Thanks to Pacey's fantastic thread about the best concerts
you ever attended here's the opposite end of the spectrum.

what are some of the worst concerts you've ever went to?

i'll give you the only one i ever went to that sucked.

its funny. a good buddy of mine hooked me up with prince
tickets (really good ones) for the Purple Rain tour 1985
rosemont horizon and as a favor to him i went with him
to a concert of his choosing which was

Julian Lennon at the Auditorium Theatre circa mid 80's.

GOd did the John's son SUCK!

by far the worst performance i've ever went to!

no way was he ready for "prime time"!

charles (youngca)

I think I've had a pretty good run of luck with the concerts I've seen. There have been a few that I didn't want to go to, but was roped into it by friends/family/significant others...but even THOSE shows I at least walked out thinking, "well, at least they PLAYED good..." - my mom dragged me to a Moody Blues concert back in '94, and while it wasn't really my scene, it was nice to hear a band play with a symphony orchestra - not to mention they played Kate Bush's "The Red Shoes" as pre-show music, maybe to soothe all the Gen-Xers in the audience dragged in by their hippie parents, ha!

So my award for "Worst Concert" still sits in its packing crate, fortunately...

I saw Joan Jett and the Blackhearts in the 80's. The show was okay, but the lame part was the opening act: A Magician! WTF?!
Like, how can you respect a band who has a non-musician as an opening act? Is that insecurity or what? Maybe their PR people thought they said "magician" not "musician."

UptownDeb said:

deb...you're gonna laugh. at the Julian Lennon concert i
got roped into going to-his opening act was a magician too!
(i can't recall his name...but he was better than Julian!)

I've been to over 200 concerts in my lifetime(hoping for 200 more!!!). The WORST concert was near Detroit at Pine Knob ~ The Moody Blues. It was extremely hot and muggy. There was an opening act that was so bad I can;t remember a thing about them except that they droned on forever. People were throwing marshmallows which were melting and all gooesy and sticky everywhere. The Moody Blues came on FINALLY and played less than 45 minutes. They walked off stage with no oncore, no explanation, no goodnight. I lost a lot of respect for them that night. No matter what the circumstances, a few words to the audience, who PAID to hear them, would have been much appreciated.

UptownDeb said:

Oh! Oh! Oh! If we're talking about bad opening acts, that reminds me...last year I went to see Sandra Bernhard perform (VERY good show - hilarious - ended the show with "Little Red Corvette", of course), and her opening act was some gay guy who was doing a REALLY BAD impersonation of Sandra B. - you could tell he's listened to all her comedy albums and watched her stand-up, but instead of letting it influence him, he just did a second rate impersonation of her. It was kind of embarrassing.

Madonna - Who's that Girl World Tour. Roundhay Park, Leeds.

it was OK as a spectacle, but she couldn't sing for toffee.She was really off-key.

Perhaps she had a cold or something!

Marrk said:

I guess the wink is a little dig at the fact that Madonna just can't cut it as a live singer.

Cloudbuster said:

Michael Jackson BAD Tour. Wembley Stadium 1988.

For an artist of his calibre and standing at the time this show was piss poor.As far as the stage theatrics go , I've seen amateur street magicians perform better illusions.

Simple Minds - Wembley Stadium 90?

Crap venue for most shows, crap show.

pacey68 said:

Wow. Pacey68 you're the first person i've ever knock a
live show by MJ! eve ry time i saw him he was his usual
brilliant self! man...!!!

i have been to upwards of 100 shows and not many at all were bad shows. most of the shows that were not that good were due to the audience rather than performer. i can only think of two shows that were just bad...and no one's fault but the artist's.

the creatures (at the electric factory, philadelphia; around 1999 or 2000)

terence trent d'arby (at the trocadero, philadelphia; 28 may 2003)

another show worth mentioning, but solely due to the audience, was the U2 PopMart show in philadelphia. man, the performance was great but the crowd just didn't wanna hear anything post joshua tree...really bad reception of the material made for a shite experience.

youngca said:

you're all makin me
-

Not really bad, but sure dissappointing (sp?):

U2 - Pop Tour
Metallica ('98)
All Saints ('99)
Michelle Ndegeocello ('02) (i'm sorry, but it was pretty lame)

pacey68 said:

ouch! a catty Madonna fan by any chance?

My sister got some free tickets to see Brownstone (R&B group from mid 90s who covered The Eagles "I Cant Tell You Why"), in Sharon PA.

When we got there, we found out it was in some place that basically looked like a banquet hall. To make matters worse, it was the middle of july and there was no air conditioning. People were walking out during the show because they were getting sick from the heat.

Tony Terry and some other no-name R&B groups opened for them. There was literally no stage props or anything. They basically just walked out, did their thing to pre-recorded background music, and left.

Whitney Houston - in the 90's

Foreigner - 4 tour in the 80's

I went to this stupid show called The Super Slow Jam Concert. It was a big heaping pile of steamy crap! I hated it. It was War, the duke of earl, eddie holman, evelyne champagne king and some jerk called MC Blvd. There was about 4 more acts and they all played 3 songs. War is good but i had to sit through all the crap to hear them play 3 songs. THREE SONGS!

Anyone that plays too god damn loud! DAMN! Louder doesn't make it better! Some people need to chill.

There was also this Melissa Etheride wannabe that opened for Howard Jones last year. This chick could play and sing, but she couldn't write a decent song to save her life. Plus, she was opening for Howard Jones...what kind of sense does that make? She was local, so I guess that is why she got the gig. They could have found a local electronic opening act, and if there aren't any around well I guess I'll have to do it next time!

I hate to say it but it was a Prince show. Prince at the Aragon in Chicago. I love Prince, I love Chaka and I have nothing against Larry Graham, but it was my first real Prince concert and I wasn't really interested in hearing a bunch of Sly Stone songs(sorry Manki!) or Chaka songs.

Jason Donovan 2001, Salford University Students Union.

What an absolute wanker. Some dickhead from the Union must have thought it would be wacky, cool and ironic 2 give this loser a gig. I dont know who fucked up more really the Union or Jase'. Anyway he did lame ass versions of pop hits such as '2 Many Broken Hearts' and that 1 from Joseph's Technicolar Dreamcoat. His midsong banter was 2 say shitty and embarassing things like 'Kylie takes it up the arse'. Yeah whatever Jason, at least she's a star even 2day unlike some.

Boo, hiss

Radiohead, in a tent in Glasgow Green. Really disappointing. Just crap in fact. And U2 @ the SECC. Bollocks!!

MJ - History Tour. He mimed 90 percent of the show.

As great as Prince is live the two worst shows I have ever seen were Prince concerts.

The worst of all time would be the first show at the Xcel Energy Center as part of the second Celebraton and the second worst would be the show at the Northrup as the closing show to the first Celebration.

K, I've been to a gagillion shows. Plenty of them were not good. But, fortunately, most of the shows I haven't enjoyed have been local bands I didn't really care about...

For shows of bands that I've been excited to see here are the 3 worst:

Happy Mondays- First Avenue (Pills Thrills N Bellyaches tour). TOTAL CRAP. Shawn Ryder could barely stand (imagine that) they 'headlined' and played for maybe 40 minutes. It was honestly the 1st bad concert I'd been to.

Happy Mondays- Glastonbury (2000?) Thank God they played on a sunny afternoon, so a lot of the crowd was ready for their antics...that helped make it moderately enjoyable, but the performance was AWFUL again. The crowd knew the words to the songs much better than Shawn did, and then he pitched a fit when someone took his hat or sumpthin...it was just painful to see.

Cornershop- I've seen them twice and I WILL NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN. They make me sad cos I love their music but their live performances are sooo boring. They have absoluely no stage presence. The last tour, I bought a ticket and ended up leaving befor the show ended cos I was so bored. Very disappointing.



.....edit.....
[This message was edited Sun Aug 3 16:30:22 PDT 2003 by endorphin74]

VinaBlue said:

Howard Jones ? the same who had a hit with What is Love? in the early 80s? ( I liked his first album)

SquirrelMeat said:

They would be my second choice! SM opened for the Pretenders--who I enjoyed--but, they were just plain tired

stymie said:

I saw this tour in '96 (I think) and after awhile I felt as if Chaka and Larry were Prince's charity cases. Like this was to be the platform from which they would make a huge comeback. If Prince wants to help out his homies he should take a tip from R. Kelly. I mean, look what he did for Ronnie Isley's (Mr. Biggs) career!

youngca said:

How crazy is that!? Have these musicians no shame?

Some Michael Jackson show my sister took me to...
The fucker lipsynch'd to his crap songs, so there wasn't anything remotely interesting or fun about that show except for the pretentious self-worshipping of the moron himself... And he made me laugh even harder at him when he did his trademark stroke/spasm attacks... That was also the day when I realized he was sadder than I figured he was...
What a fool did that man make himself that evening...

Neversin.

lovemachine said:

co-sign on the xcel show, i wuz there that night...i went with a friend cuz it wuz her first time seein prince live. i've seen better shows durin a paisley party, man...