I've noticed in the "What song are YOU currently listening to? v2 (Thread 33300)" thread that a lot of Shriners have an eclectic taste when it comes to their listening habits. So as an extension of that...


What's the best gig you've ever been to and what album/year was it?


For me it was Nine Inch Nails during the Downward Spiral tour. I had to travel quite a distance but it was worth every hour spent on that damned bus. :D

the futureheads hold a special place in my heart cause it was my first real show 2004
rjd2 was great 2009
japandroids had the most epic energy 2009

My Chemical Romance and Green Day.

My Chem were touring behind Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and Green Day had recently released American Idiot.

Went with the person who introduced me to Green Day. BEST. SHOW. EVER.

Oh god, that's a tough question. I've been to 98 shows in total according to the log I keep. Here are some of my highlights:

In Flames and Iced Earth, April 2002, Clayman and Horror Show tours
Seeing pre-sellout In Flames is a bragging point in and of itself, and this was the first gig I ever went to. I was bleeding by the end of the first song. A member of Jag Panzer, the relatively well known opening act, joined us in the pit for half the set. In Flames played EVERY classic you could imagine. Everything about the show was just perfect. If you see In Flames now (I've seen them four times total), they never play more than one pre-Clayman song. My first show happened to be the last opportunity to catch one of the most influential bands in history in their prime. Plus I was a huge Iced Earth fan at the time, and while my interest in them has waned to a modest respect (whereas I still consider classic In Flames brilliant), at the time it was one hell of an experience.

GWAR, November 2006, Beyond Hell tour
I've seen GWAR five times, most of which were during Beyond Hell (they toured it for three years). November 2006 stands out decidedly above the rest for me because it was the only time I saw them in a small venue. GWAR tend to perform on the big stage, and seeing them at a normal venue was a real treat. The blood was splattered all the way to the door, and the show was entirely in your face. Beyond Hell stands leagues above their other albums for song quality--a rare case where their music kicks ass even absent the blood and guts. Coupled with the most excessive performance I've seen out of them, this easily goes down in my top ten, maybe top five gigs.

Clouds, Torche, Boris, June 2008, Smile tour
My default answer to "What's your favorite band?" is Boris, and their live show is certainly a big factor in that. They release new material at such a machine gun pace that no two tours are remotely similar. Smile is such a unique album, and I got to hear the vast majority of it live. My Neighbor Satan live blew my fucking mind. Plus venues have a lot to do with it, and The White Rabbit in San Antonio has the second best acoustics of any place I've been to. Clouds and Torche, excellent under any conditions, were twice as heavy as they could be anywhere else, and Boris... oh god...

Eluveitie, Tyr, Turisas, Ensiferum, May 2008, Slania/Land/Varangian Way/Victory Songs
This is my favorite gig to date. How could it not be? It was one Korpiklaani shy of a folk metal all-stars tour. Four bands I love, playing at the White Rabbit (see above), Turisas and Ensiferum both touring their best albums, Eluveitie only beginning to fall from their height... These bands tend to tour the states as openers for popular metal bands (by which means I've seen most of them at least one other time). Not so this time. EVERYONE was here for folk metal. All four of them were the reason everyone showed up. The audience was perfect, the set-lists were perfect, the performances were flawless, the acoustics were great, this was one of those times where you say five minutes in "it doesn't get any better than this" and just embrace it.

Other highlights include seeing The Decemberists perform Hazards of Love in its entirety (August 2009), wearing a troll costume to Finntroll a week before Halloween (October 2007), seeing Sunn O))) at THE best venue I know (Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh, September 2009), stalking Blind Guardian across Texas for back to back gigs (December 2006), and being a part of Rage Against the Machine's first live performance in almost a decade, with Explosions in the Sky performing on the same enormous stage a few hours prior (Coachella Festival, April 2007).

Edit: That being said, my favorite live band is probably Dropkick Murphys. I don't have a specific gig that stands out above the rest, but on the whole I enjoy their shows the most. GWAR and Boris are close contenders.

Nine Inch Nails, Fragility 2.0 tour, 1999
That was one of my first concerts, and the first time I'd heard a band supplement the recorded versions of their songs in such a substantial and interesting way that the live versions were even better. It was also when I started paying attention to Robin Finck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Finck). That high, moaning lead he adds to the end of "Piggy" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Mdkd1foRg) is chilling. And what he does at the beginning of the "The Mark Has Been Made" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p5oufB8CzM)--turning his guitar into a screaming animal--is just incredible. Trent's music is so dense and textured, pulling it off live as is would be hard enough. Improving it in a live setting is mind-blowing. Kept me coming back to their shows through the final tour.