2. music
  3. 164705-152421

Worst Concerts You Have Attended ??

I just left a remark about a favorite band of mine back in the day - April Wine - that I saw in concert and was disappointed. Could have been that it was an off night for them, or maybe they were never good in concert. Maybe the lead guitarist had too much to drink? April Wine was not the worst, however. I remember Neil Young in the 1990's who was on his one-man acoustic show type of tour that many artists were taking advantage of (perhaps for financial reasons) during that time. While a friend of I had near front row seats at Desert Sky Pavilion (now Ak-Chin) in Pheonix, the crowd was just roused up into a frenzy by the warm-up band (James) and here comes Neil and his guitar/harmonica. Wow, what a sonic letdown. I remember getting up and leaving and feeling Neil's glaring eyes on us as we ushered out. I think, to this day, he probably still remembers me. We all can remember the great live concerts we attended, but what were the worst and why?
goodlistening64

Showing 2 responses by jacksky

jacksky
100 posts
 
Worst.. Boz Scags at the beacon, the entertainment was watching stage hands hand him a different guitar after every song.... The Stones at the Meadowlands, Jagger paced left to right on stage  and shouted the words to every song without changing pitch....Van Morrison at the Apollo, drank between every song, belittled his own band, included anti Semitic slur that the crowd went crazy with positive applause.
best moments: took my 12 year old son to PNC for ELP, Deep Purple (Steve Morse was superb ) and Dream Theater. My son was 2 years into drum lessons and he got to see Carl Palmer, Ian Pace and Mike Portnoy - they all delivered but you can’t beat youth. Portnoys energy made everybody pay attention.
22 years later my son returned the deed and surprised my by taking me to Radio City Music Hall to see King Crimson. They performed with 3 drummer s and played every song true to every note - oh so classy. They even dressed in black/white formal.

jacksky
100 posts
 
This could be best....or worst - you tell me.
saw Dexter Gordon at 7th Ave South, got there early, no assigned seating so I sat A1 dead center first row. This venue is kinda tiny, there is no bad seat but I wanted to improve on the situation with up front seat. Slowly place filled up, packed house and the last seats to go are all the seats around me.  dexter starts playing sax emotionally and I got spit on all night long.  Some regulars were joking they were tempted to warn me. I don’t know, if I was a teenager and it was the Beatles I would never wash again.

had tickets to see Jefferson Starship at a local military base.  They canceled due to health of one of the members. All the non military ticket holders like me didn’t get notified and the venue was set up. Opening band didn’t know either so they said may as we’ll play if we are already here. They had run of the house for 3 hours , did mostly covers and the few there casually sang along and called out requests. Being a military base, they don’t just put on a show, they feed you. Great platters of simple American food.  At the end  a guy in uniform apologized and said to stay tuned, the show will be rebooked and our tickets will be valid.
2 months later I came for the rain date show....and the band missed the flight earlier that day. So once again the opening band played, we ate and were promised when the show does finally come about our tickets will still be good.

by the way, before “frampton comes alive” I had no idea who he was. In fact, I don’t know ANY non live or studio work of his.

my friend used to sneak into the fire escape back door of the Fillmore East regularly so he got to see so many more shows than he could afford.
More to discover