The worst concert you ever attended

[dANdeLION]

Foghat, around '85. They weren't really bad or anything; it was just Lonesome Dave Peverett wasn't there for that tour, and without him it just wasn't the same. Also, Tony Stevens, the original bassist, and slide guitarist Rod Price had left the band by them, so it was pretty much the original drummer and a bunch of replacement musicians, and the drummer (Roger Earl) was having an off night. Bassist Craig MacGregor was rocking the place down, though; I just focussed on him. The opening act was Roxx Gang, and they sucked in the way only mid-80's wannabe hair bands can; like a Hoover that had been bitten by a radioactive Kirby.

[Relayer]

That's right, I forgot the Dylan concert I saw in 89... I swear I didn't understand one single word he mumbled all night. He played a bunch of well-known songs, but you wouldn't have known it. And it was so effin' loud I remember thinking, if this screws up my hearing for the ABWH concert the next night I'm really gonna be pissed.

[Cagliostro]

I'd have to say the worst experience was probably a Black Flag show at this little dive in Wichita, Kansas that I used to go to all the time. It was mainly because I was underage and they let underage in the place. But Black Flag came to town, the cops were ready and shut the show down before they could even play. Fire code violations. My sister's ex-husband did speak to Henry Rollins and he was asked to come along with them and be their photographer, but other than that, the place permanently got shut down after that, thus leaving me without a place to go for a while. Big drag.

[Cail]

Oh Gawd, I'd forgotten Dylan, Petty, and The Dead. The Concert of the Living Dead. Hot as Hell (RFK in July), and the music was just terrible.

[dANdeLION]

I'm purposely forgetting the hundreds of local acts I've seen and opened for, but now that I think about it, I did open for a supposedly national act, Alex Bach, and she was weak; way weaker than a Daveless Foghat. her band was okay, though; I came away from it thinking that they were compoetent musicians, but weren't really sure what style they were yet.

You can listen to her yourself if you want: music.download.com/alexbach/3600-8689_32-100001612.html

[The Laughing Man]

I think mine must have been Ted Nugent opening for Aerosmith back in the early 80's. Don't remember much about it, which is bad enough, but what I do remember was just bad. That's also when I first learned that girlfriends shouldn't eat hotdogs and drink massive wine before and during concerts, heh.

[onewyteduck]

So, do you get nauseated when you hear Ted Nugent?

[The Laughing Man]

I just can't stand the man or the "musician" anymore at all. State of Shock was the beginning of the end for him, unfortunately for us he didn't know it or wouldn't admit it. But on a positive note, we had our whole section to ourselves and didn't have to share our weed with anyone, heh.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Didn't he sink to doing reality tv recently?

[The Laughing Man]

Ted Nugent has absolutely nothing to do with reality.

[Relayer]

Oh Gawd, I'd forgotten Dylan, Petty, and The Dead. The Concert of the Living Dead. Hot as Hell (RFK in July), and the music was just terrible.

I saw that one at Anaheim... it was pretty good, once we got in. Actually, it was really good.

[Damelon]

That's right, I forgot the Dylan concert I saw in 89... I swear I didn't understand one single word he mumbled all night. He played a bunch of well-known songs, but you wouldn't have known it. And it was so effin' loud I remember thinking, if this screws up my hearing for the ABWH concert the next night I'm really gonna be pissed.

I was just thinking about seeing Dylan as being the worst, and I think it was in 89. He couldn't screw up my hearing because we were on the lawn at Poplar Creek, but I couldn't figure out what he was singing half the time either.

[Nav]

I've never been to a gig that I thought was actually bad, but my girlfriend did see the Stone Roses infamous gig at Reading, after John Squire and Reni had already left the band. The audio setup was terrible, the instruments sounded cacophanous and Ian Brown didn't have any foldback.

The band split immediately afterwards, but unfortunately the gig has tainted my girlfriend's opinion of both the Roses and Brown, to the point where she won't listen to them and that's a crying shame.

[Usivius]

Wow, some interesting choices for people!
I can't say I have ever been to a concert where the musicians let me down. However, the worst concert experience I had was (no, wait, there are two)..
#1: Fishbone 1990 (I think). It was in a small venue (love those), but the sound was SO LOUD I could not hear a damn thing. Really. It was absolutely nothing but white noise and the hammering of the base drum in my chest. That's it. It was shortly after that experience I brought earplugs with me just in case (and came in handy the next time they came a couple years later! same really bad sound).
I have been to MANY concerts of loud bands, and once standing right near an amp, but that one was half way in the back and still everything was insanely loud. I honestly don't know how people came out of there without ear damage.

#2. Mr. Bungle 1995 (I think). Again a great band in a small venue. The problem: the show was over an hour late. Sound problems apparently... still not sure. As a result, about 40 minutes in to the show, Mike Patton announces that they can only do about another 2 songs because they were late starting and that there was a frik'n techno band booked after them! Frik! so they did a 50 minute set! And they were SO TIGHT and SO ON I was so frik'n disappointed! Now, you would think this would set off a riot, but no, this is a good ol' Canadian city, so, once they finished and apologized (in an aggressive Patton way), everyone filed out in an orderly fashion, gumbling how short the damn concert was.

The next year they broke up as a band.

[Zarathustra]

THEN Guns and Roses came on 45 minutes after Metallica had left the stage. They came on and played ONE song, "Welcome to the Jungle." Then they left the stage for another FORTY FIVE MINUTES at which point they brought out a piano and Axl Rose came out and played shite for a freaking HOUR. We left as did most of the stadium and as we exited we heard the band play "Sweet Child of Mine" but it sounded horrible. I want ten bucks back and several hours of my life. I got most of my money's worth with Metallica and AIC. Guns and Roses owes me. Axl Rose needs to be beaten. Granted he is now a pathetic has been who f--ked up and lost the love of his fans and Stephanie Seymour but still. He should suffer. As I suffered while listening to his crap and having a screaming fan yelling, "off the f--king stage you f--king Liberace!" behind my head for an hour. Back in the early nineties 65 was ALOT of money to pay for tickets. I also say, sorry you f--ker dumbass jackass but hot gorgeous supermodels who are WAY out of your league don't date skinny ugly redheaded guys who do heroin. You had the potential and then you blew it. You are an ASS Axl Rose.

I had a very similar experience with GnR in the early 90s. They were touring with Skid Row. It was the Use Your Illusion tour. They were very, very late. We waited for like an hour after Skid Row. Finally they came on stage, played some decent renditions of their sloppy material, then Slash did this 15 minute guitar solo which included such rockin' covers as "Feelings" (yep, the 70s ballad). Then Axl did his piano thing right afterwards.

I don't know what the hell happened to GnR. They should have just stuck to sloppy rock. When UYI came out, suddenly they thought they were Led Zepplin, or something. They thought people actually wanted to hear them play 6 minute epic songs with "deep" lyrics, instead of catchy 3 minute ditties about heroin and pretty girls.

An interesting side note . . . one of my best friends was late to the concert, but that didn't matter because he still got there before they went on. But the funny thing was that he while he was passing someone on the interstate, a badass sports car flew up behind him, flashing its lights, honking its horn. Well, my friend is the kind of person who would f*ck with you if you did this to him (kind of like me ), so he stayed in the passing lane way too long to piss the guy off. Finally, after getting over, the guy in the badass sports car passed him, flipping him off out the sunroof until he was out of sight. But as he passed . . . he realized the guy looked just like the drummer for GnR.

Maybe that explains why they were late getting on the stage.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Wow, they did that more than once. Ugh.

[Cheval]

(Got to see the B-52s get booed off the stage back in the early 80's.)
But the worst concert for me was when I took my daughter, then 15 years old, to see
New Kids On The Block during a Christmas Tour.

Spoiler

(I'm getting sick to my stomach just thinking about it)
*makes a mad dash for the toilet*

[Chrysalis]

Deep Purple was the most disappointing for me.
I saw them a couple of years back and they just don't have the same wow factor as they used to.
Add that to the fact their support (Lynard Skynard) totally outplayed then in every way it wasn't a good show at all.

Muse was the most annoying though. I saw them support Live and Skunk Anansie - the attitude on stage held much to be desired.

[perpetualchange]

Metallica,like the music,but every song sounded the same.It wasn't until half-way through each song that I finally figured out what they were.Too loud also,came away with a sore back from the crushing throng all around me.None too pleasant.

[Sunbaneglasses]

I saw Megadeth open for Aerosmith in highschool, it was more like Megasuck and Aerosuck.