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OT: worst concert you attended

rutger80

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Oct 14, 2013
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Marietta, GA
Since we had a thread on worst movie/plot, I figured I start one with this topic: Worst concert you ever attended.


Mine was the only one I ever left early because it was so mind-numbingly bad:

Spyro Gyra
 
Willie Nelson at the Patriots Ball Park, shortly after Hurricane Floyd. Willie mailed it in that night
 
Aerosmith back in the very early 80's, may have even been 79. At the Poughkeepsie Civic Center. Joe Perry was so ****ed up that he passed out on the stage and they eventually finished the concert without him.
 
Oddly, the worst band I've seen live, was Live.

I saw Live at Starland and was impressed how well they played to such a small venue. Another time I saw Everclear there and that was probably the worst live show I've ever been to. Starland was always hit or miss when it came to bands that were used to larger venues.
 
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Cash Money Millionaires tour at the Nassau Coliseum in the year 2000. It would have been a pretty cool show except it happened to be the same day that those New York police officers were all acquitted for shooting Amadou Diallo a thousand times when all he had on him was his wallet. It was not the ideal day for a van full of white kids to attend a gangsta rap show. To say was a little uncomfortable would be a gross understatement.
 
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I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers back in 1991 in Cleveland. Really bad.

Funny thing, Pearl Jam was the first opener (Smashing Pumpkins was 2nd, also bad), and PJ was awesome. Their first tour before they hit the big time. But you knew that night they were the real deal. Embarrassed the headliners.
 
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Jackson Browne at PNC Arts Center. Walked out about halfway through. Just brutal.
 
I saw Live at Starland and was impressed how well they played to such a small venue. Another time I saw Everclear there and that was probably the worst live show I've ever been to. Starland was always hit or miss when it came to bands that were used to larger venues.
I saw Everclear at a festival in Holmdel a few years ago and they were also terrible. Good call.
 
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The Cars at the Spectrum somewhere around '82. Amazing how boring of a concert it was.

I saw them at the medowlands around the same year and was about to post how bad it was.
 
Genesis, Invisible Touch tour at Giants Stadium in 1987. I wasn't a huge Genesis fan at the time but my friend convinced me to camp out overnight for tickets back when you had to do that. Ended up getting seats way back in the upper deck, could not hear a word Phil Collins was saying.

To me Genesis is one of those big bands with a poor batting average. (Poor Batting Average = 1-3 songs per album that are good to great, the rest are garbage, plus some "hits" that are popular but hard to listen to or not great live.) To be clear, this does not mean they are not great bands. For me these are risky bands to see live. If you could hand pick the set list, you would have an epic concert; in reality you often get a show that is hit-or-miss. I would put Billy Joel and Van Halen on this list as well.
 
Genesis, Invisible Touch tour at Giants Stadium in 1987. I wasn't a huge Genesis fan at the time but my friend convinced me to camp out overnight for tickets back when you had to do that. Ended up getting seats way back in the upper deck, could not hear a word Phil Collins was saying.

Same show! My friends had like 16 tickets so I went along for the ride. We were 3 rows from the way way back.. Some dude named Paul Young was the opener....not good. Me and a friend ended up just wandering around Giants stadium the whole time.
 
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Melanie, I liked her a lot, but at the Arts Center in the early 70's, she
just sat on a stool with her guitar, no singer back up, no musical instrument
back up. I wanted to leave so bad, and finally I did.
 
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For me, and this will anger their long time, multi-show fans, was The Grateful dead..... was never a fan of their music, but I had entered a contest and won a lottery to see them at the capitol theater in Passaic

I could only last half way through and left..... in their defense, the show was probably up to the fans standards, I just don't like them.

I have seen and enjoyed several of the other groups mentioned..... Creed was good in their hey-day, in the meadowlands....AeroSmith,.Phil Collins, Billy Joel, R.E.M all were decent
 
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Same show! My friends had like 16 tickets so I went along for the ride. We were 3 rows from the way way back.. Some dude named Paul Young was the opener....not good. Me and a friend ended up just wandering around Giants stadium the whole time.
Me too. Stood for hours on the stadium floor and I remember wishing I had a seat.
 
funny somebody already said early Cars...cared not one bit that we were dumb enough to pay for the borefest

drugged out Aerosmith horrible but they made up for it years later

Boston first show guy was sick so like 20 minutes...not cool
 
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Stone Temple Pilots at PNC when Scott Weyland refused to come on stage. He finally came on after more than an hour and they rushed through a set without any energy.

I've seen them at other show and they were great, for this one Weyland seemed to be fighting his demons.
 
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Same show! My friends had like 16 tickets so I went along for the ride. We were 3 rows from the way way back.. Some dude named Paul Young was the opener....not good. Me and a friend ended up just wandering around Giants stadium the whole time.
----
Paul Young was mostly a one hit wonder....remake
of the Hall & Oates song

 
Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Capitol in Passaic sometime in the 70's. They were so stoned they could hardly perform. Left long before the end.
 
Most disappointing was The Police at JFK Stadium. They used to have these mega-concerts in the 80s with a lot of bands. They were on with Foreigner, Joan Jett, Madness, etc. I found out that day they are purely a studio band - not open-air stadium.

Worst overall was Moody Blues a couple of years ago at Bethel Woods. Talk about losing your fastball - yeesh. There is a point you don’t perform anymore.
 
One of my favorite artists, Bob Dylan, at Waterloo Village. It was HOT, and Bob was just not into it. He sang all the songs, a lot of hits, so fast, you couldn't even recognize what songs they were. His voice isn't good to begin with, but man, that was just soooo bad, lol. I love all his studio albums.

Nina Simone at the Community Theater was dreadful too.

And finally, another favorite, David Bromberg, was playing the tiny Stanhope House in the late 80s, and he starts out saying he was requesting nobody smoke either at the small table area or at the bar behind it. Well, maybe 1 or 2 guys sneak cigarettes (still legal in bars then) and Bromberg has a conniption. Was surly and cut the show short.
 
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