[eleven59]

Thought this might turn into an interesting thread. Basically, what's a band that completely blew away your expectations when you saw them live? Either you expected them to be great and they were terrible, or you expected them to be terrible and they were great, or you expected one genre and got something else :lol:

For me, I saw a show a few years back and these guys were one of the openers. They came out with a hip hop intro track and broke into the song featured in the second half of this video (couldn't find a video of exactly what I saw, but this should give you an idea of how the show went).

Needless to say, I was expecting to have to sit through a generic hip hop set of some sort, and instead ended up with a full set of decent, catchy punk with great live energy and solid playing. :lol:

 

[105]

Mordred on the In this Life tour. I was a fan of the band, but their performance was just mind blowing. Perhaps the best show I've ever seen, and I've seen hundreds.

 

[Leon]

First time I saw Gogol Bordello, and surprisingly, Tonic. They kinda rocked :yesway:

 

[sami]

Back in 1992 (or 1993?) when I saw Prong/Sepultura/Pantera in Dallas, Sepultura (Chaos AD era) stopped playing and turned out the lights in the middle of the set. After a brief moment passed, lights turned back on, they were all hitting large congas. Mouth dropped and chill went up my spine.

 

[Helter Skelter]

First time I saw Gogol Bordello...

Did you wear purple? I had so much when they came out here, it was ridiculous. The only time I danced more at a show was when we saw Streetlight Manifesto.

The weekend before last we went to see the Pillows. They're not one of my favorites, but they put on a decent show... and the grunge band that came with them was awesome. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[jacksonplayer]

The Mars Volta. I already liked their music, but I had no idea how intense their live show is until the first time I saw them.

 

[Stitch]

These guys:

Was expecting a bunch of whingy shitty beatdowncore emo shit. Instead got one of the most intense, brutal and tightest technical death metal shows I've ever seen, and these guys are just slightly older than me.

 

[eleven59]

The only time I danced more at a show was when we saw Streetlight Manifesto.

I :wub: Streetlight Manifesto.

Actually, the show I was talking about in my first post was also the first time I saw Streetlight Manifesto. I was front row, right in front of the horn section, and I had never heard them before (though I'd heard good things about them, so I was less surprised :lol: ). The intro of "A Moment of Silence" blew me away. Absolutely the best horn section in ska, a ridiculously tight rhythm section, and some of the most interesting music I've heard lately. Tomas is a musical genius. My friends and I have decided that they've created an entirely new genre, which we have dubbed "Epic Ska" :lol:

 

[MFB]

Did you wear purple? I had so much when they came out here, it was ridiculous. The only time I danced more at a show was when we saw Streetlight Manifesto.

Man, I wanna see Gogol Bordello From their live videos I've seen it looks pretty intense

The Mars Volta. I already liked their music, but I had no idea how intense their live show is until the first time I saw them.

I've heard their live shows are ridiculous, been on my to-see list for a while

 

[7deadlysins]

Loved em before I seen them.....there is NOTHING like Gwar live.

 

[Josh]

Probably a toss-up between Tom Petty (who was just shockingly, amazingly good) and Limp Bizkit, who I utterly hate but who put on an absolutely killer show at the Summer Sanitarium tour.

 

[Leon]

Did you wear purple? I had so much when they came out here, it was ridiculous. The only time I danced more at a show was when we saw Streetlight Manifesto.

Orange :lol:. I hadn't heard anything from the latest album yet. All I had to go on were some acoustic, laid back tracks that my friend brought with her in the car for the ride there. I remember thinking, "Wow, this is going to be boring as hell."

I had growing-pain style cramps in BOTH calves that night/morning :lol:

:nlb:

 

[pardon miasma]

Two in the same show, when I went up to Louisville to see Carcass. Openers were some local opener, Psycroptic, Samael, Arsis, and Suicide Silence. Opener was as good as you would think when you think "brutal Kentucky death metal". Psycroptic owned faces and I was really disappointed that I hadn't brought any cash, because I really wanted to buy some merch since they'd come all the way from Australia when they wouldn't have made a dime playing what they play even if they were American. Samael was interesting, but their performance was dampened by the rumor spreading through the crowd that Arsis was a no-show (I'd later find out - here, actually - this was because James Malone had checked himself into rehab for 17-year-old-girl-that-reads-too-much-Us-Weekly-itis. Or anorexia or something. I'm still bitter, I forget.).

Then, Suicide Silence came on. I almost went and hid in the bathroom for their entire set, but I stayed when the guitarist and drummer soundchecked with "Man in the Box". I was rewarded with one of the most entertaining sets I've ever seen, both for the music and the unintentional comedy. The bassist had a fan to blow his hair around while he played. The vocalist had an ego box and about 20 bottles of water (in a one hour set, he used every single one of these on his hair :lol, and would do this absolutely bizarre bird-headbang thing every triplet riff. Look up "No Pity For A Coward" live on Youtube and mute it. You'll see what I mean within 30 seconds. The drummer had a little breakdown announcement bell on his drum kit, and he would make a huge deal out of hitting it. ******** screamed "Go back to California!" at them. And, of course, every single scene kid in that place was absolutely captivated. The music was heavy enough that all the other aspects of the performance made it good, and now when I listen to them I automatically go back to that place in my mind.

After this, on came Carcass. Remember that episode of Metalocalypse where Pickles reunites his hair band? And they're at rehearsal and he tells Michael Amott's character "I could hardly hear your guitar," and Amott tells him his amp is off to save on electricity? Apparently life imitated art, and convinced Bill Steer to join in. Guitars became audible about halfway through the show, and by that point we had missed "Carnal Forge," "Death Certificate," and "Corporeal Jigsore Quandary," so we just left. Fortunately, my disappointment in this was topped when I went to see Metallica last year, and they showed up. :lol:

 

[forelander]

When I saw the middle east I was absolutely blown away. Was not expecting it to be anywhere near as amazing as it was. There was also this local band whose first gig was at some metalcore gig (I think it was IKTPQ), who came out dressed in tight jeans, vests and other random indie attire. My first thought was 'jesus christ who are these indie jerks and what are they doing here?' Then I was treated to one of the most intense and amazing metal(ish) shows I'd ever seen. They've broken up but their ep remains one of my favourite albums to date.

Seeing isis was hugely disappointing, I was expecting something hugely amazing and epic and was just bored for most of the show.

Dillinger escape plan, while I anticipated being awesome, have still put on the best shows I've ever seen. Seen em 3 times, first was the best, I was at the back fairly non enthused by the supports, then all at once there was ridiculous strobe lights and panasonic youth started and I sprinted into the mosh pit. I really didn't expect to enjoy them as much as I did (and I expected to enjoy them a lot) but they've very much set the bar for live music for me.

 

[stealthtastic]

^ Huge +1 to DEP, they put on a fucking awesome show, they're absolutely crazy live.

 

[Gearwhore20]

Gwar. This show caused blood

Marduk. This show caused REAL blood.

 

[Gearwhore20]

Suicide Silence

Yea, saw them too and was thoroughly unimpressed. LOL @ birdbang

 

[Helter Skelter]

I :wub: Streetlight Manifesto.

....

Agreed! "A Moment of Silence" is one of their best in my opinion, but I really like "On & On & On" where it goes into Pachelbel's Canon. Who doesn't though?

I had growing-pain style cramps in BOTH calves that night/morning :lol:

:nlb:

Yeah, me too. We were also all drenched in sweat. The guys smelled soooooo bad. :lol: I can't wait until Gogol Bordello comes out here again.

 

[pardon miasma]

Yea, saw them too and was thoroughly unimpressed. LOL @ birdbang

LOL at everything, dude. That was the point. :lol: A Plea For Purging had the same effect on me when I went and saw them open for BTBAM.