Please cite the most forgettable moment in the history of your favorite band. Remember; This is for posterity, so please include as many details as possible :)))
@waytoomuchstuff: I just saw/heard NRBQ live, and Terry Adams remains an amazing keyboardist. He is a very physical player, pounding the keys (electric piano and clavichord, organ) like Little Richard and/or Jerry Lee Lewis, but with the influences of Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra. His sense of humour and fun is very rare in the world of modern Rock music, which takes itself SO seriously (too much Steely Dan, not enough Rubinoos ;-).
NRBQ's current drummer (the replacement for longtime drummer Tom Ardolino, who died about a decade back) and Terry play off one another, trading bars of straight-vs-swing feel between themselves (piano playing straight time against the drums swinging for one bar, the drums playing straight time against swinging piano the next), a thing common in Jazz but rarely heard in Rock 'n' Roll. All four players also understand how to create tension-and-release, a trademark ability amongst the best ensemble bands.
And the pace of their 2-hour long set was amazing! No long pauses between songs, just one song blasting off as the last was ending. Not a dull moment the entire set! Great lyrics too, also alive with a sense of humour. I'll bet Terry Adams is great company!
@bdp24 Keyboardists just don't command the respect that hot guitar players do. Everything Nicki Hopkins touched benefited from his presence. Even the later QMS material.
In late 1968 I went to see Jeff Beck during his first solo U.S.A. tour (he’d already been over with The Yardbirds), after the release of his great Truth album, which I loved. I also loved his band on that album, who were also his road band at that time. I finally got to hear Nicky Hopkins live, whose piano playing I had long admired (especially on the early Kinks albums). I also really liked the drumming of Micky Waller, whose looks reminded me of actor Wally Cox (you youngins may not be familiar with the name). Playing a Telecaster bass (or was it one of those rare 1950’s very-early P-basses?) was some guy with a goofy hairdo and a huge nose (I’m sure you know it was Ronnie Wood), who was passable (I already had fairly high standards, my idea of a great bassist being Englishmen Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, and Jack Bruce, and Americans Bob Mosley, Jack Casady, and Phil Lesh. That was before I "got" the playing of James Jamerson, Rick Danko, Duck Dunn, and David Hood ;-) .
But this story involves the singer, who like the bassist had one of those Woody Woodpecker hairdos (what is it with British Rock stars and their ridiculous hair?). Part way into the set, the band played a song with an extended guitar solo. With nothing to do, the singer wandered back to the guitar rack, picked up and strapped on one of them, and started strumming chords.
Jeff, seeing this, stopped playing, just staring at the singer with the most intense look of contempt I have ever seen. He slowly sauntered over to his mic and said: "The f*cking thing isn’t even plugged in. Bloody wanker". The singer sheepishly removed the guitar and returned it to the rack. Hilarious!
The singer was, of course, Rod Stewart. Never cared for him myself.
@waytoomuchstuffTalk about being distracted! Reminds me of working in restaurants back in the day, work pool parties at apartment complexes always turned into nudist colony fun until the cops came. Can't believe some people didn't appreciate the diving board shenanigans!
One time I had choice between The Who and Led Z, chose The Who, just when Quadrophenia was coming out, never experienced a more silent mesmerized audience, simply awesome.
@snsFrom the looks of things, more than a few of your brain cells made it though it pretty good shape.
Mine goes something like this:
Texas International Music Festival, Dallas, TX 1969. After BB King’s gig, we were tired and began the hike back to the tent we pitched the night before for a quick lunch and to recharge our batteries (no, not our cell phones). On the hike back, we heard some commotion off to the right and saw a bunch of people in the lake. We took a few steps towards the lake and noticed that the people in the lake didn’t have any clothes on. Moving even nearer to the water, a closer inspection revealed the torso of a young lady, waste deep in water who could have graced the cover of that month’s Playboy magazine.
They say: "you can can’t blame a compass for pointing north" and our compasses were definittely pointing north. We were naked in the water faster than an air bag on a Ford and spent the next hour, or so, taking in the sights and sounds (mostly sights) of skinny dipping. We, then, made our way to the tent, cleaned up a litlte, wolfed down some chow, and pointed our feet back in the direction of the venue.
We got there just in time to see the band we just missed packing up their gear and heading off stage. A few days later, on the return trip home, we were reliving the good times we had while reviewing the schedule of the great bands at the venue. It was then, that we discovered the band we missed while we were skinny dipping -- Led Zeppelin!!!
I probably would have had fond memories of experiencing Led Zeppelin live -- on stage. But, one things for certain, I’ll NEVER forget the skiiny dipping.
@waytoomuchstuffI was far from perfect at many a concert, problem is I couldn't tell what level performers performing at! The old pass around ganja thing juiced up with liquid refreshments. How about lsd with Weather Report early 70's, small venue, wow, that was one major trip!
Okay, then. Let’s try flipping this. How about the time when the band was perfect, and you weren’t. Any takers? One comes to mind, but want to see if anyone else bites on this and wants to take the lead?
I'm a gigging saxophone player and have been with quite a few artists over the years including an amazing jam session with Lydia Pense from Cold Blood. Anyway.... I was playing a casino gig and went into the green room to change and there was this bleached out looking dude in our room. Come to find out it was Edgar Winter who was going on stage before us. He was really a nice guy and we talked about saxophone setups.
I've been to literally, thousands of concerts over my life, including some of the bands mentioned on this thread, can't recall a single incident of a really bad concert. Some didn't live up to my expectations, but not what I'd call bad.
Since we're picking on Bob, did see him at some outdoor venue many years ago, real Dylan fanboys out there, thought the concert mediocre at best, seemed like disinterested and distant person/performer to me. Thing I most recall most is how the fanboys just loved this mediocre concert, certainly cult of personality thing going on there.
Moondance Jam. Walker Minnesota, 2018. My vote goes to the young lady that forgot to lock the door behind her when she entered the Port-a-Potty. It’s always nice to meet new people at music festivals.
I know this doesn’t quite hit the target for the OP’s theme, but thought it was worth mentioning.
AC/DC, 1989, Maple Leaf Gardens Toronto. Loved the band/music. Dead boring show. Loud but no energy,, none. Lead singer (Hagar I think) steeps forward 5 feet, does lyric,,, steeps back 5 feet. Angus steep forward 5 feet. Wail on guitar. Stepp back 5 feet. Lead singer steep forward 5 feet,, does lyric.. steeps back.......
On and on like this the entire concert. Say "thank you very much (insert city here),, good night". Done. Gone. (but not forgotten).
I thought Bob would come out, say "Thanks for coming. It's good to be [wherever the hell we are]."
What do we get instead? Bob spending half the time with his back to us. No acknowledgement at all. Like we weren't even there. Also the acoustics of the venue were terrible. Not his problem that one.
@randym860- I don't know where you heard that story, but the only arrest that was made was one of Led Zeppelin's thug security guards. Nobody from the band was in any jail. And nothing was delayed 4 hours.
So far Devo is my favorite but there's a lot of good stuff here. Reminds me of the time I paid a ticket to see Greg Lake on a solo tour. Band came out and started jamming. Greg came out, opened his mouth, turned and looked at his sound guy and drew a slash across his throat as if to say "cut it, I'm done." Apparently suffering from a throat issue. End of concert.
1978, Led Zepplin concert in Tampa Stadium. About 5 minutes after they started playing a Florida thunderstorm with lightning started. The band left the stage for safety, and never came back. Concert over……
David Crosby has been one of my favorite musicians. It was sad and frustrating to hear of his absurd trashing of Daryl Hannah (Neil Young's future wife). Then the other stuff about Crosby started coming out and I'm sorry to say that this artist that I sort of worshipped is a total asshole.
First off this is not even close to my favorite band, in fact very forgettable. But an incredible deal none the less.
This is early 70's...a casual friend of mine got tickets to see Rick Wakeman at Madison Square Garden and offered me one for free. Ok I'll go. Wakeman was promoting "Journey To The Center of The Earth".
They played the whole album note for note perfectly, I mean perfect. And it was actually good.
After that Wakeman says to the audience (this is very nearly exact). "That is all the music we know and have practiced." The audience goes nuts! Wakeman gets back on the mike and says "alright alright, we'll play the first side of the album again."
They started to play as the Garden emptied out. I was confused and embarrassed at the same time.
I met Plant in Hong Kong, in a restaurant. It was the week of the handover to China in 1997. We saw him on the next table but respected his privacy.
Our group was taking photos of ourselves by putting the camera on delay and standing it on an upturned beer glass. We weren't using flash so the camera needed to stay still. Plant came over and offered to take the photo. I said 'Thanks but no, we're working on available light'. 'What a great album title!' Plant replied. I said 'Yes, but if you use it you'll have to pay me royalties!'
Plant then sat down at our table and we chatted for five minutes.
@roxy54”Saved” is a great choice for this topic! 👍
Meg Remy of US Girls, via a semi-recent Dylan-related interview, turned me on to a Dylan song that I’d never heard before, one from right before this unfortunate turn in his work (this being adjacent to that era, I’d never bothered to check it out) and that song was “Changing of the Guards” from Street Legal.
I thought that was such a great song.
My entry here: When Willie Nelson collaborated with Toby Keith on “Beer for my Horses.”
Went to see Robert Plant in Norfolk Virginia several years ago. Wonderful show. Had a great time at the show. When we got back to the hotel we hung out at the bar for a while. Met several members of his band. Plant didn’t show, but we did enjoy a nice conversation with the band members. The next morning we went down for breakfast and the hostess sat us next to the band members AND Robert Plant. had a great conversation with him. We didn’t come across as start struck knuckleheads (we all are huge Zeppelin fans since we were kids in the 70s. So meeting Plant was a dream come true. But we respected his space. We were chatting amongst ourselves when suddenly my chair began shaking like hell. I turn around and it was Plant, wishing is us a safe trip back to NY.
On a side note, while at the bar the after the show I met this amazingly attractive young woman. A self-ascribed Plant Groupie. She was there for one purpose, to bang Plant. She did get some pics with him and kissed him a bit (there is pictorial evidence). That's when we first knew plant was at our hotel. I am still in touch with her today. She is an art teacher in a Chesapeake VA area school district.
On another side note, I met his security chief at the hotel too. Big scary British guy. But very pleasant. When we got home, I posted some pics on social media and a British friend who lives in LA sent me a couple pics back with him and the security chief in the pics. Come to find out my friend and he grew up together in Liverpool, England.
Mick Jones getting kicked out of the Clash. Sure, the band was going to implode eventually once Topper was gone, but without Jones we got Cut The Crap, which is a god awful album. It’s the only “Clash” recording I don’t own and never will.
@jasonbourne52 It's a Canadian thing. Years later Keef gets busted in TO with significant amount of heroin. Anyone else goes to jail. Judge makes the stones do two free concerts for the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) Many claimed it was the best show they never saw!
Eric Clapton passing out 20 minutes into the show at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City Nj. 7/7/74. He couldn’t play. Show ended in a riot with people peppering the stage with anything they could throw.
Not my all time favorite, but I was visiting a neighbor in a lighting booth @ a Rod Stewart/Faces concert (1970/1971 Veteran's auditorium, Des Moines) and Rod would run back behind a large speaker cabinet stack and have a makeup person mess up his hair and apply water (sweat) to the collar of his shirt.
This, of course, was not visible to the audience (even from the balconies).
The lighting control booth was located above the back/right stage.
Another one was a Van Morrison concert in which Van came out in a little dude cowboy suit/outfit (Pee Wee Herman eventually adopted a similar style in clothing).
However, both were great performances/concerts - though Van kept stepping away from his mike and yelling @ the stage crew through most of the concert (he was perpetually pissed about something).
Last, but not least, were numerous concerts in which Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes were the opening act.
Ted would make his appearance (wearing tights and a cape) by jumping from an unseen platform down to the middle of the stage.
Back then you could leave and re-enter concerts and we would leave until Nugent was through with his set.
February 19, 1982 Ozzy Osbourne arrested and fined $40 for taking a leak on the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. He was banned from performing at any city-owned venue for 10 years. In 1992 he apologized and donated $10K to the Daughters of the Texas Republic.
May 3, 1969 Jimi Hendrix arrested for drug possession at the Toronto International Airport. Bail was posted and The Hendrix Experience played that night at the Maple Leaf arena. Trial in Toronto on December 8 resulted in a jury acquitting Hendrix of the two charges on December 11, 1969.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
