For me its always been those festival venues. I remember going to the Free Tibet festival in NYC in say about 98 and it was aweful. Good bands but the sound was horrible, sets were short and the crowd was lame.

There is nothing not to like about Squeeze :) They are local boys to me too. I have seen a couple warm up acts that then go on to have a couple hits but nobody that then went big.

Mostly, I have been fairly lucky at getting into bands, such as my second favourite band , when they are playing super small gigs and then following them through the years from venue to venue until they are suddenly playing big stadiums. It feels weird when you remember a band playing to a handful of people with no stage set behind them and then years later you are seeing them in some massive venue with pyros.

Really on the Morissey? Why did he only do 30?

I had what could have been the worst turn into one of the best ever.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (opening act Lone Justice!) at the Greek in Berkeley, CA. around 86. The played one song and there was a problem with the lights...the band had to leave the stage for about 30 minutes while they tried to fix things. You could feel the energy leaving the crowd as the wait got longer and longer...

Finally they came back out, apologized and played for about 3 frickin hours of the best shit you have ever heard! I will be a TP fan for life!

Morissey is a whiney bitch drama queen, im totally not suprised to hear this.

I saw the band Senses Fail at warped tour a few years, they were fuckin awful.

You know, I was thinking that I had very few lead acts that sucked, but Leon Russell pretty much did. It was circa 1972 and he had discovered religion and decided we should too.

As far as lead acts, two that stick out are Edgar Winter (brought his brother Johnny out, so we were treated to two albinos screaming at each other) and Fuel (they sucked so bad I went to sleep and told my daughter to wake me when it was over).

I remember back in the 70's Tom Petty was coming to LA. My brother (16 or 17 at the time) was a huge fan and this was going to be his first concert, and he was going to see his favorite act. Very excited.

The day after the concert I called Joe to ask him how the concert was. Turned out he had been drinking and by the time Petty came out he had passed out and he missed the entire performance.

Watch it, pal...

For me, the worst was REM, hands down.

It was sometime in the 90s, can't recall when exactly. I was never that into REM to begin with, but a bunch of my friends were going, and one of them picked up the tab for my ticket. I liked a few tunes from their first couple albums, so I thought 'what the hell, it's free' and I tagged along.

Their guitar player was barely present; he looked almost as bored as I was. They had a guy on stage with them playing guitar, mandolin and a few other instruments; they never introduced him -- and he was clearly the best musician on the stage! (Not that this is saying much where REM is concerned)

In between listless versions of their best-known tunes, Michael Stipe spent most of the time lecturing the audience on political issues, and exhorting us all to stop at the Greenpeace booths that were out front, so we could "educate ourselves."

It was equal parts boring and condescending -- a lot like going to church, come to think of it.

Weird because in my top five concerts of all time R.E.M. gigs are in two of the slots. You can't remember when but can you remember which album?

*suppressing fandom urges to argue about the musicianship of R.E.M.*

Guns n Roses

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

indeed.she was very hot a while ago.Now its fucked:Oh crap

I think I am going with Bobby Brown on this one.

This would have been back in his hay day when he was relevant. Late 80's.

I'm not sure what album they were touring in support of; I think the most recent hit single they'd had was "Orange Crush," maybe?

As for the musicianship quip, I hold musicians to what is probably a pretty unfair standard, really. Going to see guys like Charlie Hunter or Zakir Hussain or Tuck Andress live has a way of skewing one's perspective in that regard.

A more fair comparison is how they stack up against other pop/rock musicians, and REM comes out looking just fine when you do that.

That would have been late 80's then. I didn't see them until Monster in 1995 when they were in the middle of having the drummer's head explode. That was an amazing concert despite a stupidly big venue. I have seen them four times all together with the second to make my top 5 was in a very small London venue for fans only.

winger... back when they were popular..
couldn't hear the rest of the band.. couldnt hear him singing..
all you heard for the entire show was his sloppy bass playing.

Man, I was way off on the date then.

Chalk it up to early senility, and/or a subconscious attempt to deny how many years have passed in the interim... or perhaps a bit of both.

It happens ...increasingly so the older I get :1orglaugh

Went to an early Pink Floyd that sucked, was back in the days of Sid Barret.

Also saw Traffic at a weekend rock festival where they were booed off the stage.

The Police reunion tour 2007 in Dallas. Went in with high hopes, left early realizing it wasn't 1983 anymore.

have seen them 3 times - always great performance :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup
The first show of The Cure in Czech rep took place few days after we beat down communist regime.It was the very first band to see live here - even you thought that you never see them few days before.
I think Smith's guys will remmember this show too - people went like crazy - the band felt that for sure and made 4 hours show - Last few songs they had to talk to each other before playing as they didn't practise that and didn't remmember exactly - was something that I've never seen since then - and I have seen a lot believe me

Paul you saw floyds with Sid ? - thats something man - I love the piper album

I was waiting for someone to say Pearl Jam , I seen them in the early 2000's . It was the most boring show i've ever been too. It was so bland , they came out on the stage to hardly any applause , sang their songs and that's it , no crowd interaction , no introduction .I left after 3 songs, there was about 1/3 of the arena that did the same as me, (I had great seats too) The crowd was a weird mix it was almost as everyone in there was a nerd college student who likes to wear beige clothing with backpacks.

The 1995/96 Pearl Jam was when they were having their fit about Tickemaster too and making fans go into a ballot for tickets.

Ani Defranco - about 2008 when she was pregnant and played the Keswick Theater in Glenside PA. Worst ever performance from an artist and the crowd from hell to boot.

I went there with my wife as she is a major Ani fan. I've seen Ani about 20 times now over the years and always an outstanding musician with good interaction with the crowds ...

This night was just an amazingly off night for her in terms of playing and also endless banter about everything in the world that is fucked up.... playing half a song then going into a speech against whatever was on her mind at that time ...

then add in 500+ drunk lesbians that are now going apeshit that Ani is proud to be pregnant with her 1st kid ... Some are freaking out and screaming ... others brought all kinds of gifts and throwing them on stage as if its a twisted baby shower.

4 babes in front of me get into a drunken fistfight over talking to each others girlfriends and shit ... man, it was absolutely crazy ...

I bailed that night as ALOT of people in the crowd did that werent the crazy fanatics ... standing in the lobby of the theater alot of these people had the same take as we did: Shitty night and a horrible crowd that took advantage of the cheep beer night offers.

Rickie Lee Jones. A girl I was dating had the tickets for a show at the Telluride Opera House and though I was no fan, it was something to do in a town where not much goes on.

RLJ Came out for a few minutes, sat at the piano seemingly unaware there was an audience there, played a few notes then took a seat under the piano doing nothing but sitting there.

After about 5 minutes, a stage hand came out and escorted her off the stage.

Another 10 minutes or so, they announced that the show was over and we could get our money back when we exited.

In the end, it worked out pretty well as I didn't have to sit through 2 hours of Rickie Lee Jones!

Boston, when 3rd stage came out, they sounded horrible, I actually walked out of the show.

Slash's Snake Pit opened for someone, they were so bad I have blocked out the headliner from my memory.

David Lee Roth in Vegas for a show was interesting (I cannot remember who hired him) he was looking pretty ragged, was funny when he pulled off his shirt and a bunch of women were screaming for him to put it back on.

I saw her twice--once in the Bottom Line in NYC in '82, and again at the Santa Barbara Bowl in '90, and both times she was awesome. I guess she wasn't high at the shows I went to.

Boys like girls, and that shit band that miley's bro is in...MetroStation

the kids made me do it

Marky Ramone and a bunch of bozos back in 2008

Probably Pearl Jam... so boring.

ILC were actually a pretty good band.

i haven't been to a bad concert in a really, really long time. mid 80's, some how I ended up at a Tiffany concert. brutal. also mid-80's, I went to a beach boys concert. equally retarded. hmm... death cab for cutie kind of sucked (2008), even though i like their music. just did not deliver when playing a very large crowd. they were part of a massive outdoor festival, and it just didn't work. but interpol and tom petty more than made up for it :glugglug

I was going to list that show...haha...Hanco (remember their big crash and burn before even getting started in the biz?) sponsored it. Private show at the Hard Rock. DLR looked like fucking Beetlejuice and the sound was horrible. I love loud shows, but it was beyond that and just terrible. The only savings grace of that show was I got to meet Robin Nixon.

I'm sure they didn't suck. A lot of people just don't 'get' the early pink floyd stuff. Personally I love it.

you nailed it, i was gone after 30 min :1orglaugh

Rolling Stones back in the 90's when they first came out of retirement. Bryan Adams opened for them and he killed the fucking stadium. Rolling Stones came on and everyone went to sleep.

Another one was "The Sneaker Pimps" they were a one hit wonder band, pretty terrible live.

Another was the band "Live" didn't care for their live show at all. This was during the Secret Samadhi tour.

Kool Keith in Atlanta 10 or so years ago. He was outshined by the local openers, and was on stage for maybe 20 minutes. The guy forgets his own lyrics so his DJ had a third turntable with the vocal track. Won a few points for tossing goody bags of fried chicken to the audience, so, no regrets.