boris23

The Ramones were a blast everytime (I saw them three times). The show I saw in Portland with The Ramones and Social D (back in the day) was great.

ytrez

Iron Maiden.

ytrez

I wish I could have seen the Ramones, that would have been cool.

Giles

BTW, Q's 50 Bands You Must See Before You Die… (Sep 2002)

1. AC/DC
2. Ash - Seen
3. The Beta Band
4. Tony Bennett
5. Pink Floyd - Seen. Sans Roger Waters, so I don't know if that counts
6. Kraftwerk - Seen
7. The Who
8. The Pogues
9. The Fall
10. Oasis - Seen
11. Hundred Reasons
12. The White Stripes
13. D’angelo
14. The Flaming Lips - Seen
15. Femi Anikulapo-Kuti & The Positive Force
16. Badly Drawn Boy - Seen
17. Ian Brown - Seen. Only the final disasterous Stone Roses concert
18. Guns’n’roses
19. Bob Dylan
20. New Order
21. The Rolling Stones
22. Neil Young
23. Prodigy - Seen
24. Kilie
25. Paul Oakenfold
26. Fatboy Slim - Seen
27. Mr Scruff
28. Osymyso
29. Eddie Halliwell
30. Dj Hell
31. Erick Morillo
32. Tom Stephan
33. High Contrast
34. DJ Yoda
35. Primal Scream - Seen
36. RL Burnside (deceased)
37. PJ Harvey
38. Slipknot
39. Radiohead - Seen
40. Red Hot Chilli Peppers
41. Fairport Convention
42. U2 - Seen
43. The Vines
44. Madonna
45. The Soundtrack Of Ourlives
46. Ryan Adams
47. The Strokes
48. Outkast
49. Orbital - Seen
50. The Hives

also:

Gwar
Faithless
Mogwai
Hot Chip
Klaxons
Manic Street Preachers

The Bus

I've seen him three times: once for Mixed Bizness, once for Sea Change (he played an all-acoustic set in a small auditorium), and once for The Information. He seems to be one of those artists that actually puts thought into what he does as far as the live show: aside from the music heard live, he had a lot of ton stuff that couldn't be done live.

At the first show I saw him, there was some kind of audio issue and only the bassist and DJ Swamp had audio. Everyone else was cut out. Beck walked over to them, talked to them, and then they played an improvised song while everyone else did calisthenics and/or dancing until the audio was fixed a few minutes later.

At the same show he had a short set where it was just him and his guitar. He asked for requests and one girl yelled out, "Take me backstage!" He then said, "OK, I don't know that song but maybe it goes like this..." He proceeded to make a short song out of it.

CTH

Beastie Boys - hip hop, funk, punk all in one show

Cro Mags -old school NY hardcore at its finest

Bad Brains - insane energy

Slayer - pure, intense metal

Mastodon - the future of metal, drummer Brann Dailor is sick

Pantera - Dime and Phil were the ultimate one, two punch

George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars - watching the Mothership land in Central Park with Bootsy back in the fold was surreal (the mushrooms didnt hurt either)

Deftones - Chino is one the best frontmen around when he is on his game

Radiohead - never disappoints

The Black Crowes - very underrated

SleepyW

I haven't been to many shows in my lifetime, but the best one was Michael Jackson back in the day (Bad tour?). It was like watching him do his videos up on the stage. Major production.

Otherwise, the only other concerts I've been to recently (last 10 years) are:

Matchbox 20/Lifehouse/Everclear (went with some friends, typical stage show, nothing fancy, but entertaining)
Tori Amos/Judas(?) (not a fan of Tori, went with my ex who was, still had an OK time)
Backstreet Boys (free tickets, went with my ex, it was OK - overproduced)

Back in my teens/20's, I saw some R&B acts (Keith Sweat, Troop, TLC, Mary J. Blige, Al B. Sure, Bobby Brown), and they were OK - nothing special in concert.

Dan

Flaming Lips - saw them recently at the Virgin Festival in Calgary. I had no interest in seeing them, but as soon as I saw their stage setup, I was curious. From start to finish, the show was just fantastic. Wayne Coyne rolled around in the audience inside a giant bubble.
Tool - Always lots of energy an interesting stage designs. Last time I saw them, the entire stage was white and video images were projected onto it. Very cool.
Nine Inch Nails - Same as Tool. Tons of energy. Excellent lighting/video effects.
Matthew Good - specifically, his acoustic shows. Simple, yet phenomenal.

DeltaSigChi4

E

mdc3000

I've seen hundreds of bands live and the highlights for me are:

Pearl Jam
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Oasis
Smashing Pumpkins (club tour for Mellon Collie - seen them 3 times since and not as good)
Green Day
Foo Fighters
Rage Against The Machine
Tool
Coldplay
U2
Pulp
Billy Talent
Sloan
Jack Johnson

I thought all these were really great. I've seen lots of bands who are good, but these ones stand out a bit more for me.

tcoursen

Saw them 3 times. First time was at Giant Stadium with Deep Purple and Aerosmith. Great show by all three bands. They filmed the video for Paradise City that day, and if I remember right they played it twice. They played there songs, no extended solos or any of that kind of thing. Good show.

Saw them at MSG w/ Soundgarden opening. They were still good but were starting to add in these long solos and stuff.

Saw them again at Giant Stadium with Metallica. Metallica was awesome as always. Gun's, not so good. Way too many extended boring solos.

I think they got worse as a live act as they got more popular and played bigger tours and stuff.

Flashback

Ahh. One of my favorite shows, I was at that one and yes they played Paradise 2x. As well as the typical Axl leaving the stage for a bit from getting hit by a shoe. Slash asks the crowd to not do it anymore so he can come back out and then he gets hit by a shoe. At least he laughed.

DJLinus

Very good! Some pics and what I wrote up on my blog:



Gogol Bordello took the stage at around 10:15 with a manic fury. I swear, they replace Flogging Molly as the most energetic band that I've seen live. If this Gypsy punk band doesn't alter their Raisin Bran to have two scoops of amphetamines, I'd be surprised. They simply didn't stop except briefly at about an hour in, when bandleader Eugene Hütz finally addressed the crowd...by referring to us as Charlottesville. Is it any wonder why the humor of This Is Spinal Tap endures to this day?

After some brief banter, they jumped back into the music. While they are great at what they do, honestly each song sounded pretty much alike. There wasn't much variety at all. Plus, I have never heard a band draw out and milk the endings of their songs so much in one show. That's a fine thing to do a few times, usually at the very end of one's set. But almost every song was like The Return of the King. Just when you thought it was over, it would keep going, then stop, then continue, then dissolve into a super jam.

Despite my above criticisms, I had a great time. If Gogol Bordello rolls into your town, definitely go see them. They certainly give you quite the bang for your buck (a SIX SONG encore!).

DamingR

Great:
Smashing Pumpkins
Pearl Jam
Wilco
Radiohead
Black Crows
Flaming Lips
Oasis

Overrated:
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Metallica
Beck

Giantrobo

When we saw Guns 'n Roses what we hated was all the boring piano ballads Axel did. What the deuce man!? We want to rock out not be bored by your crap rock ballads!!!

It was one of the most boring shows I've ever seen and I'll never go to another Guns' show.

Flashback

Well the one Illusion show I saw at New Haven was pretty good in some spots and then a lot not so good. These guys brought out a couch for a few songs. This link is the actual show that I was at with said couch...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=h9Z15fZVnqQ

They definitely changed for the worse but I was at least happy to see them during the AFD time.

CapRockBrewingCo.

Wilco
Neil Young
Radiohead
Asylum Street Spankers
My Morning Jacket
Son Volt
Tom Petty

Flashback

Funny thing ... Ace played last night w/ Pearl Jam at Madison Sq. Garden.
doing a cool version of Black Diamond.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=S-Y2cEZ3kLQ

brokenhanger

The Breeders are probably my favorite live act - always on the brink of falling apart, totally shambolic, totally brilliant. [I only wish they had dusted off 'Empty Glasses' at the start of the "Mountain Battles" tour so I could've seen it live - oh well.] A-mazing - I will never, ever pass up the opportunity to see them.

SFA are generally a good time, though they can be hit or miss. I've seen em 11 times I think - they never disappointed, but some nights they were absolutely on FIRE [like on this last tour for "Hey Venus!"], other nights they were just going through the [admittedly incredible] motions. Another one I never pass up.

Back in the day, I used to go to Hidden Cameras shows all of the time - I think 10 in an 18 month span. Each one was always a special treat - especially when they collaborated with various dance troupes in the Toronto area. I really, really miss going to see them on a regular basis.

And I gotta say - the Spice Girls on their reunion tour put on an AMAZING show. More a spectacle than a proper concert, but they totally exceeded any expectation I had. Gonna miss 'em.

Giles

grind it in, the only one SFA North American show I missed because I was insanely sick that night.... I liked their Rings Around the World tour. The surround set-up at their Baltimore show was phenomenal!

brokenhanger

The "Rings" tour was great - the first leg was kinda eh [one of those phoning it in shows, at least in Toronto], but I followed the second leg for three shows and they were all phenomenal. I really, really miss the rockin' version of '[A] Touch Sensitive' they opened that tour with. Best SFA live moment ever.

Ky-Fi

I'm mostly a punk-new wave guy, and I'm generally not much of a metal fan at all, but I've seen these guys 3 times in the last 6 or 7 years. Bruce's energy, voice and stage presence, and that triple Fender Strat guitar attack is awesome indeed, with them all taking turns on the solos. Seeing Bruce wave the Union Jack duriing the Trooper, and the Churchill intro before they blast into "Aces High" are worth the price of the tickets for me.

The Bus

I saw SFA live and they weren't that impressive. They weren't bad certainly, but they weren't extremely memorable.

If Breeders are good live, I will try to catch them.

Moopher

Tool
Iron Maiden
Children of bodom
Amon Amarth
Lamb of God
Slayer
Mastodon
Arch Enemy
American Head Charge

Would really like to see/have seen:
Motley Crue
Judas Priest
Pantera
Pink Floyd
The Rolling Stones
Ted Nugent
Deep Purple

Corleone316

Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band. There's no one better.