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Gigs You Regret Attending.

Nero said:
Black Sabbath Ipswich Gaumont early 70's. Tony Iommi was on a mission to destroy everyone's hearing, and I had to leave less than halfway through. That was before I had heard of temporary threshold shift. I seriously thought I'd gone deaf.
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That's the main thing that spoils a lot of gigs and I'm at the age where I won't put up with it any more. I went to see Mammoth Penguin at The Tin, Coventry, 24th May 2019. The support act were fVckin' awful and at one point, the vocalist gesticulated to the mixing guy to turn up the volume. We were hit by a veritable crescendo of sound that almost knocked us off of our feet. I decided to retire to the bar, but the problem was that the venue is so small, that you couldn't escape the noise. So I left and walked up the canal path for a bit and returned to watch Mammoth Penguin, who were great! I felt sorry for the bar staff and the person selling tickets; there ought to be a law against that level of sound - oh, there is!

The other one I remember is the Field Festival in Victoria Park, London a few years ago. One of the bands that I was looking forward to seeing was American electric folk band Dark Dark Dark, but the sound level was ridiculously high. I had Music Safe ear defenders in & I tried moving further away, but it was no use, so I went to see another band instead. I can't imagine what the guy at the mixing desk was thinking of and I don't know why a band member didn't ask him to re-set the sound level.

It was a similar experience when I went to see Bjork at the Eden Project , though that was my fault to a degree for sitting too close to the front. Not only was it too loud, but we were crushed by the incessant rush for the beer tent- poor choice of position - I wondered why nobody was sitting there!
 
Little Dragon at Mcr Uni MDH. Too loud and couldn't hear the vocal. Left after half an hour.

Festival No 6 when their flood plain situated car park went under water. Waited 10 hours to be towed off by a farmer's tractor.
 
Paul Jones Blues Band in Perth a few years ago. I had seen him with Manfred Mann and was curious. Within seconds I was in trouble - it was too LOUD, especially the bass, something I detest. I managed to last 'till half time and fled the theatre cursing.
 
Brown Bottle said:
My teens up to late twenties were my football years, went to every Middlesbrough home game and many away for 11 years, didn't have much time for gigs.

Cheers BB
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Middlesborough? You must have some real tales of misery. You should start a thread.
 
Ravi Shankar in Bristol Uni. Sat by a side monitor-thinking "My Klipschorns are better than this"!
 
Having watched the brilliant Television I stayed in the bar to watch Patti Smith. Should have left. I saw Iggy Pop at Reading who was also awful'. They two left field giants were dreadful. And Genesis on the Duke tour.
 
Wyclef Jean at the Victoria Park Reggae Sunsplash, 1999. When my sister, a couple of our common aquaintance and I decided to attend a huge all-star reggae festival in Hackney, we knew nothing of the gun fuelled turf war raging through the London Reggae scene at the time. And we remained ignorant throughout the day, which was ****ing great, until about 20 minutes into Wyclef Jeans set when what sounded like a gunshot near the front set the entire audience in to a panicked rush for the exits, stampeding straight over where we sitting. I lost my sister and our friends. Fortunately, they lived in nearby Homerton where we regrouped and we escaped unharmed with all our belongings, but it was bloody terrifying to be caught in a stampede of 1000's of people.

I have left a few gigs early. Barry Adamson at the RFH in 2011 (he was affecting some pretty lame lounge act stuff that was, frankly, just a bit rubbish) and Tame Impala at Brixton Academy (did absolutely nothing for me) the same year. Primal Scream at Brixton Academy in 2006 (ugly, ugly crowd, just wanted out), too.

The one time I saw John Martyn, at the Fleadh in 2001(?) was ruined by too much bass in the mix.

The only gig I've seen which hurt my ears was Motorhead at the BIC in 2012, but that's what earplugs are for. Always carry them uf you think it's going to get noisy.
 
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Einaudi at Manchester Bridgewater Hall.
I have no doubt he is a gifted musician but god it was boring!

A few years ago we went to a performance of Samuel West reading poetry by Auden interspersed by a jazz combo playing appropriate pieces in Oxford.
At the interval my Mrs asked me if I thought it was worth risking missing the last bus for.
I replied it wasn’t worth risking missing the next bus for, and we left.
 
molee said:
Middlesborough? You must have some real tales of misery. You should start a thread.[/Q

I absolutely loved it, unless you support one of the top 6 you pretty much know the lows are going to out weigh the highs before you start. It makes the highs very sweet. If I didn't live 300 miles away I'd still be there.

Cheers BB
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Ocean Colour Scene - Munich 2000

Deafening. We retired to the back of the crowd. Still deafening.

My wife was pregnant and wasn't amused. We left the venue and listened from outside.

Why do they do this?
 
Blimey, this has dredged up some memories. These were in Liverpool - The Smiths at the uni , went out of curiosity, didn’t like them then , still don’t. The Pierces at the uni, soft/folky rock , heard a song on the web and thought I’ll give it a go, walked out after 3 songs.
The Empire theatre, Sade, couldn’t carry a note in a bucket, Chris Rea, every song went on for 10 minutes with an interminable guitar solo in the middle.Van Morrison, like listening to big band jazz. Seen him since and enjoyed it but wouldn’t go again.
The Philharmonic, The Blue Nile, great gig but I wish I’d turned up on time !
Royal Court, A Flock of Seagulls, another one who couldn’t sing.
Bluecoat Chambers, Andy Sheppard, toot toot, parp parp didn’t play a tune all night. I saw him in London a few years later he played a Latin/African influenced set which was great.
Echo Arena, Bob Dylan , never a big fan but went because it was him , garbage. Crowded House , free ticket, just about stayed awake.
The Warehouse, The Fall, if John Peel likes them...... no.
Ellesmere Port Town Hall , Paul Jones and The Blues Band, like watching paint dry.
N.E.C.,Neil Young and Crazy Horse just a wall of noise, saw him Liverpool 2014 he was great.
Wrexham F.E college, “top blues guitarist “ Eric Sardinas, I fell asleep ( I’d had a few).
@billo I was at that Ted Nugent gig , early 1978 at The Empire.
 
Good thread.

Cabaret Voltaire at Rock City, Nottm. sometime around 1983. boring, when I expected Nag, Nag, Nag type stuff.

DJ Shadow, Rock City. We went to dance. It was a flat, boring set.

Amy Winehouse, 2004 'Frank' tour. We loved the album, but she was a mess, swearing at the audience. Shit gig.
 
foxwelljsly said:
Tame Impala at Brixton Academy (did absolutely nothing for me) the same year.
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Yup, done the Tame Impala two-step, toute suite shuffle myself-utter drivel. A bit surprised to be doing the same for Temples, their Sun Structures album gave the potential for a great gig but it was like watching a bunch of cardboard cutouts. Maybe it was really because I got the bum's rush when I tried to chat up one of the band members' mums........
 
Belle and Sebastian in the Queen's University Students Union sometime around 2005. They were just plain rubbish. However - their support act, The Frames, were phenomenal! The first half of the gig was one of the absolute best gigs we ever went to!
 
zygote23 said:
Ahah I saw him with a pile of new young jazz musicians.....what started off as not a bad gig ended with me thinking I had been taken prisoner in some Jazz hell for hours!
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I went to see Genesis at Wembley in the mid 80’s, I didn’t want to go and neither did one of my mates but we had been coerced by a mad Genesis acquaintance who said it would be good. We didn’t relish going come the day and went to some godawful pub in Wembley for a few beers, realised the concert was about to start, drunkenly pushed our way to the front listened to five songs and decided that the god awful pub was better and left.
 
Mick Taylor at the Royal Festival Hall fifteen or so years ago. Put his guitar down mid-song and just walked off-stage. Fortunately the rest of the band, which included Terry Reid and Mitch Mitchell, were more professional, and they managed to play a few unplanned numbers until Taylor could be convinced to return.
Tosser.

Mick
 
2009-ish, Gary Moore at the Ipswich Regent. He was just going through the motions, and the sound through one of the speakers was terribly distorted. Disappointing and sad.

Elton John at Portman Road. Got there early, stood in a very long queue to get in, then turned back at the turnstiles because apparently we were in the wrong queue... A hot day, & we were sat high up in those awful, tiny plastic seats.

As the place gradually filled up, it appeared that, thankfully, the seat next to me would be unoccupied. Then, at the bottom of the stairs, there appeared a solitary man-mountain. With a terrible inevitability, he struggled up the stairs and somehow wiggled his massive bulk into the seat next to me. Turned out he was a really nice fella, and kept apologising for the obvious distress he was causing me. The concert itself was superb -we were particularly impressed when the band went off for a half-time break but Mr John continued to play the piano; his fingers must have been almost falling off at the end.
 
Me and my mate Ian were having a pee in Sheffield City Hall toilets at some gig a good few years ago when I asked him "Who were those useless twats who tried to sound like Rush last year?'
The lad next to me answered ' Primus - ****ing awful'...... ..he was right. So yeah - Primus.
 
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