Which live performance disappointed you the most?

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Immediate_Formal_252@reddit

Paul McCartney - Gold Coast 2023?

Outdoor, terrible sound, zero vibe, zero interest.

Having grown up with the man I was expecting a lot more and it really was the worst live show I've ever been to.

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You were expecting Lightfoot to be electrifying?

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fonebone819@reddit

Not necessarily disappointed, but The Revivalists concert with The Head and the Heart. They were swapping who opened each night, and The Revivalists were the opener that night. I was a bit bummed... but THATH kicked ass! Huge fan now.

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Dragonfly_Peace@reddit

The Revivalists were boring?

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fonebone819@reddit

Not boring, just didn't have the crowd behind them. Audience was about 1/2 full as well

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huck500@reddit

Guns n Roses opening for Cheap Trick in a medium-sized club in '86... they were terrible. I remember the sound being really bad. Cheap Trick were great, though! I saw Guns n Roses open for The Cult later ('87) and they were both great.

MissouriOzarker@reddit

Honestly, if Jones showed up at all you had a better concert experience with him than many people did over the years. What a voice, but what a mess.

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MusicalMerlin1973@reddit

Cheap trick. Granted we weren't there to see them. They were the opening act. Joan Jett was the middle (that was @$% awesome). Heart was the headliner. That was fabulous. I loved the Zeppelin covers.

Recently went with my wife to see Heart again. Still great. Starship was the opening act. Meh.

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Dramaticflop@reddit

I saw them open for Stone Temple Pilots in ‘96-ish and they were disappointing, I wrote it off to the wrong crowd but now I wonder…. Also saw RHCP with Dave Navarro and their opener, Spacehog, straight up out played them, I was shocked.

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dieticewater@reddit

I saw STP in that same tour and I nearly cried at how bad Cheap Trick was and I was almost more excited to see them. STP was amazing though and it’s still one of my top 5 concerts.

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MusicalMerlin1973@reddit

One shoe that blew me away was Beck. WTF? Great show but that was some crazy stuff.

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Aggressive_Ad60@reddit

I saw BobDylan a couple times in the early mid 90’s… horrible shows!

First time I saw Eric Clapton was amazing, next 2 times were a year or 2 later for different tours..and he played the exact same set for all 3 shows!! Different tours/different years… Lame!! Lazy!!

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postwarmutant@reddit

I loved Dylan when I was in college so I saw him a couple times in the 90s as well. No desire to interact with the crowd, was very closed off, and played strange arrangements to his songs.

Which I get, I’d be bored playing the same songs for 30+ years too, but it would often take a minute to realize what the hell song he was playing.

So yeah bad shows.

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DodgyRogue@reddit (OP)

Bobby seems to pop up a lot!

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rckblykitn14@reddit

I read through all of the comments just now (going back to read the new ones since I originally opened the thread lol - this is my favorite reddit thread in a long time!) and him and Guns n Roses are definitely the top two worst, by a landslide!

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pistolshrimp23@reddit

Aerosmith in about 2015. They didn’t even sound good when they played Dream On during an encore.

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Zelig30@reddit

Smashing Pumpkins

LA Lollapalooza in 1994. The came out dressed as lightbulbs. Corgan didn’t shut up.

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WestLondonIsOursFFC@reddit

Iron Maiden at Earl's Court in London. The sound did them no favours and they didn't play "Run To The Hills" or several other standards.

I know bands won't always play the songs you want to hear, but they'd played a couple of warm up gigs in Paris and it was practically a greatest hits set.

Also a bit disappointed with ZZ Top at Wembley a couple of years ago. The crowd was seated the entire time and even though the set was great, they only played for an hour and fifteen minutes. When I'm paying £100 for a ticket, I expect 90 minutes at the absolute least.

Madonna at Earl's Court wasn't great. £95 for a ticket (and this was years ago) for an eighty minute set. There was a very strong suspicion that she was miming - her vocals were exceptionally clean during the wire work.

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ChoakIsland@reddit

Saw madonna at the old wembly stadium in the 80s. I was near the front, I swear she was miming back then.

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Bob_D_Vagene@reddit

Yes. I saw her in the States on the same tour. I couldn’t believe how bad it was. I recall the show was over pretty quickly too. Maybe an hour long.

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WestLondonIsOursFFC@reddit

Was that the "Who's That Girl?" Tour? I saw her there as well. It was just after U2 and Genesis had played multiple nights there and the council insisted the sound be turned down.

A_Gringo666@reddit

David Lee Roth? Dire Straits? When did this occur?

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replayer@reddit

DS was late 80s, Madison Square Garden. I remember it was the first time I personally saw someone doing cocaine in a concert. 😂

Lanky_Asparagus_8534@reddit

Was that her latest tour about 2 yrs ago? We had great seats but the acoustics in the U opted Center sucked! She phoned it in too

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Cruise1313@reddit

No that concert was in 2004. The acoustics were also bad where we were sitting.

iwastherefordisco@reddit

Joan Jett opening for Robert Plant in 1988. I followed Joan since the Runaways and had reasonable expectations.

She barely moved and the songs while serviceable, weren't great. Maybe she was having an off night, but it seemed like a high school performance at best.

Conversely, Robert Plant opened with three killer Zep songs and the encore was Immigrant Song, so the night wasn't a total waste.

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gjohill@reddit

Counting Crows Candlebox Don Henley

George Carlin.

He started out awesome but about halfway in he went off on a weird political tangent that slowly drifted into not funny. He was almost preaching.

We decided to hang on and see if he came back around but he didn't.

We ended up leaving with a significant portion of the audience.

Disappointing because we aways loved his stuff all the way back to Class Clown.

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noseleaptilbklyn@reddit

Sister of Mercy. 2023 in Brooklyn. Bad sound and his voice is gone. Should have spent the $$ to have backup vocals

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BitterAd4352@reddit

Oh wow The Sisters are mine too! Dallas TX around 2005. The mix through the PA was totally abrasive and overloaded. Sounded like absolute shit. And that line up of the band was terrible.

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bowlgar@reddit

I saw Sisters in 2024 and it was a fantastic show. Maybe that was an exception, but I definitely had no complaints.

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noseleaptilbklyn@reddit

I’m jealous. SOM is one of my fave bands and I’d never seen them in concert before. The sound was so bad that it just sort of hovered over the stage and did not move outward over the crowd. Plus his voice is shit now. It was so disappointing. But some people who saw them in other cities said it was a good show.

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esdubyar@reddit

Dave Matthews.

Eminem. Saw him in the UK at Milton Keynes bowl.

10,000 Maniacs played my school in 1990 or 1991 and Natalie stopped the show twice to complain about people smoking (back then, you could still smoke in lots of places but I swear no one was smoking in that venue)

I went backstage having been given an opportunity to meet her, and she stood there for a second and walked off. We were warned she had a cold and it would need to be quick, but it was nonexistent

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unclejoe1917@reddit

Never was a fan, so I don't really care either way, but I've heard on a couple other occasions that Merchant is an absolutely insufferable person.

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smuttybuddy84@reddit

The week I got discharged from the military I was able to catch a concert in Des Moines. It was June 1995. Danzig/ Suicidal Tendencies/ Metallica. Caught most of Danzig and liked it. First and only time I saw him live. He gives good onstage presence. 2 songs in during Suicidal it starts raining and Mike Muir slips and gashes his leg pretty badly. He finished the song and maybe one more but cut the set short and went to the hospital for stitches. I was disappointed but I didn't blame Mike. I was up against the barricade and could see that cut up close. I was one of the rare crossover punk and metal fans that appreciated them.

There was a pause and Metallica started playing at sunset. I had seen Metallica play several times before and knew that seeing them live was amazing. Towards the end of the set something horrible happened. They took my 8 favorite songs from Ride the Lightning and Kill 'Em All and mashed them into a 5 minute medley. I could not have been more shocked if they started playing Clang Clang Went the Trolley. I and a bunch of others stopped yelling and jumping about and just looked at each other incredulously.

I had opportunities to see Suicidal again and I went. I've never seen Metallica live after that. Then Load and Reload and Napster happened. I considered myself to have been immunized ahead of all that.

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rckblykitn14@reddit

if they started playing Clang Clang Went the Trolley

At this point in their career....don't give them any ideas!! 😂

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Couscousfan07@reddit

Damn dude you got cheated. Danzig and Suicidal together is awesome.

Seen Metallica live once and that was enough. They tune down the songs, increase the tempo to Ridiculous Speed, the drummer sucks, not worth it live.

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vistaculo@reddit

I saw Danzig and Suicidal, that was a crazy show.

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vistaculo@reddit

Say what you want about Glenn Danzig, but he 100% puts on a good show.

I’ve seen him three times, twice solo and once in Misfits, every time was good, even if it was ridiculous. At the Misfits show they literally played every single song, pretty sure they played for almost three hours. And he shows up on time too.

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aracnadei@reddit

Saw Metallica on their black album tour for my first concert and genuinely didn't understand why anyone would ever go to a concert after that experience. They were amazingly terrible. So clearly sniffing their own farts after they got some fame. At one point, they just started trading instruments and "jamming". Not even playing their own songs or playing them badly. Kirk did a full minute or two solo just rubbing the guitar on his ass, then they all laughed for another minute or two. Seriously, wtf? Second concert was Gwar and I finally got it. RIP Dave.

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ShartlesAndJames@reddit

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"Clang Clang Went the Trolley"

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Cars_Music_GoodTimes@reddit

Tiger Army. They are an amazing psychobilly band in the studio but absolutely awful live. Off time, out of key. They must require a lot of practice to get their studio sound so tight.

Gamma_Chad@reddit

Came here to say this... Living Color blew them off the stage. Speaking of which, the set was so massive, half the time you were like "is that Mick WAAYYYYY up there?"

Teenager Of The Year is a great album.

And to be fair, he was promoting that, not Pixies. I can’t imagine him doing them justice without Joey Santiago anyway.

I saw Alex Chilton once and people were calling for Big Star songs. He straight up said, this is an Alex Chilton concert, not a Big Star concert.

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Mudlark-000@reddit

I used to see Bob Mould do solo shows at First Avenue. He’d perform Hüsker Dü, Sugar, and solo songs - it was great. He had a policy of not making any of his bands perform solo or other bands’ material.

I realize Frank Black was promoting his album, but damn it was a short show and the band he had really hadn’t gelled as a live act yet.

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Organic_Tradition_94@reddit

I saw Frank at a festival in Australia and it was a great show from what I remember. I might have been swayed by the fact Pixies had never toured there to that point. I think he had Eric Drew Feldman from Pere Ubu on bass. The breeders and the Amps also toured around the same time and were way better though.

Guns n Roses. Twice.

I saw them as the opening act in 1986 and 1988. They forgot the lyrics and did second takes on guitar solos. They were somehow worse at the second show. I was genuinely surprised they became as big as they did. The last gasp of hair metal.

Time for me to tell my favourite Guns n Roses story again!

Before they broke through, they were supporting INXS on a US tour.

INXS being fairly easy going blokes, Axl Rose decided they were weak and spent the whole tour going round telling everyone he wanted to fight Michael Hutchence. Hutchence, not wanting any of that, did his best to ignore him.

Until, one night, Axl finally gets in his face, demanding a fight. Hutchence tries to walk away but 'Axl' is not having it.

So Hutchence turns around, lays him out with one punch, then walks away.

See, INXS came up on the Australian pub circuit, in the 70s. Mostly in venues where you play behind chicken wire so you don't get bottled. So they could handle themselves in a fight. They just didn't see the need. Because they're not twats.

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Positive_Chip6198@reddit

Axl was and is such a diva, amazing vocal range. But as you say, what a twat.

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No_Ability1548@reddit

My vote for 'Last gasp of hair metal' goes to Poison. It wasn't that their Arsenio Hall performance was shit- it was their whole act.

But, one man's shit is another man's deluxe pizza.

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Bad Religion will still be touring and entertaining when they're in their 90s I swear. And I'll be right there in the front damn row.

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fonebone819@reddit

Huge Blink fan here. Saw them for the first time last year, and absolutely loved it. I knew about, and like the banter. To each their own, I guess

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QuizzicalWizard@reddit

Marilyn Manson in Nashville - 2018. It was like The Crow's dad was there and he was really mad.

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rckblykitn14@reddit

Lmao!!!

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gingerthetrailpup@reddit

Remember Spin Doctors … Two Princes?

Some time in the early 90’s they came to my college and performed

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Whitney Houston-1987-Saratoga Performing Arts Center. While she sang some of her top hits; she dedicated a lot of her show to her Gospel songs. She had a great voice but my friends and me were a bit disappointed.

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fonebone819@reddit

Wish I had money back then to see some great acts that came though that area... 😞

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Careless_Bar_5920@reddit

Jane's Addiction rocked, but Perry was an asshole which dampened the show.

Dylan in the late 90's - he was too drunk to be enjoyable. I've seen him several times since and he's been shy, hiding on the stage, but the music's been good and interesting.

Saw Joan Osborne in the early 90's, the show was boring as all get out - it's like she played the album note for note. Saw her again a few years back and she was fantastic.

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TheFoxsWeddingTarot@reddit

Saw Steely Dan around 94/95 ish. They sounded perfect… which was the problem. This was an era of amazing experimentation and free jazz and they got up and played like a CD note for note. I get that Donald Fagan likes it like that but it made for a very boring show.

Saw Dizzy Gillespie’s last show and he was OLD but it was spontaneous and flowing and tons of fun.

Saw The Orb around 1994, their first song was 45 minutes long, they brought a full band on tour and it was just insane.

Fagan writes music for men stoned at home with giant headphones on… not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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Environmental-Gap380@reddit

Did the Orb play “Little Fluffy Clouds”?

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TheFoxsWeddingTarot@reddit

Yep.

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sdavids5670@reddit

“The Muppets Live!” world tour, 1989. Kermit was clearly wasted for the entire set.

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Hedonistic_Yinzer@reddit

To be fair, he was eating a lot of ham in those days.

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TheFoxsWeddingTarot@reddit

Lots o motorboatin

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fonebone819@reddit

Such an underrated comment! 🤣

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Outrageous-Taro7340@reddit

gif

I googled it for deeper context. This is essentially what I remember him saying, although I don’t think it’s the same interview I heard it from.

“To his credit, in the book, Corgan approaches this era of his life with self-reflection, indicating that he knows he was (is?) hard to deal with, and explaining that a lot of it has to do with the fact that Nirvana was supposed to be the headliner but when they dropped off the Smashing Pumpkins were automatically make the news headliners.

“You talk about going into Middle America at the height of MTV, in 1994, and I was twenty-six or twenty-seven. I was not prepared for that at all,” he said, also noting that there was palpable tension between himself and the fans

“So we’re headlining what became historically the biggest Lollapalooza ever. And there they are,” he said. “There are the same football players who used to bully us in the hallways. I looked at it as, like, ‘No. You’re the enemy and we are here to take you on.’” Finally, Corgan somewhat backed up Coyne’s position by sharing that there have been multiple people who’ve told him that they “refuse to ever see the band or listen to the band” after seeing them at Lollapalooza 30 years ago”

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issafly@reddit

Imagine what a great experience that could've been for him if he had just been nice. Like, how hard is that?

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Common_Juggernaut724@reddit

They sucked at Lollapalooza, but I saw them on a headlining tour and they sucked then, too

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zestypov2@reddit

The Cars. Final tour. Just stood there. Nothing special until the last song when lights fell on springs from the ceiling above the stage. Bouncing lights were the high point.

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blackpony04@reddit

Bare Naked Ladies in 2016.

O.M.D. and Howard Jones opened for them and just killed it, like so full of energy and had the crowd dancing and singing. I even met Paul Humphreys of OMD later in the crowd and got a selfie with him. It was awesome. And Howard Jones turns his show into a rave at the end and it is electric. I saw him again in 2022 with Midge Ure (my draw as Ultravox is my #1 favorite of the 80s) and will be seeing him again this August. His show is just so damn fun.

clamscasinostix@reddit

I saw this tour at Wolftrap in Virginia and had the same feeling about it

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raisinghellions@reddit

Blind Melon. I was so stoked to catch them and they were awful. Well, Shannon was awful, specifically. High AF, out of tune, forgetting words, etc. One of the worst shows I ever paid to attend. He died not long after.

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AD80AT@reddit

Saw BM on their way up (pre-No Rain) in a small hall. The opening band was local and popular, and most of the crowd was their to see them. I don't think anyone knew who Blind Melon was at that point. They played like they had something to prove that night, and they pulled it off. Great show.

I had been looking forward to the 1991 show for weeks because big acts like Dylan rarely came to the backwater where I lived.

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Outrageous_Plum5348@reddit

Recent U2. Don't be U2 and neglect to sing Sunday Bloody Sunday after charging thousands for tickets.🙄

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blackrabbittqueen@reddit

Saw Peter Gabriel in 2012 at the Greek in Berkeley and he was acting like he was 80, riding on a segue and sitting, nearly fell asleep.

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1043b@reddit

Went to see Waylon Jennings back in like 91. He got pissed, flipped off the audience for not standing fast enogh for him and refused to perform. Told us we weren't worth his time.

Hank Williams Jr. Was set to perform later but came out with an acoustic and no backup and took his place. Sang by himself for 45 minutes to keep the crowd happy before another act could be readied.

Metallica. Madly in Anger with the World Tour 2004. I went along expecting their classics. But they played a lot of the newest stuff. Which I didn’t like.

I mean I get I am an asshole fan to expect a band I loved since I was 15 to play specifically what I wanted. But there it is.

NoSliceNoDice@reddit

Saw them in the 80s opening for Ozzy I think. Nicki sixx was falling down wasted. Literally. He fell at least a couple of times and almost fell off the stage. The rest of the band just kept going. Hard to watch someone struggle like that.

As much as I love them, seeing a-ha was like watching an oil painting. Zero stage presence whatsoever; they could give shoegazers a run for their money.

More recently, I went to the Lost 80s Live festival, hosted by Richard Blade, where a ton of those old New Wave bands like A Flock Of Seagulls and The Polecats played. Most of them were pretty good, tho the sets were pretty abbreviated, but Josie Cotton actually had to stop one of her songs partway through because ~~the two homeless people she grabbed off the street to be her~~ backing band were screwing it up so badly. That, and Belious Some was like the uncle we all have who shows up drunk at a wedding and does karaoke even tho there's no karaoke machine.

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KAS-84@reddit

Counting Crows - I’ve seen them twice and both times Adam Duritz changed the lyrics of almost all of the songs while singing. From what I’ve read that’s typical and some people really like that. I wanted to hear the songs as I knew them, or at least the majority of them.

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HiAndStuff2112@reddit

Good call. I have to agree. The time I saw them in LA, Adam kept falling all over the stage.

Oddly though, I actually met him once. I didn't let on that I knew who he was. We were in The Viper Room in Hollywood, and he's instantly recognizable. There's no wondering. Haha.

rodeler@reddit

I saw Peter Gabriel in 1983 and he blew my mind. I was 15 years old, knew nothing about Genesis or his solo career before seeing him that day. I went way down the rabbit hole soon afterwards.

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vistaculo@reddit

The Mr Bungle show in LA for the Raging Wrath shows. We couldn’t get tickets in SF so we flew down the LA to see them. The sound was just about the worst of any show I have ever seen AND it was way too loud. It was absolutely terrible, it just sounded like you were standing in front of a jet.

They ended up adding another show in SF so we went to that one too, and it was great. It was like two completely different bands.

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Ray Lamontagne put me right to sleep. Was so looking forward to it too.

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OtterMumzy@reddit

Coldplay in early 2000s. Chris Martin made weird faces while he sang.

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AdditionalTip865@reddit

They Might Be Giants had a song called "Disappointing Show" that apparently they'd sometimes pull out when things were really fucked up and they were losing the audience. It describes a PA falling on the crowd and the cops breaking up the performance, and I think that was inspired by an actual incident.

I never saw any of that, but of the many shows of theirs I went to, there was one at Berklee where it seemed like there were technical problems with the venue and the sound system and they had this pissed-off, listless energy because of it. That was just the one, though.

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DodgyRogue@reddit (OP)

I only saw these guys one and it was an excellent show, they had so much energy! A friend told me they were playing in Sydney the next night so I rode three and a half hours and was able to buy a ticket from a dude who’s friend couldn’t make it. I only had to pay the face value, too!

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Tralfaz1138@reddit

The performance that disappointed me the most was a weird one. I went to see Love and Rockets with Mighty Lemon Drops as an opener at a college basketball gym (so standing room only and no seats). At this time, Love and Rockets were also messing with their "experimental group" The Bubblemen (which I actually didn't realize before going to the concert).

Fatbloke-66@reddit

Boy George at one of those 'Remember the 80s' combo shows - he just didn't sound like I expected him to.
Also saw Meat Loaf in Vegas a few years before he passed. Couldn't hold the notes anymore - such a shame.

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babsthemonkey@reddit

Blues Traveler. We were outdoors on a super hot day, facing the sun, so I was already cranky (not the band’s fault). The band started late and performed mostly covers. The venue enforced a hard stop by 10 because of houses nearby, so hitting the stage late was a big issue. A waste of our evening.

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No_Maintenance_9608@reddit

I saw them one year, and similar situation my ticket was for an outdoor area and it was warm. While the performance was good it seemed underwhelming too. It was after John Popper got his gastric bypass. While his performance was good I was told pre-surgery he would've been incredible.

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NiceWholesomeGuy@reddit

Simple Minds a few years back. Like watching your grandpa play mid tempo dirges with his 2 friends. Sunglasses, poncy scarves and sequened dinner jackets. So sad. Even Jim Kerr bemoaned it all. Left halfway and found the opening act all eating burgers at the burger bar across the road from the venue. Evidently even they had not followed the advice of Ole Jimbo "Dont you, forget about me".

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One of the overhead lights fell near the guitarist and he cried and didn’t want to play and wanted to leave. A little while later the concert continued. But they never returned to Ottawa for like 10 years.

That actually makes me happy as I was supposed to spend my 11th birthday front row at that tour but my parents dragged me to Italy to visit relatives instead.

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LittleEdithBeale@reddit

Tori Amos in 1994. She did not feel like playing that gig.

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DodgyRogue@reddit (OP)

That would have sucked

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Historical_Project86@reddit

I saw UK indie band The Primitives (of Crash fame) in Liverpool in the late 80s. The whole concert sounded exactly like the record, which disappointed me greatly. It just sounded so over-produced, I'm sure tapes were running in the background.

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rotzkocher@reddit

Pantera in '97. Phil was in bad shape at that time. 60 minutes for 60 bucks.

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sarah-vdb@reddit

We saw Hall and Oates as part of the North Sea Jazz festival a few years ago and even the hits were boring. I was never a fan of theirs but was looking forward to the songs I had heard on the radio. Nope. Even the upbeat stuff was dull.

Fortunately they were followed by Chic, and then we ducked out to see Outkast. It wasn't a total loss.

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