What is the best concert/live entertainment event you have attended

[Starlord]

-Pink Floyd Pulse (or Division Bell) in '94

- Saw Metallica in the 80s also and they were excellent live

 

As for sporting event - I was at a Cincinnati Bengals game against the Seahawks a few years that got crazy exciting at the end.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I saw KISS twice in makeup on their reunion tour, and those were incredible shows.

 

More recently, though, I saw Weird Al's ill advised vanity tour where he performed his not-his, just album deep cuts. It was amazing. The only downer was I had to drive five hours.

 

He is doing it again this year for all fans that missed it. He's gonna be much closer this time, so I may go again.

[Ternaugh]

The Moody Blues at the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts, 1990

Spinal Tap at the Universal Amphitheatre (Hollywood, CA), June 5, 1992 followed by Rush at the Thomas & Mack Center (Las Vegas, NV), June 6, 1992

Kansas at the Huntridge Theater, 1992

Rush at the MGM Grand Garden Arena 2015

Boston and Styx at the Thomas & Mack Center, 2008

 

 

[Pariah]

REO Speedwagon opened for Chicago a few years ago. It was a great show.

 

I saw two of my favorite bands you've never heard of (Cross Canadian Ragweed and Reckless Kelly) at a dive bar on a Friday night, then saw Rush in a substantially larger venue the following Monday.

 

And for sporting events: I was in the old Mile High Stadium the first time the Denver Broncos ever beat the Dallas Cowboys.

 

I also got to go to the 9th-place men's ice hockey game at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Latvia vs. Ukraine - two countries that didn't even exist when I was in high school.

[Cygnia]

Any way I look at it, it's a Rush show.

 

For me, it's either Great Woods '97 for TFE (where I'm at the front row and got Alex's guitar pick) or R40 in Toronto (where I'm on the DVD during "Tom Sawyer").

[Christopher R Taylor]

Hard to say, but the Masters of Reality/Firehouse/Alice in Chains concert was a great one.  So was John Lee Hooker in a small venue.

[Tjack]

I’ve seen some fantastic shows, but they were all local bands you’ve never heard of.

[Old Man]

White Zombie/Pantera double bill in a filthy warehouse.  My ears rang for days.

 

Metallica and RATM were also great.  We rarely get good concerts out here.

[death tribble]

I saw several things that qualify.

Greenpeace ran some gigs at the Royal Albert Hall in London after their ship was blown up. So I got to see Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen.

 

I saw Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Hammersmith Odeon and then took my brother to see them at the Royal Albert Hall. At the latter we were very close to one side. Could not see Budgie the drummer.

I saw The Cure in concert and they were great value as they would do more than one encore.

The Pixies in two concerts, the second of which was at Crystal Palace for a open air concert and I took my brother to that as he liked them.

Bruce Springsteen at Wembley Arena during which he did a slowed down version of Dancing in the Dark which gave it a completely different feel.

There were several concerts at Finsbury Park which had several bands on the bill that were good. One was the Banshees, The Cure headlined another for X-Fm radio and the Damned were another. The latter was the closest I ever came to being injured as I was caught in the mob. The programme was creased like nobody's business. Other ones I have were perfectly fine.

 

I saw several American Football games at the old Wembley Stadium. The first was the New Orleans Saints vs the LA Raiders. Great game and the atmosphere was good.

I went to the Paralympics in London in 2012 on a Saturday in the afternoon session which saw three gold medals for Britain on the track. It was just wonderful, the whole atmosphere and the one time probably in my lifetime that the Olympics and Paralympics will be in my country.

[Christopher R Taylor]

If you include sports, I watched Randy Johnson strike out 20 in a complete game at the Kingdome.  We were screaming and chanting Randy's name so loud I feared the dome would collapse.

[Cancer]

My first concert was a multi-band show hosted by Doctor Demento in Hec Edmondson Pavilion on the U of Washington campus, the same night Billy Graham set the all-time attendance record in the old Kingdome in May 1976.  Only a couple hundred people were at Dr. D, and I have the ticket stub to prove I was there.

 

Probably my biggest concert was seeing Pink Floyd up in B.C. Place in 1994 or so, on tickets that my wife got in exchange for professional services (she did a lot of wills and probates for people dying of AIDS back then, and the tickets came from the partner of one of those; the surviving partner was one of the road crew for the concert).

 

Others include Chuck Mangione on his Feels So Good tour in summer 1978 in Seattle; Boston on their 1978 tour in the Superdrum in Austin; same venue for Asia's debut tour in 1981; Jesse Winchester was the lead act in the Austin Opry House in August 1978 (my first weekend in Austin), and Christopher Cross was the 2nd warm-up band; I've seen Al Di Meola three times, the Indigo Girls three or four times; Shawn Colvin on her debut tour in 1990 or so; Renaissance in Austin 1985, I think; several others I'm not drawing out of memory at the moment.

[Joe Walsh]

It was nothing really special, but my favorite was when I got to see Bay Area heavy metal favorite Y&T during the Mean Streak tour. First of all, they were great at playing live. But then you get the hometown fan vibe on top of it, and it was just awesome.

[rravenwood]

Rush for the win! 

 

Other notable stadium/arena shows include Pink Floyd during the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, several Jethro Tull shows, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (seeing them live really opened my eyes to how amazing a player Mike Campbell is!), Pearl Jam multiple times...

 

In smaller venues, seeing John Paul Jones on his Zooma tour was amazing.  It was a treat to see John Entwistle solo too.  Many others - those are just highlights.

 

I don't go to live shows any more, though - the percentage of audience members acting crappy and ruining the ability of those around them to enjoy the show eventually just grew to exceed my personal tolerance level.

[Cancer]

Spoiler

What has 37 legs and 217 teeth?

Spoiler

The front row at a Willie Nelson concert.

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

For some reason, I neglected to think of the many comedians I have seen live. I have been fortunate enough to see some of my favorites including George Carlin, Richard Jeni, Emo Philips, and many more. Surprisingly, the best show was probably Bobcat Goldthwaite in Denver.

[slikmar]

I enjoyed all the Queensryche concerts I went to, but my favorites were the Empire (due to the great songs added to them also doing Mind Crime in full)  and Promised Land (where my brother and I had tickets at the Forum only 6 rows off the stage, the setpieces were great and though he was only 50 ft from us, we didn't realize during the club scene that Geoff Tate was there until he lifted his head from the bar) ones.

Speaking of Queensryche, one of the times I saw them was opening for Iron Maiden (who I saw 3 seperate times) with Halford opening the whole thing. 3 of the greatest heavy metal voices all on one stage.

Seeing Yes's Union tour was a music de force (as i consider, as i mentioned in another thread, Jon Anderson to have the voice of an Angel).

Personally, seeing Marillion during the Clutching at Straws tour was a blast, but again that is more personal, and the last time that Fish was really with the band. (I saw them an additional 2 times and they were still great, but I love their early stuff up to that album)

[L. Marcus]

I haven't seen many acts live, what with living in the rump end of nowhere, but I have seen Foo Fighters at Hovet (they opened for The Prodigy, weirdly enough), Ani DiFranco at Fryshuset, and Henry Rollins spoken word at Göta Lejon, all three down in Stockholm.

[Pattern Ghost]

Live entertainment event: Wicked, in Seattle. Great show. The girl playing Glinda was amazingly talented and funny.

 

Concert: Bruce Springsteen in Berlin. I don't even like his music that much, but the guy played encores a couple of hours past the event end time, in the rain. The Stones (different event, Steel Wheels tour, East Berlin) wouldn't start until an hour late due to a very light mist. Springsteen seems to really appreciate his fans, and I liked that.

[Spence]

4 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

Live entertainment event: Wicked, in Seattle. Great show. The girl playing Glinda was amazingly talented and funny.

 

Concert: Bruce Springsteen in Berlin. I don't even like his music that much, but the guy played encores a couple of hours past the event end time, in the rain. The Stones (different event, Steel Wheels tour, East Berlin) wouldn't start until an hour late due to a very light mist. Springsteen seems to really appreciate his fans, and I liked that.

 

I saw a lot of Bruce Springsteen and Joan Jett when they were on USO tours.  

 

Both would play past the scheduled time and then hang out and talk afterwards.  But that isn't unusual for the artists and comedians on the USO tours.  Great people.

 

 

[BoloOfEarth]

Saw Wicked in Toronto.  Great show.

 

Prior to COVID, my wife and I had a tradition of seeing the Capitol Steps perform on July 4th each year.  It was always a great show.  It's too bad they ended up disbanding after a year of being unable to perform due to COVID restrictions.  

[DShomshak]

9 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

Prior to COVID, my wife and I had a tradition of seeing the Capitol Steps perform on July 4th each year.  It was always a great show.  It's too bad they ended up disbanding after a year of being unable to perform due to COVID restrictions.  

 

So sad to hear. Alas, I only heard them on the radio.

 

Life as an impoverished, mad recluse has prevented me from seeing much live entertainment, but in my long-gone college days I saw one of musical comedienne Anna ?Russel's final performances. Also a stage play adaptation of Frankenstein that I thought was quite good , and a concert of Beethoven's 9th symphony that was awe-inspiring. No recording can even come close to the majesty of a live performance.

 

The P. D. Q. Bach and Weird Al Yankovic concerts were OK, but so long ago I dn't remember a great deal about them.

 

A local college's musical comedy adaptation of Night of the Living Dead was also gobsmacking. I have seldom laughed so hard.

 

Dean Shomshak

[death tribble]

I was hesitant about adding plays or comedies but as people are adding them as well. Right here goes.

A couple of the ones were specials for things like the Secret Policeman's ball so took place after 10 pm and went on until 3:00 am which was difficult to get transport home from the centre of London. It gave me an appreciation for some artists like Ronnie Corbet who was performing on his own in front of a live audience. The Young Ones did a live stage skit with Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. Memorable.

 

I saw Peter O'Toole on stage in the play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell. That was fun. I saw Richard Harris in Pirandello's Henry IV which was a serious play and good.

I saw Sir Ian McKellan in pantomime which was a lot of fun.

I saw Gillian Anderson in three plays The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, A Dolls House  and What the Night is For. Two others A Streetcar Called Desire and All About Eve were staged but shown in the cinema so I am not sure that counts. Although I did see her on stage answering questions from an interviewer and the audience.so that was special.

Danny Devito did the Sunshine Boys in London with Richard Griffiths and I took my mother to see that.

I saw two different versions of the musical Chicago years apart, one with the original London cast and one I took my mother and her cousin to see. If you have never seen it go and see it.

Wicked, Hairspray, A Little Night Music and Mama Mia were all musicals I saw with my mother. All enjoyable.

I saw Rowan Atkinson in the Nerd as a birthday treat with student friends and that was good

I saw John Sessions in a one man show about Napoleon.

I saw Cats before it finished in London and Les Miserables and enjoyed them. 

[slikmar]

I remember back in 80s seeing Dick Van Dyke in The Music Man. that was fun.

Seeing Cats on my honeymoon at the theater built for it in London was a blast.

[Ternaugh]

We saw Avenue Q at the Wynn Las Vegas many years ago, on a fundraiser night for KNPR (the local National Public Radio station). While the show was a blast, the best part for me was watching the tortured reactions of many of the folks in the audience, who didn't realize up until that moment that it contained a puppet-on-puppet sex scene, complete with a little bed with rumpled sheets.