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Biggest Gig letdown?

Thought of an interesting topic for a change...whats your biggest gig letdown ever? mine was neil young last year at hammersmith apollo. paid over a hundred quid for me and my girlfriend to see him. first of all thats a lot of money. second the venue only lets people go to the toilet between songs, so every time a song finished you get tons of people running around, and then whenever someone tries to piss in the middle of a song they have to argue with the people at the toilet door about a metre away from me. third neil decides to play his entire new concept album all the way through, with 10 minute sections between each song telling us about what its about. fourth, the album is shit. the most boring predictable and unimaginative shite he ever made. fifth we have to leave just as he starts playing old material in the encore, missing heart of gold...sixth the tube is late and we miss the 11:15 train back to southampton. seventh the next train is at 1am, meaning we have to wait 3 hours at waterloo in the cold. eigth the 1am train stops at woking and we have to get a bus back to southampton. 9th we get in at 4am and i have an exam at 9am in the morning.

yes. annoying. luckily tom waits bought back my faith in paying lots of money to see old musicians live.

anyone else?

Jamie
Jamie_Summers | 24 Mar '05, 22:13 | Send note | Report this | Reply


  • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

    Shit man that's a real bad one!
    Beastie Boys touring Ill Communication was a let down - saw them at Brixton Academy....the hip hop stuff was rubbish....just 3 goons shouting indeciferable crap over bad booming beats...not impressed.
    Kleeb | 24 Mar '05, 22:16 | Reply

    • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

      I saw the Beastie boys in dublin on that tour and they were great.They must have pissed it up in ireland the night before or something.
      johnnyb | 25 Mar '05, 01:49 | Reply

  • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

    worst that comes to mind immediately was Queens of the Stoneage at brixton, with Sparta is support.

    it was the third time id seen them, and thought paying £20 would be fair, as theyd been incredible before, but it was just really a bit dull. i went in wishing theyd play autoplot and left wishing they hadnt, cos they just bludgeoned the shit out of it.
    and sparta were like u2 or some crap.
    alcxxk | 24 Mar '05, 22:17 | Reply

  • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

    Avril lavigne....


    No really Secret Machines, they were brilliant but the crowd sucked
    Brand_New_Hero | 24 Mar '05, 22:17 | Reply

    • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

      system of a down a few years ago with dillinger supporting. dillinger were really good but system well, just sucked
      less_than_zero | 24 Mar '05, 22:21 | Reply

      • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

        Pink Grease at Reading. I was really looking forward to some filthy low-down punk rock action. But they FUCKING SUCKED. Wanky yelping from the singer, awful, awful saxophone playing and in general the shittiest (and collectively, ugliest) band of the festival. Just beating the Kaisers.

        I walked out after three songs.

        A bit like when Sean saw The $hit at Truck and thought we were talking about him.
        John_Brainlove | 24 Mar '05, 22:23 | Reply

        • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

          razorlight last week. they cancelled it and then did it last sunday. but i missed most of it cos we were on the very front row standing up and my friend had a really bad asthma attack half way. but can you imagine trying to leave the front row like that for an emergency? bloody awful. people were getting a really nasty cos they didn't know shed had an ashma attack did they they just thought i was trying to push to the front. lucky for them funny men at the front who hand out water they took her off. but i was left to struggle through the crowd.
          scarlettskye | 24 Mar '05, 22:30 | Reply

    • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

      Hmmm...Isis at the Mean Fiddler a couple of years ago springs to mind - not because of how they played (the actual set was God-like genius) but they were forced to cut short their set because of the shitty curfew.

      Similarly, when I saw EITS at the Zodiac Munaf's effects board kept on fucking up and it completely ruined Greet Death, although I saw them a couple of months before that at the ICA and I was in tears.

      Hmmm...thinking back, I've been really lucky with gigs. There's not a show that immediately springs to mind as having being a crushing disappointment. Bikini Atoll were a bit shit live in comparison to the album but they were only supporting EITS.
      loveless | 24 Mar '05, 22:28 | Reply

      • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

        When you say you were in tears, you mean it was a good thing?
        John_Brainlove | 25 Mar '05, 19:32 | Reply

  • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

    went to see idlewild touring their second album. it meant staying in a hotel overnight in newport and i scived the day off school to travel down - so all was staring well.

    got to the venue and there was a leaking/gaping open roof so we had to wait for ages(bout an hour) in the cold outside while temporary repairs were done. when we finally got in they went ahead with the two supports so idlewild came on gone 11. in the interim i decided to have 'a few' drinks and got so wasted that i can't remember a damn thing about the set - other than that i think i was calling for a song to be played after they had just finished it *blushes at distant memory*. also i do remember speaking to the band afterwards and getting a flier signed by them - pretty decent of them considering the mess i was in. then when i got back to the hotel neither myself nor my two mates (in similar states) could open the hotel door - those bloody card things. eventually we did get in though and woke late the next day. i, like jamie, had an exam the next day - which was very fun given that i was late for it and still drunk. so a bad gig - but my own fault really
    silence-r | 24 Mar '05, 22:40 | Reply

    • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

      Oasis at Glastonbury last year. Wasn't expecting a blinder but what that sorry quintet churned out was pathetic. Cilla Black on vocals and Mr. Can't be Arsed on 'lead' guitar. Shite
      salad_fingers | 24 Mar '05, 23:05 | Reply

      • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

        Continuing the Oasis theme, I saw them at Newcastle Arena a couple of years back. I also went with pretty low expectations, only really went cos I'd never seen them before and I thought it would be a worthwhile experience. Was it fuck. Most boring gig of my life, sucked the life right of Definitely Maybe songs. They basically just stood there, static (except for Liam's occasional wandering off, sometimes mid-song), played about 12 songs then left. I won't be that stupid again...
        Browno | 24 Mar '05, 23:13 | Reply

        • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

          *life right OUT of
          Browno | 24 Mar '05, 23:14 | Reply

  • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

    first time i saw incubus ....leeds festival a few years ago
    they were just plain boring.
    unless thats cos they were following the excitement inducing punkage of NOFX.....nope, they were boring!

    also iv seen biffy clyro be less than magical before as well.

    cky were crap, but i was there for the support mainly
    soapy | 24 Mar '05, 23:10 | Reply

    • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

      Went to see Badly Drawn Boy a few years ago, he kept having pwdi's, and walking offstage, and stopping in the middle of songs to moan at the 'wanker' of a soundman cos he hadn't bothered to soundcheck.
      monpot | 24 Mar '05, 23:20 | Reply

    • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

      incubus are indeed boring as hell, mostly because they tend to only play one song from SCIENCE, which is the only album they made that at least had some energy in it... oh and the brandon shirt taking off moment that occurs every single time they play is the most contrived backstreet boys style shit i've ever seen

      Jamie
      Jamie_Summers | 24 Mar '05, 23:59 | Reply

  • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

    probably the killers on the nme tour, they were good when i saw them supporting stellastarr* a year earlier b ut i thought they were crap on the nme tour like
    gazr1987 | 25 Mar '05, 11:56 | Reply

    • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

      Bob Dylan.

      He stood hunched over a keyboard looking ridiculously drunk. played loads of really obscure album tracks. Was as boring as hell. When he did play classic stuff it was in really awful pianoish arrangements. No organ in like a Rolling stone.

      it was crap!
      RockNRollMassacre | 25 Mar '05, 11:59 | Reply

      • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

        Radiohead toured with Kid A in a big marquee. I was about 3 miles back, didn't even know which fckn direction the stage was because the tent was so bizarrely shaped. Bored out my tts.

        Oasis at T a few years back sucked

        Oh I went to King Tuts one night to see a random band, as you do. It was Budapest, jesus they were awful. About 3/4 of the crowd left to go back down to the bar.
        johneeboy | 25 Mar '05, 12:25 | Reply

      • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

        Lou Reed looks like he would be a very bad gig these days. Just talks through old songs with no heart or interest.

        johneeboy | 25 Mar '05, 12:26 | Reply

        • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

          I went to the Kid A big top tour. You couldn't see the stage? You should have moved. It was brilliant from everywhere else.
          John_Brainlove | 25 Mar '05, 12:42 | Reply

          • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

            bloc party-whenever they decide to pleasure us with thier presence
            JonnieMakem | 25 Mar '05, 13:28 | Reply

            • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

              iggy pop at reading a few years back backed by an eighties metal band who put widdley solos in search and destroy. ...trail of dead the following year seemed to just be going through the motions.
              something_enigmatic | 25 Mar '05, 19:07 | Reply

              • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

                Cat Power at Edinburghs Liquid Rooms on April Fools day last year. Rambling unfocused space cadet tangents and a group of 'wimmin' in front of me who talked through the entire support then laughed at every single word CP said.

                Extreme Noise Terror in Glasgows King Tuts in '92. 25 minute sets from main acts don't quite cut it.
                cadd | 25 Mar '05, 19:35 | Reply

              • Re: Biggest Gig letdown?

                i thought trail of dead that year was the best i'd ever seen them, certainly far better than on the main stage a year or two before when they seemed very drunk and not so great.

                Jamie
                Jamie_Summers | 25 Mar '05, 19:47 | Reply