Prog Concert Memories

[QUOTE=33rpm]The best three concerts ever by a wide margin were the three times I saw Jethro Tull. They were absolutely amazing!
[QUOTE]



[QUOTE=33rpm]The "Thick as a Brick" show was the best followed by "A Passion Play" and "the Aqualung' shows. [QUOTE]

Never saw the Aqualung tour... BUT they played almost the entire Aqualung album after they finished the entire Thick as a Brick set ... all on the same night

Yea... I forgot to mention the Passion Play concert...that was as good as the Thick as a Brick show.

Remember the "Hare..Spectacles" movie shown during the concert ?
Brilliant...So Creative ! ! !

Yep...Anderson was the best front man I ever saw too...Lots of humor & surprises (barking like a dog into a mic'd echo device during a flute solo...)

The two worst Front men I ever saw:  Ozzie with Black Sabbath, and Robert Plant I mentioned.










Edited by Utah Man - June 18 2008 at 12:23

I saw Jethro Tull, and The Mars Volta.

Last Tuesday??? Come on......

mystic fred wrote:   Led Zeppelin Earl's Court 1975 - The band were at their peak with the  "Graffiti" album riding high, a fabulous show , all the classic songs but "Kashmir" was fantastic.

I agree, my favorite tour, a great No Quarter with Jones tearing it up on piano

in 1971 i went to barry memorial hall to see a film. jimi plays berkley [jimi hendrix]. the support was gentle giant. i was 17 and never heard any of their albums. first time i saw a band playing various instruments. it was great but strange. there were about 100 people there. it cost about 50 pence.

TempusFugit wrote: On December 12, 1975, at le Grand Théâtre de Québec, I have attended what has turned out to be the best show I've seen ever, other perhaps than a few operas, but that's a different story.   I was a teenager back then, and I had no idea what the band on stage that night was about,  I had picked this show simply because I needed something to ask a young lady by the name of Paule to go see with me.   The girl turned out to be quite boring, but the show was everything but boring believe me. I fell in love with the band, and have never stopped following them eversince.   The line up of the band has changed a few times over the years, but in back in 1975 they had the best line up ever, and the 6 guys were absolutely on fire on stage that night. They played all their best songs and more, with a lot of impros.   There has been 7 encores..Yes, no less than 7. Obviously the band was highly pumped up by the almost hysterical reactions of the crowd, and it gave back generously. It was obvious these guys were having a lot of fun playing, and the last encore happened after most of the audience had left. We were in the stairs, and guess what, we heard these b*****ds back on stage. Hurry up back to our seats, everyone does. Hysterical, we all are again. It's hot like hell in there, the musicians have taken their shirts off, and they go like racing machines. Unf**kingbelievable. The only feeling I can remember at the end of all this was : ecstasy, pure ecstasy.   The band was Premiata Forneria Marconi. Franco Mussida, Franz Di Cioccio, Flavio Premoli, Mauro Pagani, Patrick Djivas and Bernardo Lanzetti had given the audience that night  the best they possibly could.

Yeah, I'm madly jealous.  I'm also lifting this post for the Italy Appreciation thread.  Thanks for sharing it!

My most morable concert was the In The flesh Tour of Roger Waters in 2002. To see the master perform all those now classic songs is truly more than anyone can take. I thought several times I would die from extasy. Thank god I didn't. Unfortunatly, the Dark Side Of The Moon tour 3 years later in 2005 was much lesser interesting. Ofcourse all this old stuff, Shine one 1 and 2, Dog, Set The Controls, Welcome To The Machine.....totally amazing....but certainly not to forget are the songs he did of Amused To Death. Highly, highly underestimated. I saw Pink Floyd in 1994, performing a special Dark Side Of The Moon set, yes amazing too. But way too automatic Pilot....but the soloing Gilmour on Comfortably Numb was worth the ticket alone.

mystic fred wrote: My magic live moments (many of them) include (not all prog but hey...) -   Stray Oldfield Tavern Greenford 1971 - my first live gig, will never forget those exploding dustbins!   Queen Hammersmith Odeon 1975,  "Bohemian Rhapsody" was at no.1 and most of the show revolved around the "Opera" album, many kids in the audience were made up as Freddie clones, a magical night.   Led Zeppelin Earl's Court 1975 - The band were at their peak with the  "Graffiti" album riding high, a fabulous show , all the classic songs but "Kashmir" was fantastic.   Aerosmith Hammersmith 1976 - "Rocks" had been released earlier in the year and the band were a must see - they seemed like the Stones-meet-Queen at the time but put in a great show. A free "Dream On" EP was given out to fans.   Deep Purple Perfect Strangers 84-85 - seen the band several times but classic line up delivered the goods.   Rush Signals Wembley 82 - fabulous show with the band on top form, i was lucky enough to sit several yards from the stage.   Peter Gabriel Plays Live Hammersmith 83 -    amazing show, included the aforementioned "crowd surf".   Yes  90125 Wembley 86-87  - not the classic line up, a now controversial album but a wonderful show.   AD/DC 87-88 Wembley - you have to see Angus' solo, climbing all over the stage, being carried triumphantly though the audience while playing, a must see!   Porcupine Tree Blank Planet Astoria 2006 - everything it was cracked up to be, brilliant show!   Rush Snakes and Arrows Wembley 2007 - the band back in great form, the back projections and Geddy's "roast chickens" nearly stole the show..   The Who Endless Wire Wembley 2007 - at last i got to see my "local" band play live, a truly wonderful show, even managed to get a DVD of it .

Dude!! You saw Porcupine Tree??!!!
I'm feakin super jealous.

A month ago, the Mars Volta. They only played for about an hour because it was a festival, but were awesome. What I remember the most (hell, it wasnt that long ago either) was Cedric´s dancing and how he chewed off a type of plastic lamp that was hunging for the ceiling That dude is crazy
Probably the weirdest concert I´ve ever saw was Trey Gunn for 90 min his Warr guitar while he recited a story. It was very interesting, but what I remember the most are the two or so seconds of silence when he finished followed by the most enthusiastic and manic applause I´ve ever heard. Never again have I heard such applause

Well, since I'm 16, I haven't had much Live experience with PROG bands (I've gone to see other shows though...). The only Prog I've seen up to date is Jethro Tull, which was a wonderful, but very tame concert. I also saw Return To Forever last summer, which was an AMAZING outdoor Jazz Festival show in Ottawa. $30 to see RTF any day...

However, my two parents have both had some of the most wonderful Prog experiences possible

My dad, witnessed the major psychotic melt down of Syd Barrett, which I believe was here in Montreal (he never told me). He was in the third row, and a bunch of punks in the first and second row,  started throwing firecrackers onto the stage. This is where Syd Barrett freaked out, left the stage, and for the first time saw himself unequal to his crowd, so he left "The Pink Floyd". This is where Roger Waters came up for the idea of "The Wall", from how Syd created a wall between himself and the crowd.

My mother, went to see a Steve Hackett concert with her boyfriend. And it was in a theater that pretty much resembled a movie theater. She says there was roughly 100 people at the show. There was a dance floor set up right in front of where he was playing. Since no one was dancing to Steve's music, my mum and her friends went out and sat two feet in front of Steve on the dance floor for the rest of the show (which was brilliant). She said it was the best concert of her life.

Appart from seeing Yes many times, my mother also had a similar experience going to see King Crimson (On their Discipline tour). It was a small theatre, and she was front row with her boyfriend. She always tells me how she can remember Fripp's every facial expression and so on.

I'm jealous.


Edited by OzzProg - November 27 2008 at 21:47