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Worst Concerts You Have Attended ??

I just left a remark about a favorite band of mine back in the day - April Wine - that I saw in concert and was disappointed. Could have been that it was an off night for them, or maybe they were never good in concert. Maybe the lead guitarist had too much to drink? April Wine was not the worst, however. I remember Neil Young in the 1990's who was on his one-man acoustic show type of tour that many artists were taking advantage of (perhaps for financial reasons) during that time. While a friend of I had near front row seats at Desert Sky Pavilion (now Ak-Chin) in Pheonix, the crowd was just roused up into a frenzy by the warm-up band (James) and here comes Neil and his guitar/harmonica. Wow, what a sonic letdown. I remember getting up and leaving and feeling Neil's glaring eyes on us as we ushered out. I think, to this day, he probably still remembers me. We all can remember the great live concerts we attended, but what were the worst and why?
goodlistening64
1extreme's avatar
1extreme
161 posts
 
And my worst was a Michael Franks concert (aka Popsicle Toes) that a girl friend bought tickets to and insisted we go. It seemed like he couldn't perform unless he was looking at his band so basically had his back to the audience the whole time. And when he faced the audience he had a look like he didn't want to be there eyes looking up at the ceiling. We were in the fifth row from front. But it was worth it. I ended up marrying her.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,333 posts
 
They all were pretty good in retrospect considering there are none these days. 
sns
3,295 posts
 
Easy one here. The absolute worst, Todd Rundgren and Utopia, Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor,  mid 70's, worse than many high school bands I'd heard up to that point. My friend and I stuck it out to the end, perhaps half of audience had left prior.

Biggest disappointment probably Patti Smith, small club in Ann
Arbor, likely one of Fred "sonic" Smith's last shows. First set really nice, expecting big things from second, entire band obviously stoned on heroin, could hardly play.
Greatest surprise. Neil Diamond, 1976 Pine Knob Detroit, girlfriend insisted I go, great concert! Made me appreciate his music far more than prior.
reubent
7,035 posts
 
@mapman  - Agreed. Even a bad concert would be OK about now......

Interestingly, we have 2 new indoor/outdoor concert venues opening downtown this summer. One is in Cincinnati at The Banks and the other about a mile away in Newport, KY (across the Ohio River). We already had a pretty good music scene for a Mid-Size market IMHO. Will be interesting to see what doubling the number of mid-sized venues is going to do for local concert bookings. New capacities - 2700-7000.
drbarney1's avatar
drbarney1
179 posts
 
While I never had to walk out of a concert, the Dallas Symphony was scheduled to perform the music of Schubert. I flew a private plane from where I was staying while I was still in the Air Force to Dallas to attend. When I arrived at the concert hall the ticket agent told me the symphony had been cancelled and replaced with an "Up With People" pop music festival because a mob of protesters thought symphonic music was too elitist for failing to come down to their level. I did not attend.
Years later my wife and I attended a wedding reception at a very expensive country club where there was a band shouting ever and again "Shake a tail feather," while all the very rich people were getting so drunk they were falling down on the dance floor and demanding "Shake a tail feather" be played over and over again. We left early.
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