the best gigs you've been to- and bands worth seeing live

[Stiltball]

I don't know if you've done this one before.

I think tops would have to be Wire summer/autumn 2013
Hawkwind at St Helens was also good but I have a feeling that the relatively recent tour with Moorcock et al would probably have blown it out of the water from the clips on youtube.
Thin Lizzy with Snowy White


thoroughly enjoyed Julian Cope at Glastonbury
Classix Nouveux could always be depended on

can't think of more offhand

[Stiltball]

companion thread to t'other live thread

Although I had seen stuff on other occasions- ie kenn Dodd with parents, 'classical stuff' at school.

my first three

Whitesnake - Lovehunter tour- always an excellent band
Hawkwind
Joy Division - crap sound- equipment malfunctions - preston warehouse - shortly before Curtis died.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Steve Hillage, De Montfort Hall Leicester in 1979. Trevor Rabin Band in support.
The Ruts
John Martyn a few times.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

The Jam on their final tour were brilliant.
John Martyn always delivered a good show.

Saw the Robert J Hunter Band recently, and they were impressively tight.

[A m e n r i a]

Flow and Granrodeo. I watched them perform in AFA when I was in high school. It was bloody marvellous.

[Frisbeeteria]

Saw Billy Joel in a tiny 1200 seat auditorium before he made it big. He was actually taking tickets at the front door, wearing a hoodie as a disguise. Nobody but me spotted him for quite a long time.
The Allman Brothers, Emerson Lake & Palmer, The Marshall Tucker Band, and about 10 other acts made up the August Jam in 1974 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. 200,000 people attended. Probably half bought tickets (including me), the other half rushed the gate. Hell of a show, hell of a party!
Jethro Tull opened their War Child tour in my hometown. Show was pretty damn great, but that might be the Electric Kool-aid talking.

companion thread to t'other live thread

You don't need two threads on this topic. Merged.

[Heloin]

Some of my favourite gigs I've been to was Against Me followed two bands later by Cage the Elephant. Also a concert with Billy Idol some which ended with Billy Idol singing with the Foo Fighters. But the absolute best gig I've gone to was a small bar gig for a band from Jacksonville called TOMBOi. It was incredible there was maybe thirty to forty people in a bar, some great music, and a drag queen pre-show. I'm pretty certain it was there last gig seeing as it doubled as a goodbye for the drummer.

[Reploid Productions]

I think my absolute favorite live show (besides the Symphony of the Goddesses orchestral concert) was probably a year or two back when I got to see Garth Brooks in concert. I mean, holy hell, for a pudgy, balding, aging guy in a cowboy hat, the guy puts on one hell of a live show. It's like he gets the crowd amped up, and he just feeds on that energy and comes alive on stage like you wouldn't believe. He performs 'The River', and this 17,000 capacity stadium just turns into a veritable sea of stars from everybody waving their phones and/or lighters in the air. All he had to do was play like the first three notes of 'Friends in Low Places' and everybody completely lost their shit in the best way possible flashing three fingers and cheering for the infamous third verse of that particular song that he only does at live shows. 17,000 people all singing along with every song, just having a fantastic time; you could tell he was just having so much sheer, absolute fun on that stage, that kind of pure joy is just contagious. I had basically no voice for the next three days, and it was worth it!