What are some of the Great bands/musicians/groups you have seen live?

Who was your favorite?

 

Most bands you ever heard of from the mid-sixties through the eighties, and a lot you never even heard of.

My first concert without parents was Herman's Hermits at The Glass Palace back in the Summer of Love in 1967. The Who was the opening act on their first US tour.

Hundreds of concerts, but for overall entertainment/professionalism a few leap to mind.

Jethro Tull, Yes, Steve Miller Band, Black Sabbath, Robin Trower, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Howard Roberts, Al DiMeola, The James Gang, The Eagles, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Christopher Parkening, George Benson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Roy Buchanan, Larry Coryell, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Ten Years After, Flora Purim, Urszula Dudziak, Anthony Braxton, CSN&Y, Mountain, Eric Clapton, Oregon, Canned Heat, Edgar Winter's White Trash, Johnny Winter, Bonnie Raitt, Climax Blues Band, Jose Feliciano, Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Santana, David Bowie, Blue Oyster Cult, The Band, Tom Waits, Fleetwood Mac (s), Traffic, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Chicago, ZZ Top, Heart, Journey, Tina Turner, Tom Petty, Chicago, Argent, Sting, Paul Horn, Dave Brubeck, Carlos Montoya, Grover Washington Jr., Ronnie Laws, Hubert Laws, The Crusaders, Pat Metheny, Jack DeJohnette, Jaco Pastorius, Jan Garbarek, Buddy Fite, McCoy Tyner, Deodato, Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Laurindo Almeida, Oscar Petersen, Charlie Haden, Leo Kottke, John Lee Hooker, Boz Scaggs, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, BB King, Johnny Lang, Ernie Watts, Sonny Rollins...

Guess I'll stop now as I'm realizing this could go on for quite awhile.

 

Rush

 

The Dead
Bob Dylan
Sting
Def leopard
Nirvana
Eddie Murphy raw
Billy Joel
Danzig
De la soul
Firehose
Budapest festival orchestra
Fishbone

And a shit load more.

 

The Police.

Rush.

Miles Davis.

Oingo Boingo.

 

Pearl Jam in a barn in Bozeman, MT, spring 1991.

Many others since then and before then, but that was incredible.

 

I've been to two actual concerts.

The first was Audioslave with Seether.

The second was Tech N9ne with Machine Gun Kelly.

And then I've been to a few shows. (Some people would call them raves)

 

Name a band and I've most likely seen them live.

 

Menudo?

 

What era's though... for example, have you seen The Doors/Hendrix, and if so, have you seen the modern bands like Kings of Leon?

I'm a lot younger than you and Maris, so I'd imagine ya'll have seen 10x the amount of music I've seen, but for the amount of shows I've been to, I think I've still got a pretty good resume, and it's hard to think of all of them off the top of my head without missing a lot of good ones. I'll try to break them down into categories, but I'll still be leaving out a lot.

One of the great things about this era of music is that there seems to be more festivals than ever before. I grew up not too far from Bonnaroo, so I was always there, and went to the original Rothbury, went to most Voodoo's, went to most NO Jazz Fest's, and went to most Memphis in May's. That's allowed me to see the spectrum of great artists from the 60's (but in their present states) as well as the great (and up-and-coming) artists of the present.

Like I said, I'll probably leave a lot out, but here's an attempt (in no particular order) -

Alternative: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Jane's Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, 311, Nine Inch Nails, Flaming Lips (three times), Butthole Surfers, Modest Mouse, Blues Traveler, Primus (and another time I saw the Flying Frog Brigade), Weezer, Mars Volta, Phoenix, Dave Matthews Band (a few times, unfortunately), TV on the Radio, the XX, the Black Keys, REM (they sucked, as expected, so I left half-way through to see Trombone Shorty), etc.
Hip-hop: Nas, Jay-Z (twice), Eminem, Lil Wayne (three times), Snoop Dogg, Juvenile, Three Six Mafia, Jay Electronica (got on stage), The Roots (twice), Kid Cudi, B.O.B. (Kid Cudi sucked, and B.O.B. was on afterwards and did his set til the sun came up to make up for it), Wale, Yo Gotti and a lot more local rappers, etc.
Electronic: Justice, Tiesto, Deadmau5 (twice), Ghostland Observatory (twice), Passion Pit, Kraak en Smaak, Bassnectar (several times), LCD Soundsystem, Pretty Lights, Girl Talk (unfortunately), Disco Biscuits (several times), etc.
Jam: not the original Grateful Dead but Phil Lesh and Friends, Mickey Hart Band, and Bob Weir and Rat Dog, Widespread Panic (several times), Gov't Mule (several times), not the original Allman's but saw Gregg at the House of Blues, not Phish but saw Trey Anastasio (and literally fell asleep on the hill during it) and Mike Gordon (the bassist) do solo acts, Lotus, Galactic (several times), Keller Williams, not the original String Cheese but EOTO, and all that stuff like Umphrey's, Tea Leaf Green, Michael Franti, etc.
Reggae: Jimmy Cliff, the Wailers, Damian Marley, Collie Buddz (a few times), etc.
Southern Rock: John Fogerty, Lynyrd Skynyrd (twice, but both bastardized versions of the original), Kings of Leon (several times before they went mainstream and a few after), Zac Brown Band, Drive-By-Truckers, etc.
Misc: Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, B.B. King (several times), Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, Blondie, Jello Biafra, Jimmy Buffet, Robert Randolph, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, etc.

I could probably add a lot more bands to that list, but those were just the ones that came off the top of my head. If you want to know how any of them were live, lemme know, because most of those guys are still touring.

 

Really jealous of these -

Not only is that whole list impressive, even outside of the ones I singled out as personal favorites, but more than anything, you're probably the first person I've come in contact with that got to see Jaco. How was that?

Jealous that you got to see those guys, of course especially Nirvana, but also fIREHOSE. I heard they got back together briefly, was that when you saw them, or did you see them back in their day? I grew up playing bass, and Mike Watt's always been one of my favorites.

Fishbone's another great one. I've seen them as well but forgot to list them. I saw them in the same venue I saw the Butthole Surfers in... great show with a lot of energy that really brought me back.

 

Wow you guys have really had fun.

 

Here's a few fun stories about the ones you mentioned.

The first time I saw nirvana they were opening up for the band I actually wanted to see that night, a local portland band called Completely Grocery. It was in a tiny club and during the nirvana opener there couldn't have been more than 30 people. And the whole band was so drunk/high they could hardly stand. One of them even fell into the drums. My friends and I decided to leave and come back the the real band, Completely Grocery, was playing. Saw them again after Nevermind came out, but always laughed that I walked out on Nirvana.

I saw Firehose back in the day when I was visiting LA, and saw Mike Watt up here in Portland. But the funny story here actually has to do with my brother. My bro went to Carelton College in Minesota back in late 80's maybe early 90. His roommate was a base player and huge Firehose, Minuteman and all around Mike Watt fan well before they hit mainstream. Firehose was coming to Carelton College and somehow the roommate got them to play a show at my brothers house. Unfortunately, my brother was not a fan yet, and took acid that night. Apparently when Firehose was setting up my brother was yelling "ya mother fucker wooooo fucking Firehose wooooooooo!" Repeatedly, and then finally left, missing the entire concert. My brother can't hold his acid.

 

"Great?" So, like what the old people on this forum will think are great?

Roger Waters
Jethro Tull
Les Claypool
Johnny Winter
Robin Trower
Richard Thompson (probably over 20 times)

 

Great to me is a different story...

Aesop Rock
busdriver
mc chris
Gift of Gab
Rasputina
Floater (pre Stone by Stone)

 

oh and I would have put Modest Mouse on there but they are just terrible live.

 

Since I posted my little list I keep on remembering more like Taj Mahal (a bunch), Harry Belafonte, Branford Marsalis, Soundgarden, Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, Roots, Blues Traveler (although I was sick and had to leave early) B52's, Chuck Berry, YMSB (a shitload), Indigo Girls (my favorite lesbians) and a bunch more. It's been fun thinking back.

 

Way back in the 30s, I'd stand in line to buy tickets to see traditional American music, and some girl walked up and down the line selling acid, so the groups were all the same to me.

 

We need a thread about acid