Spinoff: Bands you regret seeing live
 

In 2015 I had the distinct displeasure of seeing Blues Traveler at Red Rocks for 4th of July. I'd loved Blues Traveler since I was a teenager and the song Hook came out. I loved the album Four. I loved their sister band the Spin Doctors.

Hanson was the opening act. They were garbage just as one might anticipate.

Guster was the middle act and they were FANTASTIC.

Then Blues Traveler hit the stage and I was ready to be 14 again. Instead, the dude forgot a shit ton of lyrics, was constantly out of breath, and to make matters worse... he brought out Rome from "Sublime with Rome" (an abomination before God and man) and STARTED DOING SUBLIME COVERS.

**** John Popper and **** Rome.

The only show that comes to mind was REM at Sandstone in the mid 90s.

Stipe was battling some bug, and it was the most boring concert I ever attended.

A buddy of mine tops this category though, as he saw some MTV concert that had Milli Vanilli on the bill!

KISS at the Illinois state fair 3-4 years ago, Paul’s voice was clearly shot and almost their entire set was made up of my least favorite songs

Proudly KISS Army, but vowed that night to never see them again... hang’em up, guys

Heard a lot saying their last few have been BAD. got killed in the paper here last summer.

I'd have to agree with the OP,i just never could get into Blues Traveler,as soon as i would hear that harmonica on whichever song that was popular,i would change the station.But it always sucks when one of your fave bands tanks a live show when you were hoping for a good performance.I guess i've been lucky in that the shows i've seen over the years,i may not have enjoyed all of them but don't really regret seeing live.One i can think of would be Candlebox,it was probably at Memorial.i only knew of maybe the 2 or 3 songs they play on the radio.Not sure why i went,don't remember much from it other than they were pretty popular at the time,and i guess are still around.My apologies if they're anybodys favorite band.

They’re greedy bastards without the good sense to know they’re tarnishing their legacy

Hands down Puddle of Mudd

I saw Marshall Tucker Band at a bar in 2002 or so. The girl I was with saw them a year or two before and said they were pretty bad, but we were hoping it was an anomaly.

It wasn't. Specifically, the lead singer's voice was just shot to hell and IN THE MIDDLE of Heard it in a Love Song (the one I really wanted to hear) he passed off the vocals to another band member, while blaming the sound system.

So, whenever I hear their music now I can't un-remember that night and it's disappointing.

Nickelback (in fairness to myself I was at the concert to see Staind at the time).

Jefferson Airplane. They sucked to high heaven. I actually saw folks standing up and leaving.

Tech N9ne at Rockfest in like 99.

Just staggeringly awful.

I saw Bob Dylan in Springfield somewhere between 07 and 09. It was pretty bad.

Four really stand out.

1. Dokken, about a year ago. He was opening for Tom Keifer of Cinderella at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles, IL. The Arcada is a nearly 100-year-old theater that has been repurposed as a concert venue. Unfortunately, it has no air conditioning, and not knowing this, we got tickets for this packed show in July. It was hotter than the devil's asshole in there. Absolutely miserable. People started to sweat, and then people started to stink. And then Dokken took the stage, and the stink increased exponentially. Don's voice is gone. He sounded like a drunk old man singing bad karaoke. He couldn't sing anything right, and couldn't hit any high notes at all. At one point he started waiving frantically to his bass player, obviously trying to get the poor guy to take over on vocals. The bass player ignored him. It was awful. In the middle of the third song we went outside and waited out the remainder of their set. It was hot and humid outside, but far better than the alternative. Later, the bass player came out to have a smoke and was telling everybody what a dick Dokken is. That was far more entertaining than the show. Finally Keifer's show started. He was great, but between the swampy heat and the lingering effects of getting ear raped the evening was ruined. Worst. Show. Ever.

2. Great White, back in the early 2000s. It took the above experience to unseat these turds as the worst concert ever. Most 80s bands know what their fans want - to hear their 80s songs and go back in time for a couple of hours. Apparently Great White thought they were still relevant, because they played nothing but new shit, that was shit, none of which I'd ever heard before or want to hear again. And they played it badly. The lead singer's voice was shot. Finally, they did Once Bitten Twice Shy. Again, poorly. It was their final song. There was a brief smattering of applause, and then silence. No encore. This was perhaps a year before the Rhode Island nightclub fire, and I remember thinking that those poor ****ers that died were lucky that the fire started near the beginning of their show, because if they'd had to suffer through two hours of Great White and then burn to death, that would just be cruel.

3. Poison, 1992. They were the headliners at the Monsters of Rock show I saw that also featured Firehouse, Damn Yankees and Skynyrd. Those three were solid; Skynyrd in particular was flawless. Then came Poison. This was at a time when Poison's regular guitarist, C.C. DeVille, had been kicked out of the band, and the guy they got to replace him apparently felt like he should put his own signature on the guitar solos. It was horrible; he singlehandedly ruined the entire performance. After he absolutely butchered the solo in Every Rose Has Its Thorn, we got up and left. I've seen them a couple of times after that (the wife is a big fan), and after DeVille returned they were fine. But not that first night.

4. Bob Dylan. 1990. Dylan's singing voice sounds like a cross between a dying cat and a chainsaw. At least the ticket was free.

Dishonorable mention goes to Kansas, who I saw back in the late 80s. Walsh's voice was shot. The music was great. He was not.

That guitarist was Richie Kotzen, who also ****ed the drummer's fiance, then was fired by the band.

Saying that he's an asshole would be a huge understatement.

LMAO Yeah, now I think about it I remember hearing that story. Might have been you that told me.

I actually felt bad for the rest of the guys in the band. Everybody else was fine. Brett's singing was spot on. But it didn't matter.

The next positive review of a Bob Dylan concert I hear, will be the first... think I’ll just stick with my greatest hits CD

Corossion of Conformity was horrible live, and I saw them on my birthday. Pepper was singing, so pre reunion of the original band.

Thankfully Drain STH and Machine Head were the opening acts and they ****ing killed it.

Granada circa 1997ish.

Dokken is still stinking it up in 2020. Look it up if you dare.

My brother saw Kansas at the Tulsa Zoo Amphitheater for free like 10 years ago and said it was pretty decent. Not sure who was and wasn't in the band at that time.

Now I've got "Back for the Attack" in my head. Great.

With the dream war-riors! Don't wanna dream no more!

Hell, at this point I don't even want to listen to Dokken at all. Even the old studio recorded stuff.

As far as Kansas goes, I think Walsh retired and they've got a new lead singer now.

Never did see Dokken, they were kinda down my list of great 80s hair bands... but did see Lynch Mob in Chicagoland at some big sports bar about 5 years ago

George tore the roof off that mfer, great show with Oni Logan on vocals... they’re MUCH heavier than Dokken ever was, but there’s a DEFINITE soft spot in my heart for “It’s Not Love”

Edit - also got see their old bassist Jeff Pilson with Foreigner and Joan Jett a few years ago

I really like a few of their songs. There was a lot more substance to their music than most of the hairbands.

It's just hard to listen to the music after that concert. It still pisses me off. The ****er had to know he couldn't sing before he went on. I don't know if he always sounds like that now, or if he had a cold, or laryngitis, or whatever, but it was an insult to everybody who paid to see him that he performed that night.

When I saw Def Leppard a few years ago, Joe Elliot's voice was ****ed up. But at the start of the show he owned it, apologized in advance, and explained why; his dad had recently passed away, and his resulting absence caused the band to have to reschedule several concerts too close together. He had simply worn out his voice. While it was somewhat annoying, it was also understandable, and he was honest about it. He did his best. Dokken, OTOH, didn't say jack shit to anybody, and obviously didn't try at all. That ****er just stole everybody's money.

Age is a killer. I'm a big fan of Jethro Tull but the last time I saw Ian Anderson it was like listening to your out-of-tune and out-of-breath grandpa trying to croak some lyrics.

I've seen a shit ton of bands, most of them heavy metal in the mid-80s to early-90s, and luckily I can't think of a single bad band. Probably the closest would be when I saw the band Cake in Syracuse around 1997-1999. The lead singer was very disdainful and picking on the crowd and making fun of them for not being energetic enough (which was ironic since the reason we were like that was because the dude had zero energy or charisma as a lead singer).

Kid Rock trying to cover 3 or 4 Stones songs at sandstone. Awful.

Counting Crows at a casino in Tucson. Lowest energy show I have ever seen. On two different occasions between songs, in the most depressing tone imaginable, “this is our saddest song.” Couldn’t finish the show.

Just by looking at Dons recent pics dudes clearly a bloated, pot bellied drunk ala Vince Neil just cashing checks

It’s always sad to see... went to Vince Neil last summer at the fair, and he was almost as bad as all the jokes about him

Lumbering his big belly around, wheezing out the hits

Sad to hear about Cake, they’ve always been a cult favorite of mine

Don has always been completely awful live, even back in the early 80's when I saw them at the Uptown opening for Steve Walsh's band, Streets.

Back in 1999, a buddy of mine lived down in Redondo Beach for a few years before moving to Vegas, so I'd go down quite a bit to hang at his place. The first time we to this hole-in-the-wall bar which was less than a block from his place, we ordered some beers and noticed an old, balding guy that looked beat to shit, to which I said "Whoa, is that Don Dokken?". Turns out, yes, it was Don.

He was a mess. He drank too much, smoked too much (which of course is a no-no for a professional touring singer) while hitting on the ugly ass waitress.

The dude is just wrecked.

I have seen Dokken a few times and they had ZERO chemistry at all. They stood on stage hating each others guts the entire time. George Lynch deserved better-great player.

Bon Jovi kicked ass on his first tour with the Scorpions- but when I saw him on Slippery When Wet tour- he sucked ass. The crowd caught him lip synching to the Beatles- Twist and Shout- acoustic version. He was booed off stage- then came back for one lousy song where he barely sang- told the "Crowd to **** off!" and then left. Cinderella came out and joined the band to play a few more than the concert ended.
It was short and shitty.

When Metallica opened for Ozzy- they were God aweful. They had it cranked to 20 through the PA and it sounded like a rolling concrete truck with feed back mixed in. There was one row of fans with a Metallica banner in all of Kemper that seemed to like it- but most of the crowd hated them.

Nelly- my wife made me take her to TLC, Nelly and New Kids. He played his CD while he screamed "Get them up!!" for a half hour. No talent at all. What an embarrassment.

I knew Adam when he was bar tending at the Viper Room because I was hanging out with Johnny quite a bit in those days.

He’s just a low energy and boring person.

Funny thing about singers smoking. My cousin is married to Michael McCarthy, an Irish singer/stage performer who played Javert in Les Miserables on stage in London for years. I figure you might be the only person here who knows him or knows of him, but I don't think he was ever involved in anything in Hollywood. I guess he's pretty well known in the UK. Anyway, obviously he has a powerful, amazing singing voice, and at the height of his career smoked like a chimney. I don't know how common that is, or was, since it was a long time ago that I met him, but even then it struck me as odd. Certainly didn't seem to bother his voice, though.

All I'm learning from this thread is to never meet your heroes. And that Dokken sucks it long and hard (huge George Lynch and Lynch Mob fan, though).

It's always a crap shoot when you go see the old 70s/80s bands. Some, like Pat Benatar, haven't lost a beat. Some, like Eddie Money a couple of years ago, clearly had been beat to shit by all the years of hard living, but he poured everything he had into that performance, which made it okay. I'm very happy I was able to see him before he passed.

And then sometimes you get a piece of shit like Don Dokken.

From now on I'll be checking YouTube to see what these performers sound like now, and base my concert choices on that, not what they sounded like decades ago.

Dokken toured with all 4 original members in 2016

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However, bassist Jeff Pilson has been fulltime bassist with Foreigner for several years, so if Foreigner is touring, Don will bring a different backup band

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Steve Walsh retired from Kansas in 2014, current lineup are Phil Ehart (original drummer) Rich Williams (original guitarist) Billy Greer (bassist since '85) David Ragsdale (violin '91-'97 and 2006 to present) Ronnie Platt (singer since 2014) Zak Rizvi (2nd guitar since 2017) and Tom Brislin (keyboards since 2018)

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The concert footage from Dokken's 2016 DVD was heavily edited from several "rehearsal" shows and the vocals, as weak as they are, were tuned and edited as well.

Mick's retired since then and Don should do the same.

I met George backstage at Sandstone when Dokken opened for Judas Priest, somewhere around 1987ish? He was pretty cool but Jeff was super cool.

I ran into George's guitar tech at Andy Brauer's old shop in the Valley in 1992 while scouting places to live (I moved in January 1993) and a week after I returned to KC, Lynch Mob played at the Lone Star, so I had a few beers with him and George, which again, was pretty cool.

George and I have a bunch of mutual friends (Dave Friedman, Reinhold Bogner, Rob Dantonio - all awesome amp designers) and while I haven't seen him in years, everyone says he's still the same laid back dude.

FYI, one of George's daughters just had a baby with Richie Faulker, the guitarist that replaced KK Downing in Judas Priest.

Aren't you in the St. Pete's area? My parents lived there from 1993-1998 and when visiting in 1994, Robby Steinhardt, the original violinist, had a Kansas Tribute band that played one of the local bars quite frequently.

I was never a big Kansas fan but they freakin' rocked.

Willi neslson was atrocious. Wish I'd not seen that.

Seeing as Tommy died in 1980 and Toy in 1993 of the founding Caldwell brothers you really weren't seeing the MTB.

Stephen Stills solo late 70s early 80s I believe it was at Memorial Hall. CSN had completely split up and I had been a big fan of his. What I didnt know he was in a bad way drinking heavy and whatever else. He was 30 or more minutes late the opening act was horible and had to resort to playing songs over that had been played. When he appeared he was drunk on his ass and had a chair with a table next to it with a fifth of jack Black and a Beer on table. He sat down to his acoustic set and his voice was broken as hell and was missing choords. The crowd was already restless there were no applause to speak of after his song would finish. Then he started getting beligerant with the crowd cussing and sluring his speech. Finally he brought out his band who basically did his show while Stephan drunk sang his way through the minimum contractual time and they walked off to boo's. It was just sad, I guess it got so bad Crosby and Nash and Neil tried to intervene. Neil took him under his wing got him sober and they cut an album and toured a little as the Stills Young Band if I am remembering right. As far as I know Stills remains sober today but boy was that evening sad.

Any you oldsters like me remember a local KC folk singer named Danny Cox? He opened for acts in KC when they couldnt get anyone else he was that bad. He opened for Logins and Messina at Municpal it was horrible they never even lowered the lights for the guy and tryed to boo him off stage. Was the strangest concert as the Loggins and Messina came on and Blew everyone away with one of my top 5 concerts I ever saw.

PS: If I remember right the opening act was supposed to be Nitty Gritty Dirt Band which was a very good band to see and would have fit better with L&M than a folk singer.

Paul Simon about 3 years ago. Really disappointing.

Winger, **** that guy! :D. “Dodges punch from Dane”

Not sure about regret but I saw The Verve 2008, imagining a lifetime show since I am such a fan. But it wasn't anything stellar at all and not tight.
I heard Winger ate 5 whole chickens/day.

He's been pretty bad for a long time. When he sings, he seems to quickly speak, not sing, each line of a song, then pause while the music catches up with a lost look on his face. He never exactly had a melodic singing voice anyway, but at least when he could carry a tune it was passable.

I saw Winger about four or five years ago. Wasn't terrible, wasn't great. But he at least put forth a good amount of effort.

I have to walk back my take on The Verve as I just watched the full video and it was outstanding. Not sure why I left with such a negative viewpoint. Heck, they even did Rolling People. Maybe it was the venue and the sound didn't carry well over the polo fields.

Nick McCabe is one who shaped my guitar style.

Rod Stewart - he was sick and sucked balls with only 1/2 a concert

ZZ Top - they basically stood all night in one spot playing their songs and little act or banter. Almost sounded recorded. Sucked and was shocked how bad.

Bruce Springsteen - Yeah I know this is sacrilege coming from a Jersey guy but the concert I went to with my ex-GF she got seats so far away I was only 15 feet from the Porta-Potties and 1,000 yards away from the stage. Only saw a screen of the concert and he even looked like a flea on that screen too. Also standing for 4 hours in 90 degree heat with humidity in Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands sucks about as bad as getting shot and dumped in the swamp by Clemenza.

I know some people who saw Willie play an acoustic set at one of those smaller more intimate theaters and paid a hefty price. They said it was a great show.

I've never seen him live; I'm just judging him by performances I've seen on YouTube. And I haven't seen anything recent that was very good.

I'm sure he has good days and bad days; who doesn't? But it's also likely that true fans are willing to cut him some slack due to his age.

The band Live was very disappointing when I saw them at Sandstone. Just very blah with little energy. Ruined their music, which I had enjoyed up to that point. Even worse for me as I had heard they were actually good live, which would make sense for a band called Live.

Oh, and Godsmack was horrendous live. Didn't care much for them anyway, but wow, just terrible.

I saw Dokken once at some backwater bar in like 2005 or something, they were pretty bad. Didn't help that I wasn't really a fan of theirs to begin with, but yeah I've seen high school bands in backyards play better.

Being a fan made it worse.

I've seen Billy Idol twice in the past 2-3 years, and both shows were really good. You can tell he picks/chooses when he goes after it with the screams, but overall, he can still rock (and he's in his 60s).

And of course, Steve Stevens on guitar is amazing.

The Cars late 80's. They didn't try to sound any different than their original recordings, VERY boring.

1980 Oregon Jam, Molly Hatchet and Blue Oyster Cult. I had seen both of them before and they rocked. BOC's main problem was that their light show was really not designed for an outdoor concert. It would have come across much better indoors I am sure.

Molly Hatchet though was the worst. Danny Joe Brown was already sick so they had a replacement lead singer. That fat **** was sweating all over the place in the heat of the day and sounded horrible on top of that. Just ruined what should have been a fun concert!

I grew up in St. Pete but now live in The Villages a big retirement community two hours north of St. Pete. The actual Kansas played here in March at our 1200 seat theater, I didn't go because it was $250 for two tickets, if they still had Steve Walsh I would of probably gone. I had seen Kansas in '95 and I was going to keep that memory.

The west coast of Florida gets a lot of entertainers, Robin Zander singer of Cheap Trick lives in Safety Harbor, just north of St. Pete. Brian Johnson of AC/DC lives in Sarasota, here's him in action.

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The last concert I went to was a couple years ago when my brother had 2 tickets to Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine, and Breaking Benjamin. I like a few Avenged songs and don't care for the other bands really. It was at the BOK Center in Tulsa, and the whole thing was just way way way too ****ing loud. I mean, it didn't sound like music at that level. Just sounded like noise. If I ever do go to a concert at that venue again, I'll be sure to get those specialized ear plugs.

I saw Molly Hatchet in Savannah in '82, it was right after Danny returned from trying his solo career. I heard the record label gave him $300K to record an album in the Bahamas. He spent all the money on drugs and then hired his old high school band to record the album, that's how his solo career went.

In '82 however, he rocked. It was a former Winn Dixie that was converted into a club and they rocked that place. I actually stood at the back wall about 150' from the stage and they sounded perfect, their equipment was too much for a small venue. I saw the original 3 Day Night (all 3 singers) at the same club two weeks earlier and stood 5' in front of Chuck Negron when he sang, they sounded fantastic.

Molly Hatchet only has one original member still alive, even the replacements have died, the singer Phil McCormack, who replaced Danny in 1995 died last year. However they played here where I live in a 850 seat venue in January and I was in the front row and they really rocked. The only oldest members are the guitarist from '87 and the keyboardist from '84. Here they are live about two weeks before i saw them, this is in Germany last December and the new singer is good.

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That's a good song, and I'm all for these older bands continuing as long as people will come out. But god damn. Sometimes I watch these live videos of bands from the 70s and 80s and it's just.....kinda sad. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean that these bands and their fans are trying to relive something that's long gone, even if just for one night. The 70s, 80s, and 90s are gone and that just SUCKS. Maybe one day I'll get over it. Doubt it.

My favorite band from the early 70's wasn't Deep Purple, but Uriah Heep. When I saw Spinal Tap their name popped into my head. I did get to see Heep with David Byron in 1975, he's been dead since 1985. Bernie Shaw their current singer has been in the band over 30 years. The only original member left is the guitarist Mick Box and they're still touring. Here they are last year, they perform mostly in Europe and Japan where they're still in demand. A song like Gypsy is still great to this day!!

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The concert I regret most was Motorhead. Not because they were bad but because I gained some serious hearing damage. It was the only concert that I ever actually experienced pain in my ears during the performance. It was my own fault, though, because I "was too cool" to wear hearing protection during concerts.

Krokus opened for them and were really good so it was a mixed bag.

Another bad one was going to see Siouxsie and the Banshees. We sat through some terrible band called Wonderwall only to have the MC come out and say that Siouxsie was sick and the concert was cancelled. Again, nothing against Siouxsie; it was just a sucky experience.

The most boring concert I ever went to was Robin Trower. I wasn't a fan but my friend was and I went just to keep him company. It was a tiny club in Portland and you sat at tables instead of standing in front of the stage. Trower just basically sat in a chair and noodled on his guitar the whole time. I was bored out of my mind and even my friend had had enough after about an hour. (cue DeepPurple posting a bunch of videos to prove how awesome Trower really is :) )

All you guys talking about 80's hair band singers and how bad they are now forced me to post this..ROFL

I took my daughter to see Stryper a couple of years ago. Some of their recent stuff is pretty heavy and not as much of the soupy hair metal ballad crap and I was told they always put on a good live show.

Well, it just goes to show you how much vocal lessons are worth, plus as much abstinence from cigarettes and booze as one could muster.

Because even though Michael Sweet doesn't have the voice he used to (he's 60 years old) he still hit some amazing high notes and his voice was spot on all night, almost 2 full hours.

We saw them a month before Oz found out he had brain tumors and the rest of their tour got cancelled.

Richie Faulkner is awesome. Before he took the Priest gig, he spent some time gigging with Lauren Harris, the daughter of Maiden's Steve Harris.

Wow, 0-2.

Funny... I would have actually preferred that. I don't go to many live concerts because I usually prefer the studio recording to anything done live. I want to hear the music... not the crowd's reaction to the music.

/Clapton unplugged is one of the few exceptions

Has anyone metioned a band from Japan called Loudness? The music was pretty good but you could not understand a word they said except in between songs. The singer kept saying, "Helwoo Kawnssass Swity, we wuv you!"

Ratt was aweful every time I saw them. First was becasue Robin Crosby was zonked out and out of tune and Stephen Pearcy was drunk. Other times it was mostly because Pearcy was drunk and just stood there with the mike out so the crowd could sing for him.

An obscure band that opened for another band, I think it was AC DC- was called Avalanch. The singer was like 600 pounds and the band had the bass and drums up so high on the mix you could not hear much of anything else.

Motley Crue was a disapointment later in their career. They barely did an hour and half back when concerts would run close to 3 hours. Vince sounded like a toimcat with his balls stuck in a picket fence. Tommy was always a beast and Mick Mars sounded great. Nikki was so ****ed up oe of the times, he barely played his bass leaving the sound flat. I skipped their last two "retirement shows".

I know this goes against the theme of this thread but I think it is worth noting. All this talk of how age has ravaged the voice of so many great rock vocalists got me to thinking about Van Morrison. I saw him a couple years ago and he is still an impressive performer with a powerful voice.

I have always been a huge fan of Van the Man but it still amazes me they way he has been able to adapt over the years while still being able to deliver the goosebumps with his singing style and that incredible voice.

I agree, without James Dewar (pronounced like the whiskey) he just isn't the same. Dewar left in the late 80's due to illness and died in 2002 after a series of strokes. Trower did have Davy Pattison of Gamma fame singing with him about 10 years ago or more and he was a good fit. Trower is now mid 70's at least, he started with Procol Harum, he was on Whiter Shade of Pale.

Trower with the late James Dewar on bass and vocals 1980

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Trower with Davy Pattison from 2005

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My worse live concert show was John Kay of Steppenwolf, but he was solo with no band. It was '72 at Savannah Civic Center and the headliner was Deep Purple. I remember the radio commercials all week, "and with special guest John Kay of Steppenwolf" and they would play 'Born to be Wild' in the background.

Unfortunately by '72 Steppenwolf had broken up and John was doing a solo gig. He came out with no backup band, so video is only half accurate. He had just a steel top acoustic guitar and did mostly Hank Williams songs while sitting on a stool, wanting to see Deep Purple do "Child in Time" next, made this even worse. I believe soon after, he regrouped and called his band Steppenwolf, he knew where his bread was buttered, and I did get to see them in '97 and they were Great!!

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It's been a while since I've heard of such an awful 1-2 lineup.

I saw that show @ sandstone as well and thought it was fine. Only thing to me was it sounded exactly like the LP versions. Which at the time was fine because Secret Samadhi freakin' rocks still.
Regarding Staind, I just remember the lead singer sitting on a stool with his head in his hand staring down at the stage the whole time. Was not rad.

I kind of made it a personal rule not to go see the bands I liked 20+ years ago. Too much disappointment and they often want top dollar if they were big at one time.

It was just boring. They didn't even try, no energy.

I’ve learned about the band Dokken from this thread. I’d thought I’d listen to classic rock stations enough to at least get a knowledge of most of the Big bands of the 70s and 80s, but I hadn’t recognized them. I listened to a couple of their biggest songs on YouTube and realize why they’re not played much anymore.

Sorry to hear bad reviews of Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, and Springsteen (though in the case of Springsteen it seemed all about location).

Ha ha! I'm sure all bands have drama, but I used to live around the corner from the Guitar Center on Sunset and on three separate occasions I saw Poison have gigantic band fights right there on the sidewalk and once in the Denny's on the same block. The band and some management and a few crew guys or friends or something just having it out. No one ever hit anyone, but they did alot of stupid posturing. It was certainly more entertaining than I ever found their music to be.

I regret only Guns and Roses. Twice. Both times they cancelled. Once the were supposed to open for Iron Maiden at Kemper, cancelled, and Anthrax played. Anthrax was fun, but I was disappointed. Then they had their own Kemper show shortly after that was supposed to make up for the miss, and they flat out cancelled with no notice. Some bull shit or another happened and I never got a refund from the ticket people. I was pissed this time. Fair? Probably not, but too bad. Never tried to see them again.

Anthrax in 2012 was terrible.

There's a picture of Axl Rose next to the definition of "band drama". LOL

Red Hot Chili Peppers sucked when I saw them in the early 90’s when I saw them. I also regret seeing Metallica live in 92 after having seeing them twice during the And Justice for All tour. They completely changed their style and so even the old stuff they played in concert sounded cheesy.

That’s no lie at all, got to see them in a VERY well packed club in STL just 3 years ago... their newer, heavier sound just works

Yahweh literally blew me away that night... it was pure metal, and that band is TIGHT

Like I posted above, John Kay going solo without Steppenwolf is the worse show. The most unusual was 1984 Ted Nugent, but the opening act was Alcatrazz. It was singer Graham Bonnet, who wore a suit and tie with Yngwie Malmsteeen on guitar. Yngwie had his own pedestal stage up even with the singer and even slightly ahead and wore a velvet suit. You can tell 90% of the audience was watching Malmsteen and Bonnet was a bit peeved that maybe 10% were looking at him. The combed back hairdo and sunglasses and suit didn't help his look. They actually sounded good, just an odd sight to see and Graham Bonnet's voice has to be an acquired taste. He only knows one way to sing, loud and hard, he could never sing a ballad if he had to.

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