He was close to tears, half the audience was close to tears (or in many cases in tears) and the band then went on to play a storming set, including the entire Snow Goose.

Unforgettable.

 

 

1) When Edgar walked out with his guitar!

 

2) At the end, after the final encore (during which a technical snafu cut the sound), Edgar actually grabbed a mic and spoke! "Sorry, folks...but sometimes these things happen!"

From a prog standpoint....

Seeing Tull in the 1970s (Songs from the Wood).

Genesis playing the build up of the climax to 'Los Endos' in complete darkness 

Dagmar (Henry Cow) belting out 'Beautiful as the Moon'

The late Bob Calvert ripping up the US flag with a machete during 'Uncle Sam's On Mars'...

or

Todd Rundgren's Capella Tour.

Both mind-blowing.

 

Whoa! I mean...Woot!

My 1st concert was Marillion (Bataclan, Paris, 2001) with Porcupine Tree being the opening act, that was an unforgettable beginning. 

Porcupine Tree again in 2003. I was sitting in the corner of the stage (the Trabendo has a very low stage and security was nice) with my back againt one of those sound thing (sorry for my unprecise vocabulary). That was the most confortable and "vibrating" concert I have ever seen. 

King Crimson (twice in 2003 and 2016). Great each time. One funny moment when before the beginning in a Belgian open air festival (Dour), the usual announcement against smoking was made. 

David Bowie (Paris, 2002), only time I felt a shiver running from the front row to the last row (during Life on Mars). 

 

...the entire set!!!

His instruments were sent to Paraguay instead of Perú (PA vs PE IATA codes), and the concert was delayed for 4 hours (Started 1.00 am), I went with a friend to take a drink to the hotel casino where Rick was hosted and when it was time to enter, there was a three blocks row with people fighting (literally) to get in.

Suddenly saw Rick with his son with 4 gorillas (It was 91 or 92 and there was terrorism) and we decided to join his crew, a gorilla almost hit us, but Rick said let them come with us, don't you see they are fans and not terrorists?.

So we entered to the concert with Rick making jokes about little people all the 200 Mts. to the hall (It was about me because I'm 1.80 but my friend, Rick and his son were around the 2 Mts)  and signed our booklets, the next day everybody in the office knew I was in the concert, because my friend and I were in the newspaper entering to the show with Rick.

 

Great story, Ivan! Rick has quite a story about playing South America in his book Grumpy Old Rock Star, phony passports and all!

I picked up the "Solar Musik Live" CD, that was remastered and it shows how good this band was in concert. Listened to the CD like 5 or 6 times in a row ... that's how enjoyable it was.

As far as concerts? Can't say that I think of many of them as special moments, although I thought that YES was outstanding when they did TFTO at the Long Beach Arena, in either 72 or 73 ... can't even remember! 

Otherwise, I would say that Daevid Allen by himself around 75 or 76 when he was in Santa Barbara at The Wolf (a restaurant and small club at the time), was by himself doing "Divided Alien" ... and I think that it was the first time he used that title. He spent his time yapping in between things and played off tapes and by himself solo, on both acoustic and electric. It was very special.

Saw PF many times, but I would not consider those shows special, when compared to the number of bootlegs I used to have, many of which had a lot more interesting and better stuff, although I thought the opening, and the show at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972 was very nice indeed, however, I did not know the majority of their catalogue at that time, though I did have Ummagumma and ATM.

From a curiosity aspect, GONG was interesting. First time with Pip was very jazzy. Second time with Pierre was very strong rock'y. Third time with Chris was very disco'y.

And finally, KC in Seattle with the 3 drummers, was magnificent and a fitting tribute to their catalogue. I spent half the concert with eyes closed ... and it was a tremendous experience and it was very colorful with some amazing small touches here and there to bring it even more alive!

                   I also saw Boston on their very first tour, in the summer of 1977 at the Ottawa Civic Centre, and had excellent seats, and behind the band was a gigantic fluorescent backdrop image of the debut album cover of theirs. They played quite well.

            ELP on their first concert in Ottawa, in Jan. of 1993, in a small, maybe 500 seat civic centre, and it was a great show. They opened their set with the Tarkus suite. Loved it when they did a three section jazz trio thing that was awesome, with Keith leading on piano.

                     I missed out on so many great concerts, like Triumvirat opening for BTO in Montreal in August, 1975, as I was a latecomer to prog.

Not nice. But very, very funny.

 

 

My first ever big concert was the Tubes.  They put on a spectacular and elaborate show that simply blew my teenage mind.

 

Peter Gabriel in 1984 was also a highlight.

 

Allan Holdsworth in a small club in Eureka, California.  My jaw dropped at the first legato run and did not lift for the rest of the show.  Also saw Oregon there, when Collin Walcot was still in the band.  And caught John Scofield in an even smaller theater where both he and the bass player broke strings at the same time.  That was some hard jamming!

 

Much more recently, I caught Magma at a club in Seattle.  Incredible.  If I had seen them around the times of the others I have mentioned, it would have been a life changing event.  Even at my age and as jaded as I am, pretty darned impressive.

 

This one was remarkable but not because of its glory, rather the opposite, its sadness. Carl Palmer Band (trio with Paul Bielatowicz and Simon Fitzpatrick) at some forgotten rather small German town close to the Dutch border perhaps around 2008. I was living in Belgium at the time and I drove there with a friend, having booked a cheap hotel in the village for the night.

The venue happened to be tiny, something like a town social center where to hold parties or small exhibitions and things like that. The audience turned out to be perhaps 200 at most. The guys played well and the audience was enthusiastic enough, but I couldn't help feel sad seeing the great Carl playing what seemed like a high-school gig.

When the concert was over we stayed around and after a good while, when most people had already left, a big van drove in front of the venue and we saw Carl himself and the other 2 musicians with a little help from a couple of more guys loading himself his drum kit and the other stuff into the van. You know, the star who had had three trailer trucks with their names on the roof moving the equipment around the world, now loading his own drums into a van. That was really sad for me, "this is so unfair" I couldn't help thinking.

A bit later we went to the booked hotel to sleep, and it was really a very humble hotel. Next morning I wake up before my friend and I go downstairs for some breakfast, they served just coffee and toasts with jam. After some minutes I see Carl Palmer coming into the breakfast room and ordering some coffee and start spreading some jam on his toasts. The room was nearly empty and nobody seems to know who he is.

I couldn't help going to my car and picking up a CD of Tarkus I had and came in again and approached him to tell him I had loved the concert the evening before and asked him to sign the CD sleeve. He nodded and signed it but he was clearly not in good mood so I opted for leaving to my table and not disturbing him anymore. He didn't look at me anymore nor made any sign of gratitude or anything.

In summary, I felt really sad seeing a guy who had been at the very top, rated several times as the best drummer in the world, traveled in dedicated jet planes, being driven in limousines, staying at the best hotels...  now having to unload and load his gear in a van himself, staying in a nameless village hotel where no one recognized him....