Ian Dury and The Blockheads. Colston Hall, Bristol UK, 1978.
Why?...
I was in the right frame of mind to be entertained. They had their ten thousand hours in. The band was tight. The sound was perfectly engineered. They played extended versions of every song on their brilliant album New Boots and Panties, which I love. For a man who had a withered arm and a limp after suffering childhood polio, Ian Dury commanded the stage like no one I ever saw. (And I had seen the Stones on the same stage seven years earlier.) He was mesmerizing. I have other favorite performers, but none of them live have come close to that show.
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
Obviously the main reason it was so good was because, it was joe strummer for God's sake!!! And as well as playing his own songs he played lots of songs from The Clash. His band were very impressive and all took turns playing every instrument. I have other favourite bands, but Joe wins this..
I know this is a weird mix but I can't decide which ones were better. It was either Meatloaf, The Beastie Boys, Rush or Rage Against the Machines.
Meatloaf and Rush never stopped. Their energy level was high from start to finish. The Beastie Boys because well, it's The Beastie Boys! And Rage because the vibe at the whole show was amazing.
The Grateful Dead at Avery Fisher Center in either 1975 or 1976. The show combined the delicacy of the finest chamber music with the Dead's best improvisations and hard driving rock and roll.. A close second was The Band in Miami in December, 1969. The 24 hour drive that took 36 through a northeast blizzard was well worth their amazing performance, although i should have laid off the "wine" that was passed around.
AC/DC - those guys just rocked it and fucking Angus was at his best .. it was the last time they were altogether, we will never see them again like that .. and there were a lot of titties floating around that show .. and I walked out with a pair of devil horns, yes I know I ave my own but these ave AC/DC on em ..
Linda Ronstadt, because she will never be able to sing again due to her Parkinson's disease.
Queen...nothing need be added
I can't pin it down to just one. I have seen at least a dozen concerts per year in the last 40+ years and twice that many the last 12. I saw Queens News of the World LP tour in Long Beach in 1975. Freddy Mercury was truly amazing as was the entire show plus we were all in a great state of mind if you know what I mean.
Earlier that year I also saw Pink Floyds Animals tour featuring the "Pig" and that was such a fantastic concert I still have the vinyl album. I am a big Floyd fan and have seen the band 4 times plus both Waters and Gilmore at least that many times each.
Next every Paul McCartney show he never fails to impress. We saw him in Phoenix recently and in spite of his age he still sounded great and his set-list was 38 songs deep. Since I never saw the beatles seeing him is the closest I'll ever get to seeing them but he does a good job.
I'll finish with another one of my favorite groups the eagles whom I've seen live somewhere around 20 times. The concert I count as my personal favotite was the first of 6 Long Road out of Eden shows I attended which was at the Garden in NYC around Christmas in 2007. I know the album isn't as well known as some of their others but it has become my favorite of theirs because I find the lyrics quite deep and thought which I always have found important in music.
Sorry for the length but I'm really into music!
Elvis Presley at the Capital Center in Washington DC. It was the year before he died and he looked like hell but his voice was still unbelievably pure. It was the only concert I ever went to that the crowd stood for the whole concert, and I've been to many.
