Best live act you've ever seen in person.

[Old Rake]

The Black Crowes to a crowd of about forty or fifty people. They played their ASSES off even though there was nobody there. This was just barely after the release of the 1st album.

The Verve, right around "Storm In Heaven."

[NimrodsSon]

I'll have to say the greatest concert experience I've ever had was Jonathan Richman a few months ago. Second to that would be the two Brian Wilson concerts I've been to.

[Lester Zombie]

The Byrds in the autumn of '70, promoting the "Untitled" LP. The band was tight and Clarence was hot. They did two shows that night and I got to see both because one pair of tickets had been given to me as a birthday gift after I bought the first pair. I decided to use both pair and I'm still glad I did. Live or video I've never seen a guy do so much with just a Tele and a Twin.

[Jason]

Who was the guy who said he saw Suicide open for the Cars? He said he thought Suicide blew the Cars away! That post was a corker in the Suicide thread on the old board.

[I. Spaceman]

Have you ever seen Suicide, Jason. Cause, wow.

[Jason]

I wish I could've seen Suicide live. They still play, but mostly in Europe.

[I. Spaceman]

When I saw em, Alan jumped off of the stage and did the Frankie scream in my face.

[Jason]

What year?

[I. Spaceman]

2000.

[Jason]

Ahhhhhh man, I wish I was there in '78 when they played in Brussels. I dunno if you've heard "23 Minutes Over Brussels" on the 2000 reissue of the First Album, but I have never seen so much hatred being felt for any band in my life. Needless to say, no one in my family, not even my father, get Suicide.

[Chance]

"23 Minutes Over Brussels" is Suicide?! Wow, I didn't know that. I've only heard Luna do it, and I  love their version, best thing they ever did. I always assumed it was an original. (I've only got it on a CD-R, so I never saw the songwriting credits.)

[Jeff Mason]

Glass Harp in 2000 (or 2001?) at a local club in Dayton.  The venue held less than 200 people and I was in the front row, sitting right on top of one of the subwoofers.  My seat was directly facing Phil Keaggy's Vox AC15 (and it hit me directly all night), Phil spent the whole show less than 6 feet from me, giving me a bird's eye view of all of his pedals and gear, and the trio was cooking all night long.  For those who don't know, Keaggy is one of the greatest and most accomplished guitarists around (not just rock, though he can blister with the best) and Glass Harp is a great progressive rock trio.

[Rerun]

Simon & Garfunkel a couple springs ago.

[JRauch]

Brian Wilson performing SMiLE in March 2004. It was in the "Alte Oper" ("Old Opera") in Frankfurt. Maybe 1.500 people.

Not only the first time that I saw Brian live, but also the first time that I heard the finished SMiLE in it´s entirety. To make things short: I was blown away. In fact, I was so overwhelmed that I hardly remember any details, it was like a wonderful dream. As cheesy as it sounds, but MAGIC describs it best.

[trumpet sounds]

People, you weren't asked to list every good show you've seen -- list and describe the BEST! I know it's probably hard to choose...hence the fun. Describe it...

see my edit

[Don't Back Down]

The Beach Boys day after Thanksgiving 2005, and JET summer of '04.

[dude ll doo]

I saw Suicide open for the cars circa 1982 ish Panorama tour, Hartford Civic Center.
fans just did not get it and they were booed mercilessly
Suicide never missed a beat and played their entire set despite the acrimony.
Great stuff.
they were way better than the cars, tho. i went from kinda liking them (the cars) to hating them after that show. They were extremely stiff and boring.

[al]

The Who. Wembley Empire Pool, October 1975. I saw them twice a couple of months later at a smaller show at Hammersmith, but despite the larger venue this gig was special. It's the only gig where I had a sort of out-of-body experience caused totally by the music - no drink, no drugs, just the music. I remember jumping up and down on a crash barrier for ages totally out of it. Total musical high.
Other shows have been great for different reasons - the second night at the RFH with SMiLE is the other one that sticks out, and Springsteen at Birmingham in 1981 when Townshend joined him for the encore, but that's the one.

[peerke]

Best concerts?

Talking Heads, with their expanded band was great. 1980-1981? The big suit, the running around on stage, the Tom-tom Club interlude, the BIG base sound.

The Kinks, a few years before that. A live album was released of that tour. It was a outdoor concert. It started raining just before they were due on stage. But Ray remained in front, in the rain, for the entire show. He really was one withe the public that night. Man, what a concert!

But, the best concert ever - the only one  I wept - was Brian Wilson on his SMiLE tour last year. It was in Antwerp, in a beautiful old concerthall. 2 000 seats and it wasn't even sold out.

[rob68]

Magnetic Fields.......69 Love Songs tour......mesmerizing.

[PapaNez22]

Peter Gabriel in Chi-town in the fall of 04. It was something I had waiting to see since I was 5 years old. Peter just has a presnece on stage that no other has.

But I also gotta say the Green Day show I saw in Peoria in May of this year. There's never been so much energy at a show in my life. If you don't believe me, watch the Bullet in a Bible DVD. Even if you don't like Green Day's music, you can't deny they don't give you more than your money's worth. They work their ass off for their fans and really appreciate the support they've given American Idiot.

[PapaNez22]

OH! And I gotta say that the best FREE show I've ever seen was at the Taste Of Chicago celebration in 01. A Beatles tribute band that consisted of: Todd Rundgren, John Entwistle, Alan Parsons, & Ann Wilson (along with some drummer and two keyboardists) played in the amplitheater and we got great seats (the place was PACKED).

The first set was of tunes by each member or member's band (You haven't truly heard Barracuta by Heart until you've heard it with The Ox on bass), and then an hour and a half worth of Beatles tunes in which Rundgren, Parsons, and Wilson handled the vocals incredibly. It was in the middle of the afternoon nonetheless with the bright August sun shining down and a cool breeze coming in off lake Michigan. Afterwards you could get close to where they got back on the bus and got to shake hands with both Entwistle and Rundgren.

I'll try to get the pics I have of the concert scanned and post them. It was a thrill getting to see The Ox play in person once before he passed, even if it wasn't with The Who.

[Boxer Monkey]

This is a tough one for me. Rocket from the Tombs (not CRYPT -- this was David Thomas, Cheetah Chrome and Richard Lloyd) was devastating, absolutely the best guitar rock band I've ever heard live. I also saw Cheap Trick in a small club once about eight years ago, after they'd recorded their self-titled attempted comeback album (which was wonderful, by the way), and it seemed like they had something to prove, even if there were only about 200 people in this place to hear the Trick blow the doors off it.

But best for me was Jon Brion at Largo, whom I'm sure a few of you knew I was gonna say. Sorry to be predictable. I saw Jon upward of 30 times, but I knew a few people who'd seem him HUNDREDS of times -- it takes at least 10 shows to even begin to understand him. I've never heard anybody so diabolically musical in all my life, and it pretty much ruined me for virtually every band in the world who plays their 10-song set of the same songs exactly the same way each time after hearing Jon spontaneously conjure up a Velvet Underground rhumba medley or do a vocoder-damaged take on "MacArthur Park" by request. ("He's a Whore" on ukelele was cool, too.)

[I. Spaceman]

Peter Gabriel in Chi-town in the fall of 04. It was something I had waiting to see since I was 5 years old. Peter just has a presnece on stage that no other has.

But I also gotta say the Green Day show I saw in Peoria in May of this year. There's never been so much energy at a show in my life. If you don't believe me, watch the Bullet in a Bible DVD. Even if you don't like Green Day's music, you can't deny they don't give you more than your money's worth. They work their ass off for their fans and really appreciate the support they've given American Idiot.

Yeah, I saw him at Staples Center that year. Great show.
If you think that Gree Day is good now, you should have seen them when they were 17 when my band used to do shows with them on the same bill. They were amazing, haven't been as good since IMHO.

[I. Spaceman]

This is a tough one for me. Rocket from the Tombs (not CRYPT -- this was David Thomas, Cheetah Chrome and Richard Lloyd) was devastating, absolutely the best guitar rock band I've ever heard live. I also saw Cheap Trick in a small club once about eight years ago, after they'd recorded their self-titled attempted comeback album (which was wonderful, by the way), and it seemed like they had something to prove, even if there were only about 200 people in this place to hear the Trick blow the doors off it.

But best for me was Jon Brion at Largo, whom I'm sure a few of you knew I was gonna say. Sorry to be predictable. I saw Jon upward of 30 times, but I knew a few people who'd seem him HUNDREDS of times -- it takes at least 10 shows to even begin to understand him. I've never heard anybody so diabolically musical in all my life, and it pretty much ruined me for virtually every band in the world who plays their 10-song set of the same songs exactly the same way each time after hearing Jon spontaneously conjure up a Velvet Underground rhumba medley or do a vocoder-damaged take on "MacArthur Park" by request. ("He's a Whore" on ukelele was cool, too.)

Great post. Did you se Elliott Smith guest at any of those Brion shows? That was the best one I saw, when Elliott plyed drums and they took requests for Beatles tunes for an hour, and Elliott played Ringo's parts perfectly!