108 replies to this topic

[biggie mcsmalls]

I was listening to Labradford last night on the way home from work, and I was reminded of seeing them in 1994, and what an awful experience it was. Metro had a great bill of Stereolab, Gastr Del Sol, and Labradford in September 2004, and I was fucking pumped. I loved all these bands, and I was really excited to see them together. When Labradford came on, the room was a little over half full, probably 600 people, who all proceeded to talk over the band's set. Nonstop. I was so fucking pissed. At that time, I really had no clue if Labradford would ever play in Chicago again, and figured this might be my one chance to see them. Completely ruined the rest of the night for me. Has this happened to you? A great show ruined by an awful crowd or some other factor that has nothing to do with the band?

[Agrimorfee]

My future wife dragged me to Depeche Mode at the World Music Theater in '94. Shitty sound, shitty opener bands Stabbing Westward and Primal Scream, and it rained the entire time...muddy water from the hills above the seating arena streaming down our ankles.

[Seamus]

I was gonna say that Brooks & Dunn/Reba McEntire show at Allstate back in...'98(?) or so--for obvious reasons (let alone the fact it was a horribly failed blind date). But, after reading your post, I'll have to think of a scenario similar to the one which you describe, which would have pissed me off as well.

[Rob Gordon]

well, if I'd attended that GG Allin show in the "naked man on stage" thread. That would be it.

[54cermak]

Labradford were a great live band too, in a small club setting. Another nominee for the bands you like that no one cares about thread. Bad concert experiences: --Badly Drawn Boy at the Grog Shop in Cleveland. Couldn't see a thing due to the stage placement. Damon Gough (or whatever his name is) kept lecturing the audience for talking. Halfway through the show, he stormed off stage went back to the bar and ripped the drinks out of the hands of the people sitting there and broke the glasses on the floor. Hilarious in retrospect, but the show quality itself was so bad. --Morrissey in Cleveland circa 98. Someone held up a sign supporting Andy Rourke and the other non-Marr guy in the Smiths in their lawsuit and Morrissey stormed off stage. Show over. 9:00. --The Verve in Detroit circa 98. Took an ex-gf sister to see them as she was a huge fan. The show was on the roof of a parking garage in Pontiac. This was after their guitarist left and they were just awful. They played through Urban Hymns pretty much in order and encored with "Bittersweet Symphony". No catalog stuff was played. Even the ex-gf's sister thought the show was lame and we left as they were playing "BS". A bunch of frat boys yelled at us as we walked through the crowd for leaving during the "best song". I'm sure there are others, but these were the most memorable/hilariously bad ones I can think of right now.

[Ent]

I've never really not had fun going to see a concert.

[Seamus]

I keep trying to think of shows where the oblivious crowd chatter ruined my night...I know it's been a factor on a number of occasions, but I can't think of a show that was completely ruined.

Others that have come to mind:

- Leftover Salmon at the Cubby Bear, 1996 (again, this was due to the shitty music plus the always comfortable place-packed-with-hippies factor)

- U2 on their Zoo TV tour stop at the World, 1992? Public Enemy opened, but the chicks we rode with ensured that we completely missed their set. Then, we come to find we had those "obstructed view" seats. Plus, this was another failed-date scenario.

[tweed]

REM's monster tour at Rosemont in 98(?) I had lost interest in the band at that point and their set was completely phoned in. It was the lamest crowd i've ever been in -- half boring old people and half teeny bopper. We got yelled at for dancing.

[Seamus]

...suburban whiteboys who were standing in front of me, jumping to what they thought was the beat. Please... if you're going to move to the music, find the damn beat.

I'm getting pissed just thinking about this.

[b17yoe]

I've been to two of the shows in this thread! Reba/B&D and REM, Monster Tour. The worst band performance I've seen was the Stereophonics at Metro back in 2001/2002. The second half of the show was just atrocious. Boring. Slow. I think I left after about 6 stinker songs in a row. Worst crowd was at Coldplay at the UIC pavilion in 2000 or 2001. We got there fairly early for a GA floor...got pretty decent spots and in the rush up to the front in between the opener (Ash) and Coldplay about 3 big dudes crammed in front of my brother and I, basically shoving us out of the way. We yelled at them and almost got in a fight about it. We ended up backing up a bit instead of staring at the backs of their heads for the whole show. It stunk to get their early and then get shoved out of our spots. I've never seen any bands storm off stage or anything like that.

[54cermak]

In terms of bands just sucking, I've seen Ryan Adams twice and both times were atrocious once at Park West and once at The Riv. This was circa 2000-01. Band was lousy and Adams just seemed as though he'd rather be anywhere else.

[tweed]

In terms of bands just sucking, I've seen Ryan Adams twice and both times were atrocious once at Park West and once at The Riv. This was circa 2000-01. Band was lousy and Adams just seemed as though he'd rather be anywhere else.

Wow. I loved that Park West show.

[arkin]

I saw Q & Not U and Ted Leo on election night in 2004, so there was already a lot of tension in the room. It was on a college campus, and some kid that didn't know what he was doing was in charge of sound, god knows why. So, the mics kept cutting out, and Ted asked him to turn up something in the monitor, and instead of actually doing it, he just yelled something obscene, and the band continued to play, probably with shitty monitor levels. Then Q & Not U plays, and the same mic problem keeps happening, same sound issues, and eventually, the kid doing sound just gives up, and starts yelling and calling everyone a faggot. Needless to say, if security hadn't intervened, this kid was a few seconds away from having a half dozen people beat the living crap out of him. The bands were cool though and hung out after the show to chat...so that was an upside.

[Tracy Jacks]

REM in a gym at the University of New Hampshire, Lifes Rich Pageant tour. Makeshift stage, bad sound, bad lighting. REM was playing all of their slow, depressing songs from LRP and Fables. Crowd wanted to hear more from Murmur and Reckoning or at least something that was rocking. Crowd got pissed, band got pissed, everyone was hostile at each other. Band got fed up and played for less than an hour.

[54cermak]

In terms of bands just sucking, I've seen Ryan Adams twice and both times were atrocious once at Park West and once at The Riv. This was circa 2000-01. Band was lousy and Adams just seemed as though he'd rather be anywhere else.

Wow. I loved that Park West show.

Its possible that The Riv show was so bad that its tarnished my memories of both. I have a more distinct recollection about the Riv show sucking. But I also remember being on the fence about even going to that because I wasn't blown away by him at Park West.

[Wolfgang]

A bunch of frat boys yelled at us as we walked through the crowd for leaving during the "best song".

I was at the Jet / Oasis show at UIC a couple years ago. Up in the balcony I boo'ed and held up my middle finger thru Jet's entire set, especially during that one single they had "Are You Gonna' Be My Girl?" or something. The kids in front of us who were maybe 18 said the same thing, "man, he's even doing it during their best song!"

[themeparkexperience]

Taste of Garlic at Fitzgerald's in fall '98. ToG was a local Houston band, headlining over some friends of mine from Oxnard, CA. ToG was a mix of bad metal and punk with an annoying singer who didn't sing, shout or yell -- he just talked in a loud voice. At one point, he started throwing CDs at crowd members. Horrible, horrible set. But my friends were great. Funny side note: playing downstairs was a band that announced they were putting out a record on RCA in a few months: their name was Vertical Horizon.

[tager]

The Cars -Heartbeat City Tour at the Hartford Civic Center if I stayed home and put on a few Cars albums, it would have sounded EXACTlY the same. Some dude puked chunks all over the seat in front of me, so I had that to look at and smell the entire concert. There was a beach ball that was thrown on stage near Ric Ocasek and just when there was going to be SOME band/crowd interaction with him possibly kicking it back...a roadie runs on stage and grabs it.

[elcorazon]

A bunch of frat boys yelled at us as we walked through the crowd for leaving during the "best song".

I was at the Jet / Oasis show at UIC a couple years ago. Up in the balcony I boo'ed and held up my middle finger thru Jet's entire set, especially during that one single they had "Are You Gonna' Be My Girl?" or something. The kids in front of us who were maybe 18 said the same thing, "man, he's even doing it during their best song!"

man, that's a real asshole move.

I saw Living Colour at the Riv and the sound was SO LOUD that it really sucked. I couldn't make it thru the show.

I saw Townes Van Zandt warm up for Guy Clark the year before he died, and he was so drunk/high/out of it, he could barely sit on his stool and truly couldn't strum his guitar properly or remember lyrics or anything. I was with my brother in law and sister in law and he got up and asked them to take him off the stage it was so embarrassing. Guy was great, but it really cast a pall on the whole evening.

Also saw Steve Earle at House of Blues in New Orleans and in the midst of a crowded floor an asshole burned my wife's arm with a cigarette. She was really injured by it. The guy could barely muster an apology. And we wound up back by the bar for the rest of the show where the sound wasn't great and we could hear every drink order better than we could hear the show.

Saw John Prine at Park West - sat right up front, but still had some really annoying fans who were whooping it up with requests and loud talking and otherwise just damaging my enjoyment of the show.