Best/worst gigs?

[Ilovepugs2017]

I’m off to see Paramore tomorrow - super excited!
what’s the best and worst gigs you’ve been to and why?

Worst was Prince, decades ago. He came onto the stage and it felt as though he was just going through the motions (although what he did, he did well). At the end of the hour or so, he just walked off stage and that was it. No encore or anything. It was really disappointing.

Best, recently (last year) was Midnight Oil. The energy and stage presence was amazing. I wanted to climb onto the stage and the frontman
Previous good concerts have been Muse (Matt Bellamy is just incredible), and Queens of the Stone Age when the late, great Mark Lanegan was guesting with them.

The best - Prince, Depeche Mode. Metallica, seen them a few times but enjoyed more indoors, MEN 2017. Also Bauhaus Rock City Nottingham early 80s, saw then twice, Pete was mesmerising, brilliant gigs.
The worst - Thompson Twins around '82 when they were still a seven piece. The longest and most boring night.
Bryan Ferry - tbf I love him and was so looking forward to it, but he was hardly on stage. It was about 7/8 years ago.

Best... Suede. Brett was just outstanding.

Worst.... Arctic Monkeys....no stage presence at all and never opened their mouth to the crowd once. Absolute horseshit.

Oooh so many!

Stone Roses at Heston Park- agree with a pp re weather but sound was sorted by the Saturday and although weather was awful the atmosphere was unbelievable

Ocean Colour Scene- seen them lots but beat was at a tiny gig at Sunderland

Stereophonics- again seen lots but Scarborough open air theatre was amazing

worst- probably oasis at Boltons stadium. Thankfully made up for at other times

Best either George Michael or Lewis Capaldi, worst Paul Young, lots of people left at the interval including me!

Best Paul Simon, worst Jack Bruce.

Mumford and Son were also brilliant.

Worse - Elbow, so miserable.
Best is difficult - U2 / Billie Eilish/ Mawkin

Frank Turner without a doubt. Such a great live performer.

Saw Snow Patrol at the Albert hall and they were brilliant, chatted to the audience a fair amount!

James Blunt was a surprise, I went to a festival he was at, very energetic performance and very funny with the crowd.

Worst- does Tim Westwood count?! He was creepy AF, tried to get my friend back to his hotel room after the gig (she was 18 he would have been late 40s).

@CuteCillian oh no don’t say that I love Elbow!

Best: Leonard Cohen at the O2 in 2013 because, well, Leonard Cohen.

worst: took my primary school
daughter and a friend to see Mc Fly at Wembley Arena about 20 years ago. Bad anyway but then the band sang the Diarrhoea song. Utterly grim.

I love going to gigs and I’ve really enjoyed reading all the responses to this post. My favourites have been Royal Blood as a first gig after lockdown they were so loud and it was a massive release. New Order at Benicassim were amazing as were Kings of Leon At St James Park.

my worst gig was Rihanna at the Stadium of Light, she was rubbish and also swore like a docker which was a bit out of order when the stadium was full of kids.

I was also going to say The Lovely Eggs! My friends dragged me to see them even though they annoy the hell out of me. It was excruciating. Also worst - Dandy Warhols (utterly boring) and Eminem (nasty aggressive atmosphere).

Best - The National, The Violent Femmes, and Idles.

Best: David Bowie during his Thin White Duke phase - brilliant staging, vocals , just fantastic show, and Elton John doing an acoustic concert with just him on piano and a percussionist in a small (5000 capacity) theatre. Wonderful.
Worst: Fleetwood Mac. Off key, disjointed, just poor.

@Cookerhood I’d love to see Frank Turner.

Ah yes, @Museya15 , Nirvana the first time they came to the UK and played Manchester.

For my best ever gig I'd have to say Mono - they played a small, dark club. The music just swirled around in my head and I didn't know what I was hearing and what my brain was making up. It was a total out of my head experience.

I don't like gigs in big venues or gigs where you have to sit down.

So many good ones!

My first ever big gig was AC/DC as a teenager, back in the day where you lined up overnight to buy tickets and we got second row. The atmosphere was amazing, I was completely blown away by the whole experience.

Worse was probably 'Guns 'n' Roses' in their 2007 tour - they billed themselves Guns 'n' Roses but it was just Axl and a random band. And Axl was shit, just out of it, kept wandering off between, or even during songs and disappearing for ages. The only saving grace was Sebastian Bach who was a support act who come on to cover some Gunners songs to keep the show moving.

@Dazzlefeather I saw the Lovely Eggs live and found them a bit boring.

Worst was Sonic Youth back in maybe 1992? Just noise really, trying way too hard to be edgy.
Best is a hard one - as an event U2 always put a great show on but my favourite is always Ryan Adams. Until this week I would have said his last cardinals tour was the best but I saw a 2 1/2 hour solo acoustic performance this week and it was sublime, absolutely stunning vocals.

Best = Pearl Jam
Worst = Muse

Another good one was dEUS earlier this week, first gig I’ve been to in ages and they were amazing. One regret though is that I didn’t get the number of the guy standing next to me!! 😂

So true. Saw them live for the first time last year and actually thing they’re better live than they are on record 😎

I saw them in 1998. I'm still gutted I narrowly missed out on one of Stuart Cable's drumsticks that he threw into the crowd as it would be well cherished especially now. I'm so glad to hear they're still amazing though.

The best …George Michael in Sydney on his faith tour in the late 80s
The worse probably Robbie Williams..but still entertaining!

So many great ones! Pixies (obvs), Strokes, Pulp and Birdland at Manchester SU (anyone remember them?) stand out. Most disappointing - Van Morrison.

I’ve been to so many gigs from The Stone Roses to Kylie Minogue to MC Hammer but the best (so far) are:
Kendrick Lamar (2022)
The Prodigy (3 times but 2004 highlight)
Guns n Roses (1992)
U2 (6 times but 1989 and 2009 highlight)
Eminem (2003)
INXS (1990)
Bon Jovi (1990)
Prince (1992)
Chemical Brothers (2019)
New Order (2016)
Fleetwood Mac (1990)

Worst:
Christy (groan on and on) Moore

Ones I’d love to see:
Rolling Stones
Depeche Mode
Coldplay