Concerts that ruled, Concerts that sucked.

[keyse1]

14 minutes ago, Pete Gardner said:

I have kept every concert ticket since 1979. Top 8 in order of preference with Joe Bonamassa my only negative experience.

I don’t think that worked

[akjono]

The Kinks 1978 New Orleans, Talking Heads 1983 Cuyahoga Falls, OHIO, Usa... Outdoor venue in Summer.... 

Santana 1982 or 83 Same place..... Outdoor amphitheatre .... Rainbow manifested in the sky behind stage at the beginning...(No Drugs were harmed in the making of that concert) 

King Crimson Indiscipline tour 1982 Akron Ohio, small theatre - Wow on the musicianship and sound.. 

Jeff Beck There and Back Cleveland 1982 or 83

The Pretenders - Cuyahoga Falls - 82 0r 83 - / Weather Report Denver Colo 1983 (Jaco was let go in the prior few months ;-( ) Allan Holdsworth Cleveland 1983 / Peter Gabriel 1983 Strasbourg France/ Frank Zappa Berlin 1984 / Babatunde Olatunji Sante Fe 1996?, John Hammond 1994 Haines Alaska, Jerry Alfred and the Medicine Beat 1995 Haines Alaska  .... These were some of the best musical events of my life. 

Concerts that were poor.... don't recall any. But I have more ... Neville Brothers! Oh yeah.... have a good night...

 

[Ritero]

Best:

Coldplay - Twisted Logic Tour (X&Y album release) - Melbourne 2006. Chris Martin just had huge stage presence and controlled the crowd in Rod Laver incredibly.

Infected Mushroom - Adelaide 2020. Crazy fun.

John Butler Trio - The Espy in Melbourne 2006

Silverchair - Freak Show Tour -Canberra - 1997

 

Sucked (for the record I am a big fan of these bands generally but they didn't wow me on the night):

Prodigy - Big Day Out Melbourne 2009

Living End - Adelaide 2019

Death Cab for Cutie - Adelaide - 2015

 

[awty]

On 01/11/2020 at 9:25 PM, Red MacKay said:

G

 

POX

 

Bob Dylan, Margret Court, 2019, absolute shite!  He had contempt for us the audience.

 

 

Ha! the Brisbane one was worse. Whole lot of mumbling and dont think he could be bothered looking at the audience once.

[awty]

On 02/11/2020 at 9:03 PM, lebowski said:

in my yoof, back in the 80’s we would be out every weekend in Ye olde Adelaide town and with enough beer I think they were all awesome.

Saw many Australian classic pub bands - 

Lime Spiders

 

 

I saw them in the Valley in bris, ears were ringing for days afterwards, maybe attributed to my poor hearing, but was a great concert.

[awty]

On 03/11/2020 at 1:33 PM, Stump said:

I might be bias 

Winners

David Bowie 11/11/78      Adelaide Oval

David Bowie 09/11/83    Adelaide Oval

David Bowie  23/02/04  Adelaide Entertainment Centre,

 

Losers

Everyone else....

Sat outside Lang park in Brisbane for the 83 concert and saw the 04 concert. Always put on a good show.

[awty]

Cant remember a lot of them, especially the out door concerts for some reason.

 

Can remember my first sit down concert, was Stevie Ray Vaughn at festival hall in Brisbane, totally memorizing, could defiantly play guitar. 

Violent Femmes always puts on a good show, cant sit down for that.

Nick Cave also.

 

Was going to see the Pixies this year, but that got canned

[rodders3]

19 minutes ago, awty said:

Cant remember a lot of them, especially the out door concerts for some reason.

 

Can remember my first sit down concert, was Stevie Ray Vaughn at festival hall in Brisbane, totally memorizing, could defiantly play guitar. 

Violent Femmes always puts on a good show, cant sit down for that.

Nick Cave also.

 

Was going to see the Pixies this year, but that got canned

Missed a great show. Last live concert I saw before lockdown. Went with a mate to the Palais in St Kilda. Seriously left pumped with a smile on my face. 

 

I did bail on New Order though because of Covid - really wanted to see one of my favourite bands of all time but didn't want to risk it.

[surprisetech]

12 hours ago, Ritero said:

Sucked (for the record I am a big fan of these bands generally but they didn't wow me on the night):

Prodigy - Big Day Out Melbourne 2009

 

We were up the other end being wowed by Neil Young.  Prodigy were still playing on our way to the gate, so we caught the last 15 mins of their set from the back of the crowd.  Didn't mind it, but by then it was another different flavour to sample at the end of a great biiiiig day!

[camross]

Great shows my list could have been a lot longer but these are the ones that jumped out for me at the moment. I seem to have forgotten all the bad gigs.

 

- Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Palais.

- Beastie Boys Festival Hall

- Charlie Hunter Trio Continental Hotel. Just about everything at the Continental was great best small venue in Melbourne.

- Kaviah Jones Continental

- C.W Stoneking Corner Hotel. This guy is a national icon if you ever get the chance go and see him do it. The closest thing to Tom Waits we will ever have.

- Iron and Wine Forum

- Boniver

- James Blake Palais

- Cinematic orchestra Palais 

-Max Richter Recital Center

-Nils Frahm Hammer hall

 

Big Day Out as its own as there where so many great gigs there especially on the RRR stage in the mid 90s

- Helmet

- Beasts of Bourbon

-Primal Scream

- Nick Cave as the sunset was pretty special.

- Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

- Primus

 

 

 

[Ian McP]

26 minutes ago, surprisetech said:

 

We were up the other end being wowed by Neil Young.  Prodigy were still playing on our way to the gate, so we caught the last 15 mins of their set from the back of the crowd.  Didn't mind it, but by then it was another different flavour to sample at the end of a great biiiiig day!

Won tickets for BDO 2009, two acts I was hanging out to see and were highlights for me!

Barrence Whitfield (backed by the Rockwiz Orkestra) and Son of Dave

Met Barrence after his killer set, great guy, long story! Mate Mark Ferrie bass player for Rockwiz needed a set of Barrence's tunes to learn. I had a few of Barrence's LP's so transcribed them to cd for Mark.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/306530-Barrence-Whitfield-And-The-Savages

https://www.discogs.com/artist/512818-Barrence-Whitfield

Son of Dave, once in Crash Test Dummies but totally reinvented himself as a one man band. Armed only with a few percussive instruments, including his feet and a harmonica he builds up loops on the fly, fun to watch live!

https://www.discogs.com/artist/499444-Son-Of-Dave

No time for Neil, not a fan, Prodigy were good, from a safe distance!

Some Barrence on Rockwiz and Son of Dave for you!

 

[ray4410]

22 hours ago, Cloth Ears said:

In pretty much random order...

Men At Work - Cricketer's Arms Hotel

Mike Oldfield - Palais (1982)

Meatloaf - Palais (mid-80's)

Albert Collins - Festival Hall (80's?)

Roger Waters - Rod Laver (2013 and 2018)

P!nk - Rod Laver (2018) - not so much a concert as a show

Kylie - Showgirl (2006) - ditto

Russell Morris - Publican, Mornington (2019)

Vince Jones - Mornington Peninsula Gallery (2016)

James Morrison - Mornington Peninsula Gallery (2017)

Sean Kelly, Cal McAlpine, Spencer Jones, Andrew Duffield - Duke of Windsor (Prahran) (early 00's?)

 

Bummers

Didn't get upstairs to see The Dead Kennedy's in 1982 at Monash because I was just too stoned!

ALBERT COLLINS AT FESTIVAL HALL IN THE 80S WAS THERE T0,HE MUST HAVE THE LONGEST GUITAR LEAD EVER,IWAS TOWARD THE BACK AND HE WALKED ALL THE WAY PLAYING HIS HEART OUT DRAGGING HIS GUITAR LEAD WITH HIM,AWESOME STUFF,
FESTIVAL HALL WHAT A GREAT ROCKNROLL VENUE,MAYBE NOT THE BEST ACOUSTICS BUT STILL PLENTYOF ATMOSPHERE,
SEEN
ROY ORBISON
JERRY LEE
CHUCK BERRY, THE BEACHBOYS
THE BEATLES
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
BILLY THORPE AND THE AZTECS AND A HEAP MORE,GREAT OLD VENUE,
WILL BE A DIFFERENT PLACE NOW THAT IT HAS BEEN BOUGHT BY THE HILLSONG CHURCH,
WELL THAT IS PROGRESS OR NOT.

[fordute]

Thumbs up for these.

 

Thin Lizzy.....Myer Music Bowl.....Melbourne 1978

The Cure......Crystal Ballroom.......Melbourne 1980

SRV & Double Trouble.....Concert Hall....Melbourne 1984

Neil Young & Crazy Horse......Festival Hall......Melbourne 1985

 

More to come as i remember them.

 

 

 

 

[keyse1]

1 hour ago, ray4410 said:

ALBERT COLLINS AT FESTIVAL HALL IN THE 80S WAS THERE T0,HE MUST HAVE THE LONGEST GUITAR LEAD EVER,IWAS TOWARD THE BACK AND HE WALKED ALL THE WAY PLAYING HIS HEART OUT DRAGGING HIS GUITAR LEAD WITH HIM,AWESOME STUFF,
FESTIVAL HALL WHAT A GREAT ROCKNROLL VENUE,MAYBE NOT THE BEST ACOUSTICS BUT STILL PLENTYOF ATMOSPHERE,
SEEN
ROY ORBISON
JERRY LEE
CHUCK BERRY, THE BEACHBOYS
THE BEATLES
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
BILLY THORPE AND THE AZTECS AND A HEAP MORE,GREAT OLD VENUE,
WILL BE A DIFFERENT PLACE NOW THAT IT HAS BEEN BOUGHT BY THE HILLSONG CHURCH,
WELL THAT IS PROGRESS OR NOT.

No body can beat seeing The Beatles

[oztheatre]

Richard Clapton Coogee bay hotel 1986 the day mike tyson got taught a lesson from buster douglas.

GnR 1989 with Rose Tattoo and the Angels

Steve Vai Coogee bay hotel 2002 - quite the showman and axe slinger

Page and Plant.. hmm I think 1989 Sydney. As close to Zeppelin as I was ever going to get.

Carlos Santana state theatre Sydney 1990 from memory

Dave Roth band with Steve Vai 1988 Sydney - when it was cool to wear your undies on the outside ha. I didn't do that though.

Metallica Hordern Pavillion 1989 And Justice tour

Paul McCartney Suncorp a few years ago - great band played everything note for note, no extra filler.

Pearl Jam - many times. always good, tight band.

ZZ-top 1986 sydney. Before the sound limits were put in place, deaf for a week afterwards. 

 

I'll have to think about 'bad' concerts, not sure I'd rate any as bad.

[oztheatre]

On 02/11/2020 at 7:01 AM, Pigpen said:

The Bad:

Van Halen 1999 - Melbourne Entertainment Centre - having a bad night...

 

 

Was the start of the tour so not great. Still, we got to see them in the end after dodging us for 22 years. I had 4th row centre in Sydney, so was pretty good. 

 

They all used to come down here for a working summer holiday and to escape their brutal winters. Most of these big tours were in the november to feb months.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, oztheatre said:

 

Was the start of the tour so not great. Still, we got to see them in the end after dodging us for 22 years. I had 4th row centre in Sydney, so was pretty good. 

 

They all used to come down here for a working summer holiday and to escape their brutal winters. Most of these big tours were in the november to feb months.

They had come from the start of the tour in NZ to Oz - very early in the tour so you are right.

 

I still remember seeing them in Hawaii in 92 (we saw Aerosmith a few days later at Aloha stadium from memory). Aerosmith were good but no match for VH.

 

Would have loved to have seen their Sydney show a few years ago..........

[Juzbear]

One of the coolest, most unexpected gigs I saw was Love and Rockets, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Cypress Hill, in Santiago, Chile, 1996. Police with automatic weapons at the entry, an energised crowd, and total dislocation of being 1000s of km from home in a country where my grasp of the language was tenuous at best.

 

Saw INXS at the Sydney Uni refectory in 93, which was a mad, great show. Bouncing around in the crowd 2 metres from Michael Hutchence was cool.

[camross]

Worst Concerts

 

Bros the Glass house 1987

[Cloth Ears]

8 hours ago, Juzbear said:

One of the coolest, most unexpected gigs I saw was Love and Rockets, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Cypress Hill, in Santiago, Chile, 1996. Police with automatic weapons at the entry, an energised crowd, and total dislocation of being 1000s of km from home in a country where my grasp of the language was tenuous at best.

 

Saw INXS at the Sydney Uni refectory in 93, which was a mad, great show. Bouncing around in the crowd 2 metres from Michael Hutchence was cool.

I remember seeing INXS in the early 80's at St Kilda Town Hall (I think). I remember thinking they were pretty good, but it was a uni dance (I think) and I wasn't concentrating on the band that night!

[Mutatis Mutandis]

Bruce Springsteen solo in Warsaw in about 1995 (?) was one of the very best.

 

Bob Dylan in Sydney in 1978 or so was a bit hit and miss.  I was in about row 10 a the Showgrounds I think and some guy behind kept shouting out "Knocking on Heaven's Door".  This was between EVERY song and very annoying.  Bob finally did it as an encore..... as a reggae song.  At the end our man behind shouted "Now do it properly".  Can't help wondering if this was the wrath of Bob or co-incidence.

[mark rega]

Nearly all of these were in the Uk, memorable ones .. from memory the years should be close 

 

1972 Man ... plus about 4 other concerts they did post this date 

1973  Budgie ... rocking it hard 

1973 Stealers Wheel .. unknown and I was about 1 of 20 turned up 

1975 Roxy Music .. Leo Sayer was the unknown support act

1976 Genesis ... mystical .. Suppers ready lives with me 

1978 Clash .. so called punk rock ..getting quality 

1981 Squeeze ..small club ripper of a gig .. Jules on the ivories 

1982 Queen .. girlfriend at the time loved Freddy ..

1983 Rolling Stones .. Keef was rocking it 

1986 Tears for Fears 

 

2018 Roger Hodgson in Sydney

lots of bands let down by poor sound quality or too large a stadium .. The Who in 1976 .. although Alex Harvey was a blast as the support, Rod Stewart in LA in 81 

 

A load of tosh 

1973 Atomic Rooster .. didn’t play was crowd was small 

1978 Stranglers .. crowd ruined it with all the fighting 

1980 Marc Almond / Soft Cell ..  right up himself .. should have put a tape on and left 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zenikoy]

Slightly perplexed by the number of posters whose last memorable gig was in the mid 80s

 

Indicative of the average age of the SNA demographic or the age when most stop attending gigs?

 

My music loving (rock snobs) circle of friends used to have a theory of the music rule of 3s. After age 23 most people bought 3 albums per year (big stuff, U2 etc) and go to a concert every 3 years (big stuff again, which was spoken of as either the greatest or worst thing ever)

[frednork]

43 minutes ago, zenikoy said:

Slightly perplexed by the number of posters whose last memorable gig was in the mid 80s

 

Indicative of the average age of the SNA demographic or the age when most stop attending gigs?

 

My music loving (rock snobs) circle of friends used to have a theory of the music rule of 3s. After age 23 most people bought 3 albums per year (big stuff, U2 etc) and go to a concert every 3 years (big stuff again, which was spoken of as either the greatest or worst thing ever)

Its odd you are perplexed as clearly you are so much better than anyone else,,,,,

[mark rega]

40 minutes ago, zenikoy said:

Slightly perplexed by the number of posters whose last memorable gig was in the mid 80s

 

Indicative of the average age of the SNA demographic or the age when most stop attending gigs?

 

My music loving (rock snobs) circle of friends used to have a theory of the music rule of 3s. After age 23 most people bought 3 albums per year (big stuff, U2 etc) and go to a concert every 3 years (big stuff again, which was spoken of as either the greatest or worst thing ever)

For me it post 80s it was 

marriage 

kids 

work 

becoming more of a priority.. 

you could also ask how many SNA members over 55 

a) put their hifi / Lps / cds in the spare room / shed as their kids were growing up as they had to cope with progeny trying ( succeeding) to put small toys into the video recorder or CD player ...or seeing how far  the turntable could throw their robot across the living room ( boys ) 

b) family life and work left little time for going to concerts ..with me going overseas 8 to 10 times / year with work iPod and iPhone were few chances to listen to music