Worst live gig you ever saw, and where was it?

OK, so this is a shameless plug for my Lonely Planet group, Rockin' All Over the World, but since things are a bit quiet in Culture Vulture land, I figured now was as good a time as any to get bitching...

What's the worst gig you ever experienced and where was it?

Anyone out there had the misfortune to witness Whitney Houston squawking her heart out in Brisvegas recently? Maybe a crowd-surfer landed on your head at a Ramones concert in São Paulo, turning what could've been a ripper gig into a night of agonised hell? Or perhaps you went to see The Strokes...anywhere...and fell asleep from the dullness of it all.

My worst gig was in Perth, 1989... come on over to my group to read more and share your musical war stories!

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/groups/rockin-world</a>

Catch ya,
Suzy

Moody Blues - Chicago Stadium...1974 maybe? it was so boring we left

Beach Boys - Chicago Stadium I think, maybe The Amphitheater, can't remember - had to be somewhere '75 to '77 - they never showed up - we did get rain checks and went back another night but by those years Denny was too sick (read that as strung out) to sit at his drums for very long - my sister had the same experience in Long Beach in the same time frame - such a shame

James Brown, at Princeton my junior year.

They brought in one big-name act a year to play on campus. That year, it was him--I had a classmate who knew the guy and convinced him to come. Thing is, Brown is the sort of performer that needs a warm-up act, and they didn't book one. The set was very short, and started very late. Also, by the mid-90's when this was happening, Brown was a little past his prime.

--M.

Nirvana, Mayfair Ballroom, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A bad night

Fabulous, Riverside, Newcastle - no support, 28 minute set, two sides of A4 for guest list, first ones walked out after two songs.

Very well known vocalist on an off night - Newcastle City Hall. Walking out started after a few songs. My then partner went down to the bar and spotted an equally well known band having drinks rather than watching someone who was playing a smaller than average gig for someone of his stature in the music business!!

One great night was Ian Gillan at Riverside in Newcastle - Smoke as the encore, Housemartins, Fary Numan, The Mission and Youssou N'Dour at the same venue - again, great nights. Fatboy Slim at Newcastle University - cracking night and a 3 hour set...

I once saw Twister Sister open for Iron Maiden. They were just absolutely terrible. Booed off the stage, stuff thrown at them. Just a train wreck.

"rather than watching someone who was playing a smaller than average gig for someone of his stature in the music business!!"

I'm the reverse, I prefer the smaller more intimate venues - it's almost always a good show for me when I can catch someone like that without having to fight the massive crowds

M.I.A. -- in Providence, RI a couple years ago.

I liked M.I.A.'s records enough, but in person any sort of "music" was drowned out by her atonal cries and very loud gunshot sounds. I wasn't the only person who walked out.

I also prefer the smaller gigs - only acts that I've seen that worked in larger venues were The Rolling Stones, David Lee Roth, The Mission and Paul Young. At one point I used to go to Riverside in Newcastle up to four nights a week and City Hall at least once a month. Did manage to see both Sting and Dire Straits there and if you get some very good software out, you might spot me on the video for Iron Maiden's Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter which was shot at City Hall.

I think my worst ever gig was the opening band for Gong's appearance in Baltimore, Maryland in about 1996. The lyrics were waay too pretentious, rubbing me the wrong way, and all too easy to understand, and the music left me unmoved. We started repeating Spinal Tap lyrics in between songs. I turned my back to the stage for the last half of their set. I even asked Gong's crew at the merch table how long the openers were going to be on because I couldn't take it any more and there was no end in sight. I didn't want to leave the club because I would have lost my spot fairly close to the stage.

Seeing Sweet in Richmond, Virginia, in 1976 was quite a disappointment too, but that was partly my expectations going in to the concert.

Britney Spears - this year in Sydney - can't believe I'm actually admitting that I went. Not sure it would be considered live though seeing as she lip synched her way through

1) Triumph, Toronto 77, tiny venue: I was only there to show our newest member whom I'd brought along (a world-class player from Brazil), that our own band could compete. Right on cue, Triumph fell apart during their rendition of Zep's blues cover 'Nobody's Fault But Mine'. It was the quintessential train wreck. Much as I despised their Corporate Rock, I felt sorry for Triumph. It was pathetic.
2) It gives me no pleasure to report on this one 'coz I actually quite like him. We saw Robin Trower in '76 inflict a hissy fit on his audience over disatisfaction with the PA. My brother's pal was actually backstage and witnessed the prelude. Too bad. Robin was definitely better than that. As a result, newcomer opening act Boston absolutely blew him away.
3) For sheer pretentious bullshit, the Battered Wives 'punk' band (Toronto '77) might just take the prize. Punk was born of Brit working class youthful angst. Period. For middle-class Canadians from the 'burbs, whose daddy was possibly the VP of some big business, to pose as a punk act was just silly. One even used a phony English accent! I am done. The End.

Punk was born of Brit working class youthful angst. Period.

The Ramones inspired the early British punk bands. Their July 1976 tour of Britain kickstarted punk in that country.

but the Brits had the fuel to keep it going - punk here was more of a rebellion against the overbloated, over formulated, over ego-ized closed society music empire that rock had become in the US - born of angst but not so much social and political since we had a pretty good life here in the mid/late 70s by comparison - it would have been a flash in the pan here if the Brits hadn't had real angst with what was going on economically and politically there to fan the flame and keep it burning - like so many other US inventions we didn't really know what to do with it so we sold it off to another country for development :-)

That's all true, Hats. We offshored punk rock ...

hehe - we did, didn't we - never thought of it like that before - at least it left an opening for us to move on to Boy Bands - yippee skippy

I liked "boy bands" like Minor Threat and Black Flag ... and Flipper.

Edited by: peromyscus

I have a "thing" for the Pegboy boys myself - now that's a boy band I could, erm, sink my teeth into

Hee hee. I remember reading about them, but I never saw them.

Peromyscus, I'm with you on Sweet. They were a surprise (no previous announcement) opener for Journey in Buffalo in '77. I was there to make a live recording for ahem...posterity and taped both acts surreptitiously. Sweet were drunk/high and mediocre. They were also unnecessarily vulgar and rude towards the audience. Their contempt came through like an endless tsunami. Listening to the tape afterwards was like hearing a bunch of spoiled showbiz brats complain about working conditions. Later, we discovered that some original members had left the band just prior.
P.S. My bootlegging history came back to me karma-wise in recent years: someone stole the title of one of my original songs written in the '70s and used it for a TV show title: 'Vanity Insanity'.

Hey thanks for all the replies - I forgot about this post after I wrote it, so I'm glad to see it took on a life of its own.

Someone mentioned James Brown playing at their highschool (wow!) - well, check this out - it's ? & the Mysterians (of "96 Tears" fame) playing at some US school in the late 90s - now, this would've been a corker of a gig to witness. Thirty years on from his hey day and the man is still a legend...talk about ageing disgracefully!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdfM6I-Cjs4&feature=related</a>

I still have the 45

Someone mentioned James Brown playing at their highschool (wow!)

At #2? That was me, and that was not high school but Princeton--a university which, as much as us non-elitist Princetonians (and that's the majority) try to gloss over this fact, has a lot of money to throw around.

The vocabulary of US university education resembles how high school is described elsewhere, so I understand the confusion.

--M.

Oops, sorry Mr Penney - I hadn't had my morning coffee when I responded, so the misunderstanding was completely my fault. D'oh.
And Hatsephsut, you're so lucky! Does this mean you were around in the day? Did you ever see ? and his band in action?

I was around, but not old enough to be going to shows - still, I had two older sisters - I used to tag along to the record store and we'd buy 45s with our allowance once a week when the new Top 40 Chart was released - they had copies of the charts in the stores, it was a big deal back then - this is after we were over going to the Ben Franklin and loading up on penny candy with our allowance - we came across some of the old charts a few years ago, I think my sisters have them

we started going to shows around 11 or 12 but I never did see them live - I took my kids to their first shows when they were around that age - don't remember my son's but my Daughter's was an all ages Rancid show at the Riv when she was 12

That's pretty cool - I bet she boasts about that to her friends. My first concert was (cough) Spandau Ballet. Not something I'm very proud of. Oh, to have had groovy parents! :-)

well, yes and no - someone moshed into her pretty badly when I purposely went to the 2nd level away from the mosh so we'd be out of it - I wasn't happy about it and took them to task, I had the bruises for weeks - my son on the other hand gave me the thumbs up and still likes to tease me about it - but that, my darlings, is why we wear our leather and boots to a Rancid show - a lesson learned they never forgot

my first show was Mason Proffit and the backup band was a then as yet unknown REO Speedwagon - my parents dropped us off and picked us up - I wore a marvy red paisley overall style bell bottom pants thingy

I'm not sure I was groovy so much as I was protective - I figured they'd be going at some point anyway and I was more comfortable with the idea of me showing them the ropes myself before letting them out of the cage

I have a hazy recollection of being in a shopping center parking lot in Arlington Virginia when I was 10 and a loud band was playing. Whoever it was, that was my first live gig.

You're a cool mom, Hats.

My first gig (if you could even call it that) was New Kids On The Block. I was about 8. I made up for it somewhat by seeing Michael Jackson a few years later (though it was at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the sound was shite).

one of my worst gigs for reasons having nothing to do with the actual gig was Blue Oyster Cult and Rush at the Aragon Ballroom back in some part of the 70s - the guys I went with had discovered Blackberry Brandy, that's all I heard about on the way there - the ride home was a nightmare, it had to have taken 4 hours for a 40 minute drive - I doubt they ever drank Blackberry Brandy again - I can't complain too much though, I got years of enjoyment out of mentioning Blackberry Brandy at every embarassing opportunity

one of the more impressive gigs I've been to was Three Days Grace - when we got there they had like 12 or 16 guitars on stage, I thought "this is going to be bad" - but man, they had it down to a science - never skipped a beat or farted around during a changeup - there was a technical difficulty at one point NOT having to do with a guitar changeup and the bass player did a thing playing with a power tool and kept the show going - the music was tight, there was no BS and gabbing between songs, the guys just slammed it - I like their music too - dark and some downer lyrics but somehow very uplifting at the same time