OT Worst Concert

[JohnS]

The thread on everyone's best concert got me thinking about the worst concert I've ever been to. The only think memeorable about it was that it stunk so bad that I never had to think again about what my worst concert was. It was Todd Rundgren's "Tiki Lounge" tour. All his songs were rewritten to give them a Polynesian feel. The musical arrangements were totally different. You'd be listening to a tune that was completely foreign-sounding and then realize that you recognized the lyrics. It sucked, bigtime!

[roman meal]

Incantation of Fleetwood Mac in the mid-1990's. They were openting for CSNY, and Mick Fleetwood had himself wired with electronic drum pads. He kept smacking himself in the crotch to get a tom--tom effect, among other places. I think the high hats were on his nipples. Oh, please don't make me remember that concert, please...

[William]

The thread on everyone's best concert got me thinking about the worst concert I've ever been to. The only think memeorable about it was that it stunk so bad that I never had to think again about what my worst concert was. It was Todd Rundgren's "Tiki Lounge" tour. All his songs were rewritten to give them a "Tiki Lounge" feel. The musical arrangements were totally different. You'd be listening to a tune that was completely foreign-sounding and then realize that you recognized the lyrics. It sucked, bigtime!

A lot of artists forget that the majority of people like them for what they've done, not what they can do.


Incantation of Fleetwood Mac in the mid-1990's. They were openting for CSNY, and Mick Fleetwood had himself wired with electronic drum pads. He kept smacking himself in the crotch to get a tom--tom effect, among other places. I think the high hats were on his nipples. Oh, please don't make me remember that concert, please...

Don't make me remember.... :crap:


William

[znfdl]

U2 at the MCI center, thankfully the tickets were free.

I am sure the music was good, however the accoustics definitely left something to be desired. I would personally never see another show at the MCI center.

Second worst show: My kids wanted to see the ABBA remake at Wolftrap. Atfer about 5 minutes, I was ready to leave and go back home. Thankfully, my oldest son felt the same and took us 10 minutes to walk back home.

[sc53]

Townes Van Zandt at the Birchmere, about 8 months before he died. Totally drunk and incoherent, couldn't walk on stage or sit on the stool, couldn't even strum his guitar, it was so very sad.....He kept slurring a few sentences and then a friend/roadie came onstage and led him off. Audience of 500+ sat in stunned silence.

[Wayne77]

Rush - Vapor Trails tour in SLC. The album sucks so bad its not even funny. The tour was even worse: Horrible accoustics, stupid stage props and cheesy Pete;s Dragon video images.

[93legendti]

ELO at the Pontiac Silverdome. ~1980, the concert where they played a tape of the band playing. I only went for the backup band, Heart--which were very good. Runner up was the Stones in 1984 at the Pontiac Silverdome. Iggy Pop and Santana preceded the Stones on stage and Iggy was Iggy and Santana sounded great. The Stones sounded awful.

[Ray]

I mentioned it in the best concert thread - Little River Band, 1979 or so. The tickets were free (and very good), the opening act was good (Jay Fergusen, one hit, but a rocker - I was the only one in the arena of 10,000 who seemed to like him), but the Little River Band defined bland. They coulda kicked Lawrence Welk's butt for bland. My date liked them, the audience generally loved them. I was personally apalled, disgusted, and frightened by the whole thing - it was like a Stepford concert and Stepford audience. A horrible night of 'music'. Still gives me chills to this day (not hair on end chills, the kind you get with pnemonia).

Honorable mention goes to Larry Coryell, a usually great jazz guitarist who showed up at this little college cafe totally wasted and incoherant and his playing was worse than his inability to talk or even hold himself up between songs. Real disappointing because he was really great when he was on.

I saw a couple of pretty lame Dead shows over the years, but I loved the Dead and always gave them credit for trying - sometimes the mojo just never showed up though.

-Ray

[dbrk]

This one is easy. Worst I ever saw was NRBQ, sometime in the late 1970s. Best was Oregon (with Ralph Towner, Paul McClanndis, Greg Moore, I believe, that band...). Scary talented, serious musicians, I sat front and center. I met Paul McC again at a wedding (over which I presided, what fun!) Strong runner up to Oregon or truly it's equal was Shakti. Muscianship beyond compare. And most recently Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach and Mozart. Made me cry.

But this is the Awful Thread...hmmm...NRBQ. Scary bad.

dbrk

[Jeff Weir]

Iron Butterfly at the Filmore, 1969. Led Zepplin was the warmup band. After "Innagoddadavida" the audience was chanting/screaming to get LZ back on stage. Never happened. What a bad trip.......

[JohnS]

the opening act was good (Jay Fergusen, one hit, but a rocker - I was the only one in the arena of 10,000 who seemed to like him),


-RayHe didn't sing any of his Spirit songs? He was their lead singer, IIRC.

[Birddog]

Went to visit a girlfriend who lived near Portland OR in the early 70's. She happily announced that she had tickets the following night for a Rod McKuen Concert. I thought it would never end, two hours of fingernails on a blackboard would have been better. ABBA and Air Supply would have been a pleasure by comparison. I had to feign pleasure the whole time. "The Things We Do For LOVE".

Birddog

[Mikej]

1987, I ended up in jail, concert was canc'd. My buddy did give a cop the ride of his life when he (cop) tried grabbing him on hid GSXR 1100 goin about 45 mph. They are building condos on the land were that punk club used to be.

[Dr. Doofus]

uncle tupelo, charleston sc 1994

jeff and jay do seperate sound checks

during the show, the onstage emnity and lack of inspiration was palpable

compared to what they were four years before, it was too tedious and banal to be torture.

[Ray]

He didn't sing any of his Spirit songs? He was their lead singer, IIRC.
He did one or two, but he was trying to push his solo album (Thunder Island?) and stuck mostly to that. Pretty decent, but that audience just didn't want any music with life in it that night.

DBRK's Oregon reference reminded me of one I forgot under best concerts. Saw Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie playing together in their Sargasso Sea days up in Seattle somewhere. Totally spellbinding guitar interplay. Never heard anything else like it again.

I saw NRBQ a few times too - they could be a lot of fun, but could be pretty bad too.

-Ray

[Tom]

- Some place in Troy that recently changed hands. The worst sound I have ever heard at any concert anywhere. I'd never heard a show where you not only couldn't tell what tune they were playing, you couldn't pick a single instrument out of the mix. It was like putting a lawnmower engine up to your ear. We left after about four tunes. The only consolation was the expression on the face of the guy at the sound board. He was looking at it with a mixture of horror, disbelief and hopelessness.

[Birddog]

Another one. One of those Beach Boys reprise concerts. Mile Love was the only one with any energy at all. Simply horrible, made me want to forget that I ever liked them. This was about 15 years ago.

Birddog

[davids]

Off the top of my head:

The Relaxors, in the basement of Mary Markley Hall, Ann Arbor, 1979.
A freshman year "hall-mate" named Mark started a punk band so he could pose in front of a crowd. Which he did, badly. Years after graduation, a mutual friend ran into him in Manhattan. Mark was now the prototypical yuppie, and disavowed his youthful indiscretions. Too late for those of us who had to watch...

Johnny Thunders, the Star Lounge, Ann Arbor, 1982.
As Paul Westerberg observed around the same time, "Johnny's gonna die." Mr. Thunders took a big step towards that destination that evening - He actually tore down the suspended ceiling over the stage as he pranced and mugged his way through a dismal show. I'm amazed he lasted another 10 years.

Meat Puppets, The Channel, Boston, late '80s?
A friend and I, completely besotted by "Meat Puppets II", dragged a third friend to see them. Who replaced that group of charming, primitive savants with a sloppy speed-metal band? A disaster.

Buffy St. Marie, the Newport Folk Festival, late '80s.
Fortunately, she was early in the day. She seemed to have been transported directly to Newport from some kind of hippie birthing ceremony. She was serious and preachy, and her voice was grating. The worst moment was her performance of the theme from "Sesame Street", which she sang as some kind of profound protest song! It was completely wrong. Ever since, she has been known among my friends as 'Buffy St. Bernard.'

"Escape from New York" group tour of the Ramones, Blondie, and the Tom Tom Club, Tweeter Center, MA, 1990.
I won tickets to this by answering some embarrassingly easy trivia question from a local radio station. I had never enjoyed a concert the execrable Tweeter Center (an outdoor pavilion south of Boston), but this show drove me away forever. The Ramones were reliably good. Blondie was as boring as I remember them being 11 years earlier, only Debbie Harry didn't look like a bloated cadaver in 1979. And the Tom Tom Club was pathetic. But the icing on the cake (as it were) was watching the security goons kick some kid to the floor because he didn't vacate the pavilion fast enough for their tastes. After confronting the guards and reporting them, I left the Tweeter Center for good. A horrible, horrible night.

[inGobwetrust]

Foghat at the Club Casino, Hampton Beach, NH. They did a 30 minute version of "Slow Ride", need I say more?

[Kevan]

Another one. One of those Beach Boys reprise concerts. Mile Love was the only one with any energy at all. Simply horrible, made me want to forget that I ever liked them. This was about 15 years ago.

Birddog

1978 is my guess.. Boston.. my dogs sing better than they did.

Other band was Orleans and their stuff was so over played by then. Not all was bad, the beer, sun and frisbee were pretty good.

[andy mac]

Beastie Boys - Oakland Arena.

Horrible muddy acoustics and echos. that type of music is totally reliant on clear diction.

it's sad when musicians pick revenue maximizing venues vs ones that show off their craft. i would venture most big stadium performances fall into this catagory if you're not up the front.

:beer:

* also every night in my apartment. i'm trying to learn the guitar and the kid is really, really horrible. arrrrrrrr.....!!!!!!!!!!

[champlemon]

Easy... Judas Priest... Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico... People got a little roudy and started tearing up the seats and throwing them around... my brother got hit on the head with a piece of sit... What the heck was I doing in a Judas Priest concert? We went to see whatever went to play in PR at the time... late 70's... :rolleyes:

[bostondrunk]

1999 (I think) - Elton John. The way I saw it, this fat guy walks out onto stage in a track suit, glances at the audience and say "I'll try to go through the catalogue tonight", and sits down and plays his crappy old music, horrible sound, boring performance. Girlfriend made me go.
It just didn't compare to WASP, Lincoln Park and Metallica. Static X was also good, and on Roy's recommendation, the backstreet boys.

[dave thompson]

Jerry Lee Lewis playing Tacoma Washington in the early '80s. Still a pretty good voice then, but tired, old and no energy. Not at all like I want to remember that young kid whose fingers, and feet, flew over the keyboard.

[bcm119]

Pink Floyd at Yankee stadium in 1994. They played like old farts, had dumb theatrics, and the sound was horrible.

[spiderlake]

Matchbox 20 - yuck..... I was a last minute invite and the ticket was free. I heard the Jayhawks were opening so I said I'd go but we got to our seats just as the 'hawks finished their set. The rest of the show was just miserable!

Vince Neal - at the RPM Club in Toronto in 95 or 96. We just happened onto this club since they had a shuttle from the train station and we figured it would get us close to our friends apartment. Anyway, we walk in to see Vince hammering out Doctor Feelgood to a smallish crowd. It was horrible yet fun.

Quiet Riot - Stooges in Grand Rapids - couple of years ago. Random night of barhopping with friends found us at Stooges. Quiet Riot was playing and fumbled their way through a very sloppy set. I kept shouting out Slick Black Cadillac but I either missed it or they never played it. Maybe 200 people in the place. Another horrible yet fun moments.

[Fixed]

bro any wedding band

[JohnS]

bro any wedding bandYou don't like "Proud Mary"? :)

[Russell]

Kenny Loggins in 1977. My girlfriend had me take her. The show sucked; we broke up.

[gasman]

Easy- Eric Clapton in 1973 the Cow Palace, San Francisco. He played for about 30 minutes, needed more cocaine or something, left and never came back out. He lost a lot of fans that day.

[KevinK]

I took a new-ish girlfriend to see Joe Cocker at the Honolulu International Center (pre-Blaisdell Arena) in the early 70's. Great seats, second row dead center. Spastic Joe comes out, and throughout the evening proceeds to shower us and everyone else in the first few rows with sweat, spit and possibly other body fluids as he wailed, screetched, gyrated and twitched his way through his set. The music was actually good, Joe was in rare form, and I am sure I would have enjoyed it more had it not been for my girlfirend's reactions to being sprayed.

Kevin

[Ray]

bro any wedding band
Hey Fixed, my wedding band was great! We went scouting the dive bars and found a great blues band fronting an Elvis impersonator. They did a set without Elvis and were wonderful. They acted offended that we wanted them without Elvis, but agreed and our reception was a great dance party. Two of the players (guitar and piano) were actually blind, so instant credibility right there. I jammed with them on a few songs during our reception. I saw the guitar guy playing solo at another bar a few months later and went to say hello and he invited me to sit in with him that night. Everyone had a good time at our wedding. I still have the tapes somewhere and they don't sound bad at all.

-Ray

[72gmc]

The Replacements, sometime around 1988. I believe it was at the Paramount here in Seattle. In what little memory of it I haven't completely blocked out, Paul Westerberg was hammered and unintelligible for the entire show. Nothing like paying good money at the behest of your friends ("You're gonna love it!") to watch a self-absorbed lead singer waste a night of your life.

[Fixed]

Hey Fixed, my wedding band was great! We went scouting the dive bars and found a great blues band fronting an Elvis impersonator. They did a set without Elvis and were wonderful. They acted offended that we wanted them without Elvis, but agreed and our reception was a great dance party. Two of the players (guitar and piano) were actually blind, so instant credibility right there. I jammed with them on a few songs during our reception. I saw the guitar guy playing solo at another bar a few months later and went to say hello and he invited me to sit in with him that night. Everyone had a good time at our wedding. I still have the tapes somewhere and they don't sound bad at all.

-Ray
bro they wern't a wedding band they were a bar band that did a wedding gig .cheers

[William]

Ok, how about a band consisting of a chainsaw, banging garbage cans, swinging a cat by it tail, and a Kazoo. Well, that's what it kind of sounds like. Try a real Muay Thai fight where the band plays to the flow and intensity of the fight. The mp3 sounds very civilized compared to how it sounds in person.

http://www.wmtc.nu/images/update.jpg

http://www.swedishmuaythai.nu/bilder/instrum.jpg

MT Band (http://www.swedishmuaythai.nu/music/round1.mp3)

First hand description (http://williamsmartialblog.blogspot.com/2005/02/muay-thai-humour.html)


William :banana:

[gone]

Off the top of my head:

Buffy St. Marie, the Newport Folk Festival, late '80s.
Fortunately, she was early in the day. She seemed to have been transported directly to Newport from some kind of hippie birthing ceremony. She was serious and preachy, and her voice was grating. The worst moment was her performance of the theme from "Sesame Street", which she sang as some kind of profound protest song! It was completely wrong. Ever since, she has been known among my friends as 'Buffy St. Bernard.'

Oh, the horror! Her (blessedly brief) popularity always amazed me. It was like people felt like they ought to like her for some reason. I saw her as an opening act for Peter Yarrow (of PP&M who was quite good) and like wow man, she was groovy. If I hadn't have wanted to see Yarrow I would've set a record for the 200 yard dash as I raced for the door. As it was, I sat through two "songs" and went out to the lobby for the rest of her "show". God, she was awful.

I should probably hunt you down and kill you for bringing that repressed memory back to the surface. :)

[shinomaster]

I have only seen good concerts but this Dave Mathews Band live albumn we are suffering through at work here today is some of the worst music I have ever heard. I just don't see the attraction to this guy. Almost as bad as Kenny G.

[DarkStar]

Arrowsmith, both times, Montreal Forum 1980 and 81. How a mediocre bar band got as far as they did is beyond me!
:crap:
Best concert ever, Led Zepplin at the Montreal Forum in 1975. :banana: :banana: :banana:

[taz-t]

Hey Fixed, my wedding band was great! We went scouting the dive bars and found a great blues band fronting an Elvis impersonator. They did a set without Elvis and were wonderful. They acted offended that we wanted them without Elvis, but agreed and our reception was a great dance party. Two of the players (guitar and piano) were actually blind, so instant credibility right there. I jammed with them on a few songs during our reception. I saw the guitar guy playing solo at another bar a few months later and went to say hello and he invited me to sit in with him that night. Everyone had a good time at our wedding. I still have the tapes somewhere and they don't sound bad at all.

-Ray

Speaking of Elvis impersonators... (okay so Ray wasn't really speaking of Elvis impersonators) ... does anyone remember Dread Zeppelin?

Not the best or worst concert I've seen, but a lot of fun and pretty decent musically surpisingly enough.

- taz

[JohnS]

I don't always care for the changes in direction some musicians take (e.g. Bruce), it's still better than bands like Aerosmith (thanks for the reminder, DarkStar) who never change and write songs about "girls" liking them when they're like 60 years old.

[gone]

Speaking of Elvis impersonators... (okay so Ray wasn't really speaking of Elvis impersonators) ... does anyone remember Dread Zeppelin?

Not the best or worst concert I've seen, but a lot of fun and pretty decent musically surpisingly enough.

- taz
Agreed. Saw them in San Francisco a number of years ago and thought they were a good time. It's funny, after you hear some zeppelin music to a reggae beat, it kind of sticks with you. Apparently, they're still touring:

http://www.dreadzeppelin.com/tour.html

[Kevin]

An old girlfriend dragged me to Madonna's "Like a Virgin" Tour in 1985. The music sucked. The girls were all dressed in lace and none of them were virgins. So while the concert was horrible, the after party was memorable ;)

Kevin

[Rapid Tourist]

Easy...

David Bowie--Glass Spider tour in 1988 or so. I went with some friends in college. The whole concert was more like a play than a concert; there were different sets, and different suits and hair for Bowie, for each song. He never once said anything to the crowd. Probably had no idea what city he was in. The whole thing was far too self-conscious for me, and the music sucked.

I agree with ZNFDL, I saw Crosby stills Nash and Young at the MCI center and they sucked, not because of them, but the accoustics there are terrible.

[jerk]

gg allin. some hurting place in new york. "you really need to see this".

the jerk was lied to.

jerk

[Roy E. Munson]

Did you get any $hit on you?

[e-RICHIE]

gg allin. some hurting place in new york. "you really need to see this".

the jerk was lied to.

jerk


dr. dawn used to have a GREAT gg allin
cut on her myspace page. it's gone and
it's gone. munson-esque atmo.

[taz-t]

gg allin. some hurting place in new york. "you really need to see this".

the jerk was lied to.

jerk

I knew if I waited long enough, that name would be brought up. Glad to see you didn't fall for that sh*t (no pun intended). Should have off'ed himself years earlier like he promised instead of perpetuating garbage in the name of music/art/anything with the slightest worth.

- taz

[jerk]

Did you get any $hit on you?


nope. stayed behind him; per instructions from those in the know.

jerk

[e-RICHIE]

nope. stayed behind him; per instructions from those in the know.

jerk



did he play wipe out atmo?

[classic1]

nope. stayed behind him; per instructions from those in the know.

jerk

You saw GG Allin? Cool.
The other cool one IMO was the Led Zepplin one where they blew Iron Butterfly off the stage.

Worst I have seen were:

U2 - Melbourne Cricket Ground - mid 90s. Good show, but the sound bouncing off the Southern Stand was terrible

Whitesnake - dragged there by my wife. 2 hours of torture.

Sting - Mid 90's in Melbourne. Boring

The Cruel Sea (2000 or thereabouts) - singer Tex Perkins looked pissed and stoned and kept knocking the mic stand over. Sound was breaking up into white noise. Very disappointing

[Roy E. Munson]

nope. stayed behind him

Did you push his stool in for him?

[e-RICHIE]

Did you push his stool in for him?


you guys crack me up atmo

[DarkStar]

gg allin. some hurting place in new york. "you really need to see this".

the jerk was lied to.

jerk

I hope GG brought his own mic!

[d_douglas]

Shino - couldn't agree with you more - Dave Matthews is so over rated, it ain't funny. Neo-hippy music just isn't my style.

My horrible/great (actually, mostly great) experience was the Butthole Surfers in Vancouver in about 1992. I was starting to get over my fascination with them when they came to my fair city, so I paid the doorman and went in. Aside from the copious amounts of acid being consumed (my buddy was baked - I was straight) there was the stench of pot choking the air (its Vancouver, after all) I was a 'smoker' at the time, but it was Christian night for me, so no booze and no weed.

Gibby Haynes, the lead singer, stood on the side of the stage screaming into a bullhorn attached to a microphone while playing around witha midi to reverse his voice recording..... the entire backdrop to the stage had a projection moving showing an arthroscopic knee surgery and the topper was the finale when the band was thundering away (they occasionally sound great together) and he throws lighter fluid on his drummer's cymbals, lights it on fire and then pounds on it with a drumstick. A giant ball of flames reaches up into about a million watts of lighting above the stage and I (along with many others) start looking for the nearest fire exit outta the place. He did it several times and the security was sweating bullets. Oh yeah - behind the projection screen they had installed about 200 automotive headlights that started flashing at the crowd, sending a few into seizures. It was blinding.

I must say that once the fire stopped, I loved it. I left the place happy as hell, with a bit of second hand pot buzz, but felt like I had been on a three day binge because of sensory overload.

OK, now I think this one should be switched to the 'best show' category. Punk rock was never so delicious....


fn: the Buttholes careened downhill shortly afterwards as they actually got airplay on FM radio - at least they made a few thousand bucks!

[pdonk]

Worst shows

Neil Yong at Canada's Wonderlland - acoustic - painful on so many levels. While NY is a great song writer, he needs electricity to really shine.

I saw the Escape from NY tour at Canada's Wonderland , have to agree Tom Tom Club was pretty bad. The Ramones, who everyone was there to see, ended up being the first band up, grass fights on the lawn. Then as soon as they finished the venue pretty much cleared out. I've seen the ramones 10 times, this show they just mailed in that show.

Bowie show after teh glass spider show at skydome was pretty bad, mostly because of the seats rather than the show itself. The stage was a cube that extewnded into the crowd and had projection screeens that came down over the front of the stage. We had obstructed side views, so we missed the entire show.