Your greatest gig/show of all time?

Tricky, but the stand outs for me are:

Cult of Luna - Southampton Joiners in 2006
Radiohead - Wolverhampton Civic Centre in 2006
Mastodon - Mean Fiddler, London in 2005
Dillinger Escape Plan - The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth in 2004
Emma Ruth Rundle - Clapham Grand in 2022
Swans - Islington Assembley Hall in 2016

Honourable mention

Holy Fawn - 229 in 2022

Had some great gigs back in my university days!
 
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Anything The Prodigy.. only went to my first one last year but they’ve been going since the 90s

Great atmosphere and crowd etc all fuelled by the music ofc.

Unfortunately didn’t get to see Keith ofc but there was some kind of projection they did in honour of him
 
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Is it bad that I struggle to remember most gigs? And even the best one is just snippets.

I've been to 13 Glastonbury festivals (and counting), 4 "V" Festivals in Chelmsford, Camden Crawl, Great Escape in Brighton etc not to mention lots of gigs around London

A few that stick in the mind from Glasto

Paul McCartney (2004) - He was so much worse in 2022!
Neil Young (2009)
Blur (2009)
Arcade Fire (2014)
Metallica (2014)
 
SexyGreyFox said:
My first proper gig was in 1971 but the best gig I've ever seen is Ghost in Nottingham 2019.
It was perfect, the songs, musicianship, comedy, lights and so on. I will never forget it.

Another amazing gig is a band I thought I'd never see are Clawfinger and they ended up playing a rock pub near me as a favour for the Landlord.

Boston around 1980, that was perfection.
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Ghost are tremendous live, we saw them at the London Palladium. Seated gig, was surreal and like you say the showmanship and humour is incredible. Would definitely be in my top 5.


Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Tony Sly (No Use for a Name) and Jon Snodgrass (Armchair Martian/Drag the river) - 2010, Islington Academy. Little intimate acoustic gig would be probably my favourite of all time.

Or Bad Religion last year at Manchester Uni, played everything I could have wanted to hear.
 
Lots to choose from but I think for me it comes down to Sigur Rós at Latitude Festival 2008.

Perfect show, set list, ambience, staging and lighting. *Chef's kiss*
 
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An easy one (I'll be mocked for)

Lady gaga, art rave.
Never seen anything like it. The set was amazing, the robotics, the choreography. It was a performance as much as a concert.

Stock pic (as my phone at time was poop)
That particular set change in the pic just built and built.
There was nothing but the platform. Over the song the lights intensified, song pace sped up, those plants started growing by robotics one by one from the set, glitter started falling. It was amazing.

Don't think it'll ever be topped.


PAciNoT.jpg
 
Little Feat - Rainbow Theatre August 1977. Part of this was used on the Waiting for Columbus live album. A band at their peak (backed by the Tower of Power Horns and with a guest appearance from Mick Ronson)
 
Rage Against the Machine at Finsbury Park. The free gig they did after getting the Christmas number one.

I don't know how we managed to get tickets but there was four of us. Me and my friend left the girls to stay at a slightly safer distance.. we were still quite far back but as soon as Testify (first song) kicked in it went absolutely nuts :D I probably moved 30m forward in the rush and my feet barely touched the ground. Lost my mate straight away and didn't see him again for the whole gig!

The whole energy was unlike any other gig I've been too. It was so energetic, everyone was so happy to be there. Loved it.
 
Metallica, with Anthrax supporting, in 1986. I was 16, and that gig was pretty much the high point of thrash metal for me. Got kicked out during anthrax for getting on stage, but got back in for Metallica when someone opened the fire escape door.

Slayer on reign in blood tour. Learned I didn't have to be scared of skinheads after a scuffle in the moshpit. Got kicked out of that one too, but during the encore this time- a sign i was learning.

The 2006 Donington show. The Sunday night riot was hilarious. Stayed up until about 3AM to watch it and only left when the police started getting handy.

Cropredy festival in 2010, when Bellowhead and Status Quo headlined. Both bands got the crowd going like nobody's business.
 
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Metallica always put on a stnkng show. The World Magnetic stage destruction and lights were superb but the drones on the Hardwired tour were astounding.
 
potatolord said:
The 2006 Donington show. The Sunday night riot was hilarious. Stayed up until about 3AM to watch it and only left when the police started getting handy.
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I forgot about that!

I loved seeing the whole of Master of Puppets played in full :)

That has one of my best festival memories too in hearing Gojira play Ocean Planet as we walked in to the tent, it was so damn heavy. Brilliant.
 
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Smashing pumpkins Siamese dream tour and a few years later I got to see Les claypool and primus being as weird as usual which for me was awesome:p

I used to go to a gig nearly every month back in my teens. Mad LSD infused times.

We got VIP tickets from a connected uni mate to tribal gathering ..,and orbital and Jeff Mills stick out from that .
 
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Few to choose from from down the years, I could probably put a bunch more down from festivals but these I would stay are standout ones that stick in the mind right now:

  • Muse, Glastonbury 2010. Not a big fan of their studio work, but this won me over. Incredible crowd reaction, check 2min into this: https://youtu.be/VUwxrIwF9KY?t=120
  • The Killers, Wembley 2013. They even wrote a special song for the occasion! Secret set at Glasto 2017 was a better atmosphere but only 1hr long, so this tops it.
  • The Cribs, Glastonbury 2015. I have a soft spot for this band, rarely do you have a band with singing this mediocre but you don't care because of the incredible guitar riffs and energy. I was literally in tears during Be Safe. Saw them a year later at IOW and regretted it, they were never going to top that performance so it was a let down.
  • Foo Fighters, Glastonbury 2017. Just a great rock and roll performance.
  • The Prodigy, Victorious 2018. Loads of energy, great lighting and stuff, glad I got a chance to see them before Keith Flint passed away.
  • Rhythm of the 90s, Glastonbury 2019. I saw them in the same tent two years earlier, but somehow they'd evolved, front man had grown more of an attitude. Just an absolute relentless onslaught of 90s dance classics, played live in front of you (SO SO much better than just a random DJ spinning tunes). One of my friends collapsed with a panic attack and her husband had to take her out, they missed out for sure!
  • Stereophonics, Bournemouth 2020. Early March so people were a bit wary of the looming pandemic by then, last pre-lockdown gig I went to. Arguably when I saw them in the same venue in 2017(?) it was a better performance but this holds a place in my heart as there was a certain atmosphere, the last hurrah for the public before we'd be plunged into lockdown a couple of weeks later. I honestly think Kelly Jones is one of the absolute top front men of his generation in terms of having an amazing voice plus more freedom in live sets to do guitar solos and stuff. For sure Stereophonics are the most consistently good live act I've seen (5 times?), always excellent.
  • Embrace, Victorious 2022. Just for the completely unexpected awesomeness of a 30min set in the late afternoon from a band I considered average. I was never a massive fan of their back in the day but they absolutely delivered, crowd loving it, even their token new song sounded great. A travesty they only got half an hour!
 
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