Your 5 Fav Rock Concerts


There are certainly more than a few geetar fanciers among us judging by all the threads on guitar bands and best guitarist. This thread is about the best rock shows you saw. Let's limit it to the rock shows. Not Blues or Jazz or solo performers. The concerts that raised the hairs on your neck or made you want to take up an instrument or raised your pulse through their sheer energy or just moved you through their performance on stage. The only ones that count are the ones you've seen. After making a list in my mind of the many rock concerts I attended, most from the late 1960's through early 80's, I have come up with mine. It was tough, I’ve seen well over 200 rock concerts over the years and it is really hard coming up with a top 5 but we have to limit this so here go mine. "Yes" - This group stands out as the 2nd best concert I ever saw with Steve Howe and Chris Wakeman. They opened for Emerson, Lake and Palmer and after their set I do feel that EL&P were disheartened and knew they couldn't match it; they didn't. Funny thing is like most, I was there to see EL&P. They were forced to have another concert the following night by popular demand. Virtuoso musicianship, “Poco” - This group could put on a show. I saw them 4 different times in the many various stages of their evolution. They never had the commercial recognition of some of the other great bands of their era but they sure made up for it in their live performances. No one stayed seated during a Poco concert. “Rod Stewart and Faces” - Ron Wood on guitar and Rod Stewart strutting all over the stage. Rod was probably the greatest natural Rock showman I ever saw, including Mick Jagger. His uninhibited manner and constant movement and soulful vocals brought the house down. The crowd wouldn't let him go after the 5th encore so he invited everyone ("especially the pretty young ladies") to his hotel to “party on”, and so they came; Led Zeppelin I had to include them because next to the Doors and of course Jimi Hendrix they were my favorites of that era and I never did get to see either of the other two. The acoustics were bad and they played so loud you couldn’t really hear the music. But they were great none the less and it was special to me. The best should be kept for last. "The Who" was acknowledged as the best concert band at the time. Getting tickets meant getting in line and waiting. I imagine at the time the only tougher ticket would be the “Beatles” and they weren’t even together then. They didn’t disappoint. The reaction of the audience was beyond anything I ever saw at a live concert before or since. The band was so cohesive and the energy they put out put them into a different realm. They just have to be on a very short list of the best live bands ever.
tubegroover

Showing 2 responses by bdp24

I couldn't possibly narrow it down to five. How about ten?

- The Band, Berkeley (CA) Community Center 1969
- Rockpile & Moon Martin, The Country Club (Reseda, CA) 1980
- Dave Edmunds, NYC 1982
- Marshall Crenshaw (5-piece), NYC 1982
- Phil Seymour, The Country Club mid-80's
- Big Joe Turner, Club Lingerie (Hollywood, CA) mid-80's
- The Lyres, Club Lingerie late-80's
- NRBQ (w/Al Anderson), The Roxy (Hollywood) mid-90's
- Iris Dement, The Roxy and The Troubadour mid & late-90's
- Bob Dylan, The Pantages Theater (Los Angeles) 2002

This is leaving out my first two shows, shows which might be at the top of a lot of peoples lists: The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in 1964, and The Beatles in San Francisco in 1965, which were, in comparison to the above, merely okay. Sorry The Beatles worshipers, they were not so good live.

The one show I now dearly would love to have been at is Dylan w/The Hawks (aka The Band) at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in 1966. The Beatles in '65? The Rock n' Roll paradigm of the past. Dylan w/The Hawks in '66, the future. Two friends of mine were at that Dylan/Hawks show, and were also at number one on my list with me. They were ahead of me in '66, but by '69 I had caught up!
Oops! I just now read the entire original posting, and I should not have included Iris---she is no rocker! In her place I guess The Who at The Carousel Ballroom (San Francisco) in 1968 ("A Quick One") and '69 ("Tommy").

Those shows which I liked at the time but haven't aged well with me (others may disagree!): Cream at The (original location) Fillmore Auditorium in '67 and Winterland in '68. By '68, The Band had made Cream irrelevant to me (and to Clapton!). Hendrix At The Fillmore in '67 and Winterland in '68. In '68 Jimi seemed to be treading water, like he was bored with what he was still doing, but not yet knowing where to go. It ended up being The Band of Gypsy's, not very much to anyone's liking. His death seemed anti-climatic to me, as did Jim Morrison's (by the way, The Doors were not a very good live Band, at least the two times I saw them, in '67 and '68).