Following my thread of “Greatest Music Video”, this thread is about recordings from live concerts and gigs, the audience, the ambiance, the lighting, and that legendary day when your band or singer really nailed it…! 
Nearly three decades between these two - just to get this started…!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b46zX4js0-c
Pearl Jam in Seattle, August 1991, 4 days before Ten was released. Absolutely on point. No cell phones waving in the air. A year earlier, I was in Tennessee, in some bar listening to some band called Green Day.
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That’s easy. Live aid 1985. Freddy absolutely nailed it. I don’t quite remember this performance because I was 1 but love Freddy and the band!
Ant
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Was just about to post the same . I was 18 into Mod , punk , new wave stuff at the time .Queen they were old hat and belonged to the past , but when they stepped on that stage that hot summers day it was mesmerising. I had been to many concerts but I’d never seen someone like Mercury involve and control the audience like he did .
The next day there was no talk of anybody else , the first thing people said was “ did you see Queen “ they just blew everybody else away .
Still to this day the best concert I’ve seen live or on TV.
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My first gig was over 50 years ago - Derek and the Dominos in a small club in Scarborough , sitting on the floor fifteen feet away from Clapton. That was wonderful, as was seeing Pink Floyd doing most of Meddle ,some of Atom Heart Mother and nearly all of Dark Side of the Moon - months before the album was released .
The eccentric but hugely charismatic Sufjan Stevens was wonderful at the Sage in Gateshead - we were nearly three times as old as everybody else but it was simply joyous .
I am a huge fan of Fatoumata Diawara who (apart from being drop dead gorgeous ) plays a sublime combination of traditional Mali music and electric blues. We saw her in Den Haag in 2018 and I’m sure the entire audience came away besotted .
BUT nothing has come even close to David Byrne’s American Utopia tour which we saw in Leeds in 2019 . Even on tv (amazon) it is stunning but live … ye gods and little fishes, it was life affirming
Music is like motorsport - you need to be there , in person
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Yes I watched the whole concert and as it continued in America. Eric Clapton was particularly good too, Quo opening if I remember and definitely Freddie was outstanding.
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My auntie use to clean Francis Rossi’s house for some useless info.
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Think Elton was the longest performance with that lovely hat. Love a bit of Elton as well. He is a close 2nd!
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I used to eat his ice cream 
Anything by Bruce Springsteen…
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I love a bit of “ Born to Run “ in the MX5 full blast with the top down 
I’ve been to absolutely loads of live concerts, and there’s 1 band that tops the lot of them by a clear margin for sheer entertainment - Rammstein, their pyrotechnics are insane!
This particular performance was recorded in Paris but I saw the same concert in the UK a few years ago, I’ll never forget it (The lightning effects from the keyboard player were post production but the rest is real)…
My memories are many and long ago, mostly before all the “necessary gizmos” that any performance seems to need these days. So my nominations are for two artists/groups who just held you by the power of any of their performances:-
- The Who
- Rory Gallagher/Taste
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2nd favourite live performance of all time is an older one:-
Agreed totally - Was going to post this one myself, but wanted to see if someone else did first…!! Freddie and Queen have been my favourite band since the start, and A Night at the Opera was the first LP I ever owned… Was lucky to see Queen’s final concert with Freddie in 1986 at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire… (The Magic Tour) Was a great day 
Rob
Is just under 41 years now since Ian Curtis sadly took his own life… I’ve said this before, but Ian was more of a poet than a singer, expressing in his lyrics much of his troubled short life…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD2SfQJOK08
And this is the Queen concert that got away from me… was in hospital having my bl**dy appendix out…!
Interesting topic, and I found it difficult to say why any of those I’ve seen were the greatest, but the one that had the most impact on my life was watching the Who in Bristol Uni Union on Saturday 7th December 1968. Outstanding concert too!
- I lost the top 4KHz of my hearing, permanently.
- I met my future wife.
I think the trade was worth it.
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Amazing Rob. I really liked visiting Garden Lodge in Kensington to pay respects! It’s like a shrine.
Ant
Bruce Springsteen at Old Trafford Cricket ground.Great sound as an open ground opposite the stage, and 3hr and 20 min on stage
The one I’d have done anything to have gone to if only I had known about it at the time
I’ve been to see metal band Bring Me The Horizon with my wife and we both agreed it was an awesome night, but this particular concert was held in the Royal Albert Hall (which I have also experienced and it’s incredible), they put together a full backing orchestra specially for it, and it was held to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust.
I have the DVD and have blasted it out in surround sound, but if only I could’ve been there…