Hearing John talk about Aqua this week was a highlight of Rewind-a-Raw. There’s nothing quite like that excitement waiting for a concert (which you probably bought tickets for months earlier).
What’s that band (like Aqua for John) that would be a “must-see” for you and you would travel across the world for if you needed too? Or the best concert you’ve already seen?
I wouldn’t travel anywhere outside of Toronto for any band, but I’d love to see AC/DC & Elton John. I tried to get tickets to take my dad to see Elton, since he says it’s his final tour, but they sold out, then I lost my job, so I can’t afford them on the secondary market right now. So I’m probably shit outta luck on seeing him.
I’ve traveled all over for concerts and festivals (probably travelled to see The Cure more than any other artist), but flying to England from Vancouver to see Kate Bush play her first concerts in 35 years was the most extreme, “must-see, damn the expense, gotta do it” instance.
Summer sanitarium 2003. Metallica, Linkin Park, limp Bizkit, Deftones, and Mudvayne. Awesome show. My biggest bucket list concert now would be the eagles. Couldn’t afford tickets for the cheap seats tho.
Just saw Childish Gambino live on Monday. I’m not exaggerating when saying it felt like a spiritual experience, I felt high off of life when the show ended.
i travelled to Buffalo to see The King of Country Mister George Strait. my fave concert is still probably Brad Paisley, Rodney Atkins and a young Taylor Swift.
I’ve only been to a handful of concerts Queens of the stone age, Interpol (Twice), Disclosure and Kid Cudi. My favorite was the first time I saw Interpol, I didn’t have a car and decided I might as well catch 2 buses to see them or regret it for life
When John was talking about possibly going to Europe to see Aqua and how that might have been a regret of his, I couldn’t help but think about me missing Ozzfest 2008 that had Metallica headlining. I have seen Metallica twice since then but the fact I lived less than hour from where that show happened, I really have no excuse for skipping out on that one. 
edit… but back on topic… The best concert I have ever been to was Roger Waters perform The Wall in 2010. As someone who was born after that album came out, I feel pretty lucky to have seen it performed live.
I’ve only left Montreal once for a concert and it was 2 years ago for Garth Brooks. I knew he wasn’t going to come to montréal and I wanted to see him in concert for a long time, so when he announce he was coming to Ottawa, I went and book a hotel and bought train ticket and went to the concert. It was one of the best concert I’ve ever been too.
But my all time favorite concert as to be Florida Georgia line. I saw them in concert last year, wasn’t expecting much because I wasn’t a huge fan of the group but I became a huge fan because of the concert. This was just a awesome party like atmosphere throughout and after the concert, I wanted to see them again which is rare emotion for a concert
A honorable mention would go to evanescence, I’ve seen them in concert five time already and I never had a bad time. If I wasn’t strap for cash right now, I would have travel to see them in concert last summer when they came to Toronto. But that wasn’t the case.
I saw Metallica at the Opera House a couple of years ago, that was easily my favourite concert.
Wow we have a lot of diverse music fans on the board! More country fans than I would have expected (not that there’s anything wrong with that lol).
I was there! You definitely missed out on one of the best “festival” type concerts I’ve ever been too. The lineup was insane. I got to hear a few new bands I really like now (In This Moment) and Metallica were in top form after taking a long break before Death Magnetic came out.
I’m a huge Metallica fan too and have seen them three times now. Ozzfest 2008 was the best. But seeing them at Cowboys Stadium last year was one of the worst concerts I’ve been too. That stadium has no acoustics for concerts (it was great for Wrestlemania) and in my seats it all sounded terrible. You could barely tell what Song they or the opening bands were playing. A huge disappointment considering how much the tickets were.
These are the best kinds of concerts. And I totally believe Gambino would be the type of artist to put on that kind of show. The concerts i’ve been to where I felt like that were seeing Explosions in the Sky and Florence and the Machine in small venues.
Went to see Rush when they came back after Neil’s family tragedies, I travelled out to Edmonton, it was my first solo road trip(though I took Greyhound) and this was a point of finally seeing my musical heroes in person. And they did not disappoint.
I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen 60x on the number. Being from NJ and having gone to school in the Northeast I got super lucky that he toured the crazy amounts he did and I got to see all the music that my parents brought me up on. A crazy thought since growing up he hadn’t reunited with his band yet.
It would seem redundant seeing that many shows but Bruce is known for mixing up his setlists a ton when he performs multiple night stands (example: in 2016 I saw over 60 songs in three nights at MetLife Stadium in NJ). I’m still chasing some of my all time favorites which makes every show I can get to anticipated.
On my POSTcard from Wai and John they wrote it to me using a bunch of Bruce song titles. Very cool of them to do!
My mom noted that my recent obsession with wrestling (well at least my telling her about it, oppose to when I didnt) seems to have replaced the Bruce craze of following setlists online or watching periscopes. Having a G1 to follow the past two summers definitely has substituted time I’d spend watching the latest Bruce YouTube clips for his previous nights show as he hasn’t been on tour since late 2016
I was lucky enough to get tickets to one of the last Tragically Hip concerts back in August of 2016. It was such an emotional night knowing what Gord and the band where going through and it felt like I just needed to be there. It was my 9th Hip concert and one that I will never forget.
Earlier this year I went to see Postmodern Jukebox in Birmingham, it was around the time that the Beast of the East storm hit the UK so we drove from Leicester in horrendous snow. They joked that we would be stuck there all night but that probably wasn’t far off from the truth. They put on an incredible show regardless, it was non-stop for about 2 hours and it was outstanding. We then had to push our car up snowy hills and drive back to Leicester. A bunch of stories as well as a great show.
I won tickets and a limo ride to the Area 2 Tour back in 2002 at The Gorge in Washington. The performing acts were Moby, David Bowie, Busta Rhymes, and Blue Man Group. It was pretty incredible.
I have been to several big shows Texas Jam 1986 headlined by Van Halen , Texas jam 1987 headlined by Boston. 3 years in a row on New Years Eve to see George Strait, and the Kiss reunion tour when they put the makeup back on. But by far the concert that I enjoyed the best was Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time tour 1987
Lasy December I went to see my favourite band; Queen.
Even though, I know I will never see Freddie in person, just seeing Brian May and Roger Taylor in person was fantastic. The show itself was fantastic and if you get a chance to watch Queen live, I would highly recommend it.
Iron Maiden is one of the bands on my “must see” list. A friend of mine saw them recently and said they still rocked. I’m sure seeing them and Van Halen in their primes in the 80’s was amazing.
To flip the question for everyone: are there any bands you’ve seen live that were disappointing?
For me, a few bands that I’ve seen that had really poor live shows were Cold War Kids, 3 Doors Down, Grimes, and All American Rejects.
Whereas a few bands that had surprisingly good shows were Godsmack, Rise Against and Maroon 5. I went into those shows not being big fans of the bands and came out really impressed by their musicianship and stage presence. They won me over.
I almost went to a Iron Maiden Concert a few years back but i had to sell my ticket at the last minute because it was on the same weekend as the Garth Brooks concert in Ottawa and i was leaving for ottawa on the day of the concert.
As far as band that i’ve seen and had a really poor show. I would have to go with Nickelback which wasn’t horrible but just plain boring at times. i wasn’t impress with Maroon 5 and the last one that comes to mind was the DIxie chicks. I was a huge fans of them when they started but i saw them in concert last year and i was really bored with them. I think it was more the overall experience of the concert that did me in but when a concert starts a 7:30 PM and you have just one opening act that last 30 minutes then you make your fans wait a whole hour before starting the concert, it kinda ruin the experience of the show for them.