Comments on: Zack’s Concert Leaderboard 2.0

By: April Riggs

April Riggs — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:40:42 +0000

Dude, I’ve seen Phish several times in the 90′s and YES, I truly think they are worth a 10. Now, I haven’t seen or heard any of their more recent shows, and I’m totally looking forward to the short-ass set they’ll be doing at ACL this year but I suspect it’ll be pretty awesome, even w/out all of the acid from the 90′s.

Have you ever seen The Cure? Pretty high up on the list too-have only missed one show/tour out of many since 1990, and I’ve never ever walked away feeling cheated-I think the Blood Flowers show was the mellowist and least exciting, but I had just had back surgery and was on a bunch of pills (June 2000) and it worked for me. I’d put them at about a 9-9.5.

The Creatures, (Liberty Lunch sometime between 1999-2000) was an AH-MAZING show too. I’d give them a safe 9.

By: Bryn

Bryn — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:46:08 +0000

Hear that, Zack, BB can’t even stand up! He’s jitterbugging his way to the front of the list!

Anyway, Zack, you know where I stand on a lot of these. To be fair, I’ve never seen Neil Young, but the idea of a 10.0 show is absurd to me…unless you’re actually called on stage to play with the band, and partied backstage afterward…that might be a 10.0.

As far as the controversial Tool rating goes…Zack hates Tool, and that’s evident by the ridiculously low rating. However, I love Tool, and yes, their show is disappointing, at least recently. Not above a 6.5. A trippy lightshow can only go so far.

Here’s one you haven’t heard yet: bump up Franti. His music? Not so good. But the live show? So much fun. Transcendent. If your music kind of sucks, but I still want to see you live, that’s worth at least an 8+.

So many other things to say about this, but I’ll leave on this note: DMB=worst festival headliner possible. I’m actually really excited Dave is headlining Bonnaroo, because that gives me a good, solid 2 hour window where I can leave the stage grounds without having to worry about missing anything. Good call, Bonnaroo schedulers, thank you for working in nap time. But, regardless, putting DMB and Pearl Jam on par with each other is…well…it’s disgusting. Especially at the 9.3 level. Anything above a 9 is reserved for the pantheon.

By: match

match — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:47:27 +0000

I think BB King should be way lower. The idea of BB is maybe in the 7 range, but the show is nothing short of depressing- he can’t even stand up.

By: teibs

teibs — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:33:22 +0000

Bay Area- I’ve had terrible Tool experiences and they scare me. Might just be me. Birkley-Amy Winehouse was surprisingly good, but I removed Shearwater from the list altogether because I need to see them again and was too tired to get into the last show. That plays well into your candyflipping argument which holds some water. I’ll talk about that in the podcrash. Rob- DMB is better than I’d like to admit sometimes.

By: Rob O'Connor

Rob O'Connor — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:14:34 +0000

I would probably move DMB down as well. I have seen them twice and once was in Portugal at, what the band considers, their best concert since the famous Red Rocks show. The other was the night LeRoi Moore died. Kind of the two opposite ends of the spectrum but even the high end wasn’t all that good.

By: birkley3030

birkley3030 — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:28:48 +0000

I think I’m more surprised about the artists that got low scores than the ones who got high scores. Was Amy Winehouse really THAT much better than Shearwater?!?! You should include a ranking that distinguishes how messed up YOU were at these shows. It’s easy to give Phish a 10 after “candy-flipping”, don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.

By: BayAreaButchers

BayAreaButchers — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:28:42 +0000

Have to agree with Rob about Bob. Why is Tool so low? Did you see them at the beginning of the tour or something? The last show is always amazing. They brought on Jello Biafra to do Holiday in Cambodia last time around and I can’t wait to see Tool in June.

By: @joshkorin

@joshkorin — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:58:45 +0000

This is such a difficult thing to judge/comment upon we all have our own definitions of what makes an incredible show. Is it the setlist? The crowd scene (pre and or post show), the venue, your seat, there’s a million and one factors. However, it is in my opinion highly unfair to rate any band’s show a 10. Sure we’ve all seen some incredible shows in our day myself very much included but to walk into the venue on any given night expecting a 10 performance is not only unrealistic it’s also unfair to the band. What if there are technical malfunctions? The soundboard blows up, a lighting rig comes crashing down in the middle of the opener does this detract from the overall 10 experience of a show? It’s all a matter of opinion.
I’ve seen my share of many of these artists on this list Phish probably being the band I’ve seen the most and I feel good saying i’ve seen some Phish shows that many might consider “epic” (i hate the use of that term) but i’ve also seen some duds as well for any number of different reasons (lousy set list, trey all smacked out etc etc)
What I expect from any band that I plunk down my hard earned cash to go see is that they give me their 100% everytime they go out there. I’m not saying every show has to be the most amazing 2 or 3 hours they’ve ever played but I want their 100% each time those house lights go down.
It’s also a fact that two different people who attend the same show can walk out with dramatically different perspectives your own determination of how great a show is or isn’t is based on any number of factors that are as different for each of us as the day is long. As my esteemed amiga @chinakatsunflwr has so astutely pointed out this is all just a matter of opinion. I’ve got 6 or 7 Phish shows on the calendar this summer as well as several other acts and I don’t plan to walk into any of those shows expecting a 10 simply 100% effort from the guys/gals in the band to make me feel like when I leave yeah i got my 30, 40, 50 bucks worth tonight. Happy Summer Tour season to all!

By: teibs

teibs — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:46:31 +0000

Rob- Dylan may need to slide down. We’ll discuss.

By: teibs

teibs — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:46:03 +0000

I’ll reconsider giving Phish a 10. Andy brought that up as well. This could be changed. I’ve seen a few DB shows and it was torture 3 of the 4 times. They aren’t going any higher. I think Atoms for Peace could be ranked even higher and I’ll explain why in the podcrash. Thanks for the food for thought…it will be considered.