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Your WORST Concert/Most Disappointing Live Band


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Following on from the thread about your favourite concert, how about the one(s) you wish you'd missed? Which bands/artists failed spectacularly to live up to expectations and put on a show that you'd rather forget?

 

David Lee Roth on the 'Your Filthy Little Mouth' tour was VERY disappointing ... the band were lacklustre, he hardly moved all night and his voice (never the greatest at the best of times) was shot ... :(

 

Billy Idol (supporting Bon Jovi at Milton Keynes in 1993) was embarrassing ... if I want to watch some arrogant twat doing press-ups, I can go to the local gym ...

 

Bryan Adams at Wembley (touring with 'Waking Up The Neighbours') showed just how bad things can get when you lose your balls ... the one decent tune in his entire set was 'It's Only Love', which he sang with Melissa Etheridge (who, incidentally, was one of three acts that day to blow ol' Bry away) ...

 

Suede at the Cliffs Pavillion ... I know they're not supposed to be happy-go-lucky, laugh-a-minute types but, by God, they looked bored and acted like superstars (it doesn't hurt to acknowledge the audience, lads - after all, we're the idiots who went out an bought your bloody album!)

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I can't think of a single band that I wanted to see live who were disappointing. There have probably been some average support acts, but the bands I actually bought the tickets to see have always delivered. I've always been quite picky about the bands I've been to see, which might explain it somewhat. If I had to pick one, I'd go for White Lion, purely because the sound was a bit poor. Tyketto were the support, and the sound for them was spot on, but it was cranked right up for White Lion, which made it quite fuzzy/unclear and almost ruined the gig.

 

Re Suede, I saw them in London and they were excellent. The set was very short though, so that element was a tad disappointing.

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Yeah, sound issues can be a pain ... who can forget Megadeth at Milton Keynes? A sound weaker than Superman in a Kryptonite vest ... yet when Metallica came on, it was fine (and I don't remember there being any problems with Diamond Head or The Almighty's sound) ...

 

I saw Crown Of Thorns on the same bill as Thunder/Van Halen/Bon Jovi at Wembley ... I say 'saw', because their sound cut out completely - although they clearly knew nothing about it, 'cause they carried on with the show as if nothing was amiss ...

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Legends of Rock @ Cliffs Pavillion - Michael Schenker failed to show (surprise surprise) and Uli John Roth was terrirble.

 

Also, amongst a miriad of awesome bands there have also been some pretty spectacular FAILS at Firefest too -

 

Winger - appalling crowd connection / abusive and generally just a twat

House Of Lords - JC had a broken rib and there was just NO energy

Kane Roberts - stage fright / voice shot / reading lyrics

Unruly Child - freakshow. nothing more to say

Pink Cream 69 - Boring set and David Readman was NOT a great frontman

Jorn - good voice but he's like Alvin Stardust live and an appalling choice of songs.

Steve Augeri - voice shot

Rox Diamond - shit

 

 

Also -

 

Motorhead - 25th Bomber anniversary gig (I lasted 1 hour - too fuckin loud! and by that time they hadnt played one song from that era!)

69 Eyes - like elvis singing sleaze - just really bad - hardcore superstar destroyed them.

Love / Hate - Esplanade (spent force)

Oasis (Wembley Stadium) - I was bored stiff.

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Actually Ive just remembered the WORST one -

 

Drive, She Said @ Firefest

 

Utterly appalling. Al Fritsch was the size of a bus and could barely move, completely unrehearsed and the keyboards were out of sync - truly one of the worst train wrecks I have ever witnessed.

 

(by the way I saw them on the debut tour @ Astoria and they were AWESOME!!).

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I am trying to think if one but I think all of mine were good. I am surprised by some as I have seen Poison four times and it was killer every time. Also saw Winger in 2008 and they were awesome!

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Worst would be Great White with "fat" Jack in '03 (I think). The band had been out on the river all day partying it up and were a mess. The sound kept fucking up and that was the infamous show where Jack lifted his shirt up over his massive sunburned belly and yelled out "who wants some of this?". Awful, awful show.

 

Second worst would be Gear Daddies. They have been a favorite of mine for a long time and I was so excited to finally get a chance to see them live. The sucky part was due more to the girls in the audience than the band though. They played a few Gear Daddies songs then did a Neil Diamond song. When they finished that song the lead singer Martin Zellar asked what we wanted to hear. A few of us were yelling out Gear Daddies songs, but a bunch of girls in the front row kept screaming for more Neil Diamond. He looks at them and says "I guess it's another Neil Diamond song". I was up front off to the side of the stage and I see him turn his back to us and say sarcastically to the band "They want Neil Diamond, we'll give 'em fucking Neil Diamond all night long". And they did. It really sucked. But all the screaming chicks up front sure were happy.

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Y&T back in 1982 at a local club in Portland were pretty disappointing. I was a big fan, but they sucked live (at least that night). They were really sloppy -- especially Leonard Haze, the drummer, who couldn't hold time for shit. Meniketti did his best to keep it together, but the band were all over the place. Pretty weak sauce overall.

 

But the worst I can think of was when Pearl Jam came to my university back in '93, just before they became "The Big Thing" in new music (the whole Grunge phase was really taking over). They headlined what was an annual outdoor event, where a bunch of local bands would open for whatever Big Name act had been booked. I was never a huge Pearl Jam fan (or much Grunge in general), but a friend was, so I went with him to hear some live music. We skipped all the local bands and just showed up for PJ's set. The only thing I remember is that the sound was for shit, and Eddie Vedder made a "show" of climbing all over the scaffolding. The only songs they had were from the first album, but fuck-all if I can remember them from that day.

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Britney Fox ...and Def Leppard.

 

Britney had the middle slot for Def Leppard Hysteria tour. They stood still and played mediocre mid-tempo bullshit for an hour. "Long Way to Love" was just ok.

Kix was the other band---jumping all over and enthusiastically blasting their tunes in a ridiculously short 25-minute set.

 

KIX blew away both Britney Farts and Deaf Lepresy. I remember being angry that the only tune DL played from 'High n Dry' was a keyboard-heavy "Bringin On The Heartbreak" . Had to suffer through lots of slow and midtempo tunes...I guess the boys just wanted to get laid that tour. Most of the crowd loved it, of course. It was good to see Rick succeeding after his arm accident. But, if he could play those songs then he could also have played their better, harder songs? They just made a conscious, commercial decision. I never went to see them again after that.

 

Wish KIX had played for two hours instead of the others - and I told Jimmy "Chocolate" Chalfant that very thing recently on M.O.R. tour. He laughed

...and so the story ends.

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Kingofthehill: Sound guy must have been asleep. Couldn't hear Frankie. It seemed like a 5 song instrumental gig.

Near Life Experience: Blaze shouldn't sing lead.

L.A. Guns: The 'American Hardcore' Lineup. :tsk:

Ratt: Because it was RATT. :lol:

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Slaughter on the KISS "Hot In The Shade" tour. They were the middle band between opener Danger Danger and headliner KISS. The sound was pretty weak, Mark sounded like shit and even Danger Danger blew them away.

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Slaughter on the KISS "Hot In The Shade" tour. They were the middle band between opener Danger Danger and headliner KISS. The sound was pretty weak, Mark sounded like shit and even Danger Danger blew them away.

 

I saw that tour as well and yeah, Slaughter were indeed god-awful. I find Mark Slaughter's voice nasal and irritating as hell on record, but live it took on a whole new dimension of torture.

 

Still 'n' all, my "worst" live band would have to be the Cult opening for Metallica in 1989 -- Ian was trashed, stumbling around the stage, mumbling into the mic before he finally gave up and laid down on the drum riser while the rest of the band played around him.

I found out later that by that point in the tour the Cult were so sick of being heckled by the Metallica crowds that they had simply stopped trying...but it pissed me off cuz I was there hoping to see killer sets by BOTH bands. I still love The Cult on record but they've never gotten another nickel outta me for a live show.

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Slaughter on the KISS "Hot In The Shade" tour. They were the middle band between opener Danger Danger and headliner KISS. The sound was pretty weak, Mark sounded like shit and even Danger Danger blew them away.

 

D2 have been great everytime I have seen them!!

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Slaughter on the KISS "Hot In The Shade" tour. They were the middle band between opener Danger Danger and headliner KISS. The sound was pretty weak, Mark sounded like shit and even Danger Danger blew them away.

 

I saw that tour as well and yeah, Slaughter were indeed god-awful. I find Mark Slaughter's voice nasal and irritating as hell on record, but live it took on a whole new dimension of torture.

 

Still 'n' all, my "worst" live band would have to be the Cult opening for Metallica in 1989 -- Ian was trashed, stumbling around the stage, mumbling into the mic before he finally gave up and laid down on the drum riser while the rest of the band played around him.

I found out later that by that point in the tour the Cult were so sick of being heckled by the Metallica crowds that they had simply stopped trying...but it pissed me off cuz I was there hoping to see killer sets by BOTH bands. I still love The Cult on record but they've never gotten another nickel outta me for a live show.

I agree with The Cult opening for Metallica. I saw them on that tour too. Bulletboys opened and were pretty good. But Ian was hammered and couldn't sing. I did see them later that year as the headliner, with Bonham opening. They were awesome!!! Great concert to support Sonic Temple. They must have played for over two hours.
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...KIX blew away both Britney Farts and Deaf Lepresy.... Wish KIX had played for two hours instead of the others....

 

Yeah, I've heard that KIX are boot-in-the-ass awesome live (especially back in their prime).

...KIX blew away both Britney Farts and Deaf Lepresy.... Wish KIX had played for two hours instead of the others....

 

Yeah, I've heard that KIX are boot-in-the-ass awesome live (especially back in their prime).

 

I've seriously see KIX at least 100 times and thier show today is not far off of what it was in 1983. They, in my opinion are the band that is as close today as they were in thier prime.

 

I hate to see bands from the 80's go on stage today as just a shell of what they once were. I understand that in most cases these musician don't really have anything to fall back on,,, but to go out and tarnish your legacy just seems counter productive to me.. (i.e. Jack Russell's Grat White, and Dokken)... I actually think Don Dokken's backing band is quiet good but it is Don who is just not able to sing like he once could.

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my senior year in high school i had dabbled in a bit of non-metal

i saw the Cure during their wish tour in summer of 92... but after that cure show i was like 'that was way too fucking weak"

,, and shorty thereafter progressed the opposite direction from glam into savatage, testament, and helloween

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Remember seeing Extreme during the pornograffitti tour in belfast ulster hall,its took nuno 4 attempts to play the flight of the bumblebee part of the set,he kept stopping,Kingofthehill supported em and were shit,only thing I really remember about em was that Frankie changed his hat more times than they played tunes for some strange reason?

 

Wolfsbane on the Iron Maiden no prayer for the dying tour also,totally crap and all blaze wanted to do was pick fights with the guys in the front row,probably so he didnt have to sing...cause he really cant :) although their guitarist was brilliant.

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Only see maiden with Dickinson

Maiden without Dickinson is like Priest without Halford ... it just ain't right ...

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I agree with The Cult opening for Metallica.... I did see them later that year as the headliner, with Bonham opening. They were awesome!!! Great concert to support Sonic Temple. They must have played for over two hours.

 

I once had a roommate who'd seen The Cult on that Sonic Temple tour, and he raved about it -- totally blown away. He said that seeing Billy Duffy that night totally inspired him to learn guitar. Wish I'd seen it!

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I saw Crown Of Thorns on the same bill as Thunder/Van Halen/Bon Jovi at Wembley ... I say 'saw', because their sound cut out completely - although they clearly knew nothing about it, 'cause they carried on with the show as if nothing was amiss ...

While I enjoyed the Billy Idol set you mentioned, I totally agree on this. That said it wasnt the sound issues so much, it was when they proceded to bring out Little Steven (who sounded like shit) and perform a bunch of his songs that nobody knew. Was actually talking to someone the other week about this gig, and they also said how shit the COT set was.

 

My worst headliner though has to go to Faster Pussycat. Pretty Boy Floyd supported, and totally blew them away.

I am sure that Taime was either pissed as a newt or drugged up to the eyeballs. Not only were they playing everything in the shitty Marilyn Manson style instead of playing the songs how they were originally recorded, but Taime was slurring, stumbling about and was generally incoherent both during songs and during any patter between songs.

Truly the most awful headline set I have ever seen.

 

And while I wouldnt say it was a bad headliner, the Def Leppard set at the Wembley gig with Steel Panther and Motley Crue was such a let down. Normally it would have been absolutely fine, but Steel Panther and especially Motley Crue going on before them just made the Lepp set look dull. Steel Panther were their usual flawless selves, just with a truncated set, and the stage show that Crue put on was almost Alice Cooperesque in its theatricality. (and of course then theres the rollercoaster drums). Then out comes Leppard with some sparkly lights. Defo a come down after the build up beforehand.

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