Best or most memorable live musical performece

Parent Cafe
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Speaking of small venues . . .
Recent memorable shows:

The Strokes at the Capital Theater in Port Chester NY
Cage the Elephant at Webster Hall in NY, NY
The Airborne Toxic Event at Bowery Ballroom
The “secret” White Stripes show at Irving Plaza (the night before a show at MSG)

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I dislike large stadium venues. Only been to two arena/stadium shows in my life. One was at the Horseshoe at OSU. Boy, I needed binoculars to see who was on stage, it was practically in the next zip code.

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Bruce at the Stone Pony

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1812 Overture at the Proms. I didn’t realize that our special handicap seating in the gallery was Right. Next. To. The. Cannon.

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Joe Pass and his guitar. Just him and his guitar. 3 hours. Multiple times.

Concerts with Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Neils Pederson, and Count Basie. All Together and in combinations. Multiple times.

Paul Simon in Vancouver.

Cleo Laine and the Don Ellis Electric Orchestra. Didn’t play together but both were fantastic.

Ella, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, Ronnie Montrose… All their shows were great.

I see my musical tastes are different than a few other posters. :slight_smile:

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  1. The Four Seasons...the real group. Fabulous show.
  2. John Denver before he was John Denver. He was the opening act for Blood Sweat and Tears at Blossom Music center. BST was about two hours late. He played and sang the whole time...he was fabulous.
  3. Mary Travers. Amazing.
  4. James Taylor. Again...fabulous. And no fancy other stuff...just James and his guitar, and a small back up band.
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Yes in the round, with 3rd row seats. Mark Knopfler in a small venue. I really wish I had been able to see Bob Marley before he died, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

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Among my favorites:

Bruce Springsteen- Born in the USA, 1984, Austin TX. Also saw him in Charleston on his last tour and was front row in the pit.

The Stones - American Tour, Halloween, 1981, Cotton Bowl in Dallas (it started to rain and people started removing their clothes)

The Who (Final Tour - lol), 1982, JFK Stadium.

Willie Nelson - @1984, very small venue in Austin TX.

Lyle Lovett - early years in TX, later years in Charleston.

Really wish I’d seen Aretha Franklin in concert and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

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I’d would LOVE to see Santana in concert!

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  1. Throwing Muses w/ Bob Mould, The Middle East (Cambridge, 2000) First reunion with Tanya Donelly. Mould did an acoustic set of his solo stuff and Hüsker Dü songs as an opener.
  2. Camper Van Beethoven, Rosebud (Pittsburgh, 2003) Played two full sets (like two hours each). Everything sounded perfect.
  3. Les Savy Fav, The Rex Theatre (Pittsburgh, 2003) Tim Harrington had an audience member fellate his microphone. Seth Jabour gave the most blistering rock guitar performance I've ever seen. I think they played "Pluto" too.
  4. Kick Me (ex-Jody Grind), Yianni's (Tallahassee, 1993) Intimate coffeehouse setting with Kelly and Bill debuting new songs that they wrote after a drunk driver killed half their band, months earlier.
  5. Spiritualized, The 9:30 Club (D.C., 2008) Staggering.
  6. Coldwater Army, The Cowhaus (Tallahassee, 1997) New Year's Eve reunion show by a terrific local Tallahassee band. Almost missed out; only heard about it listening to the radio driving around looking for something to do.
  7. The New Pornographers, Club Café (Pittsburgh, 2002) Neko had the flu and still belted out her parts with superhuman perseverance. Venue capacity was about 75-100. It was half-full at best. They didn't care.
  8. Neko Case (w/ Jon Rauhouse), Club Café (Pittsburgh, 2002)
    Stripped down show. Right around the time of Canadian Amp.
  9. Belle & Sebastian w/ Yo La Tengo, Stage AE (Pittsburgh, 2013) Two indie rock giants on one bill. YLT did an epic version of "I Heard You Looking"
  10. Uncle Tupelo, The Old Cowhaus/Bimini's (Tallahassee, 1993) Rocked this place so hard it closed.

Honorable Mentions:
The Mountain Goats, The Rex Theatre (Pittsburgh, 2007)
Spoon w/ The Walkmen, Carnegie Music Hall (Pittsburgh, 2008)
The Wedding Present, Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, 2005)
Ween, Club Downunder (Tallahassee, 1992)

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Speaking of small venues, Jerry Lee Lewis, at the Palomino in North Hollywood. Amazing. Went the next year, too.

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Rolling Stones at Shea Stadium in the late '80s. We were in the upper deck and it was vibrating/moving-a little unnerving.
Stones again ~1995 at the Meadowlands-what made this concert particularly memorable was having to explain to my 10 year old, who was totally into the Stones, what the funny smell was…
Billy Joel at MSG
Earth, Wind & Fire at PNC Bank arts center

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Ozomatli at various street festivals in LA in the mid-90s.

Jeff Buckley at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica in the early 90s. Many other great shows there. I love that venue.

Yma Sumac at a teeny tiny club in Hollywood (forget which) in the late '80s.

34

I haven’t been to a lot of concerts. Memorable ones.

  1. Every single one that Yo Yo Ma played while he was at Harvard. (We overlapped for three years so that was nice.)
  2. Seeing Hair circa 1969. With my parents. :)
  3. Seeing James Talley (white boy singing the country blues) in a cafe in Cambridge. He was popular down south, but he had an audience of two, me and my best friend. A little too intimate!
  4. The US festival 1982. The Talking Heads andThe Police were at their prime. Fleetwood Mac were in feuding mode. They played all their hits, but they wouldn't share the stage with each other. They gave the Grateful Dead the Sunday morning breakfast slot. They were good, but really that was not the best time to hear them and they had to make way for more acts afterwards. It was also 104 degrees the whole weekend.
  5. My son's violin teacher's then husband playing Pictures at an Exhibition on solo guitar. It was a virtuoso performance. We'd just heard the local orchestra play it, and his was much better!
  6. A John Cage concert at Harvard. I didn't expect to like it, but I did.
  7. But my very, very favorite act to see live is Apocolyptica. They started out as a Metallica cover band, playing their hits on cellos. There are three or four of them plus a drummer. They headbang, prance around shirtless, show off their chests, and just generally have a ball up on the stage. This is their version of Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf2aIVKp1OY You'll never hear it the same way again.
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@Overtheedge --that definitely wasn’t The Who’s final tour, because I saw them in Giants Stadium in 89.

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It is hard to say best in a lifetime of listening to music in multiple genres but among my most memorable:

James Taylor sitting in my student union in 1970 on his way to perform at Cornell’s spring fling… no one had ever heard of him but he jumped out of a white van and said to the assembled less than multitudes: Hi, my name is James Taylor and I would like to sing some songs

Carly Simon making her debut at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village making her club debut on the same bill as Lily Tomlin who was the bigger draw

Roberta Flack at Lincoln Center

Santana at the Fillmore East

Pablo Casals concert in Spain, stage seating with student admission

Many performances of Alvin Ailey - Revelations over many years

Luis & Maria from Sesame Street at the Tilles Center when she was 4 years old- her first concert

BSO at Tanglewood evening performance with John Williams conducting at Tanglewood on Parade summer of 2002

Paolo Szot singing The Star Spangled Banner for those us watching Opening Night of the Met in Times Square, he was the host

Wynton Marsalis Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center last winter

NY Phil … many performances over the years but Beethoven’s 5th with the new incoming conductor, Japp Van Sweden last Fall

Candide, Madam Butterfly, and La Boheme with the NYC Opera

Anna Nebtrenko in Anna Boleyna at the Met

and so on including all my daughter’s performances in middle school, high school, all-state, college and post-college including the Muppet/Jim Henson celebration in Carnegie Hall as part of Essential Voices chorus

And so many memorable Broadway moments including seeing Audra McDonald in every show she has appeared in

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I was there! My son was a BUTI student who played in that Tanglewood on Parade concert!

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Thumper, so was my younger d… she was in the chorus at BUTI that summer

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Best concert: All Time #1 Fave–Led Zeppelin in London,( 2007).

Other memorable shows: Crosby, Stills, and Nash (2014)

Eddie Vedder (2013, Ukulele Songs Tour)

James Taylor (1994)

Moody Blues (70’s)

Chicago (70’s)

Jethro Tull (70’s)

Favorite Concert Venue: Tanglewood, Lenox MA

Favorite Musical Shows–Wicked, Book of Mormon, Notre Dame de Paris

Best Kept Musical Secret Passed on to Me Recently–NY Met Opera Live in HD at the local movie theater

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Well actually now that I think of it, the chorus performance was late afternoon… not at the evening concert