What is the most disappointing concert you have ever seen?

thelmick

I'm not sure this counts, but I would say Coldplay. I paid to see them 3 times, but I still haven't seen them play. They canceled every show I went to see a few years ago in 3 different cities. I stopped trying.

SElain

Wu-Tang Clan. Saw them earlier this year in Tucson at the Rialto. Not only did they have FOUR opening acts (they appeared 3.5 hours after the show started), when they finally did come out on stage they never played a full song. Each song would end about two-thirds of the way through before a guy playing the backing tracks would just play a bunch of gunshot noises and the song would end. WTF? It was my first rap show, so maybe I'm missing something?

hangoneveryword

MGMT. They were completely disengaged from the audience until the last song, when they were drunk enough that they started cursing at us.

beansworth

Bob Dylan at ACL fest 2007. It's a damn good thing I was there for the fest and not just to see him.

jonnylangs

The Mars Volta. I love prog music and I love their albums, but their live show just made no sense to me. It just sounded like a bunch of noise.

TheSnowLeper

Ghostface Killah in Shanghai.

he was drunk

it was late

we all had work in the morning

FloGiston

Eric Clapton. I didn't realize he slept while standing up and playing guitar.

joebleaux

For me, it was The Smashing Pumpkins. I have always been a fan, and they had been around so long that I just assumed the live show was going to blow me away. When I finally saw them at Voodoo Fest 2 years ago, I was totally disappointed. They blew through all the songs everyone knows and loves with truncated 2 minute versions, then proceeded to play extended ambient noise versions of every single song from the new album that nobody really likes that much. I ended up leaving the show early and very bummed out.

spacemunkey420

Any hip-hop show other than Atmosphere, The Roots, De La Soul, Blue Scholars, KRS-One, beastie boys, Lyrics Born, the Coup, and a few others.

I have been consistently let down by late arriving, early leaving, drunken, half-assed performances from rappers. Even the legendary Wu-Tang are pretty hit or miss. Why do so many rappers only sing one verse and then jump into a medley? Props to those that really bring it.

Infinity_Wasted

My Chemical Romance. I wasn't actually going for MCR, I was going for Muse, who were (for some inexplicable reason) opening for them on a bunch of North American tour dates. After buying a ticket to go with a friend who loves MCR, I discovered Muse weren't coming up to Canada for the tour, so I was left with a ticket to see a band I didn't like.

The opening act was The Bled. Possibly the worst piece of crap I've ever listened to. MCR, at least, put on bit of a show with lights and fire and a few other theatrics so I was entertained in that respect. Compared to The Bled, MCR sounded positively wonderful. To add insult to injury, as I was leaving the stadium after the show feeling very unsatisfied, they started playing Knights of Cydonia over the stadium speakers.

willy1234x1

Dragonforce, they were drunk and incapable of playing their own songs or even coming close to playing them.

RobotSherlockHolmes

MGMT at Bonnaroo. They played without any energy and sounded terrible. They were the last show one night, so everyone was pretty drunk/tripping and many seemed to enjoy it, but probably only because they heard songs they recognized.

Everyone I was with agreed it was the worst show we saw at Bonnaroo this year.

healthdiet

randomset

I really fancy The Cure.

However, I walked out (sort of, I was already out) after four or five boring songs from their then most recent album (2002). Very disappointing. Don't play dull new songs at festivals, those are for MTV.

Turns out, as I was walking around between other stages looking for concerts, that they started playing old songs (A Forest, Killing an Arab, In Between Days) towards the end of their set. Tough luck.

Also, Thievery Corporation, but only because they played inside, in a seated hall, with seated people and VIP seats with VIPs in the front. It felt like we were monkeys, subject of an experiment to see how long we can sit on our seats while the band jumped around, doing their best to get everybody up. Stupid organizers.

trevorpinzon

Tool. They seemed to just be going through the motions, and I got the feeling they just wanted to get the fuck out of there as fast as possible.

limprichard

Clinic. Lead singer was a charisma suck. Couldn't be bothered to keep his energy up after his part of the song was finished. I wasn't sure if he was outwardly hostile or completely nervous. The Rapture opened for them, and blew them on their asses.

Stone Roses on the Second Coming tour. Reni's replacement didn't have the chops. Ian was condescending. They refused to give us an encore, though people cheered for one for quite a while.

Interpol. So dull I eventually turned to watch the wall.

Rolling Stones on the Steel Wheels tour. It seriously all came down to set list that night (I've heard other people say amazing things about that tour). Whenever they played a good rocker, they'd defuse it with one of their lamer songs (that's you I'm calling out, "Harlem Shuffle").

DexterDoakes

Public Enemy. Flavor Flav didn't show up, Chuck D still put on a great show but I don't think it reached its potential with no Flavor Flav.

skeener

Run DMC in 2000. Horrible. They came on about an hour late and only played 3 songs. They spent the whole time talking about how awesome they were. And Run was being kind of dick to DMC through the whole show.

cryforburke

The Mountain Goats.

I loved that band, and after seeing them live I simply can't listen to any of their music. Their entire catalog went from (in my mind) one of the most brilliantly original and uniquely emotional in rock history, to a collection of B-rate gimmicks and stage tricks.

I feel bad writing such a harsh review, because I was so fond of their recordings, but almost two years later, I still feel cheated by the live experience.

jindjur

Cat Power. Chan Marshal was sick. The opening act went on for an hour too long. When she did come out, she spent most of the time just mumbling. I was so disappointed because I love her albums.

Kyderdog

Aerosmith 1977

BestServedCold

The Beatles in Shea stadium in 1965. The sound was horrible. Girls were screaming everywhere. I'm pretty sure the band members couldn't even hear the music themselves.

WyoBuckeye

Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were horrible. I still love much of their music, but the show was a complete waste of money.

sofiseymor

Ween. Never go to the first show in a tour.

joebleaux

Coheed and Cambria. Maybe they were just having an off night, but they seemed totally uninterested in being on stage and just sort of ran through the motions, sang off-key, played out of sync, and didn't make any attempt to even acknowledge the crowd. It was kind of depressing to watch them 'perform', if you can even call it that.

rallyscag

Modest Mouse. The mix was all messed up and the venue was too large I think.

cabbit

Nightwish with their new singer was somewhat disappointing. It was still Nightwish and fun, but their new singer is not exactly the best fit for an operatic metal outfit.

The Stars show at the Malkin Bowl in Vancouver six months ago or so was disappointing. Not because they were bad, not by any stretch of the imagination. But they blew the doors off the Commodore the previous November. It was one of the best shows I'd ever been at, and to see them again playing only a 'good' show was disappointing.

pastoryam13

Radiohead. I was way far away on the lawn and I failed to realize I didn't like Radiohead enough to pay 40 dollars to see them. It felt like I was sitting in lawn bored while various Radiohead MP3's were being played really loud. So boring and a waste of money. And yes I'm not joking. I know this is going to get a bunch of "Your retarded" responses but I'm telling you it sucked.

wertyuidjj

I walked out of a Springsteen show in the late 80's.

stopmotionsunrise

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

I like their records a lot, but somehow it didn't occur to me that it might suck to stand in one spot while they played 2 hours of droning, fuzzed-out shit.

Shows are much better when there's a show. And, you know, songs. I like a good droning jam just as much as the next guy, but they played maybe three fast, heavily melodic songs the entire set.

eggnogdog

NINJA, Nine Inch Nails and Janes Addiction. In all fairness, I'm not a Jane's fan so mainly: Trent Reznor. The music was fine, I guess, it was a big venue, it sounded as someone said before "like hearing MP3s at a distance." What really made me pissed: the stage lighting was monochromatic. It was yellowish lights in different orientations. Yellowish, not yellow, not white, in between. Woo. Up and down. Left and right. Sometimes a nondescript pattern. It was the Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix which is appropriately named. Or at least it would be if it weren't pretty much the sole venue of its kind here. I just can't believe Trent would let it be that lame considering some of the NIN concert videos on youtube are beyond epic [look up Hurt; it doesn't get much better].

And just because I'm venting: Let's talk about the Dodge Theater. You know how TVs have viewing angles? At a certain angle, you can't see what's on the TV. The Dodge Theater does that to real life. It's that stupid.

oilofolivier

TV On the Radio - all the sonic creativity and clarity of production was swept away in a sea of fuzz.

terumo

the last depeche mode concert i went to(like 2 weeks ago)

giunta13

Red Hot Chili Peppers. Great band, maybe I caught them at a bad time. But $80 to see them and I was at the back of the arena. Nothing special. Also getting my vote: Weezer. Rivers is a shell.

grantimatter

It's funny, but at the time the most disappointed I was was seeing They Might Be Giants. This was probably during their first national tour, and it was just the two Johns with... a bunch of pre-recorded backing tracks.

Oddly, though, a couple things from that show stayed with me and I've grown fonder and fonder of remembering bits and pieces. Especially the song with the baritone sax and the log. They played the stage with a log. That was pretty cool.

SandraD04

Beck. Austin City Limits 2008. Everyone kept saying how amazing he is live. Maybe he was just having an off night, but I thought he was crap... We left early.

mike_burck

Spoon.

I love listening to spoon, so when I saw that they were on the bill at Austin City Limits a couple years back I got really excited. While they have a bunch of energy on their tracks, they didn't bring any of it to the stage.

I ended up walking away because I was so disgusted.

howlingman

Van Halen 2004.

Started with Shinedown. Ended with Hagar being fucking awful.

wbarco

Interpol at a Virgin Festival. It was also daylight.

rospaya

U2

Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that I hate them, but I got the ticket cheap, had a steady supply of beer, it was a 5 minutes walk from my house and let's face it, Zoo TV was really great.

It sucked. The concert was boring as hell, and watching it with 40 000 people who were there just because of a famous band, not the music, was depressing. The stadium atmosphere was sterile and the band didn't even try because they knew people will shit their pants only because they saw Bono from a hundred feet.

Snow Patrol was the opening act. gosh It's like listening to Coldplay, only worse. The songs are all the same, their sound is so fucking... bland and mainstream that it sickens me. Not mainstream in the sense that they're popular, but their music is so neutral and without any excitement that I felt sorry for them.

Bevatron

Ben Folds. No energy and my seats were sooooooo far away and the venue blew. Plus I went with this guy who ended up being the biggest tool ever. Lousy experience all around, but at least the guy paid for the tickets!

radiohead87

I saw a disappointing Radiohead show at MSG several years ago (right after Kid A). The band basically just played the album, never really acknowledged the crowd, and the entire arena just sat there. Maybe that's what their shows are like (counter-example, anyone?), but it didn't seem worth the $60.

Lots of other shows have been great, U2, Beck, Wu-Tang, even Van Halen. This one was a stinker.

evilgeologist

Dave Mathews Band at Bonnaroo 2005. Not only were they not as exciting (if you can say that their music is exciting... but that is another topic) as I thought they would be live, they were sort of lame to be honest. They had some great guests come out and play with them but it all felt like background music not a show. Also while I was lying down resting since I was trapped at the front of the crowd some guy decided turn around and take a leak all over my shoes and the person next to me. I guess you could say the show was worst for the other guy. But that was my most disappointing show. When the highlight is getting peed on you know there are issues.

phick

This is why I listen to jam bands like Phish, Umphrey's Mcgee, moe. Disco Biscuits and STS9. They're so much better live than on the albums so you're never disappointed

etcetcetc00

Snoop Dogg at Bonnaroo 2009. He was 20 minutes late, and it seemed like he didn't even care. He went through the motions of all his hits, threw in a massive amount of set-filler which included an east-coast vs west-coast division of the crowd which took up 10 or 15 bullshit minutes (it's not '97), and a tribute to 2pac which, I shit you not, consisted of Snoop and his crew playing a recording of a 2pac song. I waited the whole song thinking snoop would at least have a verse on that song that he would rap for us, but no. Just a recording. A couple of my friends saw him a few weeks later and he did the same shit! Dude just takes a break from his blunts to go through the motions on stage so he can get paid. So sad.

stubbyfingers

A friend dragged me to go see a flute band at a local church in Austin. It sucked. Hard.

halbowitz

Eric Clapton. Came out. Played some music. Never said a word (or at least not more then 10), never really seemed into it. Kind of like he was just there to cash a check.

badfish

Dashboard Confessional. (No judging! They are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me and we went because my ex-GF liked them so much.)

Anyway, they played for ONE HOUR, that was it and they were the headliner with just one band before them. That and the leader singer kept doing this thing where he would stop singing and hold the mic over the crowd and they would sing. He did it for like 6 songs.

I am sure it is amazing when your fans know every word and note you have written, but don't satisfy your ego at the expense of our ticket price.

djteiwaz

Tie:

Death Cab for Cutie - half the band members played one song while the other half played another. Quit partially through their last song.

Circa Survive - Seen them 3 times. First show was awesome. The other 2, Anthony Green was so "sick"(I call it drugs) that his voice screeched the whole time and just sounded awful. Will never see him live again.

Perry Ferrell - saw him DJ once and he overdosed on heroin and had to be escorted off the stage 5 minutes into the show. He was drooling and could barely lift his head.

theMethod

I'd say the worst sounding band I've heard live was Thursday. I actually like them on record, but live they flat-out suck it. Their stage presence was fairly weak but what really ruined it were the vocals. It was a good thing I saw Muse right before them...

sigmoid

Bowie - Let's Dance Tour. Not a total disappointment, but less than great...

Also, there was an Experience Unlimited show (they were a go go band) in DC where the show was cancelled because the cops showed up and busted the band for drugs.

pragmatick

I saw Joe Cocker for free on the Rhine Army Summer Show, which is kind of a festival by the british forces in germany. The day before the festival had been his 60th birthday or something, and he came an hour or two late because he had been in hospital where they emptied his stomach to prevent an alcohol poisoning. But apparently he insisted to do the show and you can imagine how well he performed. He fell a couple of times, struggled to keep on foot and staggered all over the stage. It was a fun day nonetheless.

funkentelchy

N.E.R.D. at Pemberton festival. They showed up 40 minutes late. I left to catch a nap in my tent after Pharell Williams opened the show with "WHAT'S UP VANCOUVER!!!". Okay, okay, the actual performance got good reviews. But if you mistake Pemberton (population 500) for Vancouver (population 2 Million) you deserve to get mocked.

Ma-aKheru

I went to see PJ Harvey in 93-94. She was great, but this feeble band called Radiohead opened for her. The lead singer was all spazzy and skinny.
The actual worse was seeing Spain open for Cocteau Twins. The floor of the Mayan Theater in LA has no "slope". In other words, I am 6'1", and I was craning my neck to see over people. So boring.

likefools

Animal Collective at Bonnaroo. It wasn't really their fault though.

For starters, it was really freakin' hot. It was like the sun was magnified 10 times and was shining only on that concert. People were dropping like flies because of heat exhaustion.

So there's that, and also the fact that most daytime shows are very underwhelming compared to their nighttime brethren. You don't get any crazy light show or anything. Also, I was quite far from the stage, which sucks as well.

But I love Animal Collective, and I will definitely try to see them again because I'm sure they put on awesome shows.

imk

Led Zeppelin at the Mannheim Eisstadion 1980. In my naivete, I imagined that they would be much more of a rocking band, but 2/3 of the concert was incredibly boring.

Of course, half the audience were drunk military dirtbags which detracted from the experience.

I've seen worse shows to be sure, but I was never as disappointed as I was at that show.

robvious

Ghostface Killah. Love his album stuff, but every time he's onstage his whiny persona is just... too real. He doesn't even rap half the time, leaving his cronies to fill in the verse while he stands in the background and shouts at the stage techs for more water. I've seen him twice now, once solo, once with the Clan, and each time he's not been anywhere close to what I've come to expect from a quality hip-hop show.

cyancynic

Frank Zappa - Detroit 1981. Some idiot threw a nickel at the band, hit Frank, and he walked out after about 30 minutes. Huge bummer.

guriboysf

I saw MixMaster Mike at Amoeba in San Francisco. He did a set that lasted about an hour which contained endless trainwrecks and completely bizarre bullshit. Reminded me of the old Super Greg meme from back in the day.

elquesogrande

Chris Whitley in a small venue back in 2001. He was in the fog of a heroin addiction and couldn't keep a backup band around due to his issues. Just him, a steel guitar, a kickplate and a 1,000 yard creepy drugged-out stare. Sad for such a talented artist.

ruhlec

HARD Summer 2009. Was supposed to be this ridiculous huge rave, but after the 2nd band (Crystal Castles) the fire marshall shut it down. People were rushing the gates and jumping from balconies. They called in the fucking LAPD riot police to clear everyone out.

It sucked.

wtfrara

Say Anything. Love the music, but the show was boring. I'll let the guitarist get away with not flailing around much due to the technical nature of some of their songs, but really? The lead singer only has a mic. He should be going ape shit. (if the song calls for it).

Sektor7g

Bright Eyes around 2002-ish. Conner was drunk and the show sucked. Saw them again a few years later though, and it was a really good show.

The Mars Volta at The Congress theater Sept 11 2009, The whole band was not there. They started great but then just left. No encore nothing.

MRRoberts

Screw you guys. I saw Bob Dylan in 2007 and he rocked my socks off.

I'm not there to see him dance around and thank us for coming, I'm there to hear him play his songs.

sexlexia

Slayer 2 years ago.

I love Slayer, really, but it was just incredibly boring. I think it was entirely due to the fact it was in a large open area and not a small venue.

BeingFree

Rush. Just sounded like going through the motions, no emotion, and they took a pretty long break mid-way through the concert.

FakeSuicideMan

Sonic Youth.

roastedbagel

A Manson show I went to back in 98-99. I've seen Manson over 15 times since his inception with the Spooky Kids and the days of playing at the Squeeze.

I think this was their 2nd tour after releasing Anti-Christ, so it was a fairly big venue, and mind you this is his hometown he was playing for (South Florida).

Basically about 3 songs in, he started arguing with Twiggy and threw the mic and walked off stage. That was it. 3 songs. That was by far the most disappointing show I had ever been to. FWIW, I still went to every concert of his that has come my way, including Mayhem last month. He fucking rocked.

edpaget

Dream Theatre

solarsavior

John Mayer

Not much original material. Spent a ton of time masturbating with his guitar. It got old really fast.

He forgets we're paying him to entertain us, not for him to spend time entertaining himself. Self-absorbed asshole.

AtheismFTW

As far as boring, I'd have to say Deftones was the most shitty concert ever. Totally fucking blew.

Hanging out with the band after the show was pretty cool though, and they gave me autographed drumsticks and guitar picks from the show, so that was cool too.

sonikk

Gun N Roses/Metallica Tour. Only half of the concert sucked... but boy did it suck. GNR is/was god awful.

rhvogel

The Flaming Lips. The concert was total drivel. Wayne Coyne and company displayed one of the worst acts of musicianship at any concert I have ever seen, covering up their terrible "chops" with gimmicks and endless ranting. I haven't listened to the band since.

Edit: Why the downvote? Musically speaking, they are atrocious live.

DrBucket

When i took the weekend off to make a small roadtrip to see Between The Buried And Me. They toured with Opeth and Dream Theater, which i wasn't really into at the time but I heard good things so i considered it a plus. Well it quickly turned to a negative when the other two bands we're hogging the spotlight and only let BTBAM play 3 songs. THAT'S IT! 3 FUCKING SONG and we drove a good 2-3 hours to get there. I know its not THAT far but when you plan a small vacation around a band and you know that these other bands you could really care less about, shit all over your cupcake, you are no long a happy camper. They're coming to my hometown this time so I'm quickly about to get over this and let bygones be bygones.

lefeministe

I used to love the White Stripes. When they were the headliners for a music festival thrown by a local radio station, my friends and I were really looking forward to seeing them live. But not only did they show up over an hour and a half late, when they came onstage, they barely gave the audience a glance before starting to play listlessly, facing only each other. They kept giving off an air of superiority and resignation and were completely uninspired. Of course, they also cut their set short and failed to do an encore.

Huge disappointment.

pancititito

Sean Paul. He didn't really sing any of his songs and the crowd started leaving half way through the first song. Tego Calderon and Daddy Yankee were awesome though.

Bamin

Stars.

Feist with a band, saw her once open solo for BSS and it was great.

MetropolisPt31

Explosions In The Sky, March 2008 in Santa Cruz. I'm a huge fan of theirs and the Post Rock genre in general but they played quite uninspired and acted moody. They played maybe 75 minutes and then took off without an encore. I guess that's their shtick and they never do encores but their excuse was that they were tired and gave it their all. I've seen local thrash bands play twice as long and still do an encore.

sherlok

Mind as well add the last thread to this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/7hmgf/whats_the_bestworst_live_show_youve_ever_been_to/

edit: not exactly the same, but still...

rumforbreakfast

When I saw UNKLE at the Big Day Out they pretty much played a tape of the songs while they tried to hammer the heaviest guitars possible over the top. I don't know if it got better because I walked in excited and left after 30 minutes sorely disappointed.

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