I saw Tommy Emmanuel in person in a small theatre here in Atlanta which was absolutely incredible. As far as large arena concerts, my all time favorite was Kiss. AC/DC came through Atlanta about 15 years ago and one of my biggest regrets was not going to seem them live.
My Quick Smells Like French Toast.
Rush. As Dave Grohl said, they have the most loyal following in rock after the Grateful Dead. Geddy Lee described themselves as the world's biggest cult band. The atmosphere at a Rush concert compared to other arena shows was like comparing Cameron to other basketball stadiums. Plus, I've never seen another drummer come close to what Neil Peart would do for 3 hours. I've only seen Victor Wooten rival Geddy's bass freak show, and Geddy sometimes played bass, keyboards, and sang at the same time.
Paul Simon. The Rhythm of the Saints tour. Amazing collection of African and South American musicians along with the likes of Michael Brecker and Steve Gadd.
Jason Isbell, front row seats. His wife, Amanda Shires, opened, with Jason in her backing band. Close enough that we could read the set list on a piece of paper on the ground for Jason before the show started.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, with Jerry Douglas and Buddy Miller among the band. Their album was great, and the concert was better, adding more edge and a little more rock to the songs. The pairing of the kooky but demure Krauss with Plant, who seemed barely to restrain himself from twirling the mic stand around at any moment, was terrific. They played 4 or 5 Zep covers, and when Plant wanted to sing in his old style and hit the big notes, he still had the full pipes to nail it.
Buddy Guy, several clubs. Buddy would walk through the crowd during solos and could make his guitar to sound like Hendrix, BB, Clapton, whoever he wanted.
Jason & the Scorchers. Cult but influential punkabilly band. Wild energy from singer Jason Ringenberg and guitarist Warner Hodges.
David Byrne, Broadway. Someone else mentioned this one. For a Talking Heads fan who never got to see the Talking Heads, very entertaining.
Victor Wooten, Dennis Chambers, and Bob Franceschini, small venue. Wooten is a freak show. Got to meet him and Chambers.
Steve Earle, small venue, 30th anniversary concert of Copperhead Road.
Itzhak Perlman playing Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
BB King. Natural showman. Broke a string on Lucille, turned around and changed it while the band jammed on and then joined back right on time.
Saw the Allison Krause / Robert Plant show in raleigh, those 2 individuals together seemed a little weird to me ...I really like Buddy Miller.
Here's one for the ages (and can't believe I almost forgot about this): Elvis Presley, Greensboro 74-75?? I was all of 12 years old; my mother was the fan (surprise, surprise) and she ended up with some extra tickets after complaining to the Greensboro Colloseum box-office, ... have to say I was probably too young to understand the "legend" of it all ... but impressed me enough to get into his early recordings and of a slightly latter era, the Beatles.
And oh yes, Paul McCartney - Carter Findley 94-95?? ... was the tour where he decided to start playing some Beatle stuff !!
I saw the same guy at the same venue, but likely a few years later (right around 1990). He was still very young then, but he didn't sit in with the seconds when my wife and I saw him, sadly.
Other notable classical soloists I've had the pleasure to hear live:
Itzhak Perlman
Isaac Stern
Nadia Solerno-Sonnenberg
Hillary Hahn
Sarah Chang
Alicia De Larrocha
Vladimir Ashkenazy (also as conductor)
Murray Perriah
Wynton Marsalis
Gerard Schwartz (also as conductor)
Rolf Smedvig
Jon Kimura Parker
Yo-Yo Ma
Emmanuel Ax
I actually got to have dinner with Emmanuel Ax, thanks to Duke connections. Amazing man. Humble, personable, witty, and absolutely disciplined in the service of his craft. I'm lucky to have had the opportunity.
I saw Bela Fleck and the Flecktones twice, which was awesome, but my claim to fame was that I saw Victor Wooten trying out the basses at a little music store in Nashville at the same time I was there to buy some new strings for my bass. So I got to hear him playing around on several basses he pulled off the wall. The guy is AMAZING.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
Well, I'd have a long list of shows seen...if I could remember, but many are lost to the fog of time. So I will simply list two bands you've never heard of
Plain Folks - hard rock cover band I saw perform many times.
Taboo - all female band doing pop covers and original tunes of the 70's. Only saw them a couple times as their main venue was a women-only nightclub.
Yes, these were Mrs. Neals bands. I was her groupie. No, my hearing is not good.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Dunno, but I suspect Warren played at the Bayou more than a dozen times. IIRC, I saw him play there about half a dozen times. Great vantage points upstairs.
Amazing how many great people played there. I saw Stills play incredibly well there in ‘85 or ‘86. The midnight show was great. I still recall Treetop Flyer.
The Beach Boys played a concert at my alma mater, Northern Illinois University, in 1972, my senior year. I had really liked the Beach Boys when I was younger but viewed this as nostalgia tour. I never thought they would continue to perform for many years thereafter. The crowd went nuts during California Girls when they talked about "northern girls and the way they kissed, they keep their boyfriends warm at night". They were good but not great in1972 and, I think, steadily declined thereafter.
I've always loved Los Lobos and am willing to consider them, rather than the Eagles, as the seminal Southern California band. I heard Los Lobos, with my very astute punk rock son and his musician buddies, at etown in Boulder, a 200 seat venue. I was concerned that they would just mail the performance in in and give a lackluster performance. They were great, they rocked, a great, great concert. My son and his cynical friends agreed.