For me it was Wolfmother at a major German festival. I didn’t really know them before and did not expect too much, but was totally blown away by their performance.
Delain, Sabaton, and Nightwish. Best concert I think I’ll ever see. I hadn’t even heard of Sabaton at the time and they quickly became one of my favorite bands.
I’ve gone to several Gogol Bordello concerts, they’re always amazing. Most memorable one was when Eugene Hütz got their guitar strap stuck in their hair and kept rampaging around the stage with the guitar just hanging there, not holding it in their hands or anything. He kept making the stagehands go away instead of letting them help untangle the guitar. The mosh pits can be wild. Pre-covid he’d take swigs of wine and spit take it all over the pit, post covid they just splash wine everywhere instead which is still fun but not quite the same.
Another one that will stick with me is I got to go to a punk house and listen to local trans artists. I watched from the roof and spray painted a trans flag up there it was great
The band played 2 early albums + their latest one in sequence. Listening to whole albums in one go was great for many reasons.
So hard to decide.
Most impactful was probably seeing Above and Beyond at one of the Wonderland festivals. They were the last band to play and did their group therapy stuff. And sure, part of it was probably the drugs, but On a Good Day really connected with me.
Most fun might be Bad Religion. The concert was great and all, but I was in California and my friend in Chicago told me they had an extra ticket so I flew out to go to the concert with him. Probably spent $350 on flights for a $35 concert ticket.
Then there was Panic at the Disco last year. It’s my girlfriend’s favorite band and I very much enjoy them. Now Im living in Chicago, so I flew out to California and drove with her to Las Vegas for the concert. It was one of our earlier dates once we decided to be more serious.
Best performance might have been the Adicts. It was a small venue, but gorram did they have such an incredible time.
A&B sounds amazing! My answer would be similar, but with Phish… Hard to say what was just the drugs, but definitely some great moments at those shows.
I’ve seen them a few times, but nothing has ever matched that first time.
I was going through depression and having a really rough time during that period of my life, went to the festival with friends that I got separated from. Which didn’t bother me, they were putting out some negative vibes. The ecstacy had me feeling super empathetic and connected with everyone. And then they close out their set with On A Good Day. And dude, it felt like me on a good day. It resonated with me to the center of my soul.
It started a period where I was going to raves solo pretty regularly, became a kandi kid, and would always meet random people when I went. I had one show that I met a guy who snuck in, was kind of sketch, but we had a good time. After the show, I had gotten home when he called saying he was stranded with no way to get back. And ya know what, I drove back and picked his ass up. It was like an hour drive and 5 am, but man, I was all about that PLUR life. Even wore kandi that said ohana on it all the time. Never saw him again after that night, but I learned to love the shirt friendships I made at those shows. They were all the more beautiful knowing they were temporary.
Queen, news of the world tour, opening with “we will rock you”. Second is ELO and Kansas with a deadly laser light show. Nothing else has come close. I am old.
Cage the Elephant honestly puts on an incredible show.
Beach House is transportative
But I think Sigur Rós is an altogether different experience. They are so so good live. I’ll be seeing them later this year when they have their full orchestra and I’m so excited.
We saw Cage the Elephant and while it was memorable, it was more weird than good. Basically the least sexy strip tease you can imagine, he started out in lots of clothes, layers of clothes like two pairs of pants on top of each other and ended up in running shorts - at one point awkwardly wriggling out of skinny jeans, even. They sounded great but it was kind of awful, like someone had gotten way too high and thought “you know what would be a good idea?”
Last time I saw them was right after their Social Cues album came out. The singer first came out in a black and white stripey outfit, then halfway through came out in a skin suit that was the color of his skin so that it made him look like he was naked.
I honestly thought he gave out awesome energy and they sounded amazing.
Beach House circa Myth, along with TV on the Radio, M83 and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2011 - 2014 era) were my favorite shows of all time, clustered. Good times.
EDIT: And LCD Soundsystem, that is pure fun.
The best concerts I’ve seen are Caravan Palace, Wax Tailor, Thievery Corporation, and Sylvan Esso. I love concerts where you can tell everyone on stage is having a lot of fun. I don’t particularly care for arena shows or gimmicky effects.
Thievery Corporation is honestly one of the best groups I’ve seen live, if not the best. Their music is amazing, they cycle like 4-5 singers so you never know what you’re going to get next, and I love that they have a big couch in the center of the stage. They will play a beautiful ballad in French and follow it up with a hip-hop duo about systematic racism, but their sound will remain cohesive.
You sold me, I am getting tickets to the Thievery show. Wasn’t going to, so much going on. I do want to see them.
Thievery is soooo good.
Recency bias: Tool - I hadn’t been to a concert of that caliber in years, it was exactly what I was craving. Setlist was incredible and the band were on top of their game. 9.5/10 wish they’'d played vicarious instead of the pot.
Favorite band: Rush - saw them back in 2012 on the Clockwork Angels tour. There’s no way these guys tour if they can’t play, show was great despite a lackluster setlist. I’m a 70s/early 80s rush fan and that era of their discography was largely unplayed.
Childhood: System of a Down - I was a massive fan of these guys and a young teenager and my old man took my brother and I to see them in '05
Honorable mentions: Black Sabbath, Slayer, Rob Zombie
Fela Kuti, with a whole company of African dancers. Absolutely transcendent. His music was so good but the whole show somehow choreographed but still so immediate and alive, beautiful and raw and wonderful.
Also close second Henry Rollins at a little club in Daytona Beach. He was acting like an asshole rock star before the show (it was a long punk festival thing) and I almost left before his set. What a mistake that would have been. The stage had chain link between band and pit, he tore it down! He was amazing, band so tight so loud so good and he is such a showman, and it really was a tiny club so it was full of energy.
I have two concert that were amazing on the top of my mind. The first was the Taylor Swift Eras tour (which I know is a little lame and cliché but who cares) and the second was Cut Copy at First Avenue. Taylor Swift was just an amazing show with dancing, costume changes, fireworks and most importantly everyone there was so into it. The sounds of an entire stadium singing along to every song was amazing and with my earplugs the sound quality was still great. It was an EVENT with everyone there all the way in.
Cut Copy I went to in college with a bunch of buddies a little drunk and high. It was one of my first shows at First-Avenue which is amazing venue since every space has a great view with an intimate look at the stage. The crowd was all dancing their heart out the entire show and they had a awesome light show. My buddies and I all brought flasks and joints which we were passing around to strangers and friends alike in the crowd. It was just an amazing time all around and giving out free drugs and alcohol while in college felt like a baller move. Really all the shows at First-Avenue are amazing and haven’t seen anything bad there
First Ave is the best! I grew up in MN and my buddies and I would drive a couple hours to go to shows there. Ween stands out in my memory.
Recently, the best would be Underworld in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago, which was absolutely phenomenal.
Best ever is hard to say - R.E.M. at Stirling Castle would take some beating though. Also, the Chemical Brothers at a festival in the mid-1990s and Pulp at that same festival. Oh, and the Beastie Boys in Glasgow in 1999, that was pretty special.
Hella Mega Tour: Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Green Day What made it the best: the music
One evening in 2002 I saw In Flames, Soilwork, and Pain on the same stage, one after the other. It was while In Flames were small enough to stick to the smaller and more intimate concert venues, so the crowd was small enough that you could greet anybody there if you wanted. Met a lot of cool people that night. And the night finished with the entire crowd jumping in unison to In Flames - Only For the Weak.
Depeche Mode at the United Center in Chicago is definitely the one that blew me away the most. Their opening act hit the resonance point of the building and shook the whole thing, and Dave Gahan is such a showman. Everyone in the audience was reaching toward him and singing along with Personal Jesus.
Seeing the Red Elvises is always a treat too, but my partner and I caught them fresh off of touring with The Reverend Horton Heat and they played an incredible set that included a cover of Let Me Teach You How to Eat, and their songs from the movie Six String Samurai (Love Pipe and Boogie on the Beach). They even did a cover of Misirlou that night!
Does a solar eclipse count as a live performance?
A life performance by the universe
