Well maybe not exactly the worst but………..
Recently caught the LSD tour with Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle & Dwight Yoakam at Bethel Woods
Now the first time I saw Lucinda was at the Ottawa Blues fest many years ago like 15 or more. Did not really know much about her, but that night she absolutely nailed it and I was a fan (still am) Seen her again about 5-6years after that and it was ok. I mean it was an afternoon set, she only had maybe an hour, did a great version of its along way to the Top if you’re gonna Rock & Roll (ACDC) but other then that meh……
This time she was the second to play after Steve opened the show with a very good sound, great band, some new tunes as well as a few old favorites.
Lucinda came out with a fantastic band, her guitarist is damn good, but she was flat. I mean very uninspired flat out blowing it. Her band truly carried her set and somewhat salvaged it. She either is soaked in the sauce or just doesn’t give a hoot. What a let down in what should have been a very memorable night. Steve and Dwight delivered. I would kick her off the tour, but who would be the “L”

79- 80 for The Brother's worked for me . 81 was a different story . Without Jaimoe in the band, the connection I felt for the band was not the same in 81 . It didn't stop me from going to shows though . I was working as a waiter in hotel in Glen Wild , NY the summer of 81 and low and behold The Brothers were playing at a place called Magic Mountain less than a mile from the hotel on a Saturday night . Great summer weather and The Brother's always worked for me no matter what they were playing or who was in the band.

Well maybe not exactly the worst but………..
Recently caught the LSD tour with Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle & Dwight Yoakam at Bethel Woods
Now the first time I saw Lucinda was at the Ottawa Blues fest many years ago like 15 or more. Did not really know much about her, but that night she absolutely nailed it and I was a fan (still am) Seen her again about 5-6years after that and it was ok. I mean it was an afternoon set, she only had maybe an hour, did a great version of its along way to the Top if you’re gonna Rock & Roll (ACDC) but other then that meh……
This time she was the second to play after Steve opened the show with a very good sound, great band, some new tunes as well as a few old favorites.
Lucinda came out with a fantastic band, her guitarist is damn good, but she was flat. I mean very uninspired flat out blowing it. Her band truly carried her set and somewhat salvaged it. She either is soaked in the sauce or just doesn’t give a hoot. What a let down in what should have been a very memorable night. Steve and Dwight delivered. I would kick her off the tour, but who would be the “L”

Thanks for the review. Seeing this in less than a week in Chicago. Clever concept. LSD. Hah Hah. Only time I saw lucinda was when she opened for The ABB years ago. Wouldn't say she was horrible but I'm not sure I'd pay to see her.

I just want to see Stave Earle. Seen him a million times. And Dwight Youakm. Never seen him.

Did they all play together?

they were literally run over by a "Train"

Literally?! Hope they get well! 😉

I'm not a big fan of Train's music, but Pat killed it at the Gregg tribute.

Well maybe not exactly the worst but………..
Recently caught the LSD tour with Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle & Dwight Yoakam at Bethel Woods
Now the first time I saw Lucinda was at the Ottawa Blues fest many years ago like 15 or more. Did not really know much about her, but that night she absolutely nailed it and I was a fan (still am) Seen her again about 5-6years after that and it was ok. I mean it was an afternoon set, she only had maybe an hour, did a great version of its along way to the Top if you’re gonna Rock & Roll (ACDC) but other then that meh……
This time she was the second to play after Steve opened the show with a very good sound, great band, some new tunes as well as a few old favorites.
Lucinda came out with a fantastic band, her guitarist is damn good, but she was flat. I mean very uninspired flat out blowing it. Her band truly carried her set and somewhat salvaged it. She either is soaked in the sauce or just doesn’t give a hoot. What a let down in what should have been a very memorable night. Steve and Dwight delivered. I would kick her off the tour, but who would be the “L”

Thanks for the review. Seeing this in less than a week in Chicago. Clever concept. LSD. Hah Hah. Only time I saw lucinda was when she opened for The ABB years ago. Wouldn't say she was horrible but I'm not sure I'd pay to see her.

I just want to see Stave Earle. Seen him a million times. And Dwight Youakm. Never seen him.

Did they all play together?

They all did one song for an encore, Lucinda and Steve did one in Steve's set. Other then my rant about Lucinda it is a good show and yes the LSD tour indeed great name. It was my first time seeing Dwight, very very good tight band. The first two or three songs were overly loud, but that was just a sound board issue after that it settled into a good rockn' set. I'm sure you will enjoy, who knows Lu might bring her A game this time

Thanks for the update. I'll post next week after the show! Looking forward to Dwight. Never seen him. Seems like an odd guy Should be fun.

We saw Lucinda with Buick 6 either 2016 or 17 and she was great.

First saw her open for the ABB, first Allman show for two of my kids.

Been a fan ever since.

they were literally run over by a "Train"

Literally?! Hope they get well! 😉

I'm not a big fan of Train's music, but Pat killed it at the Gregg tribute.

My son is a big Train guy. We saw them for my friend's 50th and they Rocked it. If Strat Jr. wants to go see them play, we'll go. Other than that, I'll live.

I love Lucinda's albums. Most are incredible. Never seen her live but friends say she can be awful, uninterested and arrogant.

It might have been the tour before the one you mention, but worst show ever for me was Steve Miller at the Orpheum in Boston 93 or 94. He played 3 great solo blues tunes to start then brought out Ben Sidran and band and played Vegas Lounge Lizard junk for awhile and then when near my breaking point it turned into a sing along with the crowd on hits like Abracadabra and that’s when it was all I can stands and I can’t stands no more and we left.

I've seen Steve Miller 3 times I think. One of those was that 25th anniversary tour in 1994 with no opener where he did the 2.5 hour show and played a number of songs from from pre-1974 including some blues stuff. I don't recall a negative crowd reaction as he also played the mid 70s hits to satisfy the masses. It was indeed a great show.

I'd say Steve Miller is sort of like Neil Young in the sense that he kind of plays whatever the hell he wants. Steve Earle actually yelled at me once and said just that when I was just asking for a particular song. That was kind of funny.

I've seen Steve Miller do that old blues thing and the crowd thought it sucked. I liked it cuz I had his old albums and appreciated it.

Wouldn't have walked out cuz of Abracadraba. Excuse to hit the bathroom.

When I saw him last month that was the only song I didn't like. Crowd loved it.

I saw Sang once. Not much of a show

Loved the debut album by Boston.Couldn't wait to see them as the headliner at Giants Stadium.Todd Rundgren was good.Poco was very good.The Outlaws played a great set.Close to a 100 degree day.They open with Hurry Sundown and the skies opened up.Great set in pouring rain.Soon as they started encoring with Green Grass and High Tides,the rain stopped and the sun came out.Weird.

Back on topic,Boston was so dissapointing we only stayed for half their set.We had gone in two groups(seatwise) but one car.The only reason we lasted as long as we did was that the driver was in the other group.When we went to wait at the car,they were already there wanting to know what took us so long.

Five or six months later they were at MSG.Figured I'd give them another shot,maybe they had had a bad day last time.Nope same result,walked out again.

Too bad,I thought they were really good in the studio,but they just didn't do it for me live.

And then there was the Kinks at Roseland.I've seen a lot of good/great Kinks shows,but on this night they played two songs,the brothers got in a big fight onstage and they walked off.

Lots of bad/ boring shows over the years!

The Kinks in 1980- Same as the live album, even the banter between songs... I haven't listened to them since.
Rainbow 1981'- Not a Joe Lynn Turner fan but as I recall Blackmore was great.
Motorhead backing up Ozzy for Blizzard Of Ozz in 1981'- Motorhead was so loud it was just a wall of sound, couldn't tell what they were playing.... thankfully when Ozzy came on the sound was better but probably the loudest show I've ever seen.
Foghat in 86'-no Lonesome Dave, Rod or Craig, just Roger Earl calling his band Foghat.
Stevie Ray Vaughan in 86'- Seemed out of it and was mad with his technical problems.
Mick Taylor in 86'- Seemed out of it and bored which was very disappointing to me.
Alvin Lee back up Steppenwolf in 1987- Should have been the headliner as Steppenwolf didn't even come close.
John Lee Hooker 87'- Sad to see at that point.
Bob Dylan 88'- I was as bored as Bob seemed to be.
Lou Reed 92'- He had some woman singing with him wreaking all his tunes! lol
Red Hot Chilli Peppers being backed up by The Foo Fighters in 2000.... as someone mentioned here earlier The Foo's were great and The Peppers seemed uninterested.
Johnny Winter in 2001- I've seen Johnny many times before and since and this one was hard to watch.
Elvis Costello in 2003- Just him and his pianist, yawnfest.
Joe Bonamassa in 13'- I love his albums but I was bored.
Jonny Lang in 15'- Never spread his wings.
Z.Z. Top in 2014- I stopped going years ago when the shows were all the same, I thought it would be different in a theatre but nope, the fuzzy guitars still came out!
Sting with Paul Simon in 14'- Not a great match to me.
Gary Clark Jr. 1n 2016- I was so looking forward to seeing him live but he was flat and I was disappointed!

Saw Van Morrison at the Spectrum maybe 10 years ago. Came on around 5:00 played a little over an hour. Awful - went through the motions and could have cared less. Think he had a show in AC later that night.

Bob Dylan after Tom Petty at PNC 10+ years ago. Garbled unemotional mess. Never looked up from his keyboards. Band was tight though. Mailed it in. May have been sick.

Joe Jackson at Count Basie. Piano and a drum and crappy music.

Don't care for Buddy Guy's non-stop taking and playing 30 second riffs all show long. Amazing guitarist though just disappointed with his shows.....

Elvis Costello - never saw a good show.

Absolute worst was Southside Johnny playing before ZZ Top at PNC 2 years ago. Love his vibe but he used a horrible sound system - got up and left.

Any Gary Clark Jr. show. Way overrated.

Poorest performance I have seen by a paid musical act was Aerosmith, 1978 October maybe? So loud and distorted it was way difficult to tell even what song they were playing, I did stay through though, AC/DC opened and they were insanely hard rocking and sounded great, blew the lid off! I have never walked out on a show, skipped the encore on a couple lame ducks, REO Speedwagon in '81 and Def Leppard in '83, when I saw them open for Ozzy in '81 they kicked it pretty good, after the Pyromania thing, not good, girlie rock..........Peace........joe

Disappointing as opposed to utterly bad: The last two Allman Brothers shows that I attended (Beacon) - no Gregg - no announcement from any party that he wouldn't be participating. I knew right before because of a call from an "insider". Great fill-in by the incredible, Jimmy Hall and lots of other guests. These two no-shows spawned the revisit to the Beacon several months later that culminated in the "farewell" show. I was on-line the second the tickets went on sale and couldn't get a pair for any of those shows.

Most disappointing performance wise was Clapton (1974 - I think) - 461 Ocean Blvd tour, Birmingham (Legion Field). I don't know if Eric was just upset over low ticket sales or what. He seemed drunk off his arse - played very little guitar - instead, steadying himself on the mic stand all night. The night was salvaged by an outstanding performance by a little known act called the Charlie Daniels Band.

I love Lucinda's albums. Most are incredible. Never seen her live but friends say she can be awful, uninterested and arrogant.

Love her albums if am in the mood. They can be pretty dark.

Last week when I saw her she seemed kind of out of it. The guy sitting next to us who seemed to know what he was talking about said she was. I thought it was Steve Earle.

This was when they were playing together.

[Edited on 8/26/2018 by Lee]

This thread is such a good read. Reading about all these bands who were in their prime putting on less-than-stellar shows is quite the eye-opener (Sabbath not bringing it in 72?? Man that would kill me).

I've been pretty lucky overall. I guess the most disappointing was the time Harley Flanagan, formerly of the Cro-Mags, went backstage and stabbed the current bassist of the band. John Joseph came out and announced the show was over (before Cro-Mags and Sick of It All could play) because of "Harley's bull****". Show got rescheduled. You would think this is a story from the 1980s Lower East Side, but nope, it was 2012.

Thought I'd never say these words but, Jeff Beck at Blue Hills pavilion in Boston. Should have called it the Jimmy Hall band. he was stail and predictable. Paul Rodgers wasn't much better.
The Wilson girl stole the show.

Got tickets for Al Kooper, one of my favorites, about six or seven years ago. Turned out to be a solo gig. Him on programmed keyboard. Talked throughout the show telling stories about times long past. Probably the most disappointing show I've ever attended. Still think he and Mike Bloomfield were some of the most influential early guys ever. Saw Bloomfield play with Paul Butterfield opening for Muddy Waters in the 60's in Philly. Turned my head around for life.

I guess over the years some not as build up as I expected, but usually the party surrounding the concert was part of the event, and hanging with guys and gals , good knows doing what over the years, nothing really hits home... Although I know a lot of uuuz, might have been at Tampa Stadium June. 3 r Led Zeppelin show.....amaziNg day catching up with friends coming into town was attending USF at the time...pumped for Zeppelin....1977.......everyone timing their drug release, ha ha, well 3 rd song sky opens up, crazy typical west coast lightning show, tons heading to the over crowded hall ways of Krasnodar drugged up, peeps, fights breaking out , was just happy to get out of there eventually,, show cancelled, never rescheduled,,, and Tampa banned shows out door arena ones for a couple of years,,still have my ticket stub.... Ps ten bucks....... Saw them week ior two later back home in Ny krazy summer opt Sam...77.......

Got tickets for Al Kooper, one of my favorites, about six or seven years ago. Turned out to be a solo gig. Him on programmed keyboard. Talked throughout the show telling stories about times long past. Probably the most disappointing show I've ever attended. Still think he and Mike Bloomfield were some of the most influential early guys ever. Saw Bloomfield play with Paul Butterfield opening for Muddy Waters in the 60's in Philly. Turned my head around for life.

I saw Al two years ago at BB Kings. Totally different experience. Had his band with him. Loved the show. Unfortunately didn't schedule the last two years. H e was supposed to play the Iridium with Jimmy Vivino two months ago and was replaced. Think his health problems are worsening

Thought I'd never say these words but, Jeff Beck at Blue Hills pavilion in Boston. Should have called it the Jimmy Hall band. he was stail and predictable. Paul Rodgers wasn't much better.
The Wilson girl stole the show.

We walked out on beck two years ago.

He was awful, playing hip hop crap.

jimmy hall sucked that night too.

Quite the interesting read, going through this thread.
I've been to probably 1000 shows, everything from rap to rock, country, blues, jazz, punk, funk, etc. I always try to find some redeeming value in something. Often it's one of the musicians in the band that I will fixate on and enjoy their talent.
The other thing I noticed about this thread is that people dislike things for different reasons: The poor sound quality, the band not living up to what they expected, band too drunk/stoned to play well, too predictable, etc.

I've been disappointed only a few times:
John Fahey. I brought all these people, telling them all about him and how influential he was for the acoustic guitar, etc. It was a few months before he died. He was so laconic and bland and was pissed that people were talking during his set but he could barely play. It was horrible and everyone I took looked at me like I was crazy.

Sturgill Simpson. Heard he wrote great lyrics, had a good band, etc. I couldn't hear much of his lyrics, it was straight-ahead new country with a lead guitarist that looked like he wanted to play metal and was slumming and being held back. So disappointed. Have seen him on youtube ROCK the place and would give him another chance.

Ice Cube. It was at one of the lollapalooza or Horde festivals. It wasn't much of a performance, more of a pep-rally. He'd scream, "everybody say 'yeah'" and everybody would do it. They he'd sing for 2 minutes and start screaming at the crowd to repeat after him. Everybody say "hell yeah". Everybody say "what!". Reminded me of a high school pep rally. I've seen other rappers that were great, but he didn't do it for me.

Blue Oyster Cult and Rainbow in 1983

It was lethargic and it seemed like they gave the entire audience Quaaludes at the door.

Pat Travers opening for Dickey Betts in 1978, nothing but loud noise for a group of people who where obviously there to see a completely different style of guitar playing. "Boom Boom. out go the lights" was the encore and for the first time that evening, the crowd applauded....not because they enjoyed it....

Chuck Berry at Humphries (San Diego) in the mid-Eighties. I was excited to see this legend play and had really good seats. He was 45 minutes late (Blamed it on traffic) Drunk and his hands went everywhere on the fretboard but where they were supposed to go. Sloppy, short set that was awful.

Shania Twain in 1998, 2 hours of on stage pyrotechnics, costume changes and dancing by musicians with little headsets playing violins and banjos all whom of smiled throughout this carefully choreographed "performance"....omg

Pat Metheny in the mid eighties. This was during my "I am going to like jazz if it kills me era"...The shows location was changed at the time of the show... We arrived at the address printed on the tickets and are told the show is now "just down the street" at a new location. 90 minutes of endless out of synch, directionless guitar and piano "rambling". I am sure some loved it....

John Legend & Ben Harper (separate performances) at the Aspen jazz Festival in 2007. John Legend?... Who is this guy? Gloppy attempts at "romantic" ballads..I actually nodded off in my beach chair. Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals......Somebody explain this stuff to me....

I actually nodded off in my beach chair

I fell asleep at Genesis in the Carrier Dome.

Abacab was a huge lullaby tune.

Got even with the wife for falling asleep in the tenth row at a Grateful Dead concert in Houston.

We were sitting with some friends of mine who were DJs at Houston's #1 rock radio station.

Heh heh.

GRATEFUL DEAD - Manor Downs, Austin TX 1983
This show was held at an old horse racetrack...Band sounded awful IMO. Jerry Garcia was sadly overweight and looked like he was about to fall down. Big buildup, big letdown.

FRANK ZAPPA - Erwin Center, Austin TX 1984?
Sunday night, sparse crowd...Disappointing show even for Zappa it seemed. At the end he just said, "tough cookies" and walked off.

Two bombs that come to mind immediately...

Looking back now, I guess I was lucky to be there at all. It was a sweltering August night in Pittsburgh at the Civic Arena, around 1970, if I remember correctly. Thousands of people outside pushing toward the doors waiting for them to open. Festival seating! When the doors opened, I thought I would be crushed. Everybody ran for the front. When the show started, the acoustics were awful. The sound just bounced around the place, making it almost hard to tell what song they were playing. Great anticipation to see them, then to have the sound be so bad was pretty deflating. Now Im just glad I even went, when I think of all the people that had to try for a lotto type of ticket for their reunion show. Lord knows what they paid. Wish I had the old ticket stubs. I doubt I paid even $10 back then. It was Led Zeppelin.