Your most striking live music encounter

[Absorbine_Sr]

As I was casually listening to some music tonight, my choice of CD brought a rush of memory back to me that inspired me to ask this question. What is the most memorable, striking moment you've had while at a concert, seeing a live performance?

For me it was at an outdoor theater that no longer exists - Poplar Creek in the NW Chicago burbs. We had gone to see King Crimson there on the tour they did supporting the Beat album. But there were mega intense thunderstorms that day and the show was rained out. I had been a Crimso fan since the early '70's but had never seen them. I was heartbroken.

Flash ahead a couple of years. Three of a Perfect Pair is out. Crimso is touring again. Same outdoor venue. No rain today. Just heat. It's very hot. We have seats in the pavilion, stage right (Almost in spitting distance of Tony Levin). The one moment in time I will never forget is when Bill Bruford stepped out from behind his kit to play the opening to "The Sheltering Sky" on the little square slit drum he used. The sun was setting, it was hot, and if you are familiar with "The Sheltering Sky" you know how the music just washes over you. The song completely took me to a place I've never been before. It was a moment that I will never forget.

So what is your striking moment?

[aardvark baguette]

For me, its seeing acoustic guitarist Tommy Emmanuel in concert in 2004 in The Chet Atkins Appreciation Society, in Tennessee. (I used to play fingerstyle guitar as a hobby during college; not as much anymore). He put on one hell of a show. Its not even funny how good he is. His CDs dont really show his full potential; live is the best way to hear him. Its just short of a religious experience.

Before that, it was seeing Blues Traveler play a non-stop 45 minute medley of songs in one of their concerts. John Popper took about 2 breaths the entire time. That was very cool too.

[hungrych]

Probably Matthew Shipp with William Parker, Guillermo E. Brown, and Daniel Carter. Seeing masters of free improvisation live is just a completely amazing experience.

[catscratch]

Volodos performing Rach 3 in Carnegie Hall (don't remember what orchestra was backing in up but it was rubbish). I have the recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, and it's the best Rach 3 recording I've heard in years, but it is a positively restrained and cautious exercise compared to the frenzy and fireworks Volodos put on that night. I've never heard a better performance from anyone, anywhere, ever.

[Thelonious Monk]

Jumping the fence of an 18+ Immolation concert. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but I totally zoned out during a few songs from Close to a World Below, an album which I couldn't really connect with on record.

On top of the actual musical experience, there was a guy walking around wearing a cape, a viking cap and carrying a goblet, which I mentioned in IRC already. And more hot drunk girls than you'd expect at a death metal concert to "dance with." I'm a total dumbass, though, so I came home with a t-shirt from the concert. My dad was smart enough to ground me for a very long time. Sometimes I think I should just play videogames and basketball like normal kids, but this is a lot more risky and fun.

[Dusty Chalk]

Camille -- she pretty much had me from the get-go, but by the time she was done, it was "greatest concert evar!!!1!". Early on in the show, she tried to direct a singalong with the audience doing French pop hits, since she was at the French embassy. Hardly anyone knew any of the words, much less the melody. They (we) started talking amongst ourselves. If I weren't still watching her, I would say that she was falling flat on her face, but as Hirsch likes to say, if one doesn't fail, one isn't experimenting enough. That was definitely the case. She had so much exuberance and confidence that I don't think she even noticed she was failing, she just went on to the next number or whatever. Not a few songs later, she sung the most delicate number from Le Fil (I think it was "Pour Que L'amour Me Quitte", don't have the song titles memorized) unamplified. Not just unaccompanied, unamplified. They even turned the mic off. I won't say you could hear a pin drop, but she delivered the song delicately, without much power, and she had such a commanding presence, that you could hear her just fine. From then on, she had the audience's attention for the rest of the night.

Bauhaus -- Daniel, David and Kevin mount the stage...with a television. Peter Murphy's image appears on the television and they launch into the first song -- which is always "Double Dare". He's doing this live from offstage, and despite the fact that you didn't come to the concert to watch television, it works. As always, they transition into "In the Flat Field", and he comes out -- he waits an entire song to mount the stage (and this is before we knew that the reunion was going to be anything more than the one tour, so the concert is an event). The man knows how to make an entrance.

Pink Floyd -- Division Bell tour. I think it was the second half of the show, after the break. They show up in a giant mirrorball, big enough to encase the entire band. The entire concert was "spectacle", from beginning to end, with giant inflatable pigs during the songs from Animals, a giant round projection screen, and plenty of other visuals. Pretty much no-one can outdo that ever again, except, perhaps...

Blue Man Group -- I just love this band: visual, silly, kinetic, engaging. Plenty of people on stage -- mostly drummers, and utilizing dynamics and subtlety in a way that you wouldn't expect from someone to whom The Three Stooges appears to be a primary influence. At one point, they throw out a straw Blue Man into the crowd to get ripped up. At others you are expected to make "rock concert movements" complete with narrated instruction ("above-head fist pump", etc.). And so on. Again, the visual spectacle and the music conjoin in such a way to make the whole better than the sum of the parts.

Peter Gabriel -- Big bouncy ball, I'm sure everyone's heard of it by now, he looks like a gerbil in there. Tries to run over the guitarist. Peter Gabriel never disappoints when it comes to live shows -- I've seen him as far back as the 80's (I think it was on the tour for Security).

[grawk]

The Dave Matthews band in November of 1991. It was free beer night at Ziggy's, which is probably the best live music venue between atlanta and dc, and is the stop for bands of a certain size. I was recording the show, and counting me, there were 7 people in the audience. And two dogs. The two dogs were having sex in front of the stage. Dave spent a few minutes discussing this.

X with Billy Zoom at the 9:30 club. Before the show began, my wife and kid and I are hanging out in the balcony seating area, and up walks Billy. He told us how much he missed his kids, and proceeded to spend about 15 minutes playing with Thomas. The show was pretty good, too...

The Flaming Lips at Diamond, in Oklahoma City, 1995. We'd driven from NC to Dallas to see the Flaming Lips at Trees, then went up to OKC to see the tour ending show at Diamond. The band found out how far we'd travelled, and had us brought backstage after the show. Wayne offered to let us sleep on his couch, and Ronald introduced us to his parents. We got to hear Wayne tell the story of prank calling the local record store in norman after the proprietor had discovered a head in his dumpster (Norman's first murder in a LONG time).

[postjack]

tons, but this always springs to mind.

Phish 03/01/2003 Greensboro, NC

encore: first tube > yem > proud mary (acapella, last performed 12/2/83, not performed in last 1133 shows)

[The Monkey]

Dylan at the Beacon in Manhattan in early 90's.

Dave Matthew's Band encore in the monsoon at Giants Stadium.

[Duggeh]

Ludovico Einaudi, Usher Hall Edinburgh, Rosa.

(I was front row centre and that whole performance was one continuous immersive eargasm.)

R.E.M. T In The Park, Walk Unafraid.

(I touched Michael Stipe during that performance)

[kpeezy]

Hmm.. I can't pick between these three...

- Flaming Lips @ the Zoo

- Portugal. The Man

- Battles @ Fun Fun Fun Fest

Flaming Lips was the coolest show to watch ever.

Portugal. The Man had the most interactive and crazy crowd ever.

I was 2 feet away from John Stanier's bass drum @ the FFFF show.

Battles wins by proximity.

[grawk]

primus freakout 98

every mule show before allen woody died

every flaming lips show before ronald left the band

jerry band in hampton

[Dusty Chalk]

I thought I mentioned this one, but it appears I haven't.

Best crowd: Urge Overkill/Breeders in Hawaii. I think I was the only one that wasn't partaking of "maui-maui" that night. I was actually in Hawaii on work, and I think I had already been there for 4 weeks at that point, and was getting a little punchy, so I looked around to see if there were any shows that I was interested, found this one, and went. Crowd was absolutely apeshit -- partying, dancing, moshing, crowd-surfing, singing along. High as kites, the lot of them. Line was really slow to get in, so Urge Overkill had already started by the time I got in. They finished, but...it's like the crowd didn't notice. They kept partying, dancing, singing, moshing (not violent like, more like a bunch of individuals doing the pogo in proximity to each other, rather than into each other), and crowdsurfing. "Rhinestone Cowboy" came on. I swear, the entire crowd sang along, moshing, dancing, partying, and crowd-surfing just like it was the headlining band. The Breeders came on at some point, and I think they commented, and they were of course, great. They used two microphones for that one song, "Cannonball", for the first encore, and if at all possible, the crowd went apeshitter...erm...more apeshit.

[gauche]

Seeing Joe Zawinul rise from the orchestra pit playing "Birdland" on the in-house pipe organ in the CU Boulder Auditorium, at the beginning of the Heavy Weather Concert.

[hungrych]

The Flaming Lips last week was up there. 90% of the crowd knew every word to every song. They just created such a great relationship between the artist and audience.

[me=hungrych]notices a theme here...[/me]

[fierce_freak]

3 different encounters stick out for me:

Roger Waters last year doing all of Dark Side + lots of other stuff. The whole thing was absolutely killer.

Sounds of the Underground tour, I think the year was '05. Most of the show was great, but there are a couple moments during that were very striking, especially the couple times when it seemed like the entire mosh pit (too big to be a pit really...it was huge) seemingly went into sync. I remember one moment where there was a pause in the song being played, and the entire pit went still, but there was this anticipation you could feel. It was like time stopped. Then the breakdown started and the entire pit exploded into action all at once. It was beautiful.

Last, seeing Remembering Never in this really small club. It was just an incredibly intense experience. Too cool.

[swt61]

Definitely the Hanson concert, it was hard core R&R.

But seriously it'd be hard to top seeing the Allman Brothers live back in 76.

[philodox]

Probably a tossup between Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and The Gossip.

I've only seen Antibalas once, but it was a great show. People of all ages, denominations, etc... just having a great time. The amount of people involved in the show was shocking, and the performance excellent. I think Tyrion saw them live as well and can back me up here.

The Gossip I've seen many times and will continue to see whenever I get the chance. Beth Ditto has an energy about her that is very engaging. I'd gladly watch her perform all day. The music is pretty damn good as well.

[JimP]

The Clash x2 (I was way too young -- cape cod coliseum, providence civic center - still in awe)

The Ramones (again, way too young, fake ID to get in, providence)

Violent Femmes (Wellesley College?, awesome live!)

Jonathan Richman x3 (NYC/Tokyo - I would always scream Roadrunner! but he never plays it)

Grateful Dead (madison square garden - in hind sight I wish I could have seen the Dead more than once)

The Who (Meadowlands? playing Quadrophenia - was never a fan, bought every CD after the show, amazing musicians)

Medeski Martin And Wood x3 (NYC - for a brief period, I think I was a groupie)

Roger Waters x2 (unreal concerts)

countless other concerts, but the above stand out.

[grawk]

I'll add the grateful dead 7/12/90 RFK stadium (I think that's the date, definitely the rfk summer 90 show). Rained for my whole ride up from nc (on a motorcycle), then was super hot and clear all day and for the opener, then during feels like a stranger, the clouds opened up again, and turned rfk into a fishbowl. My first dark star, my first true mindblowing experience at a concert. My first case of trenchfoot.

[JimP]

more so than the Dead (which I'm belatedly a huge fan), I would have loved to have seen Jerry Garcia Band show...

[postjack]

more so than the Dead (which I'm belatedly a huge fan), I would have loved to have seen Jerry Garcia Band show...

The early 80s JGB like on the recent "After Midnight: Live At Kean College" release was tight as all hell. Really fun hearing jerry in a stripped down four piece like that. That recording has fantastic sound and mastering for the record, which is not the case with all the Pure Jerry releases.

[Old Pa]

That would have to be several Ramsey Lewis Trio concerts at Knox College in the early 1970s. Much more involving and captivating than their recorded work.