Your worst concert experience - Paying money to be disappointed

[Shining Wit]

Me (15) got punched in the head by a middleaged skinhead at a Madness concert. We weren't even in the pit, he just clearly didnt like me

 

[Tequila Jong]

Worst actual musical performance by a professional band was Alestorm, who I saw at a festival a few years back. It looked like they were totally bored of their own pirate gimmick and they were barely trying.

That's such a shame. I saw them when they first started getting bigger, and they were really good fun. I think they were supporting Turisas.

But yes, I did find out it is indeed possible for a live band to be too loud.

I always loved loud bands, the whole sort of noise-rock scene in the UK in the late 80s/early 90s was my go to for a lot of years. I saw Swervedriver on the tour where they played their first two albums back-to-back. I was offered ear protection at the door, "lol no thanks faggots" - Big mistake. I haven't seen a doctor, but I'm positive it's done permanent damage to my hearing. I can't hear someone right next to me speak if there's so much as a kettle boiling in the same room, they just blend in with background noise.

Me (15) got punched in the head by a middleaged skinhead at a Madness concert. We weren't even in the pit, he just clearly didnt like me

My sympathies. A friend and I went to a Damian Marley concert years back and some guy elbowed him in the back of the head (accidentally) so hard he got a concussion. We spent the entire concert at the medical station. the gig sounded good, at least.



Off the top of my head, one of worst ones I ever had was at a Rage Against the Machine performance at a music festival. I was maybe three or four rows from the front, and when they started, the crowd went ballistic. There was maybe twelve or so people around me just disappeared and I'm sure got trampled. The whole audience pushed forward, the back pressure went, and I shit my pants during a crush. After five or so songs, I finally managed to surf to the front and get pulled out of there, and some bastard stole my shoe in the process. I went to a toilet to ditch the shit-splattered underwear, only it turns out I didn't shit my pants at all. Feeling a bit better, I bought some overpriced, tasteless noodles and watched them from the hillside.

They sounded fucking terrible, and I left halfway through their set. I never listened to RATM again.

 

[(((I am NOT a jew)))]

After five or so songs, I finally managed to surf to the front and get pulled out of there, and some bastard stole my shoe in the process. I went to a toilet to ditch the shit-splattered underwear, only it turns out I didn't shit my pants at all. Feeling a bit better, I bought some overpriced, tasteless noodles and watched them from the hillside.

They sounded fucking terrible, and I left halfway through their set. I never listened to RATM again.

I guess the real shit in your pants was the commie LARPERS you heard along the way...
I still refuse to believe you didn't shit your pants though, as whether you did or not, it gave me a pretty big laugh just reading that.

 

[fake farts]

Most of my concert experiences have been fun, but usually I can tell if a band at a festival or show is going to attract the meathead jock douchebag would rather punch people in the faces than try to even actually mosh crowd, and I bounce for a while. A show with Exodus in the late 2000s attracted those types, bald head dudes built like refrigerators in sports jerseys and tank tops, looked like some hooligans from Boston trapped down in NC. I hung out by the bar and outside during that. Another time, teenagers doing their ninja moves to some local band got into a dumb teenage spat (probably fucking one another) and one of the retarded boys stormed out of the venue and slammed the front door so hard, the glass shattered. And a time where I saw Nashville Pussy, and some tall drunk retarded man was literally LAYING on the people in front of him, including many women, with his middle finger within six inches of Blaine Cartwrights face for the duration of multiple songs. Blaine and the rest of the band were visibly pissed at this guy, ready to walk off stage, and Blaine even called the retard out. Pretty sure someone came and wrangled the tard, and after that, the show was okay.

I had seen Nashville Pussy a few years earlier at a different venue, really fun show.

 

[Ewan McGregor]

I once went to watch Mahler's Symphony Number 8 at my local music hall and the bloody triangle player ruined the whole experience with his lack of tempo

 

[keytar]

Worst actual musical performance by a professional band was Alestorm, who I saw at a festival a few years back. It looked like they were totally bored of their own pirate gimmick and they were barely trying. Apparently they had been too hungover to soundcheck so everything sounded like total shit.

That's such a shame. I saw them when they first started getting bigger, and they were really good fun. I think they were supporting Turisas.

I saw Alestorm a few years ago and they were great, I remember the sound being decent too. I've heard they're pretty hit-and-miss though (maybe something to do with getting drunk and pretending to be pirates for a career).

I saw Swans a while ago. It was my birthday and I was very excited to see them. I’d heard they were incredibly loud as a gimmick, but I figured they were all old now and really wouldn’t be doing that anymore.

I guess I missed some kind of memo because they were fucking horrifyingly loud. It sounds like it would be fun, but it was not. It was actually painful to listen to. There was a pregnant woman at the show and I’m pretty sure her baby was born deaf. The band was so loud that I actually had to go outside to try to listen to the music, but every song they played was slow and sounded like shit because it was so loud. No sound mixing to speak of, just noise.

But yes, I did find out it is indeed possible for a live band to be too loud.

Swans were stupid loud when I saw them as well. I don't really get the point of it, I'd rather just hear the band properly. I wore earplugs because I have sensitive baby ears and usually wear em anyway, and I don't feel like I missed out on anything apart from hearing damage.

 

[OvercookedBacon]

I don't think I've had a really bad concert experience to this date, but Johnny Van Zant messing up the lyrics to What's Your Name at a Skynyrd / ZZ Top concert c. 2000 was funny.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Roger Waters’ last tour was filled with too much liberal faggy preaching for me to scrape any enjoyment from. At least I didn’t pay for my ticket.

Lol. I believe I've mentioned the time I personally booed Waters for that shit, when he did his solo DSoTM tour. Shut the fuck up, Roger. No-one cares about your Dad dying, you champagne socialist asshole.

For me, the worst concert was Sting and the Police, with Fergie as the support act. Picture a concert venue full of Boomers blinking myopically at a small ginger woman, as she prances all over the stage, mystifying everyone as to who she is and why she's there.
Also, the Police were boring. I think one may have actually been dead.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Roger Waters’ last tour was filled with too much liberal faggy preaching for me to scrape any enjoyment from. At least I didn’t pay for my ticket.

Roger Waters Concert in 2022 had one crybaby jew kick me in the back of my seat over a thumbs down gesture I did over BLM and Trans Rights. He also left like a baby too.

 

[V E R M I L L I O N]

I remember when I was 15, I had just started getting into trannycore bands, Polyphia, Animals As Leaders, Intervals, yeah. Just modern guitar music. And there was this "technical jazz band" playing in my town's local theatre, I mean, they made these guys sound like they were studioforce good.

I bought a ticket, leg it to that theatre, and I walk in. The band is sitting down. That's NEVER a good sign. They're all boomers who are supposed "local legends". They're all sitting down, everyone else is already there, but I asked a guy sitting in the row in front of me if they'd played a song already. Nope.

These guys start playing, and it was fucking elevator music. Not even complex in any way. They finish the piece of shit that they were playing, and don't even say another word before they start playing the next song. The only thing I actually heard spoken by the band was the count ins. "1! 2! 12341234!"

Halfway through that second song, I did the rudest thing I've ever done. I stood up, turned around, and fucking left. And of course there aren't any refunds, fuck that theatre.

Basically, the band had no stage presence, and their music sucked dick. Walked out early and didn't look back.

 

[timewave0]

I was drugged and raped by Matthew McConaughey at a Death Grips concert

 

[Vapid_Idiot]

I got invited to a Busta Rhymes concert by some friends. I did not go (because I’m not into his shit). I guess he was 2 hours late, did 3 songs, and left. Niggas were losing their shit and my friends got soaked from people flinging their drinks at the stage.

 

[High Level Rad Waste]

I saw Metallica live and they only played Death Magnetic songs. Lamb of God opened for them, but it was right after they had their new singer too and they sucked. Gojira was the only band I enjoyed and I had no idea who the fuck they were at the time.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

I was within one row of the front at a Gwar concert and reached forward and grabbed the front rail so that the browning motion of the crowd and people who were deliberately pushy couldn't dislodge me. There was a tiny spherical woman in a bunny onesie in front of me who tried to push me away, as if you are entitled to personal space in a place like that, but she got nowhere with that so she turned to her boyfriend and shouted something in his ear. He tried shoving me, too, so I gave him one back that slammed him into the gate. They waved over a bouncer and spun some tale that got me ordered out of the pit - I spent the last half hour of the show standing by the back wall, seething.

I kept an eye on the door and outside the moment the show was over, but I didn't see them leave, so either they took off during the encore or they stayed inside for at least another fifteen minutes. That was pretty stupid of me but I was a lot angrier back then.

A little while after that I rang up a friend while leaving a convenience store and was so busy ranting at her about this grave injustice that I didn't notice that I was driving the wrong way down a one way street with my headlights off, and that there was a police car at the intersection. Fortunately my white privilege kicked in and the cop chose to ignore me after I turned the lights on and turned.

Also at that concert, a guy with a horsehead mask on was crowdsurfing over and over, and I, being much taller than most of the audience, kept getting kicked in the head. After the fifth or sixth time this happened I turned around and shoved him away from me, and the crowd dropped him. He stopped crowdsurfing after that so I consider it a victory, but it was a relatively violent night for me. Maybe I was the bad concert-goer?

 

[Deckard Bane]

Was in LA and found out C-lekktor was gonna be in the city for a concert. Had never seen them before and liked their stuff, so I went out to the show. Had 3 or 4 bands total for the night, and the venue was pretty large - way larger than the crowd. It was pretty light - maybe 25-40 people. Whatever though, it's all good music and I enjoyed all the openers. C-lekktor comes on stage and everyone is getting into it. About a minute into the 3rd song the house lights go up and the audio is killed. Massive black bouncer dude comes out and tells everyone "Show's over, you all gotta go. Now." C-lekktor is pissed and start shoving their gear into storage and we go out asking what the fuck is going on. Well, it turns out that the bar wasn't selling enough drinks that night so they decided to just say fuck it and shut down the show. Pretty much everyone was pissed. I did wind up seeing them again - the promoters of that show found a better, smaller venue that supported the scene more and had a bigger turnout.

Oddly enough that wasn't the first negative experience at that club. Went there for another concert about a month or two prior, they were splitting the venue with some college party - they were upstairs, we were downstairs. Lots of jocks and preppy guys with typical popular girls, and now mix in a fuck ton of rivethead goths who look like KMFDM fronted a military unit. A lot of us for the band that was playing tend to give off a "Don't fuck with us" vibe, but one of them tried starting some shit with another guy I was with when they were insulting his wife. One thing led to another and I think HS/college dude bro learned two things that night: 40 year old rivetheads aren't really gonna take your high school clique shit, and don't fuck with a guy who has spiked rivets on his wristband. They cleared the other party out of the area pretty fucking fast after that but thankfully they didn't shut it down.

 

[Foxymophandlemama]

I was at a festival and Snow Patrol played there. Boring as fuck, everyone around me sat down and started chatting while the band played. Watching paint dry was more entertaining than that band.