Live music is a crap shoot. The experience depends on many things. The musicians, the audience, the venue, & the state of mind of the listener all effect the event. Like the country song says "Some days are diamonds, some days are stone".

Among the "stones" that I have attended are The Allman Brothers Band, Jimi Hendrix, and Leo Kottke.

Some of the "diamonds" have been Poco, Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen, and Paul Revere & the Raiders.

This seems a little strange considering the stature of the performers, but it's true. Has anybody else had any surprises when they have spent their hard earned cash on live music? Both good and bad stories would be nice.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Answers

The absolute worst concert I ever attended was The Rolling Stones at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan. It was not a reflection of their performance, just a reflection of how horrible the acoustics are in a football stadium. The echoes were so bad we could not even tell what song they were playing half the time.

The best concerts I have been to are Santana and Peter Gabriel. I wasn't that fond of either before the concerts but the live shows convinced me. Also I can't stand Bryan Addams but my friend forced me to go see him once and he was pretty great live. I still wouldn't buy one of his albums.

The only concert I have gone to in about 16 years is The Moody Blues, they performed with the local symphony. The symphony took a break for one song and The Moody Blues sounded so bad without them.

I don't think I would pay the price for a live show now. I guess old age has made me too practical.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

I love Bjork, and was incredibly disappointed by the show she put on during the Homogenic tour - she seemed very stilted and just sort of trailed off in the middle of a few songs. I like to think that I make allowances for people not always being at their best (since 'best' means 'better than usual', right?), but it sucks when someone's having an off night when you've shelled out big bucks to see 'em.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

elena, I know what you mean. I saw Van Halen the day after they won their first Grammy, and they were hurting. Not only did they say they were totally hung over, Sammy Hagar lost his voice after the second song, and I mean he lost it all - he whispered the words or didn't say anything at all. Then they all started doing tequila shots and got smashed during their set and Eddie fell over during one song. It was sad. My friends and I left before it was over because we couldn't stand to look at the train wreck on stage anymore.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Sandra, did you see The Moody Blues outdoors in San Diego 'cause I was there. Here are all these, um, not older, but *more experienced* rockers politely sitting in our chairs. I happen to of had the lovely experience of sitting next to the only puppy who was excessively drunk and puking on the chairs in front of him. Finally, a "more experienced" person who had obviously been there and was sympathetic convinced the puker's girlfriend to take him home. A really pathetic insider thing about that concert was that it was during the time the San Diego symphony was defunct and the symphony members were only paid $75 each to play.

My favorite concerts were Jethro Tull, Styx, Steve Petty and Areo Speedwagon. Genesis played in my little home town and they obviously hated it. I got to see Arlo Guthrie, B.B. King and The Whalers all play in small auditoriums when I was in grad. school on their way from big venues at K.C. to St. Louis. Those were *great* concerts.

I'm afraid I just do smaller scale local musicians now.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

I see anywhere from one to 7 shows a week. I'm pretty hardcore about it.

Worst? Waaaaay too many to list, most of them local and long dead and gone. It sucks when you really like the band members but can't get into their music. :( I guess I'll nominate Alex Chilton and MArshall Crenshaw, but it wasn't their faults. Their "fans" (most of which were drawn by their names but knew nothing, apparently, about the artists) were obnoxious. And Chilton played bad covers (like "Rock with You" by Michael Jackson) instead of his own, much finer, work. I also survived a .38 Special concert 20 years ago. I got dragged to it because they were opening for Cheap Trick, who kicked ASS.

Best? Also too many to mention. Yeah, Duran Duran kick ass live. I know, I know. Smithereens were amazing, much better than I'd hoped. Iggy Pop: the concert where I almost died. I was less than five feet away from Jimmy O and he perspired on me. I was bruised. It ruled. Bowie with NIN was surprisingly intense. Locals I love: Changelings, Tender Idols, many more.

Biggest surprise (well, okay, most recent one, anyway)? The King Brothers (from Japan), opening up for our local "cult of cool" band the Subsonics. We paid $5 and didn't expect anything exciting. They frookin' ROCKED!!! The international language of rock 'n' roll is "AAAAHHHHH!!!" with a mic stuffed down your throat a la Lux Interior. Yeah! I mean, um, HAI! Haaaaaaiiiiiii!!! One of the guitarists (they both kept jumpoing into the crowd) kissed my exBF on the cheek. He was tickled. Japense punk cooties RAWK.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

I went to see The Black Crowes a summer or two ago, and the music sounded great, but Chris Robinson didn't sing as well as I'd hoped. He was dancing around so much that he kind of sang every other word. I went to see the Chilli Peppers last summer, only because it was free, and I was so impressed with them. I really gained a lot of respect for them after that show. Lenny Kravitz was really good for the 10 minutes he was on stage, but then he went in the back and passed out and they cancelled the rest of that show. BB King wasn't as good as I had hoped when I caught him last summer, but Buddy Guy blew me away.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Black Crowes and Oasis are touring the US together this year, and I hope to catch at least one of the shows. Just FYI.

The best show ever was Oasis with Manic Street Preachers. I could talk about this ad nauseam, but I think I've done that on here before. Anyway, it was amazing.

Most disappointing was the second (and last) time I saw Natalie Merchant. The first time was just after Tigerlily was released, at a small theatre, and she was so cool. Then she fell in with the Lilith Fair and its ilk, and seriously started sucking. I saw her on the...um...whatever that tour is that Blues Traveler does (or did) every summer. She blew.

I'm seeing REM in a couple of weeks, in Trafalgar Square in London, and Radiohead this July (with Beck and Supergrass), and I'm pretty sure both of those will give the Oasis gig some competition in the Best Gig Ever race. I saw the Divine Comedy on St Patrick's Day, and they ruled as well, but I don't lust for Neil Hannon like I used to lust for Liam Gallagher.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Funny you should mention Leo Kottke, Joseph, because I've been thinking of all the concerts I've ever seen and how none of them were bad, not one... except... half of one... Several years ago I saw a double ticket in Boulder with Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges. I have seen Hedges six times, but this was the first time I was going to see Kottke. Geez, what a snore. When he wasn't sitting there talking about who-the-f**k-cares, he was adjusting the stool he was sitting on. The pauses between songs were many minutes long and he basically never got a groove going, never really hit a stride. I almost feel sorry for him, because Hedges thrashed and jumped and howled and beat the living shit out of his various guitars and put on a top-notch show, and Kottke by comparison was like watching a piece of wood paneling. zzzz.

But seriously, all the other concerts I've seen, big and small, famous and local unknowns, all have been really good and I've got no complaints. Some of the "diamonds": Michael Hedges, Acoustic Alchemy, Rush's "Exit... Stage Left" tour, Stevie Ray Vaughan (in a double ticket with Berlin, of all things), and every Cold concert I've ever seen. Some other fun ones were the double ticket with Psychedlic Furs and Modern English in the old Rainbow Music Hall in Denver, Melissa Etheridge's last tour before she fired her band and went electric, and New Orleans band Dash Rip Rock in Tipitina's.

Milla, I saw .38 Special about 20 years ago, too, at the Colorado state fair grounds in a double ticket with Jefferson Starship, who were definitely the lesser of the two.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Worse than .38 Special? Man, that is pretty bad, all right.

Jackie-- I *heart* Divine Comedy. No, don't lust for Neil Hannon either, and I think he's a bit uneven, but when he's good, he's GRAYT.

Saw Oasis and Travis together at Music Midtown a year or so ago. Was disappointed by Travis (as I believe I've mentioned here before), but thought Oasis did the best they could under the circumstances. It was miserably hot and there were a lot of drunken boors about, some loudly fighting with each other while Liam was trying to sing. Oasis are awesome.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Come on, this is Jefferson Starship we're talking about here. Back when Paul Kantner was still with them and Grace Slick had come back to share lead vocal duties with Mickey "fooled around and fell in love" Thomas. Seriously, I'd much rather listen to some three-guitar Southern rock band bash about than that awful JS pap any day.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Milla, Neil Hannon's voice is sooo fanciable, but alas, he is a short bit of scruff now that he's let his hair grow and stopped wearing suits. I could fuck his voice, though.

Um, anyway.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Hi Paul. re- Leo Kottke. I saw him 25yrs ago. At that time his star was rising, and I really liked his style. I was playing a fair amount of 6 string acoustic, and I wanted to hear Leo live. I am just an amatuer, and I wanted to learn something. We paid for good seats, and we were given stage seats behind the performer. In other words, we heard the stage monitors and not the main sound system. The stage monitors were out of phase with the main sound, and the guitar had a lot of "chorus effect" on it. It literally made us sick to our stomachs. What a waste.

Milla, You seem to be in the loop with the newer music scene. Do you know of any newer performers who do traditional southern blues? ie. Bottleneck, National Steel, Dobro, McTell/Johnson/Leadbelly/B White etc? What city do you live in, if you don't mind my asking? Thanks.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

Vicki, No we didn't see the Moody Blues at the same concert as you, we saw them indoors in a very small midwestern city. You did get more entertainment for your money, we didn't see any drunks.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001

The best show I ever saw was in Frankfurt about 12 years ago with Paco de Lucia and a huge number of musicians. It started off with only him on the stage and gradually built up, one by one. By the end of the gig there was a jam packed stage with flamenco dancers and all. It was brilliant. The worst show I ever saw was Elastica in Milwaukee when they opened up for PJ Harvey, they were really nasty to the audience- total bitches- nevertheless they got booed off stage because the audience wouldn't stand for their collective attitude.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium in '62..couldn't hear a thing.

:)

:)

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Traditional Southern blues wouldn't be something I'd be really up on, but maybe Danny "Mudcat" Dudeck would be up your alley. He seems to have a devoted following.

I don't care if anyone knows where I live. I already outed myself as an Atlantan on the Krispy Kreme thread. ;) it's not like I'm putting my social security # and personal phone number up there. Anyway, yeah. Come and stalk me and I'll kick your ass. Or take you out for drinks. Either/or. I'm moody. (Things don't have to be that way, catch me on a better day.)

For local music scenes in various places: www.creativeloafing.com or www.stompandstammer.com (Atlanta).

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Jackie! say it isn't SO! No more shaving? No more suits?!

I think I'm going to go cry now.

(Oh well, there's always Jarvis. Dip him in a tub and he cleans up really nice.)

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001

Thanks for the response Milla. I duuno, but I thought you were in London,UK. Your email says England. You obviously know American music. That figures if you're from Atlanta. Let me digress a little. Blind Willie McTell is one of my favorites. He was Atlanta based. IMHO, his best song was/is "Travelin Blues". It's got the "poor boy" guitar solo. Why Taj Mahal and the Allman Brothers covered "Statesboro Blues" is a great mystery to me. "Travelin Blues" is a Duane Allman type song. Maybe he does it in heaven. Who knows?

You can call it "stalking" or whatever you like. Now that I know that you know American music, I reserve the right to pick your brain any time I feel like it. I'm not through with you yet, young lady.

BTW, Danny Dudeck has a nice website. Thanks for the heads up.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2001

Ha, no, not in England. ;) Grew up in Savannah, and it hasn't figured out (in many Anglophilic ways, including many vocabulary words and high tea and etc.--I'm not deliberately being pretentious or--heaven forbid anyone think this!--mocking Brits, it's just a quirk unique to the place I grew up) that it is no longer a colony. Other than that, nope, not the least bit British. "England.com" = a free mail service on a travel-related website, that's all.

Now that we've got that sorted, what do you want to know? I went record rummaging this weekend. Am very happy with Kinks BBC sessions double CD set and Kinks EP box set, both of which were reasonably priced (and sound better than the Pye versions (with cover musicians!!) that we're more used to. Dave Davies, when interviewed, sounded like Winnie the Pooh. Bless.

Found rare The Creation CD (remastered stuff). *joy*

Actually, went in there to buy The Chamber Strings (*recommend*), which are not classical but retro-pop (they sound sort of Burt Bacarach-esque to me, frighteningly enough, only not too twee) and ended up buying other things instead. Naughty. Bad. No biscuit.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001

Milla, did you see the 1991 Morrissey show at the Fox? I was there, and it was probably the worst large concert I've ever been to. He may as well have said,"I hate all of you, but I want your money, so I'll sing the songs just to pacify your dumb asses."

Best concert ever: Ani DiFranco, State College, PA 2000.

2nd Best: Page and Plant, Kansas City, 1998

I've seen countless local bands perform badly, in a number of cities. The best local band I've ever seen was Funmud in Atlanta, back in my senior year of high school. Of course, I was friends with the band, so I might be biased.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

I think going to a concert to be depressed = bad way to spend my money. So I blew off the Morrissey concert. I understand that he moped, fended off boyfans and generally was a big poopypants the whole time, though, so I am glad I didn't go.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

If someone said to me "mopey poopypants" I'd immediately think "Morrisey." :-)

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001