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Your Worst Concert Ever

Foggy72

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Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
442
This would be the flip side of "Best Concert Ever".

It was actually hard to come up with one, but I'll say the MC5 at the RockPile in Toronto around 1970. They were insanely loud and I couldn't decipher one word from the singer. Just a cacophony.
 

Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
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Sep 9, 2004
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Sadly, it was Dickey Betts. He had just split with The Allman Brothers, and put Great Southern back together again. They were so sloppy we walked out.
 

thin sissy

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Jan 2, 2006
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2,691
About a 100 SRV tribute acts :LOL: . I unfortunately never got into Stevie because I had seen his cover acts too many times, his music sounded overdone to me. Not a rag on Stevie though, I know he was a monster.
 

AA00475Bassman

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Apr 26, 2016
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3,769
12/13/85 Stevie Ray Vaughan @ Orpheum Theater, Minneapolis, MN , I waited for this appearance like no other show . The sound man PHUCKED it so bad so loud undistinguished wall of sound ........he just kept playing you know the man was sinking down !
 

Guitar Whiskey

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Aug 10, 2006
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2,757
Joe Bonamassa at the Ryman Auditorium. TOO DAMN LOUD; unbearable. Walked out by the 6th song. Not giving up my hearing for a concert.
 

Red Baron

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Jul 14, 2004
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6,774
Joe Bonamassa at the Ryman Auditorium. TOO DAMN LOUD; unbearable. Walked out by the 6th song. Not giving up my hearing for a concert.
I had a similar experience at a Whitesnake show in a small venue. I couldn't distinguish individual instruments/vocals, it was just a wall of noise.
 

Bob Womack

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Apr 8, 2002
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2,191
My mother said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything." Let's just say it was a very popular band and they chose to tour their "deep cuts." The audience started leaving halfway through.

Bob
 

somebodyelseuk

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Jun 10, 2020
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454
Manic Street Preachers, V Festival '99. Arrogant a$$holes, late, went off after two songs, came back on and were just obnoxious.
U2, Manchester Apollo '84, massively overrated - Big Country, the week after, were ten times better.
The Alarm, every gig. Great band, but the constant referencing having supported U2 in '83.... it got old in '85, now it's embarrassing. Move on FFS.
 

oldog

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2003
Messages
201
Johnny Paycheck played a bar 1/4 mile from my house. Paycheck was drunk and abusive, the backup band hadn't bothered to learn his songs, someone loaned Paycheck an old blackguard Telecaster that wouldn't stay in tune for a whole song. Just a dream.
 

ourmaninthenorth

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Mar 28, 2009
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7,119
Got to be honest here, any place there was beer, women and music...in no particular order, was never a place I got bored. If the band were shite there were always a few more things to go at.

I often times looked forward to the "going at..." more than the Band. I liked to stay busy.

Being young and daft was bloody ace....

As is being somewhat older and daft...

;)
 

J T

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Oct 20, 2005
Messages
10,501
Van Morrison at the theater in Madison Square Garden.

The second night of his shows. The night before I saw him, the papers said he was great.

When he came on the night I saw him, he sat down at the piano, the band started, he just sat there. The band just kept playing the intro over and over he finally mumbled something and I really could not figure out what song he was playing. He did that for another two tunes, got up walked off stage, the lights came up. It was over. Everyone in the audience was just quiet. There was a little applause and everyone left. What a huge disappointment.
 

thin sissy

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Jan 2, 2006
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Manic Street Preachers, V Festival '99. Arrogant a$$holes, late, went off after two songs, came back on and were just obnoxious.
U2, Manchester Apollo '84, massively overrated - Big Country, the week after, were ten times better.
The Alarm, every gig. Great band, but the constant referencing having supported U2 in '83.... it got old in '85, now it's embarrassing. Move on FFS.
Too bad to hear that about Manics :( . I saw them maybe 4-5 years ago at a small gig in Sweden, and they were the opposite! James came across as a very humble guy and they were very friendly with the audience. (Not that this changes your experience...)
 

jrgtr42

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Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
I don't know that i've had a 'worst' concert like these.
IMO, if |I'm out at live music, it's like pizza or sex - even when it's bad it's still pretty good.
There's been a few that I've been disappointed at - |Aerosmith maybe 8 or 9 years ago, at the Boston (whatever corporate sponsor) Garden - |I've been seeing them since the mid 90's and they keep getting better every time, but this was an off show, especially for being a 'hometown' show. Just no excitement, none of them were on that night. I saw them again the next summer and they completely redeemed themselves. ||A few were too loud - Bad Brains, The Misfits, Letters to Cleo - all three of those shows took my hearing a couple days to come back. Probably lost some ear function there...
and a couple where the frontman was completely wasted - but each of those times the rest of the band picked up the slack.
 

bursty

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Dec 25, 2012
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544
December 9, 1978, the Aerosmith 'Live Bootleg! Tour'

WORST ****ing show EVER; it was so loud you could not distinguish what song the band was playing.
My ears were ringing for the next three days.
It sucked worse than anything imaginable.
That was the only time I ever saw Aerosmith play a concert & I went out of my way to NEVER see them, ever again.
 

DANELECTRO

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Feb 24, 2003
Messages
6,318
It looks like we have a theme here. Excessive volume. For me it was Billy Squire opening for Styx. We were about a dozen rows back from the bass bins. I was wearing earplugs and it was still deafening. I like my music loud, but this was about as loud and musical as putting your head inside of a jet engine. It was an outdoor venue, so we abandoned our seats and sat on on the lawn about 50 yards back (and it was still pretty f'ing loud). When Styx came on, the volume was lower. Still loud enough to make my ears ring, but noticeably lower. I think that after getting pounded by high volume concerts night after night, some soundmen are about 50% deaf so they crank up the volume to match what sounds like the right volume to themselves.
 
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Billy Porter

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Mar 16, 2005
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1,129
I may upset a few here but.........The Stones at St James' Park Newcastle June 1982. The songs just went on and on. The local press reported that bootleggers were selling tickets for £100 ( a lot of dosh back then). Tried to sell mine but the bootleggers had wads of them and selling them for £5. Should have went earlier and caught the support band instead - INXS.

Speaking of too loud - Black Country Communion, O2 Academy, Newcastle July 2011. I like Bonomassa but it was just far too loud. My son was enjoying it so I had to stay till the end. Ears were ringing for days
 

J.D.

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May 24, 2006
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10,030
Complaining a rock concert is too loud is like complaining a stripper's tits are too big LOL. Wear some ear plugs.

Worst concert by far (and I've seen quite a few bad ones) was Van Halen with Gary Cherone. Eddie was a mess and Gary, well, Gary isn't DLR or Sammy. One of the few concerts that was so painfully bad I had to walk out after only a few songs.
 

brandtkronholm

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Dec 3, 2006
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2,737
Got to be honest here, any place there was beer, women and music...in no particular order, was never a place I got bored. If the band were shite there were always a few more things to go at.

I often times looked forward to the "going at..." more than the Band. I liked to stay busy.

Being young and daft was bloody ace....

As is being somewhat older and daft...

;)
I can't comment on a "worst-ever" concert I've seen...but I've played some clunkers!

I played a gig (South-of-Boston suburb night club (forget name) ~1995) where there was only our music, no one (no ladies) and no one drinking beer. In fact, there was NO ONE other than our sound man and the staff.
If memory serves, we were asked to play with less than 24 hours notice and we were warned that no one would be there, but the guy paid us in advance, so there's that.

Beer + ladies + music = good fun.
BUT music + no one + no one drinking beer = LAME ... or paid rehearsal!
 
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