• From: Benicia, Ca.
  • Registered: 2006-05-08
  • Posts: 5,828

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

RickB wrote:

Bluesapalooza in Mammoth 4 years ago. We had a big rented condo shared with 3 other couples. Around midnight a big tour bus pulls up, parks on the street right by our place and lights off the generator. about 3 am one of the locals calls the cops. Turns out it was headliner Johnny Lang's bus. He slept in peace as well as the rest of us when the police advised him to shut it off or be arrested. Next night he comes on and puts out the worst music I've heard in years. Screeching unintelligible vocals and songs that needed to end and didn't. The eight of us walked out after the 4th song in disgust, realizing it wasn't going to get better. I'll never pay to see him again.
Rick

I hear ya Rick, if I had to choose one gig I regret it would be seeing him @ Konocti Harbor about 10 years ago. He damn near put me to sleep.

                                                                               Jonny Lang'd Out!

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  • From: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
  • Registered: 2011-08-12
  • Posts: 4,615

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

A Monsters of Rock "festival" at Donnington Park in the mid 80s. The organisers re-arranged the running order to put Anthrax & Metallica back to back.

I DID go to sleep!

When life gives you lemons; don't make lemonade.
Give back the lemons.  Why were the lemons free?  What's wrong with the lemons?
Do Not trust the lemons...
  • From: Hayward WI
  • Registered: 2011-03-14
  • Posts: 255

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

BarbieD wrote:

Sorry ‘bout your luck that day, Sniff. But I’ve got to say – that story is hysterical!

It wasn't that funny at the time but as I look back on it it was funny, it cost me like 350.00 bucks in fines. I don't think that the cops ever got hit by anything that was thrown at them, it all hit me. Needless to say I still am not a VH fan, not that I was back then either.

  • From: N.Wales, UK
  • Registered: 2009-03-06
  • Posts: 2,183

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

I haven't been to many terrible gigs out of the hundreds I've seen.
Steve Vai - great twice, incredibly boring once with dreadful violin duels.
Jack White - hyped him up so much...but last year...going through the motions...no banter with the audience...extremely disappointed.
Killing Joke - white noise...unbearable.
Megadeth - again, hyped them up...but horrible vocals and messy sound.
The Darkness - at the height of Hawkins' drug abuse...like watching Def Leppard at their 'best' - pompous.

  • From: Washington State
  • Registered: 2006-03-30
  • Posts: 1,593

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Aerosmith in the Seattle Kingdome back in 1976. The toxic twins were.

  • Registered: 2008-06-16
  • Posts: 4,021

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

looks like VH is a recurring theme here, you still win the prize for the best gone bad. I had to work a Focus concert back in the early 70's, and they were opening for the Beach Boys. There's a match made in hell. Focus was 45 minutes to an hour late, meaning we would be loading out late. They were terrible, playing about 45 minutes, glad they were cut short. Nothing really went wrong, but the Beach Boys were just as bad. I'm glad to say that I saw them, but vocals were horrific. I got back at Focus when we loaded out by stealing the drummer's very fine and light talcum powder. Wonderful stuff and the beautiful enameled can was a keepsake for many years. I felt bad about it later, guess he picked up some Johnson's baby powder down the road.

sniff wrote:
BarbieD wrote:

Sorry ‘bout your luck that day, Sniff. But I’ve got to say – that story is hysterical!

It wasn't that funny at the time but as I look back on it it was funny, it cost me like 350.00 bucks in fines. I don't think that the cops ever got hit by anything that was thrown at them, it all hit me. Needless to say I still am not a VH fan, not that I was back then either.

As corn through a goose, so are the days of our lives
  • From: Orlando, FL
  • Registered: 2010-04-15
  • Posts: 1,373

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Metallica around '99.  We planned the whole weekend around the show - camping, etc.  We arrived within a few miles of the venue (near Rockford, IL) with 2-3 hours to spare and still didn't get in because they overbooked the show.  There were miles of cars on the little two-lane highway leading up to it.  It was just awful.  Maybe the concert was good, I don't know, but I was pretty ticked.

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  • From: Danville, IL
  • Registered: 2012-02-18
  • Posts: 458

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Worst Sound:  Saw Blues Traveller open for The Rolling Stones - the sound for BT was *terrible*!  Believe it was Soldier Field in Chicago and sound for the whole band was terrible, but the harmonica was *UNBEARABLE*.  Was able to sit through it and when The Stones came on it's like it was a whole 'nother PA system - they sounded great.  I'm guessing they weren't letting the opening band use the whole sound system...

Worst Performance: Saw Tesla (big hair band from the 80s) at House-of-Blues in Las Vegas a little over a year ago.  Was billed as an acoustic set, so all the guys (except the drummer) were sitting on stools at the front of the stage and playing acoustic guitars.  The reason was because the singer couldn't stand up - in fact, could barely sit down.  He kept almost falling off his tool - and the guys near him got off their stools and stood next to his so he could lean against them.  He was tweaked out so bad...  That's the only concert I've ever walked out on!

kestrou

  • From: Detroit
  • Registered: 2006-06-02
  • Posts: 5,807

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Eric Clapton's Pilgrim tour 1997/1998
Madison,WI.
It was a really lackluster concert. He had background singers, and it was boring music I could have sipped coffee and read a magazine to. Definitely not entertaining or inspiring. Wonderful Tonight was ok, and Sunshine of you Love was the encore, where different members of his unknown band sang different parts. I left thinking "wtf was that!?"

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
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  • From: Massachusetts
  • Registered: 2007-10-23
  • Posts: 1,929

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Skid Row opened for Aerosmith back in the '90's  Earsplitting and f-bombs - couldn't hear for several days.

My husband loves George Strait, so I agreed to go along - the man just stood there all night and did nothing, boring doesn't even begin to cover it, and I couldn't even drink because I was the designated driver!

Neil Young doing Greendale was pretty lame, but with Neil you ever know what you are going to get so he was forgiven.

Sandy

"There's a lot of people that are in so much of a hurry to be, I guess, to be famous or that they don't want to take the time to learn to play and do all that.They'd rather just knock it down off a computer and maybe get on a game show and get famous..That's fine if that's what you want to do.
"We're more old school than that. We like creating the sounds."  - Tom Petty
  • From: San Clemente, CA
  • Registered: 2011-02-19
  • Posts: 569

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Ive been pretty lucky. With all the concerts Ive been to there have only been a few lemons, and usually only partial gigs, not the whole night. Worst sets ever...

Billy Joel opening for Black Oak Arkansas and Roy Wood's Wizzard. Wrong crowd, wrong songs, wrong everything.
Uriah Heep, literally the only concert Ive ever (willingly) walked out on. Blue Oyster Cult opened for them, was great, UH just awful.
Another vote for Van Halen. Not only were they sloppy, but sat next to a group of bikers who had too much Mexican food before the show.
Police   booooooorrrrriiiiinnnnggggg 
U2  boooooorrrrriiiinnnnnnggggg and pretentious  ("A bad Las Vegas lounge singer and a guitar player with one riff"    Henry Rollins)

Oh, and how can I forget, must have tried to block it out of my mind since it was so recent.  Lindsey Buckingham.  Worst voice Ive ever heard try to pretend he was a singer, and with rare exception his guitar playing was lackluster.

30 Reply by helrazr84 (edited by helrazr84 2013-02-12 00:21:27)

  • From: York, PA
  • Registered: 2010-08-27
  • Posts: 1,749

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

kestrou wrote:

Worst Sound:  Saw Blues Traveller open for The Rolling Stones - the sound for BT was *terrible*!  Believe it was Soldier Field in Chicago and sound for the whole band was terrible, but the harmonica was *UNBEARABLE*.  Was able to sit through it and when The Stones came on it's like it was a whole 'nother PA system - they sounded great.  I'm guessing they weren't letting the opening band use the whole sound system...

Worst Performance: Saw Tesla (big hair band from the 80s) at House-of-Blues in Las Vegas a little over a year ago.  Was billed as an acoustic set, so all the guys (except the drummer) were sitting on stools at the front of the stage and playing acoustic guitars.  The reason was because the singer couldn't stand up - in fact, could barely sit down.  He kept almost falling off his tool - and the guys near him got off their stools and stood next to his so he could lean against them.  He was tweaked out so bad...  That's the only concert I've ever walked out on!

kestrou

I saw BLUES TRAVELER back in 96 maybe, on the Horde Tour in Hershey Park stadium. They were delayed because of the thunder storms and when they finally played, the harmonica was also UNBEARABLE! This was outfrickinside for Pete's sake and it was still piercing.

  • From: Edwardsville, IL
  • Registered: 2010-05-17
  • Posts: 656

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

I saw Ted Nugent in Indianapolis like 4 or 5 years ago. I've sense grown to really hate the man. He is the one of the most arrogant pricks on the planet.  He spent about 3/4 of the show spewing his right wing conservative political views and calling Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama names. His guitar sounded like a vacuum cleaner and he had the Brittany Spears headset microphone. Will never contribute money towards the man again.

Also, I saw Counting Crows once and Maroon 5 opened for them. It felt like Maroon 5 played twice as long as the Crows and played certain songs multiple times.

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  • Registered: 2010-07-27
  • Posts: 27

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Steve Winwood in Leeds about 15 years ago. One of my favourite musicians was a huge disappointment. He had a band of about 9 players who he introduced individually and encouraged them to play long solos which went on for nearly 20 minutes.

Oi, Steve - it's you I've paid to see.

  • From: skamokawa, wa.
  • Registered: 2012-04-08
  • Posts: 240

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Blues Traveler win's again!
Worst sound EVER! If I could have found a 2x4 I would have beaten the "sound guy" to a bloody pulp! It was that bad.
Worst concert EVER! Even my girl friend wanted to get out of there in less than a half hour.
Worst dive EVER! Somewhere in downtown Portland, Or. The place is a death trap!

  • From: Wien (Vienna) Austria
  • Registered: 2013-01-03
  • Posts: 233

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

My worst concert ever was fantastic, but...wrong running order!

Heaven & Hell opened for Metallica!!!

Don´t get me wrong - Metallica is a great band.
But Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinnie Appice were the essence of Metal this time!
40 Years of Rock/Metal-History...

And the Metallica-Fans were boring - even while Heaven & Hell (the song) they were singing loud booze-songs!

James Hattfield said that Sabbath & Dio are their heroes and they did a fantastic gig, but...
THE METALLICA-FANS SUCK!!!

  • From: Edgewater, FL
  • Registered: 2007-12-08
  • Posts: 5,046

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Ozzie - Hollywood Sportatorium
Some young thing talked me into taking her.  Promised all kinds of personal excitement for a dirty ol man.  I never saw her after we hit the front door.  The sound was horrible, too.

I got mine, though.  Drove home alone.  Slept good.  lol

bjj

Rock On & Keep the FAITH
             It is
Blues From the Bottoms

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36 Reply by fett2112 (edited by fett2112 2013-02-17 17:56:42)

  • From: Maine-USA
  • Registered: 2012-04-11
  • Posts: 378

Re: What is the worst gig you have ever been to?

Pat Benatar-not even close. My friend was a big fan and had a free tick if I drove so I figured sure how bad can it be? BAD! If hell is for Children then this was runner up!! Three songs in I was ready to leave- a tired band with NOOO energy. Since this was a freebie I was willing to sit through as my friend was a fan. Two songs later he looks at me and says "lets go". At first I felt kind of bad really don't like up and leaving until I saw the river of people flowing out. I really don't like trashing a band so I'll just chalk this up to a tired band having an off night. This was a late 80's show.

Dont need a helmet to get me through life-walk across the water blame it on foolish pride.

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