Concert at Crisler tonight- first (post shutdown) “large” indoor event at M sports venue?
Glass Animals will be performing tonight at Crisler for students only. I believe there have only been a few indoor volleyball matches this fall in front of hundreds at M venues. This will likely be a few thousand in close quarters. The last concert there a few years back was 2chainz and Lil Yachty. What was your favorite comcert at Crisler of yore?
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:04 AM ^
Only concert I saw at Crisler was Bob Dylan in November 2002. It was... well to be honest it was fucking awful. I love me some Bob Dylan, even his live releases, but that show made me never want to see him again. I was walking out during the encore when I realized the song that was 3/4 of the way through was "All Along the Watchtower," rearranged into some mumbly ballad. It was not a good show.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:13 AM ^
Sounds like you were out of there......... like a rolling stone.
I'll show myself out
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:24 AM ^
Dylan wasn’t much better at Hill in 2019. Mumbly would be a good descriptor for his whole show. Absolutely no affect from Bob. Don’t know if he acknowledged the crowd once. Halfway through a song you might recognize it sorta.
September 23rd, 2021 at 1:03 PM ^
Maybe cut him some slack there cause 2019 he's 78 years old lol
September 23rd, 2021 at 3:12 PM ^
most of his lyric's are Imperceptible even when he was younger.
September 23rd, 2021 at 4:18 PM ^
But he was better--alot better--at his legendary performance at Crisler in 1974 with The Band as his touring band.
September 23rd, 2021 at 5:11 PM ^
I saw Dylan at Red Rocks in 2016. It was god awful. The atmosphere was excellent, the views, breathtaking, the music-complete waste of time. Granted I went with friends who were Dylan fans and I am more of an old school hip hop head, but even they were not impressed.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:27 AM ^
I saw him at the Palace in like '05 or '06 and he sounded like absolute dogshit, as if he had spent the every waking moment prior to his set screaming and chainsmoking.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:51 AM ^
Dude never had a good voice... Honestly, I've never really understood the appeal he had.
September 23rd, 2021 at 10:53 AM ^
It’s pretty clearly not his voice or guitar playing, but he’s one of and very likely *the* best songwriter of all time. Doesn’t mean you have to like him, obviously, but it’s also not like he’s famous for no reason.
September 23rd, 2021 at 1:53 PM ^
Give this a listen. Yes, his voice sounds like pebbles in a rusty can. But it's wonderful from beginning to end. Guy wrote many, many wonderful songs:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXRKTcRs-Xs5zRFtxZGOJsIcwjU0qbQMi
September 23rd, 2021 at 1:54 PM ^
Give this a listen. Yes, his voice sounds like pebbles in a rusty can. But it's wonderful from beginning to end. Guy wrote many, many wonderful songs:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXRKTcRs-Xs5zRFtxZGOJsIcwjU0qbQMi
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:55 AM ^
Add another to the list - The Hill in 2010. Just a boring fairly lifeless show, where he just showed up, mumbled, and collected his paycheck
September 23rd, 2021 at 10:06 AM ^
I honestly don't understand why people like Bob Dylan, live or otherwise. He objectively sounds like shit. Yeah, I guess you can credit his songwriting/lyrics/whatever, but it is not at all enjoyable to listen to, which is the entire point of music.
September 23rd, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
Saw him in November 2001 and we also left early. Bar none the worst live show I've ever seen.
September 23rd, 2021 at 1:47 PM ^
Dylan is kind of the inverse of the Grateful Dead, both of whom I saw several times during the late 80s and 90s. Bob's studio albums are terrific (including several he's put out in the last 10 years) but his live shows often suck. With the Dead, I cannot think of one song they did that I did not much prefer the live version over the record. In fact if I listen to the Dead now it is only recordings of live shows.
I did catch a couple Dylan shows (like 10 years ago) on the Neverending Tour that were quite good, mostly because he had a great band. When G.E. Smith was running that band they were very tight.
Bob Dylan is one of the greatest American songwriters ever, period. I also think it was super hip of him that he never acknowledged or picked up his Nobel Prize.
September 23rd, 2021 at 2:41 PM ^
The American Beauty album by the Grateful Dead is an absolute masterpiece, and probably top 10ish all time, IMO. But in general I agree - they were a better live than in a studio.
September 23rd, 2021 at 10:59 AM ^
Everyone I have ever talked to or heard from said Bob Dylan was horrible live and I can attest to that. I saw him some time in mid 2000's at Breslin opening for Phil Lesh & Friends. Could barely understand any of the lyrics and all of the arrangements were so different no song played sounded like it was originally recorded. Seems like it was one of those "F you I'm the artist and it's my art so I'll do whatever the F I want." I heard in the mid 1980s he was barely selling tickets so some other artists banded together to bail him out because they thought he deserved more respect. Seen a lot of shows in my time but having seen him once I won't go out of my way to see another Dylan show.
September 23rd, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^
I was there too, it was rough
September 23rd, 2021 at 11:57 AM ^
Damn - the only one I ever remember at Crisler was Grateful Dead in '90 or '91. I wish they had more concerts at Crisler.
September 23rd, 2021 at 1:58 PM ^
They were April 5th and 6th of 1989.
September 23rd, 2021 at 1:41 PM ^
I've seen "good Bob" and "bad Bob" - when he cares, he's great.
I had a similar experience with Van Morrison many years ago. Was super excited to see him - clearly far more excited than he was. Incredibly poor show (Merriweacther Post Pavilion, sometime in '90's).
I'd much rather seem someone with lesser rep who's still hungry and wants to perform.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:18 AM ^
Avatar will check out here.
Raise your hand if you can recall smoking something inside Crisler.
In the mid-'80s I saw the Moody Blues (one of those concerts where Stevie Ray Vaughan, the opening act that evening, outperformed the main act) and Santana there.
September 23rd, 2021 at 2:23 PM ^
Santana 1984 after going to the Michigan v Illinois game where we kicked their butts in a tough season after Harbaugh broke his arm, that injury fucked our season up.
Concert was awesome, I've seen Santana live 6 times, Pine Knob Santana concerts were better however, just sounded better outdoors it felt like a fiesta@!
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:21 AM ^
Damn. That’s a nice act to get as a freshman. Saw there were only 8000 and they and sophomores (the two years who it was truly meant for) sold it out fast. That said, crisler for an actual, public show in 2021 would blow. No drink sales. Probably a shit ton of security being jackasses about smoking. Definitely not the same as it once was.
September 23rd, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^
Indoor concerts suck everywhere now. How do you expect me to watch a 3 hour show without smoking, weed or otherwise?
I saw The Gin Blossoms at Arts Beats & Eats this summer. They were surprisingly good, but there was security going around being cunty about people vaping. Outside. In a parking lot.
September 23rd, 2021 at 7:20 PM ^
You can still smoke weed…not that hard to do in the middle of a few hundred people. Puff puff put away
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:31 AM ^
There were a few:
1. The John Sinclair Freedom Concert in '71, with Stevie Wonder, John Lennon (singing the Ballad of John Sinclair, and many others.
2. Ike and Tina Turner Revue -- those ladies could dance!
3. The Fifth Dimension, with opening act, the Four Tops.
The early '70s. Those were really the days for live music. FWIW, I also was at the original Woodstock.
I'm fuckin' old.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:54 AM ^
The Sinclair concert poster/bill was on the wall at Red Hot Lovers.
September 23rd, 2021 at 10:40 AM ^
I attended the John Sinclair Freedom Concert too. Tickets went on sale the day before with a limit of 10. I lost the dorm floor draw and went down the night before to wait in line. Stevie Wonder and Bob Seger were great - Yoko Ono as a solo was awful. The changes took forever and the concert was endless. I don't think we got out of there until after 2:00 a.m.
Great show at Hill the same year (1971) was The Grateful Dead on back-to-back nights in November. Snuck in to both shows and sat in the aisles.
I also am way too old...
September 23rd, 2021 at 12:07 PM ^
Yes! I was at both of the Dead concerts at Hill, with the New Riders opening. You can listen to those complete shows if you download the Deadhead Archives app. The probably have 5,000 live shows on there. Phenomenal!
(FWIW, they banned rock concerts at Hill after that because of all the seed burns in the red velvet seat cushions. )
September 23rd, 2021 at 1:21 PM ^
(FWIW, they banned rock concerts at Hill after that because of all the seed burns in the red velvet seat cushions. )
I don't doubt that there were seed burns in the Hill seats, but a wide variety of rock groups were performing at Hill well into the 2000s. The Dead also played Hill again back in 1972.
September 23rd, 2021 at 2:34 PM ^
And Jerry Garcia played pedal steel for the New Riders (2+ hours) and then came back out with the Dead (3+ hours) - the guy loved playing live.
September 23rd, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
I've been to three non-sports events at Crisler:
1. Sinclair Freedom Rally—long stretches of typical early '70s political speechifying interspersed with some good music, the best for me being Stevie Wonder and Commander Cody. As gpcharles said above, it was a long fucking evening.
2. The Thrilla in Manila, October 1, 1975 closed-circuit TV. Sat on a wooden folding chair on the arena floor. I'll never forget the pure animal frenzy in the crowd around me during the last few brutal rounds—everybody was on their feet, including me.
3. Earth Wind & Fire November 1977—The performance started with them being lowered to the stage inside cylindrical, sci-fi-like capsules after a two-hour delay. Pretty over the top entrance, but it was an entertaining show anyhow. Main reason I got tickets was because the cute art student I was dating loved EWF. She still does.
From my experience, Crisler isn't really a great place for live music from an acoustics standpoint. It wasn't designed to be a music venue, so it's not surprising that the musical acoustics aren't ideal.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:33 AM ^
I’m up on some of the newer bands from my kids doing these Tik Tok videos, and this band is one of them.
It’s funny, I’ve been to a few high school football games this year and when they play a current song, all of the kids only sing along with the first 15 seconds of it, and don’t know the rest; because that’s the length of a Tik Tok video.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:41 AM ^
That's absurd, lol. I thought I had attention span problems. Now I'm just a grumpy, old-ass millennial.
September 23rd, 2021 at 12:07 PM ^
Never heard of them. Going to have to ask the kids if they have heard of them.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:37 AM ^
10/3/1980 - Springsteen's first show on The River tour. He forgot the words to Thunder Road at the beginning of the concert. We helped him out. Bob Seger came out for an encore and they sang Thunder Road again. That was awesome.
I was a senior in high school at that point. When I was a student I didn't go to many shows at Crisler. I remember The Police around '82 or so.
September 23rd, 2021 at 11:28 AM ^
I was in row 6 for that show. A week later I saw the Boss again at Cobo, this time about 6 rows from the back. Both shows were awesome!
September 23rd, 2021 at 12:31 PM ^
Ah, so you're 60-ish too. I was at The Police show--I believe Joan Jett opened. I only went because my girlfriend at the time was pissed that I ditched her to see The Police at MSU with one of my buddies (Go-Gos opened there), so she and I went when they swung back through Ann Arbor a few weeks later. Do you remember the cool moment when Sting broke a string, the roadie came out with a new bass and Sting let him finish playing the song with the band? Well, guess what happened EXACTLY that way in the E. Lansing show...
September 23rd, 2021 at 12:48 PM ^
I was at the Springsteen concert, too. I was 15 years old and couldn't drive yet so I had to meet my mom at 11:30 for the ride back to Brighton......and I missed Bob Seger coming on stage to sing Thunder Road. Still one of my great "what could have been" moments in life. I saw Springsteen again the next summer at Joe Louis. Mitch Ryder came out to sing the Detroit Medley....and I missed that one, too.
I also saw Billy Squier open up for Foreigner at Crisler in the fall of '81.
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
I saw Pearl Jam there in 1994. One the the better shows I've seen.
September 23rd, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
Was there as well. Great show.
September 23rd, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
I discovered like three great new Pearl Jam songs I'd never heard before just this week. Found "Hard to Imagine" and somehow had never heard it before.
September 23rd, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
[doubled, sorry, but I don't mind because Pearl Jam rules.]
September 23rd, 2021 at 9:56 AM ^
The Dead for both of their Crisler shows in '89 right after the Natty.
September 23rd, 2021 at 10:57 AM ^
I was at those. That was a good time for the Grateful Dead but a bad time for Calc 3.
September 23rd, 2021 at 11:19 AM ^
I wasted another day waiting in line for wristbands in the Union.
September 23rd, 2021 at 12:57 PM ^
Combined with Hash Bash and Illinois semifinal on the 1st, Championship on the 3rd and Grateful Dead on the 5th and 6th, that would easily be the most memorable week I ever had in Ann Arbor.
September 23rd, 2021 at 2:22 PM ^
One of my few regrets was not going to either of the shows. The first show I physically couldn’t do it because of an incident the day before. The second one I slightly recall being responsible about school. I didn’t become a huge Dead fan until a couple of years later. If I knew what I was missing, I would have planned better.