what is the WORST live musical performance you've seen...?

for me, it was concrete blonde at the metro in chicago.

johnette napolitano, the lead singer, was COMPLETELY and TOTALLY falling-down drunk.(apparently their bus had broken down in indiana, and she started drinking). the band had to start the first song three times, because she kept missing the post. she ended up sitting on the stage with her back to the audience.
the band was booed off the stage in less than 10 minutes, and the show was over. it REALLY pissed me off, because i had invited a bunch of friends to the show, because of how good the band had been when i saw them at the same venue the previous year.

and then Heart.

Dokken opening for Dio wasn't very good, either, but they weren't god-awful shit in the way that Autograph and Vinnie Vincent were.

Snore.

ETA: Arcwelder was awesome, as usual. BLC was WTF.

..just Todd Trainer's solo act? Or am I thinking of something different. He is affilliated with them in some way, no?

He's a strange fellow.

The lead singer is a total homophobe and shared his prejudices freely with the audience that night, who thankfully heckled his sorry ass.

I hate that shit.

In regards to the Cars, when Wang Chung upstages you it's time to rethink your career path, and with Ozzy...well, he just sucks anyways so I shouldn't have been shocked.

O amn 1982 and all I saw was this band one summer. HORRIBLE. bad music for weird people. They had that one song that was decent but the rest was just garbage.

I had no problems with their music in the studio. It wasn't what I really into but I didn't hate it, so we went. Man, the suckitude was so bad I'm surprised the venue didn't collapse into a different dimension. The music was as dull as an inflight magazine from Air Belgium, and it could have been cardboard cutouts for the energy they showed. I'm still not sure it wasn't.

See my reply below to find out what happened.

"Yesterday & Today"...before they had their T&A video hit "Summertime Girls" and billed themselves as "Y&T"...as the OPENING ACT for Peter Gabriel's first solo tour after Genesis.

They were BEYOND awful...the crowd HATED them...and they CAME BACK FOR AN ENCORE after being BOOED off the stage.

:rofl:

The only song I remember is one called "Alcohol," which had lyrics like "AL-ca-HAWWWWWL, AL-ca-HAWWWWWL, AL-ca-HAWWWWWL, AL-ca-HAWWWWWL, AL-ca-HAWWWWWL,..."

EVERYONE in the band had big, poofy, blow-dried hair, and they sucked with the burning intensity of a million white-hot suns.

:rofl:

Ugh. So bad, so bad. They had a giant, chrome robot-thing that, they told us (repeatedly) had "the biggest balls in rock-n-roll!" They were also booed mercilessly, but only stopped when a naked crowd-surfer was tossed up on stage!

Thank god for that selfless streaker.

mikey_the_rat

The Smithereens were one. Outdoor show in Albuquerque. Sloppy as hell and acted like drunken idiots, which they, at that moment, were. Lou Ann Barton in The Back Room in Austin in I think '87...The band played the show without her after the first set. Either they or the management sent her home. Too drunk (and who knows what else) to even attempt to continue singing. A couple of truly horrendous opening acts stick out too...Ty Gavin and the Celebrities in Austin (same weekend as Lou Ann Barton); opening for Will and the Kill ( Charlie Sexton's brother Will) and Guitar Wolf, in Albuquerque, I think they were opening for The Cramps( who were GREAT). I've heard junior high kids who've been playing for three months who were better than those guys, and then saw a rave review of them not long after. Unbelievable.

The Lemonheads were real disappointing the only time I saw them too, compared to their hype at the time........BTW, Only been to the Metro once but it was one of the greatest shows I've ever seen: Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros in 1999, or maybe 2000.

I saw the Smithereens at a street festival here a few years back. They were great. It was funny because I had always wanted to see them - one time years before in a punk bar here a guy tried to tell me he was in the Smithereens, and I just didn't care and/or didn't believe him. It was funny.

had one chance in Jan. 79 in Chicago ....24 below zero that night, not counting the wind chill ( which was if I recall, in the 50's or even 60's below). Would have been a long 3 block walk to the el train, and the same coming home, and god knows how long standing on the el platform. And I just couldn't do it; not even for The Clash, and never got another chance. But yeah, Joe and The Mescaleros were magnificent. And I am very fortunate indeed to have seen the great Joe Strummer...... And I know people that have also seen the Smithereens and said they were great. This was an all day thing and they were the last band. As often happens at these things, everything was running late, and by time they went on WAY later than scheduled, they'd obviously spent the day getting rip-roaring drunk, and played like it. It was kind of funny in a way, but they really were pretty terrible.

It was odd since they had military- looking bouncers stand in the aisles- to see people's reactions? or a comment on facism? Reminded me of psychological games the profs played with us in grad school... No one was allowed to dance. It was weird.

He was terrible and had this kind of easy listening crossed with an unaltered cat sound that got him booed off the stage real quick like. So I figured, in my youthful naievete, that he wasn't going anywhere. I still hadn't realized that success wasn't purely a function of whether you were actually any good, but in my defense I'm pretty sure I was seven at the time.

Anyhow, that absolutely horrible unknown was Michael Bolton. Sadly, we heard more of him later.

"No way! Why should I change? He's the one who sucks." :D

1975, opening for Blue Oyster Cult.

Too loud
Too distorted
They got booed off the stage, and rightly so.

I wonder if they've gotten any better... :P

They've mastered the art of suck :hide:

...early 70s, before I had ever heard of them.

I had gone with some friends to see the local (Chicago area) band Styx at a community college, right after their first album had been released. REO opened, and by the time they had reached what was supposed to be the end of their set, the singer announced that "Styx got lost" trying to find the community college, and had canceled their appearance. He then went on to say that they would perform an extended set. I was very disappointed about the Styx fuckup, and thought REO sucked (and think the same to this day), but my friends wanted to stay.

It was truly horrible. Crappy songs/music, bad sound, "festival seating" (on the floor), bad everything. After that, Styx was no longer on my list of bands to see, and they turned out to be as bad or worse than REO Speedwagon.

Also back in the 70s, I went to a "festival" at the stadium in Anaheim, CA (Angels home), which included Ted Nugent amongst the bands, but didn't watch the show due to the fact that the people who had driven me there (I had just met them and did not really know them), got separated from me and left without me while I looked all over the place for them. Due to that, I was saved from having to sit through a Nugent set, so it was worth it.

Cheap Trick opened and they were, as always, phenomenal. Then REO came out and cranked through a decade's worth of hits. This was 1985 or '86. A fun, fun show.

...I have nothing against them, they just aren't for me. Also, I'm thinking that by '85 or '86, they were probably better at what they were doing than when I saw them in the early 70s. That "Keep on Rolling" song was almost alright, but I've never really been a fan.

I may have had my dislike for them amplified by my disappointment that the band I had gone to see never showed up. I had never heard of REO either, so I was not familiar with any of their tunes, plus the venue sucked. How's that for back-pedaling?!

I do, however, like Cheap Trick quite a bit (or, I did twenty-something years ago).

Cheap Trick is one of my other favorite stage shows...

Blondie opened, right before they got big, and they ripped the house apart. The encore call got louder and Bill graham came out, said he asked REO if Blondie could do another encore and REO Said no. Never made it past the third song.

when I realized who it was. Hilarious. No one else was nearly as amused as I was. Great fireworks show, though, which is pretty much all that keeps casual fans coming to the ballpark these days.

And someone I don't think they're any better now than they were then.

off-key,nasal...she can't hold a note to save her life...waste of money..I took my niece and her friends to the concert as part of her birthday

The Mahavishnu Orchestra at the Stanley Theater in Pgh. 1974 (I think). The group of friends I was with all walked out mid-concert. Horrible. Worst ever.

The late lamented Syria Mosque, RIP. Sadly replaced by a parking lot. :(

In high school, I was lucky enough to sing there with my chorus (and the symphony). The acoustics on the stage were really something. During rehearsal, our director let each of us sing a phrase individually, so we could hear the acoustics. I still remember that 43 years later :-).

:hi:

to see if he could remember and he couldn't. He said, "You were in a bad mood." Ha! But I know there were about 6-8 of us who went together and we all left together - went to a party at Pitt instead. Now he tells me it wasn't even the Syria Mosque!

I need regrooving :hi:.

asked.


I'm trying to think of some other venues - but I didn't move to Oakland until 77. Prior to that I'd only been to the Civic Arena.

(but I'm sure Little Feat wasn't one of them). Right now my husband and I are in a battle to see whose memory is less faded.

we saw the Clash and what tour it was! :rofl:

The bass and drums were so dominating that the vocals were drowned completely out. I wasn't a big fan of the band, but since I got an extra ticket free, I went with some friends, and the one song that I really liked by them (Blue Collar) wasn't even on the setlist. The opening band was local rocker fave Bob Seger, so it wasn't a total loss.

Another was Journey in '81, I was dating a girl occasionally at the time that was a big fan, and she said to me on the day of the concert that she really wished that she could go see them. I said that we could drive to the arena and will see if I can buy us some scalper tickets. We got lucky and I bought two tickets at face value, and the seats were together and were pretty decent. I made her day and got some nookie in return that night, even though I really didn't care for the band or the concert.

I saw BTO at the Nassau Coliseum in 1977,Foghat opened for them...and blew BTO off the stage!

We left very soon after BTO hit the stage!

I think they were all either drunk or high or both. It was at the New Haven Colosseum which no longer exists.

scheduling you for ass kicking

hairband stage, right? Ratt, Poison, Motley Crue? No? Yeah, kind of pathetic.

Great on vinyl, sucked bigtime live.

The lame opening act, Girlschool, didn't help matters.

:rofl:

The ONLY redeeming highlight of the concert was that between the suckfest of Girlschool and the megasuckage of Quiet Riot, Saga came out and rocked a very competent set.

:rofl:

was when Randy Rhoads was in the band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPLw4nvXXzw

David Lee Roth was so wasted he couldn't sing 60% of the lyrics. It was pathetic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbdMvOwf22M

And while not "technically" their best performance, the show was classic. That DVD will never get an official release, but damn, I love the bootleg.

Meanwhile, here's a more recent performance....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiQNY2m8c60

A more disgusting human being does not exist.

In my city, and I can just picture Ted in a loincloth performing Cat Scratch Fever, Wango Tango, and Wang Dang Sweet Poontang to an audience of mostly paunchy WASP conservatives and their trophy wives...ewww!!

What pisses me off the most about Nugent is that he really didn't come out of the RW closet until after the Shrub was (s)elected, and I now deeply regret having attended two of his New Years Eve Whiplash Bash concerts in the 90s.

it's to kill something, and he makes a huge big deal about what a great white hunter he is. It makes me sick.

lame as it gets. And for some reason I have seen him a bunch too. Only Norton Buffalo kept me from killing Steve Miller.

and that was here back in the late '80s or early '90s. He was really quite good, at least on that particular night, and played for HOURS, which we really appreciated, given the price of concert tickets up here. We paid $75 a piece for tickets to ZZ Topp, and they only played about 45 minutes. Talk about a rip-off...

for me it's a toss-up between Cat Power - just totally out of it, drunk or high, starting and stopping songs, and apologizing through the whole show. A shame, since she is a really interesting artist with a great voice.

The other one was the Replacements, but since it was the "Mats" and that's what they were known for- drunk and indifferent and really messing with everyone, it was actually kind of funny.

never saw them, but I have some tapes of them being just as out of it as can be that are hilarious in small doses. Of course, not so funny in light of Bob Stinson's early death from years of drugs and drinking.

it was a small club, the year Pleased to Meet Me? came out, I think. per wiki, since I'm too lazy to look elsewhere at the mo, "This album was the only album recorded by the band as a trio. After Tim, Bob Stinson was either kicked out of the band (ostensibly for problems with drugs and alcohol, though most of the other Replacements also had serious substance abuse problems at the time) or quit on his own volition due to creative differences. Many have attributed the noticeable shift from the post-punk of Tim towards a more accessible American rock and roll sound on Pleased to Meet Me to Bob Stinson's departure. The band recorded the demos for this album in August 1986, while Bob Stinson was still in the band."


What is so funny is that many bands were trendy who really weren't that good, and bands that was really talented musically fell by the wayside in those days. Bands had to be the "right kind of weird" at that time. It was strange. That being said, I'm glad I got to see them. There were some great bands early in their careers in that same club, 10,000 Maniacs, The Pretenders, Cyndi Lauper, The Police, Yo La Tengo, and the list goes on.

Just like some could have been great musicians I've known , the musicianship was of secondary priority to the partying ( which I was guilty of myself till I was of an age where I should have long since known better).

milk and cookie and food band (being grad students at the time) than we were a booze/smoke band by a long shot. The only one who really drank much was our bass player - being a bit fond of cocktails. :D

I always think of that Lucinda song Drunken Angel when I consider the juxtaposition of musicianship and excess...

solo album.

I was telling him that Paul was one of my favorite song writers. The bass player said, "He may be a good song writer, but he can't play for shit."

I've always been a HUGE Replacements fan and always loved them live!

They were part of an all-day festival with Twisted Sister, Cheap Trick, Lita Ford, and The Lines (a Boston power-pop act, not the British art-rock band from the same timeframe).

Ratt was dreadful. Bad songs, no stage presence, and somehow they took themselves seriously. Twisted Sister mined the same territory but did it better; catchy songs and a wonderfully foolish show.

.
They did a cover of "Dear Prudence" that would knock your socks off. Their guitarist knew
a couple of The Subdudes and I think it was those two who agreed to OPEN as a duo for my
friends' band at a bar (talk about a local band's bragging rights).
.
The bar-owner, not knowing who The Subdudes were, nixed the idea and told my friends that
HE had arranged for an opening band. Turned out to be their first gig -- they were total
poser non-musicians -- even DRESSED in rock-and-roll costumes like a classic rock Village
People (one guy in a long cowboy duster, another as a biker, another as a GQ icon, etc.)
The singer was HORRIFIC, yet jumped down from the stage to go from table-to-table to croon
to women in the audience -- they were ALL nothing but mortified. They FINALLY finished
their set... but things went downhill from there.
.
Lead singer: SO YA WANNA HEAR ONE MO'?
.
Dead silence.
.
Lead singer: SO YA WANNA HEAR ONE MO'?
.
Dead silence.
.
Lead singer: WELL.. aw-ROIT!!!!!!!
.
This went on for three unwanted encores without changing a single word of the above.
.
We had to physically restrain our friends from rushing the stage and literally kicking
them off.
.
It was horrible and hilarious at the same time.
.
We were pretty sure one of their Moms was their "Manager".
.
She probably dressed them. too.
.
By the way... they were in their late twenties.
.

.
He IS a disgusting human being.
.
I can't think of anyone who is aging more gracelessly than he is -- substituting
blowhard bluster for his true "glory days".
.
Pathetic example of someone who can't accept their personal reality.
.
However...
.
.
.
.
I grew up in his "neighborhood" and saw him several times in the period between
The Amboy Dukes and his Gonzo stage in venues like highschool auditoriums with
maybe 2-300 people in attendance. He put out the same PALPABLE energy as he did
when playing to perhaps tens of thousands. I can think of only one other person
who walks on stage and OWNS you, your significant other, your mom, your town,
your whole fucking universe -- during those days, he was entirely free of a
political message -- he was just a rock-n-roll GOD onstage.
.
The other person would be Tom Larson out of Delaware -- a George Thorogood-like
bluesman who was about 6'6" tall and an IMPRESSIVE bodybuilder. He also owned
the whole universe when onstage, but I got the chance to talk with him on several
occasions between sets -- and he was one of the most humble, softspoken sweethearts
you could ever meet.
.
He used to wander in the crowd and people would give him objects to play slide
guitar with. I saw someone hand him their freakin' BARSTOOL, and he was so powerful
he took it by the end of one leg and played away with it.
.
He and George Thorogood played on each others' albums and both played wireless
guitars. Rumor has it that they were playing in venues across the street from each
other, wandered out their respective front doors, exchanged equipment midstreet
without missing a note... and walked into each OTHER'S bars to the total fucking
joy of the crowds.
.
Man... would I have LOVED to have been there.
.

he has a hell of a stage presence.Saw him at two whiplash bashes and with the damn yankees..was impressed every show

Just remembering how bland they were and how great they thought they were.

A friend and I actually came to see the opening act - Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble....

Needless to say, SRV was the much better act and Blackfoot just sucked the big one, big time.
Every Blackfoot song sounded the same and with way too much distortion.

they were upstaged by the opening act, Grand Funk Railroad, believe it or not.

The same week their second album came out, and both that and the concert were big disappointments. We loved that first album, and the second was really weak. It literally lost all of us as fans.

They must have got better.

:spank:

.
Their first album was the second album I ever bought -- and it is still the ONLY album of theirs that I really like.
.
Probably came close to wearing through the vinyl at "Communication Breakdown".
.

Opened for The Kinks.

Debbie Harry pranced around in black tight pants (what we used to call pedal pushers) and acted like a fool.

I went to the restroom and all the other women were saying things like, "God that opening band is awful! Where the hell did they come from?".

:shrug:

I am pretty sure only Gwen Stefani and the bass player remain from the beginning, but they were terrible early on. Gwen Stefani was something of a running joke in the Orange County music scene in those days.

I like the band but after WWIII and Raymond Watts' departure it just wasn't the same.

Or actually "Aerosmith" since they didn't have Perry and Whitford with them. Saw them on the Rock in a Hard Place tour in 82. I thought they really stunk the joint up x(

they were blown off the stage by the then new band that opened...guns and roses

It was shortly after he got arrested on a gun charge (I don't remember the details), and I think this tour was to raise money for his legal fees. He was almost 2 hours late and they wouldn't refund anyone's money, so the crowd got more and more pissed. When he finally showed up, he sat on a chair on the stage with his back to the room and couldn't sing very well and bitched about the altitude. He seemed drunk. EVERYONE in that room had a bad attitude, especially David Crosby. That was a strange experience.

Background: On November 10, 1986, I was in the Pan Am International Terminal at JFK International Airport waiting for a flight to Berlin, when I noticed this huge sign: "750 Jahre Berlin: A year-long celebration of the arts in commemoration of Berlin's 750th Anniversary."

Come the summer and they held the Concert for Berlin in front of the Reichstag. Three days of rock and roll in honor of the 750th year. So many bands WANTED to play--and we're talking about big bands like Genesis, not garage bands--they had to hold another three-day Concert for Berlin the next year. The first night the opening band was New Model Army.

Their songs suck.
Their stage set sucks.
Their on-stage banter is all this white supremacist shit.
They were scheduled to play a 60-minute set but the polizei escorted them off the stage after 35 out of concern for the safety of the band if they kept going. People were throwing BEER at the stage. In Berlin that does not happen. Maybe it was the Hitler reference, but more likely it was because those guys just SUCK.
There were about twelve drunk skinheads in the crowd who liked those guys, but the other 15,000 people in the crowd felt they did not get their money's worth out of this set.

You guys can brag about the suckitude of The Cars, but there's a special place in hell for a band who would stand in front of the Reichstag and dedicate a song to "your great leader Adolf Hitler." Then they started playing it, and a drunk German guy standing next to the group of drunk GIs I was with said "the Fuehrer would have kicked all their asses for playing a song this bad for him."

I gave in thinking "how bad could it be?" It was worse.

Or possibly Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio at the Colusseum in L.A.

oH the horrror! whyyyyyyyyy did I go???? whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

employer moved their truck factory down to the non-union South. He thought he could sing, and found a "producer" who took him for thousands of dollars, recorded his terrible song and had a few hundred 45's pressed. The party was on him - the grinning producer made a few bucks, the singer looked like a fool and sounded terrible. I felt terrible for him and I am certain he still has a few copies of his record, wondering what happened.


mark

They sucked live

...Dokken opened for a band I was in, somewhere around 1978-79, at Gazzari's on the Sunset Strip. I had never heard of them before. They sucked.

In Charlotte,NC...Dokken got booed off the stage

He just went through the motions. Absolutely horrible performance.

Wouldn't call it terrible, but he did just seem to go through the motions. It was like he cranked out as much as he could as fast as he could for 90 minutes and that was it.

It was terrible.

The bass player was all over the tempo map and the drummer had to keep adjusting to keep up with his random changes. The singers were both girls and all of their songs sounded like church choir, except that you couldn't understand any of it since the instruments were all over-driven. The keyboard was set to a twangy fake piano sound and the lead guitar was run through a fuzz box and an echo box so pretty much any finger combination came out sounding the same as any other. And all of it was way too loud for the auditorium size.

But hey, at least they dedicated a song to Jesus. I'm sure he puked.

If I were Jesus, I wouldn't be their friend.

At this point, the only original member was Jerry Only.

The mix was so horribly muddy that you couldn't tell when one song ended and the next one started. Absolutely nobody could tell which songs they were even playing.

I walked out early on. It was that bad.

I was friends with a guy in one of the opening bands, something of a Misfits tribute band, and they upstaged the Misfits. I repeat: a Misfits tribute band upstaged the Misfits.

Even Jerry's brother Doyle left him. His band now, is actually more Black Flag than it is Misfits, with Dez & Robo.

At least they got rid of the Repuke tool Michael Graves. I'll give Jerry credit for that much.

between anytime sammy hager opened for someone and when ted nugent opened for someone.

sammy simply sucks and while it is possible to listen to rw rock, please be a little original and witty (got it ted!)

The ultimate suckage.......



...two Republican fuckstumps on stage together.

It was one of those multi-band festivals put on by the local rock station. I forgot who I originally went to go see (this was some time ago), and what I remember most was that I could have sworn Disturbed was lip-syncing. It's not that they're a horrible band and all, I had the CD of theirs at the time, it's that I have no tolerance for lip-syncing.

I win. :evilgrin:

In my defense, I was 11.

He was promoting an album where he'd essentially rewritten Poe's "The Raven" and believe me, he did not improve on it. My girlfriend and I got the giggles it was so bad. He then spent a little while flogging through some old classics (how can you not love "Sweet Jane"?) and when his encore started out "This is the story of Edgar Allen Poe/Not your average boy next do'" we just lost it. It was at least a major melt-down laugh, which is always good for the soul, but OWIE, what a bad concert!

It was the last time I'll ever go to Ozzfest. I went because Iron Maiden (one of my all-time faves) was on the bill. Sharon Osbourne not only directly insulted the band before their performance but she snuck eggs and other sharp objects into the first few rows and instructed the audience to throw them at Iron Maiden - who not only got interrupted every fucking song, they ended their show 40 minutes early. And I was talking to some random people while waiting in line to get some beer and they were all there for Iron Maiden not Black Sabbath.

I'll never go back to Ozzfest after that and I'll never go back to that venue (Hyundai/Blockbuster/whatever Pavilion) ever again. It seems like every time I go there something bad happens.

90 minutes of unintelligible grumbling sounds.

I won't say it was the worst show I've seen but it was easily the biggest disappointment. They're one of my favorite bands so I was looking forward to finally seeing them. Too many original band members were gone. Gregg Allman sounded tired and bored. Warren Haynes is a good guitar player but he was also playing with every other band on the main stage that year. It didn't sound like the Allman Brothers. It was a really sad imitation.

And same thing. I loved the band, but they looked bored to death, had no connection to the audience, and played average at best. This was in Alabama, where you'd think the audience would love them, but when they were finished the crowd just yawned. Didn't cheer for an encore, didn't get one.

It should be noted that this was an all day concert, and they followed Charlie Daniels--say what you want, but he puts on a hell of a show--Leon Russel, and Jimmy Hall--who is from the region and was very popular then. And the band that followed was Cheap Trick. It was a great show, so maybe they seemed even flatter given the competition that day.

Somehow they were opening for Metallica....

I believe the band split up that night or following day funny enough. They did the right thing I believe.

1995. Nautica Stage. Opening for NIN. So fucking bad I refuse to boldface or capitalize their name. Shitbad songs. Crapola sound. Poor lighting. The heroin and fake tit laced abomination called Courtney Love. I can think of five BAD local bands that deserve to be signed before hole and I live in CLEVELAND, ferchrissakes. That was without a doubt the worst goddamned disgrace of a show I've ever seen, bar none, and I've seen some pretty craptacular bands (some that way on purpose).

Runners up -
Limp Bizkit (Would qualify for the absolute worst, but let's face it, you can't top the Queen. Unbelievable that these Jacksonville mooks sold as many records as they did playing such horrid fourth-rate Korncrap. America's youth really must be that stupid.)

Marilyn Manson (Nice guy, great views, but his music is below average and live show very overrated)

Mushroomhead (bad Faith No More/Pantera rehashes played in makeup and jumpsuits. And this was one of Cleveland's biggest acts.)

Slipknot (ham-fisted, horrible sound, stopped their show two songs in to get in a fight with
Mushroomhead fans. At least 4 of their members are unnecessary. Unbelievably DUMB on so many levels. I wouldn't even have liked this as a 14 year old.)

The Bronx (boring boring BORING-ass three-chord fratcore band that inexplicably seems to regularly open tours of bands I like. Singer is a Bewsh supporter, so fuck them.)

i'll bet that the concert t-shirts for a Korn/Hole show would be VERY popular.

.
... and, as at probably many community stations across the country, there was a high
percentage of older white hippie-types (present company included). Eternal quest for
new blood and fresh faces so the concept of community radio didn't die out with the
yoga/tofu/tie-dye sorts.
.
One of the older guys (who had a great folk show) was gathering material for his show
from the racks when a early-teen-something visitor asked him if we had any Korn.
.
Without missing a beat (or having a clue), the older guy said, "I think the "C's" are
kept in the studio itself."
.
.
.
.
Glad I was there for that.
.
And I'll say one thing for us... we didn't have a single cernel of Korn.
.
However, I would buy a Korn/Hole T-shirt.
.

but Life of Agony, circa Jan/Feb of 97. They were with Manhole, and Type O Negative. LOA sucked live...as an aside, I wasn't a fan of them when I saw them, but came around to them in 2000 or so when I had the chance to listen to their cds.

Midge Ure opened for him, and was the far better performer.

It was probably an off night because I've seen video of Jones live and he was far better in the video.

Adam Duritz's decline is one of the saddest things I've ever witnessed in the world of popular music.

He didn't even sing. Just sort of spoke the lyrics in a sing-song kind of way, when he could be bothered to remember them.

Worse than I would have thought.

For some bizarro reason Elton John decided (a few years back) that he wanted to play a concert in every state in the US. And there were about 15 states he's never done a tour including Delaware.

Now mind you, we have some very lovely concert venues and he could have done the Grand or DuPont both in Wilmington and the Casinos down in Dover have a great venue too. All of these set for the high quality concert you'd want for an Elton John show. Instead, he did the Bob Carpenter Center at the Univerisity of Delaware (otherwise known as "The Bob"). Mind you, this is their basketball gym, which doesn't really have have seats but just bleachers. All Elton John did was bring himself and a piano - no other musicians. And I got stuck in this horrible seat on the far end of the concert (which was the same price as the seats up front). Since these weren't really chairs but a bleacher, my ass ended up on the end with one cheek on and the other off.

Fortunately I didn't pay for the concert but it was a $125 ticket. And I ended up leaving early because it was beyond miserable and the sound quality was horrible.

As you said, there are other, better venues in DE, more suited for musical performances.

But I'm old, been going to gigs since the mid-70s so it's hard to isolate one.

I do have to say ONE of the worsts was the Sex Pistols in London, 1976. I was a fan of Zep and hard rock; and these Punks came on at a midnight gig with 3 chords, 1 pickup and total cacophony. I wasn't ready for that at all, and my friend and I walked out.

However, I did come to love Punk/New Wave, and the IDEA of the Pistols, which was always better than their music. I saw The Clash, The Damned, The Stranglers, et al. Then the more melodic bands like The Jam, who I still love to this day.

So even though I booked during the gig, I have nothing but reverance for the SP's for what they did to music when it most needed a change.

They weren't really bad. Seemed like they were just going thru the motions. Their opening act, Brownsville Station, put on a much better show.

Helluva show.

The Allman Brothers were just flat and tired. This was mid 80s, long after Duane died.

Journey was opened by the Babies, who were surprisingly good. Journey just mailed it in.

Sigh. I need to get out more, if those are the most recent examples I can think of. :)

A really, really, really bad faux-art band opening for two Guitar Gods - in front of 2000 drunken, hard-rockin' sailors, and me and my buds.

The scene:
Imagine a really bad garage band, with Axl Rose channeling Andy Warhol on "vocals," and Arnold Scwharrzenegger on sax. Seriously. Now imagine Mr. Rose-Warhol is so wasted, he literally cannot stand, and simply sits on the stage, grasping the base of the mic stand, asking the crowd, repeatedly, "Why are you being such assholes?" Then, about two "songs" in, the booing gets so loud the band stops, and the drummer runs forward asking, "Any of you think you can do any better?" Finally, Saxophone McZubaz starts challenging all 2000 drunken sailors to a fight.

Management pulled the plug on them at this point.

mikey_the_rat

Not that their albums are really that good, but live it's worse than worse.

The distance from the back of my seat to the back of the seat in front of me was shorter than my femur. Very uncomfortable.

It was a nightmare.

The sound was so loud that it totally distorted the music beyond recognition. And in the aisle in front of me was some drunk little guy that vomited on a nice woman and her husband sitting in front of him.

I never ever understood why the Tunnel of Love tour needed that kind of acoustic enhancement. It would have been great just at a normal decibel level.

My and my wife's ears rang for three days after that.

Songs were still good,
The sound mix was terribly muddy.
He had too many guitarists all in the middle range and competing (Bruce, Little Steven, Nils Lofgren).

His redheaded wife came out to do some acoustic strumming and all the women BOOOED!!
Jealousy!

The guys liked it, because they were tired of that all male lineup.

I had seen him in '78 on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour, when he was famous but not playing the Cotton Bowl yet; so I knew he was a damn good musician.

In Dallas, Texas 1964. Couldn't hear a damn thing for all the screaming, and for that reason it was, for me, the worst live performance ever.

and said they were far away, all he could hear was screaming, they didn't play many songs and that it was over before it seemed to begin.

:shrug:

a Reba Macintir concert..I fell asleep thirty minutes in.

it was awful