What was the best concert you ever attended?

Tori Amos Plugged

The Cure-Kiss Me Tour Depeche Mode-Music For the Masses Madonna-Blonde Ambition

Björk at the Royal Opera House

Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Little Feat. Absolutely the best.

Brandi Carlile at the Hollywood Bowl -- and I didn't even know who she was before that!

Prince at Radio City Music Hall 1982(?)

Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense Tour , Berkeley, 1983.

I attended under duress ,but ended up loving David Bowie in St Louis 1976 with "Changes" and "Rebel Rebel," etc.

Tori Amos with the Metropole Orchestra- Berlin 2012 and her two LA shows with a string quartet in 2011 Madonna- Confessions Tour Audra McDonald in Princeton NJ a few years ago Carly Rae Jepsen at Irving Plaza NYC 2015 Phish at MSG During their Baker’s Dozen run (although I was on a lot of drugs for that) Fiona Apple at SXSW 2011 Leonard Cohen in Boston 2012ish Courtney Love in Port Chester NY 2013 (Not the greatest show I’ve seen her play but she talked to me from the stage and gave me roses so it’s really special) Bjork at Bonnaroo 2013 Britney Spears Onyx Hotel tour

Phish 1990 at college.

R10 here, going to try to re-format so it’s legible.

Tori Amos with the Metropole Orchestra- Berlin 2012 and her two LA shows with a string quartet in 2011

Madonna- Confessions Tour

Audra McDonald in Princeton NJ a few years ago

Carly Rae Jepsen at Irving Plaza NYC 2015

Phish at MSG During their Baker’s Dozen run (although I was on a lot of drugs for that)

Fiona Apple at SXSW 2011

Leonard Cohen in Boston 2012ish

Courtney Love in Port Chester NY 2013 (Not the greatest show I’ve seen her play but she talked to me from the stage and gave me roses so it’s really special)

Bjork at Bonnaroo 2013

Britney Spears Onyx Hotel tour

Elton John’s tour with Ray Cooper. I was kind of indifferent in my opinion of EJ. I liked his music enough, but I was just kind of meh.. After seeing that performance, he had my utmost respect as a musician and live performer. Seen plenty of acts since then, but that show was incredible. The energy from just 2 men on stage was electric and the audience was screaming.

Pink at Madison Square Garden Cher at Barclay's Center Reba at Radio City Trisha Yearwood at Town Hall and (as a child) - Carpenters and Neil Sedaka (together) and Beach Boys and Chicago (together)

Tina Turner. Every time.

Favorites/Best so far...

Sade (opening act - John Legend) - Bring Me Home Tour - 2012 (Louisville) Rufus Wainwright - Live in Concert!- 2004 (New York City) Rufus Wainwright (opening act - Neko Case) - Release the Stars! - 2007 (Nashville) Madonna - Rebel Heart Tour -2015 (Louisville) Madonna - Madame X Tour - 2019 (Chicago) Sufjan Stevens - Carry and Lowell - 2015 (Cleveland) Lord Huron - Vide Noir - 2019 (Cleveland) Aimee Mann and Ted Leo as The Both - On Tour - 2014 - (Cleveland) Yola - Fire Walk with Me Tour - 2020 (Columbus)

Prince- 1999 & LoveSexy

Madonna - Drowned World

Madonna Madame X

I waited for six hours and she never showed up. Was told I couldn’t bring a phone to the show, so I got some sleep. Best show ever!

Captain Beefheart on Clearspot tour

Barbara Mandrell, ya'all!!! It was at a big Amphitheater, so big place. She was so sweet to the audience when they come up to the stage during the show to hand her flowers and gifts and she'd get on her knees and lean down over the edge of the stage and hug and kiss them. It was so awesome of her. It was my first concert, so I had never been in a big venue like that. I was 12. That night I learned what a "urinal trough" was. I liked what I saw. Dicks everywhere! How did I just derail my post reply? Oh wait, this is DL. Everything here eventually becomes infected with perversion!

I've seen a shit ton of concerts over the years, but the best -- in terms of not believing how good the band was, and wanting to walk by Tower on my way home to get their cd -- was Barenaked Ladies. They were the opening act for John Wesley Harding t the Bottom Line, and, at the time, were completely unknown. Their first cd had just been released, or was about to be released. They entered the stage to complete audience indifference, but the crowd was on their chairs screaming and clapping by the end of the set. They put on one of the most engaging, high-energy, memorable shows I've ever seen. I can barely listen to them now, but there was no ne better when they fist started. Another high mark was Prince, some time in the mid-90's. I am not a fan, so I don't know album he was touring. His command of the stage and his body and his voice was extraordinary. I was beyond blown away. I went to see him a few years later in a smaller hall -- the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, I think -- and I was bored out of my mind. His command of the stage seemed to have slipped, or maybe he was having an off night, but it tarnished the memory of that first great concert of his that I saw.

My first was the best - Tina Turner, Private Dancer tour

A distant second would be The Rolling Stones, Steel Wheels tour.

Led Zeppelin - 1973 - Madison Square Garden, New York City.

FUCK! They were good.

Depeche Mode, Touring the Angel, Madison Square Garden December 2005.

1988 R.E.M. Document tour.

Who asked for a list? There can only be one BEST people.

Peter Gabriel, Peter Murphy, Neil Finn with Lisa on guitar and Johnny Marr, Jellyfish

Springsteen. Kutztown State College, Kutztown PA. Summer of '75, just before Born to Run came out. It was small, uncrowded. We sat on the gym floor. I was in the first row. He sweat on my. I haven't washed that side of my face since.

Blonde Ambition tour by that lady in her prime. George Michael Freedom tour too.

Tori Amos in 2002 in Fairfax, Virginia. I sat next to her parents and it was fascinating to watch her mother watch her. And it was an incredible performance by Tori of one of her best albums in her prime.

I was very impressed with Regina Spektor in DC in 2008. She was leaps and bounds better than I expected.

I’m also impressed Tori Amos has so much appreciation here. I hate all of you less than I did before I read this thread.

Karen Morrow at Carnegie Hall. Beat that one!

This seems to be a good accompaniment to this thread

Tears for Fears was my first concert so it holds a special place in my heart. The screaming that made my ears buzz for an hour later and the bizarre smell (pot smoke!) stayed with me for a long time.

My 73 year old dad still talks about that Tears for Fears concert we went to. So sweet

Madonna's Confessions Tour

Linda Ronstadt during her Aaron Neville years In Memphis Tennessee at an amphitheater overlooking the Mississippi River as the sun set.

I remember my older brother said the best concert he ever attended was the Rolling Stones, back in 1972. But it wasn't for the Stones (who were great, as usual), but for opening act Stevie Wonder.

My own favorite was Elton John / Billy Joel. They opened and closed the show together, popped in and out of each other's act, and each did one of the other's songs in their own set Just a great concert.

Madonna - blond Ambition Tour in 1990. That was when she was a performer!

also surprisingly, George Michael. Elton John was in the audience and I got to say hi to him before the show.

George was very energetic and put on a really good show.

Part of this video was filmed at the concert I went to.

Sonny Rollins at the Berklee Performance Center in 2001. He went into a solo with his band that became more and more intense with each passing minute. I can only describe it as the musical equivalent of a slow, but estastic build to an orgasm. It was that good.

Train

A Leon Russell concert in the 1970s. But I accidentally took a four-way hit of mescaline rather than a single, and the space ship with Joe Cocker as the Queen of Planet Venus may have been from that.

I saw Bette Midler when Manilow was still playing playing piano for her, and she was simply perfect.

And the third was a simple concert with Cleo Laine singing and John Dankworth playing. Heavenly.

Now ask me about the Carpenters. Oh Jesus.

Chaka Kahn and Adele at the Hollywood Bowl was pretty fun.

Grace Jones was amazing at the Bowl -- more just for her costume changes and commanding presence than her songs.

Roxy Music, Avalon tour; Stevie Ray Vaughan 2x.

Jade and Sasparilla - Boston 1977

let me know if that one rings a bell!

Jimmy Scott in a little club was an otherworldly beautiful experience.

Eddie Cantor in the Ziegfield Follies of 1917

Tie:

The Beatles, Cow Palace, San Francisco 1966

Ray Charles and Rickie Lee Jones, Caesarea Amphitheatre, Israel 1989

Sesame Street Live, Cobo Arena

If you want to know why people are putting out lists, its just to brag about their rock and roll lifestyles.

Captain Beefheart fan - I don't guess FZ was with them?

Prince - The Lovesexy Tour (1988)

r44 - my former partner's high school prom date was his musical director for 20 years!

R9 I'm literally melting with jealousy.

My favorite was the Smashing Pumkins in 2000 in their farewell tour. It probably wasn't the best concert ever objectively, but I had just turned 13 and it was my first concert, and my favorite band. It took weeks to convince my parents to let me go. Seeing all this for the first time, the crowd, the smoke, the smell and the bass vibrating through my chest made it a magical experience.

Close second was Bowie in 2003. The last song was Ziggy Stardust and I think I cried a little bit.

Morrissey pulled me up on stage to dance with him . Meat is murder tour. Tower Theatre upper Darby. Also i took a hit of acid at a greatful dead show — one of my buddy’s (also on acid) had a bad trip. Had to take him home - long & sort: we were caught & I had to finish off my acid trip with my parents watching. Will never forget

Reba McEntire in the 90s at an big arena in California, she did like 15 costume changes, tons of lights, fireworks, 4 backup singers & 10-15 dancers, huge runway-type stage spanning the entire arena floor, arrived on stage in a mini Lear jet, rose above the stage on a platform surrounded by an AIDS quilt while singing her song about the crisis, she ended with an encore of Fancy that started on one end of the stage until fireworks went off and she magically appeared on a cherrypicker at the other end of the arena (the trick I found out years later was a Drag Queen actually started the song on the other end of the stage). It was a fucking spectacle, she’s very engaging and she sounds almost exactly the same live as on albums - but there obviously no lipsync. Not sure her shows are the same now, but I remember reading at one point in the 90s she had a bigger production than Madonna and was the only female artist ranking in the top 10 tours.

Also Reba in the early 90s. Her opening act was Brooks & Dunn as their first album came out.

Jones beach in the mid late 80s was my favorite place to see a show. Depeche Mode music for the masses, Squeeze Babylon & on, INXS kick tour, it was a gorgeous venue before they built the upper levels. So many hotties at the shows then too. Then you’d go out to Malibu or The OBI to dance.

The Cure and Bowie at the meadowlands general admission 1988/89(?) were great because I had front row!

Portishead 2000ish Paul Simon 2000ish

I saw U2 in 2005. Still the best concert I've been to. Was lucky to get a ticket.

Bic Runga in the early teens. She has a great song book and the first four songs she chose from it showed exactly how happy she was at that point in her life. A true artist.