If You Could Attend Any Concert (past or present), What Would It Be?

Had this discussion with some friends some time back. Let's say you could climb into the Delorean and head back to any music concert. Let's also say that you would just be an observer, meaning no one would be able to see you. You could just walk right up to the front row or maybe just walk up on stage.

What concerts would you want to be witness too? I would choose concerts not just because I enjoy the artists, but also because of the historical significance.

I'll start with a few in no particular order:

The Doors - Dinner Key Auditorium - March 1, 1969
The famous 'Miami Incident'. Jim Morrison was more inebriated than normal. By all accounts, it was a messy, incomprehensible performance capped by what was allegedly Morrison's most notorious onstage action, whipping out his penis. He was arrested and his case was still being appealed when he died.

Bruce Springsteen
The Roxy - July 7, 1978
He started with a cover of Buddy Holly's 'Rave On' and ended three-plus hours later with 'Twist and Shout.' In between were stories, songs and proof that rock 'n' roll could be a religious experience in the right hands.

Woodstock
Aug. 15-18, 1969
Woodstock featured way too many great performances to single out just one. In fact, it's the entire four-day festival that makes it one of the most historic concerts ever staged. Santana were there. So were the Who, Jimi Hendrix and Crosby, Stills & Nash. And they all played some of their all-time best sets at the venerable hippie fest.

Jimi Hendrix
Monterey Pop Festival - June 18, 1967
Hendrix ended his set with a cover of the Troggs' 'Wild Thing' -- complete with the guitar acrobatics that got him noticed. But it was his final act -- which involved dry humping his instrument, setting it on fire and smashing it onstage.

Led Zeppelin - Madison Square Garden 1973
One of the best performances of one of the best live bands ever. Just look up "Stairway" from this show on YouTube. Plant is on and Page wrecks it for 2:40 during the solo... With his eyes closed.

The Doors - Felt Forum, NY, NY, Jan. 18, 1970 (2nd Show)
The Doors at their peak doing a smaller club. I have the live boxset, I couldn't imagine being there.

Dave Matthews Band - Central Park, NY, NY, Sept. 24 - 2003
One of the band's biggest shows to that point. Proceeds from the benefit concert, a show staged on Central Park's Great Lawn on September 24, 2003, helped renovate Charlottesville, VA's Music Resource Center.

James Brown - Apollo Theater, NY, NY, Oct. 24, 1962
Classic James Brown showing why he was 'Soul Brother #1. The band is clean as a silk suit, and how the women love this rough singer's tender lover-in-song act. There is no music anywhere quite like the perfectly timed and articulated female fan-screeches that punctuate the 10-minute 'Lost Someone.'

Pearl Jam - Randall's Island, NY, Sept. 29, 1996
Eddie Vedder spoke first. He assured us that while the previous night (they had played Randall's Island the night before in heavy rain) had been highly charged, tonight, they were going to take it a bit easier. But he had the feeling, he said that the music would be better, sharper, than it had ever been, and that the concert would be longer, maybe, than any other that they had ever performed. That show indeed was legendary, and just as Vedder had forecast, they did in fact play more sings, and played a longer show, than they had ever done before.

Pink Floyd - Ohio Stadium, May 28, 1988
A laser-light show version of Pink Floyd’s trademark inflatable pig wowed a crowd of 64,000 screaming fans on May 28, 1988, at the first rock concert at Ohio Stadium. I'm sure there are better Pink Floyd concerts, but this one would be special to me because I grew up in Columbus, Ohio and have always been a Buckeye fan. Unfortunately, I was only 12 years old when Floyd came to town. When the show did start, 70-foot curtains dropped away, and the band launched into Shine on You Crazy Diamond, from its 1975 Wish You Were Here album. As the group’s third song, Learning To Fly, ended, the lasers produced an angellike creature that stunned the audience by hovering over the stage and then flying above the audience. The pig also made an appearance in lights.

I have a lot more, but I want to see what other's come up with. Though my list includes mostly classic rock, it could be any music concert such as, country, classical, pop, whatever.

Without a doubt... Woodstock...





Kindest respects

Rodinus

reply to post by jtrenthacker


Bob Marley...at his peak.

WOODSTOCK ... Period.
just missed it by a couple years.

Phil Collins. He's retired now

Nero at Rome. Stones at altimont. The who Cincinnati. Great white at the station club.

abe froman
Nero at Rome.

Genius...

Led Zeppelin Boston Tea Party Jan 23rd 1969.

Live Aid.

Man to see this:

reply to post by intrepid


Greatest control of a crowd I have ever seen.

Peter Frampton - Marin Civic Center, San Fran, CA, 1975
Marking the first time he headlined a show, Frampton's magical performance would go on to sell close to 16 million copies, becoming the highest-selling live recording in rock history.


U2 - Liquor Store Rooftop, LA, CA, March 27, 1987
The Irish quartet was about four songs into its set on an L.A. liquor store rooftop when the city police decided to pull the plug on the impromptu performance and spoil the fun for the fans that had gathered below. Both the performance and the police intervention did make for a captivating "Where The Streets Have No Name" video — which was the point of the whole exercise.

Beatles - Shea Stadium, NY, NY, Aug 15, 1965
The Beatles' at Shea Stadium — the first-ever stadium concert of its kind. The sell-out crowd of 55,600 was so deafening that the Fab Four could barely hear themselves play throughout their 30-minute set. Instead, The Beatles' grand armored van entrance, John Lennon's 'Jerry Lee Lewis' onstage freak-out and the event's record-setting gross revenues stole the show.

Jerry Lee Lewis - Star Club, Hamburg, Germany, April 5, 1964
Was recorded live and it is regarded by many music journalists as one of the wildest and greatest rock and roll concert albums ever. the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed to record. He sounds possessed, hitting the keys so hard it sounds like they'll break, and rocking harder than anybody had before or since. Compared to this, thrash metal sounds tame, the Stooges sound constrained, hardcore punk seems neutered, and the Sex Pistols sound like wimps. Rock & roll is about the fire in the performance, and nothing sounds as fiery as this; nothing hits as hard or sounds as loud, either. It is no stretch to call this the greatest live album ever, nor is it a stretch to call it the greatest rock & roll album ever recorded. Even so, words can't describe the music here — it truly has to be heard to be believed. I own this album and I agree.

reply to post by jtrenthacker


Come on Man! WOODSTOCK!!

(i'll be the guy naked in the mud

So many...but, here goes...

1991 Monsters of Rock in Moscow (not just for Pantera, but this is a favorite):



1963 Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan goes electric:



1989 Metallica in Seattle:



I'll just stick with these three...chosen mainly because they are crowds I would really like to have lost myself in/been a part of.

There are a hundreds of other shows, better shows, but you ask a question that could get out of hand

reply to post by jtrenthacker


I could think of many bands that would be a worthy trip back in time.
But I wouldn't go as at every concert I have been to, the smell in the air gives me a headache and I get real hungry then I get tired.
Hendrix, Zeppelin, the Who, Old Van Halen...Too many to really list.
Funny, that none on my list are artists from say the past decade...
Trash.

kalunom
There are a hundreds of other shows, better shows, but you ask a question that could get out of hand

That's my plan, bring it on! I love all types of music, but I truly love a nicely recorded live show. I have a huge collection of live music and I would like to get some ideas of what else is out there whether it be an official release or a decent bootleg.

Great picks by the way. Was that the Dylan show where he went electric and got booed off stage?

Speaking of Metallica, how about their gig at Tushino Airfield in Moscow, Sept 28, 1991? It was a free show with an estimated 1 million in attendance. I can't even wrap my head around that.

g146541
Funny, that none on my list are artists from say the past decade...
Trash.

I haven't seen them but I hear Tool is epic in concert.

I think seeing Beethoven would of been amazing.

Any Led Zeppelin concert.

The Stray Cats.

Elvis.

Man there are too many to list.

Cool thread.

Definitely Woodstock and would loved to have gone to a late 80s UK illegal rave.

reply to post by intrepid


Tool has been around for a couple of decades, I got a couple of their albums.

it has to be woodstock for me all that free love man