What's the best concert or live performance you've ever attended, and what made it unforgettable?"
For me it was Wolfmother at a major German festival. I didn’t really know them before and did not expect too much, but was totally blown away by their performance.
La Pegatina. A catalan ska and reaggae band rocks up to a festival where no one knows any of their songs or even their name and proceeds to completely shred the stage for 2 hours. At some point they just threw a giant basketball in tp the crowd and while we tried to hit the giant basket they’d put, the band both improvised on one of their songs and cast this game as if it were the finals of some tournament. Every song was a banger. The best thing: The almost exclusively german audience had no chance of understanding their mostly catalan songs.
For me it probably has to be Opeth at the Ancient Roman amphitheatre in Plovdiv, 2015. They were accompanied by a symphonic orchestra and the whole thing sounded unbelievable. Some of the songs were included as bonus tracks on “Sorceress” later on.
I’d also mention any of the TDK shows I’ve been to.
It was a local festival Pukkelpop in the year 2000. First of all, if you see the line-up, you’ll never get these artists together nowadays. But it was day 2 and Limp Bizkit was preparing everyone for Cypress Hill. Only Limp Bizkit was so energetic and got the whole crowd in that same energy. By the time it was Cypress Hills turn, the crowd had to decompress. Cypress Hill didn’t get the crowd in the right atmosphere until they said ‘Limp Bizkit were amazing!’ and the crowd cheered ‘Yeah!’ and Cypress Hills from that moment on got the crowd going.
I haven’t been to a true big stage concert before. I “saw” new kids on the block many years ago, but they were free tickets and we were in such a terribly sounding area of the stands. The best performance I saw was blue man group in Vegas. The PVC pipes and big drums in such a small theatre were quite amazing.
I’ve seen Dave Matthews Band, Gin Blossoms, Daft Punk and gone to Pink Floyd laser shows (Pink Floyd wasn’t there themselves tho) and more, but not one of the massive artists I’ve seen compared to the final show by a band some of my friends in high school had made (and I can’t even remember the name they went by at the time; I only remember the original name of Kill the Messenger). They did it outside another friend’s barn that had been converted into a skatepark and they wanted the crowd to just get all up in their shit as they played. Like, I was basically hugging the lead singer while they performed and they fucking ruled! They sounded like the Mars Volta which was still pretty new at the time and I really think that had they not all split up across the country to go to various colleges, they could have actually made something of a musical career.
Decades ago I saw the Rolling Stones. It was held in an arena. I was fortunate enough to sit in one of those skyboxes. Because of its location to the stage, from a corner of the skybox you could actually see behind the stage. This area was just a huge curtain as all seating behind the curtain was closed. During certain songs some band members would go behind the curtain. And it was a blast to see some of them jugging down vodka which was clearly visible from my vantage point. And the show was great.
I know it doesn’t really count - but I saw The Lion King the last time they toured before sticking to Broadway and man. I get really emotional with live music and cried through the whole thing, damn frission lol. Still, an utterly incredible performance and one that I would happily see again even if it meant going to NYC.
For an actual concert, gosh there are so many to choose from. But I saw Shawn James in a tiny little venue in Seattle where I stood on a balcony and watched the show from on high. I’ve never been one for psychedelic music and his definitely isn’t that, but there were a few times where the energy in the room and the music and the atmosphere was absolutely transcendent in a way I can only describe as psychedelic. Truly incredible.
Depeche Mode at the United Center in Chicago is definitely the one that blew me away the most. Their opening act hit the resonance point of the building and shook the whole thing, and Dave Gahan is such a showman. Everyone in the audience was reaching toward him and singing along with Personal Jesus.
Seeing the Red Elvises is always a treat too, but my partner and I caught them fresh off of touring with The Reverend Horton Heat and they played an incredible set that included a cover of Let Me Teach You How to Eat, and their songs from the movie Six String Samurai (Love Pipe and Boogie on the Beach). They even did a cover of Misirlou that night!
One evening in 2002 I saw In Flames, Soilwork, and Pain on the same stage, one after the other. It was while In Flames were small enough to stick to the smaller and more intimate concert venues, so the crowd was small enough that you could greet anybody there if you wanted. Met a lot of cool people that night. And the night finished with the entire crowd jumping in unison to In Flames - Only For the Weak.
Delain, Sabaton, and Nightwish. Best concert I think I’ll ever see. I hadn’t even heard of Sabaton at the time and they quickly became one of my favorite bands.
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