Writers’ Roundtable: Best Concert You’ve Ever Seen

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On last week’s episode of “Touching Base,” Will, Dave, & co. discussed ACL and other music festivals. Now music festivals may not be for everyone, but most people have at least attended one concert that blew them away in some form or fashion. Maybe it was your favorite artist in an awesome venue. Maybe some band you hadn’t heard of that “totally broadened your horizons dude.” Or maybe you got an over the pants hj in the middle of a guitar solo. Regardless, everyone has a different opinion of what makes a concert great, so here’s the PGP crew with their takes on the best show they’ve ever seen.

I’ve seen a lot of good shows. Arcade Fire, The Killers way early, Beirut. The best was probably Tom Petty in Cincinnati. My girlfriend at the time got me seats on the lawn. A band of old hippies behind me were smoking doobies. One air drummed, one played air guitar and the other sang. Everyone was quite generous with their greenery. Been trying to get back ever since.– MadoffInvestment

The best concert for me was Shania Twain. I may have been 5 years old, but I fell in love that night. I begged my parents to take me to see the woman of my dreams and they followed through. Shania is majestic, and that concert was the first time I felt what love is.– Delph

This is an extremely tough one for me to answer considering my range in music goes from obscure folk rock, to dubstep, and everything in between. Currently it’s a tie between scoring a VIP pass to see Snoop at the 2013 Cannabis Cup, and a four day campout at Bonaroo in 2009. Although, I can’t guarantee they’ll stay my number one picks until I go see the Mayor of Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet, in August.– PostGradShibby

While I was in college, a friend’s frat hosted Snoop (Shoutout Texas Tech SigEp) at a bar venue in Lubbock. I’m not huge on the arena concert scene, so seeing an icon like Snoop from a few feet away was awesome. Pre-set I went and got a Gin & Juice so I’d be ready when he played the song (despite hating gin). Forty-five minutes later I finally got to slam my watered down beverage and it was as satisfying an awful drink as I’ve ever had. — Kyle Bandujo

I didn’t just attend the greatest concert in the history of music– I was on stage as a performer. In college I played bass guitar for Gang of Lust, the biggest and baddest cover band on the planet, and when we took the stage at a bar called Fire Station on the University of Illinois campus in May of 2012 we put on the best show in our band’s illustrious career. We were firing on all cylinders that night, cranking out bangers that covered a wide variety of genres from Metallica’s Enter Sandman to Afroman’s Colt .45. The rowdy, over-capacity crowd couldn’t get enough of us and provided an incredible atmosphere for the show. Best of all, everyone in the band got laid after the show because all the wild women in town wanted to get a piece of us rock gods. Here’s a video of us playing if you’re interested to hear how we sounded (Although its from a different performance). Be warned though: this video will cause blown minds and moistened panties. Brace yourself accordingly. — Chris Bourg

Definitely alt-j. It was one of the weirdest concerts I’ve ever attended with the most diverse group of people. I showed up to the concert buzzed on some sake, and left with a legit contact high. It was played at a tiny venue in Houston that was wall-to-wall with hipsters, frat dudes, and an assortment of other individuals. The crowd was full of people smoking pot and weird ass dancing. It was hilarious. They sounded incredible live, even better than the album, if that’s possible. 10/10 would go again.– Taylor Stovall

The who is easy: Pearl Jam. The when and where is a wicked hard call. I’ve seen them a bunch and been to some epic shows. 10/31/2009, last ever performance at the Philadelphia Spectrum will go down in history in PJ folklore. The setlist was crazy and they played maybe their longest show ever. But that still clocks in at #2 for me. #1 for me was 10/25/13 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT. The atmosphere at that show was bonkers, the setlist was phenomenal, and I was with someone really special. One of the most memorable nights of my life.– Improper Brostonian

I’ve been to a lot of shows. Like, a whole lot. I could talk for days on the merits of each of the ones that were significant in some form or fashion, so for this exercise, I’ll just focus on the one I had the best time at. When I was 19, I was a bouncer at a large and well-known music venue in downtown Austin. Everyone was back from college for the summer and pretty much every night was a rager. This night was no different. O.A.R. happened to be playing my place of business, and everyone wanted to go (yes, I know how lame that sounds, but in the early 2000s they were on a hit streak). So I swiped a bunch of “Over 21” wristbands, and distributed them to about a dozen of my friends with the instructions that extras went to deserving females. Bunch of underage kids with extra cash since they didn’t have to buy a ticket, the show was surprisingly good, and in my bouncing duties I confiscated enough party favors for the after party to kick ass as well. — Icehouse

I mentioned this on one of the early episodes of Touching Base, but my first show might have been the best- Rage Against The Machine and The Roots back in ’98. Wu-Tang Clan was supposed to be on the bill, but they dropped off the tour out of nowhere and The Roots filled in. RATM melted faces that night, and I was hooked. It’s either that or Ryan Bingham at Gruene Hall 7 or 8 years ago. That show was as wild of a show as I’ve seen, as he was right on the cusp of blowing up on the Americana music scene. People were just hammered. — Dave

Offspring, Pennywise, and Bad Religion, purely for people-watching purposes. I’ve never been so awestruck by such a ripe, steaming pile of human garbage. It was magnificent. I also fucked up my knee in a mosh pit, which was the coolest story I’ve ever had for an injury, even having grown up in sports.– Best

The Avett Brothers at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado in June 2012, hands down. It was our post-high school road trip. We were 18 and about to embark on our college adventures in three different states, so this was by far our biggest movie-esque coming-of-age experience to date. Nobody believed we were gonna make it from Kentucky to Colorado in a Camry anyway. My best buddy had his first ever beer there. For months, we’d romanticized the shit out of the idea of our favorite band at the most gnarly concert venue ever, and we were certainly not disappointed. — Intern Evan

Kid Rock, Boyne Mountain. It was right when “All Summer Long” blew up, so seeing him perform for a few thousand people on the side of a ski hill in the middle of summer was everything you needed. When he actually performed “All Summer Long,” he dropped a gigantic Michigan flag behind the stage and everyone lost it. Oh, and he brought Rev Run out too, which no one was really expecting considering we were in the middle of nowhere. .

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Kyle Bandujo

The artist formerly known as Crash Davis. My kid doesn't think I'm funny.

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