What performer(s) Knocked your socks off

[Bopper2]

What performer(s) absolutely knocked your socks off the first time you saw or heard them? So much so that you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing at the time.
For me, two immediately come to mind:
Janis Joplin. The act was Big Brother and the Holding Company at the time, but the song she sang when I first heard her was Ball and Chain. After years and years of mainstream female vocalists, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. ( Iwas riding in my car with the radio cranked up, on Buffalo's west side.)

The second was Stevie Ray Vaughn. His guitar playing just floored me. Yaeh I know Clapton is supposed to be the best ever, but SRV ain't chopped liver.
(I was home and caught SRV on the tube).

 

[slashaxl]

Blues guitarist Coco montoya, metallica and the boss (that's Bruce Springsteen)

 

[james t kirk]

U2

Bar none, the best band to see live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8oy0nR1Nhw

Saw them for the first time in 1985 at MLG.

Amazingly, there is a video of this concert all the way back in 85 on Youtube and I was there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHj...84A19C80&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=47


Have seen them every time they've come to town since that time. No-one comes close. Greatest show ever - MLG March 1991 Auchtung Baby Series. They were so good I could have cried (helps being 26 years old too).

The above link reminds me of summer 1991 Auchtung Baby Stadium tour when after 2 hours plus of belting them out, Bono closed the show with this series, only for Can't help Falling in Love, he sang it a-cappella and his voice was crystal clear. I leaned over to my friend and said, "I can't believe how phenominal his voice is after 2 hours of sreaming out the music"

 

[blueman]

Pink Floyd, David Lee Roth, ZZ Top!

Three Floyd shows at CNE Stadium will down in history as absolutely f'n amazing!

I was also wowed by David Lee Roth when he played Maple Leaf Gardens a year or so after his exit from Van Halen.

ZZ Top also knocked my socks off with the Sleeping Bag Tour at Maple Leaf Gardens.

I have seen dozens and dozens of shows since, many very good, but these 3 are the ones that really wowed me.

 

[Big Rig]

Mahavishnu Orchestra


They were brilliant in both their compositions and ability to play

 

[CUTTERBUCK]

I don’t frequent many concerts but have been a Blues/R&B fan for many years. Last year, at the Kitchener Blues Festival I had the pleasure of seeing The Robert Cray Band. Robert Cray has been a favourite artist of mine for many years. The band were able to reproduce all songs true to the CD versions. I was in awe, too bad I forgot to take my camera along. BTW, it was a free concert.

 

[a 1 player]

I was blown away the first time I heard...

Eddie Van Halen
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Boston
Oscar Peterson
Chick Corea
Herbie Hancock
Yngwie Malmsteen
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Jordan
Chet Atkins
Roy Clarke
Meatloaf
Paul Potts
Luciano Pavarotti
Al Dimeola
Yo Yo Ma
(Anyone who can play) Pavarotti - 24 Caprices
Aretha Franklin
James Brown
Edgar Winter
Johnny Winter
Steve Vai
Stu Hamm
Neil Peart
Victoria Williams
Sex Pistols
Dream Theater

to name a few...

 

[wantoplay]

Saw them in Hamilton a few years back, the sucked!! Shirley Manson was awesome though.

U2

Bar none, the best band to see live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8oy0nR1Nhw

Saw them for the first time in 1985 at MLG.

Amazingly, there is a video of this concert all the way back in 85 on Youtube and I was there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHjrT_rCYI&feature=PlayList&p=4D8E78AE84A19C80&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=47


Have seen them every time they've come to town since that time. No-one comes close. Greatest show ever - MLG March 1991 Auchtung Baby Series. They were so good I could have cried (helps being 26 years old too).

The above link reminds me of summer 1991 Auchtung Baby Stadium tour when after 2 hours plus of belting them out, Bono closed the show with this series, only for Can't help Falling in Love, he sang it a-cappella and his voice was crystal clear. I leaned over to my friend and said, "I can't believe how phenominal his voice is after 2 hours of sreaming out the music"

 

[Cycleguy007]

Well Gee.... I read the thread title and IMMEDIATELY thought of U2! (But I see a number of you have already beat me to it!)

Bar none the greatest band of ALL TIME! (Yes even better than the Beatles, and The Stones, The Who etc...) They have been at the top of their game (and UNCHANGED) for what 30 years now???? Seen them 5 times! Simply OUTSTANDING!

 

[shoeguy]

KISS. Cause they blow shit up!

 

[S.C. Joe]

Foghat in Detroit....was half the band-half the 3 big biker guys on the main floor by me.

Was just 2 but then the crowd rushed past security (they had chicks working, duh...the crowd rushed past them when Foghat came on..it was great

The bikers were puffing hash on a stick and I was right behind them, they got in a few fights and kick every bodies butt...one I seen how it started, a biker was groping a chick and her big BF came over and got his butt kick..his jock friends jumped in and they got beat up BAD...blood everywhere. Girls screaming and crying...I was just a teenage punk and had no problems with them, did get knock down a few times during the many fights and got puke on my shirt when I felled once on the ground. Towards the end the bikers had two topless chicks on their shoulders and Foghat was noticing them..we were like 10 rows back..started like 50 rows back.

Boy I don't know what happen to them after the show thou, as I was leaving there was police all around the exits and big cops looking for somebody I could tell....likley 3 big biker guys, ha ha.

 

[Ironhead]

KISS. Cause they blow shit up!

LOL
I like Kiss also.


It was Springsteen and U2 for me.

Above all else, the first thing to grab me was the Leafs. My mother got tickets from a co-worker who was not going to use them. Mid-sixties, I was five or six and she said I was mesmerized and that was the beginning of my life long love affair with hockey.

 

[james t kirk]

Saw U2 in 1983 at Massey Hall during the WAR tour . They were really starting to break big and I knew this was the last time they would proboly ever play a smaler venue in this city .You just knew they were headed for the arenas and stadiums on their next tour.

I got into U2 in 83 with the release of the WAR album, but I couldn't afford to see them. At the time, they were still very much a "known but to a few" sort of band. No-one over 30 had ever heard of them, or their singer - Bono. Their first album was released in 1980 when I think they were all of 18 to 20 years old. At the time (1980), everyone I went to High School with was into what would now be called "classic rock" - Zepplin (being the most popular), Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd, to a lesser degree the Stones, Queen, and lesser still, the Beatles, the Doors, the Who. Heavy Metal was also extremely popular.

In late 70's early 80's punk and new wave were emerging as an alternative to the so called classic rock which to younger kids such as myself was seeming very tired, dated, and more than anything - quite full of itself. Bands like the Clash, Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Ramones, were a stripped down unpretentious kind of sound that rejected classic rock bands as much as classic rock bands rejected disco. The fact that the more conservative types despised U2 made me feel good to tell you the truth. (Still does in a way.)

In 83, it was suddenly cool to be into "alternative music" and classic rock was definitely out of vogue (at least with my crowd). For me, U2 literally kicked down the door in 83 with the War Album and by 85 with the release of "The unforgetable Fire" they were about to explode. That explosion came with Live Aid in July of 1985.

One of the few bands I can think of that has stayed true to itself and never sold out.

 

[a 1 player]

Shit, I forgot Fleetwood Mac. I remember vividly being in my Uncles old Datsun, lost somewhere around Muscleman lake. The song was 'The Chain'.

 

[GDLLover]

The best I heard the first time on the radio was Paul McCartney & Wings (70's), hit after hit, the first artist I came across that where you enjoy all songs their albums.

Live: without a doubt Springsteen (Born in the USA) 4hr marathon. A close second is David Bowie (Glass Spider) with Peter Frampton on guitar. Also seen Bowie in Serious Moonlight (80,000 people in CNE amazing) which is 3rd.

Thanks A 1 Player forgot Fleetwood Mac as well. I put them second of radio play.

GDL

 

[BoringBob]

Frank Zappa, on multiple occassions.

First off, no opening act. Frank and the band came out and did the opening act slot (say 45 or 50 minutes). Then they tell you to go get some popcorn and a beer, and they will be back. 30 minutes later, they come back and do another 2 hours solid.

Oh yeah, when I say solid, I mean solid. There are no breaks between songs, no waste of time, every song went into the next song just perfectly, with no end to the onslaught of super talented players, Zappa's biting lyrics, and oh yeah, guitar solos that would stop the planet from spinning.

20 years later, nobody has lived up to that, and I have seen most.

 

[sting]

Hey JT Kirk,

I was at that Achtung Baby concert. Those old cars (VW's?) suspended from the ceiling was unforgettable. Are you sure it was 1991? Why do I think it was 1992?

I also will never forget seeing U2 in 87 at the CNE for the Joshua Tree tour. Bono's arm in a sling and the crowd singing "40" at the end of the show and continuing while exiting the stadium.

For hearing something for the first time it was Kate Bush for me. Her first album "The Kick Inside" just floored me.

U2

Bar none, the best band to see live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8oy0nR1Nhw

Saw them for the first time in 1985 at MLG.

Amazingly, there is a video of this concert all the way back in 85 on Youtube and I was there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHj...84A19C80&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=47


Have seen them every time they've come to town since that time. No-one comes close. Greatest show ever - MLG March 1991 Auchtung Baby Series. They were so good I could have cried (helps being 26 years old too).

The above link reminds me of summer 1991 Auchtung Baby Stadium tour when after 2 hours plus of belting them out, Bono closed the show with this series, only for Can't help Falling in Love, he sang it a-cappella and his voice was crystal clear. I leaned over to my friend and said, "I can't believe how phenominal his voice is after 2 hours of sreaming out the music"

 

[Mrbig1949]

James Brown and the Fabulous Flames, Detroit 1968.

The hardest workin' man in showbusiness

Taught MJ how to dance.

 

[james t kirk]

Hey JT Kirk,

I was at that Achtung Baby concert. Those old cars (VW's?) suspended from the ceiling was unforgettable. Are you sure it was 1991? Why do I think it was 1992?

I also will never forget seeing U2 in 87 at the CNE for the Joshua Tree tour. Bono's arm in a sling and the crowd singing "40" at the end of the show and continuing while exiting the stadium.

For hearing something for the first time it was Kate Bush for me. Her first album "The Kick Inside" just floored me.

Whoops, you're right... It was March 1992 (memory getting a little dusty.) The album Auchtung Baby came out in 1991.

I found this on the net....

http://www.u2tours.com/detail.src?ID=19920324


The old cars were Trabrants that had been gutted out and turned into spotlights. That show was simply amazing and U2 took concert production to a whole new level. I had great seats (via a scalper at $120.00 per ticket for a $40.00 face) at the time. I remember when they were singing Angel of Harlem and I swear the entire place was singing along. I also remember it being a Sauna in MLG as it was March, but it was unusually warm out.

I also saw them at CNE in 87 when they were touring supporting their Joshua Tree Album.

It's funny, but back then, bands used to make their money selling records and touring was done to support album sales. Now, given file sharing and the like, bands don't make the kind of coin they used to selling albums, but ticket prices are obscene.

I'm going to the U2 show in September (look for the middle aged guy with a bald spot who looks like he doesn't belong) and tickets were $260 or so I believe. 20 years ago, you could buy the best seat in the house for $40.00. Mind you, back then I was making 8 bucks an hour, sooooo...

 

[opieshuffle]

Said it before...

...and I'll say it again:

Stevie Ray Vaughn opened for Dire Straits at Varsity Arena.
Never saw either before and 24 years later the whole show still runs through my mind!

AWESOME!

OP