So , what are some memorable concerts/music festivals that you guys have been to? Any interesting stories to tell(i'd espeiclaly like to know if anyone on here was at Woodstock 99)?

First ever concert I attended was Genesis in 1992. Since then seen Pearl Jam, Neil Young, the Stones, Cranberries and a few others.

I'm too young to have had the opportunity to see many of my favorite bands/artists play. I would pay anything to see Neil Young, but chances are I'd also have to pay for a plane ticket, since he never plays in AZ.

Most of the shows I go to are more of the "indie" variety. I've seen the New Pornographers three times, twice in the last 6 months. They put on a solid show. Other groups I've seen: Yo La Tengo, the Shins, Gomez (My first, a much better live band than their studio output suggests), Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, The National, Okkervil River, the Black Keys, and Vampire Weekend.

Crap, I can't begin to remember them all. Here are some of them.

Black Sabbath (original lineup)
AC/DC
Ozzy Osbourne a couple times
Rob Zombie (opened for Ozzy)
Van Halen a couple times
Zappa Plays Zappa three times
Umphrey's McGee three times
The New Deal four times (probably a couple more this year, given their impending retirement)
Metallica a couple times
Megadeth
Exodus (opened for Megadeth)
Tool
Meshuggah (opened for Tool)
David Lee Roth a couple times
Ted Nugent a couple times
Ozzfest a couple times
ZZ Top
Rush
Steve Vai, both on his own and with G3
Yngwie Malmsteen (G3)
Joe Satriani (G3)
Lao Tizer
Kiss
The Scorpions
Whitesnake (opened for The Scorpions)
Muse
Nine Inch Nails
Rasputina
The Allman Brothers

And then there's the local shows, which are far too numerous and obscure to bother counting.

I have to admit, a disproportionate number of these shows were when I was in high school/early college. I tend to stay away from anything bigger than a club or a bar these days, with rare exception. The big shows are just too loud, crowded, and expensive.

I was at Woodstock '94 - that was pretty cool, especially since they had artists of the day alongside some who played at the original in 1969. Seeing Nine Inch Nails followed by Crosby, Stills and Nash (or was it vice versa?) was pretty trippy.

Others I've seen:

Tool
Smashing Pumpkins
Insane Clown Posse
Marilyn Manson
U2/Pearl Jam
Metallica/Guns N Roses/Faith No More
Rush
ZZ Top
Doobie Brothers
Foreigner
The Allman Brothers Band
The Rolling Stones
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Who
Jody Whately
The Doors (of the 21st Century)


And I'm seeing Bob Seger tomorrow night in Atlanta.

Oh, how I would love to see these.

I saw Rage Against The Machine a couple of years ago. I was very happy about that.

Gallows (not sure if anyone on here will know them) - an English band that got huge in a small space of time. Saw them a good few years ago in a pub with 40 people, it was very intense. A year later they were selling out 900 capacity venues, NME were all over them and they were touring the world. I think we might have played with them once as well.

I saw Bob Seger a couple years back. Great show, but I somehow went from feeling a little tired at the beginning to having a full-blown cold by the end. It sucks that my prevailing memory of the show is getting progressively sicker as the evening went on.


It was awesome, though I fully admit that I was absolutely unprepared for Meshuggah and barely understood what I was hearing at the time. I have since gotten more into the band, and I regret that I didn't appreciate them live as much as I could have.

There was a moment near the end of the night when the two bands performed a medley together. If I could revisit any moment of the show, that would be it.

I have seen hundreds of concerts, by a huge variety of bands/musicians. Some of the more memorable ones...

U2 at Croke Park in Dublin. Just amazing. Local boys coming home. That's like seeing the Beatles in Liverpool...

Bruce... many times. He simply rocks.

Eric Clapton with Phil Collins on drums, and the Robert Cray Band as opening act. Just fantastic musicianship, and when they all came out to just jam together for about 30 minutes at the end. Awesome.

Don Maclean at a small college (College of DuPage). Just him alone onstage with a guitar. Just remembering him singing Vincent gives me goosebumps.

Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and The Grateful Dead triple bill at Alpine valley in Wisconsin. I've never smoked weed, but that day I didn't need to. Talk about Purple Haze...

Aztec Camera, Psychedelic Furs and Violent Femmes triple bill at the Boathouse in Norfolk. Not three bands you would think of together, but all three just rocked the house.

They Might Be Giants here in Munich. Small, almost club-like venue. Great show, very personal.

GG Allin in Chicago. Probably the most memorable performance. Truly indescribable. My brain will never be the same.

Diamanda Galas. Another brain fucker. I came out of that concert a changed person.



Those are a few of my most memorable concerts. I have been to too many to count...

Wow...so many concerts to choose from. Here's a sampling, mostly from the "classic rock" genre:

Pink Floyd ('94)
Rolling Stones
Moody Blues
The Who
Genesis (2x including their final tour)
Phil Collins (3x including final tour)
Peter Gabriel (5x from 1987 to 2008...seeing again this summer)
Boston
Yes
Peter Murphy
Cake (me and a total of 14 others at a local club right after their 1st album hit. They played every song on the album)
Dave Matthews Band
Roger Waters (politics aside, a pretty good show)
Sting
Live (saw in November before Throwing Copper came out at a 500 seat venue, then that album came out and by July they were in a 23,000 seat venue)
Billy Joel (on his final tour)
R.E.M.
The Ramones
Mojo Nixon...that was a great show
They Might Be Giants
The Monkees (in 1987 with opener's Herman's Hermits, Paul Revere and the Raiders and The Turtles)
The Offspring

and on and on...

We're kinda spoiled in my town in that every summer we host "Summerfest", which the organizers bill as "The World's Largest Music Festival". It's been running for about 40 years and is held on a permanent 70+ acre fair ground on the shores of Lake Michigan. It runs 11 days around the 4th of July from noon to midnight. There are 6 permanent stages with capacity anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 at each stage. Then there is the Amphitheater which holds 23,000. The entire festival ground capacity is a bit over 100,000. One day tickets only cost $15 (or less early in the day) and the acts range from rock, r&b, blues, hip-hop, pop, etc.

Many of the bigger acts are older rockers (like Styx, REO Speedwagon or Def Leppard) or newer bands on the way up; but they do get their share of big, current acts as well. About my only gripe would be that, outside of the big amphitheater shows, the average performance time is usually only around an hour and a half or so per act. Nice thing is if you don't like what you hear, you can wander between stages. If you want to "catch up" on a lot good music, this is a great place to do it. (If you don't like crowds, this is not the place for you, however. The only reserved seating is at the big amphitheater.)

Sorry for what seems like a commercial, but Summerfest is the place I've seen most of my concerts. (http://www.summerfest.com).

Vex...you're in the neighborhood...you should come on up.

any run-ins with fecal matter?

Bo Diddley at the House of Blues in LA is the most memorable. I also remember a day in the 80's in Memphis where the lineup for an outdoor concert was: Allen Collins (of Lynyrd Skynyrd), Jerry Lee Lewis, Orleans, Molly Hatchet, and a couple of other bands that have disappeared from my memory, but performed well. It was an all-day super rockin' time in perfect weather.

Well I've seen tons of unknown but great bands in clubs and several well known acts back in Germany (lived there until 1985). Not to mention a lot of great jazz and classical music.
I don't know but I'm not much of a rock concert guy. Too much screaming crowd and in "my time" amost all large PA systems for rock bands sounded crappy and way too loud. You basically heard the vocalist (unintelligible), the snare drum whacking and random noise and rumble around that. If the band had a keyboarder he/she could as well stayed at home - you couldn't hear one single note.
I still was lucky enough to see Queen with Freddie back in 1981 (Frankfurt Messehalle). The sound was raher poor (due to the venue having tons of long reverb) and Queen is not exactly a live band (except for Freddies showmanship). I still loved it.
I saw the Brecker Brothers live in Lisbon (mid 90s) - fantastic concert! But it's jazz-fusion, not for all you guys as I can see.
I let myself talk into seeing Phil Collins live in 2004 (Lisbon, Portugal), with Mike and the Mechanics opening. Fantastic sound, but most of Collins' compositions are repetitive and boooooring.
in 2005 I saw Canadian Genesis Tribute band "The Musical Box" recreating the entire "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" 1975 concert. Brilliant. The venue was the Lisbon University auditorium. Great atmosphere since everyone in the audience (including myself) knew all lyrics, every single note and drum-lick by heart.
In 2007 I flew to Frankfurt to see the real Genesis. I knew it was my very last chance to see them live, because the guys looked tired, many a tune was slower and/or transposed one note lower because Phil isn't 26 anymore. The sound was outstanding, crystal clear - and the setlist was way better than that from the crappy, crappy 1992 concert, which I refused to go to.

BTW: I see the names Phil Collins and Genesis apearing a lot here. And I thought they were so uncool that one should not talk about them

I have seen The Musical Box three times. Absolutely brilliant!

And I also saw the Genesis 2007 concert here in Munich. Unfortunately, it was at Olympic Stadium, and the sound quality wasn't optimal. Still, as you said, a great setlist and Phil was on that night.


I could list concerts forever...

I was smart enough to stay far enough back, but yes, fecal matter was generously distributed to the audience. I think it was during "Stink Finger Clit" or "Scars on my Body/Scabs on my Dick."

Such a gently-spoken man, Mr. Allin was...

Also seen The Musical Box a couple of times. I think I've heard that they've moved on to early Collins era. I saw The Lamb and the Foxtrot tours.

A different angle

Round the corner was the legendary Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. It was an amazing place before they moved. they focus on folk, blues, jazz and skiffle.

We've seen many concerts there but a real favorite is the annual Stacey Earle (sister of Steve) and Mark Stuart. We've seen them multiple times. Best of all though was being invited to see them at a house concert with 20 others for a completely acoustic set and being about 10 feet from Mark & Stacey.

There is something intimate and unique about this that the many big concerts I've been to simply don't capture.

Rob

Misfits and Gwar on Halloween at the House of Blues in Chicago way back in '99. Not the best show I've been to musically speaking but for pure entertainment value I don't think it will ever be topped. I don't really go to shows anymore. When I do it's a small club gig for an "underground" band that I like.

The Dillinger Escape Plan gig I went to was pretty insane. Bodies flying everywhere, people jumping off speaker stacks.

My old band played with Municipal Waste a couple of years ago as well. The atmosphere at that gig was so, so good. Everyone just having a really good time.