I'm trying to think of shows I have actually seen live myself. I use to go to tons of gigs, but for some reason, surprisingly little comes to mind. It has all become a bit of a blur, I guess. Especially festival shows. I did love seeing
Ska-P at Lowlands (2009 probably): never been as sweaty in my live.
But they're probably awesome under any circumstances. Similar for a Mexican party band that I saw but can't remember the name of. They made the entire audience move left and right through the tent; somehow no-one got crushed! A lot of Dutch rap is also great live under any circumstances, like
Opgezwolle (and related acts) or
Osdorp Posse.
Kyteman was also great at Lowlands.
The Whitest Boy Alive, also at Lowlands, may have been one of my more surprising experiences. Didn't expect much and just came over to have a quick look, but stayed the entire concert cause it was just so fun and danceable. One thing I also remember was seeing
The Cinematics perform in a small venue in Nijmegen for some 10 people (really!), and then two days later at a festival for a few thousand people. That must have been a weird experience for them as well. (But probably fairly common during the festival season.) Oh, one of my best experiences has also been
Hanggai, again at Lowlands. (Yes, I went there a lot and made sure to see tons of shows each year.
) They're a Chinese band that play Mongolian folk music. Kinda unexpectedly awesome: extremely danceable - and great fun to see bring people random crap from the festival terrain to keep making the party crazier.
I like it if bands try and add something to the album version. Like, I love progressive rock, but seeing it live is usually fairly boring, as they just copy their albums.
Rush even managed to play along to their own videos. At that point, the experience doesn't add much to just watching the video on YouTube at high volume anymore. I see
Steven Wilson mentioned above, and that was the same to me: great music and musician, but at his Hand Cannot Erase tour, every song was a note-for-note copy of the album versions. Not all that interesting live to me. In that sense,
Anne Soldaat did an awesome show in support of his In Another Life album.
I do think big concerts tend to disappoint compared to the occasion. I mean, as much as I loved seeing
Genesis live in 2007, it's still a stadium concert; not the best experience. I actually enjoyed
The Musical Box, a Canadian cover band that creates carbon copies of Genesis's 70s shows, more! But I did really love
Peter Gabriel on his Up tour. (2003 or 2004?) Podium in the centre, so everyone is close to the performance, a great show and setlist, and Tony Levin on bass.
Always the first concert that comes to my mind when thinking of great shows I've seen.