Best live gig you've ever been to

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Alice Cooper in 1977 at the Perth Entertainment Centre when he reprised Welcome to my Nightmare was brilliant. Seen lots of Bowie and Iggy Pop/Stooges concerts all fantastic as well. Springsteen in 1985 and Neil Young at the same time were equally brilliant. Phil Collins was also touring at the same time but I didn't see his concert.

I also saw Blondie and Elvis Costello both at the Perth Concert Hall in 1979 a few weeks apart. Both were great gigs.

One final comment, The Clash only toured Australia once and this was the Far East Tour in 1982. I saw them at the Capital Theatre in Sydney 3 times. They supported some local Indigenous activists (Gary Foley - can't remember the others) to assist them in getting their message across. This struggle continues.
 
HalloweenJack said:
Alice Cooper in 1977 at the Perth Entertainment Centre when he reprised Welcome to my Nightmare was brilliant. Seen lots of Bowie and Iggy Pop/Stooges concerts all fantastic as well. Springsteen in 1985 and Neil Young at the same time were equally brilliant. Phil Collins was also touring at the same time but I didn't see his concert.

I also saw Blondie and Elvis Costello both at the Perth Concert Hall in 1979 a few weeks apart. Both were great gigs.

One final comment, The Clash only toured Australia once and this was the Far East Tour in 1982. I saw them at the Capital Theatre in Sydney 3 times. They supported some local Indigenous activists (Gary Foley - can't remember the others) to assist them in getting their message across. This struggle continues.
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YOU SAW SPRINGSTEEN? WOWEEEEEEEEEEEE
 
Cruyff14 said:
YOU SAW SPRINGSTEEN? WOWEEEEEEEEEEEE
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I saw him in 1985 in Sydney and in March this year in Austin (in a theatre of 2700 people - smallest Springsteen show since the 70s, a very special treat)
 

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Cruyff14 said:
The E-Street Sirius show? Wowwwwwwwwwww.

Highlights?
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Full E-Street band at the Moodie Theatre in Austin, Texas it was part of SXSW. Amazing venue, great sound and sight lines for the whole audience.

Highlights were Bruce and the E-Street band as performers, over a three hour show they just ripped it.

Special guests Tom Morello, Jimmy Cliff, Eric Burden and more all added to the experience and the ultimate highlight was an all star jam and crowd singalong finale of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is our Land" it was moving.

I'm so glad I got to see an American icon in the US, it's a different feel.
 
blackshadow said:
Full E-Street band at the Moodie Theatre in Austin, Texas it was part of SXSW. Amazing venue, great sound and sight lines for the whole audience.

Highlights were Bruce and the E-Street band as performers, over a three hour show they just ripped it.

Special guests Tom Morello, Jimmy Cliff, Eric Burden and more all added to the experience and the ultimate highlight was an all star jam and crowd singalong finale of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is our Land" it was moving.

I'm so glad I got to see an American icon in the US, it's a different feel.
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You bastard :D

Would have been amazing.
 
Flag Man said:
:thumbsu: Mr Yokal, you have a superb taste in music.


The Rollins Band at the palace in November 1995, nothing comes close.

Powder Monkeys played first, then Hank took the stage.

Pure, crushing, intensity.

The paint was peeling off the walls.

Rollins even makes reference to this gig himself, and I consider it a privilege to have been there.

I have a videotape of Rollins in 88 at the Eureka Hotel in Geelong.

Only copy in existence of that gig.

PM if you want a copy.;)[/QUOTE
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Flag Man said:
:thumbsu: Mr Yokal, you have a superb taste in music.


The Rollins Band at the palace in November 1995, nothing comes close.

Powder Monkeys played first, then Hank took the stage.

Pure, crushing, intensity.

The paint was peeling off the walls.

Rollins even makes reference to this gig himself, and I consider it a privilege to have been there.

I have a videotape of Rollins in 88 at the Eureka Hotel in Geelong.

Only copy in existence of that gig.

PM if you want a copy.;)
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Hello my names Darren, I was there, outstanding! Slept out the front in my morris 1100. Anyway now 51yo & my son is mhsic crazy and plays in a licak Geelong band. Im always dragging up old footage of gigs back in the day and this us one I've never been able to find , starting to feel kike it never happened maybe a result of over endulgence. I would live to get a copy from you if possible my mobile is 0423778678 hope u get this, thanks.
 
Pearl Jam in the Netherlands, 2007, with support from Kings of Leon. Gang of Youths in Fremantle in 2017.

Also, have always liked them without being a huge fan, but Prodigy put on an amazing set at a festival in 2010. Had 20,000 people moshing at one point.
 
Probably The Wailers down at Selinas in Coogee, a few years after Bob Marley died. It was pretty much his entire band except Junior Marvin had moved out front on vocals. It was absolutely incredible, I wonder how much better Marley could have made it.

Honourable mentions:

The Angels on the Liveline tour at the Enmore.
The Angles, Rose Tattoo and the Screaming Jets at Selinas.
Motorhead at the Luna Park tent.
Jack White at the Hordern.
Transvision Vamp at Selinas.
AC/DC. Saw them three times at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, before they started doing stadium shows.
 

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The cure in Melbourne at the musicians club ( brilliant first tour to Australia) PIL ,s first tour to Australia in 84 I think when the band started with order of death . Carcass in Edinburgh in 1990. Ramones at the hordern early 90,s . ( the whole room was pogoing violently) . Too many to mention lol. More recently Rollo Tomassi a few years ago in Sydney. And special mention to dweezel Zappa at the Enmore . Omg I’ve got heaps.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
How do you limit it down to just one? I’m going to cheat and give my “best ever” live gig in some different categories:

Most unique (but awesome) live gig – Time Fite at The Basement, Laneway Festival (2009)
It’s incredibly hard to explain this show, but it was simply brilliant. Tim Fite (and his offsider Sexy Leroy) played not only to a backing track, but a backing video that featured video footage of Tim singing backing vocals. Halfway through the show, he wrapped the dance floor up in a rope and pulled us all in tighter together, then sent Sexy Leroy up a ladder in the middle of the crowd to provide some literal representations of his song Away From The Snakes:

Is there a place where I can go
Where the rich don’t get rich
And the poor don’t get s**t on?

Most emotionally exhausting live gig – Sigur Ros at Splendour In The Grass (2008)
With an additional percussion and brass section, this set was beautiful, incredible and powerful from start to finish. Jonsi’s vocals were spot-on and completely floored me. They finished the set with the song Festival which built up to such a crescendo it felt like the sound tech somehow pulled an extra 10 decibels of sound out of the speakers. I literally had to sit down on the ground for 20 minutes after they finished before I could move onto another tent.

Most genuinely fun gig – Electric Six at The Metro (2004/5?)
Yes, they were (and still are, apparently) a bit of a joke band, but this was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a gig. It was the first time I’d ever been to a show where people dressed up as characters from a band’s film clip. My then-girlfriend-now-wife was one of about only five women in the room and every song was just a giddy chorus of man-childs shouting along every single word of every single song and punching the sky in time with every exhortation of “Fire” which, if you know their debut album, was pretty much a few times in every song haha!

Most badass gig – The Stooges at Hordern Pavilion (2013)
A couple of days after the show, I was still buzzing so much that I wrote an in-depth review:

But if you can’t be bothered to read it (which is fair enough), just know that even in their 60s and 70s, The Stooges are more badass than you and I will ever could be.

Most incredible vibe gig – Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings at Gaelic Club (2006)
I don’t think any show I’ve been to has been as oversold and packed out as this was, at the peak of the Dap Kings power. The band was so incredibly tight and Sharon Jones herself had SO much energy, it was incredibly infectious. Everyone in the crowd seemed to be having the greatest night of their life and well they should’ve, as the set was absolutely perfect. Their cover of James Brown’s “There Was A Time” (complete with introducing the crowd to classic 60s dance moves and the hands-down best drum “solo” of all time) was just the icing on the cake.
 
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I've only been to a few, but I'll give a little summary of each;

-First ever live show I saw was Marilyn Manson's Grotesque Burlesque Tour in 2003. I was only 15 at the time. My best friend's Dad bought us tickets (he came too).

-Some local Aussie band was the warm-up band and they got a crowd of waving middle fingers to their slow dull s**t. They thanked the fans at the end which was hilarious.

-I couldn't believe how f'ing powerful concert speakers were is my first and main takeaway from the concert. I could feel the bass just pounding my chest.

-At some point they brought out these stripper dancers who were bathing in milk in these giant wine glass props. I wasn't sure what to make of it. Pretty full on for a 15 year old.

-Played most of the classics; Beautiful People, Rock is Dead, Sweet Dreams etc... Pity they didn't do Lunchbox which is my favorite MM song :(

-Crowd was kind of dead and the standing room area in front of the stage was only half full! There were 2 hot goth chicks right in front of us we chatted to briefly, but they were a couple of years older than us and we were too awkward and nervous, especially with my mate's old man there to really try to chat them up or anything :(

-Overall a pretty fun experience. Would've been better if we were 18 and on our own though.

2nd show I went to was the Megadeth/Slayer show at Festival Hall in 2009.

-I was super nervous before the show and thought getting stoned before leaving would calm me down. Big mistake. I was having a near panic attack driving to the show with the same mate I saw Manson with. Not long after getting there though I got a smirnoff and a black douglas ($12 each) and that loosened me up a bit. A couple of joints in the jam-packed men's toilet also went down smooth (you know how it is with weed).

-Some obnoxious arsehole demanded we move aside to make room for himself and 2 skanks he was with (this was right near the end of the Megadeth set) even though we were squashed into our allocated seats already and he was trying to cram 3 people into the space of one empty seat. I remember him mouthing off and waving to get my attention saying "oy mate shove over!" and then when I tried to move over as much as I could and was standing arms in like the f'ing tin man he says "nah, ya gonna have to make more room!" Then he bodychecks me and eyeballs me on the way past. That wasn't their allocated seats and they ended up squashing us in so much that my mate said "f**k this!" and ended up finding some other area way off to the side of the arena to watch the rest of the show. One of the girls that he was with was practically stripper dancing and grinding up against me for the next hour so that kind of made up for it :flushed:

-Obviously not everyone was a fan of both bands and I remember some d*ckheads shouting out sh*t about Metallica trying to antagonize the Megadeth fans. The set Megadeth played did all the talking in retaliation though. Blew the sh*t out of anything Metallica had done since 1989. Peace Sells is still the best song I've ever heard live.

-Megadeth kicked ass (I'd been a pretty big fan for the last 3-4 years). Slayer I wasn't very familiar with but they too were pretty great. 2 songs in particular Slayer did I thought were unbelievably awesome and have never heard since.

-My sister, who also went with us (along with her boyfriend at the time) left it to the end of the show to tell me that they give free earplugs away at the bar if you ask. I had a ringing in my ears for months afterwards :laughing:

Next show I went to was Tool at Rod Laver Arena in 2013. Same mate I went to see Manson and Megadeth/Slayer surprised me by buying us tickets to the show without even telling me beforehand. Definitely the best show I've been to. Smoked 2 little scoobs outside and felt f'ing amazing by the time they came on. Great lineup. Every song the fans wanted to hear. Man did people get hyped when Stinkfist started up at the end of the show. One guy in particular cracked me up with how unbelievably psyched he got at those opening chords! Awesome all around.

Just a couple of months later the same mate again surprised me by buying us tickets to Black Sabbath, again at Rod Laver Arena.

-Now, I've been a massive Black Sabbath fan since 2005. Got into them when I was only 17. I was a nu-metal dickweed in High School and Sabbath was what transitioned me into real music. Never looked back. I could go on a rant the size of Texas here, but I'll just say that they were a band that dabbled in many different things and wrote lyrics about things that influenced them growing up and the dangers and temptations of the world. Really interesting and insightful lyrics. Every fan at this show though must've only been familiar with Ozzy from the 80s onwards as they seemed to think the whole band was like the original Satanic rock band and that the songs were all some sort of "I'm down with the devil" kind of horsesh*t. Every reference to "satan" "the devil" etc... was greeted with roars of applause and the devil horns fingers gesture. They were just f'ing clueless. I didn't feel like I was amongst true fans of the band at all. I may as well have been at some random death metal concert. Just a total disconnect.

-The one thing that really put a damper on the evening was when I lit up a joint halfway through the show while in my seat (I did it because at the Tool concert I saw at-least a dozen people light up in the crowd and thought it would be okay to do here). One drag later and some arsehole is tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to put it out. Annoying, but I get that some people hate the smell and I could've easily done it outside so I begrudgingly but without any real resistance complied immediately. Okay, so not a big deal. However some guy and his girlfriend were seated right next to me. The girls boyfriend was off getting a drink or whatever when I did this and she nudged me and said something about being annoyed at the people behind me for making me stomp the joint out. When her boyfriend arrived back she told him and he leaned over a few times saying I should spark it back up, but I told him what happened and that I couldn't be bothered trying it again. He was insistent though and begged me to pass the rest of it to him which I eventually did late into the show. So his girlfriend then goes off to get a drink or whatever and he sparks it up....5 seconds later some b*tch behind him, in a group of guys with her, just reared back and slaps the sh*t out of the guy in the back of the head and just pays out on him. He goes to say something back but the guys she was with made their presence known and he backed off. His girlfriend for some reason took an eternity to return and by the time she did the show had actually just finished and the people behind us had left. He told her what happened and she was furious. It would've been on between her and the b*tch behind us if she'd gotten back sooner. Left me in a sh*t mood the rest of the night and despite hearing some classics (and a bunch of really bad new material from their new album) I just never look back on this show with any fondness which is such a goddamn shame when Sabbath is honestly my favorite band ever.

Since then the only live band I've seen was a stoner rock band called Earthless I saw with my sister and some of her friends in 2014 and that was good fun. Small venue and I got a good view by standing up on some seats against the wall at the back of the venue. I got a band shirt that I still wear to this day. Apparently they're still going and have steadily grown their fan base which is cool.
 
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Beyoncé @ Rod Laver in 2013 is my favourite. The other faves would be Silverchair @ The Metro in the early 2000's and Leon Bridges @ The Forum a couple of years ago.

The best non music related one was Robin Williams at Rod Laver. Never laughed so hard in my life and not sure I ever will laugh as much at a gig ever again. He was unbelievably good :( RIP
 
KISS reunion tour 97 by far
Hunters and Collectors a close second - damn awesome live!
 
CaptainHowdy87 said:
I've only been to a few, but I'll give a little summary of each;

-First ever live show I saw was Marilyn Manson's Grotesque Burlesque Tour in 2003. I was only 15 at the time. My best friend's Dad bought us tickets (he came too).

-Some local Aussie band was the warm-up band and they got a crowd of waving middle fingers to their slow dull s**t. They thanked the fans at the end which was hilarious.

-I couldn't believe how f'ing powerful concert speakers were is my first and main takeaway from the concert. I could feel the bass just pounding my chest.

-At some point they brought out these stripper dancers who were bathing in milk in these giant wine glass props. I wasn't sure what to make of it. Pretty full on for a 15 year old.

-Played most of the classics; Beautiful People, Rock is Dead, Sweet Dreams etc... Pity they didn't do Lunchbox which is my favorite MM song :(

-Crowd was kind of dead and the standing room area in front of the stage was only half full! There were 2 hot goth chicks right in front of us we chatted to briefly, but they were a couple of years older than us and we were too awkward and nervous, especially with my mate's old man there to really try to chat them up or anything :(

-Overall a pretty fun experience. Would've been better if we were 18 and on our own though.

2nd show I went to was the Megadeth/Slayer show at Festival Hall in 2009.

-I was super nervous before the show and thought getting stoned before leaving would calm me down. Big mistake. I was having a near panic attack driving to the show with the same mate I saw Manson with. Not long after getting there though I got a smirnoff and a black douglas ($12 each) and that loosened me up a bit. A couple of joints in the jam-packed men's toilet also went down smooth (you know how it is with weed).

-Some obnoxious arsehole demanded we move aside to make room for himself and 2 skanks he was with (this was right near the end of the Megadeth set) even though we were squashed into our allocated seats already and he was trying to cram 3 people into the space of one empty seat. I remember him mouthing off and waving to get my attention saying "oy mate shove over!" and then when I tried to move over as much as I could and was standing arms in like the f'ing tin man he says "nah, ya gonna have to make more room!" Then he bodychecks me and eyeballs me on the way past. That wasn't their allocated seats and they ended up squashing us in so much that my mate said "f**k this!" and ended up finding some other area way off to the side of the arena to watch the rest of the show. Being drunk, stoned and annoyed I got a little payback by feeling up one of his skank girlfriends who was already rubbing up against me anyway (the 2 hoes were to my left and he was to the left of them). She caught on eventually and tried to catch me out, but I played it subtle and pretended I was banging my hand on my thigh when I noticed them looking over out of my peripheral vision. Halfway through the Slayer set they left to find other seats. The arsehole dude they were with would've been f**ked if he'd tried to go me as my sister was with her boyfriend who wasn't huge but a deceptively strong bastard and his mate Marty who was 6'5 and about 120 kgs was also there. F**k 'em. Bring my night down and I'll find a way to make up for it! Normally I would be against doing anything like that, but they deserved it for being such rude cvnts. I told them about it afterwards and they had a good laugh. Marty said said he would've choked that arsehole out if he'd gone me as he was right next to me and annoyed with them for pulling that sh*t anyway.

-Obviously not everyone was a fan of both bands and I remember some d*ckheads shouting out sh*t about Metallica trying to antagonize the Megadeth fans. The set Megadeth played did all the talking in retaliation though. Blew the sh*t out of anything Metallica had done since 1989. Peace Sells is still the best song I've ever heard live.

-Megadeth kicked ass (I'd been a pretty big fan for the last 3-4 years). Slayer I wasn't very familiar with but they too were pretty great. 2 songs in particular Slayer did I thought were unbelievably awesome and have never heard since.

-My sister, who also went with us (along with her boyfriend at the time) left it to the end of the show to tell me that they give free earplugs away at the bar if you ask. I had a ringing in my ears for months afterwards :laughing:

Next show I went to was Tool at Rod Laver Arena in 2013. Same mate I went to see Manson and Megadeth/Slayer surprised me by buying us tickets to the show without even telling me beforehand. Definitely the best show I've been to. Smoked 2 little scoobs outside and felt f'ing amazing by the time they came on. Great lineup. Every song the fans wanted to hear. Man did people get hyped when Stinkfist started up at the end of the show. One guy in particular cracked me up with how unbelievably psyched he got at those opening chords! Awesome all around.

Just a couple of months later the same mate again surprised me by buying us tickets to Black Sabbath, again at Rod Laver Arena.

-Now, I've been a massive Black Sabbath fan since 2005. Got into them when I was only 17. I was a nu-metal dickweed in High School and Sabbath was what transitioned me into real music. Never looked back. I could go on a rant the size of Texas here, but I'll just say that they were a band that dabbled in many different things and wrote lyrics about things that influenced them growing up and the dangers and temptations of the world. Really interesting and insightful lyrics. Every fan at this show though must've only been familiar with Ozzy from the 80s onwards as they seemed to think the whole band was like the original Satanic rock band and that the songs were all some sort of "I'm down with the devil" kind of horsesh*t. Every reference to "satan" "the devil" etc... was greeted with roars of applause and the devil horns fingers gesture. They were just f'ing clueless. I didn't feel like I was amongst true fans of the band at all. I may as well have been at some random death metal concert. Just a total disconnect.

-The one thing that really put a damper on the evening was when I lit up a joint halfway through the show while in my seat (I did it because at the Tool concert I saw at-least a dozen people light up in the crowd and thought it would be okay to do here). One drag later and some arsehole is tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to put it out. Annoying, but I get that some people hate the smell and I could've easily done it outside so I begrudgingly but without any real resistance complied immediately. Okay, so not a big deal. However some guy and his girlfriend were seated right next to me. The girls boyfriend was off getting a drink or whatever when I did this and she nudged me and said something about being annoyed at the people behind me for making me stomp the joint out. When her boyfriend arrived back she told him and he leaned over a few times saying I should spark it back up, but I told him what happened and that I couldn't be bothered trying it again. He was insistent though and begged me to pass the rest of it to him which I eventually did late into the show. So his girlfriend then goes off to get a drink or whatever and he sparks it up....5 seconds later some b*tch behind him, in a group of guys with her, just reared back and slaps the sh*t out of the guy in the back of the head and just pays out on him. He goes to say something back but the guys she was with made their presence known and he backed off. His girlfriend for some reason took an eternity to return and by the time she did the show had actually just finished and the people behind us had left. He told her what happened and she was furious. It would've been on between her and the b*tch behind us if she'd gotten back sooner. Left me in a sh*t mood the rest of the night and despite hearing some classics (and a bunch of really bad new material from their new album) I just never look back on this show with any fondness which is such a goddamn shame when Sabbath is honestly my favorite band ever.

Since then the only live band I've seen was a stoner rock band called Earthless I saw with my sister and some of her friends in 2014 and that was good fun. Small venue and I got a good view by standing up on some seats against the wall at the back of the venue. I got a band shirt that I still wear to this day. Apparently they're still going and have steadily grown their fan base which is cool.
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There is a lot in this post, so I feel a bit bad about pointing out this one thing, but feeling up a girl at a concert as "payback" is incredibly poor form. Don't do it. Ever.
 
MC Bad Genius said:
There is a lot in this post, so I feel a bit bad about pointing out this one thing, but feeling up a girl at a concert as "payback" is incredibly poor form.
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Why even bother mentioning it at all anyway? Especially if you're going to completely ignore the context of the situation?

giphy.gif


MC Bad Genius said:
Don't do it. Ever.
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tenor.gif


Take your righteous bullsh*t back to Twitter mate.

Back on topic...
 
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Melvins/Fantomas/Tomahawk at the Palace

Boris at Corner/HiFi Bar

Electric Wizard at Green Room Halloween 2005. Then at a bar in Geelong the next night with maybe 20 people there

Nine Inch Nails at BDO 2000

Cypress Hill at Festival Hall/Metro

Melvins performing Houdini at Ding Dong Lounge and saw them at the Palais as well

Roger Waters performing The Wall at Rod Laver and then 2018 for the Us and Them Tour

Black Sabbath at rod Laver - the newer songs were crap but when the sirens hit for War Pigs to start the gig I was in heaven

Probably so many more I've forgotten

One of my favourites was going on Thursday nights around 2004/2005 to the Rainbow Hotel in Fitzroy to watch Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra do a couple of sets. They were great gigs to be at.
 
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