Best Live Concert

[theSovietConnection]

For me, it's coming up on 3 years now since I saw what I think will be the best live concert I may ever see. So I wanted to see what some others here considered the best live concert they have ever seen.

As far as mine goes, it was Iron Maiden live at Sarnia Bayfest 2012.

Spoiler: Not my video

Bruce screwed up! That almost made the concert there

EDIT: Adding to mine since other people are including this. Opening acts were Bleeker Ridge and Alice Cooper.

 

[TakerFoxx]

I personally rate my concert experiences by how much it meant to me personally (whether or not the band's a favorite, achieving a milestone, got to interact with the band, played a song I never thought they'd play, etc.) rather than just how good the music was (though that's also biggie), so here's my top five (and not necessarily in order):

Coldplay at the Staples Center. First concert I ever went to.

Dommin at the Slidebar. Favorite band, got to hang out with them after, and they gave me the setlist.

Mystery Skulls at the Echoplex. Another personal favorite, got to hang out with him before the show and chit-chat about wrestling, got a bunch of stuff signed, he played all my favorite songs including the rare ones, and later after I sent him an email thanking him for the show he responded back and sent me a download for an unreleased demo mixtape. Wow.

Linkin Park at the Verizon. First time seeing a favorite band live.

Kanye West and Jay-Z at the Staples Center. Nothing personally special on this one, it was just a fantastic show.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

My favourite concert was probably Rufus Wainwright when he played Bristol, just because he had the most bizarre encore I have ever seen in my life. He revealed his true identity as the Greek god Apollo and ran about the crowd encouraging women to jump up onto the stage with him while singing Bitter Tears. He then decided he was hungry, so he got a massive panini on the stage. He was then struck down by the Gay Messiah, and resurrected along with his panini to bring about a new age of gayness. The panini had a puppet-style mouth, which he then started using to sing Gay Messiah.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Ooooh, tough. I saw Trash Talk at The Croft in Bristol shortly before it closed and man, that was intense. Think hardcore punk, tiny venue and a bunch of very happy drunks swirling around like the sea in a hurricaine. It was the best, even if I did have a ton of bruises after it.

That, or The Prodigy at Sonisphere last year or Slipknot at Download the year before. I don't actually remember a great deal of The Prodigy apart from a few still images and a load of colours, but I remember that it was insanely awesome. I danced all of my limbs to bits. Slipknot were just intense- The barriers were broken through twice by the crowd surge, it was pretty nuts. I'd seen them before, but it wasn't long after Paul Gray died and they weren't quite as crazy as usual, but this time was different. 9 members might be a bit silly, but it really works to make a huge live show, especially with all the pyro.

Loads of other stuff though- Streetlight Manifesto were awesome and I had a chat with the guys in the band afterwards (they were all super-cool), The Mars Volta were just plain crazy, Chaz & Dave were the best fun... To be honest, 95% of bands I've seen have been great, it would be easier to name the bad ones.

 

[renegade7]

It's a tie.

I saw Distant Worlds (one of the Final Fantasy groups) at the Chicago Symphony last year in August and it was fantastic.

My other contender for the top was when I was 16 and travelling in Europe over the summer and saw the Vienna Philharmonic performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, it made me want to study music composition in college. I ended up getting a physics degree with a minor in composition instead, but it definitely had an effect on me.

 

[dohnut king]

Many greats but two stand out.

Queen at the Oakland Coliseum Arena in 1980. Incredible musicians and showmen at the top of their form. The first four rows were filled by what seemed to be the Bay Areas entire drag community, which was very educational for a kid from suburban Sacramento.

Motorhead at the Oasis Ballroom, Sacramento 1985. A very small, now defunct club, with no more than 50 people in the audience. In spite of the small venue and crowd, they gave an amazing performance. My ears rang for the next two days.
Also, the nitwit next to me threw a red solo cup at the stage during the show. Lemmy pointed at him and told the guy if he did it again, he was coming after him. The guy left very quickly after that. Fun times.

 

[jurnag12]

The absolute best singular gig I've ever been to was Blind Guardian in Eindhoven earlier this year. The band played perfectly, the crowd was great, the opener was phenomenal (Orphaned Land, check them out, good stuff); just brilliant in every regard.

Although I'm still salty they didn't play Wheel of Time.

 

[GundamSentinel]

I don't go to concerts very often, but seeing Daft Punk at 5 Days Off in Amsterdam was absolutely amazing.

Excellent show, great fun with some friends.

 

[Xeros]

Mastodon takes the cake for me. Their Heritage/Hunter tour they did with Opeth was magical. However, I have to give honorable mentions to Powerglove and Buckethead. I've seen Powerglove 5 times, and it's been a blast every single time. Buckethead is an all-powerful wizard, and he's an absolute treat to see live.

 

[Guffe]

Iron Maiden in 2008 was intense.
Sabaton in a small Barrack holding about 1000 people was great as hell.
Those two are my main ones so far I think.
I also enjoyed Stratovarius (same venue as Sabaton), Crashdiet and Kiss.
Those 5 are among the best, then there are a lot of great other ones I've seen and one I hope will be up there with Maiden and Sabaton are AC/DC whom I'll get to see 22nd of July.

 

[MetalDooley]

Ozzfest 2001 - Milton Keynes UK

Why?Because the headline act was the original line-up of Black Sabbath.As someone who is a massive Sabbath fan finally getting to see the classic line-up was a dream come true.Didn't hurt either that the likes of Slipknot,Black Label Society and Soulfly played as well

Honourable mentions

Judas Priest,Megadeth and Testament - Dublin,Ireland 2009
Slayer,In Flames,Lamb of God and Children of Bodom - Dublin,Ireland 2006
ZZ Top - Cork,Ireland 2013
Cannibal Corpse - Cork,Ireland 2008

Got ZZ Top and Mastodon coming up over the next few weeks so can't wait

 

[blipblop]

Björk at arvikafestival 2003 have listent to her music almost every day after that

 

[Michael Tabbut]

Only been to two, I saw Black Sabbath back in 2013 and Motley Crüe with Alice Cooper last year. I enjoyed the Alice Cooper show more despite knowing few of the songs, he ended his set with "Schools Out" and it segued into a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2." It was epic.

 

[And Man]

It's kinda hard for me to rate which were the best, but two that stand out are The Police in 2007 for their Reunion Tour, because it was my first concert and they likely won't ever do another, and Breaking Benjamin about a month ago simply because I met some cool people and had a great time with them. I've yet to go to a show at which the band was bad or I didn't enjoy myself.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Man, been some great concerts listed so far. I'd have gone to all of them, myself.

Just as a question to add to the thread, anyone here a veteran of 70,000 Tons of Metal?

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Seen Nine Inch Nails 3 times, all 3 shows were phenomenal. Great stage presence and audience connection. Its not just a concert, its a show.

 

[Quazimofo]

I saw nightwish live twice. In the Congress theater in Chicago, September 24th, 2012; and in Cleveland's Agora Theater, April 17th, 2015. I think the latter show was better, but fuck me if I didn't love the hell out of both of 'em. Latter show is up on youtube in its entirety if you're curious. Not exactly high-quality, but I'm sure your imagination can fill in for the limited quality resulting from it being loud as fuck.

If nothing else, check out the Agora show's version of "the islander" and the congress theater's "Nemo". They put a bit of a twist on it for the live show which is so much better than the respective album versions.

 

[TakerFoxx]

I saw nightwish live twice. In the Congress theater in Chicago, September 24th, 2012; and in Cleveland's Agora Theater, April 17th, 2015. I think the latter show was better, but fuck me if I didn't love the hell out of both of 'em. Latter show is up on youtube in its entirety if you're curious. Not exactly high-quality, but I'm sure your imagination can fill in for the limited quality resulting from it being loud as fuck.

If nothing else, check out the Agora show's version of "the islander" and the congress theater's "Nemo". They put a bit of a twist on it for the live show which is so much better than the respective album versions.

Though the shows themselves didn't make my initial list, two of my favorite concert moments were from Nightwish. The first was when I had tickets to see them and Dommin at the Gibson amphitheater, which was to be the kickoff show for their Imaginaerum tour. However, I stumbled across a rumor about some band called the Rubber Band of the Wolves of Finland playing a show the day before at a small local club that people were saying might be Nightwish in disguise. Since I had the day free and really wanted to see Nightwish in a small venue, I bought a ticket and drove over to see if it was true.

It was.

The second one was when the same tour, this time with Kamelot, swung back around to my area. And while the show was going on, I noticed that there was this group of guys that were having a grand old time dancing like crazy to every song. So since I knew the setlist pretty well, right before they played Last of the Wilds I went over and asked if I could join them, which they happily accepted. So we all ended up joining hands and doing a big Irish jig during the whole song while singing along. To an instrumental. It was incredible.

 

[deleted+75193]

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[Albino Boo]

New model army on their 1989 thunder and consolation tour would have be one the best gigs I have been to. Soundgarden on black hole sun tour in about 1995 was good.

Thoroughly enjoyed Chris Cornell at Nottingham Rock City about five years ago or so.

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