Forget the BEST...what was the WORST live music performance you have ever seen...

[GReedDiamond]

...mine was way back in 1972, when the local (Chicago based) band STYX was going to play live at the local community college - College of DuPage.

I think the seating was called "stadium seating" but it was whatever space you could stake out on the basketball gymnasium floor, so no seats, just floor.

After waiting way beyond the scheduled start time for the show to begin, it was announced that REO Speedwagon would be playing, and STYX was canceling.

REO Speedwagon then proceeded to play the worst ever live music I have ever heard, for something like 2 hours, maybe more.

I was 17 y.o., and it still stands as the worst live performance shit I have ever heard, plus it was physically grueling.

And, as a result, I have always disliked REO and Styx, ever since.

The Rolling Stones live in 1972 at the Chicago stockyards "International Amphitheater" venue was way better, and even THAT sucked, because the sound was pretty bad.

But at least, it was the Stones - with Stevie Wonder opening, which was fantastic.

[mr_lebowski]

1. Van Halen reunion tour in like 2010 or so I think it was?

Dave couldn't sing for shit, and the sound quality was terrible (and I've been to the venue, Oracle Arena in Oakland MANY TIMES and have heard shows sound GREAT there ... for such a big place I mean) ... they were sloppy and lackadaisical, hell Eddie's big solo was even pretty boring (still, R.I.P. EVH!).

For how many concerts I've been to though (hundreds) I've actually been to very very few that I thought were shitty.

[GReedDiamond]

4. Ther ya go, that's the kinda shit I'm talkin bout!

And I must say, I'm not surprised.

When the venue has bad sound, that's one thing, but the sloppy playing etc, is another...

And to quote you: "still, R.I.P. EVH!"

[happybird]

21. My friends went to see Van Halen when we were in high school

I opted out because Van Hagar. Anyways, the next day at school, my bestie got in trouble. The principal made him turn his concert tee inside out. He hadn’t looked at the back of the shirt, figuring it was a list of tour dates. Nope.

For
Unlawful
Carnal
Knowledge

With the first letter of each word oversized.


I miss that boy. Wonder where he ended up?

[mr_lebowski]

23. I didn't see that Van Hagar tour but I did see 'em on the 5150 (or maybe it was OU812) tour

Whichever was immortalized in the 'Live without a Net' ... mid 80's ... it was freaking GREAT.

Way the hell better than the reunion 25 years later lol ...

[happybird]

33. I wish I would have gone

They had a great time, said the show was rockin’

That’s on my shows-I-missed-for-dumb-reasons list, along with Beastie Boys at a small venue right as Check Your Head dropped, and James Brown at the 9:30 because we thought $50 a ticket was outrageous. In my defense, at the time, $50 *was* outrageous. I have no excuse for the B Boys other than, “Like, Brass Monkey?? Dude, why are you going to see them? Good luck selling those extras, hahaha sucker!” Sigh.

[mr_lebowski]

40. I almost went to REM on the Lifes Rich Pageant tour in 1986 ...

They were playing, there were still tickets, I was like 20 miles away in Orinda and the show was in Oakland ... but I couldn't get any of my friends to go cause nobody was into college rock like me. Still bummed I didn't go to that. S'my favorite REM album too.

I also had tickets to U2 ZooTV (Achtung Baby) tour, the outdoor leg of the tour, circa 1992. My GF and I camped out for tickets at The Wherehouse record store in Walnut Creek, to buy them from Bass Tickets outlet inside.

AND THEN her best friend had to go and schedule her freaking engagement party ... for that night. I had to go down to the parking lot and sell 'em that afternoon. I was WAY bummed.

Fortunately I had seen them like 6 months earlier on the Indoor leg of the tour, which I'm sure was better anyway.

But I still wish I'd seen both legs of the Tour, as I did with Joshua Tree ... 3 times indoors, 1 time outdoors.

Those are my two most prominent regrets I can think of offhand.

[happybird]

49. Ha! I had ZooTV tix and also sold them

We camped out, which was a crazier than normal situation. There was a list and roll call all night, and we had a decent number. A group of frat boy types showed up the next morning, just as we were all lining up, in order, to walk on over to to the Ticketmaster in a peaceful and well organized fashion (no camping on mall property, so we were all camped in the grassy areas right off of mall property). The new guys bitched about not knowing about people camping out all night ( ), and they made such an obnoxious stink, Security finally said, “Well, technically, we cannot honor the list.” Ugh. Security was totally on the campers’ side but had no choice.

So, every group of people picked a runner. They lined up on the curb. At 8:59, the Security guy raised his arm. At 9:00, he dropped his arm to start the race. Our runner was Jason, my friend of the unfortunate Van Halen shirt fame, lol! Nearly everyone was hungover or still drunk. It was not a short run. It was ugly.

Tequila hangover and all, Jason got us a respectable spot, although about 20 spots worse than we were on the list. We got tickets (nosebleeds, who cares, it was a rough night, lol!). I went home and slept.

When I woke up, Entertainment Tonight was showing a clip from the ZooTV show in LA. Bono was in a silver suit and cowboy hat. Not knowing about the Fly and whatnot, I was appalled. “They done sold out!!” I cried. Traded my U2 tickets for Faith No More/Metallica/Guns N Roses tickets.

I regret the hell out of that. Thankfully, I saw U2 in ‘87, but it’s the only time I’ve ever seen them. Though, I must say, Metallica kicked major ass. GNR sucked. Still would have rather seen U2 again.

[mr_lebowski]

50. Cool story bruh!

I also saw that Metallica/G n R tour right around that time ... San Diego. Metallica blew GnR off the friggin stage. It was like 3rd time I saw G n R, they were much better on the earlier/Appetite tours.

The opener for my show was Body Count. I remember that like the Mayor banned them from playing Cop Killer ... it was a big hubbub ... but then they played it anyway as their encore. Ice don't GAF!

[happybird]

51. Guess I can't objectively say GNR sucked

Metallica was just so much better! What were they thinking having Metallica open?!?
You’re right, they blew GNR off the freakin stage. RFK is known for being a bit bouncy, but I was literally getting double bounced, like on a trampoline, during Metallica. It was awesome! Waiting 2 hours after Metallica for Axl Rose to show up, in DC summer heat, while camera guys filmed girls showing their tits for display on the big screens? Not as much fun. Metro being closed because the show ran so late was also not fun.

I’d loved to have seen Body Count.

[Hestia]

54. I won free tickets to Zoo TV Tour in DFW, according to map, they should have been great

seats, but get to our seats, we were behind the stacks, which is why they were free. The whole section won free tickets. So, we are sitting there waiting, watching The Cranberries, then Run DMC, and SO & I noticed a whole block of seats with no one sitting in them. Finally, we just got up and started heading that way. Needless to say, the entire section filled up quickly. They were fantastic seats! Close to the stage, only a couple of rows up from the floor. There was a runway set up in the middle of the stage and we were just above the runway. I figured it must have been an executive block of seats for clients. Too bad, so sad. There was no way we were moving after getting there to that section.

When the lights came up for "Mysterious Ways", a belly dancer danced during the song on the center ramp - it was perfect.

Surprising, Bono had a wardrobe change for each and every song, including the silver suit. Great show!

Saw the Stones at the Cotton Bowl and Jagger did the same, had a wardrobe change every song.

[mr_lebowski]

43. OH OH OH I remember 1 other horrible regret ...

I went out partying the night in SF the night before Lollapalooza II, I believe it was 1992. My buddy had a ticket for me.

I met some honey and spent the night at her flat, and I ... didn't park my car in a very wise location. That's not a euphemism

It was broken into and the fucker jammed a screwdriver into the ignition and totally friggin ruined it. I had no way to get from SF down to Mountain View in time (and wasn't going to leave my car there) ... and this is the lineup I missed ... in 1992 ...

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Lush.

Fucking WOMP WOMP THAT SUCKED HUGE. My stereo was also stolen from my car, a nice one too.

[unblock]

2. Iggy pop, opening for the pretenders

The pretenders were amazing, but iggy was terrible.

I know he's a legend and all, but we actually walked out and hung out as far as we could but still get back in for the pretenders.

I like a good distorted guitar sound here and there, but this was just so much nonstop distortion you couldn't even make out the chords. Just noise. Dreadful.

[GReedDiamond]

6. Maybe I'm crazy, but Iggy became a parody of himself, imo...nt

[CentralMass]

42. He seems like a real asshole.

Last edited Tue Nov 17, 2020, 04:30 AM - Edit history (1)

[brewens]

3. Aerosmith about 20 years ago at Spokane, WA. Right before Tyler blew out his knee. They had wicked

feedback off the keyboards. I saw Joe Perry looking at the keyboard player, signaling their sound guys and everything, but they never fixed it. They played a lot of older stuff that didn't have the keyboards and all of those songs sounded sweet. Everything else sucked.

[GReedDiamond]

7. That's just...weird. nt

[happybird]

5. I worked a season as an Usher, then Security, at a large amphitheater and heard some awful shit

The worst was the Cranberries. I didn’t mind their songs on the radio, but they sounded heinous live. The singer’s voice was downright painful. It was really bad.

As for a show I actually bought tickets for, I hate to say it, but CSN. It was some time in the 90’s, at Wolftrap. Very disappointing. The vocals were horribly off-key the whole show. Not what you expect from CSN, of all people. Several years later, I saw Crosby, Pevar, and Raymond (CPR) at the Birchmere and that was fantastic. I had been terribly worried Crosby’s voice had gone to shit. Nope. Redemption.

[LisaM]

8. REM

They played everything at fever pitch, even their more dreamy hits, and when I say they played their hits, I am being.generous, because.they seriously seem disinclined to play one song the audience wanted to hear. I get that artists want to play new music but it was one of two concerts I ever left early.

The other one was Bonnie Raitt - same as REM,.she just wanted to play loud rock the whole time and ignored most crowd favorites and simply wouldn't do anything tinged with country, blues, or folk. She just wanted to rock out on her guitar. The audience didn't really like it, either. HOWEVER, she gets a major pass because her opening act was Keb Mo, and he was amazing, plus they did a couple of songs together, where she was very good. As a concert, though, it was not entertaining.

I want to add that the REM tickets were pricey and I had taken a friend who is Black and at one point she turned to me and said, "what is this shit?". So we went and got drunk.

[unblock]

9. Shame about rem. I'm not real fan, but I got dragged to a concert once

but they were actually quite good live. I gave their works more of a listen after that, and... meh... still not really a fan. But live, they were great.

All in all, I've found many "name" bands to be somewhat disappointing live. I mean, it's a thrill to actually see them, but often they just try to recreate their studio sound and that's pretty lame.

That why I've preferred acts like Elvis Costello and the random live bands from my austin days. Acts that do different arrangements or put in an extra verse or something you can't get on the recorded version.

[LisaM]

10. The shocker live band to me was the Steve Miller Band.

I have never seen a better live show, from tip to tail.

REM just didn't seem to have any rapport with the crowd. I like them, but they seemed like they were on speed and weren't the wordsmithy, intellectual, and emotional band I went to see

[mr_lebowski]

14. Steve is great live (though so is REM at least on some of their tours ... what year was that?)

I saw him open for (I'm thinking it was) ZZ Top I want to say around 1990 or so ... he definitely played the hits and had the crowd bouncing along, it was a lot of fun. I kinda didn't realize he's the main guitarist of the band til I saw 'em live and realized he's the one busting all all those fairly iconic riffs as well as singing the songs ... Like, say, the beginning of Jet Airliner ... that ain't some sideman in the band laying down that guitar, that's him. I don't even recall that he HAD another guitarist on stage, he might not have. And he's got serious chops.

[LisaM]

24. Total pro.

I always liked him okay, but only went because tickets were cheap. And the show was so good I never forgot it. It didn't hurt that the opening act was Juice Newton, either.

[unblock]

19. Well that is the nature of live shows. Even the greats have off nights.

Never seen Springsteen live, but heard enough bootlegs. He's the real deal, and sometimes the live version is amazing, and other times it's a real klunker. Sometimes even in the same show.

Steve Miller band, that would surprise me. Never liked them at all.

[mr_lebowski]

26. Steve is more the 'fun' type of show, like seeing Jimmy Buffett

Plays the hits, like they are on the record, immaculate musicianship, good sound, catchy ass tunes.

And he's actually really good on guitar.

If you don't LIKE the songs, however ... then yeah, it would suck.

Seeing John Mellencamp was a lot the same way.

[GReedDiamond]

16. You said "I mean, it's a thrill to actually see them, but often they just try to recreate their...

...studio sound and that's pretty lame."

I totally agree, except in the case of when I saw Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band recreate "Doc At The Radar Station" live on stage, at the legendary Troubadour in Los Angeles.

[happybird]

13. They were quite good when I saw them

Throwing Muses opened. It was the Green tour, so late 80’s/very early 90’s. The lawn was very muddy, slippery, and steep, and folks were building bonfires. Ahhh, Merriweather. How I love thee.

[LisaM]

17. I am beginning to wonder if the venue was the issue.

The vast majority of live concerts I have been to were in or near Detroit, and they have been mostly great.

The bad shows I mentioned were both In Seattle, and as I deconstruct this, I think bands give better shows in Detroit.

[mr_lebowski]

31. If it was 1995 or 1996 that was teh Monster tour and that was specifically (they said ahead of

time) meant to be a loud rocking tour, like they were tired of playing all mellow and wanted to have an aggressive sound on that tour. If you didn't own and know Monster (or didn't like it) I could definitely see not having liked that tour much as they played like every song on it ... It was there, and it was not their best. It was very loud and fast and SOOOOO many great old songs ... they didn't play.

[LisaM]

36. No, it was later than that.

Exact same vibe you describe, though. Somewhere around 2004.

[mr_lebowski]

29. Green tour was freaking amazing ... I didn't go but there's a movie of it that I owned at the time

on VHS and I PLAYED IT TO DEATH. It's called Tourfilm and all the songs from it are on Youtube.

I worshipped the ground they walked on from 1984-1991.

[LisaM]

41. I am a big fan.

The very first CD I bought that I ever bought that I had before on other media (cassette in this case) was REM. That's why the show.sucked so.much to me.

I suppose the absolute worse was Patti Smith where she cancelled.

[Jirel]

11. Alan Parsons, hands down.

The Target Center in Minneapolis had just opened, and this was either the first, or shortly thereafter, concert held there. We were stoked.

That was also the day we came to understand the no concern should EVER happen at the Target Center except in limited seating on the floor and may be a bit up the sides. All we could afford was upper level seating, and it was awful. Here was the Alan Persons Project, known for their perfect studio sound, and you couldn’t hear a thing. It was all echoey mud mixed with the absolute howl of the ventilation system in the upper decks. When that can override concert amplification, you know there’s a problem!

Shortly thereafter, coincidentally, they announced there would be a redo of the sound system, and rework of the ventilation.

We did go to another concert there several years later. It wasn’t awesome, but between making major changes to seating and staging arrangements, and the arena infrastructure changes, it was a passable venue for the kind of concert where you’d expect things to get loud and rather noisy.

[cemaphonic]

12. I don't know about worst ever, but I think this story fits.

Sometime around the end of the 90s, I got tickets to go see Parliament, only to find out that it was a couple of the singers from the classic lineup, and a bunch of younger musicians. No Clinton, Bootsy or any of the famous guys. But I stuck it out and it was AWESOME! Probably a dozen musicians on a tiny stage, and they played for over 3 hours, and seemed like they could have gone all night.

A couple of months later, I got to see the Clinton lineup, and it was one of the most disappointing shows I've ever seen. Crappy sound system, no hits even though they were playing to a festival crowd, a long "topical, funny" song that wasn't funny, and wasn't all that topical anymore. Everyone playing seemed bored and sloppy, although who could tell over the shitty PA. Oh, and we were treated to his granddaughter rapping. So embarrassing for such a legendary band.

[Kablooie]

15. Mine was at a circus.

An elephant came out and just stood for 10 minutes dropping dumps.
The music was the drummer building up with the snare and then a big PA-DOOM - CLASH! for each one.

Worst music performance I've ever seen.

[GReedDiamond]

18. Music is where you hear it...I guess...nt

[unblock]

20. I guess some acts should stick to the studio and not tour

[madamesilverspurs]

22. Sinatra.

Late '60s, somebody gave us some tickets. Great seats, front row, surprisingly small venue. Turns out it was Frank Jr. It was, at best, embarrassing.


.

[GReedDiamond]

30. Frank Jr! Kinda like getting a ticket so see The Donald...

...and it turns out to be Jr!

I don't know which is worse.

[List left]

25. Iron Butterfly or Frank Zappa

Both in Indianapolis

Iron Butterfly1969?
Way too loud even for my young ears.

Frank Zappa 1970
He spent most of the time cursing at the audience, telling everyone what dumb f*ks we were for paying good money to come and see him.

[GReedDiamond]

27. Yeah I remember seeing Zappa around 1974...

...at a similar venue as described in my OP, but different.

Sound was bad.

So paying good money for bad sound - sounds like something Frank would say.

[pnwest]

28. One of the most disappointing for me was

Dave Matthews, 2001- ish. I was SO excited, cause I was a huge fan. It was the most uninspired, lackluster performance...like they were ALL stoned to the gills, and just fucking exhausted. I am not dissing stoners, I am one myself, just saying I recognize that state of having been stoned all day and just being wiped out. It was bad.

Plus Lenny Kravitz opened, and I was NOT a fan of his. Seriously overrated, but I was willing to sit through it to get to Dave, but the whole night sucked.

[GReedDiamond]

32. "Lenny Kravitz...Seriously overrated"

...I Have never understood the whole Lenny Kravitz thing...

...he just sucks...

...somebody talk me down.

[happybird]

37. Let Love Rule?

That song hit me like a freight train when it came out.

[GReedDiamond]

39. I guess that freight train missed me...

...no offense, I'm sure Lenny's a great, talented guy, but I just never "got" him.

[LisaM]

44. Don't get me started.

It makes NO SENSE for him to sing "American Woman!". He's AMERICAN!

That said, I did enjoy Burton Cummings once saying he thought of Lenny Kravitz's version of AW as his "beach house".

His mother was Helen on "The Jeffersons", which makes me like him more, but his appeal eludes me entirely (as a musician, he seems like a great person).

[GReedDiamond]

46. RE: His version of "American Woman"...

...I kept waiting for his arrangement/performance to actually GO SOMEWHERE...

It never does.

[LisaM]

47. That is an excellent comment.

The real one was written kind of ad hoc on a stage if Bachman/Cummings are to be believed, and was essentially an anti-war song about Vietnam. And there is a long version.

Kravitz misses it.

[GReedDiamond]

48. Yeah, thanks! - nt

[yonder]

34. For venues, it would have to be the Denver Coliseum.

I dont know if it is still there or not but I saw a bunch of shows there in the early 70's including the Stones and Led Zeppelin. It was notable for it's awful boomy, echoing sound probably because of it's concrete construction. Once or twice we had seats on the floor but usually we were up in the nosebleed section.

Did I mention the awful sound?

[GReedDiamond]

35. Yeah, just like the sound at the "International Amphitheater" in Chicago...

...which I think was the site of the infamous Democratic Convention of 1968, and also where I saw - with bad sound - the Stones/Stevie Wonder tour in '72.

[yonder]

38. 1972 could've been the same Stones tour I saw.

Stevie Wonder is vaguely familiar as being the warm up. One thing I do remember is the tickets: less than $5.00 (3 or 4 bucks) a head. Led Zeppelin was either a couple of months before or after (1972 sounds about right) but same cheap seats and bad sound. Man, I'd love to have those stubs today.

[GReedDiamond]

45. The 1972 US Tour was the basis for the infamous...

..."Cocksucker Blues" documentary, which was suppressed by the Stones themselves after they saw the debauchery they were actively involved with, backstage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocksucker_Blues

I saw it once back in the 90s at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

And yeah, the tickets in 1972 were $6, we stood in line to buy them on the day they went on sale.

[no_hypocrisy]

52. If you count Broadway, I'd say "Sunset Boulevard" (the musical) hands down.

It sucked. The singing. The songs. The acting. The production.

I was in tears, laughing hysterically, usually at the wrong times of the musical. It was the equivalent of "Springtime For Hitler," it was that bad.

But in the tradition of John Waters, it was so bad that it was good. It was trash but not a waste of my time.

[luvs2sing]

53. Worst..and saddest..

was Rick Danko at a ski resort in western Ohio one August in 1979. Waylon Jennings was the headliner. It was 95 that day and, about three acts in, huge storm blew through. We were soaked. It took them two hours to get the power back up. During that time, several of the acts who were to perform left.

When power was up, Rick Danko came out..he was totally wasted. He couldn’t sing, stumbling around, laughing, silly. If you saw the movie Festival Express and remember his duet with Janis Joplin, you’ll know how he was. They were playing his record over the PA. He was too wasted to even sing along. My friends and I were drenched and freezing so, when the music started, we started dancing to get warm. People in the crowd started throwing things at the stage and, because we were right up against the fence, we were getting pelted with all kinds of crap.

The roadies finally walked him off the stage, and they began setting up for Waylon. A few minutes later, Danko comes walking under the stage over to where we were. Says, “I wanna party with you guys! Everyone else was throwing shit at me but, you guys, you were DANCING!!!” He pulls out a joint and shares it with us, then staggers away. It was so very sad.

Tied for worst for entirely different reasons was a singer named Nora Struthers, I think. Hubster had been very sick, and this show was our first night out in five months. She was highly recommended by several friends, and we were at a small club owned by good friends. Folks..this woman spent the whole damn show playing with her hair. Her songs were good, and her band was great but, between every damn song she was rearranging her hair..up, down, ponytail..back down..knot..ponytail again.. At one point, I asked the server, who I know, if he would bring me some scissors so I could cut that damn ponytail off and we could get on with the show. She was quite talented but jeez..that hair thing..

[Hestia]

55. I have three worse shows - (1) Remember The Call & Burning Down the House?

MTV had sponsored a new faces in rock type of tour and The Call was high on MTV rotation, who totally sucked. All they had was Burning Down the House on a loop practically. But then there's more! The last group was Stevie Ray Vaughn & either Double Trouble or Triple Threat, before he was SRV. He totally blew us away! Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood there mesmerized at his playing! No one knew who he was, and everyone was asking who is that guy who can play guitar like that!

(2) Stevie Nicks headlined after leaving Fleetwood Mac - she left us waiting over 45 minutes to come on stage and she was drunk off her ass. Kept falling down off her heels especially when she tried to twirl. We got up and left after watching that FUBAR show after a couple of songs.

(3) We were at a club where we had paid $45 each to see Delbert McClinton. He played 3 songs and left. All of us we're huh? Is he coming back? No, he wasn't. His roadies broke down the stage, got everything on the tour bus and took off.

Needless to say, Stevie Nicks and Delbert McClinton both leave a bad taste in my mouth to this day.