.

And too many to count.

Wish the 70's never ended.
 

MarcB

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2023
Messages
1,486
I honestly can’t name the best concert/gig I’ve attended.. but there are some that remain memorable.. for various reasons.

Iron Maiden at Reading Festival circa 2004/5 - standing next to Nicko’s drum riser and the tech folding back the curtain to reveal Nicko in full flight during a song..

Rage against the Machine at Brixton Academy circa 93/94 .. absolutely blew the roof off! People actually started leaving coz it was so mental lol.

Arthur Lee/Love (small venue in London) circa 2005/6..I was taking loudly while Arthur was playing his new demos over the PA.. Arthur told me to “shut the fuck up man”
 
Top