Like many here, I have seen a ton of shows. It's hard to to nail down a specific "best" show, but I have a few categories.

1. Most surprising show - Darius Rucker...effortless singer, great show that my wife literally dragged me to
2. Loudest - The Who - Quadrophenia Anniversary Tour
3. Best small venue - Bryan Ferry at the Fox Theater in Detroit
4. Best vintage show - Dave Brubeck
5. Best show by a band I really do not care for - Smashing Pumpkins - I would see them again anytime but never listen to them
6. Best "Arena" Show - Muse
7. Weirdest show - Joe Jackson when he introduced a ton of new songs and yelled at the audience.
8. Most "Phoned In" Show - Phil Collins sitting tour....ugh.
9. Most intimate show - Amy Grant in a room of around 50 people. Very talented lady.
10. Band I've seen the most - U2 - Four times since the mid-80's

Only been to 3 concerts in my life. The Cars at Alpine valley, Billy Squire with Ratt opening Also at AV. Def Leppard with L.A. Gunns opening, might have been Rosemont horizon, not sure.

Metallica in 2004 I believe in Ames, IA, that was a great show. They rocked the college crowd well!

Honorable mention BB King in 2008 in Mankato,MN. Really talented and just a fun vibe.

Monsters of Rock was great ,McCartney at Berkeley ,Pink Floyd in Oakland and then Bowie at San Jose state Spiders from Mars tour

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Not my first show, but a memorable 9th Grade ‘Farewell’ Who 1982 show at Folsom Field in Boulder…

More recently saw DeadMau5 at Red Rocks in November with my oldest son. Actually an amazing show, and will go see DeadMau5 again!

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And an honorable mention for 3 Kid Rock shows this last year in Reno, St Paul, and Cheyenne. And Trombone Shorty at Red Rocks. Both are fantastic performers.

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Was the Cars show at AV the last one - on the Door to Door tour? Would have been 87.

You saw a couple of good ones for only three shows.

311

Nirvana in late 93 was my first
Nine Inch Nails was a great show
Tool is always good
Pantera was amazing live
Slipknot is unreal
311 is always a fun to see.

Best live show I've ever been to was a small venue Run the Jewels concert in 2015. Just an insane non stop hype fest for two hours.

some cool memories here, fun to read.
My most memorable was being at Green Days first show ever, before they were Green Day, they were"Sweet Children" it was a Friday, Billy Joe said "We're Sweet Children, we've been together since Wednesday" Played My Generation and everything that ended up on that first Lookout 45, also Sewer Trout played and was excellent.
Runner up would be Gwar on the Hello tour (first tour) I was maybe 16 and my friends and I got picked up by one of our dads after the show, he didn't even flinch when he saw us all covered in blood, had us go into 7-11 to get cokes just to see what the cashier would say.....fun times.
Oh! Also saw Op Ivy the day the album came out, damn I'm old now.
B

ZZ top was great Rush too

One of the Best was Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughan on the same ticket
Stevie Ray and B B King on the same ticket too.

Another great one… roads in and out were a shitshow. In fact a lot of things about this festival was, still a great time though.

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It may have been, I'm not sure. The ex was more in to the Cars than me. Loved BS and of course Ratt was just starting to blow up. Never heard of L.A. Gunns at the time. Remember not paying that much attention to them at that show. Have them only Pandora playlist now.

In 78 or 79, we went to the local speedway and saw Ram Jam and Blackfoot, good ol rock bands, outdoor setting next to a freeway, $10, general admission

Stones at the Wiltern Theatre. Had to get a wristband for the concert 2 days before the show by showing them your ticket and they put it on you. Tried to prevent scalpers selling $55 face value tickets for $5,000 back then. I think around 1,300 tickets total. They usually play these kinds of shows unannounced to public but this tour they did a few theater shows in New York, Chicago, and LA. within their arena and stadium tour.

First place: Electric Light Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, September 2016...almost 40 years since I saw their spaceship take off at Madison Square Garden. A full orchestra and fireworks made it worth the trip out west.

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Second place: Queen at Madison Square Garden, July 28, 1982. I was leaning on the edge of the stage and grabbed Freddie's arm at the end of the show when he held out his jacket covered with silk arrows. Didn't wash my hand for a week.

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Third place: Def Leppard at PNC Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ on July 21, 1996. Met Joe and Rick backstage before the show which was a huge thrill for me.

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Fleetwood Mac, Ronnie James Dio, Rush, Pink Floyd for me
Zeppelin no quarter tour was really good and Peter Gabriel, David Bowie...

Motörhead 30 Aug 2009 Chicago, House of Blues. 27 Nov 2010 London, Brixton Academy.

The Pogues 05 Mar 2007 Chicago, Congress. 06 Mar 2008 Chicago, Riviera.

Shane MacGowan and the Popes 30 Mar 2001 Chicago, The Vic. ( Shane was MIA at a bar for a couple of hours. Late show, still phenomenal)

Kiss/Judas Priest 21 Sep 1979 Chicago, Ampitheater.

Circle Jerks 82-83? Chicago, West end club.

Kinda funny. My friend Richard started as road manager with Faces in 70s and toured with 20 plus hall of fame bands. Tom Petty's first and always road manager. He called me in 95 or so and said Tom's playing a big show at Hollywood Bowl, so come up with Jimmy, (our mutual friend) and I'll put you in 12th row. Richard wanted us to go to a jazz club or something with him afterwards.

He called back at least 8 times moving me and my girl closer, but not next to our friend. Finally he calls and says, "I know your coming now, (Mike) Campbell's (guitar) wife is drunk and I'm putting you in her 4 front row seats. Tell me later how he reacts when you point back to where his wife is". Campbell didn't look happy until Richard told him at their break that I was heading to prison soon for pot. He came back on stage right in front of us and played awhile with a different attitude. Campbell look at Jimmy and laughed at one point and said "fuckn Richard".

Stones at Wiltern was still better.

Hands down best live act I witnessed in their prime was Jane’s Addiction. Life changing concerts on the Ritual De Lo Habitual tour and original Lollapalooza tour in 1991. Perry Ferrell drugged out was amazing!

Daaaaamn, there is a lot of good stuff in this thread, but I would pick this #1 if I could go back for what I missed.

The Cars were a band I missed - and outside of Talking Heads, the biggest one that got away.

I saw RATT at AV on their Dancing Undercover tour - 87. Probably was the apex of the career. It was a great show and they still had it together. LA Guns wasn't as popular as they are are today. Great band as well.

You missed nothing. I saw the Panorama tour...it was one of the most boring shows I've ever seen. My friend and I were literally nodding off.

Me and my two sons saw the last two Black Sabbath concerts with Ozzy in Vegas. Most fun I ever had both times. They sounded fantastic. I don't think anyone sat down the whole show. Ozzy is funnier than hell. Long live Ozzy.

Best was last year, Santa Barbara, Van Morrison, front row dead center.
Most memorable and cool in a different way…. Journey in my home town 1979 ish, maybe? I was stage crew and met them and later concert that summer I was stage crew for Beach Boys and shot the breeze withBrian Wilson. He was quite drunk.

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Rock Superbowl 1982 in Orlando. Pat Travers band. Wasn’t the band I came to see but they were good.

Any of these.

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I saw Pink Floyd in 1977 at Soldier Field in Chicago. My seat was near the top of this photo. The crowd outside the stadium before the doors opened was the densest mass of people I’ve ever been in.

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I just got my driver's license and took my girlfriend to the The Northern California Folk-Rock Festival in 1968.
The music festival was held at Family Park in the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds San Jose, California, on May 18–19, 1968

The festival featured Country Joe and the Fish, The Animals, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Big Brother and the Holding Company feat, Janis Joplin, The Youngbloods, The Electric Flag, Kaleidoscope, Taj Mahal, and Ravi Shankar and the Grateful Dead also performed.

We sat on the grass and got totally sunburned!

Bruce Springsteen EVERY TIME.
Can't go wrong with THE BOSS

Smashing Pumpkins in Memphis the summer of 1996. It was just after Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released. I wasn't really a fan of theirs but went with some friends of mine. I was blown away by the enormity of their sound. I immediately went out and bought all of their CDs. I saw them again a couple of years ago and was again amazed but this time it was Billy's guitar playing ability that stole the show. That dude is a legit musical genius and as much as his career has been wildly successful, he is still greatly under-rated, IMO.

I saw them on that tour, they played like 2 encores and 4 hours or something, was crazy.

Hank 3
he played a 4 hr set with no breaks
started with only a acoustic guitar
as each set of songs progressed more musicians and instruments were added, genres included country, rockabilly, hellbilly, pop punk, punk, hardcore, metal
he ended the show playing a set of black metal
when the the show was over he left the stage and walked straight into the crowd and began shaking hands and signing autographs
it was unreal
Ive seen 1000's of shows
this was the best

Metallica - And Justice tour 1989 at Alpine Valley Theatre. The Cult opened for them. First "real" concert when I was 17. Blew my mind!

Crosby, Stills, Nash AND Young! Mid August 1974 at Nassau Coliseum. They played for about 4 hours as I recall.

- Day on The Green 1991 w/ Metallica, Soundgarden, Queensryche and Faith No More

- Metallicas 40th concert last year was great too
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I’ve gone to somewhere between 2 and 10 concerts a year for the past 25+ years. Music has always eased my mental health. Something about being in a sea of anonymity with strangers that all are there to have fun.

My first show- older brothers took me to see Pink Floyd at the silverdome in Detroit when I was 14.

Metallica at mcnichols in the late 1990s and Metallica at mile high recently with the same two friends.

Venue with the most visits Red rocks. A few gems include: rodrigo y Gabriela, Tool in high school. Tom Pettys last run. Dave matthews band in 1995 (front row as a 15 year old) Lumineers first show there. Night sweats first show there. Widespread panic or dead type shows every year for 20 years.
I could go on forever.

Most important show…the first show back after covid. Widespread panic at red rocks with a sea of people all experiencing the joy of live music again after the pandemic closed concerts down. I remember the moment during the second set that I let myself feel the grief experienced during that year. And the relief that live music was back.

Clutch at the 930 Club is always great.

My favorite concert was the pretty famous Audioslave concert there in 2005. They played their music, Soundgarden, and Rage. Chris sang Black Hole Sun a cappella, and it was beautiful.

That bill is absolutely stacked. I would have loved to see Queensryche with all 5 original members, FNM with Big Jim, and Soundgarden supporting Badmotorfinger all in one show.

Apocalypse Hoboken always puts on a great show and I have seen them quite a few times.
SNFU was really good to see live also.
I think the best was when Subhumans played in Milwaukee around 16 years ago.

Tiffin Ohio! I remember that venue.

Ha ! Hello fellow Floyd Fan.... I was also at the 1994 Pink Floyd Rose Bowl show... but they played 2 sold out nights at the Rose Bowl... I went to the first night.
My friends and I also went to the first SoCal show at Jack Murphy Stadium in SD a couple days before.
The most beautiful show I've seen, but not the best concert.

I've seen a bunch of the big rock acts, but if we're trying to pinpoint a single concert I'd have to give the nod to Ozzfest '99, when I saw the original lineup of Black Sabbath. That's an experience I never thought I'd get to have.

If we're talking most memorable shows, though, I find that those are often the ones that take place at smaller venues. I've seen my favorite band, Clutch, more times than I've kept track of, almost always at small venues with an occasional festival appearance tossed in. A more recent show that has really stuck with me (maybe because it happened not long before COVID shut down live music) was The Claypool Lennon Delirium at the House of Blues in Anaheim, where I stood like 10 feet away from Les Claypool and just watched all the crazy stuff he does with his hands.

The National is my favorite venue! I've seen some surprisingly big acts there (Rob Zombie, Jane's Addiction). Packing the crowds that those bands attract into that place lends a whole new meaning to the word "intimate."

How was the Genesis Duke show? Saw Genesis 11 times, but never before 92. I would have loved to seen them in 1980.

I know they were not the best live band from an energy standpoint, but they always sounded pretty good.

My first concert, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow at the NY Palladium, late 70s. AC/DC was opening for them. At the time I had no idea who AC/DC was. AC/DC was the loudest thing I had ever heard but they were great. When Angus Young came out in his school boy outfit, I knew this was going to be fun and it was. When Rainbow came out, they started out great but then they started having some technical problems and ended the show. I'm glad I was on the mezzanine level because everyone tossed their sodas, beer, cigarettes... over the edge onto the people below. Of course it was disappointing not getting to see the whole show but they did play 3 songs, I saw AC/DC and they refunded our money, which I believe was $12. I also found out, that was the last show Dio sang with Rainbow.

I did see Billy Ray Cyrus at Radio City Music Hall (don't judge me). My Wife won free tickets, he was pretty good, first time I ever heard a band play a song twice, which of course was the big hit, Achy Breaky Heart.

Favorite - Pink Floyd Soldier Field, 1994

Close second - Saw David Gilmour at the United Center back in 2016 - 4th row - once in a lifetime experience for me being that close.

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