[EpicPie]

When I went to see DMC champion; DJ Craze play live at a show I promo'd for called Groove Troopers back in the Northwest where I used to live. His freestyle mixing skills are outstanding. His build ups are crazy with the way he beat juggles until he finally does the bass drop. Made the crowd go insane, will never forget that night.

 

[Armaegis]

I was at the symphony, fantastic loge seats, and they were doing a show with a trio of Broadway singers. The female singer was Jodi Benson (of Little Mermaid fame), and I forget the two male singers but they had pretty long pedigrees in shows like Phantom, Man of La Mancha, etc. They did a bunch of group numbers as well as their respective solos like "The Impossible Dream" and "Part of Your World", and all in all it was a fantastic show, but the song that absolutely stole the show was "Moon River" which they did together a capella, no microphones. The orchestra put down the instruments and the lights dimmed. They each sang a verse, then came the refrain and they all stepped forward and took a breath, and all voiced together in utterly perfect harmony. Three octaves, not a hair's waver between them. For that single syllable, you could literally hear the entire audience gasp and freeze, afraid to spoil the remainder of the note. It was as if a spell had been cast over us. When the song ended, it was dead silent in the concert hall, like we were afraid that if we applauded it was over.
 
To me, that has been my one pure moment of musical bliss. In all honesty I could even be wrong about the song. I scarcely remember the rest of the night. I just remember that moment, that feeling.

 

[Spinlight]

It's Saturday night. I'm walking around the concessions stands, talking to my friends and laughing about how I had to navigate through aisles and aisles to find them earlier. All of a sudden, the lights from inside of the stadium dim and I can faintly make out words being said. "A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you've been drinking jack and coke all morning." All at once, I know what this is. I leave my friends to be lost in the crowd and I run through the waves of people making their way back to their seats. As I run up to my seats, I hear it. A C#m chord strummed on the guitar, followed by A, E, and B chords. This was Taking Back Sunday playing the song that got me into them two years ago, Cute Without the 'E' (Cut from the Team).
All at once, the entire arena screamed along with Adam Lazzara, who was belting the vocals. "Your lipstick, his collar, don't bother angel. I know exactly what goes on!" The lights flicker on and instantly, the crowd rises to their feet, waving their arms in the air. My friends have now made it back to their seats, but I don't pay them any attention; all I do is sing along and scream. The kind of screams that you gave when you unwrapped your Christmas presents and found what you'd been asking your parents for all month.
This was a special concert, seeing how the band's original line-up had gotten back together, having not played with each other in 10 years. This was the first time they had been on tour since their debut album, Tell All Your Friends. I really got to see the band's fun side at the concert, from rhythm guitarist Eddie Reyes messing with lead singer Adam Lazzara behind his back or Adam threatening to take a guy's head off with the microphone when the guy answers "No!" to the question "How many of you guys want to hear a new song?"
I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the song, but for the closer to the show, they played the band's breakout single, MakeDamnSure. The moment the crowd heard the words "You've got this new head filled up with smoke..." we all, in an angelic tone, chant back "And I've got my veins all tangled close..." Memories flood back to when the only way to get rid of pent-up, teenage angst was to listen to the pent-up angst of Long Island alternative rock bands. I swear, the entire arena was singing the lyrics and even my female friend who typically isn't one for rock knew of the song and sang along. The energy in the room that night was nothing I've ever felt before, and I'm proud to say that the music I heard that night was beyond amazing.

 

[barleyguy]

Wow.  What a question.  I've honestly lost count of how many shows I've seen.  Hundreds literally.  But that's because I started at 14 and I'm now almost 40.  There were many "best" shows.  The question becomes "best at what?".  So I'll give a few.
 
The best show musically was Paul Simon.  I saw him at a hockey arena.  The stage was huge, maybe half the size of the rink.  And it was completely covered with musicians.  There were 3 drummers - an acoustic drummer, an electronic drummer, and a kettle drummer.  There was an entire brass section - Trumpets, Trombones, etc.  Then there was a couple of guitarists including Paul, a bass player, a keyboard player, and 3 female backup vocalists.  It was a wall of sound, and every note was tight the entire night.  "Call me Al" was mindblowing.
 
The coolest crowd and best vibe was Phish.  We arrived at Redrocks Amphitheatre a couple of hours early because it was general admission.  A couple of friends and I started playing hacky sack on the big cement pad above the amphitheatre, and pretty soon there were about 25 random people in a big circle.  Once we chose some seats (since Phish shows were 100% general admission), I got out my huge bag of brownies, and was sharing them around, because there was no way I was going to eat that many brownies (especially ahem these particular brownies).  Everyone I gave a brownie to gave me something back, without me even asking.  I got a bottle of water, a patch, a sticker, and a bunch of other really cool items.  The show was great too, and lasted many hours.
 
And the best overall production value was Pink Floyd.  It was the Pulse tour, Mile High stadium 1993.  They used a round stage, with the back half spherical wall being a video screen.  They had green lasers from the ground to the sky.  They had a mirror ball about 50 feet in diameter that covered the entire stadium with little specks of light.  The show was in surround sound, with speakers in at least 20 places.  The mix was audiophile quality.  And of course, Pink Floyd can play.
 
So one of those 3 is possibly my best live show ever.
 
Cheers,
 
Harley.

 

[lazuline]

Utada Hikaru live in NYC... watching the creepy male otaku sing along to her songs was worth the price of admission.. oh yeah, and my girlfriend loves her.

 

[Hifianddrumming]

Back when I was 11 (I know, I know), I went to a simple plan concert. TBH it was OK, but the opening act almost made me wanna die. It was a random lady squealing into a microphone, accompanied by a bassist whose strings were incredibly loose, and a guitarist who hardly knew how to strum. The drummer was on one of those junior sets that was SO out of tune it hurt. 2 hours of torture.

 

[Stonez]

Way back in '93, I went to see two of my favourite bands; Sisters of Mercy and Depeche Mode on the Devotional Tour.  The Sisters were still able to belt out the old faves but were blown to pieces by the the drug and booze fueled super group that are still in my mind one of the best live acts out there.  A long haired skinny Gahan twirled and pranced around the stage to a more soulful flavour of electro-synth-rock whilst giant screens had esoteric bird headed people walking across stage behind him.  The rest of DM were exceptional with Gore as always a standout when he took the mic.  Their playing was technically near perfect even whilst giving the familiar tunes a slight edge so as not to sound like straight run through's of the album versions.   If there is one concert I look back on with real nostalgia, it's this.  I could go on ad nauseum about each of the songs (I wrote the set list on my arm lol) but I won't.  I can just say they started great and finished greater.  Pure pop perfection.  They know how to craft amazing songs and manage a great live set.  Priceless.

 

[nickweed]

Dude, my worst is sooo easy. 
 
I went to the Pledge of Allegiance tour back in the day, I believe it was the first tour.  Opening bands were awesome, System of a Down rocked it.  Then came the band I was waiting for. . . .  Slipknot took the stage.  And proceeded to have the worst sound I've ever heard in my life.  I don't know what it was, SOAD sounded great, so did the openers.  But Slipknot's sound was just... awful.  The sound guy was hopefully fired after this mess.  The vocals were way too downmixed, guitars were WAY too up front and everything else was just muddled together.  So terrible.  So, so terrible.  It was the first and still only time I've ever left a concert early.  And I payed good freakin money for this show!! 
 
 
I'm just glad I have so many more shows that more than made up for this one.

 

[Marximus]

My favorite was probably seeing Josh Ritter and his band at the Showbox in Seattle in October of 2007, I believe.  I have all his studio albums, and I'd seen him do a solo acoustic show at the Showbox before this one, but this time it was amazing with the whole band.  He and the band played all the "great" songs, and you can tell he just loves what he does.  The energy generated by them is enough to power a couple cities for a year.  This one was only slightly better than his performance at the Wonder Ballroom in June of 2010 in Portland.  Just fantastic all around.

 

[JamieTheSonger]

The best live show I've ever seen was the band Transit about a month ago.
 
"Have you ever heard of Transit?" my friend, David asks me on the way to the mall.
 
"Nope" I reply.
 
David stops the song we were listening to and puts in the Transit album Keep This to Yourself. He clicks play and on comes the song Dear: Anyone. "You've never felt quite right in your skin." From the very first words that were sung, it left me in complete and utter awe. The singer was soulful and his words were like what I've always wanted to say but never could. The ten minute ride seemed to be gone in seconds and I had just wanted to listen to them more. The mall dragged on, I just wanted to go back home and listen to every single Transit song in the world.
 
After nearly ditching my friends, I finally got to go home about 2 hours later,. Getting home I quickly headed to YouTube and listened to Dear: Anyone again while waiting for the album to be downloaded. When I finally finished downloading it, it was worth the wait. This was the best album I've heard in my life. I listened to it until I eventually fell asleep late at night while listening to it. It was awesome. I hadn't felt this way about music in a really long time.
 
Transit became my life and I couldn't listen to any other band for at least two weeks. It was announced they were the support for a show in September at Rhode Island. I live in NYC about 3 hours away from RI. I could not wait for them to come to NYC, I had to go to the show.
 
I asked my dad to take me there but he thought I was insane. He said that he wouldn't take me .
 
Did I give up? Of course not. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this story about the best show I've went to. I had to do some hard physical labor to make enough money to pay for gas, snacks, and tickets. Once I said I'd pay for all of this, David agreed he'd take me.
 
The ride going there was probably the most anxious I've ever been. I loved Transit but how good were they going to be live?
 
We had trouble finding it and came in the middle of someone elses set. After two other artists performed, Transit finally arrived. They came out swinging, playing the single off their new album. The energy and chemistry between the band members was insane. It was apparent from there that this was going to be awesome.
 
A bunch of people screaming the lyrics. Jumping around and I was loving it. I was surrounded by people who loved Transit just as much as me. As the show progressed it just got better and better. I knew that the lyrics were near and dear to the singer but never had I imagined that he would sing it with this much heart.
 
None of the band seemed to think they were above the audience. Nothing like any other concert I had been to. They were just rocking out with all of their energy. They loved what they were doing and they loved the reaction.
 
It was amazing.
 
 

 
I can't wait for the next show.

 

[Aillas]

Neko Case at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2006. Her performance was breathtaking . . . I can't wait to see her live again.
 
The entire Folk Fest was great, but I mostly went to see Neko since I'm such a huge fan.
 
 

 

[Foie]

My best live Show was Coldplay in 2008, Viva La Vida tour. It was also my first concert! I just remember the music, lights, and kettle corn so well. My favorite part was Yellow, and all the lights and balloons. It was just an amazing night

 

[Paganini Alfredo]

Easy. The White Stripes, Mesa Ampitheatre, AZ, May of 2002.
 
This single event changed my life and thought process about the enjoyment of performance... Jack White carried the torch (and still does) for my generation's equivalent of the first great guitarists who gave birth to guitar rock; Jimi Hendrix, Page, Clapton, etc.
 
At any rate, this was when the Stripes were first becoming mainstream and had their first hit single under their belt and getting attention. I was completely unprepared for everything; his stage presence, his charisma, his chemistry with Meg, his guitar playing, and most importantly his guitar tone.

And what a tone! He would switch back and forth with a peddle, some sort of fuzz/distortion pedal, that was simply mind melting. You can appreciate this sound through headphones and such, but the only PROPER way is to go to a show... to have that tone and the visuals of Jack White at the peak of his prowess, right in front of you, was almost too much.

I became obsessed. Since I was in the military at the time I didn't have too many chances to see them again (and I was heartbroken when he broke his finger in the middle of a tour in 2003), but I did see them once again at a festival. And it wasn't as good. It was, but there were too many people, it was too hot, and I was too far back in the crowd to get that high I did the first time.
 
Since then I've been to many shows and had similar experiences, and I have Jack White to thank for that. Jack White gave me hope. That may sound strange or bizarre, but, to be perfectly honest the best times of my life have been at shows.
 
Thank you Jack White.

 

[thrillmetoo]

 
A few years back, I've been to a concert of Josh Groban. A young, fantastically skilled singer backed up by a great band. Sad to say the show was without any emotion and way too loud.
A few months ago, I watched Neil Diamond with band. A man of seventy(!), with a voice that, if changed any, only changed for the better. His performance was flawless, he gave everything and more and made the night worth remembering. The band was fantastic. The sound was great. A perfect show.
However: the best concert I've ever witnessed was one of Mike Silver. You probably never heard of him. You'll probably never hear of him either. But this 64 years old man picks you up, lets you float for a few hours and then gently puts you back in your seat. All by himself. Just him and his guitar. Just like magic. And life is good.
I really can't tell you where or when this took place, because I've been to several concerts in the last few years and every one of them lead me through the same experience. I you live in the UK or go there regularly like me, I recommend you to listen to him one time.

 

[NiTramZ]

Linkin Park live in texas! this is the only live show i went to so i cant say much but that was a great experience