What is the most disappointing concert you've been to?

[verbal gymnastics]

As it says on the tin.

Let's keep Elvis out of this one!

Mine would be Paul Weller in Guildford in a sports hall where the sound bounced off the walls.

It culminated in Paul throwing his guitar down and walking off stage after an hour and a bit. There was no encore.

[Jack of All Parades]

Okay for me that would probably be Bob Dylan- twice actually. The first in the mid 80's when he was backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Garden- my wife and I were seated unfortunately behind the stage so all evening we basically had a view of his and the band's butts- none too inviting and very little sound.

The second was recent during the tour that EC opened for him. The show in Bridgeport was horrible as he failed to enunciate and the powerhouse NET touring band simply overpowered most of his vocals. A Dylan show where you could not make out words. Imagine that!

I simply cannot leave out EC as this most recent Wheel tour show I saw in Boston left me totally underwhelmed. With that catalog, the song choices featured were for the most part pedestrian and played to listening death over the years and again his powerhouse band just overwhelms him at times in the sound mix. I know I broke the rules.

Finally, though my wife is not a board member, I do not think she will mind if I relate her experience. It was New Years Eve 1968 and she was at the Garden for a show featuring Jimi Hendrix. As the evening dragged on he finally made it out onto the stage and after a desultory and lackluster performance of just three songs walks off muttering 'f...this', I'm just not into it. Never came back out. Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jeremy Dylan]

Performance wise or experience?

Most disappointing for me was Hard Rock Calling 2010 - Paul McCartney's set. I returned to my hotel the next morning and watched the broadcast of the show on YouTube and discovered his set had been fantastic. However, all I could hear while at the venue was a bunch of drunk Eastern European punters screaming the lyrics to 'All My Loving' in completely the wrong key. And I fucking flew from literally the opposite end of the world to see this gig. Thankfully, the next night I saw the 'Canes in a gorgeous venue with impeccable sound and a killer audience, which made up for it.

[verbal gymnastics]

Performance wise or experience?

It doesn't really matter. I'm interested in people's experiences.

Thanks for both of your posts.

I've been told that with Bob Dylan (who I love) that you either get a good performance or a bad one. Fortunately when I saw him with BWAP we got a good one.

And Christopher - I said let's leave Elvis out of it!

But at least your wife can say she saw Jimi Hendrix.

[terryhurley]

Definately Dylan. Feb 1991 at Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo - London. Not only no rapport with the audience, but none with his band either.

The two other Dylan shows I've seen - in 1984 and 2002 - were both excellent.

[Jeremy Dylan]

I had a mixed experience with Dylan in 2007. Not great seats, so the sound was a bit meh, but in terms of performance he was brilliant on anything from the 90s on and his new style didn't really suit the earlier stuff. If I were to see him again, I'd have to be garunteed he wouldn't play anything from before Time Out of Mind.

[sheeptotheslaughter]

David Bowie's Glass Spider tour at Wembley wasn't his finest hour.


The only two gigs I ever walked out of though were

Modern Romance at the Bridgehouse in Canning Town, not a great fan of the band but it was a party night and me and the then Mrs Sheep lived near by. Lasted four songs and walked out.

A Certain Ratio at the Lyceum in the 1980's they seemed to be just a brass section, bass and percussion. I kept waiting for the singer and the guitar player to come on.

Going back to Jeremy's McCartney Hard Rock Calling gig in 2010, I though Elvis was very ordinary that day and he went down like a lead balloon. Didn't help of course he was on the same time as the football. England getting stuffed by Germany never put the English in a very good mood

[Boy With A Problem]

I simply cannot leave out EC as this most recent Wheel tour show I saw in Boston left me totally underwhelmed. With that catalog, the song choices featured were for the most part pedestrian and played to listening death over the years and again his powerhouse band just overwhelms him at times in the sound mix. I know I broke the rules.

Rule breaking is fine - I think they're meant to be broken. But I was highly entertained by the show, with the exception of the marriage proposal bit and one too many Peter Wolf songs, but I really had a fine time.

I saw the Slits in about 1981 at the Paradise in Boston and they were terrible. I think drugs were involved - truncated set and poor playing. They were simply awful and there was some ugly back and forth with the audience.

There was also a show by the mighty Fall at Club Babyhead in Providence mid to late 90's that ended with Mark E Smith throwing his microphone down and stomping off the stage. It was bad weather night and a subsequently poorly attended show - he decided to take it out on the die hards that managed to make it to the venue that night.

The last Dylan show I went to will be my last. I've seen him several times and the best sounding one was easily at the Wembley inside thing.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Can't recall ever walking out of a gig or being especially disappointed. I suppose the sheer drunken chaos of The Pogues in Madrid May 1989, was a bit of a let-down. Shane may as well not have bothered. Then again, a very enjoyable UB40 were on the same line-up, and it was open air on a hot night and I smoked some nice things, so I had a great night. [Funny thing, in my memory James Brown was part of the same line-up, but a bit of googling revelas that was another night in the same location, so the night wasn't as special as I thought!]

I really enjoyed Macca at Hyde Park. Exactly what I wanted it to be. Great set, as you'd expect, great fireworks, love the drummer. Talking of which, how could A Certain Ratio at the Lyceum in the 80s be anyone's most disappointing gig? I'd have killed to be there, especially given that the awesome Donald Johnson was their drummer. I love early ACR.

I'd do better on a thread dedicated to 'gigs you could easily have seen and didn't'. I've got a long list of those.

[oily slick]

Atlanta Rhythm Section, 1977.

[Jeremy Dylan]

Going back to Jeremy's McCartney Hard Rock Calling gig in 2010, I though Elvis was very ordinary that day and he went down like a lead balloon. Didn't help of course he was on the same time as the football. England getting stuffed by Germany never put the English in a very good mood

I thought EC was good, but the crowd sucked, as they did all day. Of course, I want to slap hard whichever berk decided to run football on the jumbotrons during EC and Crowded House's sets. If you wanted to watch a fucking football game, why did you pay 90 pounds to go to a gig?

[rsternb1]

Neil Young during the Rust Never Sleeps tour, probably around 1978 or 79. Perhaps it was my own fault because even though I was somewaht familiar with that album I expected songs like Down by the River, Cowgirl in the Sand, Cinnamon Girl, etc. and the entire concert just sounded like blaring noise and feedback.

I know we are supposed to leave Elvis out of this, but the tour for GCW was very disappointing (if I recall correctly no Atractions) and to top it off it was the one (and only) time I was able to get my wife to come with.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Weird that he didn't play the acoustic/gentler stuff off that album. I would have thought it would have been a fantastic tour. He opened in Hyde Park in '09 with Hey Hey, My My, and it was killer.

[Who Shot Sam?]

David Bowie - Glass Spider Tour in Anaheim, CA. Utter crap.

But I saw him years later at Queens College (post-Heathen) and he blew my socks off.

[rsternb1]

For the Neil Young show if there was any mellower stuff I don't remeber it, but it was quite some time ago. I'm happy to hear rock, but this was beyond rock. Unfortunately there was no internet bulletin board to inform me of what to expect. Hey My Hey Hey and Like a Hurricaine were the only highlights of the night for me.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Bet your ears hurt. Have you seen him since? The 2009 show was my one and only, after over 30 years of loving his music. He was fantastic, with an incredible energy for his age, and his voice fully intact. Played most of the obvious ones.

[rsternb1]

Saw him on TV a couple of times and liked what I saw, but never live. I still enjoy his music, just not that night.

[Jeremy Dylan]

Bet your ears hurt. Have you seen him since? The 2009 show was my one and only, after over 30 years of loving his music. He was fantastic, with an incredible energy for his age, and his voice fully intact. Played most of the obvious ones.

I saw him in Sydney the same year. Lousy seats, but a killer performance. He did The Needle and the Damage Done alone spotlit in the middle of the stage and it was truly chilling.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Brilliant. He also played it solo here. My brother used to play it over and over on his guitar in the 70s, so it was nice to see it done properly in the end. He made us laugh with the number of repeats of the chorus of 'Rockin' in the Free World'. He never wanted it to end. Inevitably there were some songs I would have loved him to play that he didn't, and of course we could have done without the ones off whatever his latest album was (Fork in the Road or something), but there were some golden things like 'Words (Between the Lines of Age)', 'Unknown Legend' and of course 'Heart of Gold'. And the encore moment of 'A Day in the Life' where Macca suddenly appeared for the Macca bit, did some 'I am not worthy' gestures towards NY and then joined on was pretty special!

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/neil-youn ... 676be.html

Having finally ticked the NY box, only Björk and Tom Waits remain on the list of People I Must See. The former I could have seen on one of her 7 or whatever Manchester dates this summer, but it was just a bit far. She's playing the Isle of Wight at Bestival. Too far, too expensive. Need a London date. I don't think I'll ever see TW. If he ever plays here again (2 UK dates in the last 10 years or so, not looking promising), tickets will be so over-priced and will go so fast, I see little hope. Sigh.

Biggest regrets are that I could have seen the above two at some point, Björk especially, she even filmed a live DVD here in Cambridge, playing the whole set twice to do so, dammit. Jeff Buckley played a spell-binding show at an 850 capacity place here too. But the biggest of all was missing The Smiths at my university on their first big UK tour, just when their name was getting known. I thought Moz seemed like such a tosser in his interviews, I stayed at home. And of course I never saw Joy Division, but being 15 at the point of their demise and marooned on an island off the coast of France didn't really allow for that one.

[sulky lad]

Yes Otis but

but being marooned on an island off the coast of France

meant you are one of the special few who did see the Elvis guitar army wall of sound in 1980 you lucky b****r !
Seen UB40 a few times with Mrs Sulky (big fan, knows nothing about music) at Leicester last year doing the whole of their first album and in the 80s at St. Austell Coliseum in Cornwall and they were desperate - beyond question the worst gigs I've ever attended and never again !!. Saw the wonderful Saw Doctors supporting the Pogues in Nottingham and Shane was so wrecked we left after 3 songs, he'd start a song, amble off and then return to try and finish it whilst the band were doing a different number. Also saw Queen at the London Lyceum on their "Crazy little Tour Of London" - majestic !

[SoulForHire]

Hmmm. Off the top of my head, Foo Fighters on their There is Nothing Left to Lose Tour at the Joint in Las Vegas. Their performance was fine, but the sound at that venue for that show was HORRID. It usually is not that bad.

As far as performances, how about the Cream reunion shows. Dull.

[pophead2k]

Liz Phair at House of Blues in New Orleans in the early 2000s. I'm a huge fun of her first three albums and this was when she was trying to be Avril Lavigne or something. Lots of celeb name dropping and a dull performance. I walked before it was over. Urge Overkill from around the same time frame. They are one of my favorite bands, but boy did they suck live.

As for Dylan, I am 1 and 1. He was great at JazzFest in NOLA and terrible a couple of summers ago here in Durham. The fact that he followed excellent sets by Mellencamp and Nelson didn't help.