NORML54601

For me the answer is Eric Clapton, followed closely by BB King, even though King was in pretty poor health at that point.
Today, it was announced that KISS is coming to town in a few months, and while I've never been a huge fan of theirs, I certainly enjoy their "greatest hits". The venue they'll be playing is relatively small so I don't know how much of the effects they will include, but I'm way more exited than I figured I would have been at the prospect of a KISS concert.

inri222

So many. I'll just list the first 5 that come to me

Bad Brains - 1989
Rush - 2004
Slayer - 1988
Prince - 1984
Bauhaus - 1998

Decker

I've been to hundreds of concerts, but the moment I saw it, I knew that this one on Saturday April 23, 1988 at the shitty Sports Arena in Los Angeles was the best I'd ever seen and nearly 30 years later, that's still the case.


Track listing:


I love that this actual same show I attended got released as a CD last year. Blew my mind.

The Infidel

"Best" is subjective for me, since I've seen artists covering all kinds of different music. Speaking favorite-wise, I'd have to say Prince during his Musicology tour of 2004. Great sitting right by the stage and hearing all the old songs he hadn't performed in a long time. Second would probably be Harry Connick, Jr. here in Indy right after the Saints beat the Colts in the Super Bowl. He came out and apologized for the win, but the staff of the theater set up a surprise for him after the last song, consisting of team-colored confetti cannons, and the team mascot came out and gave Harry a stuffed mascot doll. Third would have to be the Barenaked Ladies/Violent Femmes/Colin Hay show just this last summer. I like Barenaked Ladies, but it was a nearly-lifelong dream to see the Femmes and Colin Hay.

NORML54601

There isn't much I wouldn't do to see Colin Hay live. Very cool

VHS?

I've been to so many concerts I'd have a shoe box overflow with ticket stubs.
But I have to say my favorite concert I'd ever been to would have to be Pink Floyd in '94 at Jack Murphy Stadium.

The Infidel

After that festival last summer, I went to see him again by himself down in Bloomington. Great solo show. No band, just him, a couple guitars, a video screen, and lots of great, humorous stories from his life.

NORML54601

He played a similar show in Milwaukee last year and I couldn't get a ride. I was so bummed, but he's young, hopefully he'll be back.

The Infidel

Well, young-ish.

astrochimp

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe Cocker 1990. I had seen Stevie 3 times previous and wondered why he was opening for Joe Cocker, until I saw Joe live. Stevie died just a few months after.

Runner up:

Metallica: Master of Puppets 1986

Barth

Van Halen Omaha, NE 1992

Poison+Cinderella+Dokken+Slaughter Sandstone, Bonner Springs, KS Summer 2000.

Both were classics.

Jealous of inri222. Would love to have seen Prince in 84.

B5Erik

My favorite stage show would have to be the KISS Spider Stage from 2013-2014. Phenomenal stage set up. As cool as the pictures look, the show was 10 times better in person. What I really loved about this stage set up was how clean it was - no amps or speaker cabinets on the stage. Just the band and their stage set, no cliched wall of speaker cabinets...

B5Erik

My 2nd favorite live stage set up may be DIO's Dream Factory from 1987/88. (Which, interestingly enough, also featured a mechanical spider...)

B5Erik

Musically, my favorite concert was probably the Iron Maiden/Dio show from 2005 or so at Irvine Meadows. Two of my 3 favorite bands playing well balanced set lists and performing at an absurdly high level.

PerryD

My favorite was Metallica in March of 1989, by far the loudest show I've seen, my ears were muffled and ringing for a couple weeks afterwards. Queensryche was a great opening playing on their Mindcrime album.

bd007h

Saw Eve 6, The Gaslight Anthem, Our Lady Peace, and The Offspring all back to back to back to back in 2012 at a local radio station's annual summer concert. Only bummer is that Our Lady Peace had to cut 4am out of their set due to time constraints, although I've seen them play that on two other occasions lol.

arminius

1975 Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas, 3 out of 6 concerts at the Garden in NYC, without a doubt. It was fantastic when the stage opened up to Fanfare for the Common Man and Jagger was hanging from the front petal and then right into Honky Tonk Women.

Alice Cooper at the Commack Arena in 1972. We never saw anything like that being just in 11th grade.

The Who 1974 at the Garden NYC, just fantastic.

The Ramones at CBGB a whole bunch of times. Along with The Dead Boys, The Dictators and so many others. From 76 to 79 we went there once a week.

Patti Smith Group just before new years 1978 at the short lived CBGB theater. It was a glorious mess with it being shut down by fire marshalls.

Decker

Those sound awesome.

Mike86

I haven't been to a ton but most of the ones I've been to have been good. The standouts for me would be as follows.

Foo Fighters (2011 and 2015)- Both times they were full of energy and played a long time with a variety of new and catalog songs. I'd definitely see them again.

Paul McCartney(2014)- It's Paul freakin' McCartney, enough said. The guy is a legend and for his age puts on a hell of a show.

Pearl Jam (2014)- One of my favorite bands ever. Like the Foo Fighters they played long and had a good amount of energy. Would love to see them again.

Eddie Vedder (2011)- Really cool experience. Very intimate settling and a nice relaxing atmosphere. A different experience from a normal Pearl Jam show but great none the less.

arminius

We literally did not know the epic time for Rock that we were living through. The way radio stations changed from the 60s to the 70s. Concerts only cost 5 or 10 bucks for tickets. All the clubs, CBGB, Max's Kansas City, Club 52, Coventry, The Bottom Line and so on all had original music. No DJs or cover bands. We did not know what we had.

kd5

Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, 1974, Cleveland Ohio. Best damned concert, ever.

Hawkwind in concert was pretty damned good too.

rw2516

The Firm 1986
The Eagles 1980
Wings Over America 1976
Clapton 1974
Blue Oyster Cult 1976

CRM114

I've been to hundreds of concerts from The Dead Kennedys to Pink Floyd. The best?

The Flaming Lips in 2006 with Sonic Youth and Ween. Lips were at the top of their game.

Why So Blu?

That looks awesome! I have not seen Kiss plugged in since 2003 or so - when they toured with Poison. Their ticket prices - for a decent seat are too cost prohibitive. I did see them last year during their Unplugged set at San Manuel Indian Game Casion Amphiteater.

Phodg

Been to hundreds, but a few that spring to mind ...

Guns N Roses - Manchester Apollo 1987 - before Appetite exploded - the top tier of the theater was closed, and the bottom tier was maybe half full. Probably no more than 500 people there.

Faith No More - Manchester International 1990 - before The Real Thing blew up - packed club, insane crowd. Insane band too.

Morbid Angel/Entombed/Unleashed - Medusa's, Chicago 1991 - all 3 bands were young and had a lot to prove.

Metallica/Anthrax - Manchester Apollo 1986 - brilliant.

UK Subs/Anti-Pasti/The Stiffs - Blackburn King George's Hall 1981 - used to love going to punk gigs as a teenager, and this one was crazy.

Dead Kennedys - Manchester Mayflower 1981 - first time I saw organized stage diving. Jello had a massive line of people on stage during songs and he'd throw them off one by one.

The Prodigy - Chicago Metro 1997 - club gig as the Prodigy weren't known here, although they were already massive in Europe. Loud, loud, gig. Hot, sweaty and packed.

I could probably also list multiple gigs by Iron Maiden, Rush, Marillion (pre-1988), the Clash, the Jam, Slayer, Gary Moore and I'm sure a ton that I've forgotten.