NORML54601

I'm a huge fan of live music as opposed to regular studio cds. There are several performers who I've got live shows of and not a single CD. I've got 2 favorites; 1 show I was at, and 1 which I have a boot of.
I saw Eric Clapton in Milwaukee, WI at the Bradley Center in July of 2001. It was an incredible show from the first song to the last. The first half of the show was all acoustic and the second half was electric ending with an awesome version of Sunshine of Your Love and an acoustic encore of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I've never been able to find an actual recording of that show but there is a concert CD from the same tour called One More Car, One More Rider.
My second choice is a Ben Harper show recorded at Studio 104 in Paris on 2/15/2004. The audio quality is amazing as is the performance. The audience is respecful and doesn't ruin the show by making noise during the songs. This show is also half electric and half acoustic. I downloaded it from etree a year ago and tried to find it again to provide a link sice BH allows taping but the show is no longer there.

Dubya

Prince - April 23rd, 2004, Raleigh, NC - Had 6th row seats, simply the best show I've ever been to (A list that includes The Stones, The Who, and Pink Floyd among many others)
Pearl Jam - April 15th, 2003 here in Raleigh, NC. They are my favorite band so I'm biased anyway but what made this one so special was they opened with my favorite Pearl Jam song, "Release." They change the setlist every night and if Release is going to be played it's only going to be the opening song. I have the officially released "bootleg" so I can always remember that show.
Kiss - June 30th, 2000 gets a special mention because they were my favorite band as a kid so to see them from the second row center was great. I caught one of Ace Frehley's guitar picks!

Andalusia

Bob Dylan - "Royal Albert Hall" show (actually Manchester' Free Trade Hall), May 17,1966. But really, that whole tour was friggin' great.
The Who - "Live at Leeds" February 14, 1970.
Miles Davis - "Live at the Plugged Nickel" 1965.

cactusoly

I've seen so many great shows but here are some of the best

Alice Cooper- I've seen him 8 times and the theatrics are great, but his performance puts most new band to shame.

Iron Maiden- Ive seen 8 times and they always put on an incredible show, this year they blew everyone away at Ozzfest (no wonder Sharron was pissed)

Judas Priest- I've also seen 8 times (seems like the magic number) every time I see them they kick ass

Rob Zombie- I've seen bothe the full blown theatrical production which was quite the specticle and the bare bones show and both versions of the show are incredible.

I've also seen many other bands that are great, but these have been consistantly great.

Wick

Live 8 Canada - July 2nd, 2005: Barrie, Ontario - Many performers put on memorable performances, but my favourites included Our Lady Peace, Bryan Adams, The Tragically Hip, and Neil Young.

Toronto Rocks! (Aka. Sarsstock) - July 30th, 2003: Toronto, Ontario - The most memorable performance from that concert was AC/DC's. They're one of my favourite bands and it was amazing to see them live. They're definitely one of the best acts I've ever seen.

Alice Cooper - I've seen him twice, in Toronto, and he's put on amazing shows both times. His theatrics definitely add a lot to the show, and his stage presence is amazing.

Insane Clown Posse - October 1, 2004: Niagara Falls, NY - Say what you will about this band, but they're my favourite band. They put on an excellent show.

koRn - I've seen them twice and they've put on excellent shows, both times. They're probably my second favourite band.

Silverchair - May 2003: Toronto, Ontario - I'd been dying to see Silverchair live, as they're one of my favourite bands, but they rarely come to Canada. That is because their lead singer, Daniel Johns, has reactive arthritis. I finally ended up being able to catch the first of two performances they put on at the Kool Haus in Toronto, and they were brilliant.

I've seen many other memorable performances, including Goldfinger, Rush, The Guess Who, Tom Cochrane, Deep Purple, Linkin Park, and NIN.

Johnny Boy

Wu Tang Clan - 1997 in College Park, Maryland. I don't remember the exact day. They really tore the house down.

mndtrp

That's kind of a tough question to answer. There are times when I think my favorite performance was just the band playing, other times I like a full-blown spectacle.

Nine Inch Nails and Tool have always come through with the spectacle part.
Pantera were close to #1 as far as pure, raw energy.

sauce07

Phish 3/1/03 Greensboro, NC - Best Phish show i ever saw

The Flaming Lips 7/15/05 All Good Music Festival - WOW what a polarizing performance, Coach Wayne Coyne got us through the long night

Umphrey's McGee 12/11/04 930 club - Great show with so much energy, amazing setlist

Oasis 10/??/96 Fairfax, VA - Seeing Oasis at their height was an amazing experience

Brian Wilson 8/9/05 Wolf Trap Vienna, VA - saw the beach boys years ago as a kid but nithing compared to seeing Brian Wilson perform Smile

Bob Dylan 11/??/01 MCI Center - One of the last times i saw Dylan play guitar + Semi-Greatest hits set= great concert

Alien Redrum

White Zombie - Every time I saw them was amazing. Rob puts on one hell of a show.

Pink Floyd - Only saw them once, but it was memorable as hell.

story

I've seen some great shows, but the best was "Weird Al Yankovic" during his "Running With Scissors" tour. Great family fun, wonderful classics, fun new stuff, and a plethora of fantastic short films to fill costume change time. Best ticket I ever bought.

Andalusia

Oh, you mean concerts you've been to. That's what I get for not reading the first post.

I saw Bjork perform at First Avenue in Minneapolis back in '95. Helluva show.

And I caught Dylan last year in Lexington, KY. His band was very tight. Also, had the privilege of seeing Mr. Willie Nelson open the show. Very entertaining overall.

ROBERTCOP34

Kiss the reniuon tour 1996 in tacoma,wa that was the BEST Dam Show i Ever saw WOW.
Buy the way they almost burned the place down (just kidding).

Hollowgen

Marilyn Manson - 1997 in Seattle (very offensive, very theatrical)
Rob Zombie - 1999 i think. with KoRn (who sucked)
U2 - just this year. rock on.
Radiohead - a couple years back in Vancouver, BC. michael stipe joined in.
David Bowie - AREA2 festival at Gorge, WA - talk about a show-stealer. maybe unwise for moby to play afterwards.
flaming lips - couple years ago at the gorge. excellent and fun!

worst:
bob dylan - recent tour. ugh. not anymore.
coldplay - couple years ago. it was like listening to their albums on a PA.
method man + redman - i think it was a family values show. i had no idea if it was a concert or pep rally.
every korn show i saw in high school.

tonyc3742

Saw Alice Cooper for the first time in Aug, I believe it was. Excellent show, great setlist.

Personal favorites are GWAR, the Athens, GA, opening night of the America Must Be Destroyed tour, 1992 I think,, which got shut down, sticks in memory. Bookended by the next night, when we saw them in Atlanta, and Techno Destructo asked us for a review of the show/story while we were moshing to the opening band

Pop Will Eat Itself, with Dink and Compulsion opening. Liked all three bands, and PWEI was great in that setting [the Masquerade in Atlanta, I was about seven feet from Vestan Pance the entire night].

The Dead Milkmen were always fun.

Moby and the Jesus and Mary Chain were disappointing. Moby played a CD, and JAMC acted like they were in the studio recording an album--no real tage presence.

I missed Weird Al, and need to see him sometime. I've been a fan of his for decades.

The Bus

My favorite performance by a performer I didn't like was Neil Young. I never cared for his music but DAMN, when he played it live, it sounded great and I loved it.

cactusoly

its cool to see Alice Cooper getting so many props.

Sweet Baby James

I was fortunate enough to see a lot of shows in the early 80's at Toad's Place, a small club in New Haven(near Yale). You can't beat a small club for a live performance and the groups that I saw were on the verge of stardom(they were relatively unknown when I saw them). It also only cost 4 bucks to get in. The shows that I saw were-

Motels
Stray Cats
Joe Jackson
Graham Parker
The Cure
Cowboy Junkies
Violent Femmes
Echo & the Bunneymen
and without a doubt my favorite show ever, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

I also saw Elvis Costello during his "Imperial Bedroom" tour at the Bridgeport Jai-Alai, U2 during the "War" tour at the New Haven Colosseum, R.E.M. during the "Murmur" tour and Tears for Fears during the "Songs from the Big Chair" tour in West Hartford.

Those were some great times when bands actually had to hit the road to promote their new albums.

rw2516

Clapton- summer of 1974 Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, Davenport, Iowa. General admission, front row. Still remember the paisley shirt and green levi cords he was wearing. Never once took off his sunglasses.
ZZ Top-spring of 1974 RKO Orpheum Theater Davenport Iowa. Before the beards and fancy clothes. Just three guys in blue jeans with nine amplifiers.
Paul McCartney and Wings-Wings Over America Tour. May 1976. Kemper Arena, Kansas City
Blue Oyster Cult- December 1976 Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City.
The Eagles-July 1980 Kemper Arena, Kansas City. The Long Run Tour. When they still rocked. No sitting in chairs with acoustic guitars back then. Probably the cleanest sounding show I have ever seen.
The Kinks-1980 Memorial Hall, Kansas City. Didn't expect much but they were great. John Cougar(Mellencamp) opened for them.
Aldo Nova- 1983 Memorial Hall, Kansas City. He was opening for Cheap Trick. He was so good we didn't even stay to see all of Cheap Trick.
The Firm-May 1986. Kemper Arena, Kansas City. Played every song from both albums. Played 2hrs and 45min. The crowd kept calling them back. Last encore was a 30min jam of "I Just Want to Make Love to You". Jimmy Page just stood off in a corner of the stage jamming for 15-20min. The crowd called them back again and Page came out and said "Sorry, we don't know anymore songs".

As for shows that were recorded. Went to a KISS concert in July '75 that was recorded for KISS-Alive. Don't know if anything was actually used.
R.E.O. Speedwagon-Halloween night 1976 at Memorial Hall, Kansas City. Recorded for the "You Get What You Play For" live LP. Only song I'm sure is from that show is Golden Country. At the end of the song on the record Kevin Cronin says, "Goodnight. Happy Halloween".
The song "World Turning" on the Fleetwood Mac Live album is from the Kansas City show I was at in the summer of 1980.

Dan1boy

Depeche Mode - Rose Bowl '88 (101)

Saw their show this past Wed. at Arrowhead Pond and it was the best I'd seen of them since the early 90's.

AnonomusBob15

My favorite would have to be Radiohead in Atlanta 10/6/2003

shaun3000

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Feb, 2002 in St. Louis. GREAT concert, best I've been to before or sense

Blue Man Group - Complex Center, NextStage, (Now the Nokia Centre) Grand Prairie, TX - Only because they sold out two shows in as many days and decided to film that show for the DVD.

lordwow

Obviously: KC & The Sunshine Band.

BJacks

My first Flogging Molly experience in 2001 would probably be my all-time favorite concert experience. I think they are a mind-blowingly good live act.

I saw Audioslave last month at Madison Square Garden and they really blew my mind too. Tom Morello played entire Rage songs using his guitar for the vocals...it was incredible. And then at the end, Chris Cornell came out by himself and played "Black Hole Sun" with an acoustic guitar on a blackened stage...very surreal. I was in the photo pit against the stage for much of the show and was smelted by the rock greatness.

mndtrp

I've got that dvd, and enjoy it a lot. I would love to see a tour like that, if they did it again.

MovieExchange

This is gonna take a while.... Some of these I still have the ticket stubs for even.

Billy Joel & Elton John - Palace of Auburn Hills, May 2 2003 - What a story on this one. Plans for the evening were for my friend and I to go see X-Men 2, which opened that day. He calls me and says "I have bad news, we're not seeing the movie tonight." Why? "Well, Jeff's (a co-worker) sister broke her leg." What's that got to do with anything, they weren't going with us? "Well... she had tickets for the Elton John / Billy Joel show, she gave them to Jeff, he has tickets already, so he gave them to us." Ummm.... yeah, screw the movie! The show was great. Billy did a few songs, just him and his piano. Then Elton did the same. Then we got full concerts from each of them, and then 8 or so songs where everyone was on the stage playing.

Jeff Healey Band - Magic Stick in Detroit MI, Jan 22 2000 - One day before my birthday, I got to see the successor to the throne of Stevie Ray Vaughn. The club was a small one, above a diner. We got there early, and were the first ones up the stairs when doors opened. Our table was center stage, so close that while we were waiting for the band to come out, I had my feet resting on the stage right in front of where Healey would be sitting. A very intimate venue, the perfect place to see a band like this. After delivering a spectacular set, the band came out to mingle with the fans and do the whole autograph thing. $12.50 for the ticket, $3.00 service charge.

Van Halen's Monsters of Rock Tour - Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac MI, June 18 1988 - Second show at the Pontiac Silverdome. Kingdom Come (Led Zep clones), Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions and Van Halen. Ted Nugent even showed up that day and jammed with Eddie Van Halen. A mega-tour at the time, I camped out at the local TicketBastard for my tix. Ahhhh, the good old days of concerts, my ticket cost only $25 with a $2.50 service charge!

Kiss - Tiger Stadium, Detroit MI, June 28, 1996 - The first show of the reunion tour. My favorite band as a kid, never thought I'd have a chance to see the original 4 live. $34.00 ticket, $3.75 service charge.

Bruce Hornsby & The Range (multiple concerts) - Bruce is the musician's musician. The improv jams the band would go into during shows made it a must-see.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - State Theater, Detroit MI, Dec 19 1999 - Saw their second tour, the last one before they split into two touring groups. The crowd was amazing, a representative of all age groups. So many people that didn't know that this was a side project of a heavy metal band.

Queensryche - Wendler Arena, Saginaw MI, May 26 1991 - The "Building Empires" tour, where they performed the album "Operation: Mindcrime" in its entireity. Geoff Tate is one of the "holy trinity" of metal vocalists (with Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden). If he hadn't changed a few words or missed a word or two when he was out of breath, I would have swore he was lip-synching the entire concert. I hate it when singers use so much studio machinery that their live voice is nothing like their album (Axl Rose). As a member of their fan club, I've had the pleasure of watching their soundchecks and meeting them after various shows (seen them at least 6 times now). $18.50 ticket, no service charge.

Ted Nugent's Whiplash Bash - Dec 29 1996, Wendler Arena, Saginaw MI - Not so much for Nugent, but because his opening act was Alice Cooper. $22.50 ticket, $3.25 service charge.

Iron Maiden - Pine Knob Music Theater, July 24 1999 - The reunion show with Bruce Dickinson and my first time seeing the band live. I wasn't even a big fan at the time, but this was a major event for metal fans, and I had always heard about how great Maiden's stage show was. I certainly wasn't disappointed. Ticket cost: $22.50

Dream Theater / Queensryche - DTE Energy Theater (**** You, it's still Pine Knob to me), July 17 2003 - Co-headlining show, with Queensryche on first. We didn't get as long a set as we wanted, but it was still good. I wasn't a big Dream Theater fan until I saw their set. Very good stuff. Each band sang one song from the other's catalogue (Queensryche performed "The Spirit Carries On" and Dream Theater performed "Take Hold of the Flame.") The mega-jam at the end was great, especially the cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." Ticket cost: FREE! Several businesses around the venue have comp tickets that they just put out on their counters to give away, and my friend grabbed the last 2 tickets for us.