Worst Concert You’ve Been To?

[Interloper]

Maybe not the worst concert but the most painful, 1981 Judas Priest at the old Music Hall. Rex Harrison was rehearsing for My Fair Lady in the Civic and complained that he couldn't do it from the decibel level. Loudest concert in Omaha history at the time according to the OWH...ears still ringing to this day from that one.

 

[Dell Husker]

Recent Shania Twain concert. Dear lord that was awful

 

[Baron Winnebago]

I can't think of a bad one, but I haven't been to a concert in like a decade

 

[NSECTA4]

Maybe not the worst concert but the most painful, 1981 Judas Priest at the old Music Hall. Rex Harrison was rehearsing for My Fair Lady in the Civic and complained that he couldn't do it from the decibel level. Loudest concert in Omaha history at the time according to the OWH...ears still ringing to this day from that one.

I. Was. There.
Rob Halford entered on the mid-stage elevator.
I was too fucked up to know if it was a good show or not. But I know I had a blast.

 

[Jim14510]

Maybe not the worst concert but the most painful, 1981 Judas Priest at the old Music Hall. Rex Harrison was rehearsing for My Fair Lady in the Civic and complained that he couldn't do it from the decibel level. Loudest concert in Omaha history at the time according to the OWH...ears still ringing to this day from that one.

My ear started ringing at a Grasshopper Takeover concert. Was a good time though.

 

[Jim14510]

I can't think of a bad one, but I haven't been to a concert in like a decade

You get more lame every day.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

You get more lame every day.

Oh yeah, well your face

 

[Frogsker30]

My wife singing in the shower

 

[HuskerPAC]

My wife singing in the shower

Pics.

 

[SoCal_Corn]

During their Drug years Aerosmith was very hit & miss on performances. Depend on their state of mind. I had numerous bands I worked with that was a roll of the dice as to how well they would perform due to drug/alcohol problems.

I recall the Stupid LA Times review of the OC show 2 days after ours, and the idiot (Robert Hilburn probably) thought that Dio wasn't ready to take on the big boys like the great Aerosmith etc etc. 🙄

So they must have dried out on the road down the 101 and 5 to the Pacific Amphitheatre.

I cannot stress enough how shitty they were that night, nor how great they were 7-8 years later.

 

[nja13]

Sugar Hill Gang, mid-90's Big Red Welcome at UNL the Sunday before classes started.

They played their CD and tried to keep up with the lyrics when they could. Which wasn't as often as one would hope. The experience was made worse by the fact that the previous year's Big Red Welcome featured Run DMC and they were perfect. Everything live and sounded like the would have in their prime.

 

[MtnHusker]

I recall the Stupid LA Times review of the OC show 2 days after ours, and the idiot (Robert Hilburn probably) thought that Dio wasn't ready to take on the big boys like the great Aerosmith etc etc. 🙄

So they must have dried out on the road down the 101 and 5 to the Pacific Amphitheatre.

I cannot stress enough how shitty they were that night, nor how great they were 7-8 years later.

Yup, musicians can be sick, drugged up, hung over, tired, out of practice due to it being the first show of a tour.......... so many factors.

2 smaller bands I use to book regularly that were Hit-n-Miss were DIgital Undergroud & the Young Dubliners. Digital would depend if Shock G was tripping his balls off on some pyschodelic because if he was the show would be more artsy almost with a jazzy feel until he played The Humpty Dance. If he wasn't tripping then the whole show was on a different level with fun energy. The Young Dubliners are a band from Ireland that loves to drink. They drank allot even by Irish standards. Had a few nights where I saw the sun come up while still partying with them after a show. If they showed up for sound check seriously hung over I knew the first half of the show was gonna be pretty dam low key plus Keith's vocals would sound rough. Then by the end of the night when they had drank off their hangovers getting back into the groove they would be rocking and not wanting to get off stage.

I almost listed Soundgarden as the worst concert I have ever seen. They broke up and got back together after 13 years with their first show being the Headline Spot for Lallapalloza in Chicago. They played a private practice concert at The Vic Theater in Chicago on friday night and were scheduled for the closing slot of Lolla on Sunday Night. The show at The Vic was gawd awful to the level so bad that I was embarrassed for them. Was hard to look them in the eye after the show and say that they sounded great. Literally I just said to them something along the lines of "Man it's great to have you guys back rocking the stage". Even their management team after the concert was concerned because of how bad they sounded. Looking back I think part of the problem was they were just a tad bit rusty and the other was the accoustics & sound at the Vic Theater. I think it was a very "Live Room" and their sound engineers hadn't worked with them on any Live Shows. Very poor mix that was too loud with muddied vocals that were grossly overpowered by the instruments. Sound just bounced around in there all night making it hard to understand a word Cornell sung. But I will say that we were all worried about the show at Lolla but they were fire that show. Absolutely amazing show that and one of the better concerts I have ever seen. Had over 100,000 people rocking their balls off. The mix was so much better plus the energy was off the charts from the crowd.

 

[MtnHusker]

I dated a girl who made me go to Kenny G....

You got some good lovin that night after the concert though.

 

[MtnHusker]

My ear started ringing at a Grasshopper Takeover concert. Was a good time though.

I loved Grasshopper Takeover. Helped put together a tour for them in Colorado. My mom hit me up saying I needed to book them because a childhood family friend Kurt was the lead singer. I tried explaining to my mom that we were doing concerts on a different level than what I expected GT to be. I got a promo pack from their PR Team, Kurt's mom. And they sounded great plus had a song that was an intro on MTV News. Did a few shows with them but never got huge crowds but every show was really good. Had some talented musicians plus made some serious noise for a 3 piece. My Sound Engineer was blown away by how tight they were for a smaller band. I might just listen to some Grasshopper Takeover this afternoon.

 

[Jim14510]

I loved Grasshopper Takeover. Helped put together a tour for them in Colorado. My mom hit me up saying I needed to book them because a childhood family friend Kurt was the lead singer. I tried explaining to my mom that we were doing concerts on a different level than what I expected GT to be. I got a promo pack from their PR Team, Kurt's mom. And they sounded great plus had a song that was an intro on MTV News. Did a few shows with them but never got huge crowds but every show was really good. Had some talented musicians plus made some serious noise for a 3 piece. My Sound Engineer was blown away by how tight they were for a smaller band. I might just listen to some Grasshopper Takeover this afternoon.

My brother in law was friends with them so hung out with them after a couple shows. They made a pretty good run at it in the late 90s. Toured in California assuming around the same time as you're talking. Really don't know why they didn't take off. Good original music. As you said shows were always good little or big. Just never made that next level.

 

[betsch]

My niece’s kindergarten Christmas concert sucked pretty bad.

At our elementary school one year the 5th & 6th graders did some sort of Christmas play during the concert. Not kidding that fucking part alone lasted 2 hours and it was TERRIBLE. Not that I expect much from 5th and 6th graders but holy shit it was bad and it kept getting hotter and hotter in the auditorium making it even worse.

 

[MtnHusker]

My brother in law was friends with them so hung out with them after a couple shows. They made a pretty good run at it in the late 90s. Toured in California assuming around the same time as you're talking. Really don't know why they didn't take off. Good original music. As you said shows were always good little or big. Just never made that next level.

I agree. We blamed their management & booking company. I was not impressed with how they promoted the band. Record labels make or break a band. Their agent was Duffy but I can't remember what agency he was with. The Winter Music Conference is one of the biggest industry conferences and it was in Aspen. I pulled some major strings and called in serious favors to get Grasshopper Takeover to headline the afterparty. Later I saw the line up for the conference and no mention of Grasshopper Takeover. I called the person in charge of booking the concert and they told me that GT was penciled in as the headliner but then they never got return calls from their agent after leaving numerous messages. He fucking dropped the ball on signing the contract or even communicating with the booker. I bitched him out something fierce. Was so pissed. Calling in more favors I was still able to get GT in the line up but instead of headlining they were slid in as the 1st act of the night. Sucked because all of the record labels, talent buyers and management company people were still drinking at the Dinner Reception when they played. Had only a handful of people there for them. I took them out drinking for a bit and we stopped back by.

Turns out the concert was a bit of a bust as most of the agents got so drunk they didn't make it there. But still their agent should have been licking his chops and kissing asses to make sure everything was perfect for the band because it could have been a huge exposure play. Or maybe he was afraid someone else would try to sign them away. I felt so bad for them I think I might have even paid for their hotel room that night because the money they were getting as an opener was next to nothing compared to what they would have been paid as a headliner.

 

[SoCal_Corn]

Yup, musicians can be sick, drugged up, hung over, tired, out of practice due to it being the first show of a tour.......... so many factors.

2 smaller bands I use to book regularly that were Hit-n-Miss were DIgital Undergroud & the Young Dubliners. Digital would depend if Shock G was tripping his balls off on some pyschodelic because if he was the show would be more artsy almost with a jazzy feel until he played The Humpty Dance. If he wasn't tripping then the whole show was on a different level with fun energy. The Young Dubliners are a band from Ireland that loves to drink. They drank allot even by Irish standards. Had a few nights where I saw the sun come up while still partying with them after a show. If they showed up for sound check seriously hung over I knew the first half of the show was gonna be pretty dam low key plus Keith's vocals would sound rough. Then by the end of the night when they had drank off their hangovers getting back into the groove they would be rocking and not wanting to get off stage.

I almost listed Soundgarden as the worst concert I have ever seen. They broke up and got back together after 13 years with their first show being the Headline Spot for Lallapalloza in Chicago. They played a private practice concert at The Vic Theater in Chicago on friday night and were scheduled for the closing slot of Lolla on Sunday Night. The show at The Vic was gawd awful to the level so bad that I was embarrassed for them. Was hard to look them in the eye after the show and say that they sounded great. Literally I just said to them something along the lines of "Man it's great to have you guys back rocking the stage". Even their management team after the concert was concerned because of how bad they sounded. Looking back I think part of the problem was they were just a tad bit rusty and the other was the accoustics & sound at the Vic Theater. I think it was a very "Live Room" and their sound engineers hadn't worked with them on any Live Shows. Very poor mix that was too loud with muddied vocals that were grossly overpowered by the instruments. Sound just bounced around in there all night making it hard to understand a word Cornell sung. But I will say that we were all worried about the show at Lolla but they were fire that show. Absolutely amazing show that and one of the better concerts I have ever seen. Had over 100,000 people rocking their balls off. The mix was so much better plus the energy was off the charts from the crowd.

Good stuff!
Yes, the Irish bands can drink.

All bands have the occasional bad night. Some REALLY Bad.

One of my friends in the Legit Theatre business told me that when he sees something thats bad (like your Theater Soundgarden show) he just answers the "So...what did you think?" question with:

"I've never seen anything like it"

😉

 

[MtnHusker]

Good stuff!
Yes, the Irish bands can drink.

All bands have the occasional bad night. Some REALLY Bad.

One of my friends in the Legit Theatre business told me that when he sees something thats bad (like your Theater Soundgarden show) he just answers the "So...what did you think?" question with:

"I've never seen anything like it"

😉

It's hard for me to lie to the bands that I'm friends with. I actually pulled one band aside at Set Break to tell them that their sound engineer was giving them a terrible mix causing people to leave pissed off. We found that some of the tweeker sound engineers tended to not hear highs as much so would give a mix that would leave your ears ringing because of the over abundance of highs. Their engineer appeared to be an old school tweeker. Explained to this band what was going on as they were wondering why people were leaving. We had to have a Come To Jesus talk with their sound engineer. I was ready though as I had my sound engineer record some to play back for them. They heard it but their engineer didn't so we told him our engineer was gonna lead the 2nd set. Sounded so much better but he was a bit pissed off. Zero Fucks Given by me about pissing him off as his mix was garbage and my ears range for days. Nice guy but he didn't have a good ear.

 

[SoCal_Corn]

It's hard for me to lie to the bands that I'm friends with. I actually pulled one band aside at Set Break to tell them that their sound engineer was giving them a terrible mix causing people to leave pissed off. We found that some of the tweeker sound engineers tended to not hear highs as much so would give a mix that would leave your ears ringing because of the over abundance of highs. Their engineer appeared to be an old school tweeker. Explained to this band what was going on as they were wondering why people were leaving. We had to have a Come To Jesus talk with their sound engineer. I was ready though as I had my sound engineer record some to play back for them. They heard it but their engineer didn't so we told him our engineer was gonna lead the 2nd set. Sounded so much better but he was a bit pissed off. Zero Fucks Given by me about pissing him off as his mix was garbage and my ears range for days. Nice guy but he didn't have a good ear.

Bad sound bugs me too.
It's too easy these days to dial this shit in with a lap top or a tablet at a Club.
My friends in bands always look at me with the "Well, how does it sound?" look.

I WISH my ears were really good, they aren't, but I give my best effort to let em know.