Your 5 Fav Rock Concerts


There are certainly more than a few geetar fanciers among us judging by all the threads on guitar bands and best guitarist. This thread is about the best rock shows you saw. Let's limit it to the rock shows. Not Blues or Jazz or solo performers. The concerts that raised the hairs on your neck or made you want to take up an instrument or raised your pulse through their sheer energy or just moved you through their performance on stage. The only ones that count are the ones you've seen. After making a list in my mind of the many rock concerts I attended, most from the late 1960's through early 80's, I have come up with mine. It was tough, I’ve seen well over 200 rock concerts over the years and it is really hard coming up with a top 5 but we have to limit this so here go mine. "Yes" - This group stands out as the 2nd best concert I ever saw with Steve Howe and Chris Wakeman. They opened for Emerson, Lake and Palmer and after their set I do feel that EL&P were disheartened and knew they couldn't match it; they didn't. Funny thing is like most, I was there to see EL&P. They were forced to have another concert the following night by popular demand. Virtuoso musicianship, “Poco” - This group could put on a show. I saw them 4 different times in the many various stages of their evolution. They never had the commercial recognition of some of the other great bands of their era but they sure made up for it in their live performances. No one stayed seated during a Poco concert. “Rod Stewart and Faces” - Ron Wood on guitar and Rod Stewart strutting all over the stage. Rod was probably the greatest natural Rock showman I ever saw, including Mick Jagger. His uninhibited manner and constant movement and soulful vocals brought the house down. The crowd wouldn't let him go after the 5th encore so he invited everyone ("especially the pretty young ladies") to his hotel to “party on”, and so they came; Led Zeppelin I had to include them because next to the Doors and of course Jimi Hendrix they were my favorites of that era and I never did get to see either of the other two. The acoustics were bad and they played so loud you couldn’t really hear the music. But they were great none the less and it was special to me. The best should be kept for last. "The Who" was acknowledged as the best concert band at the time. Getting tickets meant getting in line and waiting. I imagine at the time the only tougher ticket would be the “Beatles” and they weren’t even together then. They didn’t disappoint. The reaction of the audience was beyond anything I ever saw at a live concert before or since. The band was so cohesive and the energy they put out put them into a different realm. They just have to be on a very short list of the best live bands ever.
tubegroover
Saw The Doors twice, great both times. Country Joe and the Fish put on a nice concert, at least what I could remember through all the smoke. Ricki Lee Jones was fantastic!
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 1974
Dark Side of the Moon 1973
Linda Ronstadt 1984
Close to the Edge 1972
Thick As a Brick 1972 tie
Monster 1995 tie
pink floyd-the wall tour SO ELABORATE ONLY PLAYED IN2 CITIES IN u.s.record sell out.best show ever
1. Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn at Madison Square Garden (my two favorite guitarists...they didn't even have to play, and this would be my favorite!)
2. U2 at Giants Stadium in 1987
3. Amnesty International concert in the late 80s at Giants Stadium (last of 6 concerts; most memorable part of the concert was that it was really humid and almost 100 degrees. Rubin Blades was in the middle of a song when he introduces Carlos Santana...first note into Santana's guitar solo it starts to rain and thunder really hard...at the end of the song when Santana walks off-stage, the rain stops....like an act of God...)
To be honest, the last 4 YES concerts probably stand on their own as top 4. But I will count as 1...

1. Yes's Masterworks tour.
2. Richard Thompson
3. Don Henley's Building The Perfect Beast tour...
4. King Crimson in 1996 (double trio)
5. ELP at the Palace in Detroit in 1997 I think it was...

In the 70's non of these bands went to Argentina where I grew up.