I scanned through the tunes section and it doesn't look like this thread has been done before, but MUD's Primus thread got me thinking about this, as I've seen them live a couple of times. I know Bud Dude's answer, and I can't give my opinion of Doug's band or Darko & Frank's current band I've seen a bunch of live shows, however, and I think that I'd probably say that my top three would be:

Rage Against the Machine - 1996. Wound-up with a bloody nose, and didn't even get into the pit for that one-the whole crowd were just goin' apeshit I'd rate it as the absolutely most incredible show that I've seen, and I doubt anything would top it. Rage was at the top of their game at that time, and Tom Morello is most definitely something to see in person.

Tool - 1996. The Aragon was pretty packed, but one of my friends and I broke off of the bigger group that we went there with and pushed our way to the front of the crowd...until the band started I was almost crushed to death when the entire crowd rushed toward the stage, but lived on to see an amazing show - Maynard James Keenan came out painted half-blue and half-yellow from head to toe (it was explained to me later on that this was in reference to an acid freak that was in the movie version of Dragnet in the 80s Anyway, the encore included the song Aenima, the title track on the album of the tour, and it brought the house down.

Primus - 1995. As I mentioned in the Primus thread, it was the 'Punchbowl tour. I was a huge fan of the band's unique sound ever since I heard Jerry Was a Racecar Driver while in high school, although I had no idea how incredibly the music would translate to a live show. Les Claypool's stage presence gets the crowd worked-up like few other front men can do, and Larry LaLonde and Herb Alexander are so in-tune that the live music is almost as tight as the polished studio version.

What are your top live shows, CSFMB?

Soundgarden-Lollapalooza 96
Green Day-Aragon 94
Rage-Rosemont 99
The Hold Steady-Metro 07

Favorite show I missed was Phish back around 99 or 2000. I was supposed to go with a girlfriend and her friends, but I missed my ride while I was sitting in a bar watching an OT football game.

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Hack, I was at that Tool concert and can vouch for the craziness. Great show.
Another memorable show I saw were Stone Temple Pilots in 1994 or 1995 when
they toured in support of "Purple". Saw them at Summerfest, it was my first
concert and still one of the better I have seen. Other memorable but not
great shows were seeing Page and Plant twice, Allman Brothers and Bob Dylan.
I don't go to nearly enough concerts.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

In no particular order -


12/31/08 - The Lawrence Arms - Reggie's - I don't remember much of anything at this show, as I was pretty obliterated before it even started. But getting "100 Resolutions" at midnight was pretty fucking awesome. Two hour set with not a clunker in it. I ended up getting to bed by 5:30 only to have to wake up at 8:00AM still drunk to go to the Winter Classic.

Multiple Occasions - Local H - Otto's, DeKalb - Giant beers, blisteringly loud jams, and a tiny venue make for a great time every time. Just ask Ugie, who got tossed for being so shit wasted he fell down the stairs from the upstairs bathroom right into the arms of a security guard. The only time in 20ish times seeing them that they've ever played "Cynic" was at Otto's after my repeated screams of "PLAY CYNIC!".

October 1999 - Buckethead, Incubus, Primus - Tour supporting Make Yourself and Antipop.. Great set from both bands, though was denied "Tommy The Cat" from Primus. Most fun part of the night was when DJ Kilgore of Incubus and Buckethead got into a scratch battle with Buckethead on the guitar.

Plea for Peace 2001 - Metro - Thrice, Cave In, Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio - What a relentless lineup, all of the bands arguably at the creative apexes. Absolutely exhausting 5 hour show in the middle of August when you could still smoke indoors, leading to kiln temperatures.

12/31/09 - Girl Talk - Congress Theater - Fucking incredible. Drunk as hell, danced my ass off despite having the three strikes of being tall, white, and Irish against me. Re-worked old mashups and introduced new ones in a two and half hour marathon orgy of beer, toilet paper, and appendages. Favorite combination - Peaches "Fuck The Pain Away" over the top of Radiohead "Idiotechque", and I don't even like Radiohead. Thom Yorke would be a lot more interesting if he sung about sucking on his titties.

Honorable Mention - Cursive/Against Me!/Mastodon at the Riv with Doug and Ugie September of 2007, Ween with Ugie, Chus, and W_Z at the Aragon in October of 2008.

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It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a goddamn shame.

http://www.TheCommittedIndian.com/

I forgot about seeing Page and Plant. I saw them on their second tour and that was really good.

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I was there. A little strange that the entire show was performed with all of the house lights on.

Damn MTV .

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This was actually my first concert. I thought it was odd to see the lights go down the next time I went to a concert.

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Man, that's a tough one. Just off the top of my head, The Replacements at Northern Illinois drunk as fuck, Flaming Lips a couple years back at Lolla, R.L. Burnside at Double Door, Articles of Faith at Centro-American Social Center, the Didjits at Batteries Not Included. I also might have been at sjboyd's Green Day show at the Aragon. I know I saw them there and '94 sounds about right. Billy Joe handed a kid his guitar and they actually sounded better.

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Don't take it personally.

that's good stuff, Stink - I think my friends' band was playing downstairs one of those nights, and I believe that was the night that the band got banned from there...forever



Nice, T-Bone! I'll never forget that show And I've also seen STP live (wondering, is Scott Wyland still alive?). The funny thing is, you can say what you want about the band, but I've never been to a big show like theirs and heard a crowd singing the lyrics almost as loud, if not louder, than the lead singer - I was thinking, "damn, it seems like every song they have ever put out has been on the radio, or these are the most loyal fans ever"

SouljaBoy: TURN THE DAMN LIGHTS BACK ON! WHAT THE HELL?

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This is my signature...

Was this 94 (I think) when they played on the 2nd stage opposite George Clinton on the main stage? If so, I agree. That was an AMAZING set

Been there for a couple of those too.

Here is a couple of mine:

Foo Fighters (Metro - '95)
Smashing Pumpkins (NIU/Ellington Ballroom - '95)
Tibetan Freedom Concert (Alpine Valley - '99): Cibo Matto, Rage, Vedder, DMC, Beastie Boys, much more. Despite the fact that there were no alcohol sales due to the presence of Tibetan monks, and the driving rainstorm for the first few acts, it was great.
Cheap Trick - 25th Anniversary show (Davis Park - Rockford): Outdorrs, on the river. Guests included Billy Corrigan, Slash, and the douchebag from Everclear. 3 sets.



I could do this all day. keep 'em coming....

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STP put on a good show back then, not sure how they are now. Didn't Frank go to a show or is
going to an upcoming show? Maybe he can comment. Only other band I have seen where the fans
know all the lyrics and sing along to most songs is Pearl Jam who I saw back at Summerfest as well
during the summer of 1996 maybe. I've heard a lot of their live recordings over the years and you
can hear the crowd singing along to a lot of their stuff.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Judas Priest at ozzfest @ Alpine in 04.
311 @ the Riv in 1996
Megadeth @ Metro in 1997

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I was there...

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@audioidkid

1987ish: Paul Simon on the Graceland tour. Shit rocked.

Uh, 1990ish: Elton John: is a hell of an entertainer.

1991ish: Depeche Mode on the Violator Tour. Couldn't have imagined how good a Electronic band could sound live

1993 Lolla: Didn't love everything, but Primus and Alice in Chains was worth every penny. Fishbone was surprisingly great. Dinosaur Jr sucked. Front 242, couldn't have imagined how bad an industrial band could sound live.

AWESOME! Funny how that works out man. Weird.
I think the opening act was... Queens of the Stone age??

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

311 @ Metro was fantastic as well.

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Damn, I'm jealous! I wanted to see Alice in Chains back then so damned bad - fuckin' Layne Staley

I was there too...

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@audioidkid

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Don't take it personally.

Incubus at the Riv circa 2001 I think. That was a thing.

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Team Cutler.

Thats the one

I actually have a couple of other highlights of Lolla 96-Saw the Ramones, saw Rancid, saw Cheap Trick, and Metallica was godawful

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there are way too many to list but here are a few.

Metallica 89 at Alpine
Primus 94 at Aragon
311 at Metro, Riv, Allstate, Summerfest...
Pumpkins at Redbird Arena in 94 at at Metro in 10.
Nine Inch Nails....all of them.
Tool....all of them.
System of a Down at Ozzfest 2002
Slipknot at Allstate in 05.
Deftones at the Riv. in 06.
Steve Vai at the Rave in 94.
Radiohead at Alpine in 04.
every time I've seen Slayer...
Incubus at HOB in 00
Mudvayne at HOB in 02.

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@audioidkid

I was there, too - that was a great fuckin' show! Chad Gray goes stage-right and pukes after the first song, comes right back out for the second song without skippin' a beat

Every U2 show Ive ever seen


Oasis, Jan 17 1997 @ Rosemont Horizon
Awesome. I actually lost a job over this concert. The only job I was ever fired from.

Oasis was my 2nd favortie band, we had like 10 people going, I was 17 and looking forward to it for weeks. It was a saturday night. That morning I got sick. Flu or something. But fuck that I was going. I felt like shit on the ride there. Stopped at gas station and got some Stay-Awake type pills. Took it, felt great. Drank like 5 or 6 Busch lights in the car (When I was 17... ) and went in.

From the first chord of "Be Here Now" to the last symbol on "All Around the World" I rocked the fuck out.

Got home at like 1, the pill had worn off, I felt like death. I couldnt sleep all night. Finally took some Nyquil and passed out at like 5. I slept thru a 6pm meeting at GFS.

New manager wanted to make an example, as people had seen these meetings as Voluntary.

Anyways, It was a good show.

I've probably seen Local H somewhere around 25-30 times. Their Otto's show were always the best. Craziest crowds you ever see in that tiny place. Cynic should be played at every show.

My favorite H show and probably one of my favorite shows ever was at Oasis 160. The crowd was just insane. The only thing that separated the stage from the floor was a metal guardrail that was not bolted to the ground. The place had at least a dozen security guards up front holding this thing so it would not topple over. I would have ended up on the bottom of a huge crowd of people if it would have fallen over. They played a great set which included a second encore. Scott performed with the opening band (Verbena) and they played 3 covers "Communication Breakdown", "I Wanna Be Your Dog", and "Negative Creep") Scott sang while hanging from the rafters of the venue.

Some other favorites of mine:
Foo Fighters - Metro 2002: This was a special show they did when "One by One" was released. My friend and I waited in line for tickets the week before at like 7 in the morning. It was a cool experience to see them in such a small venue.

Them Crooked Vultures - Metro 2009: This was the after Lollapalooza show last year. Nobody had even heard a single song by the band, so it was kind of weird to experience this. Nobody was disappointed at all. Just like the Foo Fighters show above, it was cool to see John Paul Jones, Josh Homme, and Dave Grohl perform together at such a small venue.

Black Keys - Metro 2008: Anytime you can see a huge band at the metro, you will probably not be disappointed.

Black Crowes - Park West 2008: One of my favorite live bands. Their radio hits are garbage, but most of their other work is great. Seeing them in such a tiny place was cool.

White Stripes/Flaming Lips - Aragon NYE 2002 or 2003?: Nuff said. Bunch of hipsters...

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The Smiths - Summer, 1986, following the release of "The Queen is Dead." This has never been matched in the ensuing years, and quite probably never will be.

Imo Bun B - Some def club, 2010. That beyotch put out a wicked mix. I was hammered, yo.

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1941-1943-1947-1949-1950-1951-1952-1953
1956-1958-1961-1962-1977-1978-1996-1998
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XXI - XXV - XLII - XLVI

Oh c'mon....i was waiting for you to put Stone Roses

I believe the only US appearance in Chicago that I am aware of was when the played a set at some Q101 festival at the World circa Second Coming. I'm not sure if it even happened; i've never seen any accounts of it

When they were rumored to be headlining Coachella last year reunited, I was all set to buy my plane ticket to Cali

I'm pretty sure they played at a Jambaree one year, but I did not see them perform. I didn't get into them until way after Second Coming, and they had already broke up.

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