People you've seen live that were either better than expected or were a bit of a disappointment

EricTheWeary · October 2013

The Damned were memorably awful, just a big dull noise for 90 minutes. UB40 were painfully dull and the drummer kept cocking stuff up.

Tom Jones was great.

Deep Purple were okay but Blackmore was rubbish. Off to see them with Morse next week. If he can remember most of the songs he will be one up on Ritchie.

ICBM · October 2013

Better than expected - Runrig at Balloch Park, 1991. Truly brilliant, regardless of what you might think of their music normally. You probably had to be there to understand why.

Worse than expected - Queens Of The Stone Age at the Glasgow Academy. A mushy mess, which doesn't work for music that relies on relentless precision.

bertie · October 2013

Slade

MOR 1981 - fantastic, completely rocked the place.

B.O.C - same gig, fucking awful

jaygtr · October 2013

Better than expected
Shawaddywaddy
Sweet
Yes
Duran Duran
Thomson twins
Dio
Super furry animals

Worse
Metallica
Rush
Tears for fears
Pulp

historyisjunk · October 2013

Probably biggest disappointment wasn't even a bad show. Neil Young at the SECC sometime mid 90's. In fact, I think he did a really good show & it lasted a fair while; Kula Shaker were pretty good suport too. Where I had to sit, & I mean sit or else, was much too far away, I hardly remember anything about it, it was so dismal. I'd been working my arse off away from home & looking forward to it enormously. The SECC also gouge you for parking, which isn't mentioned when you buy the tickets.

Also disappointing was Lou Reed- in a bad mood & rushing some of the songs.

Stunningly good, but unknown or unexpected-
Doll By Doll early 80's sometime, supporting Hawkwind who were very poor, hearts not in it, though normally great. Despite getting an absolutely shit reception Doll By Doll really did their best & I'd never heard anything like them, really intense.

The Black Diamond Heavies, then still with their guitarist, Supporting The Immortal Lee County Killers, never heard of them before- nothing to touch them for a long time after.

The reformed Green On Red, London Astoria about 2006- just wow. I was worried I'd find it embarrassing & all back slapping reunion stuff, not in the least, a proper show & they were totally on it. Was not happy to find I missed them in Glasgow a couple of years later.

ICBM · October 2013

historyisjunk said:

The SECC also gouge you for parking, which isn't mentioned when you buy the tickets.

It's much easier to park in the Minerva St area and walk across the footbridge

. Not only free but you get home while everyone else is still queuing to get out of the SECC car park...

I would definitely have been disappointed if I'd had to listen to Kula Shaker though.

johnnyurq · October 2013

bertie said:

Slade

MOR 1981 - fantastic, completely rocked the place.

B.O.C - same gig, fucking awful

@bertie

Yep I was there too Slade who were replacing a band who dropped out IIRC well, slayed.

As you say B.O.C not so much, especially getting grief from the nutter bikers at the front.

AC/DC were great and it was very near the start of the Back in Black tour.

Aidanspaghetti · October 2013

ZZtop this summer were amazing... I was expecting a "going through the motions" job but holy feck, they rocked the shop.

Wolfsbane supporting Maiden in '90. Drop dead brilliant. I could not believe three instruments and a voice (what a voice) could rock so hard. Amazing talent.

Brad Paisley playing to about 300 people in a small country town in Ireland - he was playing Wembley later that week also.... Amzing gig - they couldn't believe how few came out... They play a few numbers and then hes says "Reckon country musics not too popular round here" whilst laughin.. The band played out of their skin and had a brilliant night. You could see the fun they were having.

The Hellecasters in a nightclub in cork... I still cant believe it nearly 20 years later...

On the crap side

Went to see Satriani 2 nights in a row in the same venue. Whilst the gig was great the 1st night, same set list and banter the second night kinda bummed me out..

Great gig but embarrasing was when I brought all my non muso mates to a Vai gig back in the day.... He came out with the xmas lights all flashing on and off all over him etc.... Think I still have some bruises from that night

historyisjunk · October 2013

ICBM said:

historyisjunk said:

The SECC also gouge you for parking, which isn't mentioned when you buy the tickets.

It's much easier to park in the Minerva St area and walk across the footbridge . Not only free but you get home while everyone else is still queuing to get out of the SECC car park...

I would definitely have been disappointed if I'd had to listen to Kula Shaker though.

Ahh, thanks for the advice. You never know, I may go back- though I can't see it & most of the people I like would never fill it.
The getting home bit is the best, I remember missing the M8 turn off & accidentally driving down a street with bus & taxi only resrictions at that time (Argyle St?) fortunately it was OK, probably the best thing about the night.

Ha, I actually quite liked some of Kula Shaker, though I never bought any records.

ICBM · October 2013

historyisjunk said:
The getting home bit is the best, I remember missing the M8 turn off & accidentally driving down a street with bus & taxi only resrictions at that time (Argyle St?) fortunately it was OK, probably the best thing about the night.

Ha, yes that part of Glasgow is a total nightmare to drive in if you don't know it! And sometimes even when you do...

mike_l · October 2013

EricTheWeary said:

Deep Purple were okay but Blackmore was rubbish. Off to see them with Morse next week. If he can remember most of the songs he will be one up on Ritchie.

I saw them a few years ago at the last Monsters of Rock, right after Alice Cooper. Whilst DP were awesomes, after Alice they were like a post orgasmic chill.

Incidentally I saw Ted Nugent on the same day, total shite, all the songs sounded the same. I went primarily for Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and Queensryche, so wasn't disappointed by Ted.

bertie · October 2013

johnnyurq said:
AC/DC were great and it was very near the start of the Back in Black tour.

yes, I touched the hand of his Angusness, when he came out on the sedan chair thing

We were about 10 "rows" from the front...........got there for 'Snake and had to put up with the bikers 'shinanigins' for hours

johnnyurq · October 2013

bertie said:

johnnyurq said:
AC/DC were great and it was very near the start of the Back in Black tour.

yes, I touched the hand of his Angusness, when he came out on the sedan chair thing

We were about 10 "rows" from the front...........got there for 'Snake and had to put up with the bikers 'shinanigins' for hours

Lucky barsteward @bertie and I couldn't have been too far from you. At one point I was popped over the barrier in a fine crowd surfing moment due to being squished by lardy bikers. I was a mere slip of a thing then and vertically challenged too.

Got back stage at that point and was close to the hospitality but got shepherded back to the crowd ASAP, bummer.

Whitesnake were OK and IIRC BOC cried foul against AC/DC's team and that the PA blew up and they were kept very quiet by the AC/DC sound dudes.

They also say AC/DC nixed their use of Godzilla and the motor bike.

Of course they also sacked their drummer the day before and a tech who knew the songs depped for him.

Their sound dude did a blog on it and claimed other stuff too so who knows maybe they were crocked.

Whitesnake bitched before and after that they should have been the headliners, smacks of sour grapes. But they weren't too bad.

Good times eh.

EricTheWeary · October 2013

FWIW I saw BOC on one of their own gigs and it was highly enjoyable indeed.Worth putting that in the pleasant surprise category. Not sure Monsters of Rock did everyone many favours. I saw Magnum there ( ZZ Top were headliners possibly?) and they sounded awful but I had seen them several times around that period and they were a stonkingly good live act.

daveyh · October 2013

BOC?

jaygtr · October 2013

daveyh;50781" said:
BOC?

Blue oyster cult

EricTheWeary · October 2013

daveyh said:

BOC?

Bring your Own Cheese.

Or Blue Oyster Cult ( at least that's what I'm assuming! if I'm wrong delete all my previous posts!)

jaygtr · October 2013

EricTheWeary;50778" said:
FWIW I saw BOC on one of their own gigs and it was highly enjoyable indeed.Worth putting that in the pleasant surprise category. Not sure Monsters of Rock did everyone many favours. I saw Magnum there ( ZZ Top were headliners possibly?) and they sounded awful but I had seen them several times around that period and they were a stonkingly good live act.

There was always lots of conspiracy theories about monsters of rock and the sound.
The first year I went Bon jovi and their label mates Cinderella had fantastic sound, whereas Dio had ok sound and the up and coming Metallica had truly shocking sound.

Only Bon jovi and Cinderella got a sound check.

I remember Bruce Dickinson saying that the following year when iron maiden were headlining that all bands playing would get a sound check before.

Of course this may all be rubbish , but as a 16 year old I believed everything kerrang said.

Also Bon jovi's helicopter flew in very low right in the middle of Metallica's set

So it's quite possible that some bands were poor at monsters of rock

johnnyurq · October 2013

It wan't just MOR a lot of festivals and multi band gigs since forever have had tales of being crocked, some will be true some not I guess.

Back in my originals heyday we had some silly stuff happen and witnessed it happening to other bands by design. Shitty but true.

But I do recall Bruce Dickinson stating that their support bands would get all they get and invited them to blow IM off the stage.

There seems to be enough anecdotal evidence from other bands that was indeed the case.

Kudos to BD and IM for that.

jaygtr · October 2013

It's a long time ago but I don't think anybody did blow IM off the stage.

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People you've seen live that were either better than expected or were a bit of a disappointment

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