Which band blew your mind away live?
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Whipping Boy, an Irish alt rock band, late 90s Birmingham: I’d never even heard of them before a friend dragged me along. Jaw-flappingly stunning vocals, great songs, lyrics, instrumentation. Thought they were going places, especially on finding a couple of singles/EPs and the album Heartworm, but they broke up not long after. I bought everything they put out and still love when their stuff randomly plays on shuffle.
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A little old school here, but Tom Petty and the HB were always fantastic live, I got to catch them several times.
I also once was socially-dragged to a Sheryl Crow concert at the Ryman, and even though she's not usually my thing, that show was fantastic. She had a bunch of folks from the Nashville Symphony Orchestra playing with her band that night, and I've never seen a group of classical musicians have so much fun. They really made it an unbelievable show.
My favorite concert story was that we went to a "Best of the 80s" concert in Indiana in the late 90s when I was a teen (bands that performed included Wang Chung, A Flock of Seagulls, and a few one-hit wonders I'm struggling to remember right now). At the end, the promoters took the mic and apologized to everyone that the show was ending a little early, the closing band, Missing Persons, couldn't make it. My friends and family I was there with laughed our asses off the entire way out of the arena, but it didn't seem like a single other person there got it.
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I saw Stephen Page live as part of some group doing a Christmas concert. His vocals absolutely stood out from the others and was just so powerful. I wish he was still with the Barenaked Ladies, but I've still enjoyed a lot of their work without him.
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Tauk - they blew me away from their albums too, but after having seen them live for the 2nd time last week, figured I had to post. Their drummer is incredibly hard-hitting and energetic, and keeps it going for 3+ hours
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between the buried and me has never disappointed!
Josh Scogin in any band he's in (the chariot, norma jean, '68)
broken social scene
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I saw Against Me in 2004.
‘nuff said.
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death grips, quite literally as I started up front and got way overwhelmed and slowly started moving back as the show went on. it got to the point where I got outside and proceeded to puke in the trashcan. great show though!
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Pantera and White zombie in 1997. Metallica in 1993. Ozzy and Sepultura in 1998. Those bands were unbelievable to see live at the time and blew me away. Still vividly remember those concerts.
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Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie both had amazing stage shows in the last decade. I can't compare them to shows back in the day but if you get a chance they're still worth it.
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None. It's like they've never really lived up to the hype and attending live music events has somehow always made me uncomfortable. Same with movie theatres.
The most immersive and impactful musical experiences I've had have been me sitting alone listening.
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Some people have really dropped the ball in recent years though. I was deeply disappointed by recent Kiss, Marilyn Manson, and ZZTop shows.
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Perfect Circle is also totally worth it.
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Sucks to go see a band you love and be disappointed. Hope your next show is better!
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Oh, I've had great ones too - these were mostly for my stepson.
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When my eldest daughter was born we were overnight at the hospital and had a huge window in our room. My wife had listened to Florence and the machine a lot while pregnant and we are big music lovers who often have music playing around us. We were up at night feeding our first born worrying about being new parents and fidgeting over what we didn't understand. In the background Florence and the machine playing quietly in the background. Suddenly a massive rainstorm started seemingly out of nowhere. Crashing lightning. Smashing down torrential rain. Building rumbling thunder. We turned up the music and it was like they were just playing for us. It lasted about an hour and I will never forget it.
It was an amazing welcome to the world for our first baby who is now a preteen and your story reminded me of it.
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When I was 17 I had a highschool girlfriend who drug me to a bare naked ladies show. I was a heavy metal listener at the time but have always had pretty eclectic tastes throughout kife. I loved that show. I was pretty shocked about it at the time.
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Swans in the To Be Kind era.
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Garth Brookes. Saw him at the Tacoma dome like 10 years ago. We were on the floor towards the back and some lady with a headset came up and told us to come up front. At the time I was pretty stoked. Show was awesome. Garth and trisha yearwood were amazing. The stage had some cool mwchanics and the drummer was in a 3d rotating circle thing going upside down and around. Blew my mind. Pretty funny realization afterwards though. The reason we got moved to the front was because we were mexican. We were in a section with nothing but people of color. Pretty funny. Amazing show.
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Neil Young + Crazy Horse
Bob Dylan + Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers -
Everclear in the late 90’s was pretty good.