Conference rdvax::grateful

    Gotta be the Hamburg '90 show. Liked the venue - a basketball court,
    but the sound was bad and the show wasn't much better. Did kind have fun
    trying to translate "Iko" and "jokamo feeno" into German for a pretty
    young fraulein, tho. ;-) The city of Hamburg was a blast but we're
    talking "worst show" - meaning performance. 

As I recall, Hamburg is a college town, or maybe that's Heidleburg.  Anyway, I 
think I had fun there too! %^)

Anyway, worst show - I don't think I've ever been to a live concert where I 
walked away saying "that was bad."  Except maybe once - the worst show I've 
been to would have to be Face to Face at the Colby College Fieldhouse.  The 
band obviously did not want to be there and the lead singer kept on hurling 
insults at the crowd between songs, god knows why.  Someone finally yelled 
back at her, she decided she was offended and left (after about 4 songs).  
They were not even close to good musically either that night.  Luckily I got 
paid to be there (worked set up/tear down) instead of paying for a ticket.

Scott

    Eric Clapton at the then Feyline Fields in Tempe AZ 1974...walked right
    outa there after 4 songs...which EC participated in for a total of
    maybe 3 mins, the rest of the time he stood around in a daze
    
    rfb<

    U Lowell Spring carnival 1981; bad because a friend's brother got
    killed by an empty beer bottle some idiot threw.
    
    Black Sabbath/Blue Oyster Cult, 1977. I fell asleep. Maybe it was
    what I was ingesting, I though BOC were horrible.

    Walked out of the 4/4/86 Dead show in Hartford (the first and only time
    with the Dead). It was the last night of the tour and instead of
    heading west on an up note they hit enough sour notes to curdle milk in
    seconds...
    
    There was also a 1975 Ted Nugent show in Syracuse that we left after
    the first two songs. We were near the back of the hall but even there
    our ears were aching from the volume. 

    the Outlaws at the Lenox Inn....the show was alright but the field
    where the cars were parked was a mudbog, did not get out of the place
    until the next afternoon....come to think of it that was not so bad, I
    missed school the next day and people partied all night long waiting fo
    rthe towtruck to slowly pull cars out of the mud :')
    
    gee maybe this does belong in the other note....

 Hmmmm..Uriah Heep  sometime in 72 or 73 in San Jose Calif..I had been force
 feeding some friends of mine Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, and
 they decided I needed to hear some real music...I wasn't impressed.  The only
 good part of that show was that Lynrd Skynrd opened and I loved them..



 Also saw a show at the Fillmore one night that had Mott the Hoople opening for
 Freddy King and Albert King...not that Mott the Hoople was all that bad (though
 quite loud) but the mix of people wasn't quite right, particularly since
 whoever the lead singer for MtH was (mind is blank on that one) was calling 
 those of us who wanted to see Freddie and Albert a bunch of !@#@%#$ and %$^&%^
 cuz we didn't particularly care to hear an encore :-/





 Jum

    Since I've decided Van Halen with Sammy Hagar wasn't all that bad
    after all & it was more the people I was with . . .
    
    CSN at Great Woods . . . I think it was 1990.  They were WAY out
    of tune and WAY off key.
    
    Black Sabbath 1983/84 Centrum -- I remember I smoked too much, and
    the lit up cross started flashing and scaring me so much (or blinding
    me, one of the two) that I had to hide behind my friend.  Fell asleep
    at it too.  Guess it would've been a better show had I been awake.
    
    The Earth Day Concert this year was great . . . but Mother Nature was
    pretty nasty that day!!
    
    sparky

	- Raggae Sunsplash festival 1987
	  The acts were terrible and so was the sound
	  Good thing I had medicine

	- The opening act for Niel Young... Sonic Youth? YUCK!!!!
	  I had front row seats and le me tell ya these guys suck!

	- Little Feet in Manchester NH, again I had front row seats
	  but the self crowd pushed me and my dancin self down in 
	  my seat!!! very rude!!!! "This band is a dance band" I kept 
	  yelling at them.....Later I find...oh, but it's ok to get
	  up and dance to Dixie Chicken....a$$hole crowd!!!

    Black Sabbath/Humble Pie/Mountain.  Phila. Spectrum, 1970.  Ozzie
    sucked then, sucks now, and has always sucked.  He still plays the same
    stupid music, and I can't imagine how he makes any money at it.  Leslie
    West was very interesting; also my first 'altered states' concert, so
    it wasn't all bad.  Somebody take Ozzie out and shoot him.
    
    BTO/Spirit/Focus, Hollywood Sportatorium, 1974 or '75.  Worst
    combination of acts I've ever seen...  Bachman-Turner sucked, Spirit
    was still playing stuff from the 60's and Focus (a Danish Fusion Jazz
    Band) looked like they came to the wrong show.  Focus sounded ok,
    though.  (They were the reason I went - I liked their guitarist)
    
    Beach Boys, Hollywood Sportatorium, Winter 1977.  The woman I was 
    dating talked me into this one.  This was Brian Wilson's "come back" 
    tour - and he should have  stayed home.  He croaked through a half 
    dozen tunes and the band covered for him.  Tight harmonies (as you'd 
    expect from a band that's been together for 20 years) but overall, 
    it sucked.  The woman married a friend of mine.
    
    tim
    
    P.S. Worst vicarious concert: my syster went to see Bobby Sherman - with
    a bag of over-ripe fruit. :-)

 Oh, yeah...Poison and Tesla in Manchester in, uh 89 I think..took my then
 13 yr old son and a car load of his sugar buzzed friends to see this show...
 Was an interesting experience, lousy music, but it was louder than hell...





Jum

    
      aerosmith at the worcester centrum 198? (the rock and a hard place 
    tour without joe perry). i was definitely in an altered state but 
    remember steve tyler coming out and singing (and saying "singing"
    is a stretch) about three songs, start into another song, starts
    stumbling around the stage knocking down a fan, and then jumps on 
    a roadies back and gets carried backstage. the rest of the band 
    finishes the song and leave, the lights come on, shows over, wtf?

RE: .12

Wasn't that a NYE show, when Tyler the next day claimed somebody spike his 
pre-show protien drink??  My cousin was at that one, and plenty pissed off
afterwards.

Scott

     My worst cocert was Van Halen (w/ David Lee) at Boston Garden...the
    sound was awful and the band was so trashed, they could only manage
    to play for an hour....
    
                   :-(

    Hmm, this is a hard one:
    
    Elton John at Greatwoods.  Sapy song, rockin' song, sappy song, rockin'
    song, sappy song, rockin' song.  became boring to me.  i went because
    deb wanted to check him out.
    
    Also, reggae sunsplash at greatshaft in '87.  seen much better rasta
    music in bars.
    
    Pink Floyd at Sillivan Stad was pretty bad also - the music and all was
    cool;  i was sitting next to 4 complete assholes who spoiled it for
    many people around them.

>        <<< Note 317.13 by MR4DEC::WENTZELL "Just a little sweetness" >>>

>  RE: .12

>  Wasn't that a NYE show, when Tyler the next day claimed somebody spike his 
>  pre-show protien drink??  My cousin was at that one, and plenty pissed off
>  afterwards.

>  Scott                                                                   
    
         had to check my ticket stub on this one. it was tuesday 
         november 16th, 1982 ($10.50 for my ticket, sigh) at the
         centrum. so that was his excuse, huh? hmmmm....
           did see some good aerosmith shows after this fiasco though,
         the one at the manning bowl in lynn, ma, mid eighties comes to
         mind. 
                                                     ^dave 

    I won tickets & a limo ride to a Great White show by accident (called
    the radio station for concert info and happened to be the ninth
    caller!) - figured I'd go: hell, a limo's a limo.
    
    I stuck around inside until I felt like a cameraman for MTV's
    Headbanger's Ball (1 1/2 songs) then went out and drank wine in the
    limo until the show ended.  The driver picked up some thrash-babe
    (Mercedes, I think her name was) and I had him put a Dead tape in the
    stereo for the ride home . . . took the long way.

I'd say pretty much every show I've ever seen at the Channel
in Boston (Face-to-Face, DeVo, Dixie Dregs, Spinal Tap) was quite
horrible, just because, well, it was the Channel.  Even when the bands
were good (as DeVo and Dixie Dregs were), the atmosphere and crowd
at the Channel have always been intolerable, to me.  Each time I went
hoping for an improvement, ha ha ....

Worst show because of the band(s) ... Golden Earring and Aerosmith at
the Boston Garden, my 2nd show, around 1977.  G.E. stretched out
"Radar Love" to the point of nausea, and the rest of their songs were
throw-away, poorly played, yuk.  The lead singer (?) would continuously
run around with the obligatory raised-fist salute, and occasionally
slam into things, at one point jumping onto one of the other guys
in the band, who looked a little puzzled.  Aerosmith just seemed
kinda uninspired, though Steve Tyler could work up the energy for
a crotch grab every now and then (yes, in '77, eat your heart out
Michael Jackson :^/ ).

- dc

>       <<< Note 317.6 by SLOHAN::FIELDS "Better make it through today" >>>
>               -< sometime in 1979 or 78 or 80 I don't remember >-
>
>    the Outlaws at the Lenox Inn....the show was alright but the field
>    where the cars were parked was a mudbog, did not get out of the place
>    until the next afternoon....come to think of it that was not so bad, I
>    missed school the next day and people partied all night long waiting fo
>    rthe towtruck to slowly pull cars out of the mud :')
>    
>    gee maybe this does belong in the other note....


Do you mean the show at the speedway? in Lennox?  I was at that show.  I 
almost got kicked out of school and almost lost two fingers due to my 
stupidity and an asshole security guard.  Ended up doing a slow jog toward 
the gate with about 600 other people.  The guards just opened up and let us 
in.  Not a great show but some really nice purple windoepane and red 
pyramids.

Geoff

    Fleetwood Mac in the late 80's at the Providence Civic Center.  My wife
    (then girlfriend) wanted to see then.  I was kinda interested also; I
    heard they could really jam when they wanted to.
    
    The sound was horrible. Very mono-tone, too loud and too distorted. 
    Their average frequency range was probably between 2000 Hertz and 500
    Hertz!
    
    Then Stevie Nicks came out.  All the little girls screamed as she sang
    with that devil-with-broncitis-like voice. Gross.  I could probably
    sing better now and I have broncitis!
    
    Yes, Sonic Youth opening for Neil Young was disgusting!!  We just
    walked around outside until Neil came on.  I particular don't like his
    loud-style live either.
    
    dave

    Peter Frampton, Palace Theatre, Albany NY, sometime after Frampton
    Live! came out.  He came out and said something like, "We're gonna
    recreate the album for you!" And he did.  Note for note.  Booorring!
    
    PeterT
    

    I haven't been to any show that's been bad enough to walk out on, but
    been to a few that I was glad when they were over.
    
    Little Feat at some hockey rink at Northeastern U - the band was great,
    but the WORST sound - like when they played Dixie Chicken it was so
    awful sounding I didn't recognize it.
    
    10000 Maniacs at Great Woods - I went only because a friend bought me a
    ticket.  Missed the first opening act.  The second opening act was
    great - Adrian Belew and his band.  He made the night for me.  10000
    Maniacs was a big bore.  Same voice, all the songs sound the same.
    Monotonous.  One of the few shows where I split before the encore.
    
    Some of the opening acts for Jethro Tull have been pretty bad:
    Honeymoon Suite on the '84 tour (yuck! and the lead singer thought he
    was Meatloaf or something)
    It Bites on the '89 Tour.  The name says it all.  All I remember is the
    lead guys loud green plad suit.
    
    Scott
    

    Worst show I ever saw was CSN around 1982 at Pier 84 in NYC, David was
    stoned, Steven didn't sing Love the One You're With and Graham tried real
    hard to keep it together.  We walked out after 4 songs.
    
    Close second was The Pogues (opening for U2 in 1988), words cannot
    describe how bad they were.
    
    Close third was David Bowie during the Glass Spider Tour, yuk!
    
    Other than that I've had alot of luck!
    
    Fredda

re                <<< Note 317.22 by TLE::ABBOT "No more years" >>>

>    Some of the opening acts for Jethro Tull have been pretty bad:

Eeyikes, flashback!  When I saw Jethro Tull, UFO warmed up them.
The most interesting thing about that band was their album covers.
They were nearly booed off the stage.

  Saw a show one time in Calif with Iron Butterfly...the show sucked except
  for one song (guess!) Other than that everybody kinda just stood around
  hoping they'd do it again :-)






 Jum

    
    This show wasn't especially "bad", but it wasn't that good, and it was
    uninspired, and most of all it was the most dissapointing concert
    experience of my life.
    
    The Firm, Spring 1986 - West Lafayette, IN
    
    I was WICKED WICKED psyched to see my guitar hero Jimmy Page play in
    person, from only 15 rows (center) away.  He was a complete drag.  He
    hogged the stage, was obviously hammered, and turned me off completely. 
    I was wicked BUMMED.  The other members of the band were visibly
    irritated with him (they all had this look on their faces that said
    "here we go again, Jimmy is gonna play rock star and look like a jerk
    again."  The highlight of the show was the bass solo.  The bass player
    was very talented, and did a really creative solo.....had the crowd
    interested for the only part of theevening.  But then Jimmy strolled on
    stage and tried to join him.  With one stroke of his pick he ruined the
    moment, and the crowd lost interest.  I saw my hero as a jaded,
    egotistic loser.......
    
    Hogan who does not let this take away from his enjoyment of Led
    Zeppelin :^) 

    I'll have to agree with a previous noter that the channel is the worst
    place to see a show, I saw the radiators and max creek there and spent
    the night trying to find corners where I could escape the awful sound
    system.
    
    Definately the WORST show of all time was Blues Traveller at Babson
    College in '91.  I kinda like there stuff on the CD(studio) but live
    they are a horror show.  The lead singer is perhaps the most
    distgusting individual  on the face of the planet, and I expected the
    lead guitarist to start spitting blood or fire like Kiss used to do. 
    All through the show he was flapping his rather large tough at women in
    the first row, one was trashy enough to get up on stage with him and
    join him after the show.  The music was so loud there was no escape,
    and it was all treble, no bass.  It was a putrid and gut wrenching mix
    of melody-less screaming harmonica and high-school-band speed metal.  
    
    Definately a disappointing show!!
    
    Jeff
                                  

	I was going to respond "none" because I always seem to
	have a great time whenever I go to a show...except then
	I remembered the last time I was at Great Woods to see
	JGB with Bob&Rob opening and Guntis got kicked out because
	he had a pocketknife in his pocket (violent man that he is),
	-they wouldn't let him take the knife to the car and get
	back in, he was kicked out-...

	hence, the last time I was at Great Woods...

	Debess

	RE: The Channel.  I dunno, I've always managed to have a real good 
time at the shows I've seen there.  Its rilly a great people-watching place, 
which is a favorite passtime of mine. Also, they do book great acts and I've 
never paid more than eleven bucks for a ticket.

One does grow tired, however, when MIT Chem major-nethead types keep spewing
knarly chunks all over the place. 


:-)

    Ah yes the Channel! I've happened to enjoy quite a few bands there
    even when I had to avoid chunks of &#(@!*) ;^)
    
    Even just as amazing as the music being played was the fact that the
    taping went on in spite of the, ah, conditions :^)

re     <<< Note 317.28 by OCTOBR::GRABAZS "counting stars by candlelight" >>>


>	JGB with Bob&Rob opening and Guntis got kicked out because
>	he had a pocketknife in his pocket (violent man that he is),
>	-they wouldn't let him take the knife to the car and get
>	back in, he was kicked out-...
>
>	hence, the last time I was at Great Woods...

    
    sounds pretty close to why i tend to avoid that place!   sad place with
    all of those big egos of enforcement.

>        Guntis got kicked out because
>	he had a pocketknife in his pocket (violent man that he is),

huh?  what the hell?  i frequently have a swiss army knife with me; since when
is that illegal?

/rich

	I always carry a small pocket knife with  me (and matches, I'm a
	good Scout ;-) and I've never had a problem (including at Great
	Woods) until the Albany shows this year. The dude at the door
	took it :-(   What a disappointment. I was planning on slashing
	people at random ;-) ;-)
	
	I guess it's only illegal when the dood at the door needs a
	pcoket knife  ;-)

    It never ceases to amaze me that Great Woods can find a pocket knife on 
    someone but can't find 2-3 tape decks, mics, external power supplies for 
    decks, power supply for the mics, cables, patch cords, flashlights, 
    blanks and duct tape. :-)

re:                      <<< Note 317.34 by SCOONR::GLADU >>>

	:-)

    
    >It never ceases to amaze me that Great Woods can find a pocket knife on
    >someone but can't find 2-3 tape decks, mics, external power supplies
    >for decks, power supply for the mics, cables, patch cords, flashlights,
    >blanks and duct tape. :-)
    
    Well it never ceases to amaze me that someone who can organize 2-3
    tape decks, mics, external power supplies for decks, power supply for
    the mics, cables, patch cords, flashlights, blanks and duct tape can't
    find his way back to the blanket with the beer!  ;-) ;-)
    
    

    Fine, next time I'll leave a trail of t!ng stickers. :-)
    
    - Ger

    I got stopped going into the Centrum at the '89 JGB show, the day after
    the Great Woods one.  At least they let me go back to my car to dump
    it.  Though I think I just shoved it down my pants.  I think I tried 
    2 doors before resorting to this method.  As far as I'm concerned
    a Swiss Army knife is just essential equipment.
    
    PeterT