Nick Danger

A friend and I tried to get Camper van Beethoven to come play at this wedding. We figured that they played good mariachi and good rock, so everyone would be happy. But the band had just broken up.

I saw Bo Diddley twice. He was awesome the first time. The second time I had only enough money either for Stevie Ray Vaugh or Bo. I figured that I could see Stevie someday in the future, and Bo was old and wouldn't play much longer. Bo was really sick, and put on a poor show. And Stevie died a couple of months later.

Missed opportunities.

dick_grayson

Someone I know saw Led Zepplin play with the Who back in the day. That is pretty impressive and some killer drumming.

Talkin2Phil

Springsteen- Darkness on the edge of town tour- Nov 1978- including a rockin' santa claus is coming to town

The Who- who are you tour (I went to college with someone who was at the Cincinnati Who concert where the fans got trampled-more tragic than impressive)

Prince- LA 1982- his 1999 tour

and whole host of bands I saw in clubs before they got big or bigger- the clash, REM, red hot chili peppers, husker du, violent femmes, sinead o'connor

woofman

Almost forgot:

Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream Tour three different sized venues. 700 people, 1200, 5000.

Tool: Aenima tour at a 1200 capacity club.

fallfan

I saw Bruce Springsteen on the Born in the USA tour when I was 8. I was surprised to find out when I started regularly seeing concerts years later that every artist didn't actually play for 3 hours.

nodeerforamonth

Oh yeah (sorry, but I've seen a ton of shows!): Primus played a birthday party for a friend back in '90. Also saw Larry LaLonde play in his previous band, Possessed.

Also saw Anthrax play with their first lead singer, Neil Turbin.

Gil Jawetz

The most impressive concert I've ever been to was No Doubt.

Now, from that opening line you think I'm a moron. But the story behind it was unbelievable. I've posted it here somewhere before but I can't find it.

Without spending too much time typing, it was on their first tour, it was in a tiny Baltimore bar (ticket price=$2)that I couldn't get into because I was underage, and the band themselves got me in. To top things off I was the ONLY person there. And they did their entire set just for me and for themselves. It was incredible. Definitely a night to remember (and that they remember too as of an AOL chat they did years later). They signed tons of stuff, gave me shirts and stickers and sent me postcards from the road. When I told my friends who were too boring to go to the show what happened their jaws dropped.

Turd Ferguson

I saw him when he came to Memphis on that tour. I was 12 and my dad took me. Bruce played for 4 hours and sweated like a whore in church.

K&AJones

Hands down Pink Floyd the "Division Bell Tour" was worth every dime spent plus some.

But some of the most entertaining were:

Alice Cooper's "Billion Dollar Babies" and "Welcome To My Nightmare"
We were like second row on the "Nightmare" tour and it was a trip!!!
"Billion Dollar Babies" was very very unusal but what a show!

Kiss "Destroyer Tour" - In their prime there was no equal when it came to a show. You want the Best, You got the Best!

Yes - "Big Generator" , "Union" and "Talk" tours - The "Talk" show was the best sounding. They had some sort of "Quad Surround" at the outdoor arena and it was fantastic. I wish Trevor Rabin was still with them.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - They did a show here that had something like a 50 pc orchrestra backing them. There were only like 10 city's that saw this. The rest of the tour they had only a few played with them due to the cost and time. Nashville was lucky enough to be one of the "10". Music wise these guys were light years ahead of everyone else.

Last but not least - Queen - Just plain outstanding. A major "WOW" factor!! They'll never be another 'Fredie". He was and still is the best voice in rock. Fredie ruled!!

Kenny J.

Tscott

I saw Tori Amos twice when it was still just her and her piano. Once each during her Under the Pink and Boys For Pele tours.

Of course, most people I meet are more impressed that I've seen Jimmy Buffet 6 times. My former college roommates are big fans and we made a weekend of seeing his show when he came around for six years running.

Spiderbite

Wow...it looks like many of you forgot to read the thread title. It says "most impresses other people." If some of the bands listed in some of these posts impress your friends...well...that is indeed sad.

I personally have seen no one in concert that I would say impresses other people (unless you count the Kansas reunion tour )

The Black

Pink Floyd, the exact concert they recorded at Earl's Court for PULSE.

Metallica, 3 Parisian Club Shows in 1 day, 200/1500/600 capacity clubs, last summer.

Metallica, London tv studio where they played an exclusive set for +/- 100 people. I was right in front of Kirk, and I kept waving for a guitar pick to James, he asked me what I wanted, and I lip synced a guitar pick, he then threw me one.

I saw Velvet Revolver persform in a relatively small club in Germany.

Muse when they were still playing small clubs and were relatively unknown.

Nine Inch Nails at a festival in 2000

Stone Temple Pilots on their last European tour ever, Smashing Pumpkins on their last European tour ever.

Meshuggah at a club gig, relatively rare.


Keep in mind I'm only 20 years old, and have been attending concerts regularly since I was 16 (Pink Floyd being my first though).

happycamper

Pink Floyd and Pearl Jam are the most impressive to others.

Annoyumous

Beat Farmers 11/08/95

Decker

I've posted this before, but the '89 Tom Petty show at the LA Forum was impressive because Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen came out and did the encore with him. That was beyond amazing since it was a total suprise. I saw it a couple of months later in Rolling Stone and was very proud.

Seeing the Go-Go's recently wasn't that impressive, BUT thanks to my sister (who's good friends with the band), my wife and I had backstage passes and had dinner and hung out with the band after the show. For a guy who grew up in the 80's, that was a pretty memorable night.

atlantamoi

Tiny club shows to see the Replacements '85 and '86, RHCP in '86.
The La's live in '91. That's something pretty rare I'd think.
Happy Mondays in '91.
Jeff Buckley solo in '94

God, I'm sitting here thinking about all the mind-blowingly good concerts I've seen over my life, but I'm not sure how many of them are super impressive to others. It's seeing the smaller bands that brought the greatest joy (Chills, Blake Babies, Treat Her Right, Guadalcanal Diary) or seeing popular acts supporting their best albums (Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend" Crowded House "Woodface" REM "Murmur")

Michael T Hudson

Rage Against The Machine in 97
Guns N Roses 91 and 92

Caliking

Im super jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!

best concert i ever went to was Sonic Youth at the Fillmore (SF). i also enjoyed the French Kicks at a small little coffee shop in Elk Grove, CA of all places

i saw Wham! around 1986. that was my first concert ever...i laugh everytime i tell people. my friend and his dad took me.

nightmaster

Seems like I saw everybody when I was a teenager in the mid-70s.

McCartney- Wings Over America Tour 1976
McCartney- Last US Show for the Flowers In The Dirt Tour, Lexington, Ky. (after receiving a lifetime achievement Grammy the week before)
McCartney- Off The Ground Tour
Pink Floyd, Animals Tour
Elvis, last show, Indianapolis
The Rutles
Badfinger

Plus all of these in the last 70s:

Bob Seger (5 times.....Live Bullet, Night Moves, Stranger In Town Tours)
Kiss (5 times.....Kiss Alive tour, Destroyer Tours)
Wet Willie
Bad Company
Styx
AC/DC
Foreigner
Jefferson Starship (w/Grace Slick)
Alice Cooper
Pat Benatar
Heart (5 times)
John Mellencamp

Lord knows who else......lots of partying in the 70s.......

Darkfriend

I wish I could've seen that. Reminds me of The Replacements playing 25 minutes then giving the finger to everyone and leaving. Well THAT was 25$ well spent!


Not that it impresses people, but what impressed me was seeing KISS in 1977 at 9 years old with my 17 year old cousin. Came home to my mom deaf and smelling like pot

Flashback

Got to agree...seeing Floyd, just as an example, on Momentary or Division tours is not impressive (Waters was not even part of the band and they played stadiums and arenas all over the USA)... going to The Wall in LA or Long Island IS.

Seeing the Doors, Beatles, Zep, Elvis, Stones (w/ Jones) would impress me.

tboogie

Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour in Los Angeles.

I saw OJ there too. It was before the murder controversy, and I remember mentioning it to my mother when he went on trial. She said, "Did he see you? I hope not he would have liked you and you could have been the one killed!" Mothers! So overprotective of their daughters!

Wick

"Sarsstock", July 30th, 2003. I went to see AC/DC, my favourite band, and thought it was a great concert. Their set was amazing and I will forever remember that day, as being one of the best of my life. But, my Dad made us leave before the Stones came on, because he didn't want to be stuck waiting until 2 or 3am, to get out of there. But, I'm not really a Stones fan anyways; as I said before, I went to see AC/DC!

Notable mentions (in no particular order):

The Eyes of Alice Cooper Tour (July, 22, 2004- Toronto, Ontario)
Silverchair: Across the Night Tour (May 2003- Toronto, ONT)
Slipknot: Vol. 3 Canadian Tour (January 2005- Mississauga, ONT)
Insane Clown Posse (October 1, 2004- Niagara Falls, NY)

boston george

It's hard for me to awnser this really, because while I'm into ALL kinds of music, my favorite genres are hardcore, punk rock and indie rock. So things that seem really cool to me may mean nothing to the majority of people. Heres a few for anyone interested (great thread by the way, the most impressive I've seen so far is the guy whos mother used to go see the Doors, I would give my left-nut to witness the Doors)

Anti-Flag opening for Ice Nine in '95 (I was 13)

Wutang Clan with Rage against the Machine

The Donnas in what was one of their first shows (they were just as shitty and gimmicky/manufactured back then, and this was almost 7 years ago).

boston george

Also my dad used to be really good friends Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Before thier first album came out and for a few years after that. He has personalized autographed 12" vinyl of their first LP, and does anyone remember Fleas's trademark old man hat? This goes way back but it was his "thing" back then. My pops has a few of these circa the early '80s. Incredible.

My father also saw Black Flag, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and many other CLASSIC bands between say '79-'86 (I was born '82) and when I got interested in New Wave/Punk/Hardcore music when I was 12-13 he bequeathed upon me tapes of all these great bands. Call it punk rock 101.