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I'm getting pretty jazzed about an upcoming concert I plan on going to this March and was rehashing concert stories with my friends, so it's got me in the mood for more concert stories. I tried looking here for a thread like this with no luck, and since I figure every forum ought to have at least one, I decided to go ahead with this one.

What concerts have you been to that blew you away and stayed in your mind? For me, in rough order of how much more I cherish them, are my answers:

• Ozzy Osbourne with the Tea Party - In retrospect, this concert wasn't very good, but it was the first one I'd ever traveled to see and spent my own money to attend at the tender age of 15, which has got to count for something. The Tea Party are some alt-rock joke my country shat out in the 90's during the alt-rock explosion whose singer appears to think he's some kind of dark version of Jim Morrison, and I waited them out indignantly for the opportunity to hear Ozzy croak and yodel old standards with what little energy he could. At least his band was spot on, and their biker guitarist did his shtick with the blues scales halfway through, which was absorbing at the time for me.
  
  Fondest memory: Zakk Wylde playing the American anthem with his teeth.
• Slayer with Soulfy and In Flames - Again, this one's here more for sentimental reasons than anything. Back before In Flames basically decided that they wanted to become a Swedish Korn and Max Cavalera hadn't gotten drift of the fact that retro-metal was becoming highly marketable, they went out in support of another metal icon who could fart on a record and still expect boffo sales. I enjoyed In Flames' set enough that I decided to venture out of the stands and into the strange, hostile crowd, and then right back out again when Soulfly hit the stage for the amusement of all the frat boys who liked slow noodling twanging. I hope somebody took a picture of all the longhaired dudes in leathers and cutoff tees at the back of the venue scowling, just for the hell of it. When Slayer finally did come onstage, they were obviously a little worse for wear, but with Dave Lombardo behind the kit, there was no way they could go wrong, even if they did play far more mallcore off the album they were promoting at the time.
  
  Fondest memory: The guy in the leather jacket roaring "WHADDYA DO WHEN THEY FALL DOWN?" and everyone else in the public washroom shouting "PICK 'EM UP!!" over and over like a sergeant drilling troops, or the second most intense mosh pit I've ever seen in my life during Angel of Death.
• Deicide with Immolation and Skinless and other shit - I was really excited about this show leading up to it, and it was still pretty good when it was all said and done, but I wound up enjoying Skinless a lot less after that show when I took a thought to how their music sounded. It turned out to be featureless, unimaginative death metal for dumb jocks and skinheads to mash into one another to, and after I nearly broke my nose on one occasion, I decided these people weren't much fun and sat out until their set ended. Immolation more or less made this evening what it was for me, their unique atmosphere and droning, almost ambient guitar tone offers a kind of take on extreme music that you don't hear all that often, as sonorous as it is fierce at times. Deicide were a step backwards for me, however, and didn't seem very enthusiastic about being let back into Canada for the first time in a decade. Glen Benton's bass playing was sloppy and careless, and the new guitarists, Jack Owen and Ralph Santolla, didn't seem to be that much more into it. It was enough to simply hear some Deicide standards for me and then I left feeling ambivalent.
  
  Fondest memory: scrambling onstage during "Serpents of the Light", stealing Ralph Santolla's cigarette, and taking a running leap off the center stage monitor, right over the crowd in front and directly into the mosh pit. They ain't so keen on catching you in that part of the crowd, just so you all know in case you ever decide to try it.
• Overkill with some shitty Edmonton local metalcore band - Overkill are the first ever thrash metal band in existence. They beat Metallica to the studio by a matter of months, and thank goodness for that, because time has told which of the two has carried that mantle better. After catching up on some sleep during some generic tuffguy metalcore set, I was more than ready to hear those maniac vocals and aggressive riffing with some distant punk influence, and they didn't disappoint. For a band that's been doing music this intense for 25 years, it sure as hell didn't show, and he sparsely populated room turned out to offer some of the most aerobic mosh opportunities I've ever had, letting participants smash take running starts at one another and smash each other into gravy. Bobby Blitz, the singer, liked it so much he leaped right into the crowd himself and promptly left a nice red bootmark on some poor girl's face. I'm glad I saw them when I did, because I doubt they'll be back and they've jumped the shark now anyways.
  
  Fondest memory: Shooting the shit with Bobby Blitz himself outside their tour bus on the street. The man had a story for every album and every tour, and believe me, that's a lot of stories.
• Suffocation with Hypocrisy and Decapitated - Okay, so this was technically a Fear Factory show, but I didn't want to stick around and waste my time with that nonsense. I'd seen Suffocation once before and that I'll leave to the next entry, so that leaves Decapitated and Hypocrisy. Decapitated played Polish death metal that wasn't always the fastest, but locked into chugging grooves with sharp arpeggios overtop of them that encouraged the most enthusiastic headbanging possible. I'm glad I saw them when I did, because their drummer, an incredible young talent by the stage name of Vitek, died in a car accident in Russia months ago, and is deeply missed.
  Hypocrisy took the stage next, and it was at least as entertaining to take in their relatively cheery style of melodic Swedish death metal as it was to see their new brute of a drummer pummel his set, none other than Horgh of former Immortal fame.
  
  Fondest memory: talking with a troubled discharged soldier who'd served in the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan in between sets and helping him to enjoy his evening.
• Suffocation with Cryptopsy and Aborted - Three of the world's major death metal scenes were represented that evening and gave me well worth the price of admission. Belgium's Aborted opened with their unique compromise between melody and dissonance and managed to put me in the right mood. Cryptopsy, whom I'd already seen once and would go on to see a third time, literally attacked the crowd with their rivet-tight Quebec technical death metal, and while the singer, Lord Worm, didn't offer wine or worms from his goblets to the crowd as he did the first time I saw them, his vocals gave me the shudders nearly as often as their drummer, their guitarists and their bassist managed to, demonstrating they were still the most potent force in technical metal to that point. Fortunately no less than Suffocation from New York were up next, because any lesser band would've been immediately forgotten. What their music lacked in technicality, and it wasn't much, they more than made up for in sheer brutality. Their guitar tone was enough to flatten skulls and when put behind those blastbeats, I was so flabbergasted I damn near forgot to mosh.
  
  Fondest memory: Mike Smith, vocalist for Suffocation, waving his hand like the Queen on meth along with the blastbeats during "Pierced From Within".
• The Noctis Valkyries Festival featuring Melechesh, Inquisition, Infernal Majesty and others - I would never get the chance to see Israel's premiere black metal band OR the reunions of an American black metal legend and Canadian thrash metal mainstay in one place ever again in my life, so it was a given that I'd see this festival come hell or high water, especially given that it was on my birthday. I was ecstatic on more counts than I could possibly catalog, so thankfully there was plenty of time beforehand to collect my thoughts while the bulk of Calgary's usual roundup of local acts went through their sets, which as these things tend to go, winds up meaning a lot of predrinking.
  
  Infernal Majesty's first show outside British Columbia since reuniting delivered a pummeling precision assault that only a thrash metal band of their stature could manage. Inquisition was probably the only time I'll ever see that much punishment come out of merely two musicians. I never suspected that just a guitarist and drummer could utterly crush me musically and whip the entire crowd into an uncontrolled frenzy of bodies slamming the way they did, it left me gasping for air. I didn't wind up staying to see much of Melechesh's set, which seemed more ornate than I thought necessary, but they proved to be faithful to their albums and energetic enough to satisfy the crowd.
  
  Fondest memory: catching the drumstick that Infernal Majesty's drummer threw into the crowd with my face, and then repaying him the favor when he entered the mosh pit during Inquisition's set.
• Martyr with Neuraxis and Gross Misconduct - The opening band for this show, Gross Misconduct, was actually crashing at my place the night prior, and the bassist plugging the toilet just as we had to leave could've taken the fondest memory spot easily if it wasn't such a pain in the ass at the same time, pun unintended. The venue was well known to me, so I helped them in and set up their gear and waited for my friends to show up. Lo and behold, none other than Voivod's original bassist, Blacky, was the soundman for the evening. I didn't waste the opportunity to go over and introduce myself and take advantage of the chance to get some firsthand insight from one of the men who personally helped build the foundations of extreme metal for an hour and a half. When my guests finally took the stage, I was shocked. Their CD had come across as bland and uninspired if competent, but live, even on a tiny riser like the one they had, their presence exploded into the room and called to mind Death, late Carcass and Dimension Zero at their best. I should've been more mindful of what what was to come and saved my energy, because Neuraxis came onstage and demonstrated why Quebec death metal is regarded to be quite possibly the finest in the world. I hardly believed that the singer was green and that they were short a bassist, because their energy and performance was enough to break bones, literally as one mosher found out.
  
  After they left the stage, I was probably ready for a rest, which I did take briefly, but once Martyr hit the stage, I couldn't have left if I tried. Describing how outrageous their performance was would leave me clutching at superlatives for pages without success, but I'll just say this much; coming in and seeing them do their sound check in glasses and tied-back hair made me think that I was going to hear some very precise and well-executed music played without any energy or feeling, because theirs is a very technical and demanding style of death metal, and they seemed to just scream "conservatory jazz nerd" in the way they carried themselves. It turned out I was only half right, though, because while their music was carried out without so much as one single audible error, they performed with a ferocity that I've seen matched in my lifetime by fewer bands than I have limbs. They started playing the moment they set foot on stage and probably caught the entire crowd by surprise, because I certainly wasn't expecting the guitarist's mop to start whirling in my face like a deranged octopus when it happened. As it turns out, a friend of mine took video of that very concert, which you can see here if you're so inclined, along with a guest appearance by my hair. A better video of the same song can be found here.
  
  Fondest memory: pretty much every goddamn moment of the overwhelming heat and intense headbanging that I couldn't stop if I tried, peaking whenever I'd see Dan Mongrain whip out another incredible but tasteful solo with both complete ease and fierce showmanship, all less than three feet from my face.
• The Philip Glass Ensemble - one of these things isn't quite like the others, is it? We don't often get performances of 20th century composers work here in Alberta, and minimalism isn't really my thing, but hearing that Philly G himself and his band of trusty rogues were going to be playing the score to Koyaanisqatsi live in sync with the film as it played on a giant projector, I traveled the 700+ kilometers and paid the $50 each for me and a friend to attend without hesitation. I couldn't honestly describe how the live performance of that went down without leaving a sour taste in my own mouth. I was honestly unwilling to look anywhere other than the screen and stage, it was as though an entire lifetime passed by in the span of that performance. The musicianship that kept them in perfect time with the film as it progressed was humbling as much as any direct musical element, too. I don't think I touched my guitar for a while after that.
  
  Fondest memory: probably "Pruit Igoe" or the final scene, my spine was alight with shivers through the entire thing. Honorable mention goes to me walking into the reception hall at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in a leather jacket, jeans and biker's boots with hair down to my waist and getting funny looks from all the tuxedos.

If you read through all of that, then I congratulate your perseverance, because even though I could probably go on, this is unnecessarily long as it is. Now please, tell me what concerts have captivated you.

I'm not going to be as comprehensive as you. I'm just going to say my favorite gig was when 28 Days(who are not likely known outside of Australia) played at the Uni Bar here about eight years ago; they still remain one of my favorite groups. The set was great, the crowd was into it, and afterwards, myself and two friends went and knocked on the dressing room door for signatures and were invited in to have beer and pizza with them. It was awesome.

When AC/DC played down here later that year was pretty cool too. Open air arena, and apparently you could clearly hear the set fifteen kilometres away.

I used to go to shows all the time. Even the big concerts, although I didn't like them as much. I caught the very tail end of "punk" in the early and mid 80's as a kid and as it completely died into the 90s. (It was cool to have older friends and siblings that would drag me to the good stuff and a mom that would let them.)

The one I would say I "treasure" though, was a big show that my uncle took me too. It was when Ozzy was in his hey day and Metallica was opening for him and I got to see them with Cliff Burton. That was fucking cool.

That is the only one that always stands out, although I'm sure I could spend all day remembering all the shows I went to. Hell, probably all weekend.

Cowboy Junkies playing at the Revival on the One Soul Now tour. It's a fairly small venue and the intimate setting was just perfect for the band. It was just magic that night.

Motorhead in some scummy looking club I can't remember in Toronto, probably around 2000, give or take a year. Never before have I seen so many middle-aged bikers in one place, the place looked like a biker gang dive bar straight out of some B-movie. They played loud & mean and it was pretty awesome.

Tori Amos on the Toronto stop of the Strange Little Girls tour. Due to a ticket fuckup, my tickets for non-existent seats got bumped up to 2nd row tickets. This was a really cool concert since instead of a full band, it was just Tori and her piano, and thanks to a technical glitch it became an unamplified piano for a little while. She played an amazing setlist and she hugged a bunch of people including myself after the concert.

G3 '03 at Massey Hall with Satriani, Vai, and Malmsteen. Guitar wanking doesn't get any better than this. I was expecting Malmsteen to be the craziest guy, but surprisingly enough his playing was the most restrained of the 3. It was a killer guitar shredfest.

In no particular order -

Ozzfest 2003, Camden NJ - Probably one of Ozzfest's top two or three main stages (with one exception): Chevelle(haha, what the fuck!), Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, KoRn, and the man himself. It was unbelievably loud and fun, especially when it started pouring rain during Korn's set. Other highlights included "JESUS IS A CUNT" t-shirts, and beer-bottle war between the lawn seats and the roofed seats. Marred only by Chevelle. Again, what the fuck?


Disturbed, December 2005, The Starland Ballroom - This show was fucking great. The opening acts were forgettable (as demonstrated by the fact that I can't remember them), but Disturbed was worth the price of admission. The concert fell on the 1-year anniversary of Dimebag Darryl's death, so to close out the show, Disturbed covered "Walk," and it was possibly the greatest cover I've ever heard, live or otherwise.

Static-X with OTEP, May 2007, The Starland Ballroom - Can you tell I live a half hour away from the Starland Ballroom? Anyway, I've loved Static-X since Wisconsin Death Trip, and their new album is excellent. This concert featured all their hits, and reinforced my assertion that Static-X is the loudest motherfucking band on the planet. Holy dicknipples, I would've been deaf without my ear protection. Static-X is a great band to see live, because it's apparent that they love every minute what they're doing. Also, this concert introduced me to 2Cents and Chimaira, which is also cool.

Rage Against the Motherfucking Machine, July 2007, Rock the Bells - Fuck. Yes. I literally waited seven fucking years for this moment, and it did not disappoint. The atmosphere was electric the entire time, and 60,000 screaming fans can't be wrong.

Actually, it's in chronological order. Oh well.

Alferd Packer wrote:Rage Against the Motherfucking Machine, July 2007, Rock the Bells - Fuck. Yes. I literally waited seven fucking years for this moment, and it did not disappoint. The atmosphere was electric the entire time, and 60,000 screaming fans can't be wrong.

You motherfucker.

As for myself:

1) River Riot 2005, Westfair Ampitheater, IA. Some of my favorite bands all in one place. Danko Jones, Unwritten Law, and Papa Roach were all playing. For some reason 311 was the headliner but I left before they'd finished their second song since I wasn't there to see them. One highlight: Danko Jones inciting 20,000 people to chant "Motherfucker" as a thank you to the college radio station that put the show on, since they're not allowed to say it. Really just about anything Dank Jones did, he's a fantastic showman.

2) Disturbed at the Tyson Center in Sioux City, IA. This is the worst crowd I've ever been a part of. The first band was terrible, but the second band made up for it by coming in wearing flaming biker gear and drinking beer in the middle of the songs. Disturbed was half an hour late and a full 20 minutes before they went on the crowd was essentially crushing people against the barricades and just being dicks to each other. The only mosh pit I've had to leave because it wasn't safe. Too many assholes hardcore dancing and not helping people who fell down. Great show by Disturbed though. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't play in any venue that had fucking seats."

3) River Music Summit 06, Sokol Auditorium/Underground in Omaha, NE. This was a fucking marathon. At least 15 bands spread over 9 hours. By the end the mosh pit was pretty much dead because even the people who weren't dehyrdrated or tired were just sliding off of each other's sweat. Jada Pinkett Smith's band Wicked Wisdom decided to blow off the show and not tell anyone. Strangely enough the local radio stations all stopped playing their singles. Weird.

4) River Riot 07. I found out that one of my favorite bands, whom I thought had broken up years ago, were actually still around. I found out when they walked on stage. One could say I was somewhat surprised and excited. I also almost broke my ankle in the mosh pit and had to get dragged out and up to the medics.

TithonusSyndrome wrote:the second most intense mosh pit I've ever seen in my life during Angel of Death.

Heh. That is always bad ass.

I'll keep this list short.

Eric Clapton:
God goes into this semi-random jam which somehow sounds oddly familiar, and suddenly resolves into an extra-long version of Little Wing. Oh, and Robert Cray was opening for him, and came out for the encore to play Crossroads.

The Who:
Roger Daltrey's 15 second-long top of the lungs scream on Won't Get Fooled Again was the loudest part of the entire night, which is impressive considering that the first time Zak Starkey hit his bass drum, I felt like I was being punched in the chest.

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra - Firebird Festival:
The second piece they played was Rachmaninoff's first concerto, with an inhumanly soulful pianist, while I slowly succumbed to vertigo in one of the highest and steepest seats in the hall, directly below the specially-design acoustically brilliant roof. I actually cried during the piece.

Sonata Arctica:
Getting into a fistfight with a random guy in a moshpit, and 5 minutes later hugging him while singing the chorus of the current song.

Roger Waters:
The flying pig being released over the audience during Sheep, which had "Impeach Bush Now" painted on it's ass.

Van Halen:
The band was playing Jamie's Crying, and I was singing "love should mean more than one night stands" while grinding with one of my friends. Oh, and DLR didn't forget a single word. I almost thought I was at the wrong show for a moment...

Sebastian Bach:
Right before 18 And Life, he asks "Do you remember where you were, when you were 18?" At the time, I was 17, and found this quite funny. Later on in the show, my whole section (my seat was 2 metres from the stage in a ~20 000 person arena) was sitting down during a guitar solo, and Baz walked over to our end and shot us all a sad puppy face for being so lazy. I jumped up and threw him the horns, and got a thumbs up and nice long scream for it.

Oh, and also shows that I missed, which I regret bitterly:

Deep Purple:
I didn't know about it until after the actual date, it was very poorly publicized.

The Rolling Stones:
I didn't have enough money for tickets.

B. B. King
Right in the middle of exams.

Aerosmith
I had barely enough money to see them, and decided not to spend it, as I hadn't heard that many of their songs, and so wasn't a huge fan. A few months and a few albums later, and I felt like stabbing myself in the heart.

My best concert of all time was probably:

Fear Factory in 2001. I was 16 (possibly 17). I had been to gigs before (Soulwax being the first "big name" one), but this was my first "proper metal" one and would cement Fear Factory at the top of my fan-list for a long time. The whole place was totally filled out, and the typically Mancunian crowd sand "Who ate all the pies? Who ate all the pies? You fat bastard! You fat bastard! You ate all the pies!" to coax Dino out on to the stage. This was just after the release of digimortal, so they played some of the best songs from that and a ton of their old stuff, including my favourites that don't usually get played, like Hi-tech Hate and Freedom or Fire.

Edgecrusher was just immense. I'm sure the more pretentious metal fan hates it for being nu-metally or whatever, but that crowd didn't care. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw, a whole room jumping in unison at the bit after "due to the graphic nature of this program, listener discretion is advised" and the vinyl scratching. I sang along to everything, my throat was fucked at the end of it all, and the adrenaline didn't calm down till like 3 in the morning. I was so pleased afterwards.

I also got to meet the vocalist, Burt, had a quick chat with him and sounded like a total tard. My hair hadn't got long at all by that time, and there's a photo of me with him and I look like a total gimp. He gave me a big hug, though. Awesome, awesome gig. Plus I got a lift home afterwards, which is always good.

Machine Head, 2001 - Absolutely awesome live band. Man they can work a crowd and make you feel included in the whole experience. Again, the place was packed out and they played most of Burn My Eyes plus their other well known songs and some from supercharger, which they'd just released (which I think is their worst album, but they played the few good ones from it). My friends and I went in a huge crew and were singing Bohemian Rhapsody along oxford street. Ill Nino were supporting, and I met them afterwards and got one of the guitarists' signatures. Ill nino were actually pretty good, a gigantic hole opened up at the start of "if you still hate me" and then everyone ran into it and moshed the fuck out of everything when it kicked off. Those were the days.

Ozzfest, 2002 - This was actually one of the craziest adventures in my life, I'll get into that in a bit. Main stage: Ozzy Osbourne, Tool, System of a Down, Slayer, Lostprophets, Millencolin, Cradle of Filth, Drowning Pool, The Mad Capsule Markets, Black Label Society, AntiProduct. Ozzy was on last, of course and was awesome. He mooned the crowd, had a huge mug of tea, and Zakk did the "play ridiculous solos behind his head" thing and the american national anthem with his teeth thing. Tool looked fucking odd (the singer had a black hole painted where his face should've been, with his normal skin around it) but were otherwise pretty boring. Well, the vocalist did one of the longest, most consistent yells I've ever heard, that was interesting, but the guy on drugs near me that was pissing on the ground really put me off.

System were pretty good, they mostly did stuff from their first album, I'm not sure if Toxicity had been released yet. BLS were pretty decent, I can't remember most of the others, aside from Mad Capsule Markets because they're cool.

Cradle of Filth were on before Slayer and they were absolutely fantastic, despite the crowd at the front chucking shit at them and the first microphone being broke (Dani pelted that thing to the side of the stage, though, a good throw). Cthulhu dawn was probably the highlight of the set. When they came on, he said "we brought our own storm cloud with us!" and he was fucking right.

All through the set, the weather kept changing, as if God himself was pissed off at us. Just before cradle came on, it was boiling hot and sunny, when they came on, it clouded over and became really fucking dark. The crowd then got lashed with stinging hail and lightning arced all around us in every direction. It was perfect. Thankfully, the power didn't go out and the crowd wasn't hit by lightning. Then, as soon as Cradle finished their set, the clouds departed. Really weird shit. Fucking awesome, though, having lightning and hail at a concert, it really made them feel "extra evil" haha.

Slayer came on next, and BY GOD they were awesome. Obviously, with the shorter setlists, they only had time to do the classics plus disciple, really. Throughout the day, planes had been noisily taking off from the nearby airports, and I saw one taking off when Slayer were playing Chemical Warfare. It was like the plane was silent. Utterly drowned out. The band all seemed really happy to be there and there was an amazing atmosphere.

Enslaved, 1349, Zyklon, Wintersun - 2006 At least, I think it was 2006. Anyway, yeah, they were playing some small room at the Academy, and that was both a bit of a shame, but it was cosy, too. I shared some beer with the singer from Enslaved, cool guy. Not much moshing, fair bit of headbanging, though, and Zyklon were one of the tightest bands I've ever seen live. Fucking love those guys. 1349 were entertaining enough (first time I've seen a proper corpsepaint band), but musically I'm still not convinced about them.

Korn - 2007? Not sure of the year. I think it was last year, anyway. Packed out the MEN arena, lots of hot girls, enormous audience participation. Played a lot of their good old stuff and some of the new stuff I'm unconvinced by. I was pleasantly surprised by their cover of Pink Floyd's The Wall, and Munky's uncharacteristic soloing. I guess he has been playing guitar for over a decade now, but having listened to korn for so long, you don't expect it.

Gigs I'm gutted I missed:

Nile - I usually miss these guys when they play Manchester. Barely popularised at all. Will hopefully be going to watch them in Leeds this year with Belphegor and Grave (both of which I love and have missed previously).

The Berzerker - these guys played Bolton, and I didn't go because I was in the middle of something and chose not to go. Goddamnit!

Cryptopsy, Grave, Hurtlocker, some other bands - played at Rockworld in Manchester, I got a ticket, but then was too depressed to leave the house on the day of it.

Slipknot + Slayer - As above.

Best Jazz concert I have gone so far was by Wynston Marsalis. Excellent acoustics, good layout, good repertoire. Simply enjoyable.

The "Die Kassierer" concert.

The (naked) singer put on a latex glove and stuck a finger up the bassists ass. Then the singer threw the glove into the audience and said the the person who comes on stage with the glove in his mouth gets a prize. Three seconds later someone was there to claim it, chewing on the damn glove.
Best show ever.

Here´s a link. It starts at about three minutes into the clip.
It is probably not safe for work.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vne3qHCMqms

The first time I saw the Scissor Sisters was pretty special. Before they where famous they played in the Limelight, my prefered place for a night out. The show was great asa Scissor Sisters concert aways is but doubly so in a place that held only about 100 people. After the show they partied with the audience and I got to hit on Ana Matronic, swing and a miss unfortunately. Baby Daddy is very cute close up.

The other time was when I was at Vital a few years ago, 2006 i think. The Kaiser Chiefs and I think The Racounturs(sp?) where headlining. Earlier in the day Duke Special appeared. I saw the roadies setting up, fucking washboards gramaphones and all sorts where being carted out, it looked like a garbage dump on stage. I thought it was going to be shit and was about to go off for a beer when Duke Special came out. I was silenced by his performance, real class a genuine singer song writting genius as only the great country of Northern Ireland can produce. Unfortunately the Kaiser Chiefs and Racounters wheren't as awe inspiring, they where actually quite shit.

Sarah McLachlan at the Masonic Temple last week. This is a fairly small venue which seats maybe 350-400 people tops, few people were further than 50' away from her, I was literally 30' away. Sarah is an incredible live performer and in such a small place the energy & emotions in the air is unbelievable. It's like you're there and she's singing just for you, there are just no words to describe her amazing voice.

Flogging Molly - At the Cleveland Rib Cookoff a few years ago, was a free show with $3 admission to the cookoff. I was front and center the whole time, and there's just such an amazing atmosphere at their shows.

Mayhem Fest 09 - Slayer was, without a doubt, the highlight. I know plenty of people who say Slayer is getting too old, that their energy level is way down.. and I have to strongly disagree. Other highlights were Manson (HE was definitely washed-out by then.. I love him, but he should've quit about five or ten years ago), Cannibal Corpse, White Chapel, and Killswitch
Fear Factory - Actually just saw them for the first time last week, and it was fucking amazing. Was turned on to them when I was like 14, sort of an intro into metal, and I have loved them ever since.
Tool - I have to start off with saying, fuck $60 dollar tickets. However, I am crazy about Tool, so it was awesome to see them live finally. The lightshow was amazing.. definitely made for a pretty trippy show. Isis opened, and they were great too.

I saw Paul McCartney in Dallas last year.

I typically don't do concerts, but I wanted to take my Beatles-maniac of a girlfriend.

Unfortunately, the acoustics in the new Cowboys stadium sucks. Everything sounded muddy. It's a real testament to McCartney's status that the place was still packed and screaming at the end.

Apocalyptica at the ABC in Glasgow, it wassimply amazing with incredibly diverse crowd from metalheads in leather to classical officinaos in suits. While some bands have to work the crowd Apocalyptica simply let the music do it all...though seeing someone playing a cello over thier head hasto be seen to be believed.

Sigur Ros at Werchter 2008 was magical. They played at dusk right after a rainstorm, so the concert started in daylight and ended with a lightshow in the darkness. Plus, it's Sigur Ros: their music makes any concert experience special.

Close runner-up mainly because I did not expect it to be good at all: Bart Peeters at Marktrock '09.

The Judas Priest British Steel 30th Anniversary show at Mansfield last year. It was my first concert, and man was it fucking awesome. Beat out Paul McCartney later that year in my eyes.

First some Nickelback-esque band called Pop-Evil played for a half hour, they were alright.

Then Whitesnake came out, played a best of the 80s show, though I noticed Slide It In was missing from the setlist. There was a 10 minute long part of the show where the two guitarists kept trading licks over and over again.

Finally Judas Priest came out, opened with Rapid Fire, blasted through the whole British Steel album, then played a bunch of their hits and Prophecy off of Nostradamus.