Sly and the Family Stone, early ‘70s. The start of the show kept getting delayed. We waited probably two hours. When it did start, Sly was so blitzed he was incomprehensible. My date had to be home by 11. We pushed that a little bit, but heard about 30 minutes of music. My friends said he finally got booed off the stage after a total of about 45 minutes. It was a disaster all the way around. One great thing about concerts back then was if there was good crowd interaction, the band would keep coming back for encores. These days it’s all choreographed. An encore is just built into the show, then you’re done no matter how much the crowd cheers, generally about 11 pm. When the house lights come on, show’s over.
Worst Concerts You Have Attended ??
I just left a remark about a favorite band of mine back in the day - April Wine - that I saw in concert and was disappointed. Could have been that it was an off night for them, or maybe they were never good in concert. Maybe the lead guitarist had too much to drink? April Wine was not the worst, however. I remember Neil Young in the 1990's who was on his one-man acoustic show type of tour that many artists were taking advantage of (perhaps for financial reasons) during that time. While a friend of I had near front row seats at Desert Sky Pavilion (now Ak-Chin) in Pheonix, the crowd was just roused up into a frenzy by the warm-up band (James) and here comes Neil and his guitar/harmonica. Wow, what a sonic letdown. I remember getting up and leaving and feeling Neil's glaring eyes on us as we ushered out. I think, to this day, he probably still remembers me. We all can remember the great live concerts we attended, but what were the worst and why?