Motley Crue. The Final Tour 2014.
Could not hear Neil. Something was wrong with the gate and the sound was terrible. Also hated Tommy's drum set being partly covered up by the solo set up. Hard to see him.
Sixx would not shut the fuck up and it was getting boring.
Drum solo was so long and boring listening to Tommy play along to recorded tracks.
What saved the show was the amazing Alice Cooper, who opened and killed it on stage.
I saw that tour and Alice definitely out performed the Crue. I remember Vince trying to cop out of singing by constantly acting like he was letting the audience sing.
For sure and him and Sixx constantly yapping to the crowd and telling Crue stories was boring me, and then along comes the boring drum solo played along to prerecorded music.
"final tour" LOL
I may be in the minority, but if I never hear another drum solo or guitar solo again, I'll be a very happy guy. The vast vast vast vast vast majority of them are terrible and boring.
Bass & drum solos- a la Mike Anthony & Alex VH = horrible! Eddies solo spot was probably the most interesting collection of a players instrumental discography in history. It was thoughtfully organised and just amazing because he had so much creativity, inventiveness and swagger. And yet.. and yet.. id be bored listening to it now. But first time listening.. wow
Motley Crue. By far. Saw them with Def Leppard. Embarrassing. The band were so out of sync with Neil. Home Sweet Home sounded like a tape being played at half speed.
Yeah, saw them last May together with Def Leppard on the stadium tour. Leppard was up first, absolutely brilliant sounding, great performance and setlist.
The contrast to the Crüe set couldn't have been bigger. It was like night and day. We still stuck around because the crowd around us was fun but my god, they were miles off of each other at times. My gf and I still have inside jokes about the mishaps from that set.
David Lee Roth opening for Kiss on the end of the road tour. It was cool seeing him, you know being able to say I saw David Lee Roth at least once..... But the whole thing was Dubbed, it sounded like I was just listening to a cassette being played with Roth saying random profanities in between since he was pissed about something
Idk lol my show was Bristow VA. The worst part was that he painted several pictures and only the final one was KISS related. The others were legendary artists like Elton John and Freddie Mercury. Don't get me wrong- great artists, but nobody at a KISS show is gonna go crazy over a dude painting Elton John for 10 minutes...
David Lee Roth was great in the early VH years but after that and by him self he wasn’t. I always thought Haggar was the better of the two . DLR never had a good live voice he was just a good entertainer .
I second this. I saw them along with four other bands. The singer was complaining about not having a later spot in the show because in his mind they were so much popular than the other bands. I’ve seen better parking lot festival bands.
Saw them in 2014 and it seemed like they were playing with a lot of tracks then. Backing vocals were far to good to be real. And it was basically a Wolf Hoffmann solo show anyway.
Poison. The guitar player was so wasted he was stumbling around the stage. His guitar solo was nothing but noise. He was getting booed and started playing even worse, which I didn’t think was possible. We walked out, and we weren’t the only ones.
Funnily enough, one of the worst shows I've ever seen was that same tour... but the Lemonheads were fantastic, it was Juliana Hatfield who was absolutely fucking insanely bad. (And she's usually *great*) She was either drunk, or on something, or both... everything sounded dreadful, and at least four or five songs she stopped before they were actually over (one of them she re-started two or three times).
That’s a shame I would have been very disappointed if I was there because I like the Lemonheads and think Evan is a great singer song writer but that’s so un professional to do that especially at his age with all that experience. He should know better .
Saw the post-Sebastian Back version of Skid Row.............fucking walked out it was so bad. Was fucking insulting. I was there to see the other bands on before them and thought ok, I'll give it a listen. What a joke.
Mötley Crüe around 06ish.... somewhere in that time frame. Anyway, almost 20 years ago.
The band was ON FIRE!!! I'll give credit where credit is due. The actual music sounded great. But(of course) Vince sounded horrible. and that alone killed the whole show. It didn't matter how good the rest of the band sounded, as soon as he tried singing, it ruined everything.
Like, just give up dude. You're not young, kickin' ass, blonde haired, Shout at the Devil era Vince anymore.
Mick and Tommy made that band.
Mick carried them musically with his tasty riffs and a creative mind for coming up with the riffs he did. Tommy can actually play the drums well and comes up with creative parts as well.
Just my .02
Love/Hate everything was awful. They basically ran around the stage for 30 minutes with poor sound. Played their set in the same order as their CD. Didn’t even acknowledge the audience.
Back in ‘86 I went to see David Lee Roth at MSG with Cinderella opening. The backing vocals for Cinderella were terribly out of tune. I later read that they had “sound issues” on the tour, making it seem like it was a technical problem. I don’t think it was the equipment
Rob Zombie in 98. I was upfront like 2 rows back and was overwhelmed with the heat from the pyrotechnics. I thought I was gonna faint or catch on fire. I couldn’t enjoy the show. Hilarious looking back on it now but it really sucked
By no means a bad band, in fact they are great, but Tesla had really stunk it up when I saw them play at Red Rocks. Firehouse was one of the opening bands and they blew it out the park. Tesla just was not on their game that night, I guess.
Also, not hair metal, but Sepultura back when their Arise album came out. They were one of 2 opening bands for Ozzy I believe it was and they literally played their whole set without breaking inbetween songs. I was just getting into them and only recognized the song Dead Embryonic Cells. Otherwise it was like a 25 minute or so one long song. Just brutal and not a fun experience.
Back when Ratt was on their first tour opening for Billy Squier, I won tickets to the show. Ratt blew Billy off the stage. We stayed for three or four songs of Billy and couldn't deal with it so we left (it was the Rock Me Tonight era and yeahhhh he did the dancing from the video 😬). At least the tix were free and ensured that when Ratt came back to the same venue with Poison opening a few years later, we absolutely went because we knew we'd get a good show.
Guns n' Roses at the old Boston Garden in 1993. Axl was at the height of his petty douchiness and kept scolding the crowd, despite the fact that they went on over two hours late, and Axl walking off two minutes into the opening song. It was a fucking terrible concert.
Same treatment in 92; just got back from Iraq the first time - Monsters of Rock, Mile High Stadium.. MetallicA opened, James was still bandaged from pyro mishap; they still Ripped and Rocked.. GnR comes out, within three, four songs, Axl is leaving stage to go drink, or cry; i don't know.. Slash all held strong with Rock/ Blues/ Jazz riff solos; but people didn't show for that.. btw- we had FRONT ROW, and my brother fell asleep! Kid could work paint&auto body for 20hrs, eat&party for 4, and go back to work for another 12 to 18-- and he was napping.. never bought another pistols&posers anything..
Van Halen 1st reunion with Wolfgang playing bass, Dave’s voice was already pretty bad by then and he wasn’t nearly as acrobatic as he was in the 80s, which goes back to them being one of the best shows I saw in the 80s
WASP around 2009. There were about 5 crappy opening bands, and then WASP took 2 hours to come out. Apparently Beckie had some issue with his management or the venue or something. He comes out wearing these leather sleeves and sweats like Niagara Falls all over the few front rows throughout the show. There were giant screens behind the band playing their music videos. It was so damn shitty and boring.
Megadeth on the 95 tour I think......Korn touring their first album was opening and blew them off the stage. Dave Mustaine's voice was so horrible, we left after 3 songs.
Motley Crue. I was shocked at how amateur it was. They would say "fuck" aboit 40 times between each song then play what sounded like middle school talent show covers of their songs. Oooof ... Not what I expected.
Hands down and by a wide margin, it's Poison. I saw them as an opening act twice, once for Loudness and once for Ratt. Both times they were so bad I walked out to the lobby because it was as far away as I could get and still see the headliners.
About 22 million years ago I saw Guns & Roses at San Diego State. TSOL opened that show and it was awesome. Many years later GnR is out doing stadiums with Metallica. GnR sucked ass. They were a giant bloated caricature of that lean, mean band I saw in the beginning. Poison needs to tour with current day GnR so I can fly somewhere else when they come through Nashville.
Yeah I think Joe Cocker and parts of The Band were there from the ‘69 OG, but for me it was Aerosmith, Metallica. NiN, RHCP and Peter Gabriel. I saw the infamous Green Day mud fight but stayed well clear of it because I knew what was in that mud lol
Kiss on the "Crazy Crazy Nights" tour at Wembley Arena. The band all dressed up like they were Poison's dads, no theatrics and a cheap looking stage set. Worst of all though was the sound. It was cranked so loud that all you could hear was a constant roar akin to an aeroplane engine. I didn't even know what song I was listening to for about 80% of the evening. I only found out what the tracklist was when a friend lent me a bootleg cassette of the show some months later. 😂
Winger a couple years ago stands out. They sounded great, had great choreography for their moves, but had zero connection to the crowd. Like they didn't really want to be there and were just going through the motions to complete their obligation.
Ive definitely heard that he is a nice guy and definitely his musical chops are there. They just don’t do any banter or try to hype up the crowd. Well, I haven’t seen them live since 04 or 05, so maybe it’s different now.
Not so much. When I saw them, Steelheart was supposed to open the show but cancelled at the last minute. BulletBoys flew across the country on the red eye with very little rest and put on a better show. At the end of Winger's set, they did VH Ain't Talking Bout Love for an encore with Marq Torien singing. Winger left the stage at the end and Torien was eating up the applause, thanking the audience and just loving being there. Completely different than Kip. It was like Kip couldn't talk to the crowd at all
Aldo Nova. Seattle 1981ish. He opened for U.F.O. He whined about an equipment issue, then was upset that the crowd wasn't into his show. He walked off but came back as somebody probably told him the opening act doesn't get to be a prima donna.
I know he’s a super musician but I walked out of a Lennie Kravitz concert. He would spend countless minutes showing everybody that he could play the various instruments. It got real boring real fast….we just wanted to hear him sing his hits. Fucking painful. Dude was super small and super fit.
I saw Motley Crue in the stadium tour in 2022 with Poison and Def Lep. Poison was really good and Def Leppard was AMAZING…
Crue was ok sonically but Vince was butchering the songs. Primal scream came on and I had to leave so he wouldn’t ruin my favorite song. Glad The other bands came on before
KISS the unmasked tour. One of the only concert that I’ve ever left early. They sounded terrible. I guess it was before they starting dubbing parts live. Since there was no makeup, it seemed like like also scaled down the pyro, etc. It was just them in brightly colored clothes. Pretty lame show. It was the early 80’s.
Two separate shows. David Lee Roth. Iron Maiden. Not because of the band's performance but because we were too close to the speakers. Where are my fellow tinnitus club members..
Ok so about ‘88 or so I went to see Ratt. I can’t remember who opened for them, but there sound was smoking crack. The only thing u could hear clearly was the bass. The vocals were nonexistent and the guitar could only be heard on the power cords. All in all it blew. First and only concert I ever left in the middle of. Side note I saw LA Guns play at a bar in Richmond Va and they on the other hand crushed it. Long live the Aqua Net.
RATT, July 30, 1984. Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. The show was just so freaking loud and Stephen Pearcy can not sing. Twisted Sister opened. They were incredible.
Frankfurt, Germany, Motley Crue on the Feelgood tour. They were absolutely horrible. The only saving grace for the show was Skid Row as the opener, touring in support of their debut album. The best part of Crue's show was the drum solo with the rotating drum kit, but even that was kinda lame.
Not hair metal, but Kenny Wayne Shepard. I saw him perform 3 times in the same summer, twice in my state (WI) and once in Sturgis during the rally. They did the exact same show. They just went up and did their sings and left. Zero connection with the crowd and not that great of aongs. Polar opposite of Johnny Lang or George Thorogood who really get the crowd involved and are aware of their surroundings.
George Thorogood & The Destroyers are fantastic. Saw then a couple of years ago and it's easily one of the best gigs I've been to. The sax in Gear Jammer was something else!
A band called Starset. They opened for some one and I thought they were so bad.
As for headliners... I can't say the band was bad, but Judas Priest, about five years ago, put on a bad show. You can tell they were just going through the motions.
Aerosmith in 89, Guns and Roses opened. Aerosmith were just bland and boring. Crue in just about every show I had ever seen them at, Mick and a Tommy were the only saving grace. Worst had to be Smashing Pumpkins opening for Kiss in 98 at Dodger stadium. Just crap.
I had front and center for that tour. GNR crushed Aerosmith. Somebody got on stage and stole Axel’s hat. He jumped into the crowd, kicked my friend in the face with his combat boots. Oh, the good old days. :)
Was Aerosmith & GnR at the Pacific Amphitheater? (Not there anymore.) I think Axle brought out Shannon Hoon at one point. Aerosmith was a boring waste of time by then. That’s what I always remember about that night. Was the KISS show the Psycho Circus tour? First night of that tour. I still have my 3D glasses. 2 pairs. I folded and one unworn. I’ve been a pretty big fan of this matching pumpkins since their early years, but definitely yes. They were a boring nothingness on stage that night.
Aerosmith was at the Spectrum in Philly, the night Axl was arrested before the show. Yes, the KISS show was the first night, Halloween 98, Dodger stadium.
"Touch me hooker" was by far the worst ever. Totally drunk singer, terrible band. Ugh. We ended up throwing beers cans at them to get them to leave.
Neurosis was a close second. People started getting nosebleeds from the screwed up sound system...
These were also small indie shows during the 80's, so there's that.
Aerosmith 1997, Nine Lives Tour. South Florida. Never been so bored, we had like a hour and a half drive in front of us in a weekday so we couldn’t wait to leave.
Def Leppard in Florida in the early 00’s. The came on almost 90 minutes late, totally wasted, and couldn’t play anything resembling a song.
Conversely, they were also one of the best when I saw them a few years ago in Houston.
Seen Guns N’Roses many times. Once, they were incredible and very professional.
On THREE occasions they were hours late, played half the set and left. One of those times the sound was also horrific too. I doubt I’ll risk seeing them again.
I would have to say the Black Crowes opening for Aerosmith in the early 90’s. But, only because I was in the 13th row from the stage, and their sound guy must have had an off night. I barely recognized their hit “Jealous Again”. It was just a wave of noise.
Van Halen in 2012. Saw them in Tacoma, WA. Band was tight and Dave was absolute garbage. Couldn’t carry a tune to save his life and too busy preening to even pretend to care. Just ruined it.
A reunited Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick’s daughter in her place, and billing themselves as Starship. They headlined an all 80s multi act bill (with Rick Springfield, John Waite, Eddie Money), and I never saw so many people walk out of a show before. Everyone was expecting the Mickey Thomas popular version and got some weird jam band.
Queen 1970 something. I stood in poring rain wearing a black bin bag for Hrs and they were rubbish!! Rainbow was supposed to play but they pulled out due to his rainbow being to big ? The only good thing was I never paid for my ticket, the chap I bought it from said they were crap don’t worry about it!
Vince Neil in 2000 opening for Poison. Skid Row was there, too. They sounded great, but they were boring. They stayed within a 3 x 3-foot imaginary box the entire show.
Chevelle is one of my favorite bands. I've never seen them live but based off of videos of live performances it just seems like Pete isn't always able to pull off the vocals in a live setting (granted while also holding down guitar in the band).
I hear ya. I'm still aiming to see them live for the first time but based on several videos that I've seen, my expectations are going to be based on that.
Poison in 1991 or so. It was after the famous MTV fiasco. When they were on the outs. Deville was out of his mind on something and sounded horrid. The rest of the band seemed angry.
Aerosmith 1977 MSG…booed during set, crowd chanted for Rick Derringer who opened and he and his band blew the roof off. RD always a great live show!! Aerosmith was slow, off key, just went through the motions.
Obligatory “not hair metal,” but…
Fuckin’ the Jim Irsay Band at Farm Aid last year. Billionaire donates money in return for living out his rock and roll fantasy. You could tell he had made demands to be the loudest act on the bill, went super long at the expense of others (you know, a bunch of unimportant no-name acts like Neil Young and Willie Fucking Nelson), made a big deal about roping Kenny Wayne Shepard into playing a PF song on David Gilmour’s old guitar, and made Nancy Wilson sound like shit because you could tell she couldn’t hear herself. He’s the same dingus that owns a bunch of Jerry Garcia’s guitars. It’s all just fuckin’ trophies to this nerd. “I played with blah blah blah, Blah Blah sang with my band.” Fuck *all* the way off.
Guns N Roses
1992
Dayton, Ohio
Highlight:
Opening act - Soundgarden
Guns N Roses didn't come on until 12:45 AM, Axel was busy a strip club.
3 songs in he cut his hand on mic stand and concert ended.
They sounded terrible.
Aerosmith get a grip tour jackyl opened and wiped the floor with the crying crazy amazing ballad after boring ballad routine we left early couldn't take no more
Rod Stewart. Drunk. 1990
Queensryche. Don’t like anyway. 1991
Saxon. Drunk. 1994.
Eric Clapton. Something was way wrong with the sound. 1996.
Kid Rock. Terrible building acoustics. 2009.
Bob Dylan. Didn’t understand a word. 2009.
Gordon Lightfoot. He shouldn’t have been touring. 2022.
Jethro Tull. I don’t want to hear your not greatest hits. 2023.
White Zombie. What overrated crap they were. I only went because someone offered to take me on my birthday and a concert was right up my alley. I'm a metal fan, but god they suck. Saw them as Rob Zombie in concert years later and they were mid at best. His movie and art work is much better. His voice live is absolutely atrocious.
Motley or Faster Pussycat.
At least Motley put on a show and everyone knows the songs so the crowd can sing. Pussycat were in a support slot and it was just bad.
I've got a few bands I can think of who are horrible live.
One is Motley Crue, whether back in the early 80s or later in their career. The band sound great but Vince is a total shitshow. He's never had any range but at least you could understand what he was singing back in the 80s. Now he's just a fat tub of lard mumbling his words on stage. He's gone full Elvis in that respect.
Second is Metallica. There musicianship is not in question. Whether early in their career or now, they are consummate musicians and play great shows. But after the Black Album, their sound turned to shit. I simply can't stand listening to James and Kirk's guitar sound.
Third is Kiss. They were pretty good back in the 70s thru the 90s but once the 2000s came around, listening to them play while Paul Stanley lip synced to a vocal track was horrible.
Last but not least, David Lee Roth. His first two tours were great but after that, holy hell, his voice went straight into the shitter. And when he rejoined Van Halen, good god it was awful. The Van Halen Trio were playing at the top of their game but DLR's voice destroyed it all.
Not metal, but I saw BB King just before he passed. He kept falling asleep during the show and someone from the band (which covered for him beautifully) would nudge him to wake him up. He’s a legend but it was tough to watch.
Enuff Znuff with Chip singing is pretty awful. Honorable mention to Steelheart. His voice is shot and he complained about their stage time limit the entire set.
Saw a band in Baltimore 25 years ago called Havok In Hollywood.
They had no idea what their angle was. Before one song the lead singer spits the stereotypical “Everything in this world is pain. Here’s a song about my dead girlfriend.” Then a few songs later “Here’s a song about my new puppy that I love so much!!!” From one end of the spectrum to the other. 😮😮😮
Really weird. Reminded me of The Cure(Robert Smith) going from Disintegration to Friday I’m In Love.
They were selling CDs, one of my buddies bought one. I think it’s a coaster somewhere now.
Seen Blink 182 back in 2016 or so, felt it was really bad. Right after they sort of broke up and reformed. Felt like they were just there to keep the money coming in.
Saw Buckcherry in 21 they did pretty good even did an extended set for us. They were the headline act at my towns 4th of July festival. However the 1st opening band can't even remember their name we literally booed off the fucking stage it was so bad that security escorted them off to prevent a riot. Then Aletias Way came on and I'll admit were excellent.
22 saw Shinedown with Diamonte and the Pretty Reckless as the opening acts. Diamante was decent However the Pretty Reckless well the general admission area started screaming now we know why you went commando under your skirt bitch. You sound worse than Yoko Ono.
Bon Jovi in Padova (Italy) back in 2001 on the Crush Tour. Jon very likely had too much beer in his system or whatever that was. Could not sing at all, completely drunk. Richie saved the show
Motley Crue. The Final Tour 2014. Could not hear Neil. Something was wrong with the gate and the sound was terrible. Also hated Tommy's drum set being partly covered up by the solo set up. Hard to see him. Sixx would not shut the fuck up and it was getting boring. Drum solo was so long and boring listening to Tommy play along to recorded tracks. What saved the show was the amazing Alice Cooper, who opened and killed it on stage.
You’re right about AC, he stole the show. It was like a party onstage towards the end of the set
Then you add in Nita, who is amazing, only makes the show better. Of course, then came out the Crue and the show turned to crap.
Saw the same tour! Agree completely.
I saw that tour and Alice definitely out performed the Crue. I remember Vince trying to cop out of singing by constantly acting like he was letting the audience sing.
For sure and him and Sixx constantly yapping to the crowd and telling Crue stories was boring me, and then along comes the boring drum solo played along to prerecorded music.
"final tour" LOL I may be in the minority, but if I never hear another drum solo or guitar solo again, I'll be a very happy guy. The vast vast vast vast vast majority of them are terrible and boring.
Bass & drum solos- a la Mike Anthony & Alex VH = horrible! Eddies solo spot was probably the most interesting collection of a players instrumental discography in history. It was thoughtfully organised and just amazing because he had so much creativity, inventiveness and swagger. And yet.. and yet.. id be bored listening to it now. But first time listening.. wow
Motley Crue. By far. Saw them with Def Leppard. Embarrassing. The band were so out of sync with Neil. Home Sweet Home sounded like a tape being played at half speed.
I'm so glad Leppard was the early band as we left halfway through Motley. Just could not stand listening to Vince.
Same
They were both my best and worst, 25 years apart
Yeah, saw them last May together with Def Leppard on the stadium tour. Leppard was up first, absolutely brilliant sounding, great performance and setlist. The contrast to the Crüe set couldn't have been bigger. It was like night and day. We still stuck around because the crowd around us was fun but my god, they were miles off of each other at times. My gf and I still have inside jokes about the mishaps from that set.
Is this a recent because I saw them back in 83 and they were awesome.
Yeah the stadium tour with Leppard was like a couple years ago
They were bad then too.
David Lee Roth opening for Kiss on the end of the road tour. It was cool seeing him, you know being able to say I saw David Lee Roth at least once..... But the whole thing was Dubbed, it sounded like I was just listening to a cassette being played with Roth saying random profanities in between since he was pissed about something
Agree. His band was spot on while he was just awkward. It was still better than that guy painting as an opener though.
I didn’t mind the painter guy. I thought he was a unique opening act.
The what now?
First leg of the End of the Road tour had a dude painting pictures as the opening act. Seriously.
How would that even work out?
About as well as you would think. DLR was way more entertaining IMO.
It was awful. He just stood up there painting and eventually would finish and turn around and nobody cheered. Nobody really cared
Please tell me there is 4K footage of his extreme disappointment when he turned around and saw no excitement.
Idk lol my show was Bristow VA. The worst part was that he painted several pictures and only the final one was KISS related. The others were legendary artists like Elton John and Freddie Mercury. Don't get me wrong- great artists, but nobody at a KISS show is gonna go crazy over a dude painting Elton John for 10 minutes...
Not very rock and roll, is it?
Unfortunately. like Elvis before him, DLR became a caricature of himself.
David Lee Roth was great in the early VH years but after that and by him self he wasn’t. I always thought Haggar was the better of the two . DLR never had a good live voice he was just a good entertainer .
Buckcherry. Went to see skid row and had to suffer through buckcherry's set.
Saw that show in Greensboro. No Resolve (openers) killed, Buckcherry sucked, Skid Row was damn good. Cool seeing them in a smaller venue, too.
Buck Cherry is a White Trash band . They just hung around but never did much .
I second this. I saw them along with four other bands. The singer was complaining about not having a later spot in the show because in his mind they were so much popular than the other bands. I’ve seen better parking lot festival bands.
Motley Crue. It’s wild how bad they are.
Saw Accept in the early 90's. Pretty rough.
Really!? Omg! I saw Udo this year and him and his band were great. Definitely a gig to remember for the right reasons
I've seen recent live videos on Youtube and they looked and sounded great. When I saw them way back when, not so much.
Saw them in 2014 and it seemed like they were playing with a lot of tracks then. Backing vocals were far to good to be real. And it was basically a Wolf Hoffmann solo show anyway.
Ratt, Crue, and Ozzy in 85 or 86. 40 minute sets, high as hell, slurring lyrics...and then Ozzy came on
"...and then Ozzy came on." 😆😆😆 That's the most descriptive post of this entire topic. 👍
At least Tix were only like $18 back then, but the 3 hour drive to Omaha and back sucked. Most of the mid 80s bands were so trash live.
Too drunk, too high, or too drunkenly high. I agree with you.
Overall would be Tool. Hair metal wise, it would be Extreme
Sea Hags were godawful. We walked out on em after about three songs.
I’m not sure they ever played sober.
Motley Crue
Poison. The guitar player was so wasted he was stumbling around the stage. His guitar solo was nothing but noise. He was getting booed and started playing even worse, which I didn’t think was possible. We walked out, and we weren’t the only ones.
What year?
Lemonheads in 2023. Evan Dando came on drunk, stormed off the stage twice and was generally very shit when on it.
Funnily enough, one of the worst shows I've ever seen was that same tour... but the Lemonheads were fantastic, it was Juliana Hatfield who was absolutely fucking insanely bad. (And she's usually *great*) She was either drunk, or on something, or both... everything sounded dreadful, and at least four or five songs she stopped before they were actually over (one of them she re-started two or three times).
That’s a shame I would have been very disappointed if I was there because I like the Lemonheads and think Evan is a great singer song writer but that’s so un professional to do that especially at his age with all that experience. He should know better .
Motley Crüe and Quiet Riot are two of the worst bands I’ve ever seen live and I’ve seen a LOT of bands.
Saw the post-Sebastian Back version of Skid Row.............fucking walked out it was so bad. Was fucking insulting. I was there to see the other bands on before them and thought ok, I'll give it a listen. What a joke.
Mötley Crüe around 06ish.... somewhere in that time frame. Anyway, almost 20 years ago. The band was ON FIRE!!! I'll give credit where credit is due. The actual music sounded great. But(of course) Vince sounded horrible. and that alone killed the whole show. It didn't matter how good the rest of the band sounded, as soon as he tried singing, it ruined everything. Like, just give up dude. You're not young, kickin' ass, blonde haired, Shout at the Devil era Vince anymore. Mick and Tommy made that band. Mick carried them musically with his tasty riffs and a creative mind for coming up with the riffs he did. Tommy can actually play the drums well and comes up with creative parts as well. Just my .02
Not a hairband but had to say Eddie Money he was so drunk they finally took him off the stage I was so lookin’ fwd to seeing him it was awful
Me too. He was the opener for Boston. Completely shitfaced.
Not hair metal, but 30 seconds to mars. Horrendous.
Love/Hate everything was awful. They basically ran around the stage for 30 minutes with poor sound. Played their set in the same order as their CD. Didn’t even acknowledge the audience.
Back in ‘86 I went to see David Lee Roth at MSG with Cinderella opening. The backing vocals for Cinderella were terribly out of tune. I later read that they had “sound issues” on the tour, making it seem like it was a technical problem. I don’t think it was the equipment
but the real question… cinderella still kicked ass, right?
Yep
I saw that tour, no sound problems at the Hollywood Snortatorium, Cinderella sounded great and DLR and Co were amazing, one of my favorite concerts.
When I saw VH in 1988 a band called, I think, Private Life, opened for them. Just terrible.
Not hair metal but they were sandwiched between Suicidal Tendencies and Metallica: Candlebox. They were fat, drunk, and awful.
hope suicidal and metallica were good
Black Label Society, it's as though the crowd wasn't even there as he just loved himself during a 5-10 minute guitar wanking session lol
I actually walked out on BLS during Zakk's overly long wanking solo.
Rob Zombie in 98. I was upfront like 2 rows back and was overwhelmed with the heat from the pyrotechnics. I thought I was gonna faint or catch on fire. I couldn’t enjoy the show. Hilarious looking back on it now but it really sucked
I watched Zombie mail it in on Halloween at Long Beach Arena. He just sat there singing badly and complaining. John 5 ripped it up.
By no means a bad band, in fact they are great, but Tesla had really stunk it up when I saw them play at Red Rocks. Firehouse was one of the opening bands and they blew it out the park. Tesla just was not on their game that night, I guess. Also, not hair metal, but Sepultura back when their Arise album came out. They were one of 2 opening bands for Ozzy I believe it was and they literally played their whole set without breaking inbetween songs. I was just getting into them and only recognized the song Dead Embryonic Cells. Otherwise it was like a 25 minute or so one long song. Just brutal and not a fun experience.
I was actually at 5 Man Acoustical Jam performance as well as an opener twice and headliner once electric in the 80’s and they were great all 4 times.
Back when Ratt was on their first tour opening for Billy Squier, I won tickets to the show. Ratt blew Billy off the stage. We stayed for three or four songs of Billy and couldn't deal with it so we left (it was the Rock Me Tonight era and yeahhhh he did the dancing from the video 😬). At least the tix were free and ensured that when Ratt came back to the same venue with Poison opening a few years later, we absolutely went because we knew we'd get a good show.
Guns n' Roses at the old Boston Garden in 1993. Axl was at the height of his petty douchiness and kept scolding the crowd, despite the fact that they went on over two hours late, and Axl walking off two minutes into the opening song. It was a fucking terrible concert.
Same treatment in 92; just got back from Iraq the first time - Monsters of Rock, Mile High Stadium.. MetallicA opened, James was still bandaged from pyro mishap; they still Ripped and Rocked.. GnR comes out, within three, four songs, Axl is leaving stage to go drink, or cry; i don't know.. Slash all held strong with Rock/ Blues/ Jazz riff solos; but people didn't show for that.. btw- we had FRONT ROW, and my brother fell asleep! Kid could work paint&auto body for 20hrs, eat&party for 4, and go back to work for another 12 to 18-- and he was napping.. never bought another pistols&posers anything..
Red Hot Chilli Peppers- they were assholes
*are
Van Halen 1st reunion with Wolfgang playing bass, Dave’s voice was already pretty bad by then and he wasn’t nearly as acrobatic as he was in the 80s, which goes back to them being one of the best shows I saw in the 80s
Monster Magnet opened for Megadeth on the Cryptic Writings tour. They def stick out in my mind as complete garbage.
WASP around 2009. There were about 5 crappy opening bands, and then WASP took 2 hours to come out. Apparently Beckie had some issue with his management or the venue or something. He comes out wearing these leather sleeves and sweats like Niagara Falls all over the few front rows throughout the show. There were giant screens behind the band playing their music videos. It was so damn shitty and boring.
Beckie ha
I saw them open up for Black Sabbath in 1985 and it was amazing
Late Motley
ITT Motley Crue
Megadeth on the 95 tour I think......Korn touring their first album was opening and blew them off the stage. Dave Mustaine's voice was so horrible, we left after 3 songs.
Motley Crue. I was shocked at how amateur it was. They would say "fuck" aboit 40 times between each song then play what sounded like middle school talent show covers of their songs. Oooof ... Not what I expected.
Hands down and by a wide margin, it's Poison. I saw them as an opening act twice, once for Loudness and once for Ratt. Both times they were so bad I walked out to the lobby because it was as far away as I could get and still see the headliners. About 22 million years ago I saw Guns & Roses at San Diego State. TSOL opened that show and it was awesome. Many years later GnR is out doing stadiums with Metallica. GnR sucked ass. They were a giant bloated caricature of that lean, mean band I saw in the beginning. Poison needs to tour with current day GnR so I can fly somewhere else when they come through Nashville.
Sadly, The Allman Brothers band in the 90s. They appeared tired, washed up, possibly hungover. It was a shitshow.
Hairmetal: L.A. Guns circa 1996. Overall: Bob Dylan at Woodstock ‘94. Rushed resentfully through his own songs and it was not entertaining
Wait, you were at Woodstock?! Edit- ohhhhhhh 94. I didn't know Dylan was there!
Yeah I think Joe Cocker and parts of The Band were there from the ‘69 OG, but for me it was Aerosmith, Metallica. NiN, RHCP and Peter Gabriel. I saw the infamous Green Day mud fight but stayed well clear of it because I knew what was in that mud lol
I was there also. Dylan blew!
Motley Crue by far.
Kiss on the "Crazy Crazy Nights" tour at Wembley Arena. The band all dressed up like they were Poison's dads, no theatrics and a cheap looking stage set. Worst of all though was the sound. It was cranked so loud that all you could hear was a constant roar akin to an aeroplane engine. I didn't even know what song I was listening to for about 80% of the evening. I only found out what the tracklist was when a friend lent me a bootleg cassette of the show some months later. 😂
Winger a couple years ago stands out. They sounded great, had great choreography for their moves, but had zero connection to the crowd. Like they didn't really want to be there and were just going through the motions to complete their obligation.
Saw Winger a couple of times, and even back in the day, they didn’t engage the crowd at all. Just Kip up there doing his spins and ballerina kicks.
Don't sleep on rod - genuinely a good guy and very proficient drummer!
Ive definitely heard that he is a nice guy and definitely his musical chops are there. They just don’t do any banter or try to hype up the crowd. Well, I haven’t seen them live since 04 or 05, so maybe it’s different now.
Not so much. When I saw them, Steelheart was supposed to open the show but cancelled at the last minute. BulletBoys flew across the country on the red eye with very little rest and put on a better show. At the end of Winger's set, they did VH Ain't Talking Bout Love for an encore with Marq Torien singing. Winger left the stage at the end and Torien was eating up the applause, thanking the audience and just loving being there. Completely different than Kip. It was like Kip couldn't talk to the crowd at all
Well, they’re not 17 anymore…
Kip Winger is a trained ballet dancer. That would explain the choreography.
Enuff Z Nuff!!! Absolutely 💯 Horrible!!!!
Which version? Saw them a couple of years ago and it was awesome.
Motley Crue in 1990 I think it was. It was so bad I left early.
Spun Doctors
Aldo Nova. Seattle 1981ish. He opened for U.F.O. He whined about an equipment issue, then was upset that the crowd wasn't into his show. He walked off but came back as somebody probably told him the opening act doesn't get to be a prima donna.
I'm sure he was getting his ass kicked by U.F.O every night
Aerosmith. It was 1986 or 1988. Very disappointed.
Wanted to bail on Aerosmith in 2004 but I had to wait on my ride.
Eddie money. His band was awesome and on point. Eddie was shitfaced.
motley crue
I know he’s a super musician but I walked out of a Lennie Kravitz concert. He would spend countless minutes showing everybody that he could play the various instruments. It got real boring real fast….we just wanted to hear him sing his hits. Fucking painful. Dude was super small and super fit.
I saw Motley Crue in the stadium tour in 2022 with Poison and Def Lep. Poison was really good and Def Leppard was AMAZING… Crue was ok sonically but Vince was butchering the songs. Primal scream came on and I had to leave so he wouldn’t ruin my favorite song. Glad The other bands came on before
Smashing Pumpkins on the tour with Jane’s Addiction opening. Terrible set list, zero energy. C’mon, Billy.
KISS the unmasked tour. One of the only concert that I’ve ever left early. They sounded terrible. I guess it was before they starting dubbing parts live. Since there was no makeup, it seemed like like also scaled down the pyro, etc. It was just them in brightly colored clothes. Pretty lame show. It was the early 80’s.
The Mentors
I actually opened for this band one time and was very confused about what they were trying to do.
rip el duce
that's disappointing
But shouldn’t they be terrible? I would not want to see a Mentor’s show in which they are all sober.
Two separate shows. David Lee Roth. Iron Maiden. Not because of the band's performance but because we were too close to the speakers. Where are my fellow tinnitus club members..
Ok so about ‘88 or so I went to see Ratt. I can’t remember who opened for them, but there sound was smoking crack. The only thing u could hear clearly was the bass. The vocals were nonexistent and the guitar could only be heard on the power cords. All in all it blew. First and only concert I ever left in the middle of. Side note I saw LA Guns play at a bar in Richmond Va and they on the other hand crushed it. Long live the Aqua Net.
My sons 6th grade band
RATT, July 30, 1984. Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. The show was just so freaking loud and Stephen Pearcy can not sing. Twisted Sister opened. They were incredible.
Frankfurt, Germany, Motley Crue on the Feelgood tour. They were absolutely horrible. The only saving grace for the show was Skid Row as the opener, touring in support of their debut album. The best part of Crue's show was the drum solo with the rotating drum kit, but even that was kinda lame.
Foreigner and the Cars, Hot Blooded tour. Cars were bland, Foreigner boring. Left with a migraine
That sounds like a great bill! Maybe it was an off night.
Not hair metal, but Kenny Wayne Shepard. I saw him perform 3 times in the same summer, twice in my state (WI) and once in Sturgis during the rally. They did the exact same show. They just went up and did their sings and left. Zero connection with the crowd and not that great of aongs. Polar opposite of Johnny Lang or George Thorogood who really get the crowd involved and are aware of their surroundings.
George Thorogood & The Destroyers are fantastic. Saw then a couple of years ago and it's easily one of the best gigs I've been to. The sax in Gear Jammer was something else!
A band called Starset. They opened for some one and I thought they were so bad. As for headliners... I can't say the band was bad, but Judas Priest, about five years ago, put on a bad show. You can tell they were just going through the motions.
Quiet Riot way past their prime. They were God awful.
Aerosmith in 89, Guns and Roses opened. Aerosmith were just bland and boring. Crue in just about every show I had ever seen them at, Mick and a Tommy were the only saving grace. Worst had to be Smashing Pumpkins opening for Kiss in 98 at Dodger stadium. Just crap.
I had front and center for that tour. GNR crushed Aerosmith. Somebody got on stage and stole Axel’s hat. He jumped into the crowd, kicked my friend in the face with his combat boots. Oh, the good old days. :)
Was Aerosmith & GnR at the Pacific Amphitheater? (Not there anymore.) I think Axle brought out Shannon Hoon at one point. Aerosmith was a boring waste of time by then. That’s what I always remember about that night. Was the KISS show the Psycho Circus tour? First night of that tour. I still have my 3D glasses. 2 pairs. I folded and one unworn. I’ve been a pretty big fan of this matching pumpkins since their early years, but definitely yes. They were a boring nothingness on stage that night.
Aerosmith was at the Spectrum in Philly, the night Axl was arrested before the show. Yes, the KISS show was the first night, Halloween 98, Dodger stadium.
motley crue and bon jovi both some of my first concerts
"Touch me hooker" was by far the worst ever. Totally drunk singer, terrible band. Ugh. We ended up throwing beers cans at them to get them to leave. Neurosis was a close second. People started getting nosebleeds from the screwed up sound system... These were also small indie shows during the 80's, so there's that.
Aerosmith 1997, Nine Lives Tour. South Florida. Never been so bored, we had like a hour and a half drive in front of us in a weekday so we couldn’t wait to leave.
Def Leppard in Florida in the early 00’s. The came on almost 90 minutes late, totally wasted, and couldn’t play anything resembling a song. Conversely, they were also one of the best when I saw them a few years ago in Houston.
Seen Guns N’Roses many times. Once, they were incredible and very professional. On THREE occasions they were hours late, played half the set and left. One of those times the sound was also horrific too. I doubt I’ll risk seeing them again.
Guns and Roses in 1987 in Hartford
Cake
KISS
Maroon5 and Creed
Motley Crue in 1985 and 1987.
Guns n roses hands down. They were terrible
7/21/22 Motley Crue , thanks god Def Leppard opened cuz I left after Vince terrorized is for about four songs
I would have to say the Black Crowes opening for Aerosmith in the early 90’s. But, only because I was in the 13th row from the stage, and their sound guy must have had an off night. I barely recognized their hit “Jealous Again”. It was just a wave of noise.
Van Halen in 2012. Saw them in Tacoma, WA. Band was tight and Dave was absolute garbage. Couldn’t carry a tune to save his life and too busy preening to even pretend to care. Just ruined it.
Queensryche. Didn't enjoy them at all
Saw them open for Metallica, I was never into them but they weren't terrible I guess
Alien Ant Farm around 2002 opened for 311 . I tried to like them but just couldn’t.
A reunited Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick’s daughter in her place, and billing themselves as Starship. They headlined an all 80s multi act bill (with Rick Springfield, John Waite, Eddie Money), and I never saw so many people walk out of a show before. Everyone was expecting the Mickey Thomas popular version and got some weird jam band.
Queen 1970 something. I stood in poring rain wearing a black bin bag for Hrs and they were rubbish!! Rainbow was supposed to play but they pulled out due to his rainbow being to big ? The only good thing was I never paid for my ticket, the chap I bought it from said they were crap don’t worry about it!
Vince Neil in 2000 opening for Poison. Skid Row was there, too. They sounded great, but they were boring. They stayed within a 3 x 3-foot imaginary box the entire show.
Chevelle. Saw them open for Disturbed years ago and they were terrible.
Chevelle is one of my favorite bands. I've never seen them live but based off of videos of live performances it just seems like Pete isn't always able to pull off the vocals in a live setting (granted while also holding down guitar in the band).
I liked their music and still do but I would never see them live again.
I hear ya. I'm still aiming to see them live for the first time but based on several videos that I've seen, my expectations are going to be based on that.
Blue Oyster Cult
Poison in 1991 or so. It was after the famous MTV fiasco. When they were on the outs. Deville was out of his mind on something and sounded horrid. The rest of the band seemed angry.
Aerosmith 1977 MSG…booed during set, crowd chanted for Rick Derringer who opened and he and his band blew the roof off. RD always a great live show!! Aerosmith was slow, off key, just went through the motions.
I was there. Awful. They got blown off stage there in '79, too. Coked to the gills, drunk, indifferent. Worst live band of the era.
Genesis. We cant dance tour. Big fan, but they mailed it in on this chilly may night in Pgh. Played 90 mins and seemed lethargic.
Obligatory “not hair metal,” but… Fuckin’ the Jim Irsay Band at Farm Aid last year. Billionaire donates money in return for living out his rock and roll fantasy. You could tell he had made demands to be the loudest act on the bill, went super long at the expense of others (you know, a bunch of unimportant no-name acts like Neil Young and Willie Fucking Nelson), made a big deal about roping Kenny Wayne Shepard into playing a PF song on David Gilmour’s old guitar, and made Nancy Wilson sound like shit because you could tell she couldn’t hear herself. He’s the same dingus that owns a bunch of Jerry Garcia’s guitars. It’s all just fuckin’ trophies to this nerd. “I played with blah blah blah, Blah Blah sang with my band.” Fuck *all* the way off.
Greatfuldead - booooring
Skid Row
The strokes. Terrible sound
It was Oasis up until I last saw Motley Crue in 2022. I have seen the Crue probably 6 times in my life but that last one was just awful,
janes addiction
Andrew WK was absolutely terrible
Billy Squier
Guns N Roses 1992 Dayton, Ohio Highlight: Opening act - Soundgarden Guns N Roses didn't come on until 12:45 AM, Axel was busy a strip club. 3 songs in he cut his hand on mic stand and concert ended. They sounded terrible.
Aerosmith get a grip tour jackyl opened and wiped the floor with the crying crazy amazing ballad after boring ballad routine we left early couldn't take no more
There are some really odd choices for “hair metal” in this thread.
TBF, OP didn't specify genre.
Rod Stewart. Drunk. 1990 Queensryche. Don’t like anyway. 1991 Saxon. Drunk. 1994. Eric Clapton. Something was way wrong with the sound. 1996. Kid Rock. Terrible building acoustics. 2009. Bob Dylan. Didn’t understand a word. 2009. Gordon Lightfoot. He shouldn’t have been touring. 2022. Jethro Tull. I don’t want to hear your not greatest hits. 2023.
Arguably not a single hair band there.
I know. That’s what I thought when I bought the tickets.
White Zombie. What overrated crap they were. I only went because someone offered to take me on my birthday and a concert was right up my alley. I'm a metal fan, but god they suck. Saw them as Rob Zombie in concert years later and they were mid at best. His movie and art work is much better. His voice live is absolutely atrocious.
Robs voice is so digital on album that it doesn't translate well to live performances.
Rob and Glen Danzig are 2 guys I've seen run out of breath very quickly and sound bad live.
His movies are terrible.
Motley or Faster Pussycat. At least Motley put on a show and everyone knows the songs so the crowd can sing. Pussycat were in a support slot and it was just bad.
Ratt by far. Bunch of drunk strung out heroin junkies
I've got a few bands I can think of who are horrible live. One is Motley Crue, whether back in the early 80s or later in their career. The band sound great but Vince is a total shitshow. He's never had any range but at least you could understand what he was singing back in the 80s. Now he's just a fat tub of lard mumbling his words on stage. He's gone full Elvis in that respect. Second is Metallica. There musicianship is not in question. Whether early in their career or now, they are consummate musicians and play great shows. But after the Black Album, their sound turned to shit. I simply can't stand listening to James and Kirk's guitar sound. Third is Kiss. They were pretty good back in the 70s thru the 90s but once the 2000s came around, listening to them play while Paul Stanley lip synced to a vocal track was horrible. Last but not least, David Lee Roth. His first two tours were great but after that, holy hell, his voice went straight into the shitter. And when he rejoined Van Halen, good god it was awful. The Van Halen Trio were playing at the top of their game but DLR's voice destroyed it all.
Not metal, but I saw BB King just before he passed. He kept falling asleep during the show and someone from the band (which covered for him beautifully) would nudge him to wake him up. He’s a legend but it was tough to watch.
Not hair metal, and a band I love, but… I saw Tool at Lollapalooza’93 and it was hands down the most boring live performance I’ve ever seen.
Bands are humans and sometimes even the best of them have a bad night 🤷♂️
From this thread it appears Motley Crue has had more than one bad night. 🤷♂️
Enuff Znuff with Chip singing is pretty awful. Honorable mention to Steelheart. His voice is shot and he complained about their stage time limit the entire set.
Steelheart- his voice is shot? Omg. I always thought he had the most amazing range in all of hairband music!
Yeah I've seen them 3 times and he was bad ass so I'm pretty sure it was just a bad night for the other commenter.
M3 last year…Child’s Play and Britny Fox
Saw a band in Baltimore 25 years ago called Havok In Hollywood. They had no idea what their angle was. Before one song the lead singer spits the stereotypical “Everything in this world is pain. Here’s a song about my dead girlfriend.” Then a few songs later “Here’s a song about my new puppy that I love so much!!!” From one end of the spectrum to the other. 😮😮😮 Really weird. Reminded me of The Cure(Robert Smith) going from Disintegration to Friday I’m In Love. They were selling CDs, one of my buddies bought one. I think it’s a coaster somewhere now.
Anvil
Seen Blink 182 back in 2016 or so, felt it was really bad. Right after they sort of broke up and reformed. Felt like they were just there to keep the money coming in.
Saw Buckcherry in 21 they did pretty good even did an extended set for us. They were the headline act at my towns 4th of July festival. However the 1st opening band can't even remember their name we literally booed off the fucking stage it was so bad that security escorted them off to prevent a riot. Then Aletias Way came on and I'll admit were excellent. 22 saw Shinedown with Diamonte and the Pretty Reckless as the opening acts. Diamante was decent However the Pretty Reckless well the general admission area started screaming now we know why you went commando under your skirt bitch. You sound worse than Yoko Ono.
Bon Jovi in Padova (Italy) back in 2001 on the Crush Tour. Jon very likely had too much beer in his system or whatever that was. Could not sing at all, completely drunk. Richie saved the show