Doesn’t have to have been in person, just has to have been hella cool.
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A young PJ Harvey, solo on Jay Leno: https://youtu.be/KBZoL8wpZzU
The floutist society in my city had tull in for a concert in the park. I think they made a point of playing the most flute intensive songs from the catalogue or maybe were asked to. Anyway best concert of my life and it was free. Great weather, in the park, near the lakefront.
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
Kinga Głyk right next to the Porta Nigra.
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:
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Ella Fitzgerald with the Count Basie Orchestra: Two genuine legends, at the top of their game.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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.
Jeff Rosenstock and PUP playing the salt shed in Chicago last year. What a show.
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.
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.
Foxy Shazam self titled album is one of the best modern rock albums ever and then the rest of their music never amounted to anything.
Wanna-Be Angel
Count Me Out
Bye Bye Symphony
Unstoppable
Oh Lord
Killin’ It
All next level songs. I wish they blew up.
One of their more recent songs, “Deeamer” gets stuck in my head from time to time. They had a great stage presence. Their pianist is a legend!
It has a very “hair band ballad” sound to it. It’s not bad, just not as good as stuff from their self-titled album.
I only know them from the Peacemaker theme, but it’s a banger
Weird Al. No joke. Different outfits and sets for every song. Wildly talented and wholesome man.
Saw Emo Philips open for Weird Al in a rather small venue.
I don’t think you really appreciate his talent till you see him live.
Hell yeah, I’m not a big fan of watching Emo’s shtick on recordings but seeing him open for Weird Al let me see how good Emo is in person doing his version of standup and interacting with the audience.
That tour really drive home how much musical talent Weird Al’s band has without the costumes or showmanship of the bigger tours. All of that is just icing on top of the music.
That must have been so good. I saw Emo Philips at a comedy club a few years ago without knowing who he was. I don’t go to many comedy shows, but that was definitely the best one I’ve seen. Probably even moreso because I had no idea what he was like. :D
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!
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.
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.
That’s honestly awesome, I love it
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.
