Ask Lemmy

I haven't seen him in almost 15 years, but Weird Al Yankovic puts on a hell of a good show. Always has the best backup musicians with him.

I was at the Foo Fighters gig where Dave Grohl fell off the stage and broke his leg, after which the rest of the band spent an hour playing various covers until Dave came back on stage high on pain meds mixed with alcohol and resumed the show. A doctor had to sit on stage and keep his leg fixed for the rest of the show until they could take him to the hospital to give him a cast, and the entire crowd dedicated "My hero" to the doctor. That show was fucking awesome.

Stone Temple Pilots - (MTV Unplugged) - Sony Studios, NYC, ’93

Massive Attack - Roseland NYC, ‘96

Green Day - Barbarella, Orlando, ‘95

Modest Mouse - (Baron von Bullshit Rides Again) - Sapphire Supper Club, Orlando, ‘04

Paul Oakenfold - (Global Underground 006), The Tunnel, NYC, ‘94

These are just a few. I’m sure there’s a bunch I’m forgetting. I doubt that I could single any one of them out.

Maybe STP or Massive Attack

Edit: updated to include live album titles, and cities

Edit 2: confirmed: that MTV unplugged, performance of plush is available on Apple Music:

On disc four of this album

https://music.apple.com/us/album/core-super-deluxe-edition/1263219551

Otherwise, on the Stone Temple Pilots album, core, the super Deluxe Edition.

Top two concerts of all time:

Daft Punk at Lollapalooza 2007

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at Northerly Island, Chicago, 9/1/24

High as a kite at a friends house just hanging out after work. My friend just randomly picks up his acoustic guitar and starts noodling. His roommate comes home, disappears for a bit and comes out with a standup bass. For the next 2 hrs they just smoked and jammed for the love of music.

Me:

Daft punk

Rammstein

Theatrics, setlist, audio quality, crowd... Just wow. Hope to see them one more time.

Patti Smith and Philip Glass. I've been a fan of hers for so long, couldn't believe I was in the same room as her, so to speak. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01f9vrd

God Speed You! Black Emperor https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/godspeed-you-black-emperor/2016/edinburgh-playhouse-edinburgh-scotland-6bfcf2c6.html

(Added in edit) This song made me cry, it's so beautiful and joyful and sad. A wonderful concert altogether.

Probably the most intense performance I've ever seen was the Japanese dance troupe Sankai Juku, in Wellington, NZ in 1988. Amazingly moving, unforgettable.

Gogol Bordello

Absolute manic fun.

Tool. Hands down.

Primus. Mesa Amphitheater.

• TOOL
• Roger Waters
• Muse

NIN always does a great show, but I think of all of them I liked the Fragility Tour the most (2000). It was so well done.

KMFDM always puts on a hell of a show. I never miss a chance to see them and they always kill it. My favorite show of there's was the Symbols tour with PIG. They had Ogre from Skinny Puppy touring with them as he was a temporary member for that album. Just so good.

Gwar was always great and fun to see live. They probably still are, but I haven't been able to see them live in years.

I think the best live show I ever saw was Good Kid. Their energy and jams couldn’t be matched.

Metallica, Donington Park Raceway, 2004. They were headlining Download festival, but Lars was rushed to hospital right before the show. Rather than cancel they brought out a rotating cast of drummers from the other bands at the festival, starting with Dave Lombardo from Slayer.

This was the St Anger tour... We were all jazzed to see Metallica, but let's be honest, no one was particularly jazzed about St Anger as an album. Thing is though, their guest drummers didn't know the tracks on St Anger. They knew old school Metallica; Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, the Black Album, And Justice For All. The good shit.

Better yet, the guest drummers were absolutely psyched to be there. For Metallica this could have been just another show. Huge crowd, but they've played bigger. But for their rotating cast of drummers this was the greatest night of their life. That kind of enthusiasm is infectious and it really showed. This was one of the most balls to the wall performances I've ever seen from any band. The energy was off the charts.

Especially when they got to Joey from Slipknot. The idea was that they were going to keep rotating drummers throughout the night, but after Joey played his first song, that went out the window. He was their drummer for the rest of the night. That motherfucker played his god damn heart out. Now, listen, if you're one of those people who still thinks that Slipknot are a bad band, go listen to Vol 3 and then come talk to me. Joey is one hell of a drummer, and he showed up to play. And the whole band felt it.By the end of the show James Hetfield wasn't singing to us... He was singing to Joey. I distinctly remember him standing with one foot up on the bass drum staring that little masked genius dead in the eyes, two guys basically performing for each other (an image made hilarious and adorable by the fact that James Hetfield is a giant of a man, and Joey is a pocket sized human being; it was like Dad brought his kid to work).

It was a once in a lifetime experience, and probably one of the best shows Metallica ever played. Pure lightning in a bottle.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor at Paradiso, NL on 2023-04-09

Hands down best sounding live performance I've been to.

It's a bit sad because I know what the venue acoustics are capable of, and I've been to a ton of concerts there, but nothing ever came close.

tull played in grant park. The flutist society had something to do about it and it felt like they played their most flute heavy songs from the group. Its funny because it was free but the one other time I saw them in concert I payed for but it was catfish rising and I think anderson got sick as it was a big disapointment.

Don’t laugh, but Collective Soul. They did that song “Gel” back in the day. I wasn’t a huge fan of their music and still am not. But it was a great live concert.

Free tickets got passed to me from one of my mothers friends, and it was at an old theater with chandeliers and padded seats.

Was very surprised at how engaging they were with the crowd.

I saw The Chemical Brothers play back in the early 2000's and they were set up with racks and racks of keyboards surrounding them. They played their electronic music live on the keyboards and watching them blew my mind. Up until this concert I never thought of electronic producers as musicians, this totally changed my perspective.

Slipknot puts on a great show. Weird Al's shows are always fun. If I'm within a couple of hours of where Babymetal is putting on a show, I will do whatever it takes to see them. Honey Dijon spins an amazing set. Whenever you have a chance to see an opera, go. Chances are you'll be blown away by the talent.

In random order: Rammstein in 2024, Iron Maiden in 2008, Gorilla Biscuits this summer, Metallica in 1991 and probably one or two I forgot.

Paul McCartney and 21 Pilots, both at Bonnaroo 2013.

21 Pilots were getting popular, but this was still a year before Blurryface came out, so they were on one of the smaller stages during the daytime. Even so, their energy was amazing.

Paul McCartney just had this presence about him. It also helps if you have multiple hours of hit songs that are completely cemented in popular culture. His two hour set lasted four hours, he came back out for four encores, and I don't think a single person left early.

And since you didn't say musical performances: comedian Emo Philips! Saw him at a comedy club and it was probably the funniest thing I've ever been to.

Billy Talent, Sydney 2007

I don't know man, was my first time going to an actual concert of a band I liked, and it was just something special

Meshuggah’s live sound is earth shattering. And I don’t mean deafening loud. Most club music is probably louder. But theirlive mix is just absolutely heavy. Then you have the synchronized lights and you only see their silhouettes for most of the show.

Hmm, hard to pick, but these come to mind in no particular order:

Chemical Brothers - Glastonbury Other Stage 2019

Chemical Brothers - V Festival (South) 2nd stage 2008

Faithless - V Festival (South) Main Stage 2006

Bloc Party - Alexandra Palace 2007

Nine Inch Nails - Eden Project 2022

Nine Inch Nails - O2 London 2025

Underworld - Aviva Studios Manchester 2024

Oneohtrix Point Never - New Century Manchester 2024

Massive Attack - Bestival Main Stage 2009

Massive Attack - Glastonbury Other Stage 2014

Aphex Twin - Glastonbury Temple Stage 2014

Sub Focus b2b Wilkinson - Glastonbury Sonic Stage 2019

Deadmau5 - Nation Liverpool 2009

Sigur Ros - Manchester Apollo 2022

I'm definitely forgetting a lot off the top of my head though

Neutral Milk Hotel

Rammstein, Pledge of Allegiance '01. Till did the first song of their set ON FIRE.

NIN, Lights in the Sky '08. Absolutely insane A/V, transparent screens layering the entire stage that would make various band members visible/invisible depending on what was being displayed on each layer and where the spotlights were pointed.

And then there's Ozzy just blasting the pit with a fire hose for most of the set…

Slipknot puts on a crazy show. With so many people in the band, there was always somebody doing something worth watching. I'm not even a Slipknot fan, I was there to see System of a Down.

Foreigner. Lead singer was climbing up the fifteen foot scaffolding, singing from way up there. No safety equipment either. Like a jungle gym.

Two way tie: First is Dethklok on their first tour at the Worcester Palladium. To this day it was the best produced live performance I have ever experienced. Everything sounded immaculate, Brendon arguing with and having whole conversations with himself in charecter was great. Just absolutely phenomenal. Saw them on their latest tour and it was like 90%, so still amazing.

Second was Castle Rat at Sonia in Boston (iirc 2024?)when they opened for Green Lung. Sonia is small af, and they had the PA cranked. It was the only time I have ever regretted not having ear plugs, and actually bought some specifically because of this show. I can't even describe what the show was like, it was as close to a religious experience as I have ever had (definitely aided by the heat). Green Lung live is a whole other experience (in a good way), but I walked out of that show saying next time I saw Castle Rat they were going to be in a MUCH larger venue. I was wrong, it took two more shows. I saw them at Sonia again almost exactly one year later but they were headlining. The year after they were opening for Amon Amarth and Dethklok.

Les Miserables. (Sydney, Australia in 2015.)

I found myself in Sydney for work and looking for some way to spend the evening.

I had only ever seen live theater once before in my life (an opera in Vienna), and I enjoyed it well enough so I figured the world famous Sydney Opera House, but it was sold out.

Then I saw Comedian Dylan Moran was in town, but again sold out.

Then I had a choice to make, both Matilda the Musical and Les Miserables were in town. I was familiar with the story of Matilda, but had no idea what Les Miserables was.

I decided on Les Miserables, since it would be new to me, and was completely amazed. It kicked off what is now a lifelong love of theater and I've seen dozens of shows (including Matilda many years later in London's West End).

ZZ Top 1979. I think. It WAS the 70s.

Taking this in another direction, Aziz Ansari did a comedy set at my college nearly 20 years ago; he was hysterical. He did tons of crowd work and had everyone in stitches. Then, about an hour into his performance he says “oh, by the way, I haven’t even started my regular set yet”. He went at least another 45 minutes after that.

As for my favorite concert, it’d have to be seeing Coheed and Cambria play In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 in its totality on an anniversary tour. I was with my college roommates and we all love that album so much so it made the show extra meaningful as we belted out song after song together.

Man Man opening for Modest Mouse in Rochester NY. Got to watch the soundcheck and had spots on the rail. Man Man just had another energy I haven't really seen matched by anyone.

Sigur Ros at Bonnaroo in 2008. Was a few hour gaps between shows at the stage and hung out for a few hours with people to get a good spot. Left that show to find Kanye (who was supposed to start at the same time), still hadn't taken stage. Fell asleep waiting for him, gave up around 4AM and walked back to my tent. Think he went on around 430AM

Viagra Boys in 2022. Fun show, good crowd energy.

Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem/Blonde Redhead/ Les Savy Fav on Randall's Island in 2007. Front row of 20,000+ people (that I ran to secure for our group) Met Will Butler. Was LCD Soundsystem's last stop on the tour. Special special show.

Oh, Girl Talk at RIT sometime around 2007 or so. I've seen Girl Talk I think three times, but crowd energy was nuts for this one. Crowdsurfed even.

QOTSA

Chemical Brothers is a close second because we dropped acid 30 mins before and were dealing with this shit...

Lindsey Stirling puts on a pretty great show, lots of acrobatics and fun choreography. Her Christmas show is a TON of fun.

Fela Kuti. Absolutely transcendent.

Runners up - Henry Rollins, Bad Brains.

Gawd I sound too nostalgic. I have been to some amazing shows more recently too - Janelle Monae in a 2,000 person venue, Cimafunk is great live. Charley Crockett and Leon Bridges, Tyler Childers (I did not love the venue but he is amazing). J Roddy Walston and the Business oh my God what a live act they were, and we got to see them in bars.

But FELA, that really was a special thing to experience.

Ive seen alot of DJs who did really good sets. Saw one DJ do their set blindfolded. A couple live bands. Which would have been between Weird Al and Video Games Done Live for the best.

But without a doubt. Insane Clown Posse put on the best show. I saw them in an underground nightclub. That had plastic everywhere to try and protect the electronics. There was a lake of Faygo in the center of the dance floor, feathers everywhere, and the clear smell of a burnt electronics.