Got to see Chicago/ Beach Boys double headline back in 1989 (I think). Both bands were great. Saw the Beach Boys at the old Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, OH about 5 years later and it was a great show.

Bad Company Holy Water tour. Brian Howe was front lining the band and he was great, but really would have preferred to have seen Paul Rodgers.

Black Crowes opening for ZZ Top on the Recycler tour. ZZ Top had a great show, but musically, Black Crowes was much better.

Duran Duran … I was a closet fan of theirs back in my teens. I’m not in the closet any longer. Soup Dragons opened for them and they suuuucked.

Linkin Park opening for Metallica at the Atlanta Braves stadium in 2003. They were great, Metallica was meh, but I’ve never been a huge fan of theirs.

Live… Not a big fan of theirs, but they did have a good live show. (see what I did there! Yes, I’m a Dad.) They opened for the Counting Crows who were great too.

Santana is a lot better live than anywhere else. I saw him on the Supernatural tour, or at least that was the album he had just released. Funny side story about this concert. This was in 1999 and was there with a friend. 25 years later, my wife and I were talking about concerts we have attended over the years. She mentioned she went to see Santana when she first moved to Cincinnati, which is where I lived at the time… Turns out we were at the same concert 5 years before we met and didn’t realize it until last year.

Yes, I’m old.

Pop Will Eat Itself in the early 90’s.

Amazing fun shows with tons of energy from the band and the audience.

Avatar

Three words: “Weird Al” Yankovic

He and the same guys in his band have been touring together for 40+ years, and the experience shows.

It’s one of the hardest rocking shows out there. Yes, I’m serious.

Not a band, but a DJ, Jake Beautyman, April 2024 in São Paulo. He started his set with the Severance OST and was a banger song after song. Still think about that party today

Sigor Ros. Saw them live and, despite their melancholy music, put on a helluva show. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them live!

That and The Flaming Lips. Their live shows are always spectacular, seen them twice

Massilia Sound System. Crowd is basically in a state of plasma from beginning to loooooong after the show ends. When it’s set on the port, you can be sure some of us will launch ourselves in the oily water for the hell of it, come back and slippery dance some more. At the start of every show they distribute a platter of pastis shots in the pit. It’s not a band, it’s a culture. A generation

Muse. They are almost too perfect live. It feels uncanny.

Porter Robinson. Greatest show ever.

Buddy Guy. the concert was pretty posh (think bankers in suits), with everyone having arranged seating, audience sitting still and quiet like at a classical music concert.

he was like ‘fuck this, this isn’t a proper concert, my guitar is wireless, let’s stand up, go to the entry hall and jam’. so he’s just standing in the middle of the crowd and going nuts, at like 83 years of age. That was amazing.

In This Moment

Austin Lucas

God Speed You! Black Emperor.

Not a band, but Patti Smith, with Philip Glass.

Dj shadow vs cut chemist at the Hollywood bowl. It was experimental but quite the experience

Mando diao

So many that my answer is just listing most of the concerts I can remember going to

The Midnight

Roosevelt

Tycho

DJ Shadow

deadmau5

Perturbator

Rush (RIP Neil)

Celldweller

The Crystal Method

Psychostick

Above & Beyond

Kodo (Japanese taiko drummers)

Lateralis (chiptune musician and indie game dev)

If I had to pick the three most memorable, it’d be Kodo, DJ Shadow, and The Midnight