Here's another great on for me....it was 1976 - Jacksonville, Florida.

Rick Derringer w/ Edgar Winter, Ted Nugent, and Robin Trower.

Derringer opens the show. He's no bigger then his guitar! And he just LAYED IT DOWN!!! O-M-G!!!
He was just AWESOME! Sure, they played their typical "Rock n' Roll Hootchie Coo" crap that was popular on the radio at the time. But they also did some stuff live that was just INSANE!!! I couldn't believe my ears and the level of professionalism I was hearing. He was a killer guitarist.
He just ate the entire audience up one side and spit them out the other.

And I remember thinking to myself...."If I were Nugent, I wouldn't even come out! NO WAY would I compete with that!"

And Nugent comes out....and it's all over. He ate Derringer up one side and spit him out the other! I couldn't even remember what Derringer sounded like after Nugent was done with him. I mean just DIABOLICAL AWESOME Guitar work!!!!

And "showman"!???? WOW!....he was all over the stage, jumping off 6 foot Marshall Stacks and never miss a note.
I was absolutely STUNNED!

And I remember thinking to myself...."If I were Trower, there is NO WAY - JOSE' - that I would come out against that!!!" Just pack up your guitar and go home now.

And Trower came out.........and it was all over.

UN-FREAKIN-BELIEVABLE!!!

I had never heard anything that awesome in my life. He was absolutely a GOD!!!
In fact, if I didn't know better..........lol.

I couldn't remember what neither Derringer or Nugent sounded like when Robin got done.

I left that place, after 4 hours of the most intense Guitar Cutting-Heads Contest that I had ever heard/witnessed.

I was speechless all the way home. There was nothing I could say - nothing I could think, that could possibly ever be as profound as what I had just heard.

It was time to just shut up, and hold on to that memory for as long as I could.

I still get chills when I think about that night.


.

ORIGINAL: mgh

actually you're right - joe satriani was another really boring gig...otoh steve vai's show was immense! benefits of a proper band and natural showmanship i guess!

+1. I've seen Joe Satriani, and as much as I love some of his music, he just wasn't that compelling live. He mostly just stood there and played. Vai, though, I've seen twice and would probably never tire of.

On to the best & worst:

Best: Jewel. Best concert I've ever seen. The woman shines as a singer, and she has such confidence and natural showmanship, combined with an ability and love for improvisation, that I could have watched her for hours.

Worst: Evanescence. The entire band could be replaced mid-song, and no one would notice. Amy can sing, but only if she's sitting down.

Best, in no particular order---they were all amazing:

3 Dog Night (no kidding---and I know what you are thinking ;>) ) ca. 1970, L.A. Forum. This was before they lost it to drugs. One of the flat-out most amazing rock shows I've ever seen

Linda Ronstadt, at the Troubador in L.A. ca. 1974. With a band that was made up of the cream of the cream of L.A. studio players at the time. Absolutely incredible show, though Ronstadt had a head cold. I got to sit in the front row, center (a story in itself), close enough to touch her. And she was pretty hot in those days.....

Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer, Starlight Amphitheater, Burbank, CA, mid '70's.

Chris Issak, at a casino in Reno, NV, in the late '90's. Incredible show, but loud enough to deafen.

B.B. King, U.C.L.A. Pauly Pavillion, mid-70's. I've seen B.B. many times, this was the best of the best.

Pink Floyd, Animals Tour, L.A. Sports Arena. Astounding......

The Eagles, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, early '70's after the release of their first album. Whoa, Nelly, those guys were *smoking* hot.

Little Feat, Pioneer Theatre, Reno, NV, mid-80's. No Lowell, but they were stunning. Seen them a few times and they're always great. What a band.

Robben Ford, Main Street Theater, Quincy, Ca, mid-90's. Ever been completely blown away by a band? I was, by Robben and Blue Line on this night.

Joe Craven, High Sierra Music Festival, 2008. Don't miss Joe if you ever have a chance to see his show.....

Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Taylorsville Grange Hall, CA, mid-90's. I used to follow Charlie and the Nightcats around like a Deadhead and they are *always* great. But this show was a real standout. Every guitarist in the area was standing in front of the stage and shaking their heads at how good Charlie is.... Unforgettable.

Worst shows:

Led Zepplin, L.A. Forum, the tour after their 3rd album. I *love* Zepp on albums, but I have to say that they just didn't pull it off live. I was disappointed both times I saw Zepp live, so I quit going to their shows.

Steppenwolf, L.A. Forum, ca. 1970. At least half of the audience walked out before the show was half-way over, myself included. Too bad, because I loved a lot of their records.

Best regards,
Bill

Best? Hard to say. A couple of shows last year were great: Butthole Surfers and Rocky Erickson. They both played at the same place (different days). I've seen the BHS about 100 times and this was excellent. It was in an old theatre and we sat in the front row balconey (right by the FOH). Finally saw thier videos w/o a bunch of heads in front of my face and straight on angle. Rocky's back up band played before he did - The Black Angels. Cool c. 70's heroin drone band. Etta James had probably the best backing band ever last year. But there are plenty of others - John Cale on his birthday about 20 years ago. He ended up on his back for the 2nd encore playing "Pablo Picasso," then came out solo for "I keep a close watch."

Worst show - Marriane Faithful in NYC c. 1988. I love her music, but the show was horrible. Total lack of presence. I read her bio later and she fell off the horse wagon that night, but I still wonder if it would be worth to see her again.

ORIGINAL: Wookiee

John Martyn, Dury Lane.

Just him, a couple of guitars an echo box and drum machine.

Riveting

Nice one. Never saw JM without his full band, but he was never less than superb. One gig at Cheltenham Town Hall they arranged the usual seating rows into individual candle-lit tables with 4-5 chairs around each at John's request. So nice to be able to chat with other fans, and it made for a great atmosphere.

Best -
Frank Zappa - 1988 - Orpheum theater, Boston MA - great sound, incredible musicianship
Jimmy Page solo tour - 1988 - Worcester Centrum, MA - Jason Bonham on drums! Jimmy Page was on fire!!

Worst-
Anthrax - 1989 - opening for Ozzy - just terrible - sound was awful, they were sloppy, just acting stupid on stage, couldn't recognize ANY of their songs. Just amateurish.

ORIGINAL: Cromberger
Chris Issak, at a casino in Reno, NV, in the late '90's. Incredible show, but loud enough to deafen.

I saw him for free this past fall at the grand opening of a new shopping mall (in a rather upscale town). He puts on a great show and is a very class act. His band is top-notch. Well worth seeing.

ORIGINAL: KenB123

ORIGINAL: Cromberger
Chris Issak, at a casino in Reno, NV, in the late '90's. Incredible show, but loud enough to deafen.

I saw him for free this past fall at the grand opening of a new shopping mall (in a rather upscale town). He puts on a great show and is a very class act. His band is top-notch. Well worth seeing.

Issak is amazing, no doubt about it. I had no idea what to expect when I saw him. I'd been a fan of his recordings for some time, but I really didn't know how intense he is at his live shows. I walked out of that show shaking my head in awe of how good the band is and at how Issak can whip an audience into an incredible frenzy. This guy is a must see, even for people who don't really know about him or think they don't like his music. Not to mention that he did an encore that lasted a good hour after his regular set. He just came back onto the stage and said "We'd like to play you some of our favorite songs." and they smoked through 8 or 9 amazing, smoking-hot rock tunes.

Issak is an American treasure and I really don't understand why he never made it to the top of the music world. On the other hand, that might be a good thing for his fans who can still see him and his killer band in small venues for small money. I put Issak in the same category as a couple of other acts that I mentioned in my post, artists who are truly amazing but are not household names: Little Charlie and the Nightcats, and Joe Craven.

Sadly, Little Charlie has quit touring. So, I'd suggest to anyone who hasn't seen Issak or Craven to get out and catch them before they stop touring, too. We must support these artists lest they disappear and we're left with nothing but Brittany Spears and her clones.......

Best regards,
Bill

Alison Kraus and Union Station, greatest band ever live.

Alison Kraus and Union Station, greatest band ever live.

I would love to see them live. My "new favorite".

There have been a number of memorable concerts that were spoiled due to bad sound, poor acoustics and alcohol.

Most disappointing: BadFinger (c. 1974?). Great sound, played all the hits but the whole band were drunk to the point of sloppiness.

Most embarassing: Free (c. 1970). A very weak band, but they had a top 10 hit ("All Right Now") at the time, so they got top billing. The warm up act (Coliseum) blew them away.

Most impressive: Moody Blues (c. 1969). First time I heard a Melotron live. Maybe the acid had something to do with it, but it was the first time I had a truly moving experience at a rock concert.

Most surprising: The Searchers (1969). Walked into a teen dance, knowing only that there was live music. They played all their hits, professionally and not condescending and sounded great. They were one of my favorite pop acts, so I really felt like I got a great deal - admission was, IIRC, two shillings sixpence.

Most inspiring: The Nice (1969). The drummer in my band was a fan and took me to the concert. I'd never seen a band where the keyboard player was the star of the show. No flash, not even a light show, just a great set of killer proto-ELP tunes, including Emerson's version of "America".

Concert I would most like to go back in time for: David Gilmore's Pulse tour. I have it on DVD. Absolutely amazing. Gilmore is to the guitar what Fred Astaire was to dance: he goes beyond being good at it, he makes it look easy.

I saw the Nuge when he was with the Amboy Dukes in like 75 or so - maybe earlier. My mind don't work that well anymore.

Best end of a show ever. Just finished something - don't remember what. He is finishing the show - calling out the members of the band. As he gets towards the end and says "Good night everyone and"... a loud spark sound comes out. He falls to the floor in convulsions. His guitar starts to feedback out of control. Nuge is on the floor of the stage shaking and convulsing from the shock. A couple of medics come on the stage and take his guitar off. They put him on a stretcher and take him off the stage, all while his Birdland is feeding back hysterically. As the medics exit the right of the stage and the guitar is shrilling, the lights begin to dim.

Man. What an ending. All staged of course, but not obvious at the moment.

I saw Pink Floyd with a similar ending, though not staged. They were playing an outdoor gig. A storm had been brewing. As they started Run Like Hell, lightening hit or the stage shorted out or something. All the electricity went off - the stage, the stadium... We huddled in the concession stand area with like 40,000 other people waiting for a storm to stop for like 2 hours. Of course, when the power died, the concert did too. Great show to that point though.

Here's another great on for me....it was 1976 - Jacksonville, Florida.

Rick Derringer w/ Edgar Winter, Ted Nugent, and Robin Trower.

Derringer opens the show. He's no bigger then his guitar! And he just LAYED IT DOWN!!! O-M-G!!!
He was just AWESOME! Sure, they played their typical "Rock n' Roll Hootchie Coo" crap that was popular on the radio at the time. But they also did some stuff live that was just INSANE!!! I couldn't believe my ears and the level of professionalism I was hearing. He was a killer guitarist.
He just ate the entire audience up one side and spit them out the other.

And I remember thinking to myself...."If I were Nugent, I wouldn't even come out! NO WAY would I compete with that!"

And Nugent comes out....and it's all over. He ate Derringer up one side and spit him out the other! I couldn't even remember what Derringer sounded like after Nugent was done with him. I mean just DIABOLICAL AWESOME Guitar work!!!!

And "showman"!???? WOW!....he was all over the stage, jumping off 6 foot Marshall Stacks and never miss a note.
I was absolutely STUNNED!

And I remember thinking to myself...."If I were Trower, there is NO WAY - JOSE' - that I would come out against that!!!" Just pack up your guitar and go home now.

And Trower came out.........and it was all over.

UN-FREAKIN-BELIEVABLE!!!

I had never heard anything that awesome in my life. He was absolutely a GOD!!!
In fact, if I didn't know better..........lol.

I couldn't remember what neither Derringer or Nugent sounded like when Robin got done.

Man your making me sick............................with envy.........

Nugent and Trower in the same venue.............2 of my top 5 live players of all time.......must have been awesome.

ORIGINAL: Jonbouy

Most embarassing: Free (c. 1970). A very weak band, but they had a top 10 hit ("All Right Now") at the time, so they got top billing. The warm up act (Coliseum) blew them away.

Paul Kossof, Paul Rogers and John Bundrick = Weak Band? Blimey, there's no hope for any of us now...

The 2 acts can't be compared either.

As their names suggest, one is an ethereal concept the other is an over-elaborate, architectural showcase.

I CAN believe they had plenty of bad nights though being a 'feel' band is no good when the feeling ain't there.

I miss the 'half a crown' (2s 6d)(12.5p)(20c) to get in days too...

That surprised me too, but actually you could forgive them for having weak/off nights. They were barely out of their teens then, in fact Andy Fraser would have been 18 in 1970.

Best was;

- The Doobie Brothers at the Starland Ballroom. Amazing musicianship......I was in awe.
- Al Stewart opened for America and stood in the middle of the stage with only an acoustic. For an hour, he held the
audience captive......................I didn't realize he was that good...
- Roy Buchanan. Saw him in a little room at Ft. Schuyler Maritime College. Enough room for 20 people. It was my first
show in 1971 and I knew then I wanted to play guitar.

Worst;

- Aerosmith - boring, and I also was waiting to see Joe soloing. It was Brad who did the soloing. On a high note, Rick
Derringer opened for them and he was awesome.
- George Benson - couldn't stop my forehead from banging off the chair in front of me.

ORIGINAL: auto_da_fe

http://homepage.mac.com/blackmarketclash/Bands/Clash/recordings/1982/82-05-31_Asbury%20Park/82-05-31_Asbury%20Park.html

Steve - here are the tour details. It was Terry Chimes. (June 28 and June 29 are the dates I saw)

By the time the got to the end of the tour, things had tightened up pretty good.

Man, reading that page brings back memories...what f'in set list.

JT

Hey Jeff - big thanks for the link, that's appreciated sir

And you're right, what a set-list!

Thanks again

Steve