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Your Worst Concert Ever

Johnny Q

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Joined
Mar 8, 2003
Messages
511
I have seen hundreds of concerts and honestly, I don't really have any disasters to report. Well....almost.

The Cult Allentown, Pa 1989 opening for Metallica. Ian Astbury's voice was utterly shot and he was drunk/stoned off his azz. When the show ended, the rest of the band left the stage but he stood there, dazed and confused. The bands roadies came out on the stage to lead him off. By way of comparison, I saw them in Montclair NJ in 2019 and they were FANTASTIC!

This one was not quite as disastrous as The Cult show, but Van Halen 2004 at the NJ Meadowlands. Eddie was absolutely awful. I spent all day bragging to my wife (who never saw VH live) that she was about to witness one of the all time greats, but one would be hard pressed to realize that based on his playing alone. He came out for the encores with "Samurai Hair" which we learned later from Sammy's book - meant trouble in paradise. Not to speak ill of the dead, just tellin' it like it is.
 

jrgtr42

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
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.
Pretty sure you're right there - but the best ones use SPL meters to get to a specific level in soundcheck, then may adjust a bit later on depending.
I was watching a sort-of-ducumentary on setting up a Rush show, and the sound guy mentioned that he was setting it at 102DB (may be off a bit there,) during the setup phase. Over years working for them, that's what they found worked best.
 

veeman

Active member
Joined
Sep 23, 2001
Messages
979
Styx, Mr Rubato tour, what the hell were they thinking? Aerosmith, Tyler was so hammered he could barely stand, and both replacement guitarist. Good thing beer was cheap back then.
 

MattD1960

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
749
Rolling Stones, Gillette Stadium 2006

THIS WAS BY FAR THE WORST thing i have ever spent money to see. I LOVE the stones. i have seen anamatroic robots at theme parks with more life. Mick sand like his vocal coach told him to and he ran about half a marathon but the music SUCKED. keith sounded outa tune, and ron wood was more worried about lighting up a new cig for each song then he was about what he was playing. the worst part was ( i was 16 at the time) my buddy and his parents all thought it was AMAZING. I was so let down, i didnt listen to any stones for like 2 years i hated that they took my 50$ and didnt even care that the music sucked
 

Morlock

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Joined
May 22, 2018
Messages
58
In terms of well known bands it would be Guns n' Roses 1988, Melbourne, Australia. They were late starting, show from memory was shortened due to that. Sound was kind of sloppy. The support act was Aussie band Kings of the Sun and were just way better.
 

tjdjr1

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
71
Bonnie raitt, jackson browne, and not keb mo. The musicians themselves were good, but all they did (Raitt and brown) is stress for people to go and vote. they played american folk music and after every song put down whoever was the republican running for president then. When people go to a concert to hear music they are going to get away from everday BS not hear artist pound their political views. I felt bad for Keb Mo he was all about the music and you could tell he didn't want to go along with the scheme of things but wanted to play and make money. All he stated was to go out and vote no particular party and he played a good set.
 

Ransom

Member
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
16
Sad to say, but a couple years back I seen Ozzy. Dude can't even sing anymore. Voice cracking every pitch change. Was pretty dreadful I ended up leaving about halfway through the set I couldn't bare it anymore.
 

S. Cane

Active member
Joined
Dec 10, 2014
Messages
656
One more in the "there's no such thing as too loud" and "if I'm out for music it can't be really bad" crew.

Concerts, well.

Now if I may derail the thread just a little bit, regarding gigs, the worst have always been the best and most fun. I'm not talking about the ones I've played badly, I mean the more messed up the gig, the better. The other guys in the band would always be really pissed and I'd be laughing my pants off and enjoying my beer.
 

Vics53

Active member
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
149
Hate to say it, but it was Led Zeppelin for their "Houses of the Holy" tour. I love LZ and Jimmy Page is one of the reasons why I try to play guitar, but he and John Bonham already had "more than their share" from song one. Very, very sloppy playing. No excuse for being that drunk and having that much disrespect for people who paid good money to come and see you. I left about halfway through. Turns out some friends of mine were also at the same show and I found out much later that they also left about the time I did.

Years later when the "How the West Was Won" DVD set came out, my reaction was "now, why couldn't I have been at one of those shows?" Brilliant!
 
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brandtkronholm

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Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
Hate to say it, but it was Led Zeppelin for their "Houses of the Holy" tour. I love LZ and Jimmy Page is one of the reasons why I try to play guitar, but he and John Bonham already had "more than their share" from song one. Very, very sloppy playing. No excuse for being that drunk and having that much disrespect for people who paid good money to come and see you. I left about halfway through. Turns out some friends of mine were also at the same show and I found out much later that they also left about the time I did.

Years later when the "How the West Was Won" DVD set came out, my reaction was "now, why couldn't I have been at one of those shows?" Brilliant!
What was the location or date of the Led Zeppelin the show you saw?
 

brandtkronholm

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Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
I can't remember the date, but it was at Cobo Arena in Detroit.
I'm going to guess that you saw the second show: Friday July 13, 1973.

Here's the reviews from a leading super-fan bootleg website
Friday July 13, 1973 Comments: The group is in an experimental mood but they're also in great shape albeit Bonzo is a bit in the back at times and first few songs are sloppy. Dazed And Confused is just jaw-dropping. Apart from the little mixup going into the final verse, it's an incredible version. Plant is specifically in good form, especially on The Song Remains The Same and The Rain Song but near the end of the show, his voice is significantly more damaged. The whole band is in a very loose mood in Whole Lotta Love and Jimmy's soloing in Heartbreaker is breathtaking. This is the only time Dancing Days was played on the US Tour in 1973 and the last time it was ever played in electric form ... it would show up in the acoustic sections of 1977!

Sadly, the day before at Cobo Arena was different.
Comments: This is one of the greatest Led Zeppelin concerts ever! A killer show from the band, especially Jones, who's bass is particularly aggressive. The funky jamming in Whole Lotta Love is excellent with the bass and drums working overtime while Jimmy's Theremin and Robert's shrieks battle over the cooking rhythm section! A great version of Dazed And Confused played here too! The Ocean encore is preceded by Bonham's talk where he explaining that on this song he was allowed to shout. Sounds really, really great except for some incredibly idiotic and moronic singing by the taper. Also some stupid folks thrown few firecrackers on stage what provocated Plant to the following comment: "Don't thrown anymore firecrackers, 'cos that's silly! It breaks the concentration, of which we've got very little left."
Alas. What a bummer it must have been to leave a Zeppelin show early. Dang.

As a super-fan myself, I can say that 7/12/73 is a fine show. The show on 7/13/73, while not up to the standards of the previous day, is a delight - bu then, I'm a super fan!

Website: https://www.argenteumastrum.com/
 

Vics53

Active member
Joined
Jan 21, 2021
Messages
149
I'm going to guess that you saw the second show: Friday July 13, 1973.

Here's the reviews from a leading super-fan bootleg website


Sadly, the day before at Cobo Arena was different.

Alas. What a bummer it must have been to leave a Zeppelin show early. Dang.

As a super-fan myself, I can say that 7/12/73 is a fine show. The show on 7/13/73, while not up to the standards of the previous day, is a delight - bu then, I'm a super fan!

Website: https://www.argenteumastrum.com/
I was a fan back then and I'm still a fan! Just a shame that I saw them on a very bad night due to booze or whatever.
We all have bad nights and I know that. But this was just....."no...no...no." Again, love the live "West" DVD's. And the O2 show? OMG!!!!!! Loved it!!!!
 

Kmonk

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2021
Messages
2
KISS on "The Hottest Show On Earth" tour. Paul's vocals were horrendous and they took forever between songs. I was able to get a recording off the board and the vocals are so bad that I actually felt sorry for them. They took at least 30 to 45 seconds between every song. Paul would talk but only two to four words at a time. They would play a song and then Paul would say something like "People...................................................This song..................................................Is a Song.....................................That was on an album.....................................The album....................................................was released....................................................in 1977..............................................The song.........................................was played on the radio..............................................................and was one of the biggest hits............................................we had..................................in the 1970s.................................................The song............................................was on the Love Gun album....................................................You know the song........................................................The song is called.....................................................................CHRISTINE SIXTEEN!"

This went on after every song. I've seen KISS many times but this was by far the worst show I've been to.
 

filtersweep

New member
Joined
Mar 1, 2015
Messages
15
The name of the artist doesn’t matter- but her fill-in/touring bassist didn’t really know the songs.

When the bass is trying to ‘follow’ everyone else, you know it is a disaster.
 

Cholo

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2002
Messages
35
Easy. The Grateful Dead. To be fair, it was their 2nd to last show ever with Jerry. I was fired up to finally see the Dead...I should have went 10 years before when they apparently were still grooving according to everything I read but for whatever reason, I couldn't so it was exciting to finally score tickets. I really enjoyed Blues Traveler as the opening band and then the remaining members of the The Band middled. They were good too. Then the Dead came on...and it was horrendous. No energy, unrecognizable songs and Jerry was just going through the motions. There was no emotion in his playing and he seemed...um...distracted. It was raggedy in a bad way. I knew enough to flow with the Dead but when it's off, it's off and even my wife looked at me sideways after the first 2 hours. We finally agreed it was not going to get better and we hightailed it out of there. It was no surprise to me that Jerry passed shortly after.
 

Amp360

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
852
Easy. Guns and Roses right when they were new. I won tickets at Tower Records and it was awful.
 

Laker

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2004
Messages
45
Sad to say the most disappointing show would have to be Ray Charles at Milwaukee’s Summerfest. The video at this site explains the cause of the problems, Ray’s reluctance to go on because of the ambient noise of the Summerfest grounds. His show started an hour late and his personal manager kept telling the stage crew to push his monitor higher and higher, so when Ray finally started to play his monitors were screaming with feedback Causing him to stop playing and yell “why does this f***’n s*** keep happening to me” over the PA system. It was real pandemonium.
Ray Charles at Summerfest
 

thin sissy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 2, 2006
Messages
2,691
Easy. Guns and Roses right when they were new. I won tickets at Tower Records and it was awful.
I would love to read specifics, were they just bad, drunk, else? I would have thought one of their early gigs would be the one to watch :)
 
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