Concerts

The last concert I saw I was front row at the United Center watching Pearl Jam... that was in 2003... too long ago.

Going to see Muse open for My Chemical Romance tomorrow night. On 4/30, I'm hitting the Type O Negative show at the Hard Rock Live down at Universal Studios. Before these two shows, I saw System of a Down, NIN and Disturbed within two months of each other last summer. I suppose my concert viewing is in lump sums.

Hopefully Weird Al will play a better Central Florida venue than shitty Cyprus Gardens (saw him twice on the Poodle Hat tour here in Orlando and at Bethune Cookman in Daytona).

My last concert was back in Spetember 2002. Queens Of The Stone Age, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, and Burning Brides.

I'm going to see The Police in July. Hopefully nothing bad will happen between now and July 16.

Going to see the Police, too. Can't wait .. it's been a LOOOOOOOOOONG time.

Not sure how many of you out there in chud land are fans of heavier music, but the best concerts I've ever seen (and I've seen a million) have to be New York's own Sick Of It All. The first time I saw them I was in high school (many many many years ago)..the last time was a few months ago. Every single time they kill. Whether it's a Tuesday night in the mid-west or a full on Saturday night show in NYC, they always give it 110%.

Avenged sevenfold last summer had a twenty minute guitar solo. awesome.

I just saw My Brightest Diamond and The Decemberists in Milwaukee this past Monday, and it was a goddamn GREAT show that was unfortunately nearly ruined by the two drunken fratboy types in front of us. Shouldn't this type of music automatically filter out douchebags like that? Seriously, go date rape someone and let me enjoy the show.

Before that, I saw Girl Activity and Reptoids at the Red Line Tap in Chicago back in January. My buddy plays bass for Reptoids, so we made the three hour drive down to see them, and it was more than worth it. Great show filled with awesome, infectious energy.

ETA: I saw these guys years ago (back in my metal days) at the City Center Theatre here in Green Bay, and they were pretty awesome. They opened for Biohazard, who were equally awesome. Best part of the show? Getting to mosh on stage with Biohazard.

Awesome pic!
As Henry Rollins said, "the king of rock and roll did NOT die sitting on a toilet seat. Iggy Pop is still alive and well."

My Brightest Diamond was incredible. I'd never heard of them either, but after Monday, I'm a fan.

The lead singer/guitarist, Shara Worden, is this tiny little wisp of a girl, but she has a powerful voice that sounds like a cross between PJ Harvey and the lead singer of Pet. They put on a great show, have awesome stage presence, and the music is SO good. I loved it when Shara came out and performed "Yankee Bayonet" with the Decemberists.

Anyway, I hope you dig them, and that you don't have to put up with any sloshed morons at the show. Also, I'm jealous that you got to see Neko Case.

And the Iggy Pop love is thirded.

I've seen Iggy many times, but this show was a reunited Stooges, and it was fucking unbelievable. Dude turns 60 in 2 days.

Seein' Rock the Bells this July. Super-psyched about that. Wu-Tang Clan, Rage Against the Machine, Mos Def, Heiroglyphics, Jedi Mind Tricks, Public Enemy, MF Doom, Immortal Technique, etc.

Regretfully, had to miss the Decemberists/My Brightest Diamond show in Milwaukee due to prior commitments (and I just saw the Decemberists a few months ago in Chicago), but now I'm especially bummed to hear that Worden did the Laura Veirs part on "Yankee Bayonet." I liked the first half of that My Brightest Diamond album (and the most obvious vocal influence I hear is Jeff Buckley, which she's acknowledged in interviews), but it kinda trails off. She's got a lot of potential, though, and, FYI, until the album came out, she was best known for being in Sufjan Stevens' backup band.

Incidentally, Neko Case played in that same venue last year and was outstanding.

At this point, you can get drunk fratboy types at virtually any show for a national touring act.

Muse - Awesome for the some 45 minutes they played. They were fantastic live. Wish they had a little more umph for their stage prescence. Also, they needed to spend a little more money on their light show or not have one at all. Strobe light effects were distracting. Also disappointing, Matthew Bellamany (lead singer) didn't play the piano at all.

MCR - Sucked. Just a bunch of black noise. I ended up walking outside to smoke a cig about 20 minutes into their show and then stayed outside until the concert was over waiting for my friends.

Got a lot of great shows lined up for this summer. I'll be seeing Ben Gibbard, Modest Mouse, Roger Waters, Wilco & Tool over the next month or so and then in august, I'm heading to chicago to see lollapalooza (PEARL JAM, My morning jacket, Modest Mouse, Iggy & the stooges, Kings of leon & about a hundred others)

The last show I saw was Jeff Tweedy solo and it was outstanding.

I havent seen a show in a really long time. Probably over 5 years since I've seen a band.

Being married and a father really cuts into the whole "scene" scene.

But I really wanted to call a babysitter and take my wife to see Vienna Teng last sunday when she came to Raleigh. Oh well.


Can someone start a "worst live concert" thread? I'd love to hear stories about awful experiences.. cuz I know I've had a couple in my time.

Feel free.

Agreed 100%. It's too bad Muse opened...I really want to see a full show from them.

We stayed for MCR until they left before their encore. Once they left the stage, we got the hell out of there to beat traffic. My wife kind of likes them, so she wanted to stick around. However, she was anxious to leave towards the end.

I caught the Arcade Fire at the Atlanta Civic Center concert hall last night. It was a fantastic show. They sounded great and were in good form. I knew they were talented, but it really drives it home as you watch just about everyone play 4 or 5 different instruments during the show. I’m not talking switching from guitar to acoustic guitar to ukulele. I’m talking about going from guitar to piano to drums to accordion to a couple that I had no idea what they were. The show was much more up tempo then I thought it was going to be, it had a good flow to it and was pretty high energy. I think they came back for three encores. They have to be one of the harder working bands during a live show, because all 10 of them were pretty much all over the stage all the time. If you have a chance to see them I would highly recommend it.

2 weeks until the show. Are they still playing in the middle of the place, or was it on a stage ?

The Arcade Fire live is better than on CD, which should be obligatory to be qualified as a great band.

That is the truth. They sounded great. They did not play in the middle of the crowd, but the concert hall wasn't set up to allow for that.

If you look at this picture:
http://www.atlantaciviccenter.com/aud.htm
it is the view looking down from the balcony. One of the guys walked up 2/3 of the way on the wall that you can see next to the seats that slope down from the balcony to the hall's floor with just his balance and the people behind him to keep him from falling the 30 feet or so. He did this while pounding on a drum during one of the songs.

If you're talking about the one with the crank, It was a hurdy gurdy.

And that was a fantastic show.

Saw two amazing shows in the last week.

The Hold Steady destroyed on Thursday night with a set that covered almost every song from Boys and Girls in America, a smattering of stuff from Separation Sunday, and some various others (an amazing, set-ending "Killer Parties" and another one or two non-album tracks I didn't recognize). Craig Finn is one of the happiest-looking, most jubilant frontmen I've ever seen. Like Patterson Hood of the DBT, he seems like he knows he's got the best job in the world. It was also one of those shows where the audience clapping along and singing the background vocals enhanced the experience rather than just being off-tune clutter.

Saw the Arcade Fire for the second time (first time not in a club and in a rather large theater) on Sunday night. While I'm not sure they'll ever make me forget the first time I saw the huge-sounding band in a medium-sized club from only 100 or so feet back, they've adapted flawlessly to the bigger venues they now require, incorporating some ZooTV style video screens and an unusual Win Butler mannequin for "My Body Is A Cage." The sound is, of course, bigger, and there's more room for the band to dance around and smash things - the new horn section guys were big participants in the latter, at one point forcefully pushing each other into the plexiglass that separated them from the drum riser, eventually knocking it over.

The instrument-switching mentioned above also keeps the energy up, if nothing else - sometimes, it seems a little obligatory, as it's hard to believe that any given member of the band couldn't handle the two finger keyboard part or simple bassline or thumpy drum part that apparently required a switch. Still, there's not much room for extravagent technical prowess with 10 people onstage (although it quickly became obvious that the drum parts are underplayed and even somewhat buried on Neon Bible and sound better live), but they have an incredible knack for layering mostly simple parts on top of each other to create an enormously dynamic sound.

Simply put, one of the best elaborate live shows going. As much as I love the albums, they're a band that needs to be seen live to be fully appreciated. If their management is smart, the band will have a live DVD out before their next studio album (although short of having split screen or multi-angle options, even that will be missing something).

True. Saw them last weekend. Still amazing, and also my first experience with them in a bigger venue. Unfortunately, the acoustics in the arena they chose in Montreal was the shittiest I ever heard. I knew the energy they had playing Funeral, and I wondered how they would pull off those Neon Bible songs. They're still not as energetic as the Funeral songs, but they hold up pretty nicely. Especially Intervention and My Body is a Cage (in the encore), where the horn section appeared right beside us in the balcony. Nice little trick.

Rebellion and especially the closing song, Wake up, are the best rock anthems I've heard.

The thing about a live DVD is; does the band want to do it ? I hope so.

ben gibbard just put on an amazing show in san francisco. or so i heard.

NPR has a live concert by the Arcade Fire that can be downloaded. I listen to it about once a week and I don't get tired of it. A DVD would be great, but I would hope it came with a CD too.

Really? I had seen Death Cab open for Pearl Jam in 04 for the Vote For Change tour, and I was kinda a fan of them before then, but they bored me to tears live. Maybe it was seeing them play similar sets 3 nights in a row, maybe it is music that is better suited to playing in the background at the computer, but on night 3, I had to sit outside while they were on.

Best: Roger Waters, Radiohead, Pearl Jam , Queens of the Stone Age, Iron Maiden -PJ and Queens don't have the elaborate stage shows of the other three, but having seen no band more than PJ (15) or Queens (5) more, these guys still hold up and put on a great show every time. Honorable mention to Turbonegro and Eagles of Death Metal. Great fun can still be had in a club.
Worst: Foo Fighters - look I don't go to that many shows anymore and these guys remain one of my favorite bands, but I was bored to shit live.

It hasn't happened yet but this is one of the Warped Tours that I'm most excited for in a long time. Why? Because it starts AND ends in L.A. County.

I really enjoyed seeing Beck live with The Flaming Lips opening for him. Only time I've seen either live, and it was a a good time.

I also had a pretty good time seeing Weird Al a few times now. He is certainly an entertainer.

My favs have been the Neil Young "Greendale" show; seeing Lightning Bolt and many others play at FtThunder back in 95-99; Costes just a few months ago; Elliot Smith from like 100 rows back in 98; sliding into an ecstasy haze from DJ Spooky into Stereolab in 96; first concert at age 9 Billy Joel; Brian Wilson pre-Smile ('02 or '03?) and then "Smile" ('04 for sure);Yo La Tengo playing Jesse's girl; they keep going.