Most Disappointing Concert You've Attended

  • After Iowa State won the Big 12, a Cyclone made a wonderful offer to We Will that now increases our match. Now all gifts up to $400,000 between now and the Final 4 will be matched. Please consider giving at We Will Collective.
    This notice can be dismissed using the upper right corner X button.

Angie

Tugboats and arson.
Staff member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Mar 27, 2006
28,183
12,852
113
IA
Someone in the "best concert" thread mentioned that this was a worthwhile thread idea.

I think mine would be the Violent Femmes show for which I drove up to MN to attend at First Ave, only to find out that Gordon Gano had called it off at the last minute. Was probably 2000 or so.
 

CYCLNST8

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2008
10,837
12,239
113
Urbandale
www.gimikk.com
Didn't MGMT play on Court Ave downtown a couple years ago? Maybe it was someone else, but I was in a drunken rage because they quit playing before 10pm.
 

TXCyclones

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 13, 2011
11,089
12,024
113
TX
I made the mistake of going to Jefferson Airplane/Starship back in the late 80's. What a mistake. I knew they'd play "We Built This City", but thought there'd be a lot more Airplane songs. They had the amps up so loud and shrill that it actually hurt to listen to that crap music. The other awful one was Megadeth. Give me Metallica any day over that Dave Mustain BS.
 

LutherBlue

Well-Known Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,296
625
113
Many duds over the years. Jonny Lang used to put on a great show. Nothing lasts forever, I saw him 10 or more years ago and he had been collaborating with Prince on a bunch of new stuff. It was lame. Jason Mraz opened, what a lightweight that guy is. I left early.

I also left early from a Robert Cray show a few years ago. It wasn't bad but John Hiatt opened and he had way more energy. RC was a snooze by comparison.
 

CYCLNST8

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2008
10,837
12,239
113
Urbandale
www.gimikk.com
I don't care what side you're on; I hate when performers get into political rants. Green Day & Ted Nugent immediately come to mind. Shut up and play your songs, please.
 

WhatchaGonnaDo

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2011
7,410
2,390
113
Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco opened for blink182 on their reunion tour. They were both pretty damned awful live. The concert overall was awesome because of Blink, but those openers were real duds.
 

ImJustKCClone

Ancient Argumentative and Accidental Assassin Ape
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Jun 18, 2013
58,588
42,283
113
traipsing thru the treetops
Aging 60's rocker reunion tours at the fairgrounds are always hit or miss. Good ones were Guess Who, Grass Roots, Turtles, The Association, The Buckinghams...

Really really BAD ones were Gary Puckett (sans Union Gap) and Tommy James (& the Shondells, sort of). Puckett simply had no voice left to hold the signature long notes on his songs, and Tommy James would perform a song, have waaaayyy too much random instrumental at the end of the song, fade to black. Three minutes later, repeat with different song. No involvement with the audience whatsoever...and the instrumentals were repetitive & boring.

Worst current (at the time) concert was Whitney Houston at Hilton Coliseum. They still served beer. The people behind us were drunk & spilled their beer all over us. Houston had a couple of pop hits, but most of her set was gospel songs - which I would have enjoyed. However, they were not the kind of songs a bunch of fairly inebriated college students want to hear. People around us started getting kind of rude in what they were shouting. All in all, one I would have preferred to miss.
 

LutherBlue

Well-Known Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,296
625
113
Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco opened for blink182 on their reunion tour. They were both pretty damned awful live. The concert overall was awesome because of Blink, but those openers were real duds.
You know you're old when bands you think of as kids music have already had a reunion tour.
 

WastedTalent

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2012
7,069
4,120
113
39
Any answer that isn't Mike Jones at VEISHEA 2007 is wrong.

Liquor bottles throw on stage is always a sign of a terrible show.

Also when GNR came to Hilton, sometime between 05-07, Helmet opened for them, and they got booed off stage. Only time I've seen that.

Axel also made everyone wait for over two hours before he finally came out, but I will say they were pretty good.
 

LutherBlue

Well-Known Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,296
625
113
I loves Oasis and Black Crowes back in high school and when they had a show at the Xcel Center in Saint Paul it stunk. For two great bands with huge followings they really had no idea how to interact with the crowd. For as big as Oasis was I would expect a lot more video screens, theatrics, etc.
I was really excited to see the Black Crowes open for Tom Petty years ago, they had been defunct for a number of years. You are right, they were a weak live show given the material they have at their disposal.

I saw Gary Allen and Sheryl Crow a couple months ago. He sucks (I was not familiar with his music before the show). His energy and stage presence reminded me of Weekend at Bernie's. I just felt bad for Sheryl. She remains a fabulous babe at 51 years old, but she was in some skin tight leather get up and did not look like she wanted to be out there. At all. We left early.
 

LutherBlue

Well-Known Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,296
625
113
Also when GNR came to Hilton, sometime between 05-07, Helmet opened for them, and they got booed off stage. Only time I've seen that.
Tom Petty came to Hilton in the late 80s (I think). Even then he drew a more mature crowd and people were grousing about the opener, some punk who thought he was edgy and could really play guitar. People were walking around and paying no attention whatsoever.

That punk? Lenny Kravitz.
 

Gunnerclone

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2010
68,593
68,504
113
DSM
Bob Dylan at The CEC in Boulder back in '00 or 01' ish. Thought the weed would help, coffee would have been the smarter choice.
 

WhatchaGonnaDo

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2011
7,410
2,390
113
You know you're old when bands you think of as kids music have already had a reunion tour.
Ha! Well I was in middle school when they were huge. Then they went on a ~5 year hiatus and got back together and went on tour. The show was my senior year of high school.
 

InAWord

Member
Nov 16, 2010
472
17
18
Tool in Cedar Rapids. One of favorite bands and they were awful. Maynard James Keenan started off by reprimanding the crowd for not enjoying the crap opening band and that pretty much set the tone. The rest of the concert was less about music and more about 2 hrs of ambient sounds.
 

JP4CY

I'm Mike Jones
Staff member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Dec 19, 2008
63,939
76,995
113
Testifying
Axel also made everyone wait for over two hours before he finally came out, but I will say they were pretty good.

I went to that show and if you weren't expecting Axel to not do that you are crazy. It was a good show, I think I counted 18 songs. Live and Let Die with fireworks was pretty awesome.

I've seen over 100 concerts in my life and worst one by a mile was John Mellencamp 2007/8 in Des Moines. Spent good money on floor seats and it was OK up until he played Small Town. Before he started, he had this small story about a small town guy, and I looked at my wife and said, he's gonna bring out John Edwards. Sure as ****, he brings John Edwards out on the stage, who got booed so bad. He was in total shock and said a few words but then knew he had to step back. He was totally unprepared for it, and it gave me a sour taste the rest of the night.
It's not that I hate Edwards (but I do), it's that I paid good money to see Mellancamp play the guitar and sing, not pitch someone for the Iowa Caucus.
 

chuckd4735

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Mar 29, 2006
28,768
10,487
113
40
Indianola
Tool at Hilton back in 2002. I still like Tool, but the show was just not for me.

REO Speedwagon at the fair a few years ago was horrible as well.