Best and Worst Rock Concert Moments


I will start this off. 1975 Jethro Tull concert at the Seattle Center Coliseum. About midway through the show an M-80 goes off in the crowd in the middle of a song and Ian Anderson holds his hand up in the air and counts to three with his fingers and the band stops playing in mid measure all at once as though some one had flipped a switch. The whole place goes dead quiet for about 15 seconds or so. Anderson says something like "Well, that was bloody ******* RUDE! If you want us to keep playing then you better cut that crap right out and have a little more respect for your NEIGHbor. Do you really want us to play some more?". The crowd slowly starts to applaud and then it builds to a crescendo. As the applause starts to die down, Anderson holds his hand up in the air, counts out loud to three and the band cuts back in full force absolutely mid-measure where they left off.

When the song ended I have never heard such intense applause in any arena or hall for any song at any show. I was completely dumb struck by how Anderson handled the situation and by the musicianship of the whole outfit. Maybe it was a staged event, but I doubt it. Either way, it was really something else...
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Showing 2 responses by oregon

Worst experience:
1970: Go over to girlfriends on Friday evening (after talking on the phone for an hour deciding to stay in since there's nothing to do). Get to her house and she tells me her brother called to invite us to see The Doors, but she said no because she thought it would be nice to stay in for the night. AHHH!!!!
Most recent.
Last week Friday, a buddy insisted I go with him to the Hendrix tribute concert in Portland. Knowing it was a bad idea (there is only one Hendrix) I went anyway.
It was the last concert of the tour and the guys running the sound system really turned it up. Within the first 2 minutes I went begging the ushers for earplugs.
I thought I'd need a blood transfusion from blood loss through the ears.
Then to make things even worse- Mitch Mitchel passed away on Wed all alone in a Portland hotel. He deserves a ton of credit for keeping up with Jimi on some remarkable, all time great tunes.