5 most important prog concerts you have been too

That's still better than me. At least when it comes to prog artists. Closest would be Maiden, and they're only considered prog related...

BaldJean wrote: Squonkman wrote: darqDean wrote: Electric Light Orchestra, Northampton Cricket Club Clubhouse, 1970/1(?) This was their first tour as a band and Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan were still a part of The Move at the time; the cellists didn't have their electric cellos and most of the tunes didn't even have proper titles (the working titles Jeff Lynne announced them as are unprintable here). I saw the Move and Wizzard at the same venue a few weeks either side of this gig (I was a major Move fan at the time) and one of my all-time favourite groups, The Kinks, a month or two later. Support was by a three-piece local band called Orphan, who dressed in brightly coloured workman's overalls and the only thing I can remember with any certainty is that they covered Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive surprisingly better than I first feared when they announced it.     Wow, you were going to see obscure unknown prog groups at small clubs when you were 13 years old?!! Sheesh, were you doing calculus problems by the age of 6? That is quite impressive. Did your parents take you to gigs like this? I think you may have won the earliest prog concert award at the youngest age with that one. lol, I have been going to concerts of obscure prog groups all my life, because my parents took me with them, even when I was still a baby

Squonkman wrote: darqDean wrote: Electric Light Orchestra, Northampton Cricket Club Clubhouse, 1970/1(?) This was their first tour as a band and Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan were still a part of The Move at the time; the cellists didn't have their electric cellos and most of the tunes didn't even have proper titles (the working titles Jeff Lynne announced them as are unprintable here). I saw the Move and Wizzard at the same venue a few weeks either side of this gig (I was a major Move fan at the time) and one of my all-time favourite groups, The Kinks, a month or two later. Support was by a three-piece local band called Orphan, who dressed in brightly coloured workman's overalls and the only thing I can remember with any certainty is that they covered Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive surprisingly better than I first feared when they announced it.     Wow, you were going to see obscure unknown prog groups at small clubs when you were 13 years old?!! Sheesh, were you doing calculus problems by the age of 6? That is quite impressive. Did your parents take you to gigs like this? I think you may have won the earliest prog concert award at the youngest age with that one.

lol, I have been going to concerts of obscure prog groups all my life, because my parents took me with them, even when I was still a baby

Tool - 10,000 Days tour.  I was 7th row from center stage.  It was incredible being that close and just the fact that they put on a hell of a show.

King Crimson - Power To Believe tour-ish (reformed as Projekt 2 due to Adrian's flu).  It was not only in a small venue, but someone was nice enough to let me and my dad sit with them which was nicely located in front of the stage.  Robert allowed for a 30 minute question and answer period after their performance to make up for the missing presence of Mr. Belew. 

Acid Mothers Temple - 2008.  AMAZING. These guys play/dance their hearts out and everyone has a great time.  There was a reference to A Long and Winding Road, and a breif moment of Close to the Edge.  They closed the show with the incredible "Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo".  My sister's friend was a big prog fan too so we got to discuss prog after the show, and I was able to purchase an album directly from the band which was very cool.  Plus Higashi Hiroshi looks like a bad ass wizard.

Sigur Ros - Takk tour.  Close to the stage again, a concert hall so it was fancy-ish and had great acoustics.  The band played great, but the audience was somewhat impatient and rude (when is it not?).  Constant photos with flash when the band specifically asked for people to NOT take pictures, and during briefs pauses in the music (you know dynamics and such). The audience would start clapping. 

Dream Theater - 6 Degrees tour.  I am no longer a DT fan, but this was a good concert for me.  I enjoyed the band (at the time) and the audience was awesome.  It was full of people that actually wanted to be there and enjoy some music.  There were no interruptions, no talking during performance, and appropriate compliments and clapping.  Everyone loved it when DT busted into 2112. The audience was courteous about seating/standing too, which is so very rare.

Yes - 2001.  It was a good concert.  They were older, and I was further from the stage, but could see and hear just fine.  There was no Wakeman but they still played great and had a good line up of sons (no Owner of a... !!! Whew!).  Although the concert was marred by the drunken shouts of middle aged attendees who would randomly shout "I LOVE YOU JON" and "STARSHIP TROOPERS! THIS IS IT" (this was shouted 3 or times before the couple was actually correct about which song was being played).

Too many to list but these standout:

Man Erg wrote: BJ Bowie! Wow! I knew that he was a VdGG/Hammill fan... He once said that he was the 'poor man's Peter Hammill'. Tonight would have been on the list but I couldn't get tickets for Harmonia who are playing the RFH as we speak.

oh, and I forgot to mention: Fish was there too, of course

I forgot to mention seeing Faust on a couple of occasions when they reformed in the 90's and Ash Ra Tempel at the RFH.Ash Ra Tempel's line -up that night was just,and I say only,just,Manuel Gottsching (natrually) and Klaus Schulze!

Man Erg wrote: BaldJean wrote: Man Erg wrote: VdGG crop up a few times in my list. I saw them on the Godbluff tour .Then again at the very first Britsh gig by Van der Graaf at the Chalk Farm Roundhouse and once more at the reunion gig in 2005 at the Royal Festival Hall.I've seen VdGG/Vdg about 30 plus times over the past 30 odd years. Other notable gigs were Genesis,Lamb Lies Down... gig at the Empire Pool,Wembley on Gabriel's last ever British tour with Genesis and Genesis,Trick of the Tail tour at Hammersmith Odeon,June 1976,Genesis's first tour post Gabriel. Peter Gabriel's first solo gigs at Hammersmith.I was also at the infamous Battersea Park gig when Gabriel supported The Stranglers .The police stopped The Strangler's set because strippers joined them onstage. did you look out for 2 bald women at the RFH gig of VdGG? Of course BJ I was also in 'awe' of other 'famous' acolytes at the gig. I saw Marc Almond,Mark E. Smith and John Lydon.They weren't energy vampires on that night as VdGG/Hammill were/was so stupendously good.

we saw Bruce Dickinson and David Bowie

BaldJean wrote: Man Erg wrote: VdGG crop up a few times in my list. I saw them on the Godbluff tour .Then again at the very first Britsh gig by Van der Graaf at the Chalk Farm Roundhouse and once more at the reunion gig in 2005 at the Royal Festival Hall.I've seen VdGG/Vdg about 30 plus times over the past 30 odd years. Other notable gigs were Genesis,Lamb Lies Down... gig at the Empire Pool,Wembley on Gabriel's last ever British tour with Genesis and Genesis,Trick of the Tail tour at Hammersmith Odeon,June 1976,Genesis's first tour post Gabriel. Peter Gabriel's first solo gigs at Hammersmith.I was also at the infamous Battersea Park gig when Gabriel supported The Stranglers .The police stopped The Strangler's set because strippers joined them onstage. did you look out for 2 bald women at the RFH gig of VdGG?

Of course BJ

I was also in 'awe' of other 'famous' acolytes at the gig. I saw Marc Almond,Mark E. Smith and John Lydon.They weren't energy vampires on that night as VdGG/Hammill were/was so stupendously good.

Man Erg wrote: VdGG crop up a few times in my list. I saw them on the Godbluff tour .Then again at the very first Britsh gig by Van der Graaf at the Chalk Farm Roundhouse and once more at the reunion gig in 2005 at the Royal Festival Hall.I've seen VdGG/Vdg about 30 plus times over the past 30 odd years. Other notable gigs were Genesis,Lamb Lies Down... gig at the Empire Pool,Wembley on Gabriel's last ever British tour with Genesis and Genesis,Trick of the Tail tour at Hammersmith Odeon,June 1976,Genesis's first tour post Gabriel. Peter Gabriel's first solo gigs at Hammersmith.I was also at the infamous Battersea Park gig when Gabriel supported The Stranglers .The police stopped The Strangler's set because strippers joined them onstage.

did you look out for 2 bald women at the RFH gig of VdGG?