one of the worst performances ever

leftwinger57

I was reminiscing w/ some friends and we came up w/ one of the worst performances of an A-lister in rock concert history. I've been to a many really dreadful Grateful Dead shows we used to call losers which is funny because Jerry does The Loser and is a great song. But, oh no the worst ever was Jimi Hendrix headlining a peace benefit concert in 1970 at MSG. There were close to 15 acts who did 3 song mini sets and clearly for me the best were the Young Rascals who I never saw and just brought down the house. The show ran extremely late and there were no curfews at this time and Jimi and The Band Of Gypsies come on. From the opening notes you could see he was dosed or 'ill' (lol or really not funny) and was not in the room. According to the article I will show he did manage to get out a tune or 2 but were horrible in both sound and structure. People were screaming for the old hits and he was having none of this and was teasing the audience and I swear just unplugged and left the stage. If he wasn't there you got your monies worth but for those who waited to see Jimi till the wee hours in the morning were grossly disappointed. For me this was the worst performance ever w/ a very drunk Van Morrison as a close second, so bad I got my money back.
Hey, any of you dudes have the unfortunate experience at being to a horrible rock concert ?

http://www.users.qwest.net/~dave_peterson/CDLIST/JimiHendrix-19700128.html

polk500

I seen Bob Dylan 20 years ago at Canada wonderland park just outside Toronto,
and he was bad you could not understand a word he sang it was f$*king terrible.

Cheers

msg

Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie tour. That was pretty much the end of my affection for SP. Billy Corgan was a D, and it was a lackluster performance. First two albums along with the Pisces Iscariot b-sides are all I listen to now.

Pretty much any concert where they act like they're doing you a favor by being there, playing lazily, or throwing tantrums.

I really enjoy more intimate, engaging shows where the bands draw from the fans and bring them into the performance. One of the best shows I ever saw was INXS at this little dilapidated dive venue in Norfolk called the Boathouse. TIny venue, but it seemed like those guys played it with the same energy and appreciation for the fans as if back when they used to play filled stadiums. Then MH offed himself a few months later.

muncybob

polk500 wrote: »

I seen Bob Dylan 20 years ago at Canada wonderland park just outside Toronto,
and he was bad you could not understand a word he sang it was f$*king terrible.

Cheers

For me it wasn't 20 years ago, maybe 10. He came to our small town and played to a packed house of maybe 3000 people. The venue really has good acoustics but just like the show of 20 years ago, couldn't understand a damn word...each song sounded about the same and he never even once looked up. We are big BD fans but that night was a real let down. Come back to town Mr. Zimmerman, you owe us one!

pitdogg2

polk500 wrote: »

I seen Bob Dylan 20 years ago at Canada wonderland park just outside Toronto,
and he was bad you could not understand a word he sang it was f$*king terrible.

Cheers

And that is different how? I can't understand that dude when he is just trying to talk never knew he could sing.....ducking for cover

pitdogg2

Ozzy in Champaign Illinois came on sang 3 words puked and they hauled him out. Randy at least finished the song so I seen Randy play 3 minutes and shortly later he died.....

dromunds

Lol. I've been to Dylan concerts that I thought were great and later talked to guys who said they walked out after a couple songs saying it was the worst show they ever saw. I had to ask if we were at the same show. Dylan doesn't care what anyone thinks, he changes his songs around constantly and people complain that his songs are "unrecognizable." Yeah, his voice is shot. His songs and his shows aren't about his voice, people criticized his voice back in the 60's. If you go to a Dylan show with expectations you'll likely be disappointed, if you go expecting to hear a Greatest Hit show, he hasn't done that in years. He's currently playing nearly all new stuff, if you don't know his new stuff you'll be disappointed. He expects a pretty high level of knowledge as to his songs, and that means his new songs. Most people haven't listened to any of his new stuff. I'd rather listen to Dylan reinventing his material than the same rendition that I've heard a hundred times already. Imagine playing the same songs the same exact way for fifty years, it'd drive you nuts. The Rolling Stones have pretty much done that for a few decades now, their shows are great but after you've seen them a few times it gets a bit old.

dromunds

As far as the most disappointing show, it was Blue Oyster Cult in the mid-80's. Buck Dharma was the only guy who could even keep a beat. The others had all the appearances of having done way too much Peruvian Marching Powder or something. Very, very disappointing performance that ended quite early as I recall. The other disappointment that was perhaps even worse was Jefferson Starship in about 1977. Grace Slick was apparently so drunk she was slurring the words and couldn't keep the beat until about the fourth song or so when as I recall she just fell down and they carried her off stage. The other guys in the band gave each other these looks and soon just ended the show.

leftwinger57

Let me elaborate on the Van Morrison quip. I saw Van the Man at a small club in Marin Co. called Rancho Nacsio in the town of Nacasio. Opening for him was the up and coming Huey Lewis and the News and were fantastic for this club setting and they of course hit it very big. Van had a great backing band and was stellar. This was I think was a tune-up show for an up coming tour. The tour comes back to S.F and he's playing a beautiful venue called The Great American Music Hall. This place resembled a mini opera house and booked A-Listers. He comes on stumbling from the 1st few notes and progressively it's getting worse. Same band but he's forgetting lines and now almost fell off the stage. I got a bit vocal at my seat and were told by ill informed people to be quiet and told them he was drunk and this is pure garbage. Again he really almost fell over and like a sobriety police stop when he closed his eyes he fell backwards. I had enough of this. My date and I went right to mngmt. and said we want our money back because a 3 y/o could sing better. They tried to say no and I got louder some agreed and I told the guy if he didn't want a riot or a rush on the box office to pay us NOW. He did the 2 of us got our cash back and that was the 1st and only time I had ever asked for my money back at a live concert.
I did walk out of a Dead show. After the first few songs of the 1st set you just knew it wasn't going to get any better. Because of being a bit of a Dead Head I already knew this and just left and did something else like catching Boz Scaggs doing a walk on at a club in North Beach and was great.

dromunds

I saw Van Morrison a few years back at the New Orleans Jazzfest. Despite being on the big stage in front of a huge crowd he was just going through the paces and looked completely and utterly bored being there.

Polkie2009

Heard about Jerry Jeff Walker back in the day have a number of bad concerts where he was so messed up he was having trouble singing and even remembering the words etc...

Gatecrasher

The most-disappointing concert for me occurred in 1977. Actually it never happened.

I was 16 and had tickets to see Led Zeppelin at JFK in Philadelphia and of course we all know what happened. The tour was cut short due to the death of Robert Plant's son Karac. Led Zeppelin would never tour again. I missed seeing them by a freakin' month!

As far as my own personal concert experiences go, the worst performance I can remember happened in 1978 at JFK when the Rolling Stones came to town. It wasn't the Stones though. They could hardly disappoint a hard-core follower like me. It was the opening act.

Foreigner opened for the Stones and it was a miserable day weather-wise. It was raining all day and Foreigner opened with "Your As Cold As Ice" to a huge round of loud "Boos" from the massive audience of 90,000 Stones fans. We had made the ordeal to go to the show in the rain and mud and there were delays and everyone was wet and cold and miserable. We just wanted to see the freakin' Stones!

I felt kind of bad for Foreigner but just about any act that would have opened for the Stones on that day wouldn't have had an easier time. They cut their set short as they were pretty-much booed off the stage.

The Stones were great though!

I guess a more recent concert that comes to mind as being one of the worst performances of all-time that I didn't see in person might be the now infamous Amy Winehouse concert in Belgrade where she was so drugged she couldn't perform and the fans demanded their money back.

It's so sad to think of how talented Amy was yet threw her life away like she did.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2005500/Amy-Winehouse-turns-payment-disastrous-Serbian-concert-backlash.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtRP1fRwyis

11tsteve

what a trainwreck.

sgtmick63

for me it was U2 and Muse at the old Giants stadium in 2009. Muse (who I never heard of until I bought the tickets) was so loud you could not understand a single word. I had to cover me ears because they were that loud and our seats were in the nose bleed section. U2's show was way to political. My wife hated the 2 performances and we left about half way from the shows end.

motorhead43026

That clip with Winehouse she is scratching her arms, pretty obvious she was under the influence of heroin.

teekay0007

motorhead43026 wrote: »

That clip with Winehouse she is scratching her arms, pretty obvious she was under the influence of heroin.

"Cocaine bugs"

miner

VAN MORRISON FOR ME, TOO, IN 2013. AT AN OUTDOOR VENUE - HE DEMANDED ALL ALCOHOL SALES STOP WHILE HE WS PERFORMING - AND THE PERFORMANCE SUCKED. ATERRIBLE SHOW.

scubalab

Agree with sgtmick, although a different concert. My worst concert was U2, at the old Giant's Stadium but back in the 90s. I think it was the Lemon tour. We paid a ****-ton of money for what we were told were preferred seats. We ended up being as far as possible from the stage without being outside the stadium. Nose bleed, upper deck, back against the wall (you could literally look down to the parking lot). I guess the 'preferred' seats meant that they weren't at an angle (they were straight on). Sound system was having issues and the speakers closest to us weren't working. Could barely hear anything. We were so looking forward to that show, and it was a huge disappointment. Must be something about U2 and Giant's Stadium...

Best show was Pink Floyd (again in the 90s) at the old Veteran's Stadium in Philly. It was the Division Bell tour. Stage was near homeplate, our seats were between first and second base. The sound stage was RIGHT on second base. (We were right next to the sound stage. For sound quality, we had some of the best seats in the house. Great show, most impressive live sound I've ever heard at a concert. I'd never experienced "surround sound" at a concert like that before or after.

polk500

Best show was Pink Floyd (again in the 90s) at the old Veteran's Stadium in Philly. It was the Division Bell tour. Stage was near homeplate, our seats were between first and second base. The sound stage was RIGHT on second base. (We were right next to the sound stage. For sound quality, we had some of the best seats in the house. Great show, most impressive live sound I've ever heard at a concert. I'd never experienced "surround sound" at a concert like that before or after.[/quote]

Hey Al saw the same show twice actually, second time got hired on to help build & dismantle the stage. Well not hired on per-say as it was only two shifts 8 hours each but a buddy had told me they were looking for carpenters; anyway it was a hoot we got to see the show up close and personal and when it was over we helped take down the equipment and my buddy and myself took down the gong or bell / disk whatever it was called and put it in it's case. Also picked up a bunch of guitar picks and a set of drum sticks. Good show good times.

Cheers

scubalab

Good times indeed Roger!! I'll never forget tailgating before the show and hearing the sound check inside the stadium. They played the guitar intro (about 30 seconds in) on "Poles Apart". We stopped dead in our tracks, jaws dropped, and got chills hearing it. He11, I got chills just now remembering how awesome it sounded!

That must have been quite an experience working on the stage. Did you get any pictures? I know that was pre-digital photos and cell phones, but who knows. Sounds like you 'picked' up some cool memorabilia. I think the only 'memorabilia' I took away from that show was a deflated, uh, helium (yeah, helium) balloon and my ticket stub. Oh, wait, I did get a t-shirt too. Still have it somewhere.

dromunds

I remember at one of those shows I was tailgaiting and suddenly people started rushing towards this one car. There was a huge crowd gathered and I realized they were filling and selling balloons from a canister in the crowd. After a considerable amount of time, there were sirens and people started scattering. The trunk quickly closed and the sellers high-tailed it out of there before the cops came. Lol.

dromunds

Oops, should have read "from a cannister in the trunk." Must be losing it.

polk500

No pictures but got the tee shirt somewhere, oh and probably wouldn't fit anymore anyway...

Cheers

HzTweaker

msg wrote: »

I really enjoy more intimate, engaging shows where the bands draw from the fans and bring them into the performance. One of the best shows I ever saw was INXS at this little dilapidated dive venue in Norfolk called the Boathouse. TIny venue, but it seemed like those guys played it with the same energy and appreciation for the fans as if back when they used to play filled stadiums. Then MH offed himself a few months later.

Okay going slightly off topic here, but one of the earliest shows I can remember going to as a child was at the Boathouse in Norfolk to see Chevell. It was a 99 cent concert and to this day I can still remember how awesome the energy felt from the fans in that packed venue. Hopfully that says something about that joint. Long live the Boathouse.

Also cant wait to see Chevell @ the Orange Peel in September!

dromunds

There's something about the energy that's generated in small venues under the proper circumstances. I saw Rick Derringer in a little place called The Rafters, which was a roadhouse out in the country in the middle of nowhere. He had them packed in there, literally hanging from the rafters and going nuts over his kick-azz performance. That guy in his prime was something to behold. Better yet when he combined with Johnny Winter in Johnny Winter And. Didn't see Johnny in the early days (saw Edgar fairly early on) but I'll bet there was some righteous energy at early Johnny Winter shows at smaller venues. The Progressive Blues Experiment album gives a glimpse of that.

mrbigbluelight

The worst for me was Lee Michaels at Winterland in San Francisco back in ... 1973 ?
Opened his set playing "You know what I mean", then played something that sounded like tuning guitars. I think he was wanting to go heavy metal (good !) to get away from the "Hi-de-ho" poppsy woppsy stuff, but ..... bad ! Real bad. In the middle of that song, the boos started to rain down. He had to quit a minute or so into his third "song". Gawd awful.
Only act I've ever seen boo'd that badly.

Also saw Van Morrison at Winterland, he may be talented but I almost managed to get a good nap in.