Your Top 5 Concert Moments

[LunaPooka]

Inspired by a recent viewing of the movie High Fidelity, what follows is my personal top 5 concert moments. This list is somewhat autobiographical in that most of these moments relate to a life event in some way and therefore affected me in a very special way. These are concert moments not entire concerts, with one exception, as there are many other shows that I enjoyed from beginning to end. Post your list!


#5
John Prine, Bonnaroo 2005

John Prine made it rain. He called down a thunderstorm. He began a song with the words "Let's see if we can bring on this storm." and just after the final note of the song there was a clap of thunder and the gentle drum of rain on the roof. It was the first time I had seen this guy on stage and he blew away all my expectations. He gave the crowd what they wanted with all the energy and enthusiasm you would expect from a young man, only John Prine is at least in his 70's. Talk about knowing how to rock.



#4
The Redwalls, Clayton, MO, unsure of exact date, 2006?

An accidental radio announcement lead to me hearing about a "house show" in Clayton featuring The Redwalls. I was able to jot the number down quickly and call the host. He was very nice and accommodating and agreed to reserve spaces for Chris and I. Chris was unable to get off work so I went alone. I sat on the back porch before the show started, since I was still a smoker and chatted with some people who had way more money than I will ever have. Also sitting outside smoking were the Redwalls, I casually chatted with the band before the show and then watched them play in someone's dining room. It was awesome.



#3
Wilco's Homecoming Shows, St. Louis, 2008

After my first year of nursing school was an emotional time for me. I was worn out and tired but extremely proud of myself. Just in time for the end of the semester came Wilco's 3 night Homecoming. For 3 nights in a row we went to the Pageant to watch Wilco rock the house and it was totally worth it each and every day. I decompressed, danced and relaxed to one of my favorite bands in history. Got to hear some songs from Mermaid Avenue and some oddities like "Bob Dylan's 49th Beard"



#2
The Avett Brothers, St. Louis, September 2010

The first leg of our honeymoon was a VIP package. A room at the Moonrise Hotel and tickets to see the Avett Brothers at the Pageant. I made a sign that said "Just Married" on one side and "Play Swept Away" on the other. We were in the front and center of the balcony so that the crowd behind us could see both sides as a switched the sign from side to side. Finally, I was fairly sure that one of them had seen the sign. The encore included "Murder in the City" which was one I didn't expect them to play. Then they did it. They played "Swept Away" and the entire center section of the balcony cheered for us and watched us dance. Epic.



#1
The Flaming Lips, Bonnaroo 2010

The morning of the Flaming Lips performance began when I woke up in my tent with the smell of car exhaust heavy in the air. I quickly climbed out and found my neighbor running her car to sleep in the air conditioning. I was terrified and scared. I came closer to death that day than I had at any other time in my life. It would have been a pointless and tragic way to die and put me face to face with my own mortality.

When the Flaming Lips played "Do You Realize" late that night, I was overcome. I melted in a puddle of my fragile existence. When the song and their set was over, I called my soon to be husband and told him how much I loved him.

[billypilgrim]

1. Talking Heads - Greek Theatre (Berkeley) 1983 - During the tour that got filmed for Stop Making Sense. One of my favorite bands at my favorite venue.

2. Tom Waits and the Kronos Quartet - Bridge School Benefit; Shoreline Amphitheatre (Mountain View, CA) - Mesmerizing from start to finish. Neil Young, My Morning Jacket, and Jerry Lee Lewis also on the bill, but this was the highlight.

3. Radiohead - Bonnaroo 2006

4. George Porter's Midnight Jam - B.B. King's (NY), approx. 2001 -- George Porter, Jr., Bernie Worrell, Topaz, June Yamagishi, and others funkin' it up until dawn.

5. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Oakland Coliseum Arena 1980.

[Bishop]

Moments? Man, I don't know... it would have to include;

Alison Krauss sending chills up my spine with her vocals on "Trampled Rose", from her set with Robert Plant at Bonnaroo 2008

Radiohead doing "Exit Music (For A Film)" at Bonnaroo in 2006. You could hear a pin drop in the crowd during the first half... unbelievable moment.

Seeing and meeting Johnathan Richman in Asheville in 2008, one of the most "real" performances I've ever seen, if that makes any sense.

Meeting Edward Ka Spel after an amazing Legendary Pink Dots show in 2008.

Nine Inch Nails performing "Hurt" at Bonnaroo 2009. Though, I'd seen the song a few times before that show, this was just an unreal performance and atmosphere for this one was unlike anything else.

[Jello Biafra]

5. Radiohead Atlanta 2008. I had never been a huge fan up to then, even after the '06 Bonnaroo show but it clicked for me that night. AND THEN THEY PLAYED TALK SHOW HOST.

4. Warped Tour 2001. We didn't get too many national punk shows down here up until that point and then they all came and played for one day. I was ecstatic.

3. The Flaming Lips Bonnaroo 2003.

2. Phish I'll throw a couple in here. My first show 2009/06/10. Bruce Springsteen taking the stage with them at Bonnaroo. MPP 46 Days 2009/08/15. 2010 Summer Tour. Charleston N2 2010/10/16

1. The first concert I ever attended was with my father in 1997. I was 12 and he took me to the last show at this old punk venue here in Nashville called Lucy's. It had been there for 20 something years. He had gone there when he was in college. Epic for a little kid to see 5 foot superglued green mo hawks.

[cdevaney]

5. Goo Goo Dolls in Buffalo, NY (07/04). Yes, I lose cool points on this one. Though the band was long-removed from their punky Jed-era days, as a Buffalo guy I've always held an attachement for the Goos. I happened to be home when they were filming a free show on the steps of City Hall for a DVD so I checked it out. Great opening sets from Ani DiFranco and Hammel on Trial punctuated with rain that seemed to be gone by the time the band took the stage. A gew songs in, though, the water was so deep in the street that it was over the curbs. At some point every camera and most of the equipment stopped working. Electric numbers were stripped down to a single accoustic guitar. It was a fun, memorable time. (Though I wish that the setlist focused more on their back catalogue.)

4. Guns N' Roses (opening for Aerosmith) in Saratoga, NY (7/88). The summer I moved from pop to rock. Discovered Hendrix & Zeppelin, Def Leppard & Guns N' Roses. The show is a blur to me now but it altered the course of my life at the time.

3. Fishbone & Primus in Columbus, OH (10/91). This is as much about the road trip from Rochester, NY to Columbus (via Binghamton, NY) as the show itself. Back before Fishbone kind of went off the rails.

2. Pearl Jam in Saratoga, NY (08/92). A general admission amphitheatre show with the band riding the flannel wave. All hell broke lose when we were swamped by a monsoon and the crowd surged under the shell to get out of the rain. The band really fed off of the atmosphere and put in an electric performance.

1. U2 in Hamilton, ON (10/01). The whole experience was a bit surreal with an almost desolate border crossing, curious yet empathetic Canadians and a very emotional performance from the band.

[NothingButFlowers]

I'm not so good with dates, so I'm not even going to try. All of these were in Atlanta, except the Echo Project, which was just south of there.

1. David Byrne - Chastain Amphitheatre - when he played "Heaven," I almost cried.

2. Zappa Plays Zappa - The Variety Playhouse - the first show I ever went to by myself and just generally one of my favorite shows I ever went to at all.

3. Daniel Johnston - The Variety Playhouse - I've never seen anybody mean it more.

4. The Polyphonic Spree - The Echo Project - Just pure happy.

5. That 1 Guy - The 5 Spot - I hadn't heard any of his music or seen any clips of him before going to the show, so I had no idea what to expect. It was such an amazing surprise to see such talent and originality.

[Ally]

5. Huey Lewis and The News - Mystic Lake Casino - 2006: This was my first concert so it has a special place in my heart. I was obsessed with the movie Back to the Future and I loved the song "The Power of Love". I was thrilled when they played it. I remember that there were two couples in front of us who were best friends and they dressed in 80's fashion. The guys wore tight jeans and tight t-shirts while the girls permed their hair and put them up with scrunchies. They wore bright colored leggings and had on purple and hot pink shirts. It was hilarious. The band was awesome and played all their hits.

4. Wilco - Rochester, MN - May, 2008: I had never seen Wilco before and missed them at Bonnaroo 2007. When I heard they were going to be playing an hour from me, I jumped online and was able to buy two tickets for $5 on eBay. I thought they were going to be bad seats but they ended up being in the balcony close to the stage. Perfect view. Tweedy kept making fun of a couple in the front row who were making out during the entire concert. It was a fun night.

3. Bob Dylan - Clemson, SC - October, 2007: I had just moved to Augusta, GA with my cousin in September and I hated it there. I let my cousin find an apartment before I got down there and she picked the most disgusting apartment I have ever seen. It was in a crime ridden neighborhood and I think the neighbors were NO NO WORD!!! dealers. Right before I moved, I had heard that Bob was going to be doing a concert in Clemson. I decided not to go because I didn't want to go alone and I wasn't sure if my cousin would like Bob Dylan. Well, my cousin decided to spend the night at her boyfriend's place that weekend so I decided WTH and bought a ticket to see Bob. I didn't want to spend the day in the gross apartment. It was a three hour drive through the gorgeous mountains of SC. I saw the coolest things on the way to the concert. I got to the concert venue and they made me park in a field. Kids were in the trees smoking pot and there were old hippies laying around the field eating supper that they brought with them. I went to will call and picked up my ticket and got in line. The two people in line in front of me were talking about Bonnaroo and how they saw Bob there in 2004. It made me smile hearing them mention Bonnaroo. I got inside and found my seat - 5th row center - perfect. Elvis Costello and Amos Lee were openers and they were amazing. Bob was in top form. It was the first time I had seen him play guitar and he wasn't too bad. Just Like a Woman was a sing along and the entire place was singing. John Brown gave me shivers and the entire place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Driving back to Georgia after the concert was fun. It was dark out so everything looked different. I didn't have a GPS or a map so it was like a maze trying to get back.

2. Bonnaroo 2008: I went solo this year and was front row or second row for just about every band I saw. Levon Helm, Robert Randolph, Phil Lesh acoustic set, Metallica, Superjam, BB King, My Morning Jacket (only saw one song but it was great), Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson, Widespread Panic, The Raconteurs, Stephen Marley - a tons more that I can remember. I even had fun waiting for Kanye West and his show was so stupid that I laughed through the entire thing. It was one of the best weekends of my life.

1. Bob Dylan - University of Minnesota - Northrop Auditorium - Election Night 2008: This was the best concert moment of my life. It was the first time Bob Dylan played at the University of Minnesota since he attended college there in the early 60's. It was also the first time a black man was elected President of the United States. My parents begged me not to go - they told me it was too dangerous. I went anyways. I voted before I left and I had my "I voted" sticker on as well as my Obama pin. I got to the auditorium five minutes before the concert was suppose to start. People were hanging out on the front steps waiting to go inside. Everyone seemed to be in a really good mood. I got into the lobby and there was a big screen TV with election results. I was able to get inside and find my seat. I was 3rd row center. I had never been to the UofM or inside Northrop but it was a gorgeous auditorium. The guy next to me asked if I had voted for Obama and I showed him my pin. He pulled out his new fancy phone (he told me he had just bought it) and brought up the election results and showed them to me. Results were starting to come in and Obama was winning. The guy in front of us turned around and wanted to see the results too. He showed us election results on his phone between songs during the concert. All of a sudden, the lights went down and Bob came out. He played mostly protest songs which is something he doesn't do very often these days. The crowd was crazy! When he played The Times They Are A Changin' the entire crowd went apeshit. The crowd cheered during Tangled Up in Blue when Bob sang "There's a revolution in the air". When Bob came out for the encore, he skipped onto the stage. He was in a really good mood. He even talked to the crowd and said a few words about Obama. When he introduced the band, he mentioned that his bassist Tony had an Obama pin on. The encore was Like A Rolling Stone and Blowin' in the Wind. It was the best Blowin' that I've ever heard. After the concert, I got into the lobby and McCain and Palin were making their losing speech on the big screen TV. Everyone in the lobby was cheering and dancing and telling Palin to go back to Alaska. It was an unreal experience. I got to the steps outside the auditorium and there was a drum circle on the plaza. People were dancing and chanting. Even though it was November in Minnesota it was almost 70 degrees. As I was driving through Dinky Town, people were even dancing in the streets. I'll never forget that amazing night.

[dreamingtree]

^^^^ This. The Bob Dylan experience sounds like an awesome night That made me smile.

[dreamingtree]

1. Grateful Dead at RFK Jul 13, 1989. My first Dead show. We had GA tickets and I remember standing in the middle of the field just awestruck by the colors, the people, the good vibes and of course the music. It was really the day I discovered the joy of the experience of seeing live shows.

2. Tool at Bonnaroo 2007. The whole show was just amazing, but the moment they started played Aenima totally gave me goosebumps.

3. The Avett Brothers at Bonnaroo 2010. My first Avett's show, with a bunch of awesome girls, dancing and singing in the rain to Talk on Indolence - great times ;D

4. Phish at Big Cypress 1999/2000. Just the whole experience was mind blowing for me. I took my daughter who was 8 at the time, and she still talks about it.

5. Pearl Jam at Bonnaroo 2008. My first Pearl Jam show and the whole thing was amazing. I had tears in my eyes when they played Black. It's one of the few shows I've got to experience with my husband where he enjoyed the show as much as I did.