Concerts that surpised you as to how good the band was

sbowman128675

Senior Member
Simply asking what concerts that ya'll have been to where you didnt have high expectaions of the bands (opening, or headlining), but left very surpired as to how great they were.

I have two. Back in 2007 I went to see DT at the Orpheum in Vancouver during they Systematic Chaos tour. The bands playing with them were Three, Between the Buried and Me and Opeth. I was blowen away by Three, amazing live show they put on, they were eq'ed perfectly and ontop of it all, DT was not that great that night.

2nd one was in summer of 2011, when I went to see Skillet at the Rock the River series. Opening for them were Downhere, Tedashi, and Starfield. TFK was suposed to be there, but the singer got a bad voice so they had to skip the show. I didnt have high expectations with Skillet, but I got to say, Ive been to so many concerts, seen like 40 bands live and by far Skillet is my fav Ive seen. Their show was perfect. Great eq, considering it was outside, they sounded like the album and the theatrics were amazing. Great show concidering it was a Christian rock band.

So, anyone here have some to share?

Steve,
 
way back in the late 80's, someone handed me tickets to The Fixx, at the Ventura theatre, I had no expectation at all, wasn't into their music at all, but it was a really great show, and turned out I knew almost all therir songs. to this day I love the song " driven out". they won me over that night
 
1987 (yes, I'm old) Market Square Arena (no longer there, feeling even older) in Indianapolis, IN. The Cult opens for Billy Idol. I went with some friends because 1) I was in high school 2) everyone was going to see Billy Idol and 3) what else is there to do in Indiana in the middle of July, so why not? I didn't even know who The Cult was but was absolutely blown away by their show. Amazing energy and sound. Ian Astbury put on one of the best performances by a front man that I've seen to date. Billy Duffy shredded his guitar non-stop for 45 minutes. The only concert that I've been to where I didn't stare at the drummer the entire time. They blew Billy Idol away...crowd energy went from 10 to about a 5 after he came on and it went down from there. I went out the next day and bought the "Electric" CD...one of my favorites to this day. Great topic by the way...good memories.
 
Mark Knopfler & band consistently play and sound great. Very dynamic mix, and never needlessly loud since there aren't too many of the Straits' rockers in the set anymore.

Bermuda
 
lol, shambo, I knew how that story was going to end, sorry Billy Idol, but I'm sure I would have bailed after seeing the Cult...and Bermuda, I saw Dire Straights on a summer night at the Santa Barbara bowl..one of the most magical venues on eath..when the band took a break, Knopfler stayed on the stage and just riffed for like 15 minutes...all by himself, then the band came back out and did another 45 minutes....mental!
 
Paul Simon from Dec of 2011. i was not really a huge fan before the show, just kinda kept up w/ the new tunes a bit & knew everything Gadd ever played in - knew all the Simon & Garfunkel stuff. i basically went just to hear Jamey Haddad kick ass. i was blown away & it turned into "the history of PS music".

WTF, i have never seen so many beautiful sounding guitars IN_TUNE on stage at one time. Paul's vintage acoustic alone might have been worth 100K.

every single player sang & doubled / tripled / quad'd on other instruments. i look over & the guitar player Mark Stewart is now on Bari Sax...i look over & the drummer is playing kick & hi-hat w/ his feet while playing guitar & singing !!! everyone played percussion (well) at some point. on & on. it was nuts.
 
This is an easy one

I saw Adam Ant at the Palladium in Hollywood. My GF at the time was way into him, and I went along, fully expecting to stand there, arms folded counting the moments until I could get the hell out of there.

If you've been to the Palladium, its an old dance hall in LA. there is a stage and a floor. The key is not to get mashed against the stage by the hundreds of people behind you.

We were very, very close, and she was on my shoulders. We were getting mashed against the stage.

Mr Mister opened. Amazing. They completely brought it, and I'm thinking this is going to be a good night.

Adam came on - this was the Goody Two Shoes tour. Two drummers, live horns, 3 background singers, the whole 9.

It was, even to this moment, in my top 5 concerts of all time.

I knew his music very well - she was a superfan. Had all the stuff going back to way the Dirk days... we're talking imported singles from Vinyl fetish, etc, etc...

By the 3rd song I took her off my shoulders so I could dance better with the hundreds of other fans. The sound with those two drummers and the jungle drums was like nothing I've ever heard. They were tight, they were on fire. The horns were blazing, the vocals were spot on, Marco's twangy guitar was twaggin' - one of the best shows ever.

This will always be the surprise of my life.

Yea, Queen rocked. Yea, Rush rolls. Yea, Tower of Power grooves.

Adam completely knocked me out. I'll never forget it.


-Ken
 
Wilco - Feb 2010. I went with my fiance', who had seen them long before. I knew them as a good 'studio band', kinda mellow.
WOW, best show ever, and I've seen a 100+. Brought it, for 3 hours, super tight, superb sound, complex, energetic and dared some interesting covers (who does Neil Young's Broken Arrow?) ....all in a small theatre.
 
Oregon with Ralph Towner and the late Colin Walcott in the 80s.

I'd never really noticed their recorded music but a friend wanted to see them so we caught them at Sydney Town Hall.

I thought I'd be bored but by the end of the gig I was floating on air. Beautiful, exotic music but not much of that magic seemed to translate to vinyl.
 
1987 (yes, I'm old) Market Square Arena (no longer there, feeling even older) in Indianapolis, IN. The Cult opens for Billy Idol. I went with some friends because 1) I was in high school 2) everyone was going to see Billy Idol and 3) what else is there to do in Indiana in the middle of July, so why not? I didn't even know who The Cult was but was absolutely blown away by their show. Amazing energy and sound. Ian Astbury put on one of the best performances by a front man that I've seen to date. Billy Duffy shredded his guitar non-stop for 45 minutes. The only concert that I've been to where I didn't stare at the drummer the entire time. They blew Billy Idol away...crowd energy went from 10 to about a 5 after he came on and it went down from there. I went out the next day and bought the "Electric" CD...one of my favorites to this day. Great topic by the way...good memories.

Hey Shamboo I know what you mean - Electric is a fantastic album. Then they did The Sonic Temple album and totally won me over. Been a massive fan ever since.

My fav to this point was Midnight Oil here in Adelaide a few years ago. I wasn't really suprised how good they were because I already knew, but as far as the concert went, it was magical. It's really something to see Peter Garrett jumping around like a giant with a hard boiled egg for a head. It was killer.

The other one was Iron Maiden in Sydney a couple of years ago during their "Somewhere Back in Time" tour. Again, I knew how good they would be, but to see them in person doing what they do best was something else man. I will never forget that gig. I took my wife along and she is now a huge Maiden fan and she didn't think she would be but they turned her around on the subject.
 
83 I believe , was about 17 and into ac/dc, quiet riot, motley crue, zeppelin etc..

Reluctantly I had to take my 13yo niece to the Huey Lewis and the News concert.. Man I was blown away. They played for like 3 hrs and his harp playing was top notch.. I almost took up Harmonica after that one. Love to see them again.
 
1. Supplied a mixer to a gig in the late '80s. Turned out the artist was Flock of Seagulls. Needless to say my expectations weren't very high. They blew me away. Amazing players, and their live version of their hits were nothing like what you remember from MTV.

2. My Billy Idol story ends with me becoming a life-long Steve Stevens fan. Steve's solo piece (normally guitarist's live solo pieces were complete wank-fests in that era) was a complete Bach organ concerto played solo on a Roland guitar synth. Stunning.
 
I saw Lupe Fiasco at a college homecoming last year, and I didn't even expect there to be a band. Turns out, most of the members in his touring band are Berklee or UNT graduates and can do some serious burning on their instruments. The drummers was all gospel chops which I didn't particularly dig, but the five string bass player, the guitarist, the keyboardist, and the violinist were all such heavy musicians, and it seems like they had been playing with each other for a while. No tracks, no stuffed drums, everything was plugged in and live, and each solo was so impressive.

I honestly expected to see Lupe Fiasco with a DJ and back-up singers/dancers, but this was just an incredible show all around.
 
Little Feat at the Fox theatre in St. Louis. I'm guessing around '87. I was expecting a good show, just not that good. Richie was mind blowing.
 
Dave Matthews Band at the Tibetan Freedom show in DC (mid/late 90s). I was all into metal and not much else, but the girl I was hanging with at the time (who I'm now married to) was a huge DMB fan. She dragged me up into the crowd as they were starting to play, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the show (All Along the Watchtower especially). Saw them another 6-7 times after that in the following years...
 
Soundgarden 2011 in Philly. They just got back together, and although I like them, I've never liked them THAT much, and only expected a good concert. Plus, my friend coming with showed me video where Chris Cornell's just sitting on an amp singing, and not that into it, so I was concerned they wouldn't be too lively. However, the concert was amazing. They played hits and deep cuts, and 4th of July was sooo sluggy (there's a video on youtube of the concert where the bass is so loud on that song it just sounds like WOOOH! lol) Well the band was really into the music, having a great time, and so was the crowd. Simply amazing.

Mars Volta opened for them too, which was sweet.
 
At the Austin City Limits Festival in 2008 or 2009, we set up midway between the main stage and the closest side stage so we could hear Blues Traveler on the side stage and later on hear the Foo Fighters headline the main stage at the end of the night. We got to hear Gnarls Barkley on the main stage before BT started their set, and man that live band was amazing! I had only heard "Crazy" on the radio, but the rest of the set was killer. Totally surprised me that I would like them that much.

Of course, the real reason that I got the ticket was to see Neko Case perform an hour-long set earlier in the day, I was blown away but then I expected to be. ;)
 
About 10 years ago my niece had her birthday party at an outdoor Britney Spears concert. I went to help my brother chaperone the kids (including mine). I was amazed at how good the backing band sounded live. During one of the costume changes, the drummer did about a 5 minute drum solo that just blew me away. That was certainly the highlight of my night!
 
I went to the Black Keys about a month ago. they played with accompaniment as there is actually only two them.

Obviously, they sounded great but what I was blown away by was their encore. It was just the two of them and they ROCKED! Everyone was going crazy and these two guys were playing harder and with more enthusiasm than most 5pc rock bands. It was impressive.
 
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