Haven't seen this discussed in a while. Any gig or concert (Preferably not a Prince one, as we can discuss that in a Prince forum).

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Mine involved an incredibly obscure Hippie folk singer back in 1996, called Paul Ubana Jones.

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Then there was an obscure hippy singer here I saw in 1996. I was at university and got dragged to a "Paul Ubana Jones" concert which turned out to be the downstairs stage of some pub in central Dunedin (The Edinburgh of the South) and we all sat around in a group of 100 on a floor.

[Edited 9/27/17 21:53pm]

2045RadicalMattZ said:

Well...might wanna preface it to either exclusively professional outfits or clubs, cause I've been to a lot. Some were our own. (When i WAS in a band) PRO GIG : 6:30 gig at the GREEK THEATER: Mr blue on black does his 28 minute set to open. 7:15 (daylight) GEORGE THOROGOOD plays with stage volume at 4, somewhere between company public speaking event volume and a lesbian poetry reading volume. Crowd is about 56+ excepting myself and my friend Dave who's our bands #1 fan. He offered me the ticket when he couldn't find anybody. Apparently he thinks GEORGE is the shit; rather than just a fairly decent wannabe blues rock band lifting song duties. Anyways. GEORGE plays about 4 songs, then introduces a special guest. He sits out the next two songs while his daughter half heartedly plays some standard garbage. GEORGE comes back to play an additional 4 songs. Show ends. Over. The sun is still out. It was a sad and pitiful excuse for a rock show. I could friggin hear chips being eaten. Worst of our gigs. Playing at a club/restaurant in Canoga Park/Woodland hills with nothing but glass walls/Windows. Reflections everywhere for every act. Sound is HORRIBLE, sound guy doesn't know how to negotiate^delegate frequencies. All acts sounds like crap. That one and the time we played to the bartender and an old lady shooting pool near Santa Monica beach. Considering all things.....I've had decent experiences. Oh and notably, i was at Prince 's LOTUSFLOW3R middle show at NOKIA. ..the sound was horrible and Prince regularly asked the sound man during the show to apply the monitors. So i guess this was the FIRST show? The one where the harmonica player stole the show not the one I've seen on YouTube since his passing

Now that made me laugh!! Thanks for sharing.

Madonna Sticky & Sweet 2008 at Wembley Stadium wasn't great. I still had a great time as I'm a huge M fan, but if I'm honest the sound was horrendous and we were in the lower tier seats at the back of the pitch ... might as well have been in the next town over we were so far away. I didn't think the 2008 setlist was that great either; the 2009 leg it improved alot. MDNA Tour in Hyde Park was also pretty poor. Rubbish weather, rubbish sound and an M show in a large flat field doesn't work; its all about the visual performance on stage with M, which is no good if you can't see the stage or screens.

New Order at Brixton Academy 2011. Horrendous sound, couldn't hear a word Barny was singing. He's normally pretty laid back on stage, but even by his standards his 'couldn't give a toss' blase attitude was too much. Tentatively went to see them again at the same venue early 2016 and it was so good its still in my top five all time gigs I've been to ... they were amazing!!

A concert at a club in my home town. The singer's songs had terrible lyrics and I didn't like the music either. I only went there cause my Mum wanted me to. Needless to say I left during a break

The "Ms. Lauryn Hill" show at BB Kings in NYC, February last year. We had unfortunately purchased tickets for the "second show" which was to start at 9. Upon arriving we were told the "first show" had yet to begin, starting an almost two hour stand in the cold.

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Once we entered for the "second show" at almost midnight, our ears were blown out by obscene volume and alot of screaming. One round of "yeah" from L that lasted about 30 seconds long felt like being hit with a hammer in the ears.

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That being said, once I saw her in an outdoor park a few years prior and she was again an hour or so late but the venue was better suited for such a loud, jarring performance. I left feeling thrilled.

Van Halen in 2015 at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.

khill95 said:

Van Halen in 2015 at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.

Could you explain a little of the "why"?

No question - ALANIS MORRISETTE.

I saw her on her "Jagged Little Pill - Performed In A Living Room" tour. It wasn't unplugged; it wasn't full-on rock and roll - it was in between. But that wasn't what sucked.

IT WAS THE SONGS.

holy moley, does that poor woman have mother issues. Every single song was about what a rotten mom she had. Or, what a rotten boyfriend she had. Or, what a rotten life she had. All of it was backed up by a black-and-white film shown behind her of images that made no sense, but were all depressing.

I could not get drunk enough and believe me - I tried.

Making matters worse was the opening act - Jason Mraz, a guy of whom I had never heard. I thought at first he was a joke act. I mean, he's a goofy-looking guy to begin with and his bandmate was some bearded fireplug whose idea of stage dress was a Gilligan hat. These two guys proceeded to play songs that I thought had been stolen from Barney the dinosaur's setlist. I am not joking, I thought Jason Mraz was a parody act.

But girls were screaming. "Why are you screaming?" I asked a reasonibly hot girl next to me. "What has this guy got besides a friend with a Gilligan's hat?" She orgasmed and said, "HE WAS IN PLAYGIRL!!!1!!!11!!"

This show was the "Dunkirk" of concerts. Completely depressing. And now for the runner-up:

STEVE EARLE, RIGHT AFTER HE GOT OUT OF PRISON

Man, I love Steve Earle. He's one of the best songwriters ever. Phenomenal artist. But that ONE night...

I believe he'd just gotten out of prison. Or maybe he was about to go into prison. I forget. Whichever, he didn't want to be there. He completely half-assed his way through some really great songs. After an hour, I couldn't take it any longer. I knew what a great talent he was. I'd seen him several times before, always working magic. But this time, he just.......quit. He didn't care. I could not stand to see him like that, so we walked out.

But good news! He got cleaned up and sober many years ago, and is back to his old tremendous self. I just saw him a couple months ago and he was excellent. Yay, a happy ending to make me forget about having to remember about Alanis Morrisette!

RodeoSchro said:

Love these responses, there have been some bad shows out there.

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Surprised about Madge, normally her shows are great. I remember wanting to go to her Rebel Heart show in Auckland, 2 weeks after Prince and not having enough cash for a ticker

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I had also thought it would be shit and turned down a $150 ticket on the day. Kicking myself as apparently the show was excellent and it was her first and only show in New Zealand. Thank God a boot of it went up on Youtube and it was awesome. In fact so good, I went out and bought a copy of Rebel Heart.

Adorecream said:

Love these responses, there have been some bad shows out there.

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Surprised about Madge, normally her shows are great. I remember wanting to go to her Rebel Heart show in Auckland, 2 weeks after Prince and not having enough cash for a ticker

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I had also thought it would be shit and turned down a $150 ticket on the day. Kicking myself as apparently the show was excellent and it was her first and only show in New Zealand. Thank God a boot of it went up on Youtube and it was awesome. In fact so good, I went out and bought a copy of Rebel Heart.

I think for Madonna her standard is so good my expectations when I see her are very high. To be fair in the examples I gave it was more the venue than her ... she was probably still working her ass off as always, it was just a bad choice to have the show in an open field and in the cavernous Wembley Stadium (which is a soulless, atmosphere free venue at the best of times).

Sticky & Sweet 2009 in the O2 Arena was an amazing show, as was MDNA a week after Hyde Park in Birmingham NEC.

Rebel Heart was her best show since Confessions Tour IMO ... maybe even better than that!! I'd like to say you didn't miss out but I'd be lying

The opening act on the Janet Up Close & Personal Tour in 2011, Mindless Behavior. They were terrible! Everyone was bored as hell. Their set ended rather abruptly. I don't know if their sound or backing track went out, or it's just how they ended it. But it was loud, unappealing, and one of the worst thing I've seen on stage in a long while.

Janet didn't come on for another 45-minutes after that. The crowd was restless!

Erykah Badu, Taste of Chicago, 2003: She was listless, let the crowd sing half the lines, just didn't want to be there. I was disappointed. Syleena Johnson opened for her and was a true pro.

The opening DJ for the Revolution show in Chicago this past spring spun hot garbage, staying with 2-second loops of deep Prince tracks for minutes at a time that even fans were like, "bruh, what are you doing?"

Adorecream said:

Love these responses, there have been some bad shows out there.

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Surprised about Madge, normally her shows are great. I remember wanting to go to her Rebel Heart show in Auckland, 2 weeks after Prince and not having enough cash for a ticker

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I had also thought it would be shit and turned down a $150 ticket on the day. Kicking myself as apparently the show was excellent and it was her first and only show in New Zealand. Thank God a boot of it went up on Youtube and it was awesome. In fact so good, I went out and bought a copy of Rebel Heart.

I saw Madonna on her "Like A Virgin" tour and she was great.

The Beastie Boys were the opening act. We booed them off the stage. That was great, too.

Back in my Taiwan days, there used to be one Taiwanese covers-band that would show up at all the pubs and clubs in my city. This was late-90s, early 00s, but the singer dressed like it was 1977.

This is a fair approximation of what they sounded like live:


https://www.youtube.com/w...jeMDvCdrtc

(Speaking of Taiwan, I also saw Jason Mraz there once. A girl dragged me to the show. Was not a good experience...)

Al B Sure at the Capital Center 1988. He opened for Bobby Brown and New Edition. Horrible voice and no stage presence. I have never seen thousands of people leaving for the bathroom and hotdog line on mass before or since. As soon as Bobby came out everyone rushed out and he proceeded to kill it and so did the New Edition.

Al was the Drake of his day.

laurarichardson said:

Al B Sure at the Capital Center 1988. He opened for Bobby Brown and New Edition. Horrible voice and no stage presence. I have never seen thousands of people leaving for the bathroom and hotdog line on mass before or since. As soon as Bobby came out everyone rushed out and he proceeded to kill it and so did the New Edition.

Al was the Drake of his day.

BAD JOKE AHEAD: Bobby only "hit it" OJ was the killer *Crawls back into his hole*

The most memorably bad concert I attended was Valor's Christian Death at the Limelight Church back in the 90s. I'm guessing my friends and I were there to support the opening act(s) because none of us liked Valor's Christian Death after Gitane Demone left.

Anyway, on top of all the lame goth-metal songs he was playing, a Rozz Williams fan (Rozz being the creator of the original Christian Death band before Valor stole the name from him) was standing down in front near the stage heckling Valor until he snapped and began hitting the heckler with the microphone stand yelling, "THERE IS ONLY ONE CHRISTIAN DEATH!"

Smokey Robinson, concert 1998.

Mr. Robinson sung 7 songs, muttered he was tired of this shit and walked off stage. Needless to say the crowd wasn't pleased and for those who requested a refund, Plaza Theater mailed out refunds.

TD3 said:

Smokey Robinson, concert 1998.

Mr. Robinson sung 7 songs, muttered he was tired of this shit and walked off stage. Needless to say the crowd wasn't pleased and for those who requested a refund, Plaza Theater mailed out refunds.

Wonder if this was the time he was using?

2045RadicalMattZ said:

khill95 said:

Van Halen in 2015 at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.

Could you explain a little of the "why"?

Drunk David Lee Roth talking waayyy too much between songs. He also tried to salsa dance on a a small wooden stage in the middle of the stage. His vocals were very weak, and his stage presence was pretty weak for such a big venue.

phunkdaddy said:

TD3 said:

Smokey Robinson, concert 1998.

Mr. Robinson sung 7 songs, muttered he was tired of this shit and walked off stage. Needless to say the crowd wasn't pleased and for those who requested a refund, Plaza Theater mailed out refunds.

Wonder if this was the time he was using?

I thought he was using back in the 80s but maybe he fell off the wagon. He is the least visable of the Motown stars since the late 80s.

laurarichardson said:

phunkdaddy said:

laurarichardson said:

I thought he was using back in the 80s but maybe he fell off the wagon. He is the least visable of the Motown stars since the late 80s.

Probably from a fan's standpoint but from his peers very much the opposite. Smokey is a living history book.

I am discussing his public visabilty and the fact that when ever Motown is discussed or old Motown artist are interviewed he is not involved or interviewed.

TD3 said:

Smokey Robinson, concert 1998.

Mr. Robinson sung 7 songs, muttered he was tired of this shit and walked off stage. Needless to say the crowd wasn't pleased and for those who requested a refund, Plaza Theater mailed out refunds.

Cool.

Any idea of which date at the venue? I'd like to see that.


Did he at least say it in a smooth voice?

Without a doubt, CEE LO GREEN May 30th last year at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury. £120 ($159) for two tickets.

Took around 20 seconds to ascertain the fact that there was no band, just a girl on a laptop providing the backing tracks and some guy in a suit and gold shoes, dancing around whilst pretending to play sax.

I knew we were in trouble when 'Crazy' and 'Forget You' had been dispensed with in first 20 minutes...At around the 50 minute Mark, Green fucked off backstage while the asshat pretending to play the saxophone pretended to play some songs like 'Careless Whisper', for ten minutes.

Cee Lo back on , played a couple more songs, was presented with a birthday cake, then left for good. Show over after just over an hour. 120 quid jizzed up a wall for what was a basically a club PA set

The final disappointment: as an increasingly sweaty Cee Lo hurried through his songs, the venue began to smell distinctly musty. It's pure conjecture on my part, but I wouldnt be surprised if his pre-gig rider consisted of a slap-up salmon dinner.

I have not been to that many bad shows that I don't enjoy. Generally, I don't go to artists whose music I don't like and I do research into the type of show they do before buying, to avoid going to things I don't like or people who are bad performers.

The only show that I have been to that was really bad was Boy George's solo concert in 2013 at the 9:30 Club.

He decided to do a whole set list of the slow boring songs from his last solo album This is What I Do and covers, with only a very few of his 80's hits with Culture Club

As you can imagine, the audience was quite bored and spent the whole time talking. This did not make George happy. He stopped in the middle of a song to yell at the audience, telling them to shut up and saying they must be drunk not to appreciate his music.

He also yelled at some fans for taking pictures and video during the few older songs he did. He said the 80's are over and you can't bring them back by filming an 80's song. He also got mad when someone held up one of CC's old 80's albums, saying again he's the only one that knows the 80's are over!

I guess George did learn his lesson though, because not long after this train wreck of a show, he decided to reunite Culture Club and do a tour where he did play the 80's stuff!

I saw him twice with Culture Club and that was much much better!