OT: 30 years ago yesterday - greatest live rock performance ever?
What was the best live performance you saw?
Last week the Stones were awesome at Comerica (no freaking remarkable considering their age). Hopefully McCartney and Metallica will rock Lollapalooza in two weeks.
But in 1985 at Live Aid Freddie Mercury and Queen set the bar for rocking an audience imho.The Beatles on Ed Sullivan were ground breaking as were Nirvana unplugged, Led Zeppelin in MSG, and Hendrix at Monterey,et al but this one to me just was extra magical. I get goosebumps every time I see Freddie leading 70,000 sing " Radio Ga Ga".
According to a BBC documentary on Queen via Wikipedia:
"Prior to their taking the stage, Queen's sound engineer covertly switched out the limiters that had been installed on the venue's sound system so the performance would be louder than the others"
Greatest frontman ever. Sorry Mick.
And it's not even close. What a voice.
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btw there is a good program on Dave Mustaine on Palladia that was interesting. Agree Hetfield now has jumped the shark.
everyone else just rode their coattails in my opinion.
Keep in mind that the audience at Live Aid wasn't even a Queen crowd. The fact that Freddie could get every single one of them to clap to "Radio Ga Ga" is astonishing. RIP.
I wasn't a fan particularly either but by the end was just blown away. And 30 years later it's on my short list of car travel tunes!
They didnt even want Queen to perform. And Freddy absolutely blew everybody off the stage.
FWIW poor David Bowie had to follow them on stage. Good luck with that Mr Thin White Duke.
I went to Woodstock. If I remember right, and I still have my tickets, the three days cost a grand total of $18.
Day 1: Friday, August 15 1969
Richie Havens > Playlist
Sweetwater > Set List
Bert Sommer > Playlist
Tim Hardin > Set List
Ravi shankar > Playlist
Melanie > Set List
Arlo Guthrie > Playlist
Joan Baez > Set List
Day 2: Saturday, August 16 1969
Quill > Playlist
Country Joe McDonald > Set List
John B. Sebastian > Playlist
Keef Hartley Band > Set List
Santana > Playlist
Incredible String Band > Set List
Canned Heat > Set Playlist
Grateful Dead > Playlist
Leslie West & Mountain > Playlist
Creedence Clearwater Revival > Set List
Janis Joplin > Playlist
Sly & The Family Stone > Set List
The Who > Playlist
Jefferson Airplane > Set List
Day 3: Sunday, August 17 1969
Joe Cocker > Playlist
Country Joe & The Fish > Set List
Ten Years After > Set List
Johnny Winter > Playlist
Blood Sweat And Tears > Set List
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young > Playlist
Day 4: Monday, August 18 1969
Paul Butterfield Blues Band > Set List
Sha Na Na > Playlist
Jimi Hendrix > Set List
$18 in 1969 is the equivalent of about $120 in 2015. Gotta account for inflation dude.
Yeah, I was thinking of the inflation thing too. Even with inflation, it was a hell of a deal.
How much would you pay to see Jimi Hendrix play the Star Spangled Banner at dawn? And he was just one of 31 groups, including people like the Grateful Dead, the Who, etc.
I was too young to appreciate what I saw then, but when I think back to that weekend, it was simply an amazing event.
My favorite performance was not at Woodstock. It was Pink Floyd at RFK Stadium in DC about 20 years ago.
All those legendary bands and awesome songs over 3 days for $115 in today's money is the biggest no-brainer if you're a rock fan and have the money.
Surprised you remember anything based on that audience's partying. I've seen the movie on Paladia (my favorite channel) and John Belushi, err Joe Cocker stands out in a group of incredible performances.
My moment of "discovery" came shortly after Woodstock, so I still can remember much of what I saw. I, too, thought, Joe Cocker put on a great show.
I was concieved at this concert-no idea who my Dad is.
I was a tad too young to make Woodstock, but hitchhiked with two friends from Chicago to NY to see The Band, Grateful Dead, and Allman Brothers. The Friday night "sound check" was almost as good as the rest of the concert, as was the massive thunderstorm that chased the Allmans off the stage on Saturday.
There were only supposed to be 150,00 there - the number of available tickets - but over 500,000 showed up. Best free music around.
Second place was a 5-hour Dead concert at the UW Field House in Madison. It was intense enough that a group of us had to intervene to stop two attempted suicides (not the reason why the concert was great, just a symptom of the craziness that accompanied some of their perfomances).
Third was ushering for Dylan at Crisler center in the mid-70s: Great music and some guy offered me $500.00 if I would give him my usher shirt so that he could go down to the stage (refused, of course).
concert ever was the US Festival!
Ha! I hit up a Lollapalooza in '95--which is the one referenced by this Simpsons episode (by Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill). It was on Randall's Island in NYC and hotter than the devil's Dutch oven, but what a great day. I still have the t-shirt.
Live Aid from a bar in Ann Arbor that weekend...it was glorious.
For all you Queen fans, and who isn't one, I recently saw this piece which is a discussion of the making of Bohemian Rhapsody, as narrated by Brian May whom now has a PhD in astrophysics and was heavily involved in the audio engineering utilized by Queeen. It is fascinating and shows Freddie Mercury's genius in ways I had never previously realized.
What does Brian May have to say about Pluto?
Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars, Fisher Theater 1972
I'm hearing Mick Ronson on "Moonage Daydream" right now.
MC5 Grande Ballroom. Boom. Made the album cover.
See I would say 1985, Live Aid... for U2's performance of Bad.
From one Oasis fan to another though...have you seen the Maine Road concert footage? That's maybe the ultimate show for me to travel back in time to... either that or Monterey Pop for Hendrix.
Another religious experience! Man I'm not going to get anything done at work...
That's the one, their first stadium gig in their hometown.
But yeah, Queen would be amazing to see. I was cleaning out my car and found my copy of Greatest Hits in the console... and have been listening all week.
just crazy popular--possibly bigger when this concert happened. Had good sales here of thie second record, but never really happened in the U.S., not sure why.
Yeah, those are my two favorite bands but they had very different paths. If anything U2 blew up in the US first and has slowly become accepted by the UK. Oasis rode the popularity of the Manchester acts like the Stone Roses to the top... because even though their sound wasn't that unique they had great songs. You're right though, they never really broke through here except for a couple songs.
Interesting to me that Radiohead has had the most longevity of anyone in the "Britpop" scene... their early albums like Bends and OK Computer are still my favorites.
Caught Stevie Ray Vaughn in Saginaw. I've seen a lot of shows, but still can't think of any better. RIP brother.
During the Tattoo You Tour at the Pontiac Silverdome. What an experience for a 17 yr old. We skipped school to go down early, there was gen admission seating, we had main floor tickets but there were no seats on the main floor so we sat or stood on the concrete.
Iggy Pop played first - he got booed off the stage because he wore this tight dress with nothing underneath, so you could see his Johnson after about 7-8 songs. People threw all kinds of stuff at him. The Santana played - they were better than the Stones, really. After Santana played and before the RS, a mass of people rushed main floor, security could not stop them, I thought I was going to die.
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I can't think of any living musicians who could put on a show like Freddie and Queen did that day.
Simply amazing.
The Who...Live At Leeds
Best live album ever, best live show ever.
Yeah, subjective as Hell, just my opinion--just like everybody else up in here. lots of great shows back in the day. Saw Ten Years After at Cobo on a Tuesday night back when I was in high school and that was a great, great show--the best i have ever seen in person and i have seen more than a couple
Summertime Blues... that album is worth buying just for that track.
Just excellent! Wasting more time watching classic videos..
I just rewatched that Queen set...incredible.
My best live show ever was probably Sir Paul at MSG in 2002 relatively soon after George passed away. He did a great tribute to George mid-set.
These music threads should be banned /s....I have lots of work to do today and all I'm doing is watching music videos.
But it's your fault I've been watching Joe Cocker Woodstock clips for the last 20 minutes.
I happily accept responsibility.