Have you been to a concert(s) that now you are embarrased to have gone?

[Rabrrrrrr]

LynneSin's thread, and seeing some of the bands that people had seen first, had me thinking/wondering if you have been to a concert that now embarrasses you, such as Menudo or Tiffany or Rick Springfield or etc.

Thankfully, I haven't been to any concerts that I am now ashamed that I went to, though I do wish that when I went to the Alice Cooper concert I would have come AFTER The Vinnie Vincent Invasion played. Jesus, that was awful.

The closest I come to being embarrassed was seeing Heart in the late 80s on their "These Dreams" tour. I wasn't a big fan of that tune or album, but had long wanted to see Heart - I learned my lesson that they are not very good in concert, even their older good music wasn't done overly well.

[Rising Phoenix]

1. my first...New Kids On The Block

but hey, I was 12.... I got cooler, didn't I?:shrug:

[Kerrytravelers]

47. Hahaha! Me, too!

My poor mom was the parents that dragged all us silly girls!

And I saw them more than once. With Tiffany. And Dino. :blush:

[Rising Phoenix]

50. You saw Tiffany!

lucky girl.... I only had dino open. My mom had to drag us too. The next day in gym class EVERY girl had a NKOTB shirt on.

[AllegroRondo]

2. I've seen some really bad opening bands

but the headliners have always been decent.

Maralyn Manson (opened for Nine Inch Nails) I could do without. Just bad.
A horribly awful band called Sex Appeal, that opened for the Sugar Cubes in Frankfurt.
And a "so bad you just have to watch" band called Fury in the Slaughterhouse, that opened for Bad Religion in Germany. We were placing bets on which musician would get lost and screw up the worst.

[leftyclimber]

42. I inadvertently saw the "retooled" J. Geils band that way

at the Mount Hood Blues Festival. Yep, somewhere in the early nineties they had decided they were a blues band. Nobody else agreed. (And no, they did not play "Freeze Frame". Thank heaven for small favors.)

Dig the rest of the ticket, though (I think the organizers felt they owed us a BIG apology after that fiasco): Etta James, Jimmie Vaughan, and B.B. King. More than made up for it.

I saw Matthew Sweet before he was Matthew Sweet, opening for Robyn Hitchcock, and he was gawd-awful (Matthew Sweet, I mean -- Robyn Hitchcock was sublime). I honestly don't know how that guy got a recording contract. Ugh.

The only time I saw Nine Inch Nails I got lucky and caught Perfect Circle as the opener.

[seemunkee]

3. Rod Stewart

My excuse is that I was still in high school, it was a $5 show at the community center, it was still just the Small Faces, and Nils Lofgren's band was opening.
Rod got booed.

[malta blue]

4. I saw Menudo....

Back in 1980 when they looked like this:



Oh - and I also snuck out of my apartment, took trains and buses to get to JFK to be among the screaming throngs of pre-teens when they arrived.

[NewWaveChick1981]

5. Paul Revere and the Raiders...

:yoiks: This was in 1978 or 1979 at Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. Paul Revere and the Raiders were playing at the Palladium there, and there was no additional charge to see them. My family went with some friends, and my sister, a couple of our friends, and I decided to see them. I loved their music, as did my sister and our friends. Well, the seats were about a quarter full, and when they came out to play, they were TERRIBLE. I don't just mean awful---I mean they blew chunks. :puke: I do believe the lead singer was drunk and/or high, and it was probably to kill the pain of performing at the Carowinds Palladium. :rofl: That really disappointed me.

It reminded me of Spinal Tap playing the much smaller, much lamer venues when they were way past their prime. :P

Edited to add: I saw some really shitty opening acts for great artists, though. First one was PKM (wannabe metal band) that opened for the B-52s. Nobody there cared about metal, and they were booed off the stage. Second was Scandal opening for Adam and the Ants, and they sucked soooo bad... :puke:

[leftyclimber]

43. Oh God, I'd forgotten about PRR.

They played either my junior or senior prom (can't remember which). They were drunker than we were, and they were older than our parents, which didn't win them any prom-cool points.

I saw them a second time when I was out of college, and they were just as drunk and just as terrible then. (I grew up near Portland, where they're from.)

[LibDemAlways]

68. There was a member of Paul Revere and the Raiders

unofficially nicknamed "fang" because of a tooth issue. Anyhow, I was a standard issue 60's teen and liked the group back then.

Years later, in the mid 80's, I was working in a travel agency when an older lady came in to buy a ticket. She mentioned that her son was paying for her ticket and let me know that he had once been in a successful band. Before I had a chance to ask her which group, in walks the son. I look up and without thinking blurt out, "Oh my God, you're fang!" The poor guy looked a little mortified, and I felt like a total ass.

[Shakespeare]

6. Did Cheap Trick open for them when you saw them?

I saw Heart on that tour, too--Cheap Trick was WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY better than Heart. In fact, surprisingly good, and a helluva lot of fun to watch.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. No, alas, the opening band was also crappy - Autograph.

At the height of their (totally underserved) popularity, too.

Not as bad as Vinnie Vincent Invasion, but about on a par with Dokken. Kind of a "yeah, that's okay, but who gives a shit?"

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Weird

In another thread, i mentioned that we opened for Cheap Trick! Then you talked about Cheap Trick opening for Heart. Just thought that was a nice coincidence.
The Professor

[Shakespeare]

18. It's Six Degrees of Cheap Trick!

:P

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. And Heart opened up for me, once!

Amazing!! It's like a whole family tree thing going on.

[jayfish]

7. Bon Jovi.

But it was a kinda, sorta double-date so the shame is somewhat mitigated.

Jay

[LeftyMom]

51. I saw them with Cinderella. To be fair, I was five.

My Dad should never live down the shame of it though.

[Maddy McCall]

8. Conway Twitty - I did NOT buy the tickets...

High school boyfriend had a fixation on Conway Twitty. I was in lurve, so I agreed to go. God was it the worst thing I've ever sat through, EVER.

All those old people in their "Twitty Bird" tee shirts. Christ, I can't believe that I agreed to go to that concert.

[mitchum]

41. LOL! A couple of years ago, I got really fascinated with just how...

macho sleazy Conway Twitty came across during his heyday. I even went and downloaded a lot of his material from that period. Absurd and downright "dripping with testosterone"

That being said, his older "It's Only Make Believe" really is nicely done.

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. Not really embarrassed, but kind of put off--Quicksilver Messenger Service

Saw QMS in the very early 70s. Greg Elmore was down front with a conga drum and he was drunk (or something?) off his ass. He was totally out of sync with the band, and pretty much doing his own messed up version in beat and words....can't even remember which song...but, it pretty much ruined the whole concert. He was shouting obscenities, too, and slurring on about someone. (maybe a woman?) I seem to remember him being pretty upset and pissed off at the time

[LynneSin]

12. Outside of Shaun Cassidy - loved everything single concert even

seeing Steve Miller Band FOUR times

[flvegan]

13. Ted Nugent opened for Kiss on the "Crazy Nights" tour.

It was my first show, I was 16. I hate that a couple of my buck wound up in that scumbag's pocket.

[Zookeeper]

14. Emerson, Lake and Palmer....

Twice. :blush: :blush:

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. But why be embarrassed about that? They were an incredible band!

I wish I could have seen them live.

[Zookeeper]

27. Well, it's the kind of Rock that I started viewing as pompous....

shortly after seeing them the second time. I had already been listening to and loving Iggy and the Stooges on local radio (Detroit) for a number of years and after my brief ELP phase, I started listening to Jazz. When Punk came along...I was home and happy again. :)

[seemunkee]

25. Saw them twice too

Not embarrassed about it though.
Saw their first US tour and was front row for the Brain Salad Surgery tour.

[Zookeeper]

28. If I remember correctly, I saw the "Pictures at an Exhibition"

tour and "Brain Salad Surgery."

Nothing close to front row seats, though! :)

[asthmaticeog]

15. Phil Collins for one. Also, Night Ranger.

:cry:

[qwertyMike]

16. Nickleback ;(

But i got in free

[Shakespeare]

21. eeewww.....you win

At least you didn't pay. :7

[qwertyMike]

57. My son was doing set-up

so we got a few free passes..

[HughBeaumont]

17. Among the most horrid acts I've seen . . .

Korn, Limp Bizkit, Hole, Marilyn Manson, Mushroomhead, Coal Chamber, Slipknot, Incubus, Boy Hits Car, Deftones, Chimaira, Amen and Hanzyl Und Gretyl. These are all different shows, but a plethora of awful just the same.

[jayfish]

30. Korn and Slipknot Were Bad?

I've seen some taped shows from them and they were pretty damn good technically. Was it just that it wasn't your kind of music? With the exception of Coal Chamber and Deftones that it some pretty heavy music.

Jay

[HughBeaumont]

32. Korn was bad sounding.

Fieldy's clickety bass drove me up the wall and the drums/vocals weren't all that. The only thing saving them was the guitars. I kind of lost interest in Korn around about Life is Peachy.

And Slipknot . . . one, they aren't my kind of music AT all, and two, they genuinely sounded like ass. At least four of the members are unnecessary in a live setting; I couldn't even hear the samples/kettle drums and could barely hear Joey Jordison. Of course, this was at the Plain Dealer Pavillion, so the sound would always be bad.

[jayfish]

33. If The Pavillion Is Anything...

like seeing a rock show at the Silverdome, I know exactly what you mean.

Jay

[gmoney]

19. REO Speedwagon with 707 opening up...

A girl I liked bought two tickets thinking I liked REO, and I liked her more than I hated them, so I went. Dreadful show... this was back when they were quite the big deal, too.

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. I am glad I went to them all (even Rick Springfield...god I still love him)

because of the friends I went with and the memories I've made. I'm still pissed off that WHAM! cancelled their appearance here after I slept overnight on the sidewalk in front of Hudson's to be first in line.

I pretty much still love all the bands I did then, even if the rest of you think I'm geeky.

[Mad_Dem_X]

52. I saw Rick and Wham!

Rick was in 1982, Wham! in 1985. I'm kinda embarrassed about both of them, but they were the be-all-end-all at the time, so...:shrug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

53. I saw Rick Springfield in '82 as well, but the 85 stop in Detroit was

cancelled because George was sick. I'm not embarassed because I adored them...and still do. :D

[mentalsolstice]

22. Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, Lee Greenwood

None were my choice...I attended with older women who wanted to go and nobody to go with.

[EFerrari]

70. My mom and uncle took me to see Neil Diamond for my birthday once.

He is a great showman even if his music isn't my first choice. And one of our friends played a back up horn for him at that time. Apparently, he takes great care of his crew, which is pretty rare. :)

[Burma Jones]

26. Seals and Crofts

I was 13 and my Girlfriend really liked them....The second time I went it was because I liked them......

[itsmesgd]

29. Kenny Rogers and Ronny Milsap

I was young and forced to go from the 'rents.

I actually bought tickets for the Spin Doctors, but as a defense the Screaming Trees and Soul Asylum opened for them.

and I almost forgot, Charlie Daniels. He's a RW'er, but other than that he's a cool dude. My high school best friend's grandmother was his drinking buddy. I can actually say that I've cracked a Coors with CD on two different occasions and he remembered my name. Yes, you can all touch me now.

[Kali]

31. We love to embarrass the oldest son about his first concert.

The Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles! Yeah!

[conscious evolution]

34. Men at Work

The worst show I have ever seen.The sound was horrible,our seats sucked(assigned seating for a show that only sold about a quarter of the seats which the ushers rigorously enforced.)and,aside from their hit Down Under,their music totally blew chunks.
Second worse was Poison.I only went because I was a deejay at college radio station and was assigned to interview them after the show.I totally blew that off.No way in hell was I gonna be around them after such a suck ass concert.

[QMPMom]

35. Kenny Rogers. Boring, slow, and he was wearing an aqua tux.

I'd have left after the first song if I could have.

Clint Black opened for Alabama at the Kentucky State Fair in 1987. Couldn't stand him.

[jus_the_facts]

36. LOL...I went to a Rick Springfield concert...but only to see the opening act....'Til Tuesday...

...and I DID see Alice Cooper in concert in the late 80's...the opening act was Faster Pussycat...and was supposed to see Ace Frehley as well..but he didn't show...still it kicked major ass regardless. :headbang:

[pdx_prog]

37. I drove 3 girls to see the go go's one night....

Of course, I only had 1 reason for driving them....lol

I went to see Elvis when I was in high school. I was offered a free ticket by a friend and thought "what the hell". I lopved it when I got there.

[ceile]

38. MC Hammer

My sis's BF took us to see him, so I guess I'm not really responsible.
And En Vogue opened-they rocked!

[suninvited]

40. I completely forgot about New Kids on the Block,

I have to admit, I went. But my daughter was 12 or something at the time, I took her and my step daugher.

Not to mention taking them to see Vanilla Ice around that same time frame.

When I was 18, I went to see Christopher Cross, thats a little embarrassing now, too.

[mitchum]

39. I drove a friend who was on car restriction to see Boston on their first tour...

I knew that they sucked then, but he paid for my ticket and gave me two grams of hash

[seaglass]

44. I saw Heart at the Yale Bowl - and I'm pretty sure they lip-synched

there was a big skip. I should say that I wasn't completely sober and it's possible I imagined it but I don't think so.

[blockhead]

45. Quiet Riot and Loverboy on the same ticket.

we didn't pay to get in so we left halfway through Quiet Riot.

[Rabrrrrrr]

46. I saw Quiet Riot open for Black Sabbath on the "Born Again" tour

when Ian Gillan was singing for Sabbath.

That was a hell of a night! Quiet Riot were... well, not quite great, but pretty good. Certainly overshadowed by Sabbath, but they were worthy.

But I did see, about two years, I was back home in Wisconsin in our small town, and I saw a 8"x11" photocopied poster at a local grocery store (meaning, owned by an old guy in town, that's how local and small) for Quiet Riot performing at some bar in a nearby small town.

I thought, "My, how the mighty have fallen".

If they were lucky, they got 25 wife-beater-wearing racist Pabst-swilling inebriated fans.

[mitchum]

55. I saw Quiet Riot play a small club run by a friend of mine in the early 90s...

ridiculous and sad. The singer (who was already balding in the mid 80s) had a full head of thick hair (damn, I bet it was hot under that wig) and he was wearing spandex pants, but they were stretched over his droopy old man ass

[u4ic]

48. Aha

at the old Massey Hall in Toronto. I even got kicked out.

Who the frig gets kicked out of an Aha concert? :wtf:



:rofl:

[Xipe Totec]

49. Up With People! 1973

God, the horror!

[GenDem]

54. Yeah, my very first concert --

[Shell Beau]

56. Not really! Thank GOD when I was in elementary and all my

friends loved The New Kids on the Block, I just didn't get it. They all had the posters and went to the concerts, but not me!! I stayed far away!! I knew better!

[LibDemAlways]

58. My 12 year old begged to go to a Fall Out Boy concert

last year. I listened to a couple of their songs and agreed to let her go. Bought myself a ticket,too, as I didn't want her and her friends in the arena alone. She insisted on a "floor" ticket.

Let me preface this by saying, I'm getting up there - in my 50's, and I went into it knowing concerts aren't what they were back in my day when I was going to see The Who. But nothing could have prepared me for having the various bands - I think there were 3 opening acts before Fall Out Boy - repeatedly address the crowd as "You Motherfuckers." The Fall Out Boy frontman threw tee-shirts out into the crowd whenever he uttered an obscenity - which got the crowd begging for more. He used every vulgar word for the female anatomy more than once.

I know these guys have older high school and college age fans, but they ought to advertise that their show is for 16 or 18 and up. I wasn't the only parent in there feeling bad for having subjected myself and my kid and her friends to a steady torrent of obscenities - and paying for the privilege.

[Kat45]

59. Paul Revere & the Raiders

Actually, I'm not sure if should be embarrassed or not. "Kicks" was a pretty good song. And I was only about 12 or so. They were playing at the Hampton Beach Casino and we were on vacation there; my parents took me to the show and I was so embarrassed to be with my parents, but they wouldn't let me go by myself.

[appal_jack]

60. i don't even remember their name...

...but when a buddy and I went to see String Cheese Incident in Arcata, CA, the opening band completely sucked ass, and was ripping off John Mellencamp tunes besides. At one point in their third song, I started singing "Its the simple man baby that pays the bills, the chills, the thrills that kill, Ah but aint that America, you & me..." and it fit perfectly (and the band was doing their "own" song). My friend and the others around us cracked up about it, which made the interminable opening set a little more tolerable.

String Cheese jammed it though, so I have no regrets about the show overall.

-app
:smoke: :hippie:

Should i be embarrassed about the Howard Jones show I saw in the early '80's? Looking back, there was an awful quantity of neon back then/there.

[rocktivity]

61. Almost

I went to a Christmas concert to see Bon Jovi, Hole, and Melissa Etheridge. Duran Duran was also on the bill, but I spent their playing time in the beer garden. I explained to my friends, "If anybody even THOUGHT I was a Duran Duran fan, I'd just die!"

:headbang:
rocknation

[Redneck Socialist]

62. Nobody I'm really embarrassed about

The only one I regret is Michele Shocked, she sucks big time. The closest to embarrassed I guess would be The Moody Blues and I saw them twice, so it couldn't have been all that embarrassing.

[lildreamer316]

63. My first: Stryper.

Slight excuse: It was the highlight of the state's SADD convention.

[Ellen Forradalom]

64. STARCASTLE!

Opened for Yes in 1978.

[momophile]

65. my first concert - Tesla

I can't even remember one song by them. Who were they?

[carly denise pt deux]

76. They did a cover of the 60's song "Signs"

I would have only gone because I had a huge crush on Brian Wheat.
Carly

[Left Is Write]

66. I saw Heart, but I didn't go to the concert for Heart.

John Cougar (yeah, Cougar - it was 1982, The American Fool tour) was the opening act, and that's who I wanted to see. The place was packed to the rafters during his portion of the show. I'd say fully half the arena left when Heart came on. After 10-15 minutes of Heart, we left too.

(I'm not embarrassed to have been there - just agreeing that Heart kind of sucked in concert.)

[gemdem]

67. Up With People

Does anyone here remember that act?

I was a kid, and my mom took me along with my brothers and sister -- so it wasn't of my own volition that I went. Don't remember much about it, except that even then I thought it was lame.

[amitten]

69. Debbie Gibson. But it was as a joke...truly.

My friend somehow ended up with a couple of free tickets. We were both 18, just graduated, and thought Debbie Gibson was basically the antichrist.

So we went as a joke, and were quite surprised (and amused) by the following:

1. Almost the entire audience had parental chaperoning
2. There was clearly plenty of lipsynching by Miss Gibson
3. The backup dancers were phenomenal
4. There were an unusually large number of grown male fans :freak:

But the strangest part was the guy next to us. He was I'd say between 18-20, very tall and very thin and very pimply. He was absolutely going out of his mind, almost to the point of hysterical anguished tears. He was holding up a huge poster of Debbie, and was screaming "DEEEEBBBIE!! DEBBIE, I LOVE YOU! I LOOOOOOOVE YOU! OH MY GOD, DEEEEBBIEEEEEE! Just screaming himself hoarse.

It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

[njdemocrat106]

71. Ted Nugent & Bad Company sans Paul Rodgers

I guess it was right before Ted became a full blown freeper (though I think he always was one, but over the past few years, he's become a true moran). I echo flvegan's sentiments about feeling dirty having my money going into Ted's pockets.

I admit to liking Bad Company, but Paul Rodgers' vocals make their songs unique, IMO (yeah, I know most of you wouldn't mention Bad Company and unique in the same breath ;) ). I might as well have seen a cover band. A good cover band, but still...

[GreenTea]

72. Black Sabbath at Winterland...more teeny-boppers and bubblegum shit than

one can imagine...and at a fucking Bill Graham SF show around 1973 or so...kids with Black Sabbath LPs waving them all around, so silly lighting matches, screaming not listening to how badly the morons with these huge chromed crosses around their necks were playing, they were still cheering this really bad show... that's when I knew the Fillmore shows and the SF era was really over and the phony stupid flashy glitter, bullshit would be the way of the music biz as it is today....and most don't even have a clue what I'm talking about...because all they've ever known and gotten are these silly goofy rock star sold as real, over-priced hyped bullshit shows.

[enigmatic]

73. ELO, 1980 or 81

I went w/ a few guys I played football with whose idea of rock was stuff like Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" and hated the stuff I played (and listened to), so it was a disaster.

Ellen Foley opened up wasn't half bad (I think "Spirit Of St. Louis" was just released), but ELO was horrible; Spinal Tap Horrible. Jeff Lynne kept flashing everyone the thumbs-up after every song; the whole band left the stage for god knows what 30 minutes in while the violin player did a excruciatingly long and pointless solo, and the final insult was their "let's get the fuck out of here" medley of their hits. The whole set was barely 75 minutes, and although I was embarrassed, my friends were perplexed at what a crappy show ELO gave....

[carly denise pt deux]

74. Ratt and Quiet Riot

By the time they got to my local venue, the speaker systems were shot, sounded like someone turned up their music in a 1978 pinto with blown speakers.
Carly

[carly denise pt deux]

75. .

[Bzzzz]

77. Took my daughter...

for her birthday to see New Kids On The Block and Vanilla Ice. I was sick as a dog with the flu and bless her heart, she knew how badly I felt and before it was even half-over she said "mommy, let's go home." The combination of the flu and those 2 acts were about more than I could handle.

[ulysses]

78. The Cure, early 90s

Dragged there by my then-goth soon-to-be-wife. I have nothing at all against the goth trip, but Robert Smith is ridiculous.

[Rabrrrrrr]

79. Oh, my - the original emos!!

"OOooh, you can tell how deep my music and my lyrics are because I died my hair black and I have a pasty white face and I broooooooooood..."