Weird Al. No joke. Different outfits and sets for every song. Wildly talented and wholesome man.

Not music but my city has a surprising handful of puppetry troops that put on absolutely phenomenal performances.

They use really elaborate hand built stages, puppets, and other contraption. projectors and paper cut outs for wild visual overlays, compelling emotionally engaging scenes and It’s always for crowds of ~30 or fewer people sitting on a floor. It really feels like the textbook definition of childlike wonder. They are by far the events I get most hype about when I see a flyer / post.

I used to work for the largest record company in America at the time, and saw a LOT of concerts of all kinds. My favorites:

• Ella Fitzgerald with the Count Basie Orchestra: Two genuine legends, at the top of their game.

• kd lang: A private performance at a convention, and it was a PERFECT performance. It's hard to describe what I mean, but I've never seen an audience react like that. A few weeks later, I saw her interviewed on 60 Minutes, and she mentioned that every now and then she does a perfect performance, and I knew she was thinking about that night.

• Debbie Harry/ Tom Tom Club: Tom Tom Club (Talking Heads without David Byrne) opened with a blistering set, and then backed up Debbie Harry, who also had her guitarist Chris Stein with her. Just an incredible show.

• Beethoven: Symphony #9: the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, with Thomas Hampson and Dawn Upshaw, at Carnegie Hall. Harnoncourt was one of my favorite conductors, very influential on my musical education, and seeing him conduct the greatest music ever composed was one of the most memorable musical moments of my life.

• Prince - Saw him twice, and he was unbelievable both times. Frankly, I don't think those performances were anything special for him, I think he was just that good, all the time.

• Lindsey Buckingham - Private performance in a conference room with about 20 people. He played acoustic guitar, and sang three Fleetwood Mac songs. He sings so intensely, he turns bright red, and he looks like his head will explode. I met him after, and got a photo with him that I still have.

In person? Streetlight Manifesto at a shithole venue during the dog days of summer on the Somewhere in the Between tour. It was so goddamn hot that the security guys were paying more attention to spraying the crowd with cold water than making sure people were safe. Stage diving, crowd surfing, insane energy the entire time.

On tv? Hard not to say Gojira at the Paris Olympics.

GWAR in the 00s! I randomly was invited by a customer during my shift at retail. I went in my work uniform. I never washed that uniform.

TJ Richter (Mind Plasma) was in incredible performer, too. I would be shocked if anyone on Lemmy was able to see him; he mainly did performances at warehouse raves and techno festivals, but for the set and setting, his performances were INCREDIBLE to stumble upon and lose yourself in. Rest in Plasma.

IDK how to pick but my late ‘90s to early ‘00s viewings of AFI, HIMSA, Motörhead, Dio, Bad Religion, and Priest are probably contenders for the best.

Just cool: Angine de Poitrine, you've probably seen it by now.

In person, probably Black Sabbath on their 13 tour. I cheered so hard that I had to take a knee at one point. First sign of getting old, I guess lol

Seeing the Justice Hyperdrama tour live was incredibly transcendental, and an experience I wish I could experience live again. The lights were so damn cool. https://archive.org/details/justice-live-accor-arena-18122025/Justice+(Coachella+2024+-+Week+One).mkv

Either Mr. Bungle on the Disco Volante tour, or Jamiroquai on the Travelling Without Moving tour. Both bands were at their absolute peaks and they were both insane shows.

Chemical Brothers on the Surrender tour and NIN on the Downward Spiral tour get honourable mentions...and i saw the Bob Marley Babylon By Bus tour when i was 5...but i don't really count that, because i was more interested in the beach balls floating around the crowd than the music.

Fela Kuti, by far. That show, absolutely nothing else existed, probably best performance in the world.

Second place Henry Rollins, I almost sat out his set because he was so snooty to everyone in the club but holy crap.

And Marcus King has such charisma - he is a pudgy not particularly handsome dude and was wearing an unflattering outfit but I swear he transformed, not physically exactly but is so compelling on stage - he picks up the guitar you forget about his looks. I find that almost the definition of cool, in a way. Transcendent.

David Gilmour’s comfortably numb solo in Pompeii, starts around 4:30 here

Jeff Rosenstock and PUP playing the salt shed in Chicago last year. What a show.

For music, Thievery Corporation is absolutely fantastic, so is Sylvan Esso

However, I'm a performer and sideshow freak so I end up at a lot of shows. I've seen a loooooot of crazy shit. The only one that genuinely chills me to my bones is a stunt called "The Man Who Can't Be Hung". Big nope. The coolest was probably when I got to coordinate my friend breathing fire through a fire whip explosion directly above his head. We had three safeties just for that stunt. I also got to coordinate a full body burn. I love being a safety lead.

Probably Blue Man Group in Las Vegas. Great music, great performance, good comedy sketches. It was a great experience all around.

Powderfinger, two times.

They're from my home city and I got to see their farewell concert from their home hometown. Outdoor stadium, and it was raining, but it was an absolutely amazing experience.

During COVID, they also did a one night only online concert, all of the members recording from different locations. It was amazing to see them back together, and it was a great way to breakup the lockdown doldrums.

A young PJ Harvey, solo on Jay Leno: https://youtu.be/KBZoL8wpZzU

Cirque du Soliel Crystal: A lot of amazing choreography and skating.

Cats: We took our then 4 year old son and had seats in the first row. One of the cats came up to my son, who was standing in front of me. She scared him and he jumped up into my arms. She looked horrified and actually told me "SORRY!" I told her it was OK as my son actually started giggling after his initial fright. He turned in my arms and gave her one of his patented smiles. Later in the show the entire cast came out into the audience singing. They were so close that we could hear them singing directly without the PA. That was 15 years ago and our son still talks about it.

Concerts:

Chicago/ Beach Boys co headlining. By far the best rock concert I've attended.

Black Crows opening for ZZ Top (Recycler Tour): ZZ Top was always known for spectacular shows. On this one though, the Black Crows performance was light years ahead of the headliner. They were a really good live band.

Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops at the Riverbend Music Center: 1812 Overture. The Cincinnati Pops used actual cannons for the performance. Yeah, real cannons.

For me it was definitely seeing Delain in concert. I splurged for VIP tickets for the first time ever, and I got treated to an acoustic performance of Start Swimming and I got a picture with them. It was fricking awesome, such a good night.

picture

Second place is when I won tickets off a radio show to see testament, megadeth, and slayer. Testament killed it, and megadeth put on the entirety of rust in peace then played some of their popular hits, it was sick. I didn't get to stay for all of slayer though, my brother drove me and he was ready to go halfway through their set. It was still a rad as hell show.

The stage production of Spirited Away was magical and captivating enough to hold the attention of my seven year old. For three hours. With subtitles. From the cheap seats. It is really really good.

Penn and Teller's stage magic show was really something. Some of what I saw has stuck with me for years.

Itchy-O, the marching band from hell, does a show that will leave a permanent mark on you. We were fortunate enough to see them on Halloween, and everyone was in costumes. Hard to beat that.

Afrique en Cirque was incredible, we saw that and 360 All Stars at the Edinburgh fringe one year. That same week, we saw The Shadow Kingdom which was transformative. It's like a whole animated film that they just create right in front of you with nothing but puppets, a light, a boombox, and two people. It's truly unique, and I don't know why more people don't do a show like this.

Paul McCartney at a music festival in 2013. I know that part of it was just being starstruck by him, but also, it really was an amazing show. I was also as close as you could get without being in the VIP section. He was like, right in front of me.

Cirque du Soleil performances are way up there, too.

It’s this feature-length video the music group Jungle did for one of their albums but never publicized: https://player.vimeo.com/video/846974200?h=d7fad03b63

Feels like it was some weird Kubrick side-project; just insane.

Pink Floyd Division Bell tour, at an outdoor stadium during the city's annual Exposition festival. Seeing all the rides going, the slingshot was busy all night, David Gilmour down on the stage.

I'm going to see Rush, Geddys getting a little long in the tooth, but there's a new drummer girl, Anika Nilles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anika_Nilles

Probably Behemoth. They straight up performed a satanic ritual on stage during a song. Coolest shit I've ever seen

Tool's Lateralus show. Not the best show I have ever seen but definitely the best performance.

Saw a couple of smaller bands a couple months back that put on a great show: Foxy Shazam & Descartes a Kant. Very different shows on the same stage (DAK opened for Foxy), but both were great to see.

Also saw Nirvana Unplugged when it first came out. Still one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Kinga Głyk right next to the Porta Nigra.

A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre was pretty sick.

Favorite concert so far was probably The Punch Brothers with Jesca Hoop opening.

For a not-in-person answer: Mac's dance from It's Always Sunny.

Front row at Bonnaroo to see Sigur Ros. Hung out at the front of the stage for five hours with some nice strangers and saw an incredible performance. I haven't been to Bonnaroo in awhile but the atmosphere of the other festival goers makes the event. The openness to strangers and general kindness at what should be a miserable packed event will always stick with me. Go if you can. It's one thing I'll perpetually entertain going to as long as they have it each year.

After that, found out Kanye still hadn't taken his stage. Totally had planned on missing him for Sigur Ros. Fell asleep waiting for him to take stage and walked back to camp at 4am. Crazy it's almost 20 years ago.

The Umbilical Brothers show The Distraction. Live comedy with green screen work, mime and vocal sound effects, with a giant space baby. Insanely creative, and utterly hilarious.

https://youtu.be/_sq_eX837ro

Not the strongest bit, but it gives you an idea of what I'm on about.

I wasn’t a big fan but ended up with free tickets to see Collective Soul. Dude had the best stage presence I’ve ever seen.

Atari Teenage Riot, in a really shitty small basement venue that had sticky floors. They still gave it 110%, it was a solid wall of chaotic noise.

I wasn't in a good state to enjoy it, but the show was intensely cool.

I went to a Twenty One Pilots concert in like 2018 (I know, not nearly as cool as some other shows listed...) They were my favorite band at the time, and the show was super cool. The arena had a main stage in the front with the screens and special effects, and another stage in the back with practically nothing on it. At one point in the show, both band members dropped below the stage, and like 5 seconds later, were performing on the other stage. We were on the floor, so we got to be a part of the mad dash to get to the other side, and then back again.

They pulled a fan out from the crowd to play N64 Mario Kart with the drummer on the big center screen.

Then towards the end of the show, the drummer climbed into a giant inflatable hamster ball and crowd ran across the floor.

It was my first concert. What an experience.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow.. Wow. The play has a World Two Destroyer being dropped into the Upside Down and that was the opening scene and it got more intense after that.

The special effects were incredible and the big and little ones were equally amazing. yeah the whole thing goes in and out of the Upside Down a number of times and yes that was just incredible how it was handled.

One of the most incredible effects as when one of the character in a “dream sequence” costume changed from a high school kid to a vaudeville dancer right on the stage instantly. It was just mind blowing how they did it!

I like to do three or four broadway shows a year, but holy hell The First Shadow was a roller coaster ride!

Nirvana at the point theatre in Dublin. I was about four people back from the stage and 17. Incredible gig.

Second would be Sylvan Esso at Vicar Street.

Michael Jackson was also a great show.

Cats and Les Miserables were fantastic too.

I saw “Kinky Boots” with Brendan Urie on Broadway, that was a really cool experience. I also saw Pink do her whole wire swinging act while singing which was super impressive even if it’s not really my kind of music. I may be biased because it was just last week, but the HVasquez Circus had some really incredible acts when I went to see it. I’ve been to a ton of concerts, but if I’m being honest, I was piss drunk at like 90% of them so it’s hard to pick one in particular as a really cool performance.

As far as not in person stuff I’ve seen, a lot of the Red Bull stunts come to mind. Skating down a skyscraper, BMX on a moving train, that guy skydiving from space.

Hard to choose just one.

Kim Petras was an absolute blast. Excellent use of the screens and her backup dancers. But pretty raunchy for sure. The people in the crowd here hardly dressed, which was super fun for the energy of the whole thing.

Black Tiger Sex Machine was I think the first show I went to that had egregious use of lasers. What a blast. So many people were dancing like no one was watching - absolutely infectious. The crowd crush got to be wayyyy too much for me though and I had to leave my super great spot.

Shawn James might have been my favorite though. Teeny tiny venue where I was standing on a balcony overlooking the crowd. The first band to play turned up the energy and then Shawn James came out and it was practically spiritual. If you've seen Sinners where the camera is going through the barn and the different dancers are all there and everyone and everything is kinda blending together? It was like that. Watching the crowd move as one to the beat and being surrounded by that energy and the music where we were all so crammed in together? Probably the only time I'd use the term psychedelic to describe a real experience.

2014 AL wild card game. I was hoarse for days afterwards.

I couldn't save this conversation fast enough! Ok getting so much great music!