For me it’s a genuine tie between Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at Thebarton Theatre in 2009, and LCD Soundsystem at Ally Pally a couple of years ago. Both were total spectacles but somehow intimate at the same time.
As a massive festival head all my best gigs have to be at Glastonbury, hard to pick one but short list would be (sorry cannot remember which years, I’m sure I could piece together the memories somehow):
De La Soul - I’ve loved hip hop for a very long time but have a bit of a love hate relationship with live hip hop, some of my favourite artists I’ve just been to awful gigs, but De La absolutely slayed. Pyramid stage, no lights no lasers just emcees and DJ. A masterclass.
Run The Jewels - for similar reasons as above
Chemical Brothers - different kind of masterclass, Other Stage, full laser and visual show at sundown, all killer no filler, no down, pure up, just built and built and built through the set, fantastic
Paul Simon - Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes as penultimate track, as the sun came out after three days of rain, brought a sitting crowd to stand. The final of three encores, You Can Call Me Al, the riff kicked in and sent tens of thousands into rapture, literal tears
Beyonce - I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did, but it’s fucking Beyonce, need I say more? When she draped herself over a grand piano mid-set, there was an audible gasp of awe from every single person in that hundred thousand strong crowd. Next level
Man, I’d love to see Beyonce live. I thought her Coachella sets were bloody brilliant.
Saw RTJ at Field Day a while back and they were so good. Love Graceland so pretty jealous of your Paul Simon experience!
She was genuinely awe-inspiring
And yeah, Paul Simon I count amongst the great ‘Glasto moments’ as the cliche goes, stunning. Imagine the entire Pyramid stage crowd singing the Call Me Al riff in unison, was nothing short of magic
That does sound pretty magic. You’re making me seriously miss live music
DJ Snake brought his Coachella production to Brixton Academy in 2018, that was pretty
The Grandmothers of Invention (Frank Zappas backing band without Zappa), Whelans Wexford Street Dublin (a small intimate venue). Truely epic musicianship, wizardry and comedy all rolled into an alchemical, psychedelic experience without any mind altering substances!
Woah difficult question. Don’t think I can pick a single one, but if I really had to it would go something like Biffy Clyro 2016 Manchester Arena - bloody epic, those guys know how to put on a show. Closely followed by Enter Shikari in Brixton Academy 2 years ago, then Leeds Festival back in 2012 with the Foos and Kaiser Chiefs.
Eminem Anger management tour, milton keynes bowl 2003. after we survived the ‘bottle fight’ we got to see eminem, xzibit, cypress hill, d12, stat quo, 50cent was a no show - I’m sure ludicrous was there too. he had just dropped his circus album and came on stage on the top of his big wheel. the only natural rush I’ve ever had. it was epic. (youtube ‘eminem bottle fight’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anger_Management_Tour ) apparently one of the bottles of urine broke xzibits jaw and em and d12 even referenced it in a track. madness.
That’s fucking awesome, I used to watch the Up in Smoke Tour video back in halls of residence religiously with my mates wanting to desperately to be in that crowd, but your experience sounds even better!
Mate id have sold my nana to have been in that up in smoke tour crowd. That really did look amazing.
I went to that! Honestly insane the sheer volume of piss bottles flying through the air. I went to an earlier(?) leg at docklands arena too and remember the chainsaw toting entrance being pretty sick.
Hard to pick an all time favourite gig… But I saw Prodigy at Wembley Arena when they released Invaders Must Die and it was insane. Literally every person out of thousands were bouncing in there. The lighting was dope too.
My brother went to the chainsae toting gig at the Manchester evening news arena. 1999 or 2000 Dr dre and snoop was there with him. Three days later my older brother was walking round in denim dungerees and blonde hair hahahah. True story. Hahaha. Yeah those piss bottle was a joke the guy in front of us got hit on the head by the lid of a whole bottle of water - he did a bit of a silly dance but was ok in the end thankfully.
Oh naaahhh he didn’t! I hope you remind your bro of that regularly.
Yeah, he hates it hahaha. My mother has got the pic of it somewhere, if i can find it when i call round to hers il update the thread with it for laughs.