Coolest concert experiences

[Aniodia]

Mars Volta? My Chemical Romance? GOOD CHARLOTTE? Such PUSSY shit.


God, I went to the best concert last year. To be honest, it came out of the blue, with my brother asking over family dinner all of 2 hours before the concert. So after dinner, me, my two brothers, and my older bro's girlfriend all get our shit together and head out, running into a shitton of traffic. As we plow our way through and get good seats, we heard the opening band start to tune up. Since it was a free concert, we could pretty much sit anywhere, and there was no security whatsoever.

As it turns out, 10 Years After (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Years_After) was opening up, and though I had never heard of them, they were pretty cool. So we rocked out for about an hour, listening to the music, enjoying the bud that my older brother brought, etc.

And there was much merriment for all. However, as I was to find out, the best was yet to come. Apparently, I was never told who was headlining this little freebie concert, up here in the capitol of New York. Though they had a different line-up, they still played just like they did back when they started. And of course, everybody who knows music should know who these guys are; heck, they have such well-known hits as Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll, Burnin' For You, Godzilla, and Don't Fear The Reaper. Oh yes, it was the one and only...


Blue Öyster Cult.


And they played long, long into the night. I mean, they didn't stop until 1 a.m., and even then, that was because the capitol has a noise ordinance. They played older stuff, newer stuff, practically everything that made them famous. Heck, by the time we left, everybody was down in front of the stage singing along with every song, passing around blunts and beer, and having a good old time.

Oh, if only they came back...

 

[dynamo]

On Wednesday I saw Modest Mouse, and I already wrote about it on another forum, so I guess I'll paste it here.

it was fucking epic. They played their new album, and also mixed Paper Thin Walls, Float On (the reception for float on was amazing) and Trailer Trash in there. Some guy also tried to climb onto the stage, lawl. Other than Float On, I'd say Dashboard received the most cheers.

Before the show started we had some musicians come on while the RAH filled up, and they were really lol (they talked a lot to us inbetween the various songs they played). Also, during the interval between them finishing and MM actually coming on, we had a mexican wave go around the stands a couple of times.

And to top it off, we got a three song encore (I feel sorry for everyone who left right after they went off stage, everyone clapped, wooed and stayed in their seats so much that they came back for the encore). In total they were up for 2 hours, not including the entertainers before them who were up for 45 minutes.

So yeah, brilliant concert.

 

[teekay]

dude thats awesome, read yellow played at the first dillinger escape plan concert i went to! i like them a lot. the chick in the band is fucking hot.

Awesome, I'm glad somebody here has heard of them. I missed them on that tour but I heard it was amazing.

And yeah, she is gorgeous. I was this close to stowing away on their tour van and following her home to Massachussetts.

 

[monkfish]

Mars Volta? My Chemical Romance? GOOD CHARLOTTE? Such PUSSY shit.

This isn't firebot, kindly keep your irrelevant elitist opinions to yourself

 

[toy]

I got knocked out during good charlotte in a mosh pit.

i lold at that.

 

[havoc]

1. The Flaming Lips at Voodoo Fest in October were really really fun. Everything was really playful, colorful, and almost surreal, from Santa Clauses and aliens dancing on the stage, to bigass blue balloons, to Wayne Coyne surfing on the crowd in a plastic bubble, it was like returning to childhood again. The music was also fantastic, and they had some singalongs that were great.

2. The Good, The Bad, and The Queen. Somehow they managed to bring such an atmosphere and mood to the club I saw them at. It was quite amazing, but there aren't really any special moments that come to mind. I just can't describe how the music just put a fog over everyone there.

 

[sanzoluk]

probably the first time i saw the dillinger escape plan live. theyre doing 43% burnt (with the more recent vocalist, but he still did it amazingly as its a fucking great song), and about a minute into it he stops screaming, his eyes widen, and he goes 'whoa'. and then i just see a guy running towards the bathroom with his hands covering his bloody face, and bloods gushing like crazy. but he continued the song and it kicked ass, especially since for the second half of it i was hanging onto a pipe on the cieling.

I saw them back in '99 or 2000, when they still had Dimitri, their original vocalist. During the Mullet Burden, both guitarists stage-dived at the same moment, without breaking stride in their playing. Unfortunately, the douchebags on one side of the stage didn't catch one of them, and he slammed into the concrete floor. He paused for a second, then started playing, without getting up.
That would have been hardcore in and of itself, but one of the fans of one of the 4 or 5 opening bands (some hardcore gg-allin wannabees), some skinny kid in a red baseball cap, started trying to kick the guitarist. So, the guitarist leaps up, hits the kid in the face with the base of his guitar, and then goes back to playing.

It was awesome.

(I also got the crap kicked out of me by a 5-foot-tall girl in the pit when she elbowed me right in the gut.)

I don't like Thursday or Sparta, but I went to a show of theirs at the Black Cat back in, I think, 2002. I had just started drinking, and one of my friends gave me a bunch of 151 before I left. I've since discovered I'm not bad at processing liquor, but it was too much for me then. At one point, I went crowd surfing (which I never do, normally), and grabbed onto the pipes hanging down from the ceiling at the Black Cat. I pulled myself up, and barely had the presence of mind to drop down when I saw security trying to round up something to get me down off it.

At Krazyfest in '03, I went to see the Blood Brothers, the Locust, and Andrew WK (who I love, and I saw a couple times before his album even came out in the states). During the Blood Brothers set, a huge Hatebreed fan called me a (BAN ME PLEASE), so I gave him a hug, and he hit me right in the gut, knocking me back into one of his friends, who punched me in the face. It was over 90 degrees out and I was pretty weak from lack of food and getting hit, so I stumbled off and sat down. At the end of the day, Andrew WK came out to do his set. Everyone started leaving at the beginning (since he's "not cool" or something), but by the end, he had everyone dancing, and most of the people had returned. There was a huge circle pit, and it was a lot of fun. I saw the dudes that hit me before, as they ended up right by me in the pit. They had these huge grins on their faces, and they came over and hugged me and apologized.

SUCH IS THE POWER OF ANDREW WK

Man I love rock shows.


EDIT:

Blue Öyster Cult.

Their first 3 albums are some of the best ever. Don't let anyone give you crap for liking them :)

 

[xcfrisco]

The Strokes came down here about a year ago. Julian Casablancas (lead singer) comes onstage drunk as fuck, stumbling everywhere, slurring his words whenever he tries to talk to the audience, but manages to sing every song perfect.

Best part of the night was when Julian kicked out this fat dude for being an asshole. Julian called him the fattest fuck he's ever seen, it was priceless.

 

[Arcturus]

I think my most memorable concert experience is seeing one of my all time favorite bands play their last show. Demilich only ever released one album back in 1993, and the label they were on completely fucked them over, so a physical copy of their album is next to impossible to get. Thankfully the band lets fans download the whole album for free, because they know how much people love free stuff (:

Anyhow, that show was just great, period. It was in a small venue called Zen Sushi in a section of LA called Silverlake. It's like a restaurant/club, and they have a stage section for bands to play in. I discovered a great new band called Zoroaster that night, and I still think they had the loudest, most heavy sound out of any other band I've ever seen live. It was incredible. I also fell in love with black metal band Nachtmystium that night, because their live show is nothing short of amazing. Aggressive yet melodic and intelligent. They don't mess around live.

But Demilich was something else. I grew up with the band's album. My dad was a big thrash/death metal fan, and he had a bootleg copy of Demilich's album way back when. He would play the hell out of it. Then early this decade they put up their album for download, and I've played the fuck out of Nespithe for at least 4 years now. So seeing these guys up close and personal was pretty much a religious experience for me. Everything about their show was incredible, and the vocals, possibly the thing that stands out the most about the band (and the part everyone on this board would hate (: ) was just...wow. The guy sounds exactly like on the record, no effects, no processing, nothing. Just beer. I shook the vocalist's hand and took a picture with him after the show. I have that picture in a frame, stored away so later on I can bring it out and remember that day. I've never had a better experience in my life than that, it meant a lot to me to finally meet someone that I idolized for so long.

I also met Scott Conner, the man behind the black metal band Xasthur, and that was incredible too. The guy is downright scary. Great night.

 

[Torquol]

Goodnight Nurse played at my high school last year. It was short, like three or four songs, but it kicked ass because the teachers expected us to sit on the floor and watch, and it opened like that. The band walked out, took one look at us sitting down and said,
"Why the fuck are you sitting down? STAND THE FUCK UP!"
It was at the point that everyone over 17 in the room realised they had made a VERY big mistake. We got a mosh pit going in a small hall and had kids crowd surfing and shit. I got thrown out twice, one of my friends got thrown out more. And a kid tried to fight one of the teachers.
Simply put, a concert in a high school hall just kicks ass, if only for the hilarity factor.

 

[SAN DIEGO SUPER CHARGERS!]

I went to the secret nine inch nails show in Los Angeles back in April.

 

[akuchi]

fuck you justin
I usually read the local music playing type listings religiously and the one time I left it a few days before looking at it I realised porcupine tree had played in bristol the night before

I was Not Happy

seeing muse was awesome. 2004 I think. glastonbury. I felt like I was pilled (though only being 14 I hadnt been pilled yet) but in retrospect thats how it was. after it had finished I went back to my tent and just lay there feeling alive. and happy.

saw elbow (who I dont listen to, twas on the insistence of a friend) smoked £20/30 worth of weed in the space of literally 15 minutes and spent the rest of the night passed out in the toilets. that was quite funny.

saw mogwai and it was good. it made me happy. that is all.

 

[Sklez]

The Mars Volta are a bunch of pretentious snobs.

Mars Volta? My Chemical Romance? GOOD CHARLOTTE? Such PUSSY shit.

Whats everyones problem with The Mars Volta. When i saw them they were bloody great. Probably not a good time to mention Im seeing The Shins then...

 

[Glalie]

SarsStock was an experience. Most of it was laying in a field in the beating sun around hippies and other general potsmokers chatting and just having a general good time. Keep in mind I got at the place at about 6:00AM and didn't leave til almost 1AM the next morning, exhausting and a lot of mediocre music but fun nonetheless. "Major" acts didn't come on until 9pm, the first being Justin Timberlake, (time for a little rant). Now I'm not a JT fan, but he did the show for charity, he got paid a small fee to do the show and people were angry about that. He got bottles thrown at him etc, did his whole set though and he wasn't awful. I was annoyed that the guy was on tour, took some time off and came and did this show for charity and he still gets booed, hes doing something good for the city you can have some respect. Nobody seemed to care that the Stones, who were labeled as great people for doing this for the city etc, got paid $40mil to do the show! (end rant)

After JT we got The Guess Who (great), AC/DC (easily the best of the show, they blew my mind), Rush (Close runner up for best in show), and The Stones. The stones as per usual started off well... but after a couple of songs Jagger gets tired and starts to suck. Didn't help that they played for well over 2 hours while all of the other bands had 45 minutes - 1hour.

Pearl Jam was strange both times as I've never quite seen such insane fans.

The Who were awesome even though Daltrey had a cold and sounded a tad funny at times!

 

[DM]

Whats everyones problem with The Mars Volta. When i saw them they were bloody great. Probably not a good time to mention Im seeing The Shins then...

Well, our problem with them is that they're pretentious snobs. They're way to full of themselves as musicians and it shows up in the music.

The Shins are pretty good though.

 

[goldursaring]

Iron Maiden was alright back when they were in Nassau Colosseum.

But the best concert have to be the Bob Dylan concerts I went to. On my first, he preformed Hazel, a song he wrote in the 70's and has played less then 10 times total. He also did Mr. Tambourine Man in a completely enchanted kind of way. The other time I saw him Jack White's band the Raconteurs was opening, his songs were a little more typical but he really nailed some of them.

 

[evan]

The Shins and The Mars Volta are entirely different.

I'm glad this thread didn't go without mentioning The Flaming Lips, so surreal.

My best concert experience has to be seeing Andrew Bird live. Nothing special happened during the show or anything, but he was just that good. I literally could not listen to anything else but live recordings and bootlegs for weeks afterwards. Amazing.

ps. Anyone going to Bonnaroo?

 

[Glalie]

eye campletly 4got 2 add dat da Flamin Lipsz played at Sarstock, Definately entertainin dawg

 

[Sklez]

Well, our problem with them is that they're pretentious snobs. They're way to full of themselves as musicians and it shows up in the music.

The Shins are pretty good though.

Oh good and here I was thinking indie wasnt appreciated around here.

Dont really get what you mean when you say it shows up in their music but hey, music is always disagreed on by everyone.

Only other concert Ive been to was U2. Not that big a fan, infact not at all really, and it was a bullshit stadium concert so yeah, let down.

 

[Glalie]

Oh good and here I was thinking indie wasnt appreciated around here.

Heheheehehehe this really made me laugh

 

[Revamparts]

Down in Arizona there's a band named Calexico. People say they're ska with mariachis, but they're essentially just all out miriachi alternative. They rhyme about the whole immigration and mexican culture. They're the kind of band that can get you feeling so real and "in it" when you're completely sober. Went to see them in March and had the time of my life. They also have a much louder sound live so if you check them out then know that.

 

[The Requiem]

The Mars Volta actually managed to put me to sleep when they opened for System of A Down out here awhile back.

SOAD was awesome though, they more than made up for TMV's shitty preformance.

As far as my coolest concert experience, Earthday Birthday 14 kinda took the cake, it was the first outdoor concert I'd ever been to and getting to see Nonpoint, Saliva, Bullet for my Valentine, Three Days Grace, other bands I didnt care too much about, and to close the night with Sevendust? Any concert where you get to see your fave band is a good one.

in 12 hours I'd lost an earring, my shirt, my cell, split open the back of my sneaker, got kicked in the head by a rouge crowdsurfer, ran a couple moshpits, and afterwards got the best rest ever.

I'd say that that was a damn good day.