It's Critter Time!

I'm not much of a gigging person (something something autism) but live music is pretty bangin' a lot of the times. Who've you seen live lately? Favourite gig of all time?

This thread totally not inspired by having seen The Longest Johns a couple of evenings ago.

I've been to Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears concerts as a pretty young kid but I didn't really go to any live shows until last year when I saw Haken in Gothenburg.

I saw them in September 2024 at Stora Teatern, which seats about 600 people. It was a 3 hour long set where they played every song from their most recent album, Fauna, and selections from every other album they have. They also played my favorite song of theirs, Crystallised, which I really didn't expect because it's about 20 minutes long.

It was a fucking amazing show. I was seated about 6 rows back and the entire time was just absolutely engulfed in music. It was also recorded so I'm sure I can be spotted in footage out there somewhere. I don't think anything will ever live up to that show.

The last live show I went to was Caroline Polachek at Roadrunner Boston in 2023. What an incredible voice!

Before that, you'd have to turn the calendar back to before the pandemic. I saw two shows at a smaller venue in Cambridge in early 2020, Wye Oak and Bat For Lashes, just really excellent intimate sets from both artists. And in 2019 I saw FKA Twigs at the House of Blues, the show started over an hour late because of a fire alarm evacuation that left us standing out in the cold for a while, but it was totally worth it in the end.

I go to concerts all the time! It's one of the reasons I moved to a major city, me and my husband go to alot of them, especially in the warmer months.

Earlier this year I saw The Deftones & Mars Volta, then Queens of the Stone Age, then Godspeed You Black Emperor. On Saturday I saw Weird Al

The rest of the concert calendar this year includes:
System of a Down, PUP & Jeff Rosenstock, Maruja, Minus the Bear, and The Beths.


As far as best shows I've ever seen? Coheed and Mastodon touring in support of The Heavenly Creatures a few years ago at the Stone Pony was great, I went for Mastodon, and they did a great job, but Coheed and Cambria put on such a good show that it completely blew them out of the water and turned me into a Coheed fan.

Ghost at Barclays Center right before the pandemic broke out, like December 2019, was a fantastic show. Death Grips at Terminal 5 way back in 2016. The Hold Steady in State College PA circa like 2007?

One I'm dying to go to that I've never been able to nab tickets for are the Yo La Tengo Channukah shows in Hoboken. Last year I even had a presale code and the presale tickets had all gone by the time I logged in, it's brutal out there man.

The last concert I went to was Postmodern Jukebox's Asia tour back in like...2015 or 2016. They came for two nights here in Singapore and I managed to catch one!

Not as many as I'd want to, but I've seen Cypress Hill, Franz Ferdinand, Gamma Ray and Ninja Sex Party live. I'd say Cypress Hill was the most fun out of those, but all concerts were really fun and I got to meet Gamma Ray in person too.

Papa Roach is the only band I've deliberately seen live. Yes on purpose phrasing there.

It was neat, though Jacoby tell a story about someone shitting on the floor of Manchester Academy mid-set was... an experience.

Otherwise the closest I've come was bands live at Heaton Park near Bury... when I was only there for the ice cream 'cus it was Ben & Jerry's Sundae (Manchester) 2011.

Gary Numan played! I remember that much, wasn't paying attention though

not seen many bands live until recently but wanting to do it more;

muse, 2015, newport, wales. were as good as everyone says live.
thank you scientist, 2019, birmingham, england. my favourite band and, even though the venue was small, the atmosphere was amazing.
thank you scientist, 2020, bristol, england. saw them again a few months later and right before The Event and were also extremely good. bigger venue, atmosphere wasn't as good.
anamanaguchi, 2021, bristol, england. really good live and the fact it was on a boat is always cool.
black midi, 2021, bristol, england. was not in a good headspace at the time but they were excellent.
trivium, 2023, bristol, england. really damn good but it was during a heatwave and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO HOT AAAAAA
hail the sun, 2024, bristol, england. was actually a supporting act for the fall of troy but they were both very very good. also got introduced to kaonashi whose latest album i've been listening to and it's damn good if you like mathcore.

I used to go to festivals a lot so the "have seen" list is pretty long, most famous ones probably are:

- Motörhead (rip Lemmy)
- Ozzy Osbourne (rip)
- Slayer
- Machine Head
- Alestorm
- Primordial
- Sólstafir

Although more memorable to me are some of the (relatively) smaller ones:

- Agrypnie (multiple times)
- Harakiri For The Sky (multiple times)
- Décembre Noir (multiple times)
- Nailed To Obscurity
- Nocte Obducta
- Dornenreich

Whilst I've been a music nerd since my teens, I've only started to properly go to gigs in the past decade or so, mainly because I finally found some people who were willing to go with me. These days I mainly just drag my partner to come see concerts with me, and they do the same whenever an act they love is in town.

Somewhat almost-comprehensive list of acts I've seen live off the top of my head (at least the most memorable ones):

• Bon Iver (2021)
• Bright Eyes (2021)
• Glass Animals (2021)
• The Go! Team (2015, 2016, 2018)
• Guillemots (2008, twice - once during a small intimate gig for competition winners and another "proper" concert)
• Janelle Monae (2019)
• Japanese Breakfast (2018-ish?)
• Manic Street Preachers (2025)
• Marianas Trench (2019)
• The National (2023)
• Porter Robinson (2025)
• Stars (2023)
• They Might Be Giants (2024)

I've also been to the Ruisrock festival in 2003 and in 2010 (2003 for the Manics, 2010 for The National, but obviously saw a bunch of other acts then too). Oh, I've been to check out the I've Made Too Much Pasta gigs at the last two Anthrocons and also went to the Sex Room mini-festival of furry music in AC2025 (bunch of small concerts from seven different acts in a tiny, sweaty basement - was brilliant).

Out of the above, my favourite gigs have been The Go! Team (always consistently super fun), Bon Iver (the most incredible light show I've witnessed live and really made the evening feel magical together with the music), The National (my sad dads <3) and Porter Robinson (the staging and "concept" of this one was truly memorable).

This year, I've still got tickets to go see Knower and Matt Berninger in the next couple of months!

Been keeping a setlist.fm for many years.

Best shows I've been to were clipping. and death grips. Amazing shows with a ton of energy

EpsilDelta wrote: Fri Jul 25, 2025 12:39 am Been keeping a setlist.fm for many years.

Best shows I've been to were clipping. and death grips. Amazing shows with a ton of energy

Oh heck yeah, clipping. are great

They Might Be Giants, Goldfish, and Anamanaguchi. Great acts, the each of them.

I don't often go to live gigs as I don't think I enjoy it as much as a good stand-up show or something but some of the ones I've been to I admit have been excellent.

- Cardiacs (twice), both brilliant (lead singer died in 2020 so the gigs I saw were most of the band, doing commemorative gigs
- Grandaddy (sort of, their lead singer performed one of their albums with a small French orchestra and it sounded amazing)
- We Are Scientists (twice, both at Uni)
- Weezer (we got to sing Happy Birthday to Rivers)
- Mars Volta (They didn't play their biggest hit)
- Superfood (A local band, now split up, but they were supported by a still active and very good band called Yak)
- Hot Hot Heat (my first ever gig at the good ol' Birmingham O2 Academy, where I caught a drumstick thrown into the crowd)

...honestly I think that's it? Hardly a festival line-up but it suits me.

I've seen tons of bands live, and I actually rather enjoy music festivals. Maybe I'll make a list of everyone I've seen at some point. Some of the more memorable shows...

- Underworld (twice!)
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor (twice!)
- Sunn O))) -- I was afraid the walls would crumble
- Iron and Wine -- I wish I had Sam Beam's singing voice
- Elbow -- Got to see them with my mom
- Yerin Baek -- one of my favorite Korean singers
- Broken Social Scene -- infectious energy and a cool horn section
- Kings of Convenience -- they are so freakin' charming on stage, I couldn't even
- The Go! Team -- holy moly that was such a romp
- The Walkmen opening for Fleet Foxes
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra opening for Tame Impala
- Regina Spektor -- what a beautiful human being she is
- Battles opening for Deerhoof -- Very loud. The Battles drummer is a beast
- That time a mosh pit formed at the Boris show and someone punched me in the boob despite my efforts to avoid the fray

There was also the Tim Hecker concert which went completely awry. What a shame. First, the abundant dry ice/fog set off an alarm and the fire department came. Then the sound system blew out. Tim himself got visibly annoyed. That was memorable, heh.