Favorite musical experience.

[porkulator]

I put this on fb and I thought I'd trot it out on here to see if anyone wanted to play along. I hope it's not in another thread somewhere and if it is, my apologies.
Tell me a story y'all. It goes without saying many of my friends are VERY heavy into live music. What has been your favorite musical experience?
I've seen a lot of big name artist in big rooms. I've only seen the Drive By Truckers 33 times but looking to get that number up soon. I've seen a lot of great lesser known artist in small rooms with only a handful of people and some of those show are at the top of my list.
But if I had to pick only one, it would have to be the 2011 Hangout festival in Gulf Shores Alabama. I think that was the 2nd. year for the event and the promoters hadn't hit the rape and pillage mode. We had a condo just a short walk down the beach to the venue, and there were tons of great bands.A very special time for the wife and me.
So I look forward to some stories from my seasoned Rawk Show friends, maybe it'll stir up a good memory for you as well. Thanks for your time.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

What has been your favorite musical experience?

#1 would be seeing R.E.M. in concert for the first time in 1986, which ended with Stipe stage diving into the audience twice. I think they did something like three encores that night.
#2 would be DBT's at Pine Hill Farm in Durham, NC shortly after the release of Southern Rock Opera in 2001 and just about a month after September 11. Many of the songs took on a different meaning in that context. This was in someone's living room that probably held around 35-40 people (if that many). All told, the evening went on for about 4 hours with a short break between sets. There was lots of storytelling, cutting up, rare songs and impromptu moments like Thad Cockrell sitting in on "Bulldozers and Dirt." Perhaps the most poignant was Jyl Freed (RIP) chiming in on background vocals during 'Angels and Fuselage." The night ended with a cover of "Keep On Smilin'" that had everyone singing along. This came right after "Angels and Fuselage" which completely altered the mood in the room.

Favorite moment overall would probably be the night R.E.M. started their last encore at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill with Michael Stipe perched on top of one of the stage monitors singing an acappella version of "Harpers" by Hugo Largo. This was on the Green World tour so most of the evening had been filled with pretty loud, raucous moments. This was pin drop quiet and from the moment Stipe's voice rang out, a hush fell over the crowd. I've never experienced anything quite like it before or since.

[John A Arkansawyer]

Probably August 31, 1980, Chicago Jazz and Blues Festival. I was second or third row center, with a muslim dude on my left and a sculptor from the south side on my right. Neither one was particularly worried about staying sober. They were great company. The muslim dude read his Koran between acts. The sculptor lady...well, I'll get to that in a second. So a local latin jazz band opened, and they were really good. Then the Art Ensemble of Chicago, who I love so much, did a great set, after which two of the members came out into the crowd and did magic tricks. After that was Stan Getz, who I also love so much, and then Muddy Waters. Every song he sang, the sculptor lady made a flash abstract drawing of it, then put it in an envelope and sealed it and put it in her purse. Since it was being broadcast on NPR, it was all very tight-assed fifty-minute sets, ten-minute set changes, and god help you if you even thought about an encore.

Then Lionel Hampton came out. I didn't really know his work at the time, but he was awesome. And he kept coming back for encore after encore. I lost count, there were so many.

Finally, long after midnight, he finished up. My day pass for the El had run out, and I wasn't looking forward to walking the five miles or so to the (I swear this is true) Albion Arms apartment building, and I was literally penniless, so I walked to the El station without any clear intention in mind. They'd just thrown the gates open and no one who hadn't paid already paid to ride home.

It was the greatest night of music of my life. The only better musical act I've seen was Bob Marley and the Wailers--Muddy Waters would be second best, and he was just as powerful the other time I saw him--but this was just great beginning to end.

[rlipps]

For me, it's hard to top seeing Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and DBT on the same bill. Was a night I'll never forget.

[beantownbubba]

There are 3 that stand above the rest but the music was only a part of each experience so describing each will take more time than I have now. Here's the list, w/ more to follow:

Bob Dylan/The Band, January '74 at Madison Square Garden. The "comeback tour" memorialized on Before the Flood.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, February '77 at the then Music Hall in Boston

Drive-By Truckers, March '07 (?) at the Paradise in Boston - the show I dubbed "the Easter miracle cnocert" (the show was on Saturday nite into Easter Sunday). I regret that I didn't bother to save the review of this show that I posted on 9B back in the day - nothing I've said about the show since captures it nearly as well and my specific memories have faded, but still, a key moment for me.

[Beebs]

Drive-By Truckers, March '07 (?) at the Paradise in Boston - the show I dubbed "the Easter miracle cnocert" (the show was on Saturday nite into Easter Sunday). I regret that I didn't bother to save the review of this show that I posted on 9B back in the day - nothing I've said about the show since captures it nearly as well and my specific memories have faded, but still, a key moment for me.

Hell yes, brother.

That night taught me that any show on any night might be the stuff of legend. You just gotta show up.

[Tequila Cowboy]

I can think of a couple but this one really stands out:

- Right about the time Wilco Being There came out Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett played an impromptu set at Lounge Axe in Chicago owned by Sue Miller, Tweedy's then girlfriend and now wife. There were other bands on the bill but they started a little earlier so that Tweedy and Bennett could have about an hour of stage time. Lounge Axe was kind of my "home club" at the time and I got a heads up that this was happening that afternoon. They played about 45 minutes and then it was last call as Sue announced they were closing early. In the meantime she rounded about two dozen of us that were regulars and told us to wait by the stage. After she locked up she put out a iced bucket of beers and several bottles of liquor on the bar and told us to help ourselves. Jeff and Jay then played a private set that lasted about two hours, including covers of the Beatles and others, basically until they ran out of songs. It was spontaneous and awesome and a top five show to this day.

[jr29]

Levon helm at the Ryman in Nashville around 2006-2007. He played there every year for the last 6-7 years of his life and this was the first of that run.
Levon's voice was very strong that night.

[Beebs]

Jeff and Jay then played a private set that lasted about two hours, including covers of the Beatles and others, basically until they ran out of songs.

Damned TC. That might be a tough one to beat.

[schlanky]

In one long weekend, I caught Norman Blake in Chattanooga and then John Hartford & band in Dahlonega, GA at some small school. At the time, I was really digging both of them, so it was a real treat to catch them playing a couple of days apart within driving distance from home.

Norman Blake was simply amazing. That show might be the best musical performance I've ever seen live.

Hartford played a short set one night, then a short set the next day. These were among Hartford's last shows. It was plain to see he wasn't in great health, but he seemed to have a good time. Set list ranged from Aeroplane era up through his better later stuff including Watching the River Go By and The Cross-Eyed Child.

====
And I suppose my first Rock Show would qualify as a favorite musical experience:

I counted the days from the show announcement until the tickets went on sale, then counted the days from then until the show. That night, DBT came out and fucking rocked. I'd been hoping to hear "Angels and Fuselage" and had no idea at the time that it was one of the standard closers. I had no idea how the end of that song worked live. DBT ended with it and left the stage one by one with the resulting meltdown of glorious feedback. I was blown away. I had really high expectations for that show and they were far, far exceeded. I talked about it for days....

I lost my mind when they opened that first show with Ronnie & Neil into This Highway's Mean into Lookout Mtn. By the time Angels and Fuselage came around, I was no longer forty-something years old. I was 19 again with my fist in the air singing the chorus at the top of my lungs.

[scotto]

Man, good stuff you guys. Mine would be...
Seeing an impromptu after-hours jam between Jay McShann and Chico Freeman at the Mutual Musicians' Foundation (original union hall for African American musicians: http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/local627/index.htm) in KC.
Patti Smith at Cain's Ballroom in 1978.
Roxy Music on the "Manifesto" tour (1979?) at a tiny joint in KC.
Bob Marley and the Wailers at KU (also '79).
And any of the couple dozen times I saw Sun Ra.

[rlipps]

The Terry Pace benefit show in Florence with Patterson, Cooley & Jason would be near the top of my list too.

[beantownbubba]

There are 3 that stand above the rest but the music was only a part of each experience so describing each will take more time than I have now. Here's the list, w/ more to follow:

Bob Dylan/The Band, January '74 at Madison Square Garden. The "comeback tour" memorialized on Before the Flood.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, February '77 at the then Music Hall in Boston

Drive-By Truckers, March '07 (?) at the Paradise in Boston - the show I dubbed "the Easter miracle cnocert" (the show was on Saturday nite into Easter Sunday). I regret that I didn't bother to save the review of this show that I posted on 9B back in the day - nothing I've said about the show since captures it nearly as well and my specific memories have faded, but still, a key moment for me.

It's hard to imagine now, 30+ years or whatever it is into the neverending tour, but there was a time when Bob Dylan was a recluse and there was serious doubt that he would tour again. Between the time of his motorcycle accident and the '74 tour I think he made 2 musical appearances: the Concert for Bengladesh and the New Year's Eve show by the Band that became Rock of Ages. So when it was announced that Dylan would tour with the Band, who had become famous and beloved on their own since they last backed Dylan, the musical world went absolutely nuts. Tickets were impossible to get and the procedure for getting them was more than a little complicated. Scalpers had a field day. Most people consider that tour to be the start of the modern rock tour. Somehow I randomly got tickets. There was a big difference between those who grew up w/ Dylan, maybe since the folkie days or at least since '65 and those who came to him when he was already a legend of incomparable mystery. That would be me. Just being there was one of the most exciting events in my life before they played a note. That may say more about my life than I intended, but whatever. I was a fan of the Band before then (who wasn't?) but that night they knocked my socks off and I became a FAN. Dylan reworked the songs (as one can hear on the album) which was a bit disconcerting but he delivered the lyrics w/ such incredible passion and the Band played so intensely behind him and the fans were all so delirious at just being there that one just got caught up in the wave and surrendered to it.

I've written about the Springsteen show before but in a word it was transcendent. I had already seen the Boss once before and thought he was "pretty good" but I didn't fully get all the hype so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was an old fashioned revival show and he converted every single person there. It was a great wkend for me anyway: I had great seats in about the 10th row, my GF was there for a long wkend from her distant college and i think I knew about 20 or 30 people in my immediate surroundings and it felt like I knew about half the audience. Springsteen pulled out all the stops, did all the shtick including the James Brown cape thing and playing off Little Steven and Clarence, the stories were fantastic and still fresh at the time, he jumped into the audience a couple of times and wandered around w/out missing a beat or a lyric and while he may not have played literally every song he knew he certainly played just about every song he had released to that point and a bunch of others besides, including some of Darkness before its release. I don't know if I'm making this up or not, but I think he played "The Promise" which was much rumored about at that time and eventually was cut from the album so became pretty legendary all by itself. After the third encore some people had to leave to catch the last subway and trains. Springsteen came out and said something like "where are you all going, we're not done yet" and launched into encore #4. To this day I've only seen one other show anything like it and that was

The DBT Easter show at the Paradise. I was a relatively new fan at the time and was very excited about finding the band and getting into the music, but I didn't really get the full scope of what the band was and what it did, but holy cow, I learned that night. They came out on fire and it got more intense from there. They played a lot of songs and they played for a long time. The crowd was ecstatic, totally blown away. All of a sudden, rock n roll was new to me again and the possibilities were endless. DBT restored my faith and my enthusiasm in the power of rock n roll to save my soul. I am here today at least in some part because of what I experienced that night.

[Gaetzi]

The Rolling Stones in Buenos Aires, February 2016. Probably the single craziest experience of my life. In Argentina specifically, the Stones are still a cultural phenomenon. Their fans are called Rollingas and they're rabid. We started out standing just to the right of the sound board. When the show started there was this insane rush, we were lifted off of our feet and ended up about 30-40 ft closer by the time things calmed down. If there weren't a ton of smoking hot 20 something chicks everywhere having the time of their lives I would have had a panic attack. Total free for all. Not my video but check out the Start Me Up opener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwii_lO ... e=youtu.be

[Bon Scott's AC/DC]

The Rolling Stones in Buenos Aires, February 2016. Probably the single craziest experience of my life. In Argentina specifically, the Stones are still a cultural phenomenon. Their fans are called Rollingas and they're rabid. We started out standing just to the right of the sound board. When the show started there was this insane rush, we were lifted off of our feet and ended up about 30-40 ft closer by the time things calmed down. If there weren't a ton of smoking hot 20 something chicks everywhere having the time of their lives I would have had a panic attack. Total free for all. Not my video but check out the Start Me Up opener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwii_lO ... e=youtu.be

The passion from the crowd is incredible. Even all the way to the back of the GA area everyone is bouncing up an down.

[Bill in CT]

Drive-By Truckers, March '07 (?) at the Paradise in Boston - the show I dubbed "the Easter miracle cnocert" (the show was on Saturday nite into Easter Sunday). I regret that I didn't bother to save the review of this show that I posted on 9B back in the day - nothing I've said about the show since captures it nearly as well and my specific memories have faded, but still, a key moment for me.

It was March 22, 2008. I couldn't find it on the Archive. The setlist is linked below.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/drive-by- ... f24c8.html

[Tequila Cowboy]

The Terry Pace benefit show in Florence with Patterson, Cooley & Jason would be near the top of my list too.

The closest show to pure joy I can remember.