who surprised and who disappointed

Disappointing
Van Morrison at Jones Beach- 45 minutes of hostility, he couldn't wait to get out of there.

The Clash at Bonds 25 years ago. The SINGLE WORST venue ever. Terrible sound and no sightlines at these "legendary" shows.

Patti Smith in Ann Arbor ca 1975. Her band was snowed in and she tried to do an entire poetry/acapella show.

The Dead at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. I was uncomfortable and bored. Five hours of Dead is at least two hours too much for me.

Eels at The Roxy five years ago. One of the best songwriters alive decides to dress as the Unabomber and drown his perfect hooks under a barrage of noise.

Surprising

Kim Richey Opened for some alt. country band and blew everyone away.

Taj Mahal I had tried to see him for 20 years so I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment when I finally got to see him play. I anticipated a low key acoustic blues set. Instead, he was all over the place: acoustic and electric and on top of his game on both.

John Hiatt's Perfectly Good Guitar Tour. I'd seen him many times and really liked his shows, but this one, with a younger, much harder rocking band was tremendous. I believe Cheryl Crow opened.

John Fogerty's comeback show at Town Hall, NYC. CCR was always about the records-not the shows. Fogerty went away for 15 years and when he came back he had learned how to play guitar AND he found a great band to back him. The songs are as good as can be.

Agree completely with Marco about how Benaroya Hall in Seattle can ruin the best of concerts.

I went to see Emmylou Harris there with Buddy and Julie Miller as the opening act. You could only get a sense of what they were capable of because the overamplified PA system and bizarre acoustics made them almost unlistenable.

The only reason I stayed is that Buddy Miller was such an incredible, unexpected talent, obvious even through the horrible sound. He played with Emmylou through all of her set and the combination of the two of them would have been outrageously good if only you could have heard it.

Alice Cooper

Broadway theatrics and rock 'n roll. a performance I will remember for life.

Rush

Stunning musicianship

Supertramp

As good live as recorded

ZZTop

Best live band ever?

John Prine

On the back steps of the student union in college- just he and his guitar kept a crowd of 2000 enthralled for 2+ hours

Joe Satriani

Seen is a small venue-guitar licks from another universe

Dissapointments:
Tina Turner- boring left after and hour
Joni Mitchell- great voice, no charisma. Her back up band Tom Scott and the LA Express was the star of the show
Chicago- Low fidelity venue, no energy

They may have had just bad nights but I left these shows wondering how much studio polish got them where they are.

The Dead, as listed but for different reasons and the SOUND SYSTEM. Also RatDog, and Phil&Freinds.

Paul Simon at a local ampitheater, wasn't crowed so I just moved back behind the mixing board, and wow, I never heard a PA system image before. To say I was blown away was an understatement.

Bruce Springsteen once opening his Born in the USA tour. Magic. Since then mostly disappointments.

loon

Tvad, why be embarrased, Tina Turner's on fire when she hits the stage.
Annie Lennox was electric on stage. She had the crowd from beginning to end even though she was the opener for Sting.
Biggest dissapointment was Sting. Although in fairness it may have been an audience expecting Police standards. He couldn't get the crowd into his new stuff. The brightest spot in Sting's set as when Annie Lennox joined him for a duet.