For me it was Wolfmother at a major German festival. I didn’t really know them before and did not expect too much, but was totally blown away by their performance.
I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the Skeleton Tree tour on the first night of tour. This was shortly after Nick’s son had died in a tragic accident where he had fallen off a cliff. It was quite obvious he was deeply grieving but needed to be on stage to begin healing.
It felt like during the first song that the whole audience was keeping him alive and singing with our collective breathing, like the whole room was breathing as one person and holding him aloft with our breath? It’s a bit hard to describe, but like we were holding his hand across a tightrope. Then after a song or two he found a groove and began being the Nick Cave we all know, and began moving like a jaguar across the stage the way he does and doing his Nick Cave things (if you know you know). He didn’t talk much but it was pretty clear it was giving him some of his life back. I’ve seen him three times since, and he’s back to his funny self despite the loss of another son in that time, but I’ve never lost the feeling when I see him that the audience keeps him afloat. It’s pretty special. Also listening to and reading about him talk about grief has helped a lot of people.
Queen, news of the world tour, opening with “we will rock you”. Second is ELO and Kansas with a deadly laser light show. Nothing else has come close. I am old.
I’ve really only been to a bare handfull of live performances, but the one that stands out was Blues Traveller. Their second album had just come out and one of the guitar players turned 21 at the show. Proceeded to play the fastest version of Johnny B. Goode I’ve ever heard in my life.
This was, Jesus, 30 years ago now? 1991… so shit… 33 years ago.
I caught Thursday doing the 20 years tour for Full collapse, they played full collapse one night then war all the time the next.
It was the lead singers birthday and collectively we as the crowd sang him the most enthusiastic happy birthday ever.
At the end of the set his girlfriend came out PISSED because she’d planned to ask us to sing it to him while they dropped balloons, we had no energy left and it was basically just a crowd barely chanting it. He called it “the funeral birthday song”
Not my best show, but related and hilarious.
Cage the Elephant honestly puts on an incredible show.
Beach House is transportative
But I think Sigur Rós is an altogether different experience. They are so so good live. I’ll be seeing them later this year when they have their full orchestra and I’m so excited.
We saw Cage the Elephant and while it was memorable, it was more weird than good. Basically the least sexy strip tease you can imagine, he started out in lots of clothes, layers of clothes like two pairs of pants on top of each other and ended up in running shorts - at one point awkwardly wriggling out of skinny jeans, even. They sounded great but it was kind of awful, like someone had gotten way too high and thought “you know what would be a good idea?”
Last time I saw them was right after their Social Cues album came out. The singer first came out in a black and white stripey outfit, then halfway through came out in a skin suit that was the color of his skin so that it made him look like he was naked.
I honestly thought he gave out awesome energy and they sounded amazing.
So hard to decide.
Most impactful was probably seeing Above and Beyond at one of the Wonderland festivals. They were the last band to play and did their group therapy stuff. And sure, part of it was probably the drugs, but On a Good Day really connected with me.
Most fun might be Bad Religion. The concert was great and all, but I was in California and my friend in Chicago told me they had an extra ticket so I flew out to go to the concert with him. Probably spent $350 on flights for a $35 concert ticket.
Then there was Panic at the Disco last year. It’s my girlfriend’s favorite band and I very much enjoy them. Now Im living in Chicago, so I flew out to California and drove with her to Las Vegas for the concert. It was one of our earlier dates once we decided to be more serious.
Best performance might have been the Adicts. It was a small venue, but gorram did they have such an incredible time.
A&B sounds amazing! My answer would be similar, but with Phish… Hard to say what was just the drugs, but definitely some great moments at those shows.
I’ve seen them a few times, but nothing has ever matched that first time.
I was going through depression and having a really rough time during that period of my life, went to the festival with friends that I got separated from. Which didn’t bother me, they were putting out some negative vibes. The ecstacy had me feeling super empathetic and connected with everyone. And then they close out their set with On A Good Day. And dude, it felt like me on a good day. It resonated with me to the center of my soul.
It started a period where I was going to raves solo pretty regularly, became a kandi kid, and would always meet random people when I went. I had one show that I met a guy who snuck in, was kind of sketch, but we had a good time. After the show, I had gotten home when he called saying he was stranded with no way to get back. And ya know what, I drove back and picked his ass up. It was like an hour drive and 5 am, but man, I was all about that PLUR life. Even wore kandi that said ohana on it all the time. Never saw him again after that night, but I learned to love the short friendships I made at those shows. They were all the more beautiful knowing they were temporary.
