lonestar's Top 25 Concerts List---#1 IQ at Progstock with many others

[lonestar]

Thought I'd have some fun, and had a spot of inspired energy. In the spirit of making list, one of the things we DTFers do best, I thought I'd do my top 25 concerts I've attended, complete with setlist, and video where available (be it fan video or professional-ish). The list only has a few repeat artists, shows that I just didn't feel right leaving off, otherwise I think it's 22 unique artists.

The shows will span from I believe 1984 to this year, artist will vary from some of the absolutely biggest names in rock history, to bands who only have one album out, and venues go from a small 150 person bar to stadiums that can top 80,000.


I consider myself very, very blessed in my concert life. I live in an area that gets most of the tours, and have been fortunate enough to make time to get to all the shows I wanted to in the local area, along with a few that I traveled to. My bucket list, at least those possible in my time (ie Freddie Mercury version of Queen stopped playing before I was able to catch them), has been mostly completed, the only artist I would seriously have on there is drum virtuoso Senri Kawaguchi.

All the list is compiled, and I will add write ups as I go, along with any available fan video/professional video I can find. If I can't find something from that specific show, I will try to find something from the tour. I hope you all will enjoy this, and maybe it will inspire others to do the same, I'm sure we got some serious lists among DTF members.


So, with no. 26 (I went one over, but fuck it, I'm going with it...), let's do this...


#26- NIGHTWISH- IMAGINAERUM TOUR

With Kamelot Opening

The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
Oct 3, 2012
Set-
-   Storytime
-   Wish I Had an Angel
-   Dark Chest of Wonders
-   Amaranth
-   Scaretale
-   Dead to the World
-   Slow, Love, Slow
-   I Want My Tears Back
-   The Islander
-   Nemo
-   Last of the Wilds
-   Planet Hell
-   Ghost River
-   Song of Myself
-   Last Ride of the Day

Before this show, I had maybe heard one or two songs of Nightwish. I decided to go, mainly for Kamelot, on the day of the show. I was inspired by jingle.boy, who was pissed he wasn't able to go (he was on a business trip in SF, but had to leave that day). The thing I didn't know, and in retrospect was a very big fucking deal, was that this was Floor's third show after taking over lead duties for the band. While I thoroughly enjoyed Kamelot, Nightwish put on a brilliant spectacle, with Floor becoming a favorite singer of mine in one night.


Opening- Storytime..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrhSbWyH6Gw&ab_channel=thepatester




I'll try to update every few days, as I said, the list is compiled already, just got to add commentary and videos.

Enjoy!!!

[twosuitsluke]

This is a great idea for a thread!

It would take some serious research for me to compile a lost like this. I know my #1 easily, but after that there are many contenders. I think a fair few of mine would be festival sets actually.

I can remember with certain bands where and when I saw them, as well as setlists etc, but for the most part I'd have to rely on Setlist.fm to be my memory for me.

Anyway, I've only ever been a very casual Nightwish fan, and think I may only have caught some of their set at Download festival years ago. I'll check out that video later but looking forward to the rest of the list!

[TAC]

Cool! Following!!

[wolfking]

Cool! Following!!

[OpenYourEyes311]

Nice! I saw that tour before Annette left the band. I thought it was great. It was kind of the last time I thought about Nightwish, though. With Annette leaving, and then Jukka, and then Marco... I'm just not that interested in the band anymore. Jukka was amazing the two times I got to see him perform, easily my favorite live member. But yeah, that was a great show. Loved Kamelot too, had never heard them before.

[lonestar]

Nice! I saw that tour before Annette left the band. I thought it was great. It was kind of the last time I thought about Nightwish, though. With Annette leaving, and then Jukka, and then Marco... I'm just not that interested in the band anymore. Jukka was amazing the two times I got to see him perform, easily my favorite live member. But yeah, that was a great show. Loved Kamelot too, had never heard them before.

As I said, it was a day of decision, I had a day off and jingle prodded me not to miss it, so I didn't. Always listen to trusted friends.

[ReaperKK]

Awesome idea for a thread, I'll be following. The footage looks like a great time.

[lonestar]

Eh, I'm up early, it's a day off...let's do an update...


Pink Floyd- A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Oakland Arena, Oakland, CA
Dec 3, 1987
Setlist
-   Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)
-   Signs of Life
-   Learning to Fly
-   Yet Another Movie
-   Round and Around
-   A New Machine, Part 1
-   Terminal Frost
-   A New Machine, Part 2
-   Sorrow
-   The Dogs of War
-   On The Turning Away
-   One of These Days
-   Time
-   On The Run
-   Wish You Were Here
-   Welcome to the Machine
-   Us and Them
-   Money
-   Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2
-   Comfortably Numb
-   Encore- One Slip
-   Run Like Hell


Yeah....of course this had to be on the list. One of the four times I saw Floyd, this was most memorable because it was my first for them, and it was a week away from Roger Water's Radio KAOS tour, so I got the best of both in a very short time (more from Roger later in the list). This was my freshman year at Berkeley, and a friend of mine who worked security for Bill Graham Presents (now Livenation, a job I later did for a few years) scored me tickets. I had them already for the next night of their 3 night run, but these were free, and were fucking sweet tickets stage center on the first set of risers, so visuals were prisitine. The set? Well, see for yourself, it was a best of with most of their new album included, and to open with Shine On, I probably could've left happy after that alone. The band was perfect, and visuals were top notch per Floyd's standards.

Funny side note to this, my HS english teacher (Christian Brothers school) showed us the Wall in class, and had us write on the thematic elements of it. I of course got an A on it, cause the source material her Brother Cecil (my buddy and I were high as fuck mind you lol). We both were absolutely unfazed that the other was at the show, caught up, and went our merry ways, but to see this skinny, short black man in his full on Christian Brother's garments in the middle of a FLoyd crowd was just...perfect.



Obviously, no live clips of this show since it's pre-cell phones and there wasn't any bootleg, but here's a clip from the live DVD of another show...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htM3FN1YQ_c&ab_channel=Agust%C3%ADgulaMacielAmezcua

[Cool Chris]

Following

[King Postwhore]

I only saw the Floyd tour after in 94.

[lonestar]

I only saw the Floyd tour after in 94.

I saw them twice on this one, and twice in '94. The one I really wished I had seen was on this same tour, later date, at the outdoor Oakland coliseum, and it was very misty and foggy, and my brother told me it was hands down the greatest light show ever, cause the lasers were just beaming all the way into the atmosphere. I can only imagine how fucking cool that was. It's always little details like that which can push a show from amazing to best ever.

[King Postwhore]

Yeah. The gold lasers with the typical red, blue and green was amazing. Also,  a top 3 sounding tour ever. I can't believe it in a football stadium too.

[lonestar]

Yeah. The gold lasers with the typical red, blue and green was amazing. Also,  a top 3 sounding tour ever. I can't believe it in a football stadium too.

Agreed, production levels were top tier, I think only a few shows on the list were executed at such a high level. Yes comes immediately to mind.

[Cool Chris]

I wasn't a big Nightwish fan when Floor joined, but liked them enough to buy a ticket for that tour when it hit Seattle. If I didn't get on this forum the day of the show, I wouldn't have known Floor would be performing with them for the first time. I only really knew here via Ayreon, so knew she could deliver. The show was aces and the crowd totally embraced her. The next time they played here she mentioned how appreciative she was for the welcoming we gave her on her first show with the band.

I've said all I can here about Delicate Sound of Thunder, as it is my favorite concert video. Envious of those who could have experienced this live. 

[lonestar]

I wasn't a big Nightwish fan when Floor joined, but liked them enough to buy a ticket for that tour when it hit Seattle. If I didn't get on this forum the day of the show, I wouldn't have known Floor would be performing with them for the first time. I only really knew here via Ayreon, so knew she could deliver. The show was aces and the crowd totally embraced her. The next time they played here she mentioned how appreciative she was for the welcoming we gave her on her first show with the band.

I've said all I can here about Delicate Sound of Thunder, as it is my favorite concert video. Envious of those who could have experienced this live.

Benefits of being old... We got to see a lot of killer shows.


Drawbacks? I'll die sooner. 

[ReaperKK]

You guys are so lucky to have seen Floyd. They've always been the band that if I can go back in time to see I would.

[KevShmev]

If I did a list like this, seeing Floyd at Arrowhead Stadium in '94 on The Division Bell tour would easily be top 3 (and possibly number 1). 

[King Postwhore]

If I did a list like this, seeing Floyd at Arrowhead Stadium in '94 on The Division Bell tour would easily be top 3 (and possibly number 1). 

Kev, how old were you? 

[lonestar]

OK, update time...


Rush- Power Windows Tour
Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA
Jan 30th, 1986
Setlist-
-   The Spirit of the Radio
-   Limelight
-   The Big Money
-   New World Man
-   Subdivisions
-   Manhattan Project
-   Middletown Dreams
-   Witch Hunt
-   Red Sector A
-   Closer to the Heart
-   Marathon
-   The Trees
-   Mystic Rhythms
-   Distant Early Warning
-   Territories
-   YYZ/ Drum Solo
-   Red Lenses
-   Tom Sawyer
-   Encore- 2112, Pt I,II

So this was only my fourth show ever, and my second bigger show after Yes on the 90125 tour. Before that it was the Kinks and the Tubes. But Rush and Yes were the bands besides the Who that really sparked my love of music (and The Who had supposedly done their farewell tour in '82 which my mom said I couldn't go to, but more on that later in the list), so being able to knock 2 out of 3 so early in life was an indicator that I was destined for a blessed concert future. I've seen Rush many times (not King many, but probably over 10) so many of the shows could've been on this list, but I was trying to keep only one from each band, with the exception of a few bands that got doubled up, so look for another Rush submission.

As to the show, what can I say....I was floored, I was amazed, I was awakened to a whole new level of appreciating music. As they say, there's nothing like your first time, and that definitely applies here. I believe the opener was Eric Johnson (the east coast got Marillion on their Misplaced Childhood era, those fuckers). Rush was perfect per usual, and the set contained a good deal of my favorites, though some standouts were missing, mainly Xanadu and La Villa, but beggars can't be choosers.


Not a ton of footage from this tour, but I did find some from Quebec...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whTtE3xS_F4&list=PLbqcEQyfUZNjQyq4Xy94tp3eNMqP8CEQO&index=1&ab_channel=RollTheFemurs

[TAC]

Just going back to Pink Floyd for a sec. I remember the '87 tour. I almost went. But I was a metal snob at the time, and figured if there was no Roger waters, then I'd only be getting half of the story.

Kev mentions The Division Bell tour in '94, and again, not really a fan, I wasn't interested, and I surely wasn't going to a stadium show for it.





As far as the Power Windows tour, it was my first time seeing Rush. I was no longer a real Rush fan at the time, but I had friends tell me a had to go. Their show was so amazing.
Well, I saw the second night of the tour 12/5/85, and we were about 5 rows right in front of Geddy. Let's just say that he looked pissed off all night. He seemed really aggravated as they were working through beginning of tour kinks. And I didn't realize it at the time, but Rush plays a lot of their current album on every tour. And I hated Power Windows, and every time Geddy would introduce another new song, I cringed.

The thing about Rush is that if you've seen them a number of times, as I did back in the day, you could tell if they were into it or not. If they were, you saw a fantastic show. I saw the Hold Your Fire tour a couple of years later, and they were so into it, and the show was so good, it actually rekindled my love for Rush.


As far as opening bands go, we got Steve Morse. I would've taken Marillion though.

[lonestar]

I don't think I ever had a less than excellent Rush experience, and one that was truly beyond all expectations. More on that later in the list.


As to Floyd, like I said, I saw Roger at the same time. Just checked, Roger was late Sept of '87, and Floyd was early Dec, so it was kind of like getting the whole experience. Roger did an encore of Brain Damage/Eclipse which was quite sick, but Floyd took the prize for the set.


Roger might be appearing later in the list for another show of his I saw...just maybe.

[TAC]

I just wasn't a Pink Floyd fan, besides getting baked to Wish You Were Here. I had friends that were going, and I wish I went with them.


I saw Rush 7 times between '85-'96. I thought they were going through the motions during the TFE show in Boston, but other than those two shows, they were typically excellent. I think my favorite was Hold Your Fire show.

[KevShmev]

If I did a list like this, seeing Floyd at Arrowhead Stadium in '94 on The Division Bell tour would easily be top 3 (and possibly number 1). 

Kev, how old were you?

20.

April though June 1994 was a great 3-month concert stretch for me as I saw Rush, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and Yes all in that span (probably four of the six bands I listened to the most in the first half of that decade).

[TAC]

If I did a list like this, seeing Floyd at Arrowhead Stadium in '94 on The Division Bell tour would easily be top 3 (and possibly number 1). 

Kev, how old were you?

20.

April though June 1994 was a great 3-month concert stretch for me as I saw Rush, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and Yes all in that span (probably four of the six bands I listened to the most in the first half of that decade).

April through June of 1994 I saw Anthrax, Rush and Dio.

[lonestar]

I couldn't in my right mind include Gloryhammer on the list, as fun as they were, but as an honorable mention, which I'll try to do here and there, I absolutely had to include the greatest metal fan ever...


Trust me, click the link..

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wEEuRMp4dP4


Later, during Alestorm's set, this dude was crowdsurfing too...

[TAC]

I couldn't in my right mind include Gloryhammer on the list, as fun as they were, but as an honorable mention, which I'll try to do here and there, I absolutely had to include the greatest metal fan ever...


Trust me, click the link..

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wEEuRMp4dP4

So you and Kattelox were at the same concert? 

[wolfking]

I am so envious you guys getting to see Rush.

[King Postwhore]

I'm one of those fuckers who saw Marilion but that was a second leg of the tour. I saw the opening night of the Power Windows tour in Maine as well and The Steve Morse Band opened.

The sign on the bus telling you where was it going read, "No one Important."

[TAC]

I'm one of those fuckers who saw Marilion but that was a second leg of the tour.

I have zero recollection of them coming back. Looking at Setlist FM, I see they played in Springfield. Is that where you saw them?

A show in Springfield would not have gotten my attention.

[KevShmev]

I am so envious you guys getting to see Rush.

I only got to see them 12 times.

Or, 34 less times than Joe. 

[wolfking]

God damn!!

[King Postwhore]

 . I saw them 31 times. Tick is in the 60's I believe.

Tim, yes.  In Springfield.   

[lonestar]

I'm probably around 10.... Saw them from Power Windows to Vapor Trails, sometimes twice on a tour.

[frogprog]

24 times for me. I saw Power Windows in Philly 4/14 ,16 with B.O.C opening. One of the shows was 2nd row right in front of Ged's keys. Good times!

[Lethean]

I feel like Rush should be way higher on the list. Maybe they'll be one of the repeat bands.

Seriously though, this is a really cool thread.