The best gig(s) you've seen.

[Magellan]

Given a number of posters reckon AC-DC comprehensively and successfully rocked Adelaide Oval last weekend, I'm interested in what was the best gig (or gigs) that you've ever seen, and why?

[jakovasaurus]

Sleepmakeswaves at UniBar earlier this year.

******* incredible! The sound those lads create with their instruments is amazing, don't need any vocals.

[saintal]

Sleepmakeswaves at UniBar earlier this year.

******* incredible! The sound those lads create with their instruments is amazing, don't need any vocals.

Great band. Must have seen them 6 or 7 times by now. Like a lot of post/instrumental rock, it always sounds better live and loud.

Excuse the self indulgence but a few that come to mind:

Opeth (Heaven, 2004). First time of many seeing the Swedes. I felt out of place with short hair and a shirt that wasn't black.
Isis (Fowlers, 2007). Was the first post/instrumental rock gig I’d been to, which was a genre I was getting into at the time. Kinda wish I had bought a T-shirt now..
Dream Theater (Showgrounds pavilion, 2008). Was a huge fan in those days, and never expected them to visit Oz. Strange venue for a gig.
The Living End (HQ, 2008). Lived up to expectations. So very good live. No rock-star ego.
Pain of Salvation (Thebby, 2009). Obscure Swedish band I never thought I’d see live. Only a 45 min support set, but hit the mark.
Baroness (Soundwave, 2014). Great musicians.
Mogwai (Thebby, 2015) Superb. My hearing returned 3 days later. Staggering wall of sound.

Sia at the Gov was one of the more “interesting” gigs I’ve been to (the wife wanted to go so I tagged along). Great voice, very odd performer, and heterosexual couples were the minority by far.

[Gozu]

Green Day/The Living End @ Thebarton Theatre 1996

Tickets sold out in about 45 minutes and the energy in the place was incredible. We lined up all day out the front and we got front row but with all the chaos unbeknownst to me my brother got crushed and pulled over the railing by security. After the show some of our group that were near him said they thought he had a broken arm but we ended up finding him and he was fine. This was back when The Living End were still a rockabilly band and had a stand up drummer and they were good but I always considered them a weaker Fireballs so they probably made the right decision to turn into a rock band. Green Day from memory were incredible and when they played Welcome To Paradise I thought the roof was going to blow off.

Fantomas @ Adelaide Uni Bar 2000

Their first Australian tour and seeing a supergroup of the hard rock/metal world like that on the little Uni Bar stage was awesome. Dave Lombardo's drumming was earth shattering but all I can really remember was the Slayer medley they played at all their shows at that time. Mike Patton was getting Faith No More & Mr. Bungle requests all night which he refused to play.

[southee]

Skyhooks (1990) - At the Thebarton Oval for Ausmusic 90 day. Very entertaining !

Hoodoo Gurus/You am I/ Redd Cross (1994???) - Thebarton Theatre, great vibe and killer show !

Megadeth (1990) - Rust in Peace tour at Thebarton Theatre, brutal force of sound and energy !

TISM - Any gig !

Skunk Anansie (1997??) - Heaven/HQ ....bugger all people in crowd but "skin"the singer went off !! Running into crowd, hugging people and just loving it !!

Pearl Jam - (2006)Did not have any expectations but they blew me away. Straight rock n roll no BS. Brilliant.

AC/DC - (2010) Black Ice Tour....if anyone thinks the latest gig in (2015) was anywhere near 2010 are just kidding themselves !!

Lou Reed - (2003??) front row at Thebarton Theatre to see the great man. He was in a good mood (rare for Lou) and turned it on that night.

[Ian]

1st 3 in no particular order (although if I had to chose,Pink Floyd)

Pink Floyd, Momentary Lapse Of Reason tour 198? @ Thebarton Oval
Eric Clapton / Tommy Emanuel / Nathan Cavaliri, late 80's or early 90's @ Adelaide Festival Centre
Rolling Stones, Adelaide Oval 2014, what a 50th Birthday for me!!
Alice Cooper Theatre Of Dead tour @ Thebarton Theatre

Angels @ Memorial Drive sometime in the 80's is the best gig from a Australian band I've been to.

My most proud Gig, the 1st live gig I saw my son and his band Down With The Ship play at the Cranka (even though their music really isn't my thing)

[Gozu]

I forgot to mention the John Zorn @ 60 show at last year's Adelaide Festival of Arts. That was a great night. This was my review on here:

A mate came over from Sydney and we went to that Zorn @ 60 show last night at Festival Theatre as part of the Adelaide Festival and what a night it was! Crows CEO Steven Trigg was there so one good thing you can say about him is he has good taste in music.

There were four sets last night with 10-15 min intervals between each set the show started at 7:30pm and was meant to go to 11:30pm but didn't finish until 12:15am, nearly five hours worth.

The first set was The Song Project featuring Mike Patton and the gorgeous Sofia Rei on vocals and a guy called Jesse Harris who writes for and plays with Norah Jones. The songs covered a number of styles from salsa to hard rock, Patton's screaming during the heavier songs was awesome, Trevor Dunn's masterful playing of his double bass but Marc Ribot (guitar) and Joey Baron (drums) were the highlights of this set with Zorn getting into it with his conducting. The best song was the encore song 'Assassin's Bay' co-written by Sean Lennon, Patton, Rei & Harris.

The second set featured three parts: Illuminations, The Holy Visions and The Alchemist. Illuminations was a short set by Trevor Dunn, Kenny Wollesen & Stephen Gosling with Dunn's double bass playing the standout of this piano based trio. Next up was The Holy Visions an a capella group of five women. Their singing was ethereal & beautiful as they sometimes seemed to go into gregorian style chants.The last part was The Alchemist a five person group consisting of string instruments like violins & cello. It sounded good but would've been better within the confines of an orchestra.

The third set was Moonchild a hard rock/metal trio of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn & Joey Baron playing their 6th and most recent album 'Templars: In Sacred Blood' in full accompanied by John Medeski on organ. This was the highlight for me just over The Song Project, the power these three create live is incredible. There is no guitarist in Moonchild but Dunn now on regular bass seems to play guitar lines so you don't even really notice. Baron's drumming was spectacular and Patton vocals were crazy from the full on screaming and blood curdling shrieking to deep chanting. This is the 7th time I've seen a Mike Patton band live from Faith No More to Mr. Bungle to Fantomas to Tomahawk and now thankfully I've seen a rare live performance from Moonchild who's 7th album recorded in January has been confirmed to be their last.

The fourth and final set started off with The Dreamers where Jamie Saft's electric piano, Kenny Wollesen's Vibraphone and Cyro Baptista's percussion were the standouts. Then came Electric Masada with Ikue Mori doing electronics, Marc Ribot’s guitaring again standing out and finally John Zorn got on his alto saxophone and let rip with his duck-strangling playing.

An amazing night watching some of the world’s finest musicians performing together in little old Adelaide for John Zorn’s first & last Australian tour.

[Magellan]

Fantomas @ Adelaide Uni Bar 2000

Their first Australian tour and seeing a supergroup of the hard rock/metal world like that on the little Uni Bar stage was awesome. Dave Lombardo's drumming was earth shattering but all I can really remember was the Slayer medley they played at all their shows at that time. Mike Patton was getting Faith No More & Mr. Bungle requests all night which he refused to play.

I missed this gig, but had a mate who constantly raved about it at the time, in particular the Slayer medley (I'm told it was a medley of "Reign In Blood"). Really wished I'd seen it, if only for that medley of what I'd say is pretty close to the greatest metal album ever.

I saw them the following year at the Gov on the "Director's Cut" tour, hoping for the same Slayer medley, but sadly not. A very impressive live band, but fortunately because of my height and seemingly taler people all around me all I remember seeing is Dave Lombardo's flailing arms and at times a peek of Patton fiddling with his vocal effects unit. Patton's ability to use his voice like an instrument is second to none. Everyone went a bit crazy when they went into their version of the theme from "The Omen," complete with its Latin lyrics.

[Wedgie]

Easily Bruce Springsteen in Melbourne on his Born in the USA tour in 1985.

Other notables:
The other two Springsteen shows Ive seen
Neil Young Apollo Stadium
Skyhooks Old Lion
Any Angels gig, especially the one with a symphony last decade.
Australian Music Day at Thebarton Oval in 1990

[southee]

Easily Bruce Springsteen in Melbourne on his Born in the USA tour in 1985.

Other notables:
The other two Springsteen shows Ive seen
Neil Young Apollo Stadium
Skyhooks Old Lion
Any Angels gig, especially the one with a symphony last decade.
Australian Music Day at Thebarton Oval in 1990

Ausmusic90 at Thebarton oval was a brilliant day !!!

The angels, skyhooks, angry Anderson , boom crash opera , seven stories , roxus are the ones I remember

[Pseudo]

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=16223

[Magellan]

http://safooty.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=16223

Ah shit. I had a feeling this might be the case.

[Gozu]

Fantomas @ Adelaide Uni Bar 2000

Their first Australian tour and seeing a supergroup of the hard rock/metal world like that on the little Uni Bar stage was awesome. Dave Lombardo's drumming was earth shattering but all I can really remember was the Slayer medley they played at all their shows at that time. Mike Patton was getting Faith No More & Mr. Bungle requests all night which he refused to play.

I missed this gig, but had a mate who constantly raved about it at the time, in particular the Slayer medley (I'm told it was a medley of "Reign In Blood"). Really wished I'd seen it, if only for that medley of what I'd say is pretty close to the greatest metal album ever.

I saw them the following year at the Gov on the "Director's Cut" tour, hoping for the same Slayer medley, but sadly not. A very impressive live band, but fortunately because of my height and seemingly taler people all around me all I remember seeing is Dave Lombardo's flailing arms and at times a peek of Patton fiddling with his vocal effects unit. Patton's ability to use his voice like an instrument is second to none. Everyone went a bit crazy when they went into their version of the theme from "The Omen," complete with its Latin lyrics.

Yeah it was awesome I even bought a bootleg of the show from Verandah called 'Fantomas-Self-Destruct Adelaide 2000' and also saw Mr Bungle earlier that year and got that bootleg too 'A Dingo Ate My Baby'. The Fantomas show at The Gov doesn't hold great memories for me as I had long hair back then and a small chick behind me kept pulling my hair, I eventually snapped and yelled in her face. Ruined the whole show for me someone grabbing a handful of your hair and yanking it hard every five minutes.

[Magellan]

I even bought a bootleg of the show from Verandah

What a great place Vernadah Records was. There was always so much cool sh!t in there, and as a poor student back in the early-mid 1990s I would just browse and dream. George (IIRC) who ran the place always provided god service.

Reckon I saw Fear Factory do an in-store in August 1993 promoting "Soul of a New Machine", when Vernadah had recently moved out from the the arcade next to John Martins and onto a shop on the corner of Austin Street. FF played a pretty good gig at Bridgeway, and it was impressive to hear C Burton Bell interchange between the high falsetto stuff and the death-grunt vocals live.

[RustyCage]

Verandah was an amazing place, as was Bank Street Records and Adromina (sp?)

[Magellan]

Verandah was an amazing place, as was Bank Street Records and Adromina (sp?)

I think you mean Andromeda Records, which was (at least when I discovered it) downstairs on Gawler Place (on the left hand side walking away form the Mall). Good little shop too.

Bought a cassette tape bootleg of Metallica's set on the 1991 Monsters of Rock tour, which was their first gig after releasing the Black Album. Dunno where it's gone to, unfortunately.

[RustyCage]

Yes, that's the one

[Failed Creation]

Fantomas @ Adelaide Uni Bar 2000

Their first Australian tour and seeing a supergroup of the hard rock/metal world like that on the little Uni Bar stage was awesome. Dave Lombardo's drumming was earth shattering but all I can really remember was the Slayer medley they played at all their shows at that time. Mike Patton was getting Faith No More & Mr. Bungle requests all night which he refused to play.

I missed this gig, but had a mate who constantly raved about it at the time, in particular the Slayer medley (I'm told it was a medley of "Reign In Blood"). Really wished I'd seen it, if only for that medley of what I'd say is pretty close to the greatest metal album ever.

I saw them the following year at the Gov on the "Director's Cut" tour, hoping for the same Slayer medley, but sadly not. A very impressive live band, but fortunately because of my height and seemingly taler people all around me all I remember seeing is Dave Lombardo's flailing arms and at times a peek of Patton fiddling with his vocal effects unit. Patton's ability to use his voice like an instrument is second to none. Everyone went a bit crazy when they went into their version of the theme from "The Omen," complete with its Latin lyrics.

Yeah it was awesome I even bought a bootleg of the show from Verandah called 'Fantomas-Self-Destruct Adelaide 2000' and also saw Mr Bungle earlier that year and got that bootleg too 'A Dingo Ate My Baby'. The Fantomas show at The Gov doesn't hold great memories for me as I had long hair back then and a small chick behind me kept pulling my hair, I eventually snapped and yelled in her face. Ruined the whole show for me someone grabbing a handful of your hair and yanking it hard every five minutes.

Verandah was a Mecca for me back in the day.

I bought a combined bootleg from there, entitled Mr. Bungle Attacks Fantomas With Tomahawk. It still gets regular plat at home.

[Magellan]

I bought a combined bootleg from there, entitled Mr. Bungle Attacks Fantomas With Tomahawk. It still gets regular plat at home.

When too much Mike Patton is never enough!

[Failed Creation]

I bought a combined bootleg from there, entitled Mr. Bungle Attacks Fantomas With Tomahawk. It still gets regular plat at home.

When too much Mike Patton is never enough!

Spot on.

I think there's a few Patton enthusiasts here.