Best and Worst Rock Concert Moments

Best: Seeing Koyaanisqatsi with Philip Glass and his orchestra playing the soundtrack live. It was right after 9/11 so the film was especially profound and you could sense it in the audience who sat through the entire film w/o so much as moving a finger.

Worst & Best: My first and only Dead show. I spent virtually the entire concert alone in the bathroom freaking out from some bad mushrooms. Sublime!!

best: metallica in 91, at the sam houston coliseum. it had the old wooden chairs that weren't bolted down, and by the end of the show (closing w/ whiplash!) everyone on the floor had thrown the seats into a giant stack, and created a mosh pit around it...couple hundred people moshing. awesome.

worst: was freaking out at dylan on some bad trips; asked a buddy for his pocket knife so i could peel myself (!). dylan cut into GD's "friend of the devil" and it fixed everything, and turned into a helluva good time.

Best:
Pink Floyd June 28, 1975 Ivor Wynn Stadium, Hamilton, Ontario. Three complete sets: Wish You Were Here, then a setbreak until dark, Dark Side of the Moon, then a setbreak, Meddle. Small venue stadium with a soft natural grass field that was left uncovered.

Runner up Best:
Almost every Grateful Dead show I attended between 1972 and 1994. No comments about the ill-fated 1995 Summer run.

Worst:
July ?, 1974 or 75. Eric Clapton, Rich Stadium, Buffalo, New York Freddie King opened the show, and did a very nice job of warming up the crowd. After some delay, Clapton gets onstage, clearly very intoxicated. Yelling into the mic "I'm so f***ing drunk". It was becoming obvious that there was no way he was going to pull this off without a riot. Freddie King had the presence of mind to get up there on the stage and take over most (if not all) the guitar work. I lost a lot of respect for Clapton that day.

Was not there but had to be The Who in Cincinnati with fans getting crushed to death rushing the doors for a lousy sound check........carnival seating was no more. Second might be Great White concert with 100 killed.

Chad,

I was and am a Cinti. concert goer'. Lucky not to have been at the Who show that night, couldn’t get tickets. Saw it on the local news and couldn't believe it. Changed shows in Cinti. forever.

A couple of the best and worst - Allman Brothers played Cinti. Gardens (after the Who tragedy but before festival seating was banned). We were at the head of the line and they let the crowd in front of the building but still had the ticket gates closed and screened off. The crowd started to surge toward the ticket gates crushing the people in front (me and my girlfriend). Her brother was behind her and was able to get his arms extended against the gate and literally held the weight of the crowd crush off her. Eerily reminiscent of the Who Coliseum tragedy.

We survived and the Allman’s played everything they knew for over 3 hours. We were so emotionally whipped, our group all left before it finished. Somebody said later they went on for over 4 hours.

A couple of weeks later the Dead came to the Gardens. A different kind of crowd, not as rowdy, with everyone sitting around outside playing cards or yakking. The local cops were not going to let what happened at the Who or Allman shows happen again, and started making every one get up and get in a line outside. Confrontation ensued and a couple of folks got hauled off to jail. Bummer.

This was the Deads' first tour in the Cinti. area with the "Wall of Sound" and the first time I’d seen it. They were over an hour late getting setup. The band was upset and apologized all night long (although I was fascinated watching them set it up). But, despite the gloomy mood, somewhere in the one of the sets, was the most haunting rendition of Sugeree I have ever heard. I still remember it to this day.

Jim S.