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The Best Metal/Punk/Noise/Doom/Black/Death/Rock Shows You've Ever Seen

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  • The Best Metal/Punk/Noise/Doom/Black/Death/Rock Shows You've Ever Seen

    I tried to do a Top 10, but mine went to 11. And I still had to eliminate so much. Not even a Slayer show! This is chronological.

    1980- Black & Blue Tour- BOC is my all-time fave band and this was my 3rd concert. 15 year old me was terrified of all the giant Sabbath fans with leather and chains chanting "Sa-bbath!"
    1981- Judas Priest/Iron Maiden- Point of Entry tour for Priest; Killers for Maiden. This was back when metal was still ugly, so I don't think there was a single female concertgoer at this show.
    1982- Scorpions/Iron Maiden- after HS graduation many people backpack around Europe. Me and a friend took a bus to Cleveland to see this show. We ended up in the same hotel as the bands.
    1986- Bad Brains- at D.C.'s 9:30 club, my favorite venue ever. One of the girls who went with us had only been to a single concert: Crosby Stills & Nash. After the show I peed on the FBI building.
    1988- Jimmy Page- we had a friend with connections who was getting us Led Zep tix in 1980 and then Bonham died. I saw Plant and Page at separate shows in '88 but nothing beats a violin bow on a guitar for sheer noise.
    1995- Ace Frehley (w/Peter Criss opening)- at Hammerjack's in Baltimore. 2nd loudest show I've ever been to. MBV at 9:30 club in 1989 was the loudest.
    1999- Black Sabbath- somehow ended up with 3rd row seats at a pavilion/outdoor shed show. Tony Iommi nodded at me playing air guitar.
    2000- Ozzy/Pantera- plus a bunch of others at an Ozzfest. The second that Pantera came on a giant electrical storm erupted and the rain went sideways under the pavilion. It ended right after they were done. Creepy. Ozzy had a cool stage set that had connections to the then-current Adam Sandler movie Little Nicky.
    2009- Bolt Thrower/Sigh- Maryland Deathfest Night 3. Lots of bands, like Krallice, were great, but Bolt Thrower and Sigh are 2 of the best individual performances I've ever seen.
    2011- Melt Banana
    2015- Electric Wizard

  • #2
    1984- Minutemen/Black Flag/Ramones at the Hollywood Palladium. The Flag was great but the Ramones audio was kind of washed out. Supposedly there was a "police riot" outside and Greg Ginn's girlfriend got hurt, but it was smooth sailing where I was.

    1989- The Hags/Haunted Garage/L7/45 Grave at Fender's in Long Beach. A few songs in, the singer from The Hags asked someone to break a bottle. No one obliged. His chest was scarred and he clearly intended to cut himself some more on stage. I think he may have wound up using car keys. I remember some goth kids in the front looking terrified. Some people seem to hate Haunted Garage, but I enjoyed them. Was surprised to see the singer turn up in a Linnea Quigley movie not to long afterward. First time seeing in L7 and I was completely blown away. That may be the only time I ever "got in the pit." I also had to roll onto the stage at one point during 45 Grave's set (which was great) to avoid getting crushed as the crowd surged forward. I think the venue burned down a few months later.

    1990- Hole/Cat Butt/L7 at some little club in Hollywood. Also some band I can't remember the name of, might have been a husband/wife duo. Hole was nobody at the time and were not half bad. Cat Butt was fantastic. Tried to see L7 every time they played LA back then. Did not disappoint. Courtney Love engaged in friendly heckling from the audience. Wish Cat Butt had stuck it out longer. Saw them again with L7 about a month later. Also excellent.

    1994- Speed Queens/Red Aunts/Supersnazz/Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black at Emo's in Austin. Speed Queens were a local band that turned out to be pretty enjoyable. Red Aunts were a great female combo from (I think) Long Beach, CA. Played mostly stuff off the third album. Supersnazz was from Japan and played pretty much the stuff off their Sub Pop LP, which was fine by me because that is the highlight of their recorded output IMO. Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black was touring off their second album. Great, under-appreciated band. I would think everyone here would like them, but opinions differ. Saw them again later at the same venue and they were down a dancer and asked me to fill in. That was a hard "no." The world did not need that.

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    • #3
      1981 - Judas Priest/Iron Maiden at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. As I mentioned in the other thread, this was a fantastic show. Hugely influential on my growing NWOBHM obsession.

      2001 - Quadrajets/The Hellacopters in Charlotte, NC. Can't remember the name of the venue. Some small club. The Quadrajets were insanely loud...had 3 guitar players too. I wasn't very familiar with them at the time but have since really gotten into them. The Hellacopters were fucking awesome, we played pool with them prior to the show. Jim from New Bomb Turks came out and played with them during "City Slang", he was so drunk he sat on the bass drum and played, haha. He wasn't sloppy on the axe at all, surprisingly.

      1980 - Def Leppard/Scorpions/Ted Nugent at a huge auditorium in Jacksonville, Fl. Pete Willis was still with Leppard (touring On Through The Night), he looked like he was abut 4 feet tall on the stage. They were great, that's really their only NWOBHM album. Scorpions were touring Animal Magnetism and blew me away. Nuge was supporting Scream Dream. While I had moved on from him long before, he was a big part of my early development for heavy music. Free For All is a good album. He put on a nice show.

      1986 - Metallica/Ozzy at the Charlotte NC Auditorium. I'll give this to Ozzy, he always had great support bands. Metallica was on the Master of Puppets tour and were as amazing as you'd think. We found out where they were staying before the show and went to the hotel and hung out with them. Cliff was by far the coolest one. Lars was a dick. I also once saw Accept open for Ozzy and like Metallica, they blew him off the stage.

      1981 - Blue Oyster Cult/Foghat at the Charlotte Auditorium. BOC on the Fire of Unknown Origin tour. I was and am a huge BOC fan. They were spectacular. Lasers, motorcycle, giant Godzilla head, guitar duels, Albert coming out from his drum kit to play guitar on "Cities on Flame".

      1986 - D.R.I. at the Metroplex in Atlanta, Ga. My friend's band, Slick Flesh opened for them. Very scary, violent show w/a ton of skinheads. I was nervous the whole damn time. D.R.I. followed us back here and played a show at a barn the next night, haha. They were very cool, the drummer told us stories about hanging out in the studio when Slayer was recording Hell Awaits.

      2001 - (REO) Speedealer/Nashville Pussy/Supersuckers/Motorhead at the Music Farm in Charleston, SC. 'Nuff said. LOUD. My ears rang for a fucking week after.

      1981 - George Hatcher Band/Black Sabbath at the Charlotte Auditorium. We drove to this in a fucking blizzard. There were cars that had skidded off the highway all over the place. I drank a lot of vodka. Sabbath was touring Mob Rules. They rocked. Hatcher was some southern rock dude I had never heard before (or since).

      1989 - The Fluid/Mudhoney at Rockafellas in Columbia, SC. I lived in Columbia at the time, about 2 miles from the place. We would walk there. Mudhoney was awesome. Saw many, many bands at that place - Dwarves, Butthole Surfers, Fugazi, etc.
      Andrew Monroe
      Pallid Hands
      Last edited by Andrew Monroe; 10-04-2020, 01:53 PM.
      I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.

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      • #4
        I saw Wolf Eyes on a cold night last November, it was freezing cold and dark, absolutely perfect evening

        "I don't eat at taco joints unless there's a lawn care truck parked out front" - me

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