What was the best concert you’d ever been to?

[OCGuy81]

For me, it was seeing Tom Petty at the Red Rocks (great venue for the record!) in 2017 not too long before he died. 

He put on a really great show. Some bands/artists don't sound as good live but that sure wasn't the case with Petty

[ET21]

I worked a Brad Paisley concert a few years ago, was assigned to electric/power group with setup and takedown. That was probably one of my favorite builds and was awesome to see everything work during the show. The stage design was quite impressive

[kevinb1994]

RUSH at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ in 2015. Awesome set-list. Unfortunately, it was their last tour, aka R40.

[kphoger]

Tommy Emmanuel.  I've been to two of his concerts, but the best was at a bar in Chicago.

[JayhawkCO]

Jurassic 5/Beatnuts back in 2003 in Lawrence, KS.  Hip hop shows are always the most fun.

Chris

[Rothman]

Bootsy Collins.  Fun times.

[Takumi]

Korn in 2000, age 14. My first exposure to boobs. And weed, indirectly.

[jmd41280]

I've been to many very good concerts, so it's hard to pick just one. One that immediately comes to mind is Trans-Siberian Orchestra at PPG Paints Arena (then Consol Energy Center) in Pittsburgh in 2010.

[dlsterner]

Paul McCartney (Washington DC, 2010)

Honorable mentions:

The Rolling Stones (Washington DC, 1987 & Gainesville FL, 1996)
Elton John and Billy Joel (double bill) (Charlotte NC, 2009)
The Eagles and Jimmy Buffett (double bill) (Gainesville FL, 1980)

Many other excellent shows that I will always remember.  "Dinosaur Rock" forever!

[Finrod]

I didn't appreciate it as much at the time as I should, but the Boston tour for the 4th album, Walk On, was amazing for one reason:

THE PIPE ORGAN.

When it came time to play the Walk On medley, they raised up a freaking pipe organ behind the rest of the band.  The least portable instrument on the face of the earth and they're touring with one on a rock and roll show.  I can only imagine how much the roadies hated it.  And of course, Tom Scholz pulled out a cloak and they kicked in the dry ice fog, because if you already have a pipe organ, those are almost expected.

To this day I haven't seen anything more amazing than that, though I will admit that when Roger Waters toured The Wall, he put on an incredibly good show and there wasn't any way that I can think of that it could have been a better show (other than if the rest of Pink Floyd had been involved, but that wasn't going to happen).

[wriddle082]

1994, Pink Floyd, The Division Bell tour, Vanderbilt football stadium, Nashville, TN

I was a senior in HS.  The concert was on a Sunday night.  I convinced my dad to call me in sick for school the next day, as did my friends' parents.  Was the first big-name concert they ever had at the stadium.  Huge success for the stadium as it was a sellout and no major incidents, but the neighbors complained about the noise.  A couple of years later The Rolling Stones played there, and not only did they make the speakers quieter the neighborhood approved of the music more.  However that concert wasn't nearly as successful.  A few years later, the Titans' football stadium opened up, and those irritating Vanderbilt neighbors never had to complain about concert noise again.

[bwana39]

My favorite was Queen. 1980. Reunion Arena Dallas. Freddie was about ten feet from me. "Let me enter-tain you!" He did!
The second was quite the surprise 28 years later Stone Temple Pilots at EdgeFest 18 in Frisco.
The third was Boston at the Texxas Jam in 1979.

We went to over half of the Texxas Jams including the somehow mis-cast Styx show where 75+% of their show was a performance of Kilroy was Here as a rock opera.  There is an Irony to this. Styx did a handful of hits for their encore. My favorite live song performance was and is Renegade. Those of us who had endured it were wowed by the display JY and Tommy Shaw put on with Renegade (and to a lesser extent Blue Collar Man). I have seen Tommy Shaw with or without Styx five times. Renegade never has failed to impress. It clearly was the best when I saw Damn Yankees and when I saw him solo (as a warmup for Rush). Fact of business on the solo tour it was the ONLY memorable song.  Back to the '84 Jam. There was more booing than cheering for Styx.  Poison is the only other band I saw in the latter half of a Texxas Jam show lineup that wasn't great.

I didn't appreciate it as much at the time as I should, but the Boston tour for the 4th album, Walk On, was amazing for one reason:

THE PIPE ORGAN.

When it came time to play the Walk On medley, they raised up a freaking pipe organ behind the rest of the band.  The least portable instrument on the face of the earth and they're touring with one on a rock and roll show.  I can only imagine how much the roadies hated it.  And of course, Tom Scholz pulled out a cloak and they kicked in the dry ice fog, because if you already have a pipe organ, those are almost expected.

To this day I haven't seen anything more amazing than that, though I will admit that when Roger Waters toured The Wall, he put on an incredibly good show and there wasn't any way that I can think of that it could have been a better show (other than if the rest of Pink Floyd had been involved, but that wasn't going to happen).

Yep Tom and the organ are GREAT. 

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The Jon Anderson/Trevor Rabin/Rick Wakeman Yes in September 2017. Only sting was they didn't play my favorite song.

[ftballfan]

Queen + Adam Lambert in 2014 and 2017, both at the Palace of Auburn Hills
Fleetwood Mac in 2018 at Van Andel Arena (one of the very first shows with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell)
Elton John in 2016 at Van Andel Arena
Eagles in 2014 at Van Andel Arena (early in their last tour with Glenn Frey)
Garth Brooks in 2016 at Van Andel Arena (Garth played six shows in four nights!)

[OCGuy81]

Queen + Adam Lambert in 2014 and 2017, both at the Palace of Auburn Hills
Fleetwood Mac in 2018 at Van Andel Arena (one of the very first shows with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell)
Elton John in 2016 at Van Andel Arena
Eagles in 2014 at Van Andel Arena (early in their last tour with Glenn Frey)
Garth Brooks in 2016 at Van Andel Arena (Garth played six shows in four nights!)

My wife and her sister saw Garth Brooks a few years back and said he puts on an amazing concert. I was envious she got to see him live.

[ftballfan]

Queen + Adam Lambert in 2014 and 2017, both at the Palace of Auburn Hills
Fleetwood Mac in 2018 at Van Andel Arena (one of the very first shows with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell)
Elton John in 2016 at Van Andel Arena
Eagles in 2014 at Van Andel Arena (early in their last tour with Glenn Frey)
Garth Brooks in 2016 at Van Andel Arena (Garth played six shows in four nights!)

My wife and her sister saw Garth Brooks a few years back and said he puts on an amazing concert. I was envious she got to see him live.

I was at the concert at Notre Dame that was taped for a TV special. It was snowing that night!

[nexus73]

Black Sabbath at Memorial Coliseum in PDX on November 11, 1976.  Every song was just like the record except one. That was "Snowblind" with the live version being rocked up some, which made it better IMO.

I drove up there from the Coos Bay OR area in my 1966 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, which was set up with an FM/8-track plus FM preamp plus two 8" speakers in the door that used custom made wood rings to mount on. 

Those were the days my friend, I thought they would never end...

Rick

[epzik8]

I saw Foreigner at Pier 6 in Baltimore in 2013. Their set was musically diverse, with one, "Say You Will", being in an acoustic arrangement. There was a keyboard solo and then a drum solo in the middle. They brought Mick Jones on a few songs in. They encouraged audience participation greatly.

[jp the roadgeek]

A few of my favorites

Grateful Dead: Saw them 16 times but my favorites were 7/16/90 Rich (now Bills) Stadium with CSN opening, and 6/17/91 Giants Stadium.

Rolling Stones: 10/20/97 Foxboro Stadium and 9/28/02 Giants Stadium

Pink Floyd: Foxboro Stadium 5/19/94

Neil Young solo acoustic: Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, CT 4/26/99

[kphoger]

I also once sat about five yards away from Arlo Guthrie.  This was at Croce's Restaurant & Bar in the Gaslamp district of San Diego–which had been opened by Ingrid Croce after her husband's death to fulfil a dream they'd had, but which has since closed.

My parents and I were on vacation in San Diego, noticed a flyer in the window of a bar advertising Arlo Guthrie in concert the following day, laughed about how there was no way there were any tickets left, then went in and found out there actually were.  The only downside is that he had just finished doing a recording session of Alice's Restaurant and was therefore sick of it for a while, so he refused to play it that day.

[frankenroad]

"Best" concert is so hard to define.   Here are some of the ones I best remember attending.

My first - Jimi Hendrix in 1968.

Biggest - the Beach Boys on the Mall in Washington DC - July 4, 1980

Best music - Dave Brubeck with the Cincinnati Pops, sometime around 1998.

As a choral singer, I have participated in many concerts - the most memorable was when we performed Dan Forrest's "Requiem for the Living" at Carnegie Hall in January, 2016.

[Mapmikey]

For someone who is 51, I have been to very few concerts...

Foreigner - 1986
REM/10,000 Maniacs - 1989
Chet Atkins - 1990 (as part of a Garrison Keillor show)
Hootie and the Blowfish with Faith Hill/Tim MgGraw on back-to-back nights at the Saturn (car company) Homecoming 1999
Ray Charles - 2000
Simon and Garfunkel - 2003

The last two were my best experiences...

[Scott5114]

I couldn't help but notice almost all the "best concert" thread entries (including mine) were people seeing past-prime classic rock acts in the last 15 years. Says a lot about today's live performances.

I'll offer one that isn't, then, despite the fact that my taste tends to be toward past-prime classic rock acts–my wife dragged me down to Arlington, Texas for a Panic! at the Disco and Fall Out Boy concert. The opening act was a band I had never heard of called Twenty One Pilots, whose pianist nervously mentioned between songs that this was the largest crowd they had ever played for and they appreciated our enthusiasm. A few years later they were on national radio. Of the two headliners, I enjoyed Panic! more, because they had a lot more energy and stage presence despite (because of?) not having all the typical concert set pieces and theatrics (those were reserved for Fall Out Boy).

Also I got to use I-30 for the first time, so it was a fun trip.

[originally posted in the wrong thread]

[bugo]

Lots of boomers posting in this thread.

[bugo]

I have been to a bunch of good shows, and it would be impossible to pick just one, but here are some of the highlights:

Pearl Jam
Metallica (x2)
Nine Inch Nails
Failure (x2)
The Prodigy
Tricky
Tool (3x)
Puscifer (2x)
A Perfect Circle
Tori Amos (x2)
Iron Maiden (x2)
BT (x2)
Smashing Pumpkins (5x+WPC solo 1x)
Deftones (5x)
Paul McCartney
Foo Fighters (x2)
Judas Priest

I've been to a bunch more, but these are some of the artists you might have heard of.