Favorite Live Performances

Pretty much every Neutral Milk Hotel/Jeff Mangum performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtPoGwIDZDc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Kg2PA5j6Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1irjRAvy9c

 

I only started going to lives within the last like 3 years. First show was The Tea Party and it blew my mind! The day after this show to be specific = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc5nJpBhfE8. I wasn't expecting seeing a band live to change how I listen to their music so much. Honestly it was almost like a spiritual experience! XD

Next was 5 months after that, Dir en Grey. This is the exact show I was at, one of those screaming voices is actually mine = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HfL4C-zJh8 (I might even be in there somewhere, at one point I touched Die's knee). There were so many things this show changed for me. One, was feeling a closeness with the band; I kept seeing Kyo's hand twitching on his chest and recognized it as him trying not to hurt himself (an old habit that almost got him out of music). The other was finding out the importance of a good opening act, which this show did not have and that encore almost didn't happen because of it. Euphoria too, about a half hour after the show my entire body started seizing up, so much pain happened all at once, but for the entire show I was moving and my head was just filled with noise and it was paradise.

The only other show I'm going to talk about here is my most recent live experience, and that was Queen + Adam Lambert last summer. And in this video, I'm standing so close to this guy I'm pretty sure I can hear myself! = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WIgG2_6hac. We were packed into this stadium so tight it was like taking a bath. Which sounds like it should be a bad thing, but it totally wasn't. I don't think I put my arms down the entire show.

I am addicted to live shows.

 

I don't really attend the types of concerts most people will probably talk about here, I'm more of a theater guy. But, I definitely know what you mean by the power of actually being there live all experiencing the performance as a group. My three favorite live performance moments:

1) Patti Lupone in concert at the Chicago Theater. So for those who don't know she's a Broadway legend, like one of the biggest. So anyway, about half way through the show she sings "Being Alive" from Company, and it's amazing. She's wonderful and then the final note is just, well it's not off, it's not the wrong note, it's certainly respectable, but it's just not quite what you would expect from Patti Lupone. But the song as a whole is amazing and everyone applauds like crazy. And during the applause she walks back and talks to the pianist and once the applause dies down she says "So we were discussing and decided that that, well, wasn't my best work. We decided that all you fine people deserve better, so..." and she gestured to the pianist. And she sang just the final line and then she hit that final note so perfectly and with such triumphant force, and then she held it. And thousands of people (the Chicago Theater is a big venue) stopped breathing. And she held it... And hundreds of queens just lost their mind. And she held it... And the entire audience stood up. And she held it and held it and finally when she finished there was the most thunderous applause I've ever heard. And when the applause and cheers finally died down and there was finally silence she said: "yeah, that sounded like Patti Lupone."

2) Idina Menzel doing "Defying Gravity" in Wicked on Broadway. No special story but it was practically a religious experience, probably was every night.

3) "Shall We Dance?" during the Donna Murphy production of The King and I. I'm not a huge fan of the show--not a lot of edge to it, generally--but I'm a huge fan of Donna Murphy. So anyway this particular production had this sort of erotic edge to it that is hard to explain. The Forbidden Broadway send up of the production was "Shall We Boink?" sung to the tune of "Shall We Dance?" So they get to that number and it's amazing. It's hard to explain--it's a waltz, it's Rogers and Hammerstein, it should be tired as all hell. But it's not. There's this weird chemistry between the leads and it's just charged like you wouldn't believe. It doesn't come through on the cast recording and I bet it might not even come through on video but I swear by the time that damn waltz was over I needed a cigarette, and I've never smoked in my life. I still don't quite know how they did it but it was amazing, one of the most erotic things I've ever seen. And a waltz, go figure!

 

Slipknot - 9.0 LIVE CD
Green Day - Bullet In A Bible LIVE DVD
Green Day - LIVE @ The St. Louis Savvis Center. Friday, May the 13th 2005. (I was there)
Slipknot - Disasterpieces DVD
Slipknot - Voliminal LIVE Disc 2
Iron Maiden - LIVE in Ulevi Stadium, Sweden.

 

Creatively I think Madonna has the best live performances among the singers I like most. While Kylie is nice to watch but it is due to her hunky dancers, Madonna makes every song unique in every tour.

My top three Madonna performances

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While hunky lead dancer peaked my attention back in days, I grown a strong attachment to the song... one of the best from Madonna... No album release as far as I know.

[YOUTUBE]siowZ4V8xwo[/YOUTUBE]

Like a Virgin feels so fresh with oriental make up.

[YOUTUBE]R_LvTkNG0yQ[/YOUTUBE]
And legendary MTV Video Music Awards performance

 

Willie Nelson, David Allen Coe, Oak Ridge Boys, Riders in the Sky, John Denver & The Gaithers. Wish I saw Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline & Bob Wills.

 

Coldplay was amazing! They sound so great live. I also really enjoyed the Oasis tour with Mitis, Skrux, and Bear Grillz. Such an amazing performance.

 

I haven't been to many and I wish I had the pictures with me so I could post them, but I went to Lady Gaga last year and it was bloody amazing. The set pieces were dazzling and the performance was amazing. I could not say enough positive things. It was an absolute experience. She gave some really heartwarming speeches about being yourself and how all people are people and should have freedom. She got really emotional. And there was a section where people tossed their gifts onto stage and she went through a bunch of them and told them they could meet her backstage after. As a whole, I love her music, but I love her as a person even more. That entire show was amazing.

 

I've been to several concerts before, but three really stick out for me: Wilco, Phoenix, and Beck. I first saw Wilco when I was about 9, when music really started to become a passion of mine. It was near Chicago, and we stayed in a crappy motel the night before. It took place in a giant baseball field, with people filling up the field, the small hills surrounding it, and the stands. It was the first concert I had gone to where I experienced that kind of feeling with music. My brother and my dad knew the songs better than me, and most of the time I was sitting on my dad's shoulders, my feet dirty from running around on the baseball field. Then, the phoenix concert, three days before my 13th birthday. Although the indoor venue was pretty "meh" the concert was still amazing. Phoenix was so energetic, and they played song after song after song, hardly pausing at all, using their music abilities to make wonderful transition to the next song. It was crowded and hot, everyone jumping and singing and dancing. Being that I was/am so short, when i tried to take a photo, a tall guy standing next to us offered to take a photo for me. Lastly, the Beck concert. It was outdoors, warm, smelled like weed and cigarette smoke the whole time. Beck just seems like such a fun person, what with his random rambling between songs and how he interacted with his band. It was with my brother, and we were both so excited.

Now, for the band that i have not been lucky enough to see yet: Radiohead....they are seriously so amazing. Here are few of my favorite live videos of them <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1BfeBN1Djs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DvM4GObIN4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj-Rsl8brt8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeHqt9YcVDs

 

I saw Modest Mouse and Frank Turner perform in upstate NY last summer, only real concert I've ever been to. Frank Turner had a really positive energy, and he kept the crowd heavy earlier in the evening, but when MM came on later the atmosphere changed completely. It wasn't as positive, but the energy they brought on stage with them still seems like magic to me.

 

I love going to concerts and seeing my favourite bands, there is no better feeling in this world for me.

The most amazing live performance to me was last November when I went to see Kylie on her Kiss Me Once Tour. She always takes a selfie with a fan and this time she took me and my friends on stage during Can't Get You Outta My Head. I just remember hugging her and looking at her in the eyes. Me and my friends don't remember anything from the show after that though, but nowadays when I hear that song I get chills.

We went to see Kylie also in Madrid and she asked the during the song Kiss Me Once I just had the biggest cry and my friend kept hugging me, and it was so important to be there with him because we actually met because of Kylie's music.

Madonna's Like a Prayer on her MDNA Tour was amazing too, the gospel version was just stunning.

Evanescence's My Immortal was so beautiful to hear live too, it's just Amy and her piano and the fans singing. Every time I've just cried my eyes off, but no biggie..

P!nk's Dear Mr. President is also very beautiful when performed live and I love especially the part where she sings "what kind of father would hate is own daughter if she were gay?" and the audience screams.


Yeah I live for live music.

 

I saw the Pin Drop Tour twice last year by Brandi Carlile. Basically it was just the band with no amps or microphones. Just acoustic Both venues only held a couple hundred people. The power of her voice to fill the venues was so amazing and so personal

 

My favorite live performances that I was present for was:

Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, George Clinton Parliament/Funkadelic, Prince, Erykah Badu, Rachelle Ferrell and Eric Benet.

 

Say You'll Be There
Spice Girls

 

Trouble
Pink

 

Your House
Alanis Morissette

 

Human
The Killers

 

One Day
Bugoy Drilon