What’s the best concert you’ve ever been to?
Oh man…so many incredible shows…
Pearl Jam in 95 over the fence at the Myer Music Bowl
Radiohead at Festival Hall touring Ok Computer
Funkadelic at Byron whilst on acid
Rage Against the Machine at BDO
The National at the Palais front row
Local Natives at the Corner
Glen Hansard with the Frames at the Recital Centre
Neil Young at Myer Music Bowl touring Greendale, centre 3 rows back
Flaming Lips at Festival Hall in 2005… I got a ticket for 2025 baby!
It was just absolutely amazing and so so so much fun. At one point I needed a bit of space so I went to the back and had a bit of a stretch out on the ground. I was looking up at the tent ceiling and into my vision appeared an old family friend I hadn’t seen in something like 10 years…is that you calhoon2005? Holy shit, Tom!?!.. Had the best chat ever. Fun times.
If I may ask politely (as someone who doesn’t do concerts), why were they all incredible? And how many others have you been to? Is it just cause you like the bands, or did they do something unique/special?
I guess it was my love of their music, and the fact that I was so excited to see them at the time, and then they just hit the ball right out of the park on the night. I also had to queue up, sometimes overnight in the rain, for tickets, so it made it even more satisfying on the night when they put on a great show… Been to heaps of others over the years. Flaming Lips next year will be my first in a few years. I think the last one was Tool.
I saw the Greendale tour in Canada a few months before moving here…so so good
Speaking of LSD, I once made an attempt at seeing the Grateful Dead.
We got to the venue, this much is certain. After that is Gods own private mystery.
That’s a hard one. I’m lucky so many of the shows I’ve been to have been good.
I’m in the crowd for Iron Maiden at the moment and last time I saw them they were great as well
It was a great show. I watched maiden back in 2016 and this was just as good as I remember.
Bruce’s singing is still great. They played more stuff off the new album and Somewhere in Time. Not a lot from Number/Piece/Powerslave.
The new albums may not be as good asthe classics, but they have more instrumental sections, which makes sense since they have 3 guitarists now. It’s great to watch them live just jamming out on stage because everything is so tight and it all flows so smoothly.
Really, you don’t get to fill Rod Laver without putting on a great show. And maiden still hold up in that regard
This is going to date me even more. Back in the early 70s was at the Troubador in Carlton one night with friends for quite another act, and who should walk in the door but Glen Campbell. He asked mgt if he could do a couple of tunes in the interval between sets. Man that guy could play, even on a borrowed guitar. Was a fantastic night. Mr Campbell ended up playing audience requests and works in progress. Audience maybe 20 people??? and they had to kick us all out at 3 am cos we’d overstayed their licence by enough hours to get the mgt in real trouble. And we were all hoarse from singing along. And he came with us to Stalactites afterwards for pizza. Nicest bloke imaginable.
Rage against the machine - threw my hat at the stage and Zach re la Rocha wore it for a bit before giving it back to me. Gave it Security and singled me out as the owner
Pearl Jam - cause it was pearl jam
Paul McCartney - cause he’s Paul McCartney
Rolling Stones - cause I won tickets and there were 500 people in the audience
Difficult call between Cyndi Lauper She Bop anniversary, and Flogging Molly. Neither are my utter favourite artist but the way they ran the shows was amazing. Whole experience rather than just seeing songs.
So many good ones listed here.
I have multiple excellent memories of both single gigs and festivals: Faith No More, The Cure, The Tea Party, The National, Placebo, Portishead, Iron Maiden, Portishead, Korn, SoaD etc. Even Def Leppard hahahaha.
Buuutt… One of my most memorable has to be Tori Amos at Hamer Hall. More so because I wasn’t a mad fan. I can’t remember what song it was but I had this a weird emotional reponse. Like all the music poured in me and the emotion wanted to pour out…
It’s weird to describe… An emotional orgasm, perhaps? 🤣
It was amazing through.
I have to say hearing your favourite songs by any band you love never gets old.
