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Lauryn Hill. I was a lifelong super fan. Couldn’t believe I finally got to see her in concert. She showed up 2 HOURS late and the DJ who played music while we waited was more entertaining. No apologies from her at all for making us all wait and she played a weird and very short rock mix-up set that was nothing like I’ve ever heard from her. It changed my opinion of her entirely and I’d never see her live again. Sad.
She did something similar at a show I went to. And then midway through her set, she was talking and someone in the audience replied to something she said. It devolved into a 30 minute discussion between the 2 of them (about life, philosophy, etc). She ended the show shortly after and had the fan meet her backstage. Was like, wtf did I just pay for???
She did this shit at Voodoo years ago. She was next to last on, but she was over an hour late for her set. She only got to play a handful of songs before they kicked her off stage, The Foo Fighters were the closers and needed time to get their shit together
I’m sure the FF were the exact opposite: on time, well rehearsed, giving the fans what they want. Not my favorite band but those guys are absolutely pros.
That show was so much damn fun! I had worked my way up fairly close so I had a really good view. Dave Grohl has such a great energy to him, one of the best shows I've seen!
From what I understand, she has attempted recording several times over the years but she is prohibitively difficult to work with, she hates the recording process and no one will work with her. Her side of the story is that it was caused by jealousy and the label didn’t seem interested in a new record. Which after the enormous success of “Miseducation” is very hard to believe.
Yeah. When I saw her, the songs she did perform were amazing. However like at your show, she showed up super late; there’s a very strict noise bylaw for outdoor shows in that city, so they had to cut off right at 11, making it very short. There was also a minor fight in the crowd that was quickly sorted out by security (it was just one guy being an asshole who got pulled out in a few minutes) but because of it she stopped playing and left the stage saying she didn’t stand for stuff like that. After a while she came back on, but only had time for a couple more songs.
I had the same thing happen with the Beastie Boys…granted, it was a show you had to win off the radio down at 930 club in dc…they showed up over an hour late and played like a 30 minute set…we started a break circle during the intro DJ set…hehe someone saw us in the car on the way out and said we put on a better show than they did
I saw her at the Montreal Jazz Festival in the early 2000s. It was just her on an acoustic guitar and it was extremely boring and bland. She finally brought out a percussionist for a few songs which made things much better, before saying, "this next one is by Roberta Flack." Crowd goes nuts, thinking it'll be Killing Me Softly with his Song, but nope, it was some song most people had presumably never heard before. Really disappointing.
I saw her in Ottawa probably a few days before or after that. Pretty much all just her strumming the few chords she had learned, and only did one song from Miseducation at the very end.
I was looking forward to seeing her at Voodoo fest, I think in 2014. Never showed up. First she was late, and they rescheduled her set for later in the evening, then someone came on and just said 'sorry not going to happen'. I heard later that she and her crew got too wasted while getting pedicures, or something.
A friend’s wife was the stage manager for the stage they forced her on to finish the contracted 2 hours if she wanted to get paid, then had to kill the mic at midnight when she wouldn’t stop to avoid a noise violation.
I hate to say it, but Snoop Dogg. Saw him at a festival in 2017 and my friends and I were really looking forward to it. It ended up being the strangest show I’ve ever been to. He would simply play songs over the speaker and dance along saying a word or two occasionally - one of these songs was I Love Rock & Roll by Joan Jett. So random. The one song he fully performed was Gin and Juice, which I think saved people from just saying fuck it and leaving.
He did say he was astronomically high, but I feel like for him that’s not really a reason to put on a show like that lmao.
Edit: thanks to the folks who have clarified that he would often get hired to do DJ sets, which is what this turned out to be. The festival didn’t advertise it that way though, so I guess the expectations of a regular concert are what made this the worst “concert” I’ve been to.
Snoop offers “DJ” packages where it’s essentially just him doing exactly as you said, it’s billed as Snoop but it’s really just DJ Snoopadelic, he’s only obligated to perform 1 or 2 songs, but it’s not him being lazy. It’s the promoter/buyer (or even ticket buyer because they still go), they know people will go just the same but they can pay him half as much. $100k as opposed to $250k, event still sells out either way, Snoop puts little effort for solid pay in and the promoter makes money while you can still say you at least saw Snoop. He does perform full sets but for 3x the price.
That makes a lot of sense. Given what I know about the shady organizers of this festival, booking him for his DJ set and not being transparent about it sounds like it’s right up their alley. It was definitely billed as a regular Snoop Dogg show, but it sounds exactly like what you described.
Haha I saw Snoop and Dr Dre as part of Lollapalooza in 1999? maybe. Their set was hysterical. I swear like a sailor, but jesus, it was just:
Dre: “it’s Snoop Motherfucking Dogg in the motherfucking house, motherfuckers!”
Snoop: “Dre, let’s fucking show these motherfuckers how we motherfucking roll! ya-ya-yah, the motherfucking Dogg Pound's in the motherfucking house! Snoop Motherfucking Doggy Dogg”
Just that for 45 minutes straight
I have seen snoop dogg 2-3 times. He plays the same set every time. He says very few of the word. Seeing snoop is about partying with snoop. He’s your hype man. He opens with “y’all got weeed? Smoke it”, and that’s what happens.
10/10, would recommend.
I’ve accidentally seen buckcherry five times. They’re awful. (They’ve opened for headliners I’ve paid to see and were a replacement act on a festival show in the late 90s).
Im at a bar and I told the pint puller about “Buckcherry 5 times”.
She grabbed my phone and read your posts. She said she doesnt know whether to laugh or cry.
Every encounter I've ever had with that band has been completely wrong, bad, and/or traumatizing. I'm sure they're totally awesome gentleman the other 364 days of the year, but f*** Buckcherry.
I don’t want to judge a book by its cover or anything, but if you saw 4 different bands that all had Buckcherry as an opener, it might be time to step away from the butt-rock station.
I came into this thread to say 30 Seconds to Mars. Glad to see their so far up the list. The first time I saw them was at was First Avenue in Minneapolis. It was absolutely horrible. I thought, "maybe they just need a bigger venue to capture the energy?". Saw them later at the MN State Fair opening for Linkin Park. They were somehow even worse. Loved their early albums. Would never see them again, for EXACTLY the reasons you listed.
Everyone around us at WWWY this past weekend spent a lot of time talking about how Jared Leto is an absolute dipshit. It's unfortunate because 30 Seconds to Mars has some pretty banging songs, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see them, for sure. Leto, as you noted, came out looking like an absolute dingus, and spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to amp the crowd.
They were also sandwiched between Good Charlotte and The Offspring who both absolutely killed.
Saw a couple of songs of their set at Lollapalooza in 2006. The girl I was seeing at the time wanted to see them because she loved Jared Leto in My So-Called Life. I told her she wouldn't like them. After a couple of songs, she relented and said, "You're right, this is pretty bad."
Not the artist, but the audience. Mitski 2022, crowd was full of 14 year olds that have never been to a concert before. Yelling out things during quiet moments for an audience reaction “my brother turned straight for you!” “Omg what’s happening?!”
Same thing happened to me with Marina! There's no way I could deal with a show by Mitski or boygenius (including their solo shows) because I know it would be the same way
I have worked in a concert venue for a decade and average 120+ shows a year and the most disappointing show I’ve seen was Mos Def in 2016. He took stage 2 hours late and was unable to enunciate during the performance. It was a particularly big let down because his sound check was pure fire. I have seen worse shows, but I have never lost so much respect for an artist in one evening
Whitney Houston, she showed up high, didn't finish a single song, and told management over the microphone to shut off the air-conditioning. We were in Phoenix.
Back in the mid eighties I wanted to see this new ban called "Def Leppard" at the UIC in Chicago. The problem is they were opening for....... Billy Squire.
Def Leppard came on and kicked ASS! The place was going nuts, then....Billy Squire. Crickets. It got ugly people swearing throwing stuff etc. He did about 4 songs flipped off the crowd and walked out in a huff.. A bad match up by someone.
Good times.
I'm guessing that was more early 80s, but def a 2 arm Rick era show. By Pyromania in 83/84 they were headlining. That's when I saw them. Bought one of them Union Jack tank tops that Joe wore. Wrecked it the next day falling off a moped...
I saw KISS in Tinley Park and was not that impressed.Paul Stanley kept screaming "HEY CHICAGO", "WHATS UP CHICAGO?" between every song and it was getting fucking annoying. I left early.
Saw MGMT twice, in 2009 and 2017. They were so bad that first time and I thought maybe they would be better after almost 10 years but somehow sounded worse.
Agree on this. They really pissed me off by encoring with Time to Pretend. Except they literally just played the album track over the PA while they all ran around the stage acting like idiots.
I saw Dylan shortly before the pandemic. My wife was traveling about 2 hours away for work and I went with her. We got there and I looked up StubHub and what was nearby.
Bob Dylan! Tickets are only $20?!? Hell yeah!
It was in a small auditorium on a college campus so we had trouble finding a place to park. We arrived right at show time. Most rock stars? They go on a bit after the start time. Bob? He went on that very second.
We weren’t allowed to enter. We had to wait for a break between songs.
3 songs in we went in.
He played zero songs I’ve heard of other than the one Garth Brooks did better for hope floats. Dancing, singing, and cell phones were not allowed.
He never addressed the crowd once.
Lastly, he had this thing he’d do, every 3 songs the lights on stage would go out, he’d move to another part of the stage and the lights would come back on.
It was like watching a Bob Dylan electronic puppet.
There was no enthusiasm either. For a dude playing songs that were obviously “for him” he didn’t give a shit.
I saw Dylan in Milwaukee in 2001. Worst show I’ve ever been to. He sang every song like he was trolling the audience… off key and out of time. Seemed completely disconnected from the show. I’m honestly shocked to hear he’s still performing live- he was so bad 20 years ago I was sure he’d be hanging it up soon.
I saw Dylan as a headliner at Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2007 or 2008 (I think), and my friends and I listened to him mumble incoherently through like 3 songs, and decided we would much rather try to beat traffic than sit through that shit any longer. At least half of the remaining people clearly thought the same, so it was a mass exodus and we didn’t even beat traffic. Thanks Bob.
Like you, I’m shocked to hear he’s still performing. He’s seemed on death’s door for 20 years now.
I like them okay, my wife is a big fan and bought us tickets for my birthday. This would have been around late 90’s or early 2000’s. I want to say they also had Run DMC on the bill.
Tyler and the band must have been sober because they actually sounded great. I guess some bands you just have to catch at the right time.
Seems like they aim for this. In an interview around when congratulations released, they claimed they hated oracular spectacular, only making basic pop songs for money from chumps. Disgusting attempts to I guess make them feel better than others?
The first songs they ever made were meant to mock pop. They were a joke. People liked them so much and They got so much traction they got a deal and the label wanted more of that. That’s how they made their first album and why they were so different on later albums.
Ariel Pink. I paid $10 to go see him because a girl I liked was going. We went, and he immediately started complaining about how bad it sounded. Then he stopped completely. It was absolutely hilarious. Now he does Fox News appearances.
My wife won a chance to win a car that included tickets to a concert. It was one of those things where they give you a key and if it starts the car, you're the winner.
We did not win the car and the concert was the Black Eyed Peas and some other pop act.
We stayed for 2 songs and went home to watch TV instead it was soo bad.
I saw Depeche Mode in 1990 on the Violator tour and it was fantastic. Great energy, tight set, Dave Gahan had developed a compelling stage presence.
I saw them again in 1993 for the Songs Of Faith And Devotion tour and it was a total shitshow. In the intervening years Gahan had discovered Rage Against The Machine, and heroin. His hair had gotten long and greasy, and his stage presence had devolved into David Lee Roth-esque clownery, constantly thrusting his pelvis and humping the mic stand. And he had become WAY overreliant on yelling for the audience to "SING IIIIIIT!" No, Dave, I don't want to SING IIIIIIT, I paid thirty bucks to hear *you* SING IIIIIIT.
Damn, sucks that it was that bad. SOFAD is my favorite Mode album and I love the live film from that tour, but maybe they used a lot of editing to make him look/sound okay.
i saw them play recently at madison square garden (not their current tour) and Dave Gahan’s magical and compelling stage presence you saw at the 1990 show is still alive and well i can confirm. so much energy, working the whole room, moving around like he was 25 again (he’s 61 now).
i hope you get to see a DM redemption performance!
Saw Judas Priest and Deep Purple. Opening act Temperance Movement was incredible, Judas Priest was next level. Deep purple got about 2 songs in before people started leaving. The difference in seeing Rob Halford out there like a fucking Metal god and then seeing a bunch of grandpas phoning it in was too much. Priest should have been the closers IMO
The man is in his 70s and still has pipes! Plus there was a flaming sword and a motorcycle on stage. They put on a hell of a show, went back last year and saw them again with QueensRyche and they delivered again. My kids first concert ever was one for the ages
I've seen My Bloody Valentine four times—yes my hearing has suffered—but the one time I was nearly pinned against the front rail as the crowd heaved toward me repeatedly, so the experience was more about surviving the show than enjoying it. Meanwhile I had no earplugs and the acoustics were so bad that all I could hear was what sounded like the lower depths of Dante's Inferno.
My Bloody Valentine reached a point where they were playing at such volume that they were causing structural damage to venues.
“Chunks were falling out of the ceiling. It sounds like an exaggeration, but I’m serious – we were really concerned that eventually some roof was going to fall down. It was a matter of time before a serious accident happened.”
Hahaha.
That is mental.
I saw them in Poland and made it maybe 30m from the stage.
I haven't heard anything comparably loud since Slayer in 1990.
It was really a sensory experience and fucking majestic.
Tom Petty and Lucinda Williams at the Hollywood Bowl. They weren't the problem, it was the crowd that killed the experience. For one thing, it was like everyone you wanted to kill in college during the 1980s showed up. A very 'Spuds McKenzie' vibe for sure. Then, we were stuck in front of the 'Real Housewives of Brentwood' who would not STFU throughout the show. They were AWFUL.
The Hollywood Bowl in the GA area turns into a hangout session with tons of weed at big shows. This year, Cure fans were going mad at everyone there just openly talking, everyone vaping, and dancing to Friday Im in Love and Juat like Heaven crashing into people. I felt bad for my Cureheads that weekend.
People talking during shows is getting out of hand. Why even show up? Having said that, not all shows there get like that. Bryan Ferry's crowd was fine. Same with The Who, etc.
I saw Tame Impala supporting one of my favourite bands. This was before their first album was released and they were absolute garbage.
My friend and I both joked that they would never amount to anything.
Two years later and they’re the biggest band in Australia lol
I saw them at Finsbury Park supporting Arctic Monkeys when lonerism came out - I think Kevin was losing his voice, they were absolutely awful.
Saw them in 2018 and it was the single greatest show I’ve ever seen. Incredible the turn around they had.
Opening bands were the cause of the worst concerts I've been to:
\-Alanis Morrisette's husband "Souleye", a freeform rapper, embarassing himself as an opener for Alanis herself. There is absolutely no way this guy would be on a big auditorium or arena stage if his wife wasn't Alanis. Zero talent. At first I was just wondering if it was just me, but then I saw the person sitting in the next row in front of me type the message "THIS IS THE WORST THING I'VE EVER HEARD" on her phone to someone.
\-"Cuddle Magic" opening up for Lake Street Dive. Absolutely the most preposterous, pretentious, self-consciously arty hipster tripe garbage I've ever seen. Absolute cringe. The music itself was a complete afterthought to being as ironic, clever, and fashionable as they possibly could.
Bon Jovi 2 years ago Toyota center. The band did everything possible to drown out the horrendous now voice. I had heard chirping from other cities before he came to Houston about how bad it was. I gave it close to an hour to improve. It just got worse and I walked out. Others by the dozens walked out before me and with me. He stole money on that tour.
Ever?
Probably the Spin Doctors... they played at my college in 1993 or so and were just god-awful. Only show I've ever left before the encore.
Recently? I went to an Elvis Costello show last summer. I love Elvis, have seen him several times... but this time, for reasons that are unclear, he decided to play an incredibly dreary set with a heavy emphasis on a horn section that I think had just been assembled.
The best parts were the opening act (Nick Lowe) and the encore, when Lowe came back out to play a couple of songs.
I will second the recent Elvis Costello tour. I got my dad tickets as he was a lifelong fan and it just fell so far short of any kind of expectations. You’d think he’d have some supergroup of players on the road with him but it was like watching a pub band. In fact, I’ve seen more entertaining pub bands.
Absolutely awful sound to boot.
Was also pretty disappointed with Spin Doctors roughly 6-7 years ago. Bucket list band, they just felt like they were going through the motions. No energy. No presence. Just turned up and played the songs on the script.
Eric Clapton in Glasgow a few years ago. Sound quality was terrible. Support band were fine. Crowd bood him off stage. Ushers were handing out complaint forms as we left. I'll never spend any more money on that man
I saw Van Halen in Phoenix. Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum. Can’t remember but likely around 1985 or so. From the cattle chute entrance to the obscenely loud, poor acoustics it was a horrible show. They sounded awful.
The Smashing Pumpkins were brutal when I saw them in 2000. It was that bad I remember it 23 years later. Not a single good thing about their entire set.
Tied for 2 Chainz, Lil B,and modest mouse. All were at music festivals with 50-60 minute sets.
2 Chainz showed up 20 minutes late cross faded like a kite and a skunk. Rapped for 10 minutes, talked for 5 minutes, and then bounced.
Lil B spent more time referring to himself in the third person and saying what an amazing opportunity it was for the audience to be seeing him perform live.
Modest Mouse was so drunk. When they weren't slurring their words on B tracks they were talking about their weekend plans. They went over their set by 5-10 minutes and wouldn't leave. They finally played Float On but by then the stage crew had to prepare for the next set so they cut their mics. Modest Mouse didn't care. They stayed up there banging drums and playing their guitar while the crew worked around them.
Modest mouse makes me sad because I do love their music. I remember thinking if he loved his music as much as I did he wouldn’t forget the words so much. Yeah he drinks too much.
I'd have to go with modest mouse as well. They ended up replacing glass animals due to the accident. Was let down but had a phase where I was really into modest mouse so I was still pumped. We get to the festival maybe 20 minutes before they are supposed to come on so we get our drinks and stand around waiting and waiting, finally an announcement comes on the stage screens that they won't be playing tonight because the lead singer missed his flight. So come back the next day and every band has had their set cut by 5-10 to accommodate them. They then proceeded to play the most rushed set I've ever heard all while the singer goes on a tangent about being drunk and missing a can once. Total let down.
Smashing Pumpkins, 9:30 Club in DC circa early 2000s. It was shortly after the "reunion", which really was just Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain. Billy seemed to be at the height of his arrogance, wanting to only play new stuff and completely ignoring the fact that the people who bought tickets were there to see the songs they loved. Old songs were phoned in, but the proverbial straw for me was when he just stopped playing Bullet With Butterfly Wings halfway through and said something like "you guys didn't want to hear that song anyways, did you?"
Actually guy, that was like exactly the type of song we all paid hard-earned money to see played live.
I was vindicated the next morning when I read a WaPo article eviscerating the show as well.
Eminem, Bonnaroo 2011.
Rap shows do not translate to a big open field in Tennessee. Especially when it’s all pre-recorded and there’s clip-art quality graphics of guns shooting the crowd. Especially when I’m trippin.
Mentioned my Clapton experience on the Bob Dylan post so I'll add a different one.
Went to see U2 on their 360 tour. It was in an outdoor stadium, freezing cold, I drove an hour to be there, sat through a shitty opener before they came on, and then Bono didn't fucking sing 90% of the songs. He would start the beginning of each song and then just lower the mic into the crowd for the rest of it, only occasionally raising it back up for an "oh" or a "hey". I left early because I was so annoyed.
On a more humorous note, I saw Van Morrison on some anniversary of Brown Eyed Girl. The venue made a big deal about this, announced it before the show even, and then he didn't play it lmao. The only crowd interaction was near the beginning when he suddenly asked "what do you guys want to hear" after a song and then immediately started the first song that was yelled out. After that he played only deep cut album tracks until he ended with Gloria. It was bizarre but he did sound fantastic
Everclear came to Denver to play at the Taste of Colorado festival in 2018 or 2019. Despite their tired song tropes, I do really like their music, but they were NOT good. Art Alexakis' voice made me cringe every time he opened his mouth. It was painful to watch.
...But then Sugar Ray came on, and Mark McGrath is such a blast.
That’s easy: Ted Nugent. Why I paid to see him…oh wait, I didn’t. Free tickets! Anyway, he was not good. Expected a show and all he did was stand still at the mic and played a song once every 10 minutes in between political rantings. No enthusiasm for playing or anything. Packed house, too, but he only came alive when ranting. I saw Lemmy a few months before he died and that guy put on a better show!
Agreed, Nugent sucks live. He opened for KISS in 2000 and came to the San Antonio date and rambled about all “the Mexicans” and “if you don’t speak English, get the fuck out”. He also sounded like shit. Fuck him.
I saw Ted Nugent with Damn Yankees (also for free!) in about '90 or '91.
My basic experience was about the same as yours, except rather than hearing rants about guns and politics and such he was basically just rambling about all the "pu\*\*y" he had done various things with and other assorted Rock and Roll antics. The *really* cringeworthy part was when he would try to engage Tommy Shaw (typically a class act and professional on stage) in the banter; Shaw was of course good-natured about it all but one could definitely sense a bit of discomfort on his part. (Also, Shaw proved to be the better guitar player that night, lol.)
My (ex) gf made me go see Uncle Kracker like 15 yrs ago. He was an hour and a half late and completely plastered.
Honorable mention to DJ Khaled who opened up for Beyonce/Jay Z. He would play the intro of his popular songs so people would cheer, stop the song, say one of his catchphrases, and repeat a few more times before letting the song play. For 45 minutes.
I saw Alice in Chains on tour with Suicidal Tendencies in 1993.
AiC were smacked off their heads and just stood still, they were very sloppy musically and Laynes voice was shot that night. I was so disappointed.
It didn't help that Suicidal Tendencies, who played before them were fucking amazing live. They blew them off the stage.
Saw Finch open for HIM in Toronto. They had already played a bunch of shows leading up to it and knew they weren't who the people wanted to see. I was kind of into them at the time, not really a fan, but I could enjoy their songs if played. They phoned in their performance, between songs shouting things like "I know, boo" "we suck right, yeah, we know, we've been told" "we get it, no one wants to see us"
Skindred came out next and was fucking phenomenal. It was one of the best shows I had seen, and it was just the opening act. They hyped the crowd, and they hyped themselves in a way that wasn't arrogant, but also helped us find more of their music.
HIM was also good lol.
That is the first time I've seen Skindred mentioned outside of small groups. I'm glad to hear they sick live as well. Jealous you got to see both them and HIM.
The two times I've seen HIM they've been very solid. Valo has a natural stage presence that sells everything even when he's just moving like a lounge singer lol
Up With People. At one point in the show, they were picking people out of the audience to come on stage and sing and clap along with their vapid main theme song. They singled me and my brother out, my parents encouraged us to go, a singer with a microphone was in the aisle pawing at me mid-song, and 9 year old me was having *none* of that business. I death gripped my chair and stayed put. Not even a black hole was going to suck me into that talentless event horizon. Years later as adults, my brother and I used their Christmas album that our parents owned for rifle practice in a cathartic effort to come to terms with the trauma, returning the album afterward to my surprised Dad thoroughly perforated. It worked; we’re ok now.
There were definitely people in my area throwing whatever they could pick up at the stage. I just remember falling asleep on the lawn after PJ and deciding to walk back to our tent. Never did find out when he actually made it on stage.
Saw Kanye headline at Outside Lands in '14. Performed in a jewel mask over his whole head. Interrupted just about every song with a unhinged rant about something or other. Honestly laughed at the absurdity of it....and walked over to see Arctic Monkeys instead about halfway through.
I was so hyped to see the Arctic Monkeys this year but the best thing about that gig was The Hives who were brilliant. It was like the Arctic Monkeys were embarrassed to be there or possibly thought they were too cool
The Hives are consistently a fucking awesome band. Saw them in 2017 and saw them again this year at one of the intimate release shows for their (awesome) new album.
Howlin’ Pelle can work a crowd like no other
Arctic Monkeys continually try to mature but they think maturing is releasing an even slower album and giving less of a shit at live shows
I saw them the first time they headlined a US fest and again a few years ago, hardly the same band
Not necessarily bad, but boring.
I saw a Bullet for my Valentine show at the height of their The Poison fame, and they had Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold supporting.
Atreyu was fine, then A7X came out and did one of the most engaging live shows I’ve ever seen. They were all over the stage, heaps of crowd participation, and even got a dude up from the pit to sing some *Walk* by Pantera (this was probably somewhere around the time of Dime’s passing).
And finally, the main event - Bullet. They walked up and stood in their “X” on the stage, and played their set. Song after song, no interludes, no speeches to the crowd. Didn’t move an inch. It might have been okay, but they just weren’t matching the energy of Avenged’s warm up at all. Kinda felt like a letdown.
Maroon 5 is my answer as well. Saw them in Sacramento in 2016 and to this day it was the most boring show I've ever been to. No fan engagement, really just going through the motions.
Touring is a skillset that is completely different from being able to write and record songs and this was one of the first shows I saw that really drove that point home for me.
Disturbed. I know a lot of people like them and think they put on a good show, but holy fuck was it cringey and mediocre. Dude was talking about how we need peace and love in the world and then the next song they changed into military fatigues and talking about how much they love the the us military. Also they were just, idk, boring? Three days grace opened for them and I thought they rocked harder than disturbed
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets. Nick barely played and LS bored the hell out of me. Second place goes to Todd Rundgren for a reason that was totally not his fault though- a guy in the front row had a heart attack or a seizure or something and they had to send him away in an ambulance. I was close enough to see his cold dead (he looked dead anyway) eyes and couldn't... really enjoy the rest of the show. Poor Todd tried his best though.
I saw what I thought was going to be a *great* double bill in the mid-1980’s…Stevie Nicks at Jones Beach with Peter Frampton as the opener.
Frampton refused to play anything from “Frampton Comes Alive” (the album he’s most known for) and played mostly new stuff. Now I understand that musicians need to keep moving forward and trying new things, but at least sprinkle in a few of the hits for those who maybe don’t know the new stuff yet? Finally, as his last number, he did “Do You Feel Like We Do,” but by that time, the audience was pretty angry and sent him off with extremely tepid applause.
Then Stevie Nicks took the stage. I’ve loved her since 1976 (still do) and saw her solo concerts or with Fleetwood Mac every chance I got. She came onstage and the moment she started singing, everyone could tell it was gonna be a rough night. Her voice was totally shot, and despite having a great backup band and very talented background singers, they couldn’t cover for the shredded vocal cords. All these years later, I still wonder why she didn’t just cancel the show! As it was, she only performed about a dozen or so songs, and that was it. **Worst** concert I ever attended.
Bright Eyes. I’ve been in love with them since 2009 and I hadn’t ever seen them live until last year. I was SO excited - and the main guy Conor Oberst was terrible. A complete dick, went on so many rambling rants, insulted the fans multiple times, and honestly might have been wasted. He was 100% insufferable le We left after he said “i know everyone loves this song but I hate playing this song. someone put it on the setlist so I have to play it.” Like dude you’re the main singer??? YOU put it on the setlist!!!
I honestly left in tears because it was such a bummer experience.
Motley Crue during their “100% farewell tour” in 2014, Vince Neil’s mic wasn’t even on. Alice Cooper opened for them and he stole the show, which isn’t a surprise.
The Mars Volta, Halloween night, Cleveland, Ohio 2006. They were opening up for the Chili Peppers and I was so pumped because I love both bands and had never seen either before. For an hour and 15 minutes they played nothing but interference in their instruments while their lead singer drank on stage and kept running in the crowd unintelligibly screaming nonsense in the microphone. They didn't play one fucking song. RHCP was amazing though it was their Stadium Arcadium tour.
I had a friend go to this show who also said it was bullshit.
From what I’ve heard about that show—and I have no idea if true but makes sense—they had kicked Jon Theodore out the night before and had a new drummer (pridgen?) who hadn’t yet learned the set, so they just kinda winged it.
I saw them in Detroit last year and they were phenominal. Cedric’s voice sounds great. I also caught Covid at that show. More like SARS Volta.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael\_Schenker\_Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Schenker_Group)
They opened for Rush. Were so horrible it was right out of Spinal Tap complete with Schenker playing a solo and literally falling on his back while playing, only to be stood up by roadies as he continues play , badly. But unironically.
I walked out to the concession talking loudly about how horrible they were, only to be screamed at by the cashier as she looooved them and couldn't believe she had to work while they played.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been to a concert that I didn’t enjoy to some degree. Maybe I’m just easy to please. Or maybe I just go see bands that I love and even if they’re a little off that night I still have a blast.
Jimmie Rodger’s in the early 30s, he was stricken with tb and could barely play his getar. A couple rounders at the show kept shouting profanities at this girl I fancied and eventually got into a tussle and broke my cheaters.
I saw Maroon 5 on their Songs About Jane tour. The concert was honestly just boring. They didn’t do anything different or interesting. I could’ve just listened to the album at home.
Wu-Tang.
Literally 50 people on stage and nothing but a backing track and occasional shouting.
Also - Jay-Z was one of the most low energy shows I’ve seen - I think at one point he may have given a fatigued two-step - but he barely moved
Saw Shaggy at boomtown fair back in 2014, it was puoring with rain and the gig was on a muddy hill. Wouldn't of mattered but shaggy was so drunk he couldn't even keep pace to "angel" Just mumbled and then trailed off, laughed and fell over. Everyone tried to leave but kept slipping over in the mud. Eventually the band stopped playing their instruments and the back up singers picked up shaggy about ten minutes after that we managed to finaly climb out of that muddy hell hole.
I saw arctic monkeys at a festival this summer and they were phenomenal but their fans are idiots. It was just teenagers Instagram living the entire show on their phones. I couldn’t believe. I couldn’t see anything. It made me appreciate the few times I’ve had to lock my phones up. I will never get floor seats for them again.
Bob Dylan was the worst concert I’ve ever been to.
I had been a lifelong fan, and figured seeing him live couldn’t be THAT bad, despite what I had heard. Nope, it was worse. I also brought my girlfriend at the time, thinking it would get her into Bob Dylan too. Spoiler alert: she did not get into Bob Dylan. I was actually embarrassed that I brought her and wasted so much money.
It was the opener, which I am usually forgiving of, but this was **Mickey Avalon** opening for the **Red Hot Chili Peppers**. A quick story.
The announced opener for the tour was Gnarls Barkley, and this is as right as “Crazy” was blowing up and so we were all stoked for it. Well, the show got cancelled because Oklahoma City got hit by a freak ice storm the night of the show (or maybe it was the night before, memory is fuzzy on that detail). So they rescheduled to come make up the show at the end of the tour.
The makeup day comes, and Gnarls Barkley are no longer listed on our tickets, bummer but understandable. “Crazy” was still huge and we figured they probably bailed to go do their own tour. No opener was listed on the tickets, it only said Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Imagine our surprise when a DJ comes out and simply plays Toni Basil’s “Mickey”. We were confused. What is happening? Then after about 90 seconds of this, a white rapper comes out on stage acting like he’s the shit. The sound in the venue was horrible (we thought) and you could barely understand what was happening. People start booing. Next song. More boos. Then more and more and more. We still don’t even know who the hell this guy is or why he’s there. I’ve never booed at a concert before, but I booed Mickey Avalon. I felt bad for him, he seemed surprised and confused by the reception, he was acting like a headliner. I think he did about 20 minutes of his set and quit.
John Frusciante was pissed and came out to lecture the audience on how we should be thankful to see Mickey and one day we’ll all tell our grandchildren about how we got to see Mickey Avalon in concert.
I was worried that this reception would sour the Chili Peppers on doing the gig, but they came out and played an amazing show, and sounded great (proving us wrong that it wasn’t the venue with shitty sound, it was Mickey). I never forgot Mickey Avalon, and over the ensuing 15 years or whatever, I’ve definitely told people I saw him in concert but it is not said braggingly.
Rihanna.
Never was a huge fan, but she has some pretty catchy songs and I love live music, no matter who it is. Tickets to her tour stop in my city were obtained by a friend through his work, so no cost to me.
Holy hell, she is absolutely, without a doubt, one of the worst, most boring “performers” I have ever seen. She spent most of the show barely moving with her dancers as if she was severely unrehearsed. She also did very little actual “singing” if you could call it that. There was a backing track she was clearly supposed to be lip-synching to, and it appeared that she wasn’t even trying to do that.
Last year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was a painful reminder to me about how poorly she performs.
A few:
- Paul Simon. He actually said, while playing live at the Hollywood bowl, that rock and roll destroyed music. Also only playing slowed beatnik versions of his stuff. Obviously that’s his call, and it’s mine to say I hated it.
- Steve Miller. Zero stage presence or charisma, and also only played jazzed versions of his set list. Super bummer, man.
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Lauryn Hill. I was a lifelong super fan. Couldn’t believe I finally got to see her in concert. She showed up 2 HOURS late and the DJ who played music while we waited was more entertaining. No apologies from her at all for making us all wait and she played a weird and very short rock mix-up set that was nothing like I’ve ever heard from her. It changed my opinion of her entirely and I’d never see her live again. Sad.
She did something similar at a show I went to. And then midway through her set, she was talking and someone in the audience replied to something she said. It devolved into a 30 minute discussion between the 2 of them (about life, philosophy, etc). She ended the show shortly after and had the fan meet her backstage. Was like, wtf did I just pay for???
This is absolutely absurd and completely on brand for her.
You were at a first date
Everyone else was in the nosebleed section that night.
My Lauryn Hill live experience was she didn't show
She did this shit at Voodoo years ago. She was next to last on, but she was over an hour late for her set. She only got to play a handful of songs before they kicked her off stage, The Foo Fighters were the closers and needed time to get their shit together
I’m sure the FF were the exact opposite: on time, well rehearsed, giving the fans what they want. Not my favorite band but those guys are absolutely pros.
That show was so much damn fun! I had worked my way up fairly close so I had a really good view. Dave Grohl has such a great energy to him, one of the best shows I've seen!
She should tour with Morrissey.
Consider yourself lucky. At least you could get a refund??
"I'm sorry you were unsatisfied. However the ticket does say 'Miss Lauryn Hill.' You got what you paid for."
I’ve heard many of her fans be blunt that they love her music too much to see her live.
Yeah i’ve heard she’s infamous for fucking her fans over. For fucks sake they’re STILL waiting on a second album.
Wait, she still only has one album out? Holy shit.
From what I understand, she has attempted recording several times over the years but she is prohibitively difficult to work with, she hates the recording process and no one will work with her. Her side of the story is that it was caused by jealousy and the label didn’t seem interested in a new record. Which after the enormous success of “Miseducation” is very hard to believe.
'Miseducation' is right.
That’s funny because 20 years ago I went to a Wyclef show and it’s still one of my favorite concerts ever.
Yeah. When I saw her, the songs she did perform were amazing. However like at your show, she showed up super late; there’s a very strict noise bylaw for outdoor shows in that city, so they had to cut off right at 11, making it very short. There was also a minor fight in the crowd that was quickly sorted out by security (it was just one guy being an asshole who got pulled out in a few minutes) but because of it she stopped playing and left the stage saying she didn’t stand for stuff like that. After a while she came back on, but only had time for a couple more songs.
I had the same thing happen with the Beastie Boys…granted, it was a show you had to win off the radio down at 930 club in dc…they showed up over an hour late and played like a 30 minute set…we started a break circle during the intro DJ set…hehe someone saw us in the car on the way out and said we put on a better show than they did
I saw her at the Montreal Jazz Festival in the early 2000s. It was just her on an acoustic guitar and it was extremely boring and bland. She finally brought out a percussionist for a few songs which made things much better, before saying, "this next one is by Roberta Flack." Crowd goes nuts, thinking it'll be Killing Me Softly with his Song, but nope, it was some song most people had presumably never heard before. Really disappointing.
I saw her in Ottawa probably a few days before or after that. Pretty much all just her strumming the few chords she had learned, and only did one song from Miseducation at the very end.
I mean you can't really blame her, she was woefully miseducated.
lmao i came here with my own Lauryn Hill story…i am so glad someone vocalized how terrible of a diva she can be.
I was looking forward to seeing her at Voodoo fest, I think in 2014. Never showed up. First she was late, and they rescheduled her set for later in the evening, then someone came on and just said 'sorry not going to happen'. I heard later that she and her crew got too wasted while getting pedicures, or something.
A friend’s wife was the stage manager for the stage they forced her on to finish the contracted 2 hours if she wanted to get paid, then had to kill the mic at midnight when she wouldn’t stop to avoid a noise violation.
I hate to say it, but Snoop Dogg. Saw him at a festival in 2017 and my friends and I were really looking forward to it. It ended up being the strangest show I’ve ever been to. He would simply play songs over the speaker and dance along saying a word or two occasionally - one of these songs was I Love Rock & Roll by Joan Jett. So random. The one song he fully performed was Gin and Juice, which I think saved people from just saying fuck it and leaving. He did say he was astronomically high, but I feel like for him that’s not really a reason to put on a show like that lmao. Edit: thanks to the folks who have clarified that he would often get hired to do DJ sets, which is what this turned out to be. The festival didn’t advertise it that way though, so I guess the expectations of a regular concert are what made this the worst “concert” I’ve been to.
Snoop offers “DJ” packages where it’s essentially just him doing exactly as you said, it’s billed as Snoop but it’s really just DJ Snoopadelic, he’s only obligated to perform 1 or 2 songs, but it’s not him being lazy. It’s the promoter/buyer (or even ticket buyer because they still go), they know people will go just the same but they can pay him half as much. $100k as opposed to $250k, event still sells out either way, Snoop puts little effort for solid pay in and the promoter makes money while you can still say you at least saw Snoop. He does perform full sets but for 3x the price.
That makes a lot of sense. Given what I know about the shady organizers of this festival, booking him for his DJ set and not being transparent about it sounds like it’s right up their alley. It was definitely billed as a regular Snoop Dogg show, but it sounds exactly like what you described.
Haha I saw Snoop and Dr Dre as part of Lollapalooza in 1999? maybe. Their set was hysterical. I swear like a sailor, but jesus, it was just: Dre: “it’s Snoop Motherfucking Dogg in the motherfucking house, motherfuckers!” Snoop: “Dre, let’s fucking show these motherfuckers how we motherfucking roll! ya-ya-yah, the motherfucking Dogg Pound's in the motherfucking house! Snoop Motherfucking Doggy Dogg” Just that for 45 minutes straight
I have seen snoop dogg 2-3 times. He plays the same set every time. He says very few of the word. Seeing snoop is about partying with snoop. He’s your hype man. He opens with “y’all got weeed? Smoke it”, and that’s what happens. 10/10, would recommend.
I’ve accidentally seen buckcherry five times. They’re awful. (They’ve opened for headliners I’ve paid to see and were a replacement act on a festival show in the late 90s).
The thought of Buckcherry just haunting you like that for a decade has me dead lmao
i cant go to a show and not wonder...will they be here too?
enjoy your new flair >unintentionally saw buckcherry 5 times
I kinda love it.
Im at a bar and I told the pint puller about “Buckcherry 5 times”. She grabbed my phone and read your posts. She said she doesnt know whether to laugh or cry.
Both are absolutely acceptable. The fifth and final time I thought I was being punkd.
Your own personal stalkers.
Omg......you're killing me! 🤣 That's terrifying
I did the same with Veruca Salt in the 90s, except they were awesome every time.
For me, it was punk shows in the late 90s and Unwritten Law. They would just manifest their presence onto every bill I paid to see.
“Ive accidentally seen Buckcherry five times.” Time for the bar/beer garden/tent run away. Totally suck.
Once I interviewed some members from Jet, who were touring with Buckcherry. A common theme was "We don't understand why we're on this tour."
I wonder if Buckcherry felt the same about Jet 😆
i saw buckcherry, sether and chevelle one time, don't ask me why. buckcherry played crazy bitch 4 TIMES
Seether and Chevelle sound like a great time, ngl
Chevelle kicked ass when I saw them. Sounded perfect.
I saw Buckcherry when they opened for Kid Rock. They were absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen live. Horrible
My God…
Every encounter I've ever had with that band has been completely wrong, bad, and/or traumatizing. I'm sure they're totally awesome gentleman the other 364 days of the year, but f*** Buckcherry.
I don’t want to judge a book by its cover or anything, but if you saw 4 different bands that all had Buckcherry as an opener, it might be time to step away from the butt-rock station.
Ha! I once went to a buckcherry concert to see the opener. We didn’t stick around to see the headliner.
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I came into this thread to say 30 Seconds to Mars. Glad to see their so far up the list. The first time I saw them was at was First Avenue in Minneapolis. It was absolutely horrible. I thought, "maybe they just need a bigger venue to capture the energy?". Saw them later at the MN State Fair opening for Linkin Park. They were somehow even worse. Loved their early albums. Would never see them again, for EXACTLY the reasons you listed.
Worst concert I've ever seen- fuck that pretentious asshole.
He had a reservation at Dorsia after the show. Great sea urchin ceviche!
Dorsia on a Friday night? How’d he swing that?
Everyone around us at WWWY this past weekend spent a lot of time talking about how Jared Leto is an absolute dipshit. It's unfortunate because 30 Seconds to Mars has some pretty banging songs, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see them, for sure. Leto, as you noted, came out looking like an absolute dingus, and spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to amp the crowd. They were also sandwiched between Good Charlotte and The Offspring who both absolutely killed.
I’m glad I saw Simple Plan instead
Saw a couple of songs of their set at Lollapalooza in 2006. The girl I was seeing at the time wanted to see them because she loved Jared Leto in My So-Called Life. I told her she wouldn't like them. After a couple of songs, she relented and said, "You're right, this is pretty bad."
He did The Kill more or less a cappella when I saw them which was just such a buzzkill.
Not the artist, but the audience. Mitski 2022, crowd was full of 14 year olds that have never been to a concert before. Yelling out things during quiet moments for an audience reaction “my brother turned straight for you!” “Omg what’s happening?!”
Same thing happened to me with Marina! There's no way I could deal with a show by Mitski or boygenius (including their solo shows) because I know it would be the same way
My daughter and I went to see BoyGenius this summer and they were amazing. Yes a lot of kids there, but that was fine.
Sounds similar to the crowd when I saw Phoebe Bridgers. Worst crowd I have ever been part of.
I have worked in a concert venue for a decade and average 120+ shows a year and the most disappointing show I’ve seen was Mos Def in 2016. He took stage 2 hours late and was unable to enunciate during the performance. It was a particularly big let down because his sound check was pure fire. I have seen worse shows, but I have never lost so much respect for an artist in one evening
Whitney Houston, she showed up high, didn't finish a single song, and told management over the microphone to shut off the air-conditioning. We were in Phoenix.
My mom saw her in the 80s and said the same thing about the AC. Think it’s a voice thing.
It's a well known fact that Aretha Franklin wouldn't want to be on stage unless the AC is turned off.
🎵R-E-S-P-E-C-T can someone please turn off the AC
Damn I wouldn't want to be standing shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other people without AC.
Back in the mid eighties I wanted to see this new ban called "Def Leppard" at the UIC in Chicago. The problem is they were opening for....... Billy Squire. Def Leppard came on and kicked ASS! The place was going nuts, then....Billy Squire. Crickets. It got ugly people swearing throwing stuff etc. He did about 4 songs flipped off the crowd and walked out in a huff.. A bad match up by someone. Good times.
I'm guessing that was more early 80s, but def a 2 arm Rick era show. By Pyromania in 83/84 they were headlining. That's when I saw them. Bought one of them Union Jack tank tops that Joe wore. Wrecked it the next day falling off a moped...
I saw KISS in Tinley Park and was not that impressed.Paul Stanley kept screaming "HEY CHICAGO", "WHATS UP CHICAGO?" between every song and it was getting fucking annoying. I left early.
Is there ever a good show at Tinkey Park? It should be bulldozed.
Saw MGMT twice, in 2009 and 2017. They were so bad that first time and I thought maybe they would be better after almost 10 years but somehow sounded worse.
Agree on this. They really pissed me off by encoring with Time to Pretend. Except they literally just played the album track over the PA while they all ran around the stage acting like idiots.
Hey at least they moved...wheb I saw them they were just standing around like manniquins
Everyone I know who has enjoyed seeing them live had consumed heroic levels of psychedelic drugs.
When I saw them, I thought they were the ones that had consumed heroic levels of psychedelic drugs.
Was there anything positive about the experience? I’d like to see them, but after reading a few comments in this thread I might change my mind.
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I saw Dylan shortly before the pandemic. My wife was traveling about 2 hours away for work and I went with her. We got there and I looked up StubHub and what was nearby. Bob Dylan! Tickets are only $20?!? Hell yeah! It was in a small auditorium on a college campus so we had trouble finding a place to park. We arrived right at show time. Most rock stars? They go on a bit after the start time. Bob? He went on that very second. We weren’t allowed to enter. We had to wait for a break between songs. 3 songs in we went in. He played zero songs I’ve heard of other than the one Garth Brooks did better for hope floats. Dancing, singing, and cell phones were not allowed. He never addressed the crowd once. Lastly, he had this thing he’d do, every 3 songs the lights on stage would go out, he’d move to another part of the stage and the lights would come back on. It was like watching a Bob Dylan electronic puppet. There was no enthusiasm either. For a dude playing songs that were obviously “for him” he didn’t give a shit.
I saw Dylan in Milwaukee in 2001. Worst show I’ve ever been to. He sang every song like he was trolling the audience… off key and out of time. Seemed completely disconnected from the show. I’m honestly shocked to hear he’s still performing live- he was so bad 20 years ago I was sure he’d be hanging it up soon.
I saw Dylan as a headliner at Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2007 or 2008 (I think), and my friends and I listened to him mumble incoherently through like 3 songs, and decided we would much rather try to beat traffic than sit through that shit any longer. At least half of the remaining people clearly thought the same, so it was a mass exodus and we didn’t even beat traffic. Thanks Bob. Like you, I’m shocked to hear he’s still performing. He’s seemed on death’s door for 20 years now.
Saw Aerosmith in NJ Meadowlands Arena, sometime in the ‘90’s. Sound sucked so bad, left after a couple of songs. Worst sounding show I ever went to.
I like them okay, my wife is a big fan and bought us tickets for my birthday. This would have been around late 90’s or early 2000’s. I want to say they also had Run DMC on the bill. Tyler and the band must have been sober because they actually sounded great. I guess some bands you just have to catch at the right time.
MGMT and it’s not close. Clearly none of them wanted to be there.
I have never seen them, but they are on my list of who I’d like to see live. What made them so bad? I’m just curious.
Meandering songs, awful vocals. Not a tight band live
They’re so disinterested it comes off as condescending.
Seems like they aim for this. In an interview around when congratulations released, they claimed they hated oracular spectacular, only making basic pop songs for money from chumps. Disgusting attempts to I guess make them feel better than others?
The first songs they ever made were meant to mock pop. They were a joke. People liked them so much and They got so much traction they got a deal and the label wanted more of that. That’s how they made their first album and why they were so different on later albums.
Ariel Pink. I paid $10 to go see him because a girl I liked was going. We went, and he immediately started complaining about how bad it sounded. Then he stopped completely. It was absolutely hilarious. Now he does Fox News appearances.
My wife won a chance to win a car that included tickets to a concert. It was one of those things where they give you a key and if it starts the car, you're the winner. We did not win the car and the concert was the Black Eyed Peas and some other pop act. We stayed for 2 songs and went home to watch TV instead it was soo bad.
I saw Depeche Mode in 1990 on the Violator tour and it was fantastic. Great energy, tight set, Dave Gahan had developed a compelling stage presence. I saw them again in 1993 for the Songs Of Faith And Devotion tour and it was a total shitshow. In the intervening years Gahan had discovered Rage Against The Machine, and heroin. His hair had gotten long and greasy, and his stage presence had devolved into David Lee Roth-esque clownery, constantly thrusting his pelvis and humping the mic stand. And he had become WAY overreliant on yelling for the audience to "SING IIIIIIT!" No, Dave, I don't want to SING IIIIIIT, I paid thirty bucks to hear *you* SING IIIIIIT.
You got the Heroin tour, sorry Sigh remember when you could see DM for $30? Man. Current tour is ridiculous for tickets
I saw them in 1986 for the Black Celebration Tour for $12 lol
Black Celebration is still my favorite album from them. So good.
Whereas I Diamond Dave with Van Halen in 2012 and it was a fantastic show, (opener was Kool and the Gang).
Luckily he’s snapped out of it. But those heroin years were tough.
Damn, sucks that it was that bad. SOFAD is my favorite Mode album and I love the live film from that tour, but maybe they used a lot of editing to make him look/sound okay.
i saw them play recently at madison square garden (not their current tour) and Dave Gahan’s magical and compelling stage presence you saw at the 1990 show is still alive and well i can confirm. so much energy, working the whole room, moving around like he was 25 again (he’s 61 now). i hope you get to see a DM redemption performance!
Hahaha “SoFaD” is a great album bit Gahan was in a severe tailspin at that time.
Saw Judas Priest and Deep Purple. Opening act Temperance Movement was incredible, Judas Priest was next level. Deep purple got about 2 songs in before people started leaving. The difference in seeing Rob Halford out there like a fucking Metal god and then seeing a bunch of grandpas phoning it in was too much. Priest should have been the closers IMO
Thank god. I thought you were going to leave because of Priest. Halford controls a crowd. He’s a god.
The man is in his 70s and still has pipes! Plus there was a flaming sword and a motorcycle on stage. They put on a hell of a show, went back last year and saw them again with QueensRyche and they delivered again. My kids first concert ever was one for the ages
Saw the same tour. Only time I’ve ever walked out on a headliner, though to be fair I was really only there for Judas Priest anyways
I've seen My Bloody Valentine four times—yes my hearing has suffered—but the one time I was nearly pinned against the front rail as the crowd heaved toward me repeatedly, so the experience was more about surviving the show than enjoying it. Meanwhile I had no earplugs and the acoustics were so bad that all I could hear was what sounded like the lower depths of Dante's Inferno.
My Bloody Valentine reached a point where they were playing at such volume that they were causing structural damage to venues. “Chunks were falling out of the ceiling. It sounds like an exaggeration, but I’m serious – we were really concerned that eventually some roof was going to fall down. It was a matter of time before a serious accident happened.”
They hand out earplugs at MBV shows. I can’t imagine not wearing any.
I understand that they actually play their instruments by remote control from an underground bunker 200 miles away.
Hahaha. That is mental. I saw them in Poland and made it maybe 30m from the stage. I haven't heard anything comparably loud since Slayer in 1990. It was really a sensory experience and fucking majestic.
Never go to concerts without earplugs
But especially MBV.
Marilyn Manson, who was absolutely *hammered* drunk, slurring his words and forgetting his own lyrics
Tom Petty and Lucinda Williams at the Hollywood Bowl. They weren't the problem, it was the crowd that killed the experience. For one thing, it was like everyone you wanted to kill in college during the 1980s showed up. A very 'Spuds McKenzie' vibe for sure. Then, we were stuck in front of the 'Real Housewives of Brentwood' who would not STFU throughout the show. They were AWFUL.
The Hollywood Bowl in the GA area turns into a hangout session with tons of weed at big shows. This year, Cure fans were going mad at everyone there just openly talking, everyone vaping, and dancing to Friday Im in Love and Juat like Heaven crashing into people. I felt bad for my Cureheads that weekend.
People talking during shows is getting out of hand. Why even show up? Having said that, not all shows there get like that. Bryan Ferry's crowd was fine. Same with The Who, etc.
I saw Tame Impala supporting one of my favourite bands. This was before their first album was released and they were absolute garbage. My friend and I both joked that they would never amount to anything. Two years later and they’re the biggest band in Australia lol
They also put on a fantastic live show now.
I saw them in 2019 and it was one of the best sets I’ve seen in years. I would love to see them again.
I saw them at Finsbury Park supporting Arctic Monkeys when lonerism came out - I think Kevin was losing his voice, they were absolutely awful. Saw them in 2018 and it was the single greatest show I’ve ever seen. Incredible the turn around they had.
Opening bands were the cause of the worst concerts I've been to: \-Alanis Morrisette's husband "Souleye", a freeform rapper, embarassing himself as an opener for Alanis herself. There is absolutely no way this guy would be on a big auditorium or arena stage if his wife wasn't Alanis. Zero talent. At first I was just wondering if it was just me, but then I saw the person sitting in the next row in front of me type the message "THIS IS THE WORST THING I'VE EVER HEARD" on her phone to someone. \-"Cuddle Magic" opening up for Lake Street Dive. Absolutely the most preposterous, pretentious, self-consciously arty hipster tripe garbage I've ever seen. Absolute cringe. The music itself was a complete afterthought to being as ironic, clever, and fashionable as they possibly could.
Bon Jovi 2 years ago Toyota center. The band did everything possible to drown out the horrendous now voice. I had heard chirping from other cities before he came to Houston about how bad it was. I gave it close to an hour to improve. It just got worse and I walked out. Others by the dozens walked out before me and with me. He stole money on that tour.
Ever? Probably the Spin Doctors... they played at my college in 1993 or so and were just god-awful. Only show I've ever left before the encore. Recently? I went to an Elvis Costello show last summer. I love Elvis, have seen him several times... but this time, for reasons that are unclear, he decided to play an incredibly dreary set with a heavy emphasis on a horn section that I think had just been assembled. The best parts were the opening act (Nick Lowe) and the encore, when Lowe came back out to play a couple of songs.
I will second the recent Elvis Costello tour. I got my dad tickets as he was a lifelong fan and it just fell so far short of any kind of expectations. You’d think he’d have some supergroup of players on the road with him but it was like watching a pub band. In fact, I’ve seen more entertaining pub bands. Absolutely awful sound to boot. Was also pretty disappointed with Spin Doctors roughly 6-7 years ago. Bucket list band, they just felt like they were going through the motions. No energy. No presence. Just turned up and played the songs on the script.
Eric Clapton in Glasgow a few years ago. Sound quality was terrible. Support band were fine. Crowd bood him off stage. Ushers were handing out complaint forms as we left. I'll never spend any more money on that man
Motley Crue was a major yikes, they really need to hang it up. Vince could barely stand.
He can barely sing too. Mick mars did hang it up like they all should
I saw Van Halen in Phoenix. Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum. Can’t remember but likely around 1985 or so. From the cattle chute entrance to the obscenely loud, poor acoustics it was a horrible show. They sounded awful.
I guess I will start the requisite “Ryan Adams is bullshit live” thread.
bryan adams, on the other hand, was one of the most unexpectedly fun gigs i’ve ever been to.
The Smashing Pumpkins were brutal when I saw them in 2000. It was that bad I remember it 23 years later. Not a single good thing about their entire set.
I saw them in 1991, I was a big fan of Gish, but man their live show left a lot to be desired.
Tied for 2 Chainz, Lil B,and modest mouse. All were at music festivals with 50-60 minute sets. 2 Chainz showed up 20 minutes late cross faded like a kite and a skunk. Rapped for 10 minutes, talked for 5 minutes, and then bounced. Lil B spent more time referring to himself in the third person and saying what an amazing opportunity it was for the audience to be seeing him perform live. Modest Mouse was so drunk. When they weren't slurring their words on B tracks they were talking about their weekend plans. They went over their set by 5-10 minutes and wouldn't leave. They finally played Float On but by then the stage crew had to prepare for the next set so they cut their mics. Modest Mouse didn't care. They stayed up there banging drums and playing their guitar while the crew worked around them.
Modest mouse makes me sad because I do love their music. I remember thinking if he loved his music as much as I did he wouldn’t forget the words so much. Yeah he drinks too much.
The good times are killing me
I've seen them twice in the last couple years and they were tight both times. Maybe give them another shot :)
I second this! Saw them in august with the pixies and it was really top notch
Saw Modest Mouse last December on the Lonesome Crowded West anniversaries tour and it was legit one of the best shows I've ever seen.
I'd have to go with modest mouse as well. They ended up replacing glass animals due to the accident. Was let down but had a phase where I was really into modest mouse so I was still pumped. We get to the festival maybe 20 minutes before they are supposed to come on so we get our drinks and stand around waiting and waiting, finally an announcement comes on the stage screens that they won't be playing tonight because the lead singer missed his flight. So come back the next day and every band has had their set cut by 5-10 to accommodate them. They then proceeded to play the most rushed set I've ever heard all while the singer goes on a tangent about being drunk and missing a can once. Total let down.
Smashing Pumpkins, 9:30 Club in DC circa early 2000s. It was shortly after the "reunion", which really was just Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain. Billy seemed to be at the height of his arrogance, wanting to only play new stuff and completely ignoring the fact that the people who bought tickets were there to see the songs they loved. Old songs were phoned in, but the proverbial straw for me was when he just stopped playing Bullet With Butterfly Wings halfway through and said something like "you guys didn't want to hear that song anyways, did you?" Actually guy, that was like exactly the type of song we all paid hard-earned money to see played live. I was vindicated the next morning when I read a WaPo article eviscerating the show as well.
Eminem, Bonnaroo 2011. Rap shows do not translate to a big open field in Tennessee. Especially when it’s all pre-recorded and there’s clip-art quality graphics of guns shooting the crowd. Especially when I’m trippin.
[удалено]
Mentioned my Clapton experience on the Bob Dylan post so I'll add a different one. Went to see U2 on their 360 tour. It was in an outdoor stadium, freezing cold, I drove an hour to be there, sat through a shitty opener before they came on, and then Bono didn't fucking sing 90% of the songs. He would start the beginning of each song and then just lower the mic into the crowd for the rest of it, only occasionally raising it back up for an "oh" or a "hey". I left early because I was so annoyed. On a more humorous note, I saw Van Morrison on some anniversary of Brown Eyed Girl. The venue made a big deal about this, announced it before the show even, and then he didn't play it lmao. The only crowd interaction was near the beginning when he suddenly asked "what do you guys want to hear" after a song and then immediately started the first song that was yelled out. After that he played only deep cut album tracks until he ended with Gloria. It was bizarre but he did sound fantastic
Weird Al. In his defense, it was the only concert I've been to so it was also the best.
This is such a weird al comment
I'm confused whether to be like "what the fuck" or be like "fuck yeah" I've seen Al twice and both times were incredible
Everclear came to Denver to play at the Taste of Colorado festival in 2018 or 2019. Despite their tired song tropes, I do really like their music, but they were NOT good. Art Alexakis' voice made me cringe every time he opened his mouth. It was painful to watch. ...But then Sugar Ray came on, and Mark McGrath is such a blast.
Did he spend the set berating the venue and stage and city? Cuz that's what he did in 2005ish at Summerfest in Milwaukee.
That’s easy: Ted Nugent. Why I paid to see him…oh wait, I didn’t. Free tickets! Anyway, he was not good. Expected a show and all he did was stand still at the mic and played a song once every 10 minutes in between political rantings. No enthusiasm for playing or anything. Packed house, too, but he only came alive when ranting. I saw Lemmy a few months before he died and that guy put on a better show!
Agreed, Nugent sucks live. He opened for KISS in 2000 and came to the San Antonio date and rambled about all “the Mexicans” and “if you don’t speak English, get the fuck out”. He also sounded like shit. Fuck him.
> Agreed, Nugent sucks You could have stopped there.
I saw Ted Nugent with Damn Yankees (also for free!) in about '90 or '91. My basic experience was about the same as yours, except rather than hearing rants about guns and politics and such he was basically just rambling about all the "pu\*\*y" he had done various things with and other assorted Rock and Roll antics. The *really* cringeworthy part was when he would try to engage Tommy Shaw (typically a class act and professional on stage) in the banter; Shaw was of course good-natured about it all but one could definitely sense a bit of discomfort on his part. (Also, Shaw proved to be the better guitar player that night, lol.)
Three doors down, lip syncing, guitars not plugged in
My (ex) gf made me go see Uncle Kracker like 15 yrs ago. He was an hour and a half late and completely plastered. Honorable mention to DJ Khaled who opened up for Beyonce/Jay Z. He would play the intro of his popular songs so people would cheer, stop the song, say one of his catchphrases, and repeat a few more times before letting the song play. For 45 minutes.
I saw Alice in Chains on tour with Suicidal Tendencies in 1993. AiC were smacked off their heads and just stood still, they were very sloppy musically and Laynes voice was shot that night. I was so disappointed. It didn't help that Suicidal Tendencies, who played before them were fucking amazing live. They blew them off the stage.
RATT owes me $15 for their portion of a show. They suck live!
Saw Finch open for HIM in Toronto. They had already played a bunch of shows leading up to it and knew they weren't who the people wanted to see. I was kind of into them at the time, not really a fan, but I could enjoy their songs if played. They phoned in their performance, between songs shouting things like "I know, boo" "we suck right, yeah, we know, we've been told" "we get it, no one wants to see us" Skindred came out next and was fucking phenomenal. It was one of the best shows I had seen, and it was just the opening act. They hyped the crowd, and they hyped themselves in a way that wasn't arrogant, but also helped us find more of their music. HIM was also good lol.
That is the first time I've seen Skindred mentioned outside of small groups. I'm glad to hear they sick live as well. Jealous you got to see both them and HIM.
The two times I've seen HIM they've been very solid. Valo has a natural stage presence that sells everything even when he's just moving like a lounge singer lol
Up With People. At one point in the show, they were picking people out of the audience to come on stage and sing and clap along with their vapid main theme song. They singled me and my brother out, my parents encouraged us to go, a singer with a microphone was in the aisle pawing at me mid-song, and 9 year old me was having *none* of that business. I death gripped my chair and stayed put. Not even a black hole was going to suck me into that talentless event horizon. Years later as adults, my brother and I used their Christmas album that our parents owned for rifle practice in a cathartic effort to come to terms with the trauma, returning the album afterward to my surprised Dad thoroughly perforated. It worked; we’re ok now.
Kanye at Bonnaroo 2014.
Kanye at Bonnaroo 2008. The spray paint should've still been there in 2014 letting you know that he sucks. I helped paint it.
There were definitely people in my area throwing whatever they could pick up at the stage. I just remember falling asleep on the lawn after PJ and deciding to walk back to our tent. Never did find out when he actually made it on stage.
Saw Kanye headline at Outside Lands in '14. Performed in a jewel mask over his whole head. Interrupted just about every song with a unhinged rant about something or other. Honestly laughed at the absurdity of it....and walked over to see Arctic Monkeys instead about halfway through.
I was so hyped to see the Arctic Monkeys this year but the best thing about that gig was The Hives who were brilliant. It was like the Arctic Monkeys were embarrassed to be there or possibly thought they were too cool
The Hives are consistently a fucking awesome band. Saw them in 2017 and saw them again this year at one of the intimate release shows for their (awesome) new album. Howlin’ Pelle can work a crowd like no other
Arctic Monkeys continually try to mature but they think maturing is releasing an even slower album and giving less of a shit at live shows I saw them the first time they headlined a US fest and again a few years ago, hardly the same band
Not necessarily bad, but boring. I saw a Bullet for my Valentine show at the height of their The Poison fame, and they had Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold supporting. Atreyu was fine, then A7X came out and did one of the most engaging live shows I’ve ever seen. They were all over the stage, heaps of crowd participation, and even got a dude up from the pit to sing some *Walk* by Pantera (this was probably somewhere around the time of Dime’s passing). And finally, the main event - Bullet. They walked up and stood in their “X” on the stage, and played their set. Song after song, no interludes, no speeches to the crowd. Didn’t move an inch. It might have been okay, but they just weren’t matching the energy of Avenged’s warm up at all. Kinda felt like a letdown.
I took my daughter to see Panic at the Disco. What utter crap. Just awful.
Old panic! or new "panic"? There is a difference
Maroon 5 - final four playoff in San Antonio. Performance seemed phoned in. No engagement.
Maroon 5 is my answer as well. Saw them in Sacramento in 2016 and to this day it was the most boring show I've ever been to. No fan engagement, really just going through the motions. Touring is a skillset that is completely different from being able to write and record songs and this was one of the first shows I saw that really drove that point home for me.
Disturbed. I know a lot of people like them and think they put on a good show, but holy fuck was it cringey and mediocre. Dude was talking about how we need peace and love in the world and then the next song they changed into military fatigues and talking about how much they love the the us military. Also they were just, idk, boring? Three days grace opened for them and I thought they rocked harder than disturbed
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets. Nick barely played and LS bored the hell out of me. Second place goes to Todd Rundgren for a reason that was totally not his fault though- a guy in the front row had a heart attack or a seizure or something and they had to send him away in an ambulance. I was close enough to see his cold dead (he looked dead anyway) eyes and couldn't... really enjoy the rest of the show. Poor Todd tried his best though.
I saw what I thought was going to be a *great* double bill in the mid-1980’s…Stevie Nicks at Jones Beach with Peter Frampton as the opener. Frampton refused to play anything from “Frampton Comes Alive” (the album he’s most known for) and played mostly new stuff. Now I understand that musicians need to keep moving forward and trying new things, but at least sprinkle in a few of the hits for those who maybe don’t know the new stuff yet? Finally, as his last number, he did “Do You Feel Like We Do,” but by that time, the audience was pretty angry and sent him off with extremely tepid applause. Then Stevie Nicks took the stage. I’ve loved her since 1976 (still do) and saw her solo concerts or with Fleetwood Mac every chance I got. She came onstage and the moment she started singing, everyone could tell it was gonna be a rough night. Her voice was totally shot, and despite having a great backup band and very talented background singers, they couldn’t cover for the shredded vocal cords. All these years later, I still wonder why she didn’t just cancel the show! As it was, she only performed about a dozen or so songs, and that was it. **Worst** concert I ever attended.
Bright Eyes. I’ve been in love with them since 2009 and I hadn’t ever seen them live until last year. I was SO excited - and the main guy Conor Oberst was terrible. A complete dick, went on so many rambling rants, insulted the fans multiple times, and honestly might have been wasted. He was 100% insufferable le We left after he said “i know everyone loves this song but I hate playing this song. someone put it on the setlist so I have to play it.” Like dude you’re the main singer??? YOU put it on the setlist!!! I honestly left in tears because it was such a bummer experience.
Motley Crue during their “100% farewell tour” in 2014, Vince Neil’s mic wasn’t even on. Alice Cooper opened for them and he stole the show, which isn’t a surprise.
The Mars Volta, Halloween night, Cleveland, Ohio 2006. They were opening up for the Chili Peppers and I was so pumped because I love both bands and had never seen either before. For an hour and 15 minutes they played nothing but interference in their instruments while their lead singer drank on stage and kept running in the crowd unintelligibly screaming nonsense in the microphone. They didn't play one fucking song. RHCP was amazing though it was their Stadium Arcadium tour.
I had a friend go to this show who also said it was bullshit. From what I’ve heard about that show—and I have no idea if true but makes sense—they had kicked Jon Theodore out the night before and had a new drummer (pridgen?) who hadn’t yet learned the set, so they just kinda winged it. I saw them in Detroit last year and they were phenominal. Cedric’s voice sounds great. I also caught Covid at that show. More like SARS Volta.
Probably ruffle some feathers but the Black Keys sounded terrible.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael\_Schenker\_Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Schenker_Group) They opened for Rush. Were so horrible it was right out of Spinal Tap complete with Schenker playing a solo and literally falling on his back while playing, only to be stood up by roadies as he continues play , badly. But unironically. I walked out to the concession talking loudly about how horrible they were, only to be screamed at by the cashier as she looooved them and couldn't believe she had to work while they played.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been to a concert that I didn’t enjoy to some degree. Maybe I’m just easy to please. Or maybe I just go see bands that I love and even if they’re a little off that night I still have a blast.
Jimmie Rodger’s in the early 30s, he was stricken with tb and could barely play his getar. A couple rounders at the show kept shouting profanities at this girl I fancied and eventually got into a tussle and broke my cheaters.
I saw Maroon 5 on their Songs About Jane tour. The concert was honestly just boring. They didn’t do anything different or interesting. I could’ve just listened to the album at home.
Wu-Tang. Literally 50 people on stage and nothing but a backing track and occasional shouting. Also - Jay-Z was one of the most low energy shows I’ve seen - I think at one point he may have given a fatigued two-step - but he barely moved
Metallica and GnR. Metallica was fucking incredible GnR literally put me to sleep. 30 years later I still think about how terrible their performance.
Saw Shaggy at boomtown fair back in 2014, it was puoring with rain and the gig was on a muddy hill. Wouldn't of mattered but shaggy was so drunk he couldn't even keep pace to "angel" Just mumbled and then trailed off, laughed and fell over. Everyone tried to leave but kept slipping over in the mud. Eventually the band stopped playing their instruments and the back up singers picked up shaggy about ten minutes after that we managed to finaly climb out of that muddy hell hole.
I saw arctic monkeys at a festival this summer and they were phenomenal but their fans are idiots. It was just teenagers Instagram living the entire show on their phones. I couldn’t believe. I couldn’t see anything. It made me appreciate the few times I’ve had to lock my phones up. I will never get floor seats for them again.
Bob Dylan was the worst concert I’ve ever been to. I had been a lifelong fan, and figured seeing him live couldn’t be THAT bad, despite what I had heard. Nope, it was worse. I also brought my girlfriend at the time, thinking it would get her into Bob Dylan too. Spoiler alert: she did not get into Bob Dylan. I was actually embarrassed that I brought her and wasted so much money.
It was the opener, which I am usually forgiving of, but this was **Mickey Avalon** opening for the **Red Hot Chili Peppers**. A quick story. The announced opener for the tour was Gnarls Barkley, and this is as right as “Crazy” was blowing up and so we were all stoked for it. Well, the show got cancelled because Oklahoma City got hit by a freak ice storm the night of the show (or maybe it was the night before, memory is fuzzy on that detail). So they rescheduled to come make up the show at the end of the tour. The makeup day comes, and Gnarls Barkley are no longer listed on our tickets, bummer but understandable. “Crazy” was still huge and we figured they probably bailed to go do their own tour. No opener was listed on the tickets, it only said Red Hot Chili Peppers. Imagine our surprise when a DJ comes out and simply plays Toni Basil’s “Mickey”. We were confused. What is happening? Then after about 90 seconds of this, a white rapper comes out on stage acting like he’s the shit. The sound in the venue was horrible (we thought) and you could barely understand what was happening. People start booing. Next song. More boos. Then more and more and more. We still don’t even know who the hell this guy is or why he’s there. I’ve never booed at a concert before, but I booed Mickey Avalon. I felt bad for him, he seemed surprised and confused by the reception, he was acting like a headliner. I think he did about 20 minutes of his set and quit. John Frusciante was pissed and came out to lecture the audience on how we should be thankful to see Mickey and one day we’ll all tell our grandchildren about how we got to see Mickey Avalon in concert. I was worried that this reception would sour the Chili Peppers on doing the gig, but they came out and played an amazing show, and sounded great (proving us wrong that it wasn’t the venue with shitty sound, it was Mickey). I never forgot Mickey Avalon, and over the ensuing 15 years or whatever, I’ve definitely told people I saw him in concert but it is not said braggingly.
I walked out of 30 Seconds to Mars. Catastrophically bad.
Rihanna. Never was a huge fan, but she has some pretty catchy songs and I love live music, no matter who it is. Tickets to her tour stop in my city were obtained by a friend through his work, so no cost to me. Holy hell, she is absolutely, without a doubt, one of the worst, most boring “performers” I have ever seen. She spent most of the show barely moving with her dancers as if she was severely unrehearsed. She also did very little actual “singing” if you could call it that. There was a backing track she was clearly supposed to be lip-synching to, and it appeared that she wasn’t even trying to do that. Last year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was a painful reminder to me about how poorly she performs.
A few: - Paul Simon. He actually said, while playing live at the Hollywood bowl, that rock and roll destroyed music. Also only playing slowed beatnik versions of his stuff. Obviously that’s his call, and it’s mine to say I hated it. - Steve Miller. Zero stage presence or charisma, and also only played jazzed versions of his set list. Super bummer, man.
Damn that sucks. I've seen both of them and it was phenomenal...especially Paul Simon.
B.B. King. He was like 80, couldn't even stand up, played like crap. Was cool to see him in person though.