Best/worst concerts of 2024

[pieceofme]

Yeah I know we're still several days away and ijwthstd still has another 15 concerts to see this year. But for the rest of us, what was your favourite concert, and what was the worst concert you attended in 2024?

Best: Sebastian Bach. He can still bring it live like very few can from the 80s.

Worst: Sisters of Mercy. Boring. How you can make a song like Lucretia My Reflection boring live is quite impressive actually.

Also saw 4 local bands which sucked, but at least it was free. I paid to see sisters of mercy

[Charles Bukaki]

The worst by far was Cake. I've always dug their music but holy shit were they a shitshow live. I lasted about 6 songs.

Best was a band called Borracho on a festival bill I saw in August (Ripplefest) I saw 24 bands in two days and they were the highlight. I was only passingly familiar with them but became an instant fan that day.

A close second was The Atomic Bitchwax.

[FreddyFender]

Saw Sisters of Mercy in 2023 - bucket list band.

Came back in 2024 and I didn't go even though my buddy would have let me in for free.

They weren't the worst band I've seen, but they were close! No bassist, no drummer, and the 20-something guitarist does most of the singing.

[Blumpkin King]

My favorites this year were Iron Maiden, Sammy Hagar, Scorpions (Love at first sting in Vegas), and Green Day.

The worst was Smashing Pumpkins on the Green Day Tour. They were awful. I've seen them a couple of times before and enjoyed them, but this show was all kinds of terrible. Their cover of Zoo Station was the low of the low.

[RaceFan3]

Didn't get to many shows this year. Best was .38 Special. They are still really good live and the crowd loves 'em, great energy in the building.

Saw Goo Goo Dolls and Lady A at my local festival. Not a big fan of either, but both were fine. Had fun at least. Lady A (headlined Country Night at the fest) packed eye candy galore in the crowd.

[Psychobolia.com]

Worst: Mike Tramp (got in free)

Best: MAYHEM at the Bataclan theater, a killer set where they played stuff in a retroactive order, from the latest album and ending with early demos.

EDIT: Forgot about Anthrax, they tie with Mayhem as the best show I've seen this year. Great sound, tons of energy, I was surprised they still were as awesome.

[ijwthstd]

Waiting to post the full list just in case but my girlfriend is off work and I am happy to spend time with her so not really sure what I will do thru the end of the year. Black Sabbitch is playing the Viper Room but I don't like going out NYE and there is a party at the house she lives in.

Best: OK not the best but even in 2024 seeing the Chambers Brothers belt out Time Has Come Today is always a life highlight. RIP Joe Chambers.

2/22/24 Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba @ Lodge Room - always amazing live

3/5/24 Madonna @ Kia Forum (after not even hearing a Madonna song in like 30 years I knew most of the songs and Live To Tell still gives me chills and had some amazing production)

7/21/24 Rolling Stones / Samantha Fish @ Thunder Ridge Nature Arena, Ridgedale, MO (This whole trip was amazing, in addition to an excellent tour closing set in a beautiful venue I waded thru all the shit on Facebook into the BassPro employee comp ticket pipeline to find 13 tix priced between $50-100 to pump 11 back into the marketplaces paying for the trip. And probably the other Stones trips this year. As a matter of fact gotta talk to the tax guy to see exactly what I can deduct since it turned into a business trip)

8/5/24 King Buzzo & Trevor Dunn, JD Pinkus, Field @ Lodge Room Melvins every bit as heavy in acoustic format and I was just transfixed watching Trevor Dunn's fingers, one of my fave musicians ever)

10/24/24 Hollow Hearts + Jakob The Kid @ Blarock, Tromso, Norway basically stumbled across this gig but ended up being the best of the 4 of my Norway trip. Excellent alternative band in Cowboy Junkies vein and only a few songs in English

Saw Doechii 4 times, amazing performer and she is taking off big, might even hit Lizzo / MTS level. Claudio Simonetti's Goblin is always great too. Saw them twice.

Jesus Lizard and Throw Rag are still two of the best live bands ever!

But looking at the list I and how much I see didn't quite the make the cut kinda hammers it home how much I am doing just out of habit because I don't know what to do with myself. And how much weed I smoked this year, sometimes into a total stupor. Was sober for like 10 years til I discovered legal weed during lockdown. Hit severe burnout Aug / Sept and after seeing so much crazy shit on the subways it's like ... do I really wanna risk my life to see Sammy Hagar? Also since Summer 2022 I have had my first girlfriend in decades but she works a crazy schedule of 3+4/12's and she doesn't wanna just got to random shows all the time so I will gladly axe almost anything to spend time with her now. She is the Foo Fighters fan)


The worst? Jessie J at the Teragram Ballroom. It was a storytellers style step. Apparently not as easy as it looks. Terrible and poorly paced/executed, more rambling about this and that that has no interest to almost anybody than actual stories. Seems like we got six songs in the 1:45 I was in the building. One of the few times in my life I bailed early. I was taking an overnight Greyhound to AZ right after and I started fixating on the fact that there is an IHOP nearby.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Jessie J? She's not even hot anymore... what are you doing to yourself?

[ijwthstd]

Jessie J? She's not even hot anymore... what are you doing to yourself?

It was a $10 ticket

I had a soft spot in my heart when I flipped a bunch of tickets in 2014 without even knowing who she is.

So it was like glad I didn't buy into this one and maybe I should check it out. Always get good sound/ recordings at the Teragram but this time it wasn't enough.

IHOP was terrible too

[Bono Nettencourt]

Aha. Forgot you're also about the business angle now and no longer our concert poverty warrior

[ijwthstd]

Aha. Forgot you're also about the business angle now and no longer our concert poverty warrior

Actually left the biz 2021-ish unless it's same day flips to get me in

Now if anyone wants to let me be their plus one


12/28/24 CupcakKe @ Glass House
12/28/24 DFL / Naked Aggression @ The Slipper Clutch
12/28/24 The Zeros / The Night Times / The Toe Tags / The Killing Floors @ The Escondite

12/29/24 Nervous Gender @ Zebulon

12/31/24 Black Sabbitch @ Viper Room
12/31/24 Morrissey / Mariachi El Bronx @ Hollywood Palladium

[kytepunches]

I saw about 40 shows this year. Most were enjoyable for different reasons , but exactly what I expected. Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden , Billy Talent i have seen multiple time. So no surprises.

The absolute best was the return of Marylin Manson. He looked and sounded fantastic , he was engaged and performed like he really appreciated being there to headline.

The worst : Filter . The kid on drums was great, but it was a boring set they seemed tired of playing.

[daveg]

Saw a lot of great shows
Zac Brown Band
Joss Ross
Nickelback
Offspring
High Valley
Texas Kings
Headstones
Sacha x2
Big Wreck
Sebastian Bach


Best (and most surprising) was probably Men without Hats. Part of an 80's package tour with Honeymoon Suite/Spoons/ Flock of Seaguls

They played 5 songs. Opened with Safety Dance, and closed with a sped up version. Singer is pushing 70 and runs around like a 19 year old, and has a shit ton of charisma. Maybe cause it was unexpected, but was a ton of fun, and got a massive reaction from the about 10k that showed up.

Worst was Flock of Seaguls from same show. Played 6 songs. 4 of which were new/unreleased.....one long keyboard solo and a very strange version of I Ran. Completely missing the point of this tour.

[GoodJudge]

Saw Sisters of Mercy in 2023 - bucket list band.

Came back in 2024 and I didn't go even though my buddy would have let me in for free.

They weren't the worst band I've seen, but they were close! No bassist, no drummer, and the 20-something guitarist does most of the singing.

If you're surprised by no drummer, you obviously don't know much about the Sisters.

I don't have any more gigs planned, so I can say the best opening band of the 20ish gigs I went to this year was Yur Mum, https://yurmum.bandcamp.com/.and the best headliner was Feuerschwanz https://feuerschwanz.de/videos/. Got the first 3 shows scheduled for next year, starting in Feb.

[HueyRamone]

Apart from shows I played on, I only saw the below:


Best:
KK's Priest - Oct 4 - Fox theater - Riverside -Great seeing him in a big venue with the screens and fog and banners. Cool deep cuts and Ripper sounded great. KK looked weary, but I think it was the last night of the tour

Worst:
Accept - Oct 4 - Fox theater - Riverside - The new singer doesnt sound lie Udo, and Im not even a fan of how Udo sounds. Made Balls to the Wall sound meh. I didnt recognise anything else. Nothing about it was interesting and I was surprised a contingent of fans left after Accept and before KK.

[Hellsinkey]

Best were Pulp, The Darkness and Journey.

[Lobo]

Best:
Dead & Company - 3 show run at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
Till Lindemann - His solo shows are similar to a Rammstein show but without the pyro. Lots of props and a big screen behind the band showing all kinds of X-rated content.

Worst: None, I enjoyed everything I went to this year.

[d2drums]

.

[LAglamrocker]

Best
Paula Abdul at Forum
Paula Abdul outside in the sun in San Diego
Saw something at Redwood Bar last week seemed like a dude died crawling near the stage. I just sat back and watched in my chair

Worst
Cody Rhodes entrance in San Diego..I left for that part

[pieceofme]

Best
Paula Abdul at Forum
Paula Abdul outside in the sun in San Diego
Saw something at Redwood Bar last week seemed like a dude died crawling near the stage. I just sat back and watched in my chair

Worst
Cody Rhodes entrance in San Diego..I left for that part

Not Cindi Lauper she bop!