Worst live act you've ever seen in person.

[Joe]

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.

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

[Beckgtr09]

  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

[MBE]

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.

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

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

[Roger Ryan]

Hmm...tough call. I seen a weak Dylan show back when he was touring with Paul Simon

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.

[Mike]

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.

[Music Machine]

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.)

[cta]

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. 

[JRauch]

Who's idea was this?

Is that the title of their next record?

[NC]

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

 

[SG7]

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 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

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 

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

[SG7]

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.

[shelter]

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. 

[carlydenise]

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

Carly

[37!ws]

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

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!

[JK]

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...

[Michael Edward Osbourne]

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

[Rentatris]

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....

[bonnie bella]

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.

[the captain]

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.

[KDS]

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.   

[Aum Bop Diddit]

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

"Anal vapors!"

[Malc]

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...

[Ron]

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. 

[Ron]

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.