Ever been to a shi**y concert?

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So there is a band I like called The Growlers and I had a bad time at that, just sucks because I really like their music. But I went alone in the cold and well just ended up being a bad night. I ended the night having security tell me I needed to leave because I was searching for a pin with the band logo I got on the bag I bought and being kind of pissy. Then my mom picked me up because she had agreed to and she wasn't very happy that I was pretty tipsy and being kind of unpleasant. Yeah just not a good time.

Then a while before that I had a better time but it was still rather sh*tty, I saw Iron Maiden...but ok first off they couldn't get all their equipment on stage because of bad designing so they figured...oh whatever we'll do an awesome show anyways. But OMG the venue...treated them like sh*t, its freaking Iron Maiden one of the biggest metal bands ever and they f*cking treat them like crap. Bruce Dickinson even partially joked he hoped their pyro tech stuff blew up the stage but the thing was is he was half serious, like he was pissed. And then after that they f*cking shut down their encore, citing 'noise ordinence' why the f**k would you have a noise oridnence next to a goddamn concert venue LOl he said he might come back to Colorado for a tour but he will never play at that venue again. I mean that venue was so sh*tty they practically ruined an Iron Maiden show...but I think they still put on a great show considering the situation.

I am just glad I got to see Dio at the redrocks stadium before he died, also got my brother a ticket and I didn't even know it would be his last show...but that wasn't a sh*tty concert that was f*cking amazing, literally a once in a lifetime experience.

My friend's sister was dating guys in bands and I remember being at one venue, something of a poshed out local bar where the audio system technically looked good but the mids were spiked up so high that the speakers were distorting and I could just about feel the hearing damage commencing. Needless to say I got away from the stage and went outside as fast as I could. Even at that it took a couple hours to get my hearing back to normal.

I can only think of two that qualify as sh***y and they both happened in San Antonio.

The first was Killswitch Engage (Howard Jones era) with He Is Legend, Chimaira, and DragonForce supporting. I went with my older brother because at the time he temporarily brainwashed me into thinking I had to listen to only mainstream music if I wanted to have friends and a girlfriend. Some of his friends (They all stabbed each other and him in the back) were supposed to be there but they weren't. It was raining that day so the weather sucked and it had an effect on the smoking in the air which made me feel even more uncomfortable. The crowd also treated DragonForce badly. They weren't excited to see them at all and ZP Threat was very annoyed to the point he actually sat down during the guitar solos looking angry. He pointed out the band's bassist had a t-shirt that said "Keep San Antonio f*****g Metal!" but was mad that the crowd was so tame and said they were getting the "f**k out" before they finished. My brother and I ended up leaving during Killswitch's set because our mother drove us there and we had no say in how long we wanted to stay. It was just as well because I realized how I wasn't being true to myself by not actually enjoying the music but hoping it would make me fit in, I hated feeling the odd man out among the smokers, and my older brother was full of s**t.

The second bad show was the first Summer Slaughter tour. I wanted to see Cephalic Carnage because I was into them at the time (I don't listen to them anymore. I grew out of extreme metal for the most part) and I thought an underground show would be more my thing than the previous show because I had a romanticized view of underground culture. Unfortunately, they were the second to last band to come on and the 10 or so bands before them were mostly deathcore bands that sounded all the same. Metalcore had reached its saturation point and deathcore was becoming the next thing but I was starting to realize that it too would end up in the same boat as metalcore, homogenized and formulaic. The merch people were also jerks and tried to rip me off on a CC shirt but one of my older cousins who came with me saw through that and made the guy give me my change. The regular people also weren't very friendly and mostly just wanted to smoke up and get drunk.

A few shows come to mind. The first was Type O Negative in 2007. Frontman Peter Steele was just not into it at all that night. He spent most of their set sat on the stage and didn't even bother singing or playing bass at times. The other guys tried their best to keep it together but it got so bad that the crowd actually started booing them. To be fair, Pete did perk up towards the end with their last few songs and the show actually became enjoyable. Too bad it was only for the last 15 minutes though.

The second bad show I saw was Abbath in 2016. I'm a big fan of Immortal and I was really looking forward to seeing Abbath. Unfortunately, the sound mix was godawful right from the first song and to make matters worse, Abbath was drunk out of his mind. At one point, he accidentally unplugged his guitar and carried on playing as though nothing had happened despite his bass player trying to tell him that he was playing unplugged. A lot of people left after the first few songs and I still don't know why I put up with that show for as long as I did.

Another show that also disappointed me was The Mars Volta in 2008 but that was down to extended jam sessions in every song that they played rather than poor sound or mediocre performances. Jamming during songs can be cool if it doesn't go on for too long (Primus are very good at it for example) but TMV seemed to be doing their best to annoy me as much as possible with that stuff during their show.

That sucks to hear but atleast you got to see them. Peter Steele died before I had a chance to see them. I still put on their albums every now and then but I'll never be able to make up for lost time in this lifetime missing their live performances.

Yeah, it's a shame that he died so prematurely. But as you say, I did at least get to see them. I passed on an opportunity to see Celtic Frost when they reunited briefly a decade ago. One of the core band members, Martin Ain, died a few days ago so that group will never get back together. I also had a chance to see Dimebag Darrell of Pantera fame when his band Damageplan played in London but again, I didn't go. He was murdered a few months later. Ever since then, I've realised that, if there's a band or solo artist that you like and you have a chance to see them, then go because you may never get another chance to do so. Following this advice has ensured that I got to see legends like Ronnie James Dio and Leonard Cohen when they were still with us along with guys who are still alive but may never play the UK again like Tom Waits.

That's something I realized when Oderus Urungus of Gwar died two years ago. I should've saw them when he was still with them but I was too anxious to go to shows alone. I've since overcome that fear but I still enjoy going to shows with my cousin and his girlfriend became they'll stay for the whole show. My older brother made me leave the first time I saw the Melvins because he and his girlfriend couldn't take it.

Well if you are able to go to shows with some people in the family that is good.

Uhhh I have gone to some concerts alone and sometimes it's fun...but I have certainly gone to some I need to get a drink to chill out and then I end up totally drunk before the show even comes on, yeah I prefer to go to shows with someone otherwise I get too drunk to try and not feel uncomfortable.

I am actually split on the two things. There are pluses and minuses to both things. I've actually met some of my favorite musicians by going alone because I was on my own time and I could stay at the venue as long as I wanted. My cousin and his girlfriend want to leave once the show is done but it's understandable since my older cousin suffers from Chron's disease and he can only handle so much stress.

I would definitely choose going to shows with my cousin and his girlfriend over most of my family any day. I can actually add another bad show to my list. My father wouldn't have gone with me to see the bands I like nor would he even offer to take me but he made me go with him to see this boring country music performer on my birthday as a "gift" to me. In reality, it was only something he wanted to do and he was using my birthday to justify going to it. Consciously, I didn't object to the show (I was very complacent in my life until the depression kicked in full gear when I was 17) but deep down I did feel like I wasn't truly happy being there. I actually paced around on the sand instead of watching the band perform and I saw an arcade game somewhere in the area but I didn't play it because I didn't have any change on me. This also wouldn't be the last time he did this and I started putting my foot down when I had a better grasp on my emotions.

The Melvins show getting cut short by my older brother and his then girlfriend would qualify as sh***y as well. Melvins aren't for everyone but they shouldn't be that difficult to swallow.

A shi**y classical concert: our (pretty decent) local university orchestra got in a famous guest conductor once. It turned out what he did best was to make them sound really, really boring. First half featured "La Mer" by Debussy, which is normally a wierd, exciting and really powerful piece of music. It had me looking at my watch as people made pointless sounds on their instruments in a listlessly mechanical manner. Then something by Tchaikovsky- even worse. The second half was one of my favourite pieces ever, Sibelius's 2nd symphony. So I walked out before he could ruin that for me too.

I've only ever been to two concerts ever, and both were awesome. I don't really like to go to concerts, because the volume and the vibration is just too much for my sensories, but yes, seeing Dio with Sabbath was one of the best moments of my life. Aside from the impossibility of seeing Sabbath in their prime back in the 70s or early 80s, I don't think I could've gone to a better concert than seeing them as Heaven & Hell in Chicago...though I did miss out on having Down as an opener. The band was in great spirits, smiles all around, great energy, great sound, and no Ozzy era covers (although I do really like some of the medleys they used to do, it's awesome to hear a full set devoted solely to Dio era songs). I bought the Radio City Music Hall DVD when it came out, and I was kind of disappointed that they sounded nowhere near as good as they did in Chicago...and I have the bootleg to prove it. Performance anxiety, perhaps?

Now, as far as local shows go, yeah, I've been to some real stinkers >_< Ha...literally. One show, I guess someone disliked one of the bands so much, that they set off some stinkbombs partway through their set. Honestly I was not unhappy about it =)

Worst I've ever been to was Bob Dylan. Very low energy, no crowd interaction whatsoever, and only played DEEP, DEEP tracks. People were actually leaving early. His energy just made it seem like he didn't want to be there, which is very disrespectful to the audience because the tickets weren't cheap.