2. best-of
  3. 977350766

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
wideload's avatar
wideload
147 posts
 
1. 1967 maybe? The Who opened for, get this, Herman's Hermits. Never heard of them prior to the show. They lit the place up and trashed their stuff at the end. I was about 14 and born again that night.
2. 1975-Carlos Santana opened for Clapton, post Cream/Derek. Santana was mesmerizing, hypnotic. The house went totally dark to open Clapton' set and out of the blackness he rang the opening notes to Layla and I swear my heart stopped.
3. 1967-Hendrix. A couple months after the Who. I was on my way out of pop and into rock. Sparked my interest in the blues.
4. 1972-John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra opening for Zappa and the Mothers. Altered my consciousness. Saw them both at the airport the next day and praised both. McLaughlin was humble and gracious. Zappa simply said, "Of course you enjoyed it, now leave me alone."
5. 1990-John Hiatt. Played everything from Stolen Moments, Bring the Family and Slow Turning. No one sat, I became a huge fan of his adult approach to rock and roll.
nunhgrader
8 posts
 
1. Tool - UNO Lakefront New Orleans
2. Radiohead - UNO Lakefront New Orleans
3. Queens of the Stone Age - Voodoo Festical New Orleans
4. The Mars Volta - Orpheum Theater New Orleans
5. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Voodoo Festival City Park New Orleans
michaeleob126c4
1 posts
 
At the risk of dating myself: 1) Bruce Springsteen, 1975 Geneva NY. He was just about to break, had recorded but not released Born to Run. I was listening to WCMF in Rochester play Rosalita every night and heard he was coming to town. My buddies and I jumped into a truck and drove down. The hall was an old little vaudeville house, beautiful and small, smack in the middle of this tiny upstate NY town that didn't know what hit them. There was only one security guard who didn't have a chance with this situation. There was a grocery store across the street from the hall and the crowd emptied out every beer in it. I remember guys carrying two cases of beer down the middle aisle and just passing them out before the show began. No opener, he played over three hours, pulled out all the stops, every trick of the trade that his legend became based on, including best light show I ever saw, and Bruce earned every bit of hype and reputation that came later in that one unforgettable night.
2) Patti Smith Group, 1978 Buffalo NY SUNY gymnasium. She had just fallen off stage a few weeks before and was still in a neck brace so she couldn't move around; instead she put all that frenetic energy into her singing. The best garage band ever sounded like the best r n r band ever that evening. Patti's star was already in decline then, after she released radio ethiopia, and I remember telling myself as I left the show that if she turns out to be just a footnote in the history of RnR for Horses, at least I know she was the real deal, a true RnR genius, as close to God that night as you can get.
3) The Clash, winter early 1979, Boston Their first show in the States; never heard anything like it before or since. Huge runway lamps hooked up to drums. Really was the only band that mattered for a few years. Saw them several times at Bonds during their crazy, beautiful Times Square stand.
4) Talking Heads (also Elvis Costello, Pretenders, several others) some field in eastern Canada, early 80s. Incredible all-day concert but it was THs that came out last, after dark and burned the house down. They had recorded but not released their third record yet and went from a solo version of Psycho Killer to a sixteen piece orchestra playing the wildest rhythmic-funk we'd ever heard. Being outdoors with fires burning under the stars made the entire thing primitive, tribal and transcendent.
5) Wilco, Starland Ballroom, NJ Friday April 21, 2006 Greatest American band playing today. Blew us away from the first note to the last. And Jeff Tweety had an incredible dialogue with a drunk fan. Anybody else there that night?
stereo
147 posts
 
Emerson, Lake and Powell.
scotthobby
60 posts
 
In no particular order: Jimi Hendrix Experience at Virginia Beach Dome, 1967. Richard & Linda Thompson at Washington, DC Wax Museum, 1983. The Byrds at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 1970. Stephen Stills & Manassas at William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, 1972. The Band with the Cate Brothers at Washington Wax Museum 1983(?). Sonny Landreth at Wolf Trap Barns, 2006. Lucinda Williams at Wolf Trap, 1996. Little Feat in Hampton, VA 1973. Sorry, that's more than five.
More to discover