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With a nod to Luther's 'Best' topic, list the very WORST gig you've ever been to .. and why.

I'm still thinking of the best one I've been to ( .. very, very hard to do), but my own worst one was the reformed Spear Of Destiny gig after the line-up that produced 'One Eyed Jacks' had disbanded.

Lacklustre performance from a band that hadn't the chemistry to "get it right" in any way, shape or form. A pityfull night for all SOD fans .. Wolverhampton Civic Hall .. sometime in the late '80's.

Go for it, fellow music fans ..

Todd Rundgren.

Bored, disinterested, drunk and obnoxious. And so was he.

The Fiery Furnaces, just a couple of months ago. I enjoy their music tremendously, and a previous show I had seen of theirs a year or so ago was absolutely brilliant, among my favorites ever. But this one was just so blah..and I was so looking forward to it, the life drained right out of me. I've seen worse performances (BY FAR) technically, but having built it up as an event in my mind, it just fell flat for me.

At that earlier one, though -- wow! Eleanor Friedberger was just amazing.

John Entwistle and the Rat Race Choir.

I'm a big fan of The Ox's solo work, so I was excited as hell to see him live solo.

Unfortunately, the gig turned out be Entwistle playing bass with a lame-ass Who cover band. JE did exactly two of his own songs, and you'll never guess what they were....

Yup, "My Wife" and "Boris the Spider." How novel.


The Ox himself played superbly as always, but God what a letdown. I've never, ever been so embarrassed for a performer.

Aaron Carter
Britney Spears


'Nuff said.

A very tired looking Jimi Hendrix around 68 or 69.  I was just a kid maybe expecting too much.
I was very disappointed.

Queens of the Stone Age opening for Nine Inch Nails in November. What a completely awful band. I don't know how anyone likes them.

The Happy Mondays, back in '91 or '90 or so.

20 minute set, totally drunk, Shaun Ryder had his fly undone the whole time, barely sang a note.

I love the hell out of the Mondays, but wow. What a waste of time.

I frickin' love Queens of the Stone Age, I've seen some tremendous shows by them. We like them because they're heavy, and they're good.

Saw em at the Coachella Festival, totally agree. And The Strokes were insanely bad as well. Thankfully I saw Bjork, The Mars Volta, Belle And Sebastian, Oasis and Prodigy the same weekend to wash that junk out of my mind.

You saw QOTSA at Coachella this year?

Nah, a few years ago.

For me, the Dead, Madison Square Garden, 1981. I'd never seen them, and wasn't a huge fan, but my cousins were on a Dead kick, and they did have the rep of being unbelievable if you caught them on a good night. So I went along. It started off promising, as one deadhead in our section stood up, a total stranger, and asked us each our names, and started introducing us to each other. I thought that was a charming, "flower child" type of thing to do. In her eyes, this was a big party and she was going to see to it that we were all friends. A totally endearing gesture.

But the show itself was a complete drag. Listless, uninspired performance, and worse yet, they would take a full two, three, four minutes to tune up after every song. Whatever pathetic momentum they might have worked up was totally destroyed at the end of every number. I later found out that this was one of Garcia's heroin periods. It explains everything.

And yet, I will say this, even during that abysmal show, there was one odd, transcendant, magical moment. They played "Stella Blue," which I'd never heard, and for that one tune, suddenly all the stars aligned, and the "live Dead" magic came fully to life, and it was truly beautiful. And then just as suddenly, it ended, they took an eternity to start the next tune, and we were back in the shithole of boredom.

I only really liked the band when Dave Grohl was in it, it really kicked my ass. The rest of their output doesn't do much for me. Great band, though.

Saw an 80's reunion-type show a few years ago with 4 bands: (missed the first act), The Outfield, The Fixx, Asia.
The Outfield was OK. The Fixx was outstanding (I liked them a lot in the mid 80's!). Asia blew chunks so hard and they headlined !!! There was only one member that had been in the band for a while AND he was not even an original member.
The keyboard DUDE (the following makes him DUDE- not to mention his mullet) had... 9, count 'em, 9 different sets of keys/synths on 3 different 'rack mount' type stands. We only saw him use 2 different keyboards !!! We were so shocked as to how bad they were we stayed through the rest of the show. OUCH! My ears are still bleeding.

That should be the title of a Sting compilation.

Chuck Berry.  Horrible.  He's just there to pick up his check, after abusing some poor, non-rehearsed local band to back him.  It's the only show I've ever walked out on halfway through, and the tickets were free.

Haha, same here!

Van Halen in 1998.

Sha Na Na as an opening act in late '68 or early '69. They were so pathethically lame that they were unwittingly a parody of their own parody. And then they were at Woodstock and had their own TV show. Somehow crappiness paid off. 

An autobiography, by Huey Lewis.

The Rolling Stones, Earls Court (London) 1976 - Black & Blue Tour. The sound was the worst I have EVER experienced. Apart from the opening chords of Honky Tonk Women everything was just drowned out in a vast echoey bluuurghh. They are also a crap live band at the best of times. I've got boots that are worse than your average tribute band. Saw the Who at Charlton a few weeks later who (as usual) just blew them to pieces. For the biggest band still standing they are a desperately weak live act (and I do love most of their albums by the way, I'm not slagging them off for the hell of it!)

From 72 on I definitely agree with you on the Stones live.
In comparison to the Who, there IS no comparison.

When did you guys see Chuck Berry? I'm guessing he musta laid down his guitar 15 years ago. He's gotta be pushing 90.

Still playing!
I saw him in 87.

Tie - Lou Rawls and Brenda Lee.  IMO.

Fleetwood Mac on tour with Lindsey and Stevie without Christine.  No energy, no spark, too many good songs missing (without Christine, natch) and two drummers to help anchor the band.  I left before the encore.

This was their most recent tour, correct?  In support of "Say You Will"?

Now, I saw them in '87 or so, after Lindsey split but before the band fell apart. It was surprisingly good, they were trying to prove themselves. And the two new guitarists were really out to impress. I remember one of them taking a stupendous, extended solo. They weren't kidding around.

I can see the lack of Christine being fatal, I love her. She defines warmth and class.

So does the lady in your avatar.

I think so.  It certainly was within the last three years or so.  I didn't get the album so I wasn't paying attention to that (and the show certainly didn't influence me to get it).  Lindsey was trying very hard -- unsuccessfully -- to turn up the intensity, but ended up looking silly.  I was really let down -- especially since I passed up that same night a Mike and Bruce show in my town that was with the local symphony orchestra and the reviews for said show were phenomenal.

The Grateful Dead at 9:30 AM, outdoors on a hot muggy Sunday morning in August of '82. I think most of the band stayed up all night and didn't get any sleep. Jerry Garcia looked like death warmed over.

(http://www.walfredo.com/images/GD2.2.jpg)

Probably the shortest live Dead set ever played:

Playin' in the Band, Shakedown Street, New Minglewood Blues, Samson and Delilah, China Cat, Sunflower, I Know You Rider, Sugaree, Women 'R Smarter, Truckin', Drumspace, Not Fade Away, Black Peter, Sugar Magnolia, U.S. Blues, Satisfaction

Happy Mondays - their comeback in the late '90s.  A soulless run-through of tracks.  Dull, dull, dull.

How can you guys possibly settle on just ONE band? Most every band/music-type person I've ever seen live proved to be a disappointment; exceptional bands/music-type people were the -- duh -- EXCEPTIONS.

I'm sure we've all seen our share of trash. But the word worst means you have to settle...so we think about it for a while. And there it is.

I threw away 15 bucks to see Modest Mouse sound like someone was taking a sh*t into a microphone. Words can't describe how awful they are live. Either they use auto-tune on their records, or that son of a bitch just can't sing live. BAD!!!

Dave Matthews Band 1999 and 2000.  The first one I was very disappointed.  The songs were slowed down, the crowd was obnoxous - reminded me of all the "pretty people" I had to put up with in high school; too much pot in the air, etc.  Gave them a second chance...well, because I was dating some chick who loved them, and it was the same story...Abercrombie & Fitch crowd thinking they're being "alternative", bouncing beach balls, obnoxious crowd even worse than the gig before, songs slowed down big time, people screaming in unison for no real reason meaning nothing was being done on stage to indicate such a roar from the audience. 

People have said that DMB are the "New Grateful Dead".  I believe it.  Probably the people who were the obnoxious ones were offspring of Dead lovers years ago.  The music was pretty much the same as the Dead...pure milktoast and a crowd who just came to "par-tay".  As much as people love to call Carter Breauford (DMB drummer) as the "Next Neil Peart" is pure b.s.  I'm not a die hard Rush fan, but when I've seen Rush live twice they most certainly delivered tenfold and Peart's not some idiot slob playing half-assed with lungs full of bong resin. Peart gives it his all every time the band plays...considering the bad luck that man has had, it's good to know he continues to give it 1000% at age 55.

DMB reminded me of every local group I've been in for short periods.  Soon as they start smoking pot all the time, the music suffers and it turns into this "Man, you're killing our good vibes here" when the music's vibes have gone straight down the toilet thanks to the weed. 


Pearl Jam/Sonic Youth in 2000 at Riverbend in Cincinnati.  People were drugged out, some jock muscle guy was tripping out on LSD and punching people randomly (and I mean HARD) in the crowd, including me, thankfully a friend grabbed the guy and threw him to the ground.  Yes, I got violent and stomped him in the forehead.  By that time, security got the piece of s*** and hauled him off.   Sonic Youth did their usual screeching hypnotic effect sound orgies and Pearl Jam performed mediocre.  Vedder was talking to their crowd about how they were "down" because of a few weeks before a bunch of people got killed in their show, yet when the crowd got wild, Vedder seemed to encourage it. 

I don't know what it is with peformers who seem approving of people slamming each other around...I'd stop playing, tell the crowd to settle down or the show stops.  Yet some of these peformers seem fine with it and get all bent out of shape when a bouncer gives an obnoxious pusher-in-the-audience a taste of their own medicine and puts them in their place. 

At any rate...DMB and Pearl Jam were probably the worst performances.  DMB was mainly the band itself performing horribly yet people there thought they were great...and Pearl Jam the audience was the worst part. 

Obviously my old hometown, Cincinnati, hasn't learned it's lesson from the Who concert.   Cincinnati's one of the worst places to see bands.  The crowds are always a pain in the ass.  I strongly dislike Cincinnati in general...it's very fake overall.  I've never seen such obnoxious idiot audiences in Columbus, Cleveland, Indy, Chicago, Louisville or Nashville nearly as intolerable as the audiences in Cincinnati.  The Foo Fighters claimed they'd never play there again because the audience is just a pure, seemingly ungrateful, bunch of brats.  That's another show I've seen with a complete inconsiderate audience...for another time though...I've written enough as is, possibly too much.

Tough call. I've only gone to a select few concerts over the years, and thus it's usually a worthy show.

I went to see Pantera one time. They were fine, but they were opening for Skid Row! Yech! Not another drum solo!

Wait, I know. It was Dashboard Confessional. They opened for Beck and God they sucked. The teenybopper girls screamed but they were really dull. They didn't stand a chance, sandwiched between Beck and the Black Keys.

Dashboard Confessional really really sucks. Is there going to be any emo worth my time? My money's on no.

Ok now I have the worst live act, worse then my other listing. Last night i had to go with my church to a new year's eve bash with a bunch of other churches. One of the "live" acts was a guy called Da T.R.U.T.H. The engineer must've been deaf because it was so LOUD. People were trying to find earplugs it was that bad. The guy was just eating his mircophone. His opening act was loud but still way better then that guy.  ::)

Obviously none of you saw the debut performance of the band I was in back in high school. We played at a roller-skating rink and they threw rollerskates at us. Hurts!
And we really were that bad.

Nominating yourself automatically makes your post the best on this thread.

And having a story that involves roller skates being thrown at you didn't hurt, either.

Well, who hasn't had that happen!

A group of 50 year olds singing early Beatles covers through their nose while someone kept beatin a cowbell. They were just a local band called ED.

In that vein, I'm reminded of "Kerwyn Sings the Beatles", even though half the songs were just random covers of not-Beatles songs. It had an electric guitarist and a singer/keyboard player, both in their late teens/early 20s. Now, he could not sing at all. He wasn't even a bad singer, he just could not sing. I believe the only reason they were even on the bill is because the guitar player was also in other, better, projects.

Sloan, the second opening band when I saw JET. They were not together at all, and they went on for what seemed like hours. Plus they brought in different band members halfway through the set. It's like they kept bringing in local bands. Man was it awful. Finally they stopped. The Everyones on the other hand (first opening band for the night) were awesome. They had sort of a BBoys vibe to their sound. Even had a tannerin.

Ugh, shouldve seen us two weeks ago. Absolutely horrible. power went out in the middle of a tune. Pedals' power supply crapped out, cable tip snapped, and worst of all it was 89 degrees on a humid evening. (we played outside)

plus we haven't practiced for weeks, so you can imagine the sloppiness. 0/5.

I've been to a ton of local shows and most of those bands aren't that great. It's more of a scene than a genuine want to make good music, so it doesn't bother me at all.

Worst famous band I've seen was the Vines who were supported by Seether and the Music. All of them were pretty much terrible. Should've been called "The U.S Poser Tour" and it would've been more fitting.

Despite my love for tunes, I have only been to a handful of concerts.  Still, out of the ones I've seen, I'd say "Gene" was by far the worst.  The band was fine, but it was a) below another, louder rock venue and b) there were probably only 40-50 people there, standing around with no energy.  The combination of this did have it's affects on the band as well to an extent and I'm pretty sure they cut the show short.

Still, they were a great band and now they're gone...

Hmm...tough call. I seen a weak Dylan show back when he was touring with Paul Simon....also, was forced to sit through Dashboard Confessional when they opened for Beck, and people, let me tell you, these guys blow and blow hard.

Do you have a tape of this performance? I'd like to hear it!  :afro

 :( I hate to say it but for me the worse act I ever saw was John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band. He was opening for the Beach Boys at Pine Knob one year. By the time they played ON THE DARK SIDE and TENDER YEARS, they were done. They only played for 20 minutes, thank Gawd. I also saw Nicolette Larson open for the band unplugged. Even though she was a great songwriter, she just couldn't adjust to an unplugged setting.

Beckgtr09 = Ted

Do you remember Mike Love's Imagine. Pretend it's I Should Of Known Better with a loud cowbell in the back

I saw Dylan in '90 and it was worse show I've ever seen. G.E. Smith's guitar was a pile of sludge covering everything and Dylan only mumbled. Entire songs went by that were unrecognizable even though they were classsics. Interestingly, by '98 Dylan's shows started becoming truly great again and a 2001 show I caught after the release of "Love & Theft" was one of the best concerts I've seen.

For most infuriating show, I'd nominate Echo & The Bunnymen. I managed to catch two different shows around 2001-2; both times Ian McCulloch was a drugged-up, drunken mess. Barely attempting to sing, he was prone to changing the lyrics in order to insult particular members of the audience ("Lips like sugar...but your an a**hole", etc.). The second show I saw had the audience leaving in droves after Ian picked up his playback monitor and threatened to throw it at them (all because one guy flipping him off). A pathetic spectacle.

America in 1977 at Plattsburgh State, just unbelievably boring
Kenny Rankin same year at Central Park, about the same.
Johnny Winter last year at BB King's in NYC, he looked old and sick, and he couldn't play at all.  Rather than it being bad it was really sad.

Johnny Winter was here in Ottawa last December. I was thinking of going but didn't. Now that I hear the stories I'm thinking I made the right choice.

Driving and Crying opening for The Who - Montreal 1997 (Who's idea was this? We got them to get off stage after 15 minutes.)

Treble Charger - Algonquin College 2001 (I paid 10 dollars, I left a few songs in. As I was walking out they were destroying "Fight For Your Right" by the Beastie Boys. The opening act, a local band Henessy put them to adsolute shame.)

Dan Bern - Ottawa Blues Fest 2006 (He was in the middle of a three act bill, Hamel on Trial opened, he was excellent and The Grande Mothers, former Mothers of Invention closed and they put on one of the best shows I've ever seen but I wish that either Dan Bern wasn't there or they made him end his set earlier so the Grande Mothers could play longer. They played the night before in Toronto and did a bunch of songs they didn't have time to play at our show like I'm the Slime and Watermellon in Easter Hay. We did get What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body which appaerntly Toronto didn't get. Anyway Dan Bern sucked, he really really wants to be Bob Dylan it seems.  And all his lyrics go like this "Cause who wants to wait? Cause waiting sucks, like for a bus or a train or something...." ad nauseum.)

The Who has always had horrible bands open for them.  I think it's some type of joke from Townshend.

Yeah, I saw them open up for their Quadrophenia tour that year in Milwaukee....HORRIBLE. 

:lol Is that the title of their next record?

Jan and Dean -  oldies show, mid 90s. The saddest performance I have ever seen. It was heartbreaking.

 

Britney Spears opening acts. Bad hair and even worse music. With songs like "Can I get your number (uh huh uh huh uh)". I found out later one of the guys in that horrid boyband got arrested for posession of doobies and it all ended.

I am glad to be done the boyband years  ;D

I'm sure the Spears show itself wasn't the greatest :lol:

Yeah her show wasn't great but I thought it was at the time... even in the way back row. It was more lipsync and pyro then real.

I've been going to punk shows on an almost weekly base for the last 9 years, so I'm pretty sure I've seen more bad performances than all of you combined.  :afro

 :o  Ratt and Quiet Riot........their speakers were shot, they were distorted, terrible sound

Carly

Brian Wilson's gig at the Beacon in 2003. Heh....funnily enough, Brian was the only thing good about that concert, as his voice actually sounded pretty good. Gary Griffin was embarrassing to watch. It was depressing looking to the left and not seeing Darian. The sound sucked. (Then again, the acoustics in that trash can they call a theater are horrid.) The band was obviously not very well rehearsed. And the set list was dumbed down. The new songs: "Catch A Wave" and "Little Deuce Coupe." And people tell me I'm nuts, but I swear that Paul's flute part during "Your Imagination" started BEFORE HE EVEN BROUGHT THE FLUTE TO HIS MOUTH.

Thankfully, Brian more than made up for it the following year!

Curved Air in 1975 in Paradiso, Amsterdam. Sonja was shrieking and the lineup at the time was under-rehearsed----they left the stage after thirty minutes. Pity, because I've always liked their debut, and Air Cut, despite the squirmworthy title, had some fine music on it...

The worst live act I ever saw was The Mentors. No big surprise there, though....

Mine was a surprise to me. Stereophonics.....in Wales......Last gig of a World Tour......Oh man, I was psyched. I took my then missus who was a massive fan. Ocean Colour Scene supported and it was like a 'long evening' event so, started at like 4pm and had like 6 support bands. They came on, looked like they couldn't be arsed, didn't speak to the crowd at all, and, frankly, after waiting hours to see the band through some reyt rubbish acts, was a complete and utter let down.

 I think it was immediately before the late Stuart Cable left the band so tensions may have been a bit stretched after a world tour, but still....

This might come as a surprise to some, but the worst concert I ever went to was Rod Stewart in 1993.  I was never a fan of the guy anyway, but he sounded like a man who had camped under a cigarette vending machine all night.

This thread reminds me that I'm old. I do recall the FF show I was complaining about, though (and the better one that made me judge it so harshly). I've seen many shows far worse than that, though. I think that was more about falling short of expectations.

Let's see.

I worked in rock radio from 2002-2006, so I saw Linkin Park and Papa Roach.  Pretty awful.

I also saw Faster Pussycat in 2005.  The bassplayer couldn't even stand by the end of the set.   

Slipknot in 2001.  Their stage setup is pretty interesting.......for about two minutes.  Then you realize, they have no songs.  Terrible.   

"Anal vapors!"

Only act I ever walked out on midway through was Belinda Carlisle... yawn ! Real Spinal Tap moment mid-way through when a roadie could be seen placing a miniature globe onstage, whilst trying to remain out of view, for "Heaven is a place on earth". Awful...

I saw Dion one time in a huge arena at an oldies show when I was a kid.  He was the main gig, and about half the audience left before he finished... he refused to sing anything old or classic, was just playing a bunch of pretentious sh*t nobody wanted to hear. 

Oh another really bad one, I saw "Fastball" once at a festival, I was working with the transportation so saw the guy backstage (lead singer) and he was sick, throwing up, acting like an idiot.  When they did their show, he forgot the words to their song "The Way", which pretty much was the only reason anybody wanted to see them.  I imagine it was just lots of inebriating substances but the guy was completely unprofessional the whole time and then screwed up their hit song. 

I've been lucky for  the most part concerning live performances.

By far the worst was George Harrison in Baton Rouge  in 1974, Dark Horse tour. His voice sounded like it was ripped to shreds !

Elizabeth

Albeit, I knew fewer songs of theirs back then and I still don't know all of them, but I saw MGMT once.... the opening band s u c k e d, the sound or something sounded off/muffled the entire time, and they didn't play "Kids." I've heard from another friend when he saw them at a music festival that they were terrible, too. Shame, because I'm a fan of Oracular Spectacular :/

In terms of professional bands where it wasn't just a case of them not being my taste, the award goes to Everclear at Xfinity Live, Philadelphia 6/17/15. The opening band The Good Excuses weren't so great either but my criticism of them is more toward their material than performance.

It was no surprise to me or disqualification that by this time Everclear was down to frontman Art Alexakis with a new entourage, but his vocals just were noticeably off. Not so much the tone but the delivery was really inconsistent, missing alot of words and syllables. The backing vocals were alright but it was also a slight bummer that the Beach Boys style intro to the set opener "So Much For The Afterglow" was canned. You get what you pay for though and fortunately admission and parking were free. When it came time for the encore I could tell what songs were coming up and decided for the first time to leave early and beat the traffic.

Since then it came out that Alexakis was actually suffering from an undiagnosed medical condition that directly impacted his musicianship, so I'll concede that some of my criticism at the time was unfair. Still, the other tour dates weren't free and I wouldn't buy tickets in the future on the strength of their name. Kinda wish I got to see them in their prime but I don't revisit their music beyond the radio these days.

I never really held local bands to the same standards as the pros cause no one's paying them to practice and it's often more driven by community than excellence. That being said, even going back to my days as a 13 year old discovering the local hardcore scene I don't recall anything so exceptionally below that par that I remembered it as the worst. In my late 20's I worked sound and door at alot of harsh noise shows and often felt like I was in The Emperor's New Clothes. I couldn't grasp a point of reference to evaluate whether performers ruled or sucked. I guess it was just over my head. Kinda view it as a different art form that isn't comparable to a rock show.

A few honorable mentions for worst would be The Green opening for 311 at Stone Pony Summerstage in Asbury Park, 7/18/15 and Nothing opening for Swirlies at Johnny Brendas in Philly 7/21/13. The Green had their bass synth so loud that it drowned out the rest of the band. Thought maybe it was just cause I was up front but the headliner didn't have the same issues. Nothing had their amps turned up so loud that active listening was completely negated. I know shoegaze has that kinda reputation, but even My Bloody Valentine '08 didn't brickwall so hard. When the bill was flipped in 2018 I caught the Swirlies opening and left before Nothing's set.

Was this during his singer/songwriter phase in the early 70's, or his Contemporary Christian phase in the 80's?

Regrettably Ron was last around in May 2016 -- it would be great if he reappeared, as he always had interestng things to say.

Once again regrettably, from Ron's description I'd say it was during the last-named phase... 

Blue Oyster Cult, 2014. They played a free show in a park which totaled nine songs, plus an instrumental jam, and no encore. Considering the band's age and the fact that I paid nothing, I wasn't expecting to be blown away. But the guys seemed so tired and bored, like they really didn't want to be there.

Maybe a bad gig -- I've seen them a number of times over the years including right around then at a state fair in Florida, and they were always great.  Buck Dharma in fact is even better than he was in their heyday.

I know exactly what the problem was, why the band didn't deliver -

THEY NEEDED MORE COWBELL!!