Ask Lemmy

Patti Smith and Philip Glass. I've been a fan of hers for so long, couldn't believe I was in the same room as her, so to speak. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01f9vrd

God Speed You! Black Emperor https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/godspeed-you-black-emperor/2016/edinburgh-playhouse-edinburgh-scotland-6bfcf2c6.html

(Added in edit) This song made me cry, it's so beautiful and joyful and sad. A wonderful concert altogether.

Probably the most intense performance I've ever seen was the Japanese dance troupe Sankai Juku, in Wellington, NZ in 1988. Amazingly moving, unforgettable.

I haven't seen him in almost 15 years, but Weird Al Yankovic puts on a hell of a good show. Always has the best backup musicians with him.

I was at the Foo Fighters gig where Dave Grohl fell off the stage and broke his leg, after which the rest of the band spent an hour playing various covers until Dave came back on stage high on pain meds mixed with alcohol and resumed the show. A doctor had to sit on stage and keep his leg fixed for the rest of the show until they could take him to the hospital to give him a cast, and the entire crowd dedicated "My hero" to the doctor. That show was fucking awesome.

Stone Temple Pilots - (MTV Unplugged) - Sony Studios, NYC, ’93

Massive Attack - Roseland NYC, ‘96

Green Day - Barbarella, Orlando, ‘95

Modest Mouse - (Baron von Bullshit Rides Again) - Sapphire Supper Club, Orlando, ‘04

Paul Oakenfold - (Global Underground 006), The Tunnel, NYC, ‘94

These are just a few. I’m sure there’s a bunch I’m forgetting. I doubt that I could single any one of them out.

Maybe STP or Massive Attack

Edit: updated to include live album titles, and cities

Edit 2: confirmed: that MTV unplugged, performance of plush is available on Apple Music:

On disc four of this album

https://music.apple.com/us/album/core-super-deluxe-edition/1263219551

Otherwise, on the Stone Temple Pilots album, core, the super Deluxe Edition.

Top two concerts of all time:

Daft Punk at Lollapalooza 2007

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at Northerly Island, Chicago, 9/1/24

High as a kite at a friends house just hanging out after work. My friend just randomly picks up his acoustic guitar and starts noodling. His roommate comes home, disappears for a bit and comes out with a standup bass. For the next 2 hrs they just smoked and jammed for the love of music.

Me:

tull played in grant park. The flutist society had something to do about it and it felt like they played their most flute heavy songs from the group. Its funny because it was free but the one other time I saw them in concert I payed for but it was catfish rising and I think anderson got sick as it was a big disapointment.

Daft punk

Rammstein

Theatrics, setlist, audio quality, crowd... Just wow. Hope to see them one more time.

Gogol Bordello

Absolute manic fun.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor at Paradiso, NL on 2023-04-09

Hands down best sounding live performance I've been to.

It's a bit sad because I know what the venue acoustics are capable of, and I've been to a ton of concerts there, but nothing ever came close.

Billy Talent, Sydney 2007

I don't know man, was my first time going to an actual concert of a band I liked, and it was just something special

• TOOL
• Roger Waters
• Muse

Primus. Mesa Amphitheater.

Tool. Hands down.

NIN always does a great show, but I think of all of them I liked the Fragility Tour the most (2000). It was so well done.

KMFDM always puts on a hell of a show. I never miss a chance to see them and they always kill it. My favorite show of there's was the Symbols tour with PIG. They had Ogre from Skinny Puppy touring with them as he was a temporary member for that album. Just so good.

Gwar was always great and fun to see live. They probably still are, but I haven't been able to see them live in years.

I think the best live show I ever saw was Good Kid. Their energy and jams couldn’t be matched.

Metallica, Donington Park Raceway, 2004. They were headlining Download festival, but Lars was rushed to hospital right before the show. Rather than cancel they brought out a rotating cast of drummers from the other bands at the festival, starting with Dave Lombardo from Slayer.

This was the St Anger tour... We were all jazzed to see Metallica, but let's be honest, no one was particularly jazzed about St Anger as an album. Thing is though, their guest drummers didn't know the tracks on St Anger. They knew old school Metallica; Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, the Black Album, And Justice For All. The good shit.

Better yet, the guest drummers were absolutely psyched to be there. For Metallica this could have been just another show. Huge crowd, but they've played bigger. But for their rotating cast of drummers this was the greatest night of their life. That kind of enthusiasm is infectious and it really showed. This was one of the most balls to the wall performances I've ever seen from any band. The energy was off the charts.

Especially when they got to Joey from Slipknot. The idea was that they were going to keep rotating drummers throughout the night, but after Joey played his first song, that went out the window. He was their drummer for the rest of the night. That motherfucker played his god damn heart out. Now, listen, if you're one of those people who still thinks that Slipknot are a bad band, go listen to Vol 3 and then come talk to me. Joey is one hell of a drummer, and he showed up to play. And the whole band felt it.By the end of the show James Hetfield wasn't singing to us... He was singing to Joey. I distinctly remember him standing with one foot up on the bass drum staring that little masked genius dead in the eyes, two guys basically performing for each other (an image made hilarious and adorable by the fact that James Hetfield is a giant of a man, and Joey is a pocket sized human being; it was like Dad brought his kid to work).

It was a once in a lifetime experience, and probably one of the best shows Metallica ever played. Pure lightning in a bottle.

I was in the record business for a long time, including management for a major distributor, so I've seen hundreds of concerts, of all types. The most memorable have been:

• Prince TWICE, once for a private audience of 1200. No words.

• Debbie Harry with Tom Tom Club (Talking Heads without David Byrne) opening and backing. They were great, she was great, peak new wave.

• Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, at Carnegie Hall with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, featuring singers Dawn Upshaw and Thomas Hampson. Harnoncourt had been a personal inspiration for decades, and I met him and the singers after.

• kd lang, at an astonishing private performance for about 900. A couple of weeks later, she did an interview on 60 Minutes, and said that now and then she does a perfect performance, and I knew she was talking about that show I saw. I was sure of it when I saw her on that tour a while later, and it was great, but nothing like what I saw.

• Yes, the classic late 70s line-up, 3 times. Always great, but the best show was the one where they showed two classic Bugs Bunny cartoons as the opening act, and there is nothing like laughing with 25,000 happy stoners.

• Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez conducting. It's not the sort of classical music I gravitate to, but I've seen the Cleveland Orchestra dozens of times, and that performance was easily the best performance I ever saw from them. It was just really, really great.

• Joshua Redman Quartet, some tiny little jazz club in Cleveland, with a crowd of about 120. It was their first concert, on the first tour, of his first album. Very few people had heard of him yet, but he went to win multiple Grammys, including for that album. Not only that, but the other three guys in his band, pianist Brad Mehldau, drummer Brian Blades, and bassist Christian McBride, all went on to do solo albums that won Grammys. That night I watched four excited young future jazz stars open their first tour, and BURN DOWN THE HOUSE. All night long, I just marvelled at what incredible musicians each one was. With every solo, I'd decide he was the best on the stage, and then the next guy would take a solo, and change my mind. A truly special performance.

• Lindsey Buckingham, in a solo performance in a conference room with about 25 people. He sang 3 songs, with an acoustic guitar, with that trademark intensity, red face, tendons in his neck, truly incredible performance.

• Lyle Lovett, in a hotel hallway at a music retail trade show. His first album was coming out in a couple of weeks, and his manager interrupted a really fun party (that had spilled into the hallway because it was so hot in hotel suite), and introduced Lyle, who went on to sing three incredible songs, including She's No Lady and If I Had A Boat. I was irritated that the party had been interrupted, but I became an instant lifelong fan.

• Dear Evan Hansen, on Broadway, in the earliest weeks of the run before it had become a big thing. Ben Platt was absolutely incredible. This show has become a bit of a lighting rod, but there was no doubt of why it was such a big hit.

• The Great Comet, on Broadway, with Josh Groban, the same week. I've never seen another Broadway show like it, it was totally immersive, with audience and the stage all intertwined. There was a runway in the row in front of us, and we often had dancer musicians playing and strutting around in front of us. The show ended in ignominious and unfair fashion that has become Broadway legend, but it was the most innovative show I've ever seen, and had incredible music.

• David Byrne, American Utopia, on Broadway. It was probably just a normal performance for them, but it was really great. Spike Lee's film of it won Emmys.

• Little Shop of Horrors, a high school performance with my son as Seymour. He killed it, honestly. He has a great voice, and was perfect in the role.

Slipknot puts on a great show. Weird Al's shows are always fun. If I'm within a couple of hours of where Babymetal is putting on a show, I will do whatever it takes to see them. Honey Dijon spins an amazing set. Whenever you have a chance to see an opera, go. Chances are you'll be blown away by the talent.

Don’t laugh, but Collective Soul. They did that song “Gel” back in the day. I wasn’t a huge fan of their music and still am not. But it was a great live concert.

Free tickets got passed to me from one of my mothers friends, and it was at an old theater with chandeliers and padded seats.

Was very surprised at how engaging they were with the crowd.

I saw The Chemical Brothers play back in the early 2000's and they were set up with racks and racks of keyboards surrounding them. They played their electronic music live on the keyboards and watching them blew my mind. Up until this concert I never thought of electronic producers as musicians, this totally changed my perspective.

Its of the moment, but Macklemore at Perth Festival years ago. fairly small concert, 200-300 people there, at absolute most 500. Thrift Shop had just popped off, he had all The Heists supporting vocalists there. And they came back out for an encore doing Thrift Shop a second time. It was a pretty great time.

Only concert thats been as fun a time was probably The Streets tour earlier this year. That shit kicked off!

The Gotye - Making Mirrors album launch was probably the most auspicious. Only concert I've been to at the Sydney Opera House. Place was electric when Kimbra came out.

Paul McCartney and 21 Pilots, both at Bonnaroo 2013.

21 Pilots were getting popular, but this was still a year before Blurryface came out, so they were on one of the smaller stages during the daytime. Even so, their energy was amazing.

Paul McCartney just had this presence about him. It also helps if you have multiple hours of hit songs that are completely cemented in popular culture. His two hour set lasted four hours, he came back out for four encores, and I don't think a single person left early.

And since you didn't say musical performances: comedian Emo Philips! Saw him at a comedy club and it was probably the funniest thing I've ever been to.

Two way tie: First is Dethklok on their first tour at the Worcester Palladium. To this day it was the best produced live performance I have ever experienced. Everything sounded immaculate, Brendon arguing with and having whole conversations with himself in charecter was great. Just absolutely phenomenal. Saw them on their latest tour and it was like 90%, so still amazing.

Second was Castle Rat at Sonia in Boston (iirc 2024?)when they opened for Green Lung. Sonia is small af, and they had the PA cranked. It was the only time I have ever regretted not having ear plugs, and actually bought some specifically because of this show. I can't even describe what the show was like, it was as close to a religious experience as I have ever had (definitely aided by the heat). Green Lung live is a whole other experience (in a good way), but I walked out of that show saying next time I saw Castle Rat they were going to be in a MUCH larger venue. I was wrong, it took two more shows. I saw them at Sonia again almost exactly one year later but they were headlining. The year after they were opening for Amon Amarth and Dethklok.

Les Miserables. (Sydney, Australia in 2015.)

I found myself in Sydney for work and looking for some way to spend the evening.

I had only ever seen live theater once before in my life (an opera in Vienna), and I enjoyed it well enough so I figured the world famous Sydney Opera House, but it was sold out.

Then I saw Comedian Dylan Moran was in town, but again sold out.

Then I had a choice to make, both Matilda the Musical and Les Miserables were in town. I was familiar with the story of Matilda, but had no idea what Les Miserables was.

I decided on Les Miserables, since it would be new to me, and was completely amazed. It kicked off what is now a lifelong love of theater and I've seen dozens of shows (including Matilda many years later in London's West End).

Iron Maiden in 1986. Or The Sisters of Mercy at a tiny little pub in Leeds in, maybe, 1997 or '98. Or Alabama 3, many gigs in pubs the late 90s, before The Sopranos and they became famous.

ZZ Top 1979. I think. It WAS the 70s.

In random order: Rammstein in 2024, Iron Maiden in 2008, Gorilla Biscuits this summer, Metallica in 1991 and probably one or two I forgot.

Meshuggah’s live sound is earth shattering. And I don’t mean deafening loud. Most club music is probably louder. But theirlive mix is just absolutely heavy. Then you have the synchronized lights and you only see their silhouettes for most of the show.

Neutral Milk Hotel

Hmm, hard to pick, but these come to mind in no particular order:

Chemical Brothers - Glastonbury Other Stage 2019

Chemical Brothers - V Festival (South) 2nd stage 2008

Faithless - V Festival (South) Main Stage 2006

Bloc Party - Alexandra Palace 2007

Nine Inch Nails - Eden Project 2022

Nine Inch Nails - O2 London 2025

Underworld - Aviva Studios Manchester 2024

Oneohtrix Point Never - New Century Manchester 2024

Massive Attack - Bestival Main Stage 2009

Massive Attack - Glastonbury Other Stage 2014

Aphex Twin - Glastonbury Temple Stage 2014

Sub Focus b2b Wilkinson - Glastonbury Sonic Stage 2019

Deadmau5 - Nation Liverpool 2009

Sigur Ros - Manchester Apollo 2022

I'm definitely forgetting a lot off the top of my head though

Rammstein, Pledge of Allegiance '01. Till did the first song of their set ON FIRE.

NIN, Lights in the Sky '08. Absolutely insane A/V, transparent screens layering the entire stage that would make various band members visible/invisible depending on what was being displayed on each layer and where the spotlights were pointed.

And then there's Ozzy just blasting the pit with a fire hose for most of the set…

I saw Linkin Park in 2004. I don’t know how to better explain how life changing the show was than to explain the wild fucking situation I was in.

I was 14 years old and a friend of my parents invited me to see Linkin Park with them. I honestly didn’t put to much thought into it, it was fucking Linkin Park. So a week later my teenage heart was all a flutter preparing to sit in the same sold out arena as THE CHESTER BENNINGTON!

And I don’t know how many of you were teenagers in the early aughts but I was head to toe Hot Topic’d out, heavy HEAVY eyeliner, really caked on foundation that didn’t match my skin tone, red plaid Chuck Taylor High-tops, the whole thing.

And just as I was getting ready to leave my mother came in, pretty fucking fuming, telling me that I was lucky she was such a good mother or I wouldn’t go anywhere near THAT whore sleeping with her husband.

Soooo yeah, it was really fucking awkward the whole drive there. My autistic brain was panicking. I genuinely don’t remember parking, walking to our seats, or the opening bands. I’m 72% sure one the bands was Story of the Year.

But the minute Linkin Park hit the stage my whole body, heart, and soul felt that show. I literally started sobbing when they started playing Numb.

I don’t know how to explain it all other than saying my little 14 year old brain somehow knew I needed to set aside all do the bullshit and take everything in because I was experiencing something that was a one in a lifetime.

Fela Kuti. Absolutely transcendent.

Runners up - Henry Rollins, Bad Brains.

Gawd I sound too nostalgic. I have been to some amazing shows more recently too - Janelle Monae in a 2,000 person venue, Cimafunk is great live. Charley Crockett and Leon Bridges, Tyler Childers (I did not love the venue but he is amazing). J Roddy Walston and the Business oh my God what a live act they were, and we got to see them in bars.

But FELA, that really was a special thing to experience.