First Gig/Best Gig/Worst Gig

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

If festivals count then my first was the old Matthew Street Festival in Liverpool which my family used to go to every year then I’d go by myself when I was in my mid-late teens which was a fun experience going street to street seeing what local or tribute bands were on

First and only proper gig was, shamefully, Craig David purely as it was a freebie and to chaperone my sister and her friends, a colleague of my mum used to get free tickets to gigs every summer when they’d set up a tented ‘arena’ on the King’s Dock (which at one point was to be Everton’s new stadium and is now the site of the M&S Bank Arena)

 

[Fanny Pack]

First gig was in 2002, I saw The Coral in the Flying Picket, Liverpool city centre- after the gig I got arrested for writing "ROONEY IS GOD" on the Bombed Out Church using one of those chunky marker pens. Good times.

 

Best gig- 2009, Simple Minds, Echo Arena. Enough said.

 

Worst gig- last year, dragged to the Echo Arena (is the M&S Arena now but that sounds like a major Tory gaff) by the missus to see McFly. 

[Fanny Pack]

10 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

If festivals count then my first was the old Matthew Street Festival in Liverpool which my family used to go to every year then I’d go by myself when I was in my mid-late teens which was a fun experience going street to street seeing what local or tribute bands were on

First and only proper gig was, shamefully, Craig David purely as it was a freebie and to chaperone my sister and her friends, a colleague of my mum used to get free tickets to gigs every summer when they’d set up a tented ‘arena’ on the King’s Dock (which at one point was to be Everton’s new stadium and is now the site of the M&S Bank Arena)

 

The Summer Pops la, saw Peter Kay there. Quality.

[Accident Prone]

First gig: New Found Glory/Hundred Reasons/Reggie And The Full Effect in 2004, Birmingham Carling Academy.

Okay for a first gig. The drummer from NFG was pulling double duty under a hooded robe with Reg (the legs gave it away, weirdly enough), and they even got Jordan out in a Poundland fairy-skeleton costume to do backing vocals. Hundred Reasons were an odd choice, and didn't fit in with the vibe at all, but I still belted along to 'Falter'. NFG are a blur, I do not remember them at all. I do remember queueing up and some local sk8er bellend spelling out his plan to bully someone out of a ticket in pigeon park, which put to bed the idea that the alternative side were better than the 'townies'. Absolute cockroach of a man.

Best gig: Like many others, way too many to get into. Cursive at the Hare And Hounds in 2008, Jawbreaker in London in 2019, the third day of Download 2009 where I just watched Journey at about noon and then spent the rest of the day fucking levered at the campsite, & Our Lady Peace twice during their 2012 UK tour (including their appearance at the Canada Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square, where me, my brother and best mate dressed up as Terrence And Philip).

 

Worst gig: Coheed And Cambria, Download 2008.

I love Coheed, and I was bigging them up to my mate for fucking ages, and I dragged him along to the front for this and prepped him to have his mindblown.

Claudio, the lead singer, just could not give a fuck. He was in a right fucking mood, didn't even acknowledge the crowd or his band mates. After a few miserable songs, the bass player meekly spoke into the mic, "Hi, we're Coheed & Cambria, we're from New York" and then they all carried on with the set as if they were simply filling their obligations to be there. They clearly didn't want to be there, but they were. The crowd sensed something was off and so the energy was as depressing as the stage presence. At the end, Claudio played the guitar with his mouth for a few seconds before basically dropping it to the floor and fucking off.

I think that lackluster performance weighed on the lads, as they came back to the same fest the next year like they had electrodes strapped to their nipples, Claudio just going buck fucking wild on-stage, it was tremendous. I love Coheed.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Accident Prone

[DEF]

First proper gig was Cypress Hill with my best mate at the Brixton Academy in 98. It was fantastic. We were 15 and got a contact high like you wouldn't believe.

Worst is probably Alien Ant Farm at Sub89 in Reading. Went for the two support acts and both of them were really good fun but AAF were mind numbing.

Best is very hard to say but Public Enemy at Sub89 in Reading stands out in 2014. They absolutely rocked a 3 hour set in a pretty small, incredibly hot, sold out venue and my wife danced with Flavour Flav on stage. Brilliant.

Special shout out to Lebrock at Retro Future Fest 1. I only went because my friends helped organise it. Never really heard any Synthwave at that point and Lebrock captured my imagination so much in 5 songs that it instantly made me a fan of entire genre.

Anyone else spend ages day dreaming about how many bands they have seen and in what order? I often think about trying to sort out a list.

Edited February 2, 2023 by DEF

[SuperBacon]

8 hours ago, DEF said:

Best is very hard to say but Public Enemy at Sub89 in Reading stands out in 2014. They absolutely rocked a 3 hour set in a pretty small, incredibly hot, sold out venue and my wife danced with Flavour Flav on stage. Brilliant

Having been to this venue loads of times, I can't believe PE played there. That's amazing. 

[Harry Wiseau]

My first proper gig was Guns N Roses at the Milton Keynes bowl in 93. Supported by Blind Melon, Soul Asylum who were both ace and the Cult who I really didn't get at the time. My parents dropped me and my mates off as close as they could get to the venue (about a mile) and we walked through It was a stupidly big venue, it pissed it down all day and I spent all my money on two t-shirts that I bought her to get briefly dry but have just seen how much one of them (the really horrible one) sells for on eBay and deeply regret throwing it away in mint condition years ago. It was a good day but aside from festivals I'd never want to go to a gig of that size again. Afterwards in the pitch black in the rain we walked aimlessly for ages in the direction we assumed the main road was and by some miracle actually met my dad, at the time it seemed fine but looking back to the time before mobiles and no real planning it was bloody lucky.

 

My best gif is hard, there's been loads of amazing ones - Sparks, Weird Al, the first twenty times I saw Alabama 3, loads which at the time felt like the best guy ever but I think the one that wins out was David Devant and His Spirit Wife at the Jug of Ale. An overly full sweaty room with the band doing what felt like a stadium gig it was phenomenal. I know the whole gig is on YouTube but I'm scared to watch it in case my memory of the night was enhanced by the whole atmosphere and wherever I was drinking that night. But it felt amazing at the time.

 

Worst I'd have to say Soundgarden at Reading 95. I've seen worse bands but this was Soundgarden, they should have been amazing but they did not want to be there and made it obvious, so disappointing 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Harry Wiseau

[LCJ]

Soundgarden were accused of phoning it in at Download 2012 too. I quite liked their performance but some of my friends didn’t.

[Jazzy G]

@DEFI saw Public Enemy at the first ever night of the Warehouse Project when it used to be at the ex-Boddington's Brewery. My housemate and I turned up at 9 because the tickets said doors were 7pm to find the gates were locked and there was a queue. Turns out it was actually doors at 11, so rather than head home and immediately have to set off back out again we went to Buy The Slice and bought some massive pizzas. Ate half then, and the other half was saved for breakfast.

Public Enemy took to the stage at about 2am. We made it home by 4 and I had to be up at 6 for work. Fortunately it wasn't too busy that day. Cracking night, though. 

[DEF]

11 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Having been to this venue loads of times, I can't believe PE played there. That's amazing. 

Yeah it was surreal to say the least. Absolutely packed. They were on fire too. Small venue be damned they rocked it like it was a sold out arena.

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

R.E.M. Manchester on the Up tour in 1999 was first gig, loved it. R.E.M. was (and are) my favourite band and I was slightly too young for the Monster tour after that I saw them again in 2003, 2005 and 2008. Actually, in 2005 I saw them 4 times including the Sheffield gig that was cancelled due to Mike Mills having an ear infection, but Michael and Peter played a cool little acoustic set as well as getting absolutely pissed soaked through at the Hull gig, which is definitely the wettest gig I have ever been too!

Not sure on my favourite gig as I have seen quite a few but if I had to choose it would either be R.E.M. or Bruce Springsteen at Wembley in 2016. Honourable mention to Brian Wilson on the SMiLE tour back in 2004, which was really special as at the time the album had not been released.

Worst was probably either Ryan Adams at Bridgewater Hall who came across as a total twat and that was before the sexual abuse stories or Goldie Lookin Chain who were supporting Feeder back in 2005, in which the only highlight was the lead singer getting irate with my mate after a comment about an ankle tag during a quiet moment, all fun 😀

 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz

[pitseleh]

I didn't get into live music until quite late, so my first gig was seeing a small American emo band call Seahaven play a tiny 150-cap venue in Southampton in 2014. It was a fun night, even if we only started listening to the band a few weeks prior. I was hooked on live music after this and ended up going to many other bands that year.

My best? I don't think I was more excited than when I managed to score tickets to see My Chemical Romance on their comeback tour. I brought my tickets at the start of 2020 and I wouldn't end up seeing them live until over two years later due to obvious reasons. I never thought I would see this band live and my expectations were through the roof. I survived a global pandemic and even had to visit Milton Keynes to experience it, but it was so worth it. 

I have two bands for my worst gig. The less interesting pick would be when I saw Black Flag in 2019. I say I saw Black Flag, but I actually saw founding guitarist Gregg Ginn half-heartedly play through some of Black Flag's hits with a band of nobodies under the Black Flag name, which Ginn owns the name for. I say nobodies, but pro skater Mike Vallely was on vocals, who I knew from the Tony Hawk games. Their set was completely devoid of passion, energy and heart. Fucking Brewdog was more punk than this.

My other pick was when I saw The Lemonheads last year. Poor Evan Dando was feeling the effects of the long tour and was coming to the end of a week-long bender. I know his live shows are of a patchy quality, but I brought a ticket after seeing how good he sounded when videos of the first date of the tour were posted online. The Southampton show was the last date of the tour and he obviously was not having a good time on tour by the time he got to my town. He was drunk/high, his voice was shot and he could barely play guitar. What made thongs worse was that you could tell it was frustrating Dando. The audience were supportive, but Dando told a punter to fuck off home after he misinterpreted the guy's words of encouragement as a heckle. The show was sold out, but by the time the lights came up, over half the audience had already left. It was a tragic sight, but at least it was more eventful than the Black Flag gig.

 

 

[Jazzy G]

@Abe_Knuckleball_SchwartzI saw Brian Wilson at Glastonbury in 2005 and it was such an experience. 

[textonly]

My first gig was the Goo Goo Dolls, on their Dizzy Up the Girl (the album with 'Iris') tour. It was fine.

My best is a tie between R.E.M. in Hyde Park in 2005 and a slightly strange one from a few years back, Songs:Molina at Bush Hall in 2018. If you don't know, Jason Molina was a brilliant singer/songwriter who performed as/in Songs:Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. And he died in 2013. So Songs:Molina is compromised of his former MEC bandmates and a guest singer (that tour was the guy from Strand of Oaks), and they just play Jason's songs, as a sort of celebration/commemoration. Now, I saw Jason Molina live in various guises over the years and he was always brilliant, if a bit prickly with the audience sometimes (because he hated people constantly yelling requests for old songs). But this, it seems mental to say, was somehow even better. Hearing those songs I never thought I'd hear live again, in a room full of people who loved the guy, felt like the closest thing to a religious experience I've ever had; like the guy we all missed was still with us because we were there to remember him and share in what he meant to us. It was just really lovely.

Worst gig? Bob Dylan at Brixton Academy in 2005, probably. The songs were almost unrecognisable, the sound mix was horrible and he looked, naturally perhaps, like he didn't give a shit that this obviously wasn't what people wanted. My mate was talking to some guy who claimed to be at that infamous 'Judas!' gig years ago, and he walked out all angry, furious at what Bob was doing to his own songs. That bit was pretty funny at least.

[SuperBacon]

57 minutes ago, textonly said:

Worst gig? Bob Dylan at Brixton Academy in 2005, probably. The songs were almost unrecognisable, the sound mix was horrible and he looked, naturally perhaps, like he didn't give a shit that this obviously wasn't what people wanted. My mate was talking to some guy who claimed to be at that infamous 'Judas!' gig years ago, and he walked out all angry, furious at what Bob was doing to his own songs. That bit was pretty funny at least.

 

On 2/1/2023 at 7:25 PM, SuperBacon said:

Worst gig: Bob Dylan. Awful. His horrible cunt fans are the worst.

It makes me feel better that others have said this as well, as I've always thought that maybe it was just the gig I went to, or me.

I went with a Dylan superfan (a nice fan, not one of the hundreds of arseholes that surrounded us) and he was nearly in tears at how bad it was.