WORST concerts (top five) you've seen

eeriepadave · April 2015

imalive said:

imalive said:
I know it might be painful to dredge up the memories, but go ahead

and don't be embarrassed to admit if it was MC Hammer!

My bottom five:

Johnny Winter - about 25 years past his prime.

Husker Du - love the band, but the concert was painful.

Joe Satriani - OK, Joe, we get it. You're fast. Sidenote: audience was 99% male.

Black Crowes - a HUGE dissappointment but I still like them.

REM - although the 2nd time I saw them it was WAY better
nice! Someone bumped my 8 year old thread....

I'll bet if I went back, I would now dig the Husket Du and Crowes shows....they are two of my favorite bands.

I've heard the counting crows complaints but I've seen them twice....they were great and I'd see them again in a heartbeat.....but they can be a risk, from what I've heard.

that was me. was looking for something else and stumbled across this one.

Who Princess · April 2015

broken_joystick said:
Ive never been to a "bad concert" but I've seen some shitty bands open up for good bands.

Flyleaf was the worst band live, ever.

Ha ha, I read through this whole thread for the first time today and tried to remember the worst concerts I'd been too. The first thing I thought was "Who was that awful band that I saw at ACL fest years ago? Flypaper? Flyby? Flyleaf?" So this post cracked me up.

They were terrible! I didn't even hear their whole set but what I heard was unforgettably bad. Their lead singer was a young woman with a voice that was nothing but screeching. She must write all their songs because she gave an explanation before introducing each one. All the songs were about horrible things:
"This song is about a high school girl who was shot and killed by one of her classmates."
"I wrote this song after I met this woman whose husband shot her and then set her on fire but she survived."

The highlight was after they were finished playing and listening to all the people around me complain about how bad they were.

hrd2imgn · April 2015

Bob Dylan, absolute incoherent garbage
Guns and roses, Axl was a dick
Red red meat opening for Soundgarden
Lichens. Weird and good and bad all in one
Someone at Lolla 97 or 07

HesCalledDyer · April 2015

Who Princess said:

broken_joystick said:
Ive never been to a "bad concert" but I've seen some shitty bands open up for good bands.

Flyleaf was the worst band live, ever.
Ha ha, I read through this whole thread for the first time today and tried to remember the worst concerts I'd been too. The first thing I thought was "Who was that awful band that I saw at ACL fest years ago? Flypaper? Flyby? Flyleaf?" So this post cracked me up.

They were terrible! I didn't even hear their whole set but what I heard was unforgettably bad. Their lead singer was a young woman with a voice that was nothing but screeching. She must write all their songs because she gave an explanation before introducing each one. All the songs were about horrible things:
"This song is about a high school girl who was shot and killed by one of her classmates."
"I wrote this song after I met this woman whose husband shot her and then set her on fire but she survived."

The highlight was after they were finished playing and listening to all the people around me complain about how bad they were.

She's now a traveling speaker on Christianity and no longer with the band. I got to meet her backstage at a show a number of years ago. She was extremely shy, but very sweet. I really liked their first two albums, but yeah, they were kinda disappointing live.

1ThoughtKnown · April 2015

1) The Used - April 4 Tempe Arizona (they are awful)
2) Green Day - 1994 Edmonton (played for 45 minutes and sounded bad)
3) FurnaceFace - 1995(?) The Rev Edmonton (prom dress wearing did not help)
4) MGMT - 2013 Starlite Room Edmonton (not my cup of tea)
5) Nine Inch Nails - 2014 Edmonton and Calgary (the second concert was free and in a luxury box. The opening band was far worse but NIN is not good live)

1ThoughtKnown · April 2015

But above all else, how could I forget, was a band called Pansy Division. This would have been in like 1998 at the Rev in Edmonton. They opened for SNFU I think.
The drummer kept spitting in the air, straight up like an ejaculating cock. Worst of all as the singer, who would introduce mediocre songs with nonsensical garbage like "this song is about this guy who got my asshole tattooed on his chest and I got his dick tattooed on my ass"
Nothing to do with them being a gay punk band, but they were the worst thing I have ever seen. The All Woman Brothers Band (popular locals) had the crowd rocking and then these clowns came out. Haha.

23scidoo · April 2015

Peter Hammill..so boring..just him and his piano..
Suede..the first 30 minutes they play on fire and then the band leave the stage and we end up with the singer and his piano again..

eddiec · April 2015

Europe, 1988, they opened up with 'The Final Countdown' and they closed the set with 'The Final Countdown'.

Cat Stevens, 2009. It was his first gig back and he put that dumb musical in between the first and second sets. It went on for ever and all the actors were singing his best songs. The crowd completely turned and were booing and whistling and walking out. Every time a song would end you were praying it was over but no, the musical would start again and the boos kept getting louder and louder. People were filing out. I felt so bad for the actors. It was far and away the most uncomfortable I've ever been at a concert. These poor guys were on stage and people were aggressively yelling at them, it was just plain bad. I really don't what Cat was thinking. He tried to save it in the 2nd set when he came back out but the damage was done. For his next show in England he completely changed the format after that experience.

nostackedvinyl · April 2015

imalive said:

imalive said:
I know it might be painful to dredge up the memories, but go ahead

and don't be embarrassed to admit if it was MC Hammer!

My bottom five:

Johnny Winter - about 25 years past his prime.

Husker Du - love the band, but the concert was painful.

Joe Satriani - OK, Joe, we get it. You're fast. Sidenote: audience was 99% male.

Black Crowes - a HUGE dissappointment but I still like them.

REM - although the 2nd time I saw them it was WAY better
nice! Someone bumped my 8 year old thread....

I'll bet if I went back, I would now dig the Husket Du and Crowes shows....they are two of my favorite bands.

I've heard the counting crows complaints but I've seen them twice....they were great and I'd see them again in a heartbeat.....but they can be a risk, from what I've heard.

"A risk" is an excellent description. I've seen them before and they were good. Not a bad show by any means. However if you're expecting to see any studio tracks played out like they are on the albums save your money. They are one of my absolute favorite bands when it comes to their albums and lyrics but Adam definitely takes liberties at the show with how he sings and the layout of the songs. It can be off putting at times because it is so off course with what the song originally sounded like. It didn't happen at my show but there is also "a risk" of Adam being pissed off, depressed or just moody live and this really impacting the show negatively. I think this happened more early on though

Like I said, not a huge issue for me but I've heard of others not liking them live as a result. I know what to expect going in now so that makes it easier. To that point, I have a bootleg version of Rain King where they improv in the middle and Adam sings a better part of a Bruce Springsteen tune during it and it's fantastic. His vocals are perfect and the two songs almost seem like they belong together and then he rails back in to Rain King. It's awesome.

As for my worst concert the only one that really comes to mind is Bob Dylan. His band was great but he was just incoherent crap. Took me two minutes to figure out the first song he played (Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat). Elvis Costello opened for him solo though and he was awesome. Controlled the whole arena as people just stood and listened while he played. Definitely someone I don't listen to enough.

Who Princess · April 2015

HesCalledDyer said:

Who Princess said:
Ha ha, I read through this whole thread for the first time today and tried to remember the worst concerts I'd been too. The first thing I thought was "Who was that awful band that I saw at ACL fest years ago? Flypaper? Flyby? Flyleaf?" So this post cracked me up.

They were terrible! I didn't even hear their whole set but what I heard was unforgettably bad. Their lead singer was a young woman with a voice that was nothing but screeching. She must write all their songs because she gave an explanation before introducing each one. All the songs were about horrible things:
"This song is about a high school girl who was shot and killed by one of her classmates."
"I wrote this song after I met this woman whose husband shot her and then set her on fire but she survived."

The highlight was after they were finished playing and listening to all the people around me complain about how bad they were.
She's now a traveling speaker on Christianity and no longer with the band. I got to meet her backstage at a show a number of years ago. She was extremely shy, but very sweet. I really liked their first two albums, but yeah, they were kinda disappointing live.

Really? Somehow that fits. The shyness I can believe as she rushed through all her introductions and didn't interact at all with the crowd. Course by the time I got there the crowd wasn't exactly receptive. I don't think I could listen to their records, I have such bad memories of that gig.

Wobbie · April 2015

^^^^ I saw counting crows early, 1994 and 1997....maybe Adam wasn't improvising as much back then.

I thought flyleaf was one of Stone's bands.

SatansFuton · April 2015

1. Steve Miller Band 1998, Coca-Cola Starplex, Dallas - The most lame thing I've ever seen in my life. It was the late 90's, but they were apparently stuck in some sort of late 80's/early 90's cheeseball phase, during just about every song they'd do that thing where the guitar players and bass players would get back to back or in a line and rock out, swinging the headstocks back and forth in unison. We were the youngest people in the venue by decades. When we tried to light a something during The Joker, everybody freaked out. They were singing along "I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight tokerrrr....OH MY GOD!!!!". We had to bail on our seats and hide out on the lawn area because we were pretty sure somebody was about to get security.

2. Creedence Clearwater Revisited/Eddie Money (opener) - aka The Weirdest Concert I've Ever Been To - Venue: Some business park in Dallas, 1998. Why we went to this I don't know. It was my senior year and a friend saw the ad in the paper and we didn't have anything else to do that night. Why not see the rhythm section of CCR play CCR tunes with Elliott Easton from The Cars and some singer I've never heard of? The Eddie Money part was kind of weird. I was a little "out of it" and don't remember much, but I recognized quite a few songs from 80's movies, even though I hadn't heard the name Eddie Money until that day. The crowd all seemed to know of him, I'd guess most turned out to see him exclusively, because everybody was singing along and really into it. Then CCR(evisited or whatever) came on, and I heard they didn't suck too bad, but I wouldn't know because I was accosted by a really drunk middle-aged man who laid his entire sad life of being drafted into Vietnam as a teenager through his current divorce on me.

3. Pearl Jam - Starplex, Dallas 2003 - Not a disaster or anything, and nothing wrong with the performance, but it's the most disappointing setlist I've ever gotten from a band. A total Radio Hits/Riot Act setlist. And Riot Act was my least favorite album at the time, and still not high on my list. Plus they almost completely ignored my two favorite albums. Only playing one song off of Yield (Brain Of J) and not playing a single No Code song. Although Habit was on the setlist, somebody on stage (apparently Jeff) said "Skip Habit... Fuck Habit", and they launched into Betterman.

I can't think of any other concerts that let me down. So Top 3 I guess.

caifan82 · April 2015

- Papa Roach, after the release of their first album: awful sound and the show lasted only 40 minutes.
- Smashing pumpkins, 3-4 years ago, the line-up was Billy (Or someone who ate Billy), that high school kid drummer, some katatonic chick, and some weird dude with glasses that played the whole show looking at his feet. They played the whole oceania album (Zzzzz)
- The cranberries: Started 3 hours late, everyone was tired of waiting for them... and Dolores's "dancing" didn't help
- To/Die/For: some european pop/metal band... the sound was so bad and low, I could literally whisper in the ear of my girlfirend next to me without problems. And the "show" lasted all of 35 minutes.
- Daft Punk (maybe 8 years ago): it's just 2 dudes with masks, barely moving, behind a console doing who knows what, with the same endless song playing over the speakers for 2 hours... they literally could have hired 2 dudes from the street, put masks on them, place them behind the console, and press play on some previoulsy recorded CD, and no one would have noticed.

jjflash · April 2015

Tough to name five. But one that comes to minds was 5-7 years ago. My wife and I on a date night went to see Lucinda Williams in Birmingham and it was just awful. We left early and to this day I have a hard time listening to her music as a result....previously really liked her CWOAGR album.

Another that comes to mind is Nine Inch Nails around 96ish in Murfreesboro, TN. My buddy and I drove about four hours to see the show. Trent was pissed about something, sang with his back to the crowd, and abruptly ended the show early w/o explanation. Rock star petulance at it's finest. Was definitely memorable, just in the wrong way;)

Wobbie · April 2015

caifan82 said:
- Papa Roach, after the release of their first album: awful sound and the show lasted only 40 minutes.
- Smashing pumpkins, 3-4 years ago, the line-up was Billy (Or someone who ate Billy), that high school kid drummer, some katatonic chick, and some weird dude with glasses that played the whole show looking at his feet. They played the whole oceania album (Zzzzz)
- The cranberries: Started 3 hours late, everyone was tired of waiting for them... and Dolores's "dancing" didn't help
- To/Die/For: some european pop/metal band... the sound was so bad and low, I could literally whisper in the ear of my girlfirend next to me without problems. And the "show" lasted all of 35 minutes.
- Daft Punk (maybe 8 years ago): it's just 2 dudes with masks, barely moving, behind a console doing who knows what, with the same endless song playing over the speakers for 2 hours... they literally could have hired 2 dudes from the street, put masks on them, place them behind the console, and press play on some previoulsy recorded CD, and no one would have noticed.

"Or someone who ate Billy"

iammine16 · April 2015

5. Soundgarden Vancouver 2013 - The sound was atrocious (The Queen Elizabeth Theatre is supposed to be one of the best sounding venues in Vancouver), and the band looked bored on stage (except for Matt).

4. Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman) Vancouver 2008 - I was stoked to see Tom Morello at the best venue in Vancouver (The Commodore), however it was the single most boring thing I have seen, I along with many others hit the exits half way through

3. Korn Vancouver 2007 - Uninspired and boring. The singer didn't say one word and the sound was horrible.

4. Bon Jovi Vancouver 2011 - Was hoping to go to a rock show, not to see a fake country Jon Bon Jovi preaching to the crowd. His voice was terrible, and they butchered their biggest songs.

4. Van Halen Vancouver 2012 - David Lee Roth SUCKS...enough said. Walked out after Eruption. I have never seen a singer kill a concert like that, there were people actually booing.

JH6056 · April 2015

Hmmm, this is harder than I expected! I think this is the list so far:

1. Honestly, the only band I can remember thinking "I do NOT like this band at all at all AT ALL!" was Howe Gelb's "Giant Sand". They were the "it band" at SXSW a lot of years ago (more than 10) and we disliked the set immensely, then Gelb kept being the "surprise guest" for other bands and we kept being horrified. Did not like his music.

2. David Bowie - Glass Spiders tour Giants Stadium: obviously Bowie is Bowie, so Bowie should be great. But for some reason this tour was awful. At least Squeeze opened and somehow managed to blow Bowie off the stage, which was totally unexpected.

3. Van Halen on Jimmy Kimmel: a few weekends ago I saw the reunited original members of Van Halen, including David Lee Roth. Saw them on Diver Down, wonderful show, so was excited they're reunited. OH.MY.GAWD. Roth sounded AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL! LIke, painfully bad. And his moves were, well, not moves really. I know we all get older, but sometimes you just HAVE to know when to give it up. DLR needs to now, it was difficult to watch.

That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure some memory of another bad show will show up right as I go to sleep... and then haunt my dreams...

JH6056 · April 2015

Just remembered OMD (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark) open for Depeche Mode. DM were very good. OMD, not so much. At all.

SatansFuton · April 2015

caifan82 said:
- Smashing pumpkins, 3-4 years ago, the line-up was Billy (Or someone who ate Billy), that high school kid drummer, some katatonic chick, and some weird dude with glasses that played the whole show looking at his feet. They played the whole oceania album (Zzzzz)

I saw them in '97, opening for The Stones, and I wasn't too impressed with them. But they were one of 3 opening acts, none of which I came to see, so I didn't really care. Pretty lifeless performance, and at the end Billy started to pretend like he was going to smash his guitar then just sat it on the stand and walked off stage. People didn't really get mad or boo, but there was a kind of "Awww..... lame. Whatever little boy, the Stones are about to come out anyway" type reaction.

ldent42 · April 2015

I went to warped tour once.
I am not entirely sure why.
I was nearly 20 so I felt like I was way too old to be there, but I remember being with a whole crew all of whom were older than me. Oh. Now I remember why I was there. I was dragged along, didn't even want to go. Anyway I was bored out of my mind so I decided to go see a band I'd heard of but couldn't remember any of their songs, My Chemical Romance. It was the only time I've ever gotten "rescued" by security (meaning I fought my way to the rail & got lifted out). Truly, truly terrible.

WORST concerts (top five) you've seen

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