The Best Performance
 

What is the best performance you've ever witnessed? This could be in the arts, or sports, or anything. Have you witnessed someone or a group working at their peak? What, for you as the audience, made it so strong?

Nine Inch Nails, Merriweather Post Pavillion, 5/12/2000. I cried, I smiled, I was angry, I was happy. It was amazing.

tom petty, red rocks amphitheatre. the man is a god.

followed closely by fleetwood mac at uh... the old denver nuggets stadium. before they replaced it with the pepsi center. the venue sucked ass, but the band rocked the joint.

~james

Tom Petty, July 17, 2002, Nissan Pavillion. He *is* a god. It just wasn't quite as good as Nails. :) That was the second show of his I've been to, and it was better than the first. Man oh man. He is definitely timeless, as I've raved before. :)

Did he close with "Gloria"? :) I love that shit.

shit i cant remember what he closed with. he did 'dont come around here no more' with an extended intro during which the lights went down, tom comes on stage by himself, lit only by the moon and the glow of lighters from the audience. he creeps towards this chest center stage. he finally reaches it, opens it and light from within the chest spills out. he reaches in, and pulls out... a top hat...

completely bad-ass. if you ever have a chance to see a show at red rocks, do it. this is where u2 shot 'under a blood red sky', and i cant find a single decent picture of the place. i was about 10 rows up, just off-center to the left. its an open seating venue, so first-come-first-serve. we got there fairly early.

~james

excellent touch. The whole production of an arena scale show is pretty amazing. Its great when the big drama can be brought down to a simple, intimate gesture. That is bad ass.

I'd have to say one performance I saw that left me struck was an early show by kd lang. This was maybe 1985 or 86, she was full into the psycho cow punk thing- "Angel with a Lariat" and playing at First Avenue in Mpls, a mid to largish club. I really didnt know who she was, and then she started singing.She didnt need the mic. She just had some damn pipes. It was an amazing show and you just knew she was not coming back to this size venue. I remember she wore this country skirt with a plastic farm set sewn all over it- the animals, the fence sections, the silo. I thought that was a nice touch.

There is the strange vibe of the audience to add to the experience, too.

Chris Isaak. In a 300-person club, after his second album, before he got big at all. He's just a brilliant showman and funny as a stand-up comic.

EWF @ MLG

Sarah McLachlan and the Chieftains
Riverport Amphitheater, St. Louis
July 1995

At the time, I was a mild fan of both...two of my friends were going, the tix weren't too expensive, so I went as well. Fantastic show. Sarah would introduce her songs, many of them in the same way..."I wrote this about an ex-boyfriend of mine...man, he used to piss me off." It was just her and her piano, although the Chieftains would accompany her on some of her tunes. Beautiful.

The Chieftains came on and played most of the songs from The Long Black Veil, their release at the time. Although that album was made with a bunch of guest vocalists (Tom Jones, Sting, Van Morrison), the songs still sounded great. Sarah came on for a couple of the tunes, but the one I remember particularly was "The Foggy Dew" (which is performed on the album by Sinead O' Connor). A most excellent performance. At the end of the show, everyone was out of their seats, dancing like there was no tomorrow. I've seen a lot of great shows in my day, but this one was probably the best.

That sounds fantastic! I've never seen either live, but they both have blown me away via video. I remember watching (on TV) a hockey game where she sang "Oh Canada", brought my crusty old spouse to tears. No pyrotechniques and elaborate stylings, she just sang directly from the heart. Beautiful.

With hockey on my mind, I just thought of an amazing feat of performance, or performer. Sergei Fedorov. I have been hypnotized watching him skate when the Wings come to play the Wild. He is so strong and graceful, it looks so effortless. He takes offensive chances, get caught, and somehow manages to fly back to defend. He's got that low stance. (parden me while I get a cool drink!) Whew. yes I am a girl.

My first would be Counting Crows at the Greek Theater in Hollywood, followed closely by the little indie show I saw last weekend with Her Space Holiday and Azure Ray headlining.

Gonna have to go with Paul Simon and Ladysmith B M at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. He managed to keep three generations of fans happy, no small task. Rhythm of the Saints Tour.

I saw Cherish the Lady with Seamus Egan (of Solas) in Binghamton that guy wins in pure musicianship.

Just bought my tickets. Erwin Center, arena section 39, row 13. I'm not telling you what seat, just in case you go.
He'd better wear the damn hat!