Music: Worst concert experiences?

[Xelebes]

Are raves considered concerts? Never really thought of that until seeing your post.

It was the massive format, so more like a concert than a day out at the disco.

 

[Kiwi]

I went to an Eagles concert in Auckland and a tropical cyclone rolled in about 15 minutes into it

The band was good and played a full set but the weather was horrendous

Just a miserable experience

 

[Jumptheshark]

Eddie money was just bad. This was mid 80s when he opened for cheap trick who were good

Don Henley. Just prior to rejoining the eagles. Problem was the venue. It was a cattle hall


Steve Earle. Height if his grug problem.

Roxy music. The band just didn't care

 

[Cas]

I saw Mayhem at a smaller venue, kept getting whipped in the face by some gross ponytail next to me, couldn't hear any dynamics, and left.

I also saw Razor at the first California Deathfest, and they had a lot of technical issues getting started. The show then went well until some drunken idiot climbed on stage and knocked guitarist Dave Carlo into the drumset (he apparently doesn't have much peripheral vision). The show nearly ended right there. Razor was otherwise excellent and a very fun live band.

 

[Live in the Now]

Gotta be when I saw Alice in Chains this summer. It was so hot that when I went to take a piss that I was covered in sweat for the next thirty minutes. Just couldn't beat the heat that night. Great performance but it was at least 100 outside.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Cage the Elephant. I think they were opening for the Black Keys maybe. The sound was horrendous and then they got pissed off the sound was horrendous and walked off stage about 12 minutes into their set. Wasn't the biggest deal because they were the opener but still.. for a 150 dollar ticket you expect better than that.

Slayer was cool but I was 14 and broke my arm in the mosh pit. Luckily a couple big dudes saw I was in distress and picked me up and heaved me over to security

Bob Dylan, didn't really have high hopes to begin with but he literally mumbled for 2hrs with almost no actual music.

Tech N9ne, fun show but tons of fights on the floor and somebody got stabbed outside the venue. Was just stressful.

 

[frisco]

Fleetwood Mac in 1990. Didn't have Lindsey Buckingham at that time which was a huge downer, and played a lot of stuff of their new album which was a dud. Also, had horrible seats.

My Best-Carey

 

[BertCorbeau]

It wasn't bad per say but I've seen Brad Paisley twice now, and he has such a list of country hits he skips through verses in all of his songs in his set list to get through them all. Still an enjoyable show but that irritated me

Also went to see Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats .. they were stellar but it was a standing venue and I had a broken leg, so I was on crutches the whole time which was not a fun experience. Plus people were dinks around me and inconsiderate.

 

[Sentinel]

Motorhead in 2009 (on the bill with Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Testament) had the worst sound I've ever heard live in concert. The only thing I could hear was the drums. I had no idea what song was Lemmy singing.

 

[Cas]

Motorhead in 2009 (on the bill with Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Testament) had the worst sound I've ever heard live in concert. The only thing I could hear was the drums. I had no idea what song was Lemmy singing.

There's a joke there about all Motörhead songs sounding the same anyway.

That's unfair, of course, and I actually really like Motörhead. They were actually a band with some pretty wide differences between songs (less so when it came to albums).

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Cage the Elephant. I think they were opening for the Black Keys maybe. The sound was horrendous and then they got pissed off the sound was horrendous and walked off stage about 12 minutes into their set. Wasn't the biggest deal because they were the opener but still.. for a 150 dollar ticket you expect better than that.

Slayer was cool but I was 14 and broke my arm in the mosh pit. Luckily a couple big dudes saw I was in distress and picked me up and heaved me over to security

Bob Dylan, didn't really have high hopes to begin with but he literally mumbled for 2hrs with almost no actual music.

Tech N9ne, fun show but tons of fights on the floor and somebody got stabbed outside the venue. Was just stressful.

Every time I've been to a slayer show I've been impressed about how people would look out for each other if someone was truly hurt.

Completely different than a hardcore punk show, where the environment was much less sympathetic.

 

[Ozz]

Mine would be Motorhead. It was about three weeks before Lemmy died and he looked horrible and pretty much gasping for air, not the last memory i want of a band i love

Couldn't really think of anything bad, just bands I like or love with a bad night where they didn't have the energy to give, vocals were rough due to sickness or whatever, or just a bad soundboard mix (usually the worst scenario).

I saw Children of Bodom just shortly before Alexi Laiho died, it was somewhat similar to how you described Lemmy. He looked like hell to the point that people all throughout the tour were commenting on that more than anything else, but he still performed great. He was even better than years prior when his alcohol problems were at their peak. Despite all that, 20+ shows and I'd never been disappointed.


Then there was the year Ozzfest was "free". You bought certain merchandise and got a ticket to go along with it or something. Ozzy is my favorite and missing him was never an option. I got tickets for a date in another state where my gf at the time lived, traveled there, and upon arrival was told we couldn't enter because of some issue with capacity. That probably wouldn't have been a problem if we got there early in the day, but that also shouldn't have happened to begin with. I missed the show entirely. I've seen him 30 times over the years but this still bugs the crap out of me, because the free aspect brought in more people than would normally be there. Me, I'd have paid as usual.

 

[GKJ]

This is pretty innocuous, but I ended up at a Dave Matthews band show in like 2014 or something, and it was summer so it was hot, but I ended up next to this couple who were fighting the entire night. If they didn’t get divorced (assuming they were married), I hope they did because they should have.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

This is pretty innocuous, but I ended up at a Dave Matthews band show in like 2014 or something, and it was summer so it was hot, but I ended up next to this couple who were fighting the entire night. If they didn’t get divorced (assuming they were married), I hope they did because they should have.

No offense to anyone that likes DMB (I find them sleep inducing) but the couple fighting probably would have been the best part of the show for me

 

[GKJ]

No offense to anyone that likes DMB (I find them sleep inducing) but the couple fighting probably would have been the best part of the show for me

I'm not a big DMB person, there's a few songs I like. My brother got tickets from a girl he knows, so it was free. i wasn't really up for it, but just went with it.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

No offense to anyone that likes DMB (I find them sleep inducing) but the couple fighting probably would have been the best part of the show for me

Amen. Hate them.

I used to be a teacher and I had a student that would troll me so hard about DMB because he knew how much I hated them.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

I'm not a big DMB person, there's a few songs I like. My brother got tickets from a girl he knows, so it was free. i wasn't really up for it, but just went with it.

If it was free I don’t think I’d ever turn down a summer concert. I respect his talent and love his guitar playing but his voice is just boring. Prefer bands like Grateful Dead and Phish for the jam band thing.

 

[GKJ]

If it was free I don’t think I’d ever turn down a summer concert. I respect his talent and love his guitar playing but his voice is just boring. Prefer bands like Grateful Dead and Phish for the jam band thing.

It took some convincing because I had to drive and I like sticking to small venue shows. But it’s really the only scenario I would go to that show.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Many, many years ago, my gf offered me tickets to a Jean Leloup show. After one song, he got offended that the crowd was sitting (it was in an opera house with no real room to stand) and started cussing at the front rows, so he played tam-tam for 40 minutes straight and got off. I thought it was hilarious, but the gf still hates him for that.

On the complete opposite, once saw The Matches in Montreal, they flew in to play for an empty room (we must have been 12-15 max) and they played their whole set with energy and enthusiasm. Great little band that sadly called it quit too soon.

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Doesn't match the op's criteria because it was no fault of the band, but I once drove 6h to see Mr. Bungle in Toronto. They got stock at the border, got in more than 1h late, and could only play 25 minutes because there was a dance party in the venue. Saw them a couple of times after that, always a great show. I drove 6h again to see them in New York 20 years later as old folks, still great.

Leloup is notorious for either given a superb show or f***ing off.

As for me, The Voidz in 2014. The sound was terrible.

 

[Mantis]

I went to a Motley Crue concert in 2005 when I was 15 years old. Tommy Lee pulled out a camera and got multiple woman to show their breasts. As a gay man I was absolutely disgusted.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Would have to be the riot at the Olympic Stadium as a teenager in 93 after Metallica's Hetfield was burned on stage by a pyro and they played only 45 minutes, waiting 2 hrs almost for Guns n Roses to start and Axl having a hissy fit and leaving the stage after 45 minutes or so also causing the riot.

1992*

 

[beowulf]

1992*

Crap you are right had the Cup in my head I guess. I still have my ticket stub from the concert though even if it went to shit.

 

[beowulf]

i also still have this somewhere though it is really faded.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Frostbite 2004 or 2005 (forget which year), which was set in a small bar/nightclub that had a stage. Death By Stereo was one of the bands, and I was front row. I got hit from behind due to the pit that was going on, and the singers mic cord got wrapped around my neck. He ended up choking me out, but it worked out in the end. He felt so bad about it he gave me a vinyl and a t-shirt.

Same show, but during Guttermouth’s set people decided to hang off the lights and go across them like monkey bars and the entire thing came down. Thankfully all of the lights were plugged in by electrical cords, so they were dead when they came down or else a bunch of people would have been electrocuted. The venue suffered over $500K in damage between that night and the severe storm and flooding that happened that night (the venue was in an area where the water drained down into it from three sides).

I can’t really complain though. I was paid to be there, as I had to collect tickets or door fees for a couple of hours.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Seen “Portugal. The Man” twice now in the last 5 years and they sucked. No energy. No talent. Very disappointed both times.