Thievery Corporation is absolutely fantastic live, as is Wax Tailor. Grandson had the best recent moshpit, I caught him after he jumped down from the rafters lmao

Patti Smith and Philip Glass. I've been a fan of hers for so long, couldn't believe I was in the same room as her, so to speak. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01f9vrd

God Speed You! Black Emperor https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/godspeed-you-black-emperor/2016/edinburgh-playhouse-edinburgh-scotland-6bfcf2c6.html

(Added in edit) This song made me cry, it's so beautiful and joyful and sad. A wonderful concert altogether.

Probably the most intense performance I've ever seen was the Japanese dance troupe Sankai Juku, in Wellington, NZ in 1988. Amazingly moving, unforgettable.

tull played in grant park. The flutist society had something to do about it and it felt like they played their most flute heavy songs from the group. Its funny because it was free but the one other time I saw them in concert I payed for but it was catfish rising and I think anderson got sick as it was a big disapointment.

Billy Talent, Sydney 2007

I don't know man, was my first time going to an actual concert of a band I liked, and it was just something special

Its of the moment, but Macklemore at Perth Festival years ago. fairly small concert, 200-300 people there, at absolute most 500. Thrift Shop had just popped off, he had all The Heists supporting vocalists there. And they came back out for an encore doing Thrift Shop a second time. It was a pretty great time.

Only concert thats been as fun a time was probably The Streets tour earlier this year. That shit kicked off!

The Gotye - Making Mirrors album launch was probably the most auspicious. Only concert I've been to at the Sydney Opera House. Place was electric when Kimbra came out.

Iron Maiden in 1986. Or The Sisters of Mercy at a tiny little pub in Leeds in, maybe, 1997 or '98. Or Alabama 3, many gigs in pubs the late 90s, before The Sopranos and they became famous.

I was in the record business for a long time, including management for a major distributor, so I've seen hundreds of concerts, of all types. The most memorable have been:

• Prince TWICE, once for a private audience of 1200. No words.

• Debbie Harry with Tom Tom Club (Talking Heads without David Byrne) opening and backing. They were great, she was great, peak new wave.

• Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, at Carnegie Hall with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, featuring singers Dawn Upshaw and Thomas Hampson. Harnoncourt had been a personal inspiration for decades, and I met him and the singers after.

• kd lang, at an astonishing private performance for about 900. A couple of weeks later, she did an interview on 60 Minutes, and said that now and then she does a perfect performance, and I knew she was talking about that show I saw. I was sure of it when I saw her on that tour a while later, and it was great, but nothing like what I saw.

• Yes, the classic late 70s line-up, 3 times. Always great, but the best show was the one where they showed two classic Bugs Bunny cartoons as the opening act, and there is nothing like laughing with 25,000 happy stoners.

• Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez conducting. It's not the sort of classical music I gravitate to, but I've seen the Cleveland Orchestra dozens of times, and that performance was easily the best performance I ever saw from them. It was just really, really great.

• Joshua Redman Quartet, some tiny little jazz club in Cleveland, with a crowd of about 120. It was their first concert, on the first tour, of his first album. Very few people had heard of him yet, but he went to win multiple Grammys, including for that album. Not only that, but the other three guys in his band, pianist Brad Mehldau, drummer Brian Blades, and bassist Christian McBride, all went on to do solo albums that won Grammys. That night I watched four excited young future jazz stars open their first tour, and BURN DOWN THE HOUSE. All night long, I just marvelled at what incredible musicians each one was. With every solo, I'd decide he was the best on the stage, and then the next guy would take a solo, and change my mind. A truly special performance.

• Lindsey Buckingham, in a solo performance in a conference room with about 25 people. He sang 3 songs, with an acoustic guitar, with that trademark intensity, red face, tendons in his neck, truly incredible performance.

• Lyle Lovett, in a hotel hallway at a music retail trade show. His first album was coming out in a couple of weeks, and his manager interrupted a really fun party (that had spilled into the hallway because it was so hot in hotel suite), and introduced Lyle, who went on to sing three incredible songs, including She's No Lady and If I Had A Boat. I was irritated that the party had been interrupted, but I became an instant lifelong fan.

• Dear Evan Hansen, on Broadway, in the earliest weeks of the run before it had become a big thing. Ben Platt was absolutely incredible. This show has become a bit of a lighting rod, but there was no doubt of why it was such a big hit.

• The Great Comet, on Broadway, with Josh Groban, the same week. I've never seen another Broadway show like it, it was totally immersive, with audience and the stage all intertwined. There was a runway in the row in front of us, and we often had dancer musicians playing and strutting around in front of us. The show ended in ignominious and unfair fashion that has become Broadway legend, but it was the most innovative show I've ever seen, and had incredible music.

• David Byrne, American Utopia, on Broadway. It was probably just a normal performance for them, but it was really great. Spike Lee's film of it won Emmys.

• Little Shop of Horrors, a high school performance with my son as Seymour. He killed it, honestly. He has a great voice, and was perfect in the role.

Well, the only one I can name here with international and lot only Europe/German recognition I could name is: pink.

Yeah, thst show was nice. But that didn't age well, now.

I haven't seen him in almost 15 years, but Weird Al Yankovic puts on a hell of a good show. Always has the best backup musicians with him.

I was at the Foo Fighters gig where Dave Grohl fell off the stage and broke his leg, after which the rest of the band spent an hour playing various covers until Dave came back on stage high on pain meds mixed with alcohol and resumed the show. A doctor had to sit on stage and keep his leg fixed for the rest of the show until they could take him to the hospital to give him a cast, and the entire crowd dedicated "My hero" to the doctor. That show was fucking awesome.

Stone Temple Pilots - (MTV Unplugged) - Sony Studios, NYC, ’93

Massive Attack - Roseland NYC, ‘96

Green Day - Barbarella, Orlando, ‘95

Modest Mouse - (Baron von Bullshit Rides Again) - Sapphire Supper Club, Orlando, ‘04

Paul Oakenfold - (Global Underground 006), The Tunnel, NYC, ‘94

These are just a few. I’m sure there’s a bunch I’m forgetting. I doubt that I could single any one of them out.

Maybe STP or Massive Attack

Edit: updated to include live album titles, and cities

Edit 2: confirmed: that MTV unplugged, performance of plush is available on Apple Music:

On disc four of this album

https://music.apple.com/us/album/core-super-deluxe-edition/1263219551

Otherwise, on the Stone Temple Pilots album, core, the super Deluxe Edition.

Top two concerts of all time:

Daft Punk at Lollapalooza 2007

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at Northerly Island, Chicago, 9/1/24

Daft punk

Rammstein

Theatrics, setlist, audio quality, crowd... Just wow. Hope to see them one more time.

High as a kite at a friends house just hanging out after work. My friend just randomly picks up his acoustic guitar and starts noodling. His roommate comes home, disappears for a bit and comes out with a standup bass. For the next 2 hrs they just smoked and jammed for the love of music.

Me:

Gogol Bordello

Absolute manic fun.

Primus. Mesa Amphitheater.

Tool. Hands down.

I think the best live show I ever saw was Good Kid. Their energy and jams couldn’t be matched.

• TOOL
• Roger Waters
• Muse

Metallica, Donington Park Raceway, 2004. They were headlining Download festival, but Lars was rushed to hospital right before the show. Rather than cancel they brought out a rotating cast of drummers from the other bands at the festival, starting with Dave Lombardo from Slayer.

This was the St Anger tour... We were all jazzed to see Metallica, but let's be honest, no one was particularly jazzed about St Anger as an album. Thing is though, their guest drummers didn't know the tracks on St Anger. They knew old school Metallica; Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, the Black Album, And Justice For All. The good shit.

Better yet, the guest drummers were absolutely psyched to be there. For Metallica this could have been just another show. Huge crowd, but they've played bigger. But for their rotating cast of drummers this was the greatest night of their life. That kind of enthusiasm is infectious and it really showed. This was one of the most balls to the wall performances I've ever seen from any band. The energy was off the charts.

Especially when they got to Joey from Slipknot. The idea was that they were going to keep rotating drummers throughout the night, but after Joey played his first song, that went out the window. He was their drummer for the rest of the night. That motherfucker played his god damn heart out. Now, listen, if you're one of those people who still thinks that Slipknot are a bad band, go listen to Vol 3 and then come talk to me. Joey is one hell of a drummer, and he showed up to play. And the whole band felt it.By the end of the show James Hetfield wasn't singing to us... He was singing to Joey. I distinctly remember him standing with one foot up on the bass drum staring that little masked genius dead in the eyes, two guys basically performing for each other (an image made hilarious and adorable by the fact that James Hetfield is a giant of a man, and Joey is a pocket sized human being; it was like Dad brought his kid to work).

It was a once in a lifetime experience, and probably one of the best shows Metallica ever played. Pure lightning in a bottle.

NIN always does a great show, but I think of all of them I liked the Fragility Tour the most (2000). It was so well done.

KMFDM always puts on a hell of a show. I never miss a chance to see them and they always kill it. My favorite show of there's was the Symbols tour with PIG. They had Ogre from Skinny Puppy touring with them as he was a temporary member for that album. Just so good.

Gwar was always great and fun to see live. They probably still are, but I haven't been able to see them live in years.

Don’t laugh, but Collective Soul. They did that song “Gel” back in the day. I wasn’t a huge fan of their music and still am not. But it was a great live concert.

Free tickets got passed to me from one of my mothers friends, and it was at an old theater with chandeliers and padded seats.

Was very surprised at how engaging they were with the crowd.

Slipknot puts on a great show. Weird Al's shows are always fun. If I'm within a couple of hours of where Babymetal is putting on a show, I will do whatever it takes to see them. Honey Dijon spins an amazing set. Whenever you have a chance to see an opera, go. Chances are you'll be blown away by the talent.

I saw The Chemical Brothers play back in the early 2000's and they were set up with racks and racks of keyboards surrounding them. They played their electronic music live on the keyboards and watching them blew my mind. Up until this concert I never thought of electronic producers as musicians, this totally changed my perspective.

In random order: Rammstein in 2024, Iron Maiden in 2008, Gorilla Biscuits this summer, Metallica in 1991 and probably one or two I forgot.

Foreigner. Lead singer was climbing up the fifteen foot scaffolding, singing from way up there. No safety equipment either. Like a jungle gym.

Rammstein, Pledge of Allegiance '01. Till did the first song of their set ON FIRE.

NIN, Lights in the Sky '08. Absolutely insane A/V, transparent screens layering the entire stage that would make various band members visible/invisible depending on what was being displayed on each layer and where the spotlights were pointed.

And then there's Ozzy just blasting the pit with a fire hose for most of the set…

Hmm, hard to pick, but these come to mind in no particular order:

Chemical Brothers - Glastonbury Other Stage 2019

Chemical Brothers - V Festival (South) 2nd stage 2008

Faithless - V Festival (South) Main Stage 2006

Bloc Party - Alexandra Palace 2007

Nine Inch Nails - Eden Project 2022

Nine Inch Nails - O2 London 2025

Underworld - Aviva Studios Manchester 2024

Oneohtrix Point Never - New Century Manchester 2024

Massive Attack - Bestival Main Stage 2009

Massive Attack - Glastonbury Other Stage 2014

Aphex Twin - Glastonbury Temple Stage 2014

Sub Focus b2b Wilkinson - Glastonbury Sonic Stage 2019

Deadmau5 - Nation Liverpool 2009

Sigur Ros - Manchester Apollo 2022

I'm definitely forgetting a lot off the top of my head though

Slipknot puts on a crazy show. With so many people in the band, there was always somebody doing something worth watching. I'm not even a Slipknot fan, I was there to see System of a Down.

Taking this in another direction, Aziz Ansari did a comedy set at my college nearly 20 years ago; he was hysterical. He did tons of crowd work and had everyone in stitches. Then, about an hour into his performance he says “oh, by the way, I haven’t even started my regular set yet”. He went at least another 45 minutes after that.

As for my favorite concert, it’d have to be seeing Coheed and Cambria play In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 in its totality on an anniversary tour. I was with my college roommates and we all love that album so much so it made the show extra meaningful as we belted out song after song together.

Man Man opening for Modest Mouse in Rochester NY. Got to watch the soundcheck and had spots on the rail. Man Man just had another energy I haven't really seen matched by anyone.

Sigur Ros at Bonnaroo in 2008. Was a few hour gaps between shows at the stage and hung out for a few hours with people to get a good spot. Left that show to find Kanye (who was supposed to start at the same time), still hadn't taken stage. Fell asleep waiting for him, gave up around 4AM and walked back to my tent. Think he went on around 430AM

Viagra Boys in 2022. Fun show, good crowd energy.

Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem/Blonde Redhead/ Les Savy Fav on Randall's Island in 2007. Front row of 20,000+ people (that I ran to secure for our group) Met Will Butler. Was LCD Soundsystem's last stop on the tour. Special special show.

Oh, Girl Talk at RIT sometime around 2007 or so. I've seen Girl Talk I think three times, but crowd energy was nuts for this one. Crowdsurfed even.

QOTSA

Neutral Milk Hotel