Most embarrassing for me was going with my folks to see the piano man, Billy Joel way back when.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I thought he sucked!
We Didn’t Start the Fire indeed…
Weird Al motherfucking Yankovich at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair and I don’t mind saying that he was awesome!
Also saw Queensryche off the Empire tour and I saw Powerman 5000 off their first album.
However none of those far more outwardly embarrassing shows were anywhere near as truly embarrassing as seeing Sisters of Mercy 7 years or so back. Damn, that was a really sad show.
Difficult one to come up with an answer to…but I 'd have to say…The Eagles in Memphis in 1975.
I was just a 17 yo Navy airman who had recently escaped a confining suburban existence and was finally out on his own and chomping at the bit to see any concert. Any concert at all.
So I went to that one.
I think it’s more embarrassing to admit going to a fair…
If only I was out of nappies (diapers, whatever is cuturally relevant to you) so I could have attended some of these events.
The most embarrassing event I’ve been to, I saw Har Mar Superstar, and liked it. Even swallowed some of his sweat.
Har Mar is a local boy and I can honestly say that the I wouldn’t walk 20 feet to see him play. In fact, that situaion actually arose, he was playing in the room opposite to where my friends had just played and I had all access and didn’t walk the 20 feet. I just don’t dig the Sean Na Na.
Freddy Fender, AZ State Fair '75 (parents)
Billy Idol, AZ State Fair '90
Dan Fogelberg, '90 (girlfriend)
Dave Koz, '91 (girlfriend)
Suzanne Vega, '92 (had to go to see the opener, Kitchens of Distinction)
Sade, TWICE, '93 and '01 (though I do like her stuff, and I’d cut off my left pinky to bang her)
We should start a thread about worst openers we were subjected to at good shows (could be a long list). I was subjected to crap like Lenny Kravitz opening for The Cult in '91, Ethyl Meatplow opening for Nitzer Ebb in '92…there’s a bunch of 'em.
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ZZTop way back when I was about five or six.
Good times.
Caught Loverboy when they came through here a while ago at the behest of friends and free tickets.
Wasn’t terribly horrible.
Spin Doctors w/ Screaming Trees & Soul Asylum at Jones Beach Theater. First concert ever… boy, did it SUCK.
i willingly went to see Bush back around 95 in high school. i spent all my hard earned lawn mowing money for that one too.
Dan Fogelberg, '90 (girlfriend)
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girlfriend? suuuuuuure.
[:P][:P]
Weird Al motherfucking Yankovich at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair and I don’t mind saying that he was awesome!
Was that a free show from maybe about… 12 or 13 years ago? Because I was totally there if it was. I thought about mentioning that show in this thread, but (same as you) I’m not at all embarrassed about seeing Weird Al.
i went to see weird al play for free at detroit’s food festival last summer. it was a good time.
hrm… The Ark…
I was young… but verry verry drunk.
i went fo the beer… not the band… but I still went =/
Sisters of Mercy sucked, eh?
Hahhahha. I used to be a mild fan - but can’t listen to them anymore.
What on earth made your show so god awful?
Kindly reminisce!
Sisters are a mixed bag live. I saw them in '91 for Vision Thing, and it was a good show (though cut short for some reason). 2006 was a different story. There was so much fog on the stage during the entire set, it filled the entire Marquee Theatre, and I could barely make out a human figure on the stage! Who knows if Eldritch was really even there. Aside from that, the volume level was so unusually low, we thought pre-show music was still playing, until we noticed someone ‘rocking out’ on guitar on stage. My ears didn’t ring at all after this concert.
The music itself sounded flat and too pre-recorded. It’s one thing when a band triggers live sequences from synths, modules, and samplers, but they were obviously triggering all of the songs off of a laptop (maybe wav files?!), and the difference was very noticeable. Whatever drums they used to replace Doktor Avalanche (or whatever the drum machine was called), were even more flat and lifeless than the ones heard on The Last Sucker. Very disappointing show.
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KISS (without makeup) with Slaughter and Winger opening.
shudder
[reply]
Dan Fogelberg, '90 (girlfriend)
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girlfriend? suuuuuuure.
[:P][:P][/reply]
Busted! Actually, we were just on the cusp of beginning what would become a 2-year relationship, and our introduction to love, hate, and real pain. Oh, the stories… Maybe it makes sense that it all started with Dan Fogelberg! [mad]
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I saw Sisters probably 5 years back. It was on my birthday and I was pretty excited. Eldritch (sp?) wore this goofy shiny silver suit and seemed entirely uninterested in the music. I have the feeling that he’s a man stuck in a job that he doesn’t know how to get out of. Sad.
He tried his best to engage the audience but even his banter felt tired. It was truly the most lifeless show I’ve ever seen. I’d gone to the show ready to love it and ending up leaving before it was half over. I’d have been happier if they’d just have played a CD of the Sisters greatest hits loudly over the soundsystem.
Big difference from seeing Marc Almond (around the same time). That man loved every second that he was on stage and made the audience feel loved. Amazing performer. Gary Numan fell somewhere in between the two.
KISS (without makeup) with Slaughter and Winger opening.
shudder
Honestly, I think you just won. Any one of those artists on their own would have been bad, all three…
A bunch of my friends saw Sisters Of Mercy live about 5 years ago (same tour?) and they were raving about it for months.
The said Dr Avalache sounded like a German tank. After your report I have a feeling they were really glossing over things a lot though. Fans have a tendency to be very forgiving.
Being a musician, and a fan of electronic drums, that’s the one thing that really leaves an impression on me at live shows. Front 242 in '91, those drums were hitting me in the face. FLA in '92 and '96, same thing. Skinny Puppy in '04 and '06…solid and right on top. Maybe it was the low volume level that killed the drums, there was just no punch coming from the sound system. I’m a big fan of SOM’s 81-87 material, so I was really looking forward to that concert, and was kinda pissed when it was over.
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