What's the best big arena concert you have ever been to?
 

I Would say the best concert that I have ever been to is a 3 way tie.
1. Tool 1994 at the Santa Cruz civic center.
2. U2 Pop Mart tour 1997 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
3. Tool Lateralus 2001 excel energy center St. Paul MN.
all 3 of those shows were amazing, and near spiritual experiences for me.

No drugs either.

First time I saw Tool I really didn't like the all that much. I liked the song sober, but that is it. I remember walking through the door, and being impressed with the quality of the sound, and that they weren't rushing the songs.
They played No Quater and I was completely sold. I have been a big fan of Tool ever since.

The Pop mart tour for U2 was the first time I got to see them so that was cool.
I was a little worried when I got to my seat, which was a killer floor seat, because the first band was on and it sounded like supreme shit. it was really echoing really bad. It was in the Metrodome and that place is a big echo chamber. U2 came on and it sounded great, I think the spent over a million on the sound so that was impressive and the show was off the hook. The band was spot on, and it was really uplifting. Really spectacular show.

First leg of Tools Lateralus tour was great. I bought the Lateralus record, but found it hard to get into. I felt it was a little self indulgent, and over long. Live it was amazing. It's like you need get the translation of what the album is about by seeing Tool play it live first. After that show The Laterauls album was one of my favorites.


What about you?

By The Way tour 2003
Air Canada Center in Toronto
The Mars Volta, Queens of the Stone Age, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

It was awesome.

I think mine would have to be either Metallica at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, or AC/DC at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

The Metallica one had shitloads of pyro, (especially when the played "One"!!)

Queen in 1980 (when they had the #1 single & album in the world)


Hands down that's the tops. I've seen McCartney, Rush, Pink Floyd, Van Halen (and Van Hagar), Alice Cooper, Kiss... too many to name.

But in 1980, Queen had the #1 single in the world, the #1 album in the world, and the #1 tour. They were at the height of their powers and they blew my 15 year old mind. In all the years since, I swear I've never been to a louder show but the sound was so clean. It was my second concert ever and my first that wasn't a big festival. I nearly got trampled on the way in. Yeah, that's the one.

BTW, tickets were $9, t-shirts were $8, and programs were $4. :eek:

Well, I'm off to the strip joint for my bud's bachelor party. Viva la tits! :p

I have never seen a "major" band in an arena. Mainly because I do not consider the HOB and arena.

Amphitheater - Metallica @ DeerCreek, closely followed by Aerosmith at the same venue.

At the HOB, Drowning Pool, right before Dave died.

The Who in Kansas City on their farewell tour.

I've seen lots of bands in open and closed arenas. From Gabriel to Living Color. Rush, Boston, Floyd, Page, Tull, Seal, Styx, tons.

I'd say the best are tied.

1987 Pink Floyd at Ohio State's Buckeye stadium. It was incredible. Wasn't as good when they came back in 1994, but maybe it's because I wasn't as wasted then.

I think it was 1985, Legend Valley (Central Ohio) is really a farm. They've had some really good concerts there though. Got there on Friday night, drank a lot in "outside" the gates. Thousands of people hanging out, passing drinks around and stuff I was never into. Saturday was a few bands, don't think I ever knew who they were. Sunday was three bands, one got booed off the stage. People were throwing mud at them. Someone not very known then came out and said "Dudes, that's was wrong. Sure they suck, but please don't throw mud at us". That was Jon Bon Jovi. They played for about an hour, maybe hour and a half. Then it was Def Leppard. It was insane there.

It was supposed to be about 72 and mostly cloudy. Turned out to be 91 and full blazing sun. 3 fire departments brought their big engines and were spraying the crowd all day long. I heard reports on the radio that week that there were an estimated 130,000 people there on both days. I got so sun burned, even through my shoes. I was too drunk to care though.

Funny and sad story. I went with my best friend and other friends. He was a skinny dude, had a congenital heart defect but didn't let that stop him from having a good life. We had a few 110 cameras to take photos of all the hot chicks. Got so many I couldn't remember them all. Years later, him and I were going through old photos and I found one that caught my eye. I was quite stunned. Hot chick, big boobs, very wet white totally see through one-piece suit. Big rocker chick hair that was popular in the 80's. I said "hey do you remember much about that weekend at Legend Valley?" He said, "Not really, I was pretty wasted and stoned". His wife said "Legend Valley? You guys were there?". I said "Yep, were you?" She said "Oh god yea, it was freaking awesome, I got so drunk I ran around in a white suit and guys kept throwing water on me. I didn't know why until a friend said they could see everything through the suit!".

You should have seen the look on her eyes when I turned the photo around. Totally priceless. Not to mention weird that none of us realized we were all there years before they started dating.

Sad part is my friend passed a few years later and his wife moved away and took both the kids with her. I used to see them a few times a week and haven't once for over 12 years.

Probably the best big arena show for me would be Pink Floyd in Jacksonville Florida during the Darkside of the Moon Tour way back in the day. What is now Surround Sound they called 360 or Quadrophonic sound back then and the Floyd was a master at it. Their music seemed to come at you from all directions and it was so clean and clear you felt like you could touch it. ..... or was that the mescaline?

Saw Neil Young and Crazy Horse with Sonic Youth and Social D in Atlanta in like '91 or 2 and that was fucking hot!! So good that we drove to Miami just to see the same show again three days later! Better the first show for sure though.

Really the best shows for me are more often than not great performers in SMALL venues. Saw King Crimson in 2003 in a tiny place in Santa Rosa, CA(home) and was on like the 8th row center in a 500 seat place made for classical music and.........................................oh my. I am getting goosebumps thinking of that show!!!! Great talent, great music, and a great tiny venue made for an incredible performance! It really might have been the best I've ever been too!

It's a tossup between Pearl Jam and Metallica. I really enjoyed both, but I guess Metallica because I couldn't move my neck the next day. But best live performance in general, queens of the stone age. They were awesome in the smaller venue in MSG.

U2 - Joshua Tree in RFK, the one where Bono feel off the stage and broke his collar bone...

The Who - 1989 - 25th Anniversary reunion Tour. They played 4 shows at Giants Stadium. I attended 2 of them.

Pearl Jam--2003--MGM Grand in Las Vegas

AC/DC--2001--United Center in Chicago

Pearl Jam---Lollapalooza 2007--Grant Park in Chicago

I took a chick to see no doubt and I was pleasantly surprised. But top three would be U2 elevation tour, Tool Lateralus tour, and lollapalooza with queens of the stone age and audioslave. I still haven't gotten over audioslave breaking up, chris cornell is a talented asshat.

saw RATM and Queens of the Stone Age at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin last year. That was pretty fucking awesome.

Pink Floyd Animals tour 4th of July at Madison Square Garden
Pink Floyd The Wall tour at the Nassau Coliseum
The Who at Madison Square Garden
Queen and Thin Lizzy at MSG
The Clash at Bonds Disco NYC Sandinista tour
Black Sabbath and Ted Nugent at MSG
Black Sabbath and Van Halen at MSG
Robin Trower and Wishbone Ash at MSG

Those stand out the most right now. Plus I have seen some really great bands in small venues.

I'm so mad that I missed that show. I was broke or something. The Clash opened for them too! Must have been a great show.

Metallica, Guns and Roses and Faith No More at Giants Standium in New Jersey. That and Lollapaloza 93 in Philadelphia in a dusty field that once was a stadium. LIneup was Tool, alice in chains, fishbone, primus, front 242, rage against the machine and a few others. This was early on in Tool and Rage's live, in fact RATM opened the show. Tool was next and it was their 2nd show on the main stage. Before that they were on the side stage.

Amazing day. Got there at 8am and left at 2 am. Hung out in the parking lot drinking beer and eating hot dogs on our grill with the guys from alice in chains (they were wandering around the parking lot while Primus closed out the show and I wasnt in to primus.) Really cool time.

trower fan! Awesome!!!

Halford, Queensryche, Iron Maiden- Blossom Music Center

Something about that show...
We got there and Halford was already on. That fucking guy rocked the house! Didn't hurt we had sixth row seats (which we kind of claimed).
everything after that was pure magic.
Best show ever.

Big time. That was my first concert. I was like 14. I posted some BLT in here somewhere. That band rocked.

been a huge fan since Back It Up in '81. from there i became obsessed with all his stuff. never saw him live. he was supposed to be here in march, but came down with the flu and cancelled. bummer.

cool, I'm sure a lot of these youngsters never heard of him. He's one of the all time best in my opinion. James Dewar was awesome too.

James Dewar R.I.P.

Big fan of Davey Pattison

AC/DC. Hands down. One of the best shows I've ever seen and probably the best I will ever see

No doubt!!! Bridge of Sighs remains one of my alltime favorite albums. It's uncanny how Trower seems "channel" the spirit of Hendrix yet keeps his own style. James Dewer without a doubt had one of the greatest voices in rock!

Saw them in a little place called the Florida Theatre in Jacksonville Florida back probably in 1974. It's one of those cool old converted movie theatres with the Art Deco decoration and great acoustics. I had forgotten how good that show was till I saw posts. Good stuff!!

I saw them from the nose bleed section at Madison Square Garden. It must have been really cool to see them in a small venue.
Good to see another Trower fan.

Yeah that little place probably only holds 1500 people at best. Sometimes the best shows are the more intimate in my opinion!

Big Day Out 98 (Milton Keynes, UK) - Headline by Black Sabbath Reunion
Big Day Out 99 (Milton Keynes, UK) - Headline by Metallica

Back to back Metal headlines. Lineup includes mercyful fate, pantera, slayer, fear factory, marilyn manson etc.

Aerosmith....

I can't believe there's only one mention of them here....hands down the best I've seen...

I saw Metallica, Guns 'N Roses, and Faith No More at the Superdome in New Orleans. That was a great show. I ended up seeing Metallica 3 times that year. They put on a GREAT show and they sound fantastic LIVE!

Def Leppard (Hysteria tour) with Queensryche was my first concert and also a GREAT show. The square stage was in the middle of the floor. Not a bad seat in the house.

The best one for me was the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, Easter Monday, April 20, 1992.

I was 17 and completely overawed.

KISS at Market Square Arena

I have to beg to differ on that show. I'd seen all three bands before that night and they had put on great shows. I've also seen FNM & Metallica since then and they were great. That night, however, only Metallica was worth a shit and they were playing injured (this was after James had gotten burnt onstage and couldn't play guitar so they had a sub).

Faith No More was boring (!) and the keyboard player, whose name escapes me at the moment, spent most of the set lying down on the stage instead of playing. The whole thing felt phoned in an FNM's part.

GNR managed to lose me as a fan that night. First, they managed to make us wait 2 hours after Metallica before Axl would hit the stage. Then Axl got pissed that people were sitting down instead of jumping up and down jizzing about how great he was so he sat on the edge of the stage and bitched at the audience. He said if we didn't want to be there he would refund our tickets and we could leave. I guess he didn't see me waving my ticket stub in the air. What a fucking bitch. He made a few other comments about it throughout the show and at one point said he wouldn't play as long because the audience was so lax. Perhaps, Axl, everyone was tired because your prima donna ass couldn't be bothered to get onstage in a timely manner. After that, GNR was done for me.

:rolleyes:

I agree with you. I didn't mean to imply that FNM was great (they weren't). The only time the crowd came to their feet during their set was when they played Epic.

Metallica was unbelievably AWESOME. They have been every time I've seen them. James had the injured hand with us as well, but I agree, the "backup" guitarist did a great job.

I seemed to remember GnR's set was pretty good. Nothing really sticks out too bad. I just remember the overall show was incredibly LONG because they had to change the stage for each band. Overall, though, I think the show was great and worth the price of admission (mainly because of Metallica).

Chili Peppers in New Orleans in 03 was probably my favorite concert. It was the first time I had seen them and they were better than I could have thought. Snoop Dogg actually opened for them so that was pretty cool too.

Saw Page and Plant of Zep in 99. I think just the fact sitting in the same room and of who they were and what they had created blew me away more than anything.

Aerosmith in 97. What I think of as there last great yr. They were in full form.

either nirvana the in utero tour or kiss w/ alice in chains in vegas :cool:

I was 10 years old, I went to the United Center with my entire family. It was my first concert ever, and it was The Eagles, for their Hell Freezes Over tour. . . . that was also the first time I ever got baked. Two dudes sitting in front of me were puffing away on joints all night and it was blowing in my face. I went home being able to taste only pot in my mouth, and had the worst cotton mouth.

I've only been to three...

Ozzfest 2002 - Tropicana Field, St. Petersberg
AC/DC - Lightning Dome, Tampa
Metallica - Tropicana Field, St. Petersberg

AC/DC was by far the best show I've ever seen, and will likely always see

I've only been to a few...

I really enjoyed Albert Hammond Jr at the Marquis, it's a little bar like venue with a pizza parlor, but only about 150 people max just great being that close and personal with the band...the interaction is awesome..


Red Rocks in Colorado. Been here multiple times, best show was definitely 311/Matisyahu show though...I also enjoyed 311/Snoop there as well...In august I'm going to Pepper/Slightly Stoopid there as well...it's always one hell of a fucking beautiful outdoor ampitheatre, if you don't know about it...go fuckin' google it...it's a beautiful time!

God I'm retarded, I posted in this twice