you take the gold!

i was there, although bss and the markers (and radio 4) blew ass. at least bss made me laugh when they said they were 2 members short because they got arrested for buying pot.

dinosaur were amazing, lost my shit when they played "little furry things", murph lost his glasses and ended in the crowd and someone handed them to lou (and went "glasses? what glasses?"), j broke a string right before the solo in "freak scene", the crowd yelling "YOU!" and pointing to the band during "just like heaven", a stagediver almost nailed me with his boot when he dove and they closed with "chunks".

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also, very important gig, exodus in '04, they came here two days after zetro quit the band for the second time, the band came onstage and gary holt said "we lost our lead singer a few days ago and we had to invite our friend to play, but if you know exodus you know that we NEVER CANCEL A GIG!" and went straight up to play the song "exodus" followed by "piranha". they played so hard and so intense, one of the most brutal pits i've ever seen and just amazing intense music all around. ohh man, when they played "a lesson in violence" i lost it!

also, i saw morbid angel in 1995 as a three piece (david, trey and pete) and just a few months before david quit the band, first underground show i've ever been to, so heavy and amazing; when they played the slow songs, they played them twice as slow. i saw them again a few years ago, and they were just as intense.

I suppose it's all relative. Somebody saw them at a house party in Aberdeen and it wasn't me. I was so totally blown away by that show at Squid Row though, that I left before the headliner even went on because I had already been rocked perfectly and wanted to leave on that high note.

I really loved BSS that day but I guess you love them or hate them but yes, Dinosaur fucking KILLED IT.

well, they were the best out of the openers, i'll tell you that.

MBV (obviously)

Portishead in 2008

public Enemy (first ever time Nation Of Millions was performed in it's entirity)

DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist (only UK performance of Hard Sell)

Damo Suzuki's Network in Winchester (never will such a legend as Damo play in the back of a pub in Winchester again)

Aerogramme (last ever gig)

Jesus and Mary Chain twice (they don't play much at all, god knows what the future holds for them, just glad to have caught them when I did)

The Fire Engines (probably the last time i'll ever be able to see them)

Smoking weed outside the rehearsals for David Gilmour's Royal Albert Hall gigs in a tiny village called Chiddingfold in Surrey. I got the performance that cost £250+ for a seat, for free, shared it with freinds, met Rick Wright, Once in a lifetime - perfect moment.

the show i was the most fortunate to have seen must have been the buzzcocks performing at this weird, tiny pub in adelaide, australia.
basically my father and i travelled specifically down under to visit my grandparents (my grandfather was critically ill, and we felt that this was the last time we were going to see him before he passed away). my grandfather actually died whilst we were out there and his funeral was the same day as the gig, nevertheless we still decided to go as we both felt that it would cheer us up, and it did just that.
anyway, it was possibly the most loudest, craziest, and most enjoyable experience of my life, and a complete contrast to the first half of that day. context was considerably more important than content in this particular case, and i felt like it was the perfect cure.

Ofcourse , sonic youth at 930(whoopdeedoo right?)
When i saw the chili peppers at Vfest a couple years ago, i was mezmorized and ever since then i have had such a higher appreciation for music, all kinds. it definitley unlocked something in me. Hearing John Frusciante play Tiny Dancer i will never forget

SY in Portland '06. My first time seeing them.

Neil Young in Portland '07. I feel very lucky to have seen him. He played a great acoustic and electric set and there was some funny banter between him and the crowd.

Dinosaur Jr. in Portland '07. My second time seeing them. At the beginning Lou had his jacket stolen and was pissed but it was returned after the first couple of songs. I was right against the stage the whole time and when they came back to do their second encore they asked the crowd what they should play. I got Lou's attention and they played Sludgefeast for me. Afterwards Lou gave me his set list.

I was at that gig. It was funny how everyone over 21 except for me and maybe one ore two other people was sitting up in the balcony where they could drink looking fucking bored out of their skulls. Down with the kids you could walk right up to the stage and touch the band, and the energy was great.

Ratdog Feb 2007 at the Greek Theater [it was a damn fine show, and they usually play much worse venues, it was "intimate" for dead standards and a extraordinary set list.. they went into an authentic roots reggae natural mystic rhythm for the jam on estimated prophet and run st stephen->the eleven was as perfect as it was in 1970]

Shannon Wright 2002 opening forSleater Kinney @ the Highland in Hollywood. this was easily the loudest show I have ever been to, but that was because of small, close stage and outrageously overpowered sound system. Shannon Wright's performance was perhaps the greatest piece of rock and roll I have ever fucking seen, everything, showmanship, skill, solos, chaos punk, no-wave, drunken antics, jam band bridges.... fucking insane! I went and bought all of her records searching for that sound, only to find out that they hadn't recorded an album of her loud live shit, so she did in 2004 and it a perfect album .. alas she has moved on to France and never come back!!

Shannon Wright live

more..

i was also at that gig, i almost had a second panic attack (previous had one during the seattle show) but got a drink to cool down and made it up to the front for it, and it seemed to be a good mix of all ages

the security was stricter then i could have imagined so that was weird

pixies in 1991. their final headline gig in dublin
tortoise supporting stereolab just before millions now living came out
flaming lips in 1994 before everyone liked them and they turned shit
tom waits at a piano in a dublin pub at 11pm with about 7 people at the bar...surreal.

If you're thinking the one in August 2002, then word, the most important gig of my life so far. Seeing Sonic Youth for the first time ever in my life, travelling all alone from Baltimore to DC not having a clue where the fuck I was (first time in DC, not to mention I was a foreigner), searching my way through bad neighbourhoods to find the 9:30 club, arriving there at 1pm to make sure I was the first one to stand the queue, going nuts after having heard "Skip Tracer" being played on souncheck, standing in the first row waiving at Kim, seeing "The Anxious Rats" with Kim and the girls from Erase Errata, dying of happiness to having witnessed "Tom Violence" and "Shadow of a Doubt" played live, then purchasing my first ever Sonic Youth T-Shirt (a black Confusion one ... I still have it), and finally, leaving for the Greyhound night bus back to Baltimore, totally emotionally drained. This night meant a fucking lot to me.

Electric Wizard at the Red Eye, Kings Cross, 1987 (playing to about 20 people) - they were monstrous
Merzbow, Upstairs at the Garage, Islington - next to MBV, the loudest gig I've ever attended. His set was incredible, and my hearing was fucked for the next 3 days afterwards.
Autechre at Kings College University, Covent Garden, 1996? - A fantastic gig, they were really on fire that night.
Rudolph Grey and the Blue Humans, Dublin Castle, Camden, mid 90's - one of those "legendary" performers who actually deserves the status. A full-on energy-improv fest, featuring Charles Gayle (!) on drums.

Swans on their Children of God Tour.
Butthole Surfers on their Hairway to Steven Tour
Pussy Galore
Action Swingers
pre-boring Royal Trux
Slayer playing the whole of Reign in Blood during their encore.
Harry Crews
Probably loads more

demonrail - how about Skullflower supporting Godflesh at the Marquee in Oct/Nov 1992?

Yeah, that'd be one of them too.

Although I wonder if it really was 1987 that you first saw Electric Wizard.

Oops! It was 1997, wasn't it? Daft me. That was the night that me and Tony got really wasted on booze, and kept shouting for (support band) Orange Goblin to fuck off.

On a rock tip:

Haino's 4-hour set in Newcastle.
Mogwai, about 3 days before MYT was released
Melt Banana in... '99, maybe?
Urusei Yatsura '96 or '97 or so.
NNCK in... '03? And every time since.
Shuji Inaba, Newcastle '06.
... actually, pretty much the whole of Music Lovers' field companion that year.
Mis Teeq, Glastonbury '99.
Kenny Rogers 06 or 07.

The jazz band down the road from me (there's been so many amazing night in the last 4 years I've been watching them).

There's been loads of wonderful experiences with street musicians - I've said before, there's an amazing Kora player on the way into town, there's some wonderful percussionists, Samba bands, good-awful guitarists and the like around.
There was a particular Sunday where I was sat in a graveyard listening to a 3-hour peel on the best church bells I've ever heard...

And there's loads of classical shows I've seen, I won't bore you with them all, but Kaija Saariaho's piece at the proms and the sextet version of Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht stand out as astonishing (as do the second movement of Beethoven's 7th and the whole of Messiaen's Quator pour le fin de temps that I've seen in the last fortnight).

It sounds like Altamont.

Yeah, it was like that. But on acid.

Where there any black people in the audience?

No, just retarded Orange Goblin fans, I'm afraid :(

Orange Goblin really are as bad as people say. How they have the fanbase they do genuinely puzzles me. They must have very big families.

I don't know about the rest of you, but this beats out seeing Nirvana with three other people in the audience for me.

Anyway, uh, I haven't been to all that many shows, so these aren't too spectacular:

Sigur Rós (came at a really rough time in my life, and as cheesy as it sounds, made me feel a lot more optimistic about things. Aside from that, this is the best show I've ever been to.)

Roger Waters (almost two years ago. One of the last solo shows he did before he started infusing too much of that political garbage into his shows with the writing on the pig and whatnot. The performance of Dark Side was surreal.)

Boredoms (a few months ago. I'm just glad I got to see them. I couldn't make it to 77 BOADRUM.)

Boris (a few weeks ago. I had my best friend with me, who had only heard Pink and Smile once before the show, and was totally converted at the end. It's really nice when you can share something like that with yr bestie.)

Sonic Youth (this past July 4th. I really don't know what to say for this one, except they've been consistently one of my favorite bands for the past two and a half years. I was just excited that I finally got to see them live for my first time, especially for free.)

But you live in Delaware now? Yesterday when I was pulling out of the Fred Meyer parking lot onto interstate, I got behind someone in a Jetta with a Sonic Youth sticker on it. I seriously wondered if this was someone I knew on the board. Even in Portland, the odds of two cars in a row (mine being the second) on the road with Sonic Youth bumper stickers seems kind of low.

SY 2002 murray street tour hamburg, because of kool thing (merzbow), YYYs 2003 or something in berlin in the knaack club with around 90 people else and a stage of 15 centimeters. so very small.

staying down here for the summer to work at an ice cream shop

i went out to the northwest to do the seattle and portland shows and stayed with another forum member in Seattle, love that part of the country, shall endeavor to get back out there

holy fuck!!!!! i'd be smiling everyday ever since if i had seen that; no way anything in life could ruin that.

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i remember one, last summer when i saw porter wagoner (a scant three months before dying) and grinderman opening for the white stripes.

thinking fellers/sun city girls in '93
chris knox/bill direen ('95?)
king loser in auckland ('95)...happened to be in the right place, right time
jesus lizard on Goat tour...immense
secret show w/ Robyn Hitchcock playing tons of old stuff, covers and Soft Boys songs in '89
NNCK on the rooftop of Poon Village (show was released on one of the cds)
the who/the clash, shea stadium '82
deep wound @ the greenfield grange, '83
the verlaines (both times were fucking amazing)
ghost @ terrastock V was mind-numbing
the two peter jefferies/alastair galbraith tours
two shows in one night (sugar, then tall dwarfs/yo la tengo)
thela/loren mazzacane/t moore+tom surgal
jesus lizard/tar, liar tour
one of the last PTV shows before lady jane died
the smiths (queen is dead tour)
jazz butcher/blue aeroplanes (great show!)
REM, pre-Fables

The 77 Boadrum....life changing.

I was hoping they would do some shows for Pot Boiler, but it seems they're only going to be studio band now with Graeme Downes' teaching commitments.

Shellac + Fugazi in London 99
SY in Paris huh 2004 or 5 don't remember Rock en Seine

these gigs rocked my sorry sock

I saw this gig too!