Ask Lemmy

Motörhead

Tool is an amazing show.

Joe Bonamassa also puts on an amazing performance. He can shred on a guitar live in a way that few can beat.

Ninja Sex Party in Boulder, late 2022.

It was just an awesome vibe. Had never heard of the band. Friend had an extra ticket and invited me. Last minute. Almost didn’t go.

Was so fun. That band is hilarious and awesome.

They also said it was their best concert ever too. That the crowd was like no other crowd.

Felt good knowing I was a part of that.

NSP’s been coming up on my spotify lately which probably means they’re coming back to town.

What’s your favorite juice 🤣

For a sample of the sorts of music they play, look up their song “Welcome to my Parents’ House”

La Pegatina. A catalan ska and reaggae band rocks up to a festival where no one knows any of their songs or even their name and proceeds to completely shred the stage for 2 hours. At some point they just threw a giant basketball in tp the crowd and while we tried to hit the giant basket they'd put, the band both improvised on one of their songs and cast this game as if it were the finals of some tournament. Every song was a banger. The best thing: The almost exclusively german audience had no chance of understanding their mostly catalan songs.

For me it probably has to be Opeth at the Ancient Roman amphitheatre in Plovdiv, 2015. They were accompanied by a symphonic orchestra and the whole thing sounded unbelievable. Some of the songs were included as bonus tracks on "Sorceress" later on.

I'd also mention any of the TDK shows I've been to.

Limp Bizkit

It was a local festival Pukkelpop in the year 2000. First of all, if you see the line-up, you'll never get these artists together nowadays. But it was day 2 and Limp Bizkit was preparing everyone for Cypress Hill. Only Limp Bizkit was so energetic and got the whole crowd in that same energy. By the time it was Cypress Hills turn, the crowd had to decompress. Cypress Hill didn't get the crowd in the right atmosphere until they said 'Limp Bizkit were amazing!' and the crowd cheered 'Yeah!' and Cypress Hills from that moment on got the crowd going.

Rammstein

I haven’t been to a true big stage concert before. I “saw” new kids on the block many years ago, but they were free tickets and we were in such a terribly sounding area of the stands. The best performance I saw was blue man group in Vegas. The PVC pipes and big drums in such a small theatre were quite amazing.

I've seen Dave Matthews Band, Gin Blossoms, Daft Punk and gone to Pink Floyd laser shows (Pink Floyd wasn't there themselves tho) and more, but not one of the massive artists I've seen compared to the final show by a band some of my friends in high school had made (and I can't even remember the name they went by at the time; I only remember the original name of Kill the Messenger). They did it outside another friend's barn that had been converted into a skatepark and they wanted the crowd to just get all up in their shit as they played. Like, I was basically hugging the lead singer while they performed and they fucking ruled! They sounded like the Mars Volta which was still pretty new at the time and I really think that had they not all split up across the country to go to various colleges, they could have actually made something of a musical career.

Decades ago I saw the Rolling Stones. It was held in an arena. I was fortunate enough to sit in one of those skyboxes. Because of its location to the stage, from a corner of the skybox you could actually see behind the stage. This area was just a huge curtain as all seating behind the curtain was closed. During certain songs some band members would go behind the curtain. And it was a blast to see some of them jugging down vodka which was clearly visible from my vantage point. And the show was great.

I know it doesn't really count - but I saw The Lion King the last time they toured before sticking to Broadway and man. I get really emotional with live music and cried through the whole thing, damn frission lol. Still, an utterly incredible performance and one that I would happily see again even if it meant going to NYC.

For an actual concert, gosh there are so many to choose from. But I saw Shawn James in a tiny little venue in Seattle where I stood on a balcony and watched the show from on high. I've never been one for psychedelic music and his definitely isn't that, but there were a few times where the energy in the room and the music and the atmosphere was absolutely transcendent in a way I can only describe as psychedelic. Truly incredible.

Depeche Mode at the United Center in Chicago is definitely the one that blew me away the most. Their opening act hit the resonance point of the building and shook the whole thing, and Dave Gahan is such a showman. Everyone in the audience was reaching toward him and singing along with Personal Jesus.

Seeing the Red Elvises is always a treat too, but my partner and I caught them fresh off of touring with The Reverend Horton Heat and they played an incredible set that included a cover of Let Me Teach You How to Eat, and their songs from the movie Six String Samurai (Love Pipe and Boogie on the Beach). They even did a cover of Misirlou that night!

One evening in 2002 I saw In Flames, Soilwork, and Pain on the same stage, one after the other. It was while In Flames were small enough to stick to the smaller and more intimate concert venues, so the crowd was small enough that you could greet anybody there if you wanted. Met a lot of cool people that night. And the night finished with the entire crowd jumping in unison to In Flames - Only For the Weak.

Delain, Sabaton, and Nightwish. Best concert I think I'll ever see. I hadn't even heard of Sabaton at the time and they quickly became one of my favorite bands.

Does a solar eclipse count as a live performance?

Recently, the best would be Underworld in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago, which was absolutely phenomenal.

Best ever is hard to say - R.E.M. at Stirling Castle would take some beating though. Also, the Chemical Brothers at a festival in the mid-1990s and Pulp at that same festival. Oh, and the Beastie Boys in Glasgow in 1999, that was pretty special.

The best concerts I've seen are Caravan Palace, Wax Tailor, Thievery Corporation, and Sylvan Esso. I love concerts where you can tell everyone on stage is having a lot of fun. I don't particularly care for arena shows or gimmicky effects.

Thievery Corporation is honestly one of the best groups I've seen live, if not the best. Their music is amazing, they cycle like 4-5 singers so you never know what you're going to get next, and I love that they have a big couch in the center of the stage. They will play a beautiful ballad in French and follow it up with a hip-hop duo about systematic racism, but their sound will remain cohesive.

I have two concert that were amazing on the top of my mind. The first was the Taylor Swift Eras tour (which I know is a little lame and cliché but who cares) and the second was Cut Copy at First Avenue. Taylor Swift was just an amazing show with dancing, costume changes, fireworks and most importantly everyone there was so into it. The sounds of an entire stadium singing along to every song was amazing and with my earplugs the sound quality was still great. It was an EVENT with everyone there all the way in.

Cut Copy I went to in college with a bunch of buddies a little drunk and high. It was one of my first shows at First-Avenue which is amazing venue since every space has a great view with an intimate look at the stage. The crowd was all dancing their heart out the entire show and they had a awesome light show. My buddies and I all brought flasks and joints which we were passing around to strangers and friends alike in the crowd. It was just an amazing time all around and giving out free drugs and alcohol while in college felt like a baller move. Really all the shows at First-Avenue are amazing and haven't seen anything bad there

Queen, news of the world tour, opening with "we will rock you". Second is ELO and Kansas with a deadly laser light show. Nothing else has come close. I am old.

Cage the Elephant honestly puts on an incredible show.

Beach House is transportative

But I think Sigur Rós is an altogether different experience. They are so so good live. I'll be seeing them later this year when they have their full orchestra and I'm so excited.

Recency bias: Tool - I hadn't been to a concert of that caliber in years, it was exactly what I was craving. Setlist was incredible and the band were on top of their game. 9.5/10 wish they''d played vicarious instead of the pot.

Favorite band: Rush - saw them back in 2012 on the Clockwork Angels tour. There's no way these guys tour if they can't play, show was great despite a lackluster setlist. I'm a 70s/early 80s rush fan and that era of their discography was largely unplayed.

Childhood: System of a Down - I was a massive fan of these guys and a young teenager and my old man took my brother and I to see them in '05

Honorable mentions: Black Sabbath, Slayer, Rob Zombie

Fela Kuti, with a whole company of African dancers. Absolutely transcendent. His music was so good but the whole show somehow choreographed but still so immediate and alive, beautiful and raw and wonderful.

Also close second Henry Rollins at a little club in Daytona Beach. He was acting like an asshole rock star before the show (it was a long punk festival thing) and I almost left before his set. What a mistake that would have been. The stage had chain link between band and pit, he tore it down! He was amazing, band so tight so loud so good and he is such a showman, and it really was a tiny club so it was full of energy.

Hella Mega Tour: Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Green Day What made it the best: the music

Muse for the Simulation Theory tour. Marching bands, laser beams, a giant robot (Murph). It was an incredible show.

Sample: https://youtu.be/RX8WoVWAtdw?feature=shared