HOLY SHIT! THAT WAS ACTUALLY F'N PRETTY COOL.

[GRIFT]

So last night I took my Dad to a Blue Oyster Cult concert for his birtday/Father's day. I've always been kind of aware of their work but man did they rock live. Both guitarist were amazing (epic guitar solo's galore!), they had an amazing bassist touring with them (who did a cool medley of all the other bands he'd toured with prior [Quietriot/Whitesnake/Ozzy] during the breakdown of Godzilla), and the drummer wasn't bad either. They even played off the More Cowbell joke abit during their intro.

All and all, the concert completely exceeded my expectations. So EWB, when has this happened to you? When has a band's awesomeness totally taken you by surprise?

[VerbalPuke]

Probably ZZ Top. This was actually my first concert, and while I had always appreciated their work I also would never call them a favorite of mine. To this day they are still one of the best live acts I have ever seen. They just flat out fucking rocked, they had a great stage presence on top of sounding absolutely amazing. They played a flawless show, it's been nearly ten years since that show happened and I still am meaning to hopefully see them one more time.

Also a group called Flatfoot 56 whom I had never heard of played at the one and only show I ever played. They were sort of the big name act for this show (not a house hold name, but have garnered an underground following, playing with some pretty well known punk acts) and I didn't know what to expect. The best way to describe them is a couple of punks and skinheads playing celtic punk with christian themed lyrics. They were high energy, tight, and really interacted well with the crowd. They were also very nice guys which was a bonus, and I'd end up seeing them again opening for the Anti Nowhere League. I'm not going to say they upstaged the League, but they sure as hell blew the other opening acts right out of the fucking water.

Edited June 22, 2009 by VerbalPuke

[RPS]

Billy Talent. I saw them play a few years ago when their debut had just come out. I wasn't a fan and expected them to be complete and utter shit. Turns out they are really really great live and I came to respect them after. Great live band that got me to actually like their back catalogue.

[Krone]

3OH!3 at Warped Tour last year. It was the first concert I had ever been to and wasn't expecting much from them. My friends were all like "Oh, let's go and see 3OH!3" and it so happened they were one of the first acts of the day. So we decided to go and see them and boy did they bring the place down. For the rest of the day, everyone else we saw was a letdown compared to 3OH!3. They just did something that hit with not only myself and my friends, but the crowd as well. To see how big they are now, it's kind of a testament to just how connected with the fans they were really.

[Hellfire]

Staind. I wasn't a fan of them until I saw them live. It was an outdoor concert and after being sunny all day, as soon as Staind came out it started drizzling. The atmosphere was depressing as hell, which just added to the performance.

My recollection of how awesome they were might be a bit skewed though, because The Dropkick Murphys came out after them and blew me away.

[Liam]

I expected that Placebo would be worth my time seeing at Reading, but they were potentially the band of the weekend for me. One of those acts where you forget how much you know that they've done, and they sounded excellent.

[The Kraig]

Papa Roach. Went into it not expecting much, this was after they did Lovehatetragedy. I loved Infest but never really kept up with them. They were amazing live, it was in a very small venue in Glasgow, and it was fucking awesome. What surprised me as well is that the sound system was shit, and was literally deafening everyone with static and feedback when the support bands were on. People had to leave the hall to think clearly. Then when Papa Roach came on, everything was perfect.

I suddenly knew every song, and a merry time was had by all. Coby was crying on stage, it was a very intense crowd, and apologised for not coming back sooner.

Still my favourite gig, and they're not my favourite band. But it was such a great gig. I wish every gig could be like that.

[Troy Maskell]

I have two.

The first is The Choirboys (They were an Aussie One Hit Wonder group basically) who were playing at the Hallam as support for Noiseworks, so I showed up not expecting much. But they pretty much blew me away with their performance and I've actually gone looking to try and track some of their stuff down.

Icehouse for number two. A band I loved as a kid. They pretty much stopped touring 10-15 years ago, before I could ever go. Then they said they would reform for one night for the Sound Relief Concert for the Victorian Bushfires. To say I was dreading it was an understatement. I didn't want to see them tarnish themselves but goddamn they were the band of those concerts in my opinion. I loved every moment and it was worth every cent of my ticket to go there

[zero]

Echoing Papa Roach, they know how to put on a good show.

Also, Godsmack. I really can't stand their music, especially once I stopped being an angst-ridden 15 year old, but they're one of the best live bands I've ever seen. The jump in quality between their albums and their shows is off the charts.

Edited June 26, 2009 by Zero

[giveemwar]

This happened quite a few times with me.

Daughtry - the whole "American Idol contestant" title was always misleading. He blew me away.

Staind - their dominantly-acoustic radio singles definitely don't show how hard they rock.

Atreyu - I had one of their albums but after seeing them at Taste of Chaos, they stole the show, even with my two favorite bands there.

[livid]

I like BB King but when I saw him live, he impressed me. But that had more to do with the fact that he's almost 84 (I saw him 4 years ago too) and he can still play with the best of them.