One summer I saw these concerts

Stevie Ray Vaughn with Joe Cocker

Eric Clapton

Crosby Stills and Nash opening act for Greatful Dead, Bruce Hornsby played keyboard for the Dead.

The best concert was Little Feat on New Years eve early 70's.
The best musical overload was the 2nd Atlanta Pop Festival in 1970. Allman Brothers, Chambers Brothers, Mountain, Ten Years After, BB King, Its A Beautiful Day, Spirit, Johnny Winter. It was on July 3-5, and I saw Jimi Hendrix play the Star Spangled Banner on the 4th of July.

Kris Kristopherson and Billy Swan on USS Camden, Gulf of Oman, 1985.

Too many to list. One particular favorite:

Dizzy Gillespie, from a cocktail table, maybe 12ft away from the man on stage in Blues Alley, a venue in Georgetown.

The show was on October 30th, 1991.

He died in January of 1993.

It was something to behold, in sight and sound.

Hard to say which was the best. The one that stands out a little more for me was a Blue Oyster Cult and Kansas double billed. 1989 Offenbach West Germany. Beer and wine was flowing and the camera ball was bouncing through the crowd all night.

The best?

B.B King. Nov 10, 1988 Sanger Theater in Pensacola.

Birthday present surprise for me.
I was invited backstage to Mr. King's room.

Got to hug the man and talk with him.

Such a beautiful and true soul.

That man loved people.

Kind of a toss up between The Moody Blues or Cheap Trick in 1979 at Alpine Valley in Wis.

lots,

REM with the Minutemen (maybe 6 months before the lead of the Minutemen was killed in a car accident)
RVA, at a venue known by us locals as the Mosque


Stray Cats at W&M Hall,

Costello w/ the Imposters, in Portsmouth Va,, they were on fire that night,

Costello w/ the Attractions at Merriweather Post, they played on his birthday, he came out in a bear suit to play a tune,


friend dragged me back to the Mosque for a blues guy I had not heard of at the time,

SRV, don't recall who opened, but it was one of the best shows I have seen

Joe Bonamassa, Columbia,SC 2020.

1982. Queen in August, and Rush in September. Seriously one of the best shows I've ever seen is Prince. He did about 30 minutes of just himself and an acoustic guitar that was phenomenal.

Pink Floyd
Foxborough, Mass
May, 1994

Man, I can’t choose a “best” as I’ve been fortunate enough to see many great shows but one of the most memorable was back in the winter of 1980- Pink Floyd The Wall at Nassau Coliseum..13th row center...amazing experience.

Honorable mentions goes to the 30 year The Police tour. Great show. The smaller venue stuff can be excellent as well. Here in Pueblo I saw Maynard Ferguson in about a 1000 seat venue. Have you ever heard an artist who hits the rarified air and plays a song so good you know you'll never hear it that good again. They nailed Birdland like that. And, Joan Osborne is fantastic live.

Watching Gordon Lightfoot in the late 1970's when he played in Universal City (Studio City, CA).

Tool at the Tabernacle Atlanta.

In 2001 Tool played 4 shows in the US at small venues before launching their world wide Lateralus arena tour. They started at the Tabernacle then played the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC, State Theatre in Detroit and the Riviera theater in Chicago. No massive video screens. No crazy lighting. Just the band and the fans. They very appropriately nicknamed this mini-tour “An Evening with Tool”.

The Tabernacle is an amazing place to see any concert. It holds around 2000 people IIRC and it’s an old church. The acoustics are amazing and the venue is beautiful. I’ve seen a lot of shows there but Tool was my favorite.

Probably Leslie West at the Aragon Ballroom in 1973, or Canned Heat playing at some high school or college around the same time frame.

Maybe not the best, but certainly memorable was seeing the Bad Brains and Minor Threat at the 9:30 Club in D.C. We were on our senior high school class trip, touring D.C. after a couple of days in NYC.

The best performance... BGs in the early 70s.

Also great performance...3 Dog Night early 70s

Kansas. Cannot remember year..80s. Kerry Livgren was no longer touring then. Steve Morse was filling in for him. He now plays with Deep Purple.

Absolute best: Talking Heads, New Orleans 1983

Close second: Pink Floyd, New Orleans 1994

quote:

Originally posted by Bigboreshooter:
Absolute best: Talking Heads, New Orleans 1983

Speaking in Tongues tour, that was a really good one.