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Thread: What Are The Biggest/Smallest Shows You've Been To?

  1. #1
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    What Are The Biggest/Smallest Shows You've Been To?

    I'm talking crowd size. It occurred to me that I haven't been to a big show since seeing Rush on their last (?) tour, at MSG.

    But I'm pretty sure the largest crowd was for The Clash and The Who at Buffalo's Rich Stadium in 1982 I think.

    I realized since Rush is probably done, I may never see a big stadium show again. The biggest place I'll usually see a show at now is something like the Beacon Theater.

    Smallest crowd: a Braindance show at some club where there were like 10 people. No shame in that though.
    Last edited by JKL2000; 08-17-2017 at 07:30 PM.

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    Member paythesnuka's Avatar
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    Biggest Crowd(s): Genesis at Giants Stadium on "We Can't Dance" and reunion tours.

    Smallest: I saw Mastermind in some bar in Queens where I was one of four people paying attention to the band.
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    Member proggy_jazzer's Avatar
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    Biggest: ELP/Foghat/J. Geils/Climax Blues Band, Soldier Field, 1977
    Smallest: Sadly, Bent Knee at a club in Iowa City just this past April. A couple dozen, tops.
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  4. #4
    Pink Floyd 1977, World Series of Rock in Cleveland, 88,000 people, and in 1994 Floyd at the Pontiac Silverdome, over 80,000. I think if you're going to talk minimum audience it should be a named musician that at least has releases still in print (never heard of Mastermind or Braindance previously to be honest). I mean, I've been in bars where a band was playing and there might be more wait staff than patrons. But I did see Leslie West of Mountain at a VFW Hall keg party in River Rouge, MI in the early 80s and there wasn't more than a 100 people there.
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    But I'm pretty sure the largest crowd was for The Clash and The Who at Buffalo's Rich Stadium in 1982
    I saw that tour. Billed as final tour of The Who lol.. Santana was also on the bill at JFK stadium Philly. Over 100,000 people crammed in on a hot and humid day. It was fun being there as a teenager but like you my going to concerts at stadiums are about over.

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by paythesnuka View Post
    Smallest: I saw Mastermind in some bar in Queens where I was one of four people paying attention to the band.
    I saw Richard Sinclair in the basement lounge of a Chinese restaurant in Seattle. There were about five of us -- including Richard (with Heather manning a card table)! He took requests and asked each of us our names.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Dark Elf View Post
    Pink Floyd 1977, World Series of Rock in Cleveland, 88,000 people, and in 1994 Floyd at the Pontiac Silverdome, over 80,000. I think if you're going to talk minimum audience it should be a named musician that at least has releases still in print (never heard of Mastermind or Braindance previously to be honest). I mean, I've been in bars where a band was playing and there might be more wait staff than patrons. But I did see Leslie West of Mountain at a VFW Hall keg party in River Rouge, MI in the early 80s and there wasn't more than a 100 people there.
    Well, Adam knows who Braindance is and I know who Mastermind is. But anyway, I can't think of a widely known band that I saw with an embarrassingly small crowd. But I saw Thomas Dolby at Joe's Pub with a pretty small crowd (it's a small room).

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    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
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    Biggest:
    One of the 4th of July National Mall shows ( 80 or 81 ). Beach Boys, The Grass Roots 500,000+ in attendance.
    Wow, what a scene. Much wastage and music and fireworks.
    Smallest:
    Maybe Flower Kings at Jaxx in 2003. Maybe 15-20 people. Fantastic Show.
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    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I'm talking crowd size. It occurred to me that I haven't been to a big show since seeing Rush on their last (?) tour, at MSG.
    My largest show I've ever seen was Genesis on the "We Can't Dance" tour in 1992, at Dodger Stadium. I thank God for the screens since they really did look like ambulatory dots on that stage. But it was worth it, one of the highlights of my concert-going experience.

    Smallest is hard to measure. To be honest, it was probably that Fixx show in Petaluma I saw in 2014. Club was small and half-full. Good show, though.

    EDIT: Someone's post above reminded me that I've seen two Spock's Beard-related shows at the Baked Potato in North Hollywood in the mid-2000s. Ryo Okumoto solo with Alan Morse, and K2 (also with Ryo). Probably thirty people at each show, tops.
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  10. #10
    Progga mogrooves's Avatar
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    Rock Division:

    Biggest: Woodstock
    Smallest: probably the original Renaissance, or Manfred Mann Chapter III, maybe 50 people each.
    Last edited by mogrooves; 08-17-2017 at 10:01 PM.
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  11. #11
    I'm here for the moosic NogbadTheBad's Avatar
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    Biggest - probably around 30,000 for Pink Floyd in 88 at Maine Road
    Smallest - 6 to see Many Arms and Hyrrokkin in a Chinese restaurant in Columbus OH
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    Dylan and Grateful Dead at JFK Washington DC ~ 50K, Boud Duen < 50 at some club in Baltimore, unless it was Cheer Accident at Ryzome in Takoma Park MD several weeks ago that wasn't a much bigger crowd if at all...

  13. #13
    Member nosebone's Avatar
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    Biggest:

    The Who
    U2
    Pink Floyd
    Paul McCartney

    all at giants stadium

    smallest:

    Gov't Mule at 7 Willow Street PC NY in the early 90s

    25 people , poorly publicized show
    no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone

  14. #14
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    The smallest show is easy. My son and I saw the Devin Townsend Band and Symphony X in a bar with 25 other people. The ringing didn't stop for days.

    Biggest: August of 1969 in the mud with 500,000 other people.
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  15. #15
    largest: Rush in 1992
    smallest: Kansas in 1996 in a bar

    Quote Originally Posted by progeezer View Post
    ...in a bar with 25 other people. The ringing didn't stop for days.
    I left the bar after the first three songs because I wanted to keep my hearing and because it was painful. I did get to hear "Dust in the Wind" wind at 200 db, though.

  16. #16
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    Biggest……..probably either The Who or Pink Floyd in the old Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit. The place held 80,000 for Football. Not sure what the total was for concerts, but both were sold out. U2 at Michigan State Football stadium was probably close.

    Smallest……..I saw The California Guitar Trio at a house concert a few years ago which was very cool.

  17. #17
    Member FrippWire's Avatar
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    Largest: Led Zeppelin - Pontiac Silverdome - Pontiac, MI (4/30/77) - I don't know if the record still stands but it set the attendance record for largest indoor concert. 80,000+
    Smallest: Glenn Jones - The Cul de Sac guitarist did a private living room solo concert at a friend's home. Maybe 20-25 people in their living room.

  18. #18
    Two shows at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland:

    The Who in 89
    Pink Floyd in 94

    Those are the biggest.

    Smallest? I've been to lots of shows in small venues, including an art gallery, restaurants, whole in the wall clubs, etc, where there were less than 100 people in the audience (and at least a couple where there was less than 50.

    As far as "known musicians with recordings still in print", one of the times I saw Richard Pinhas was in a restaurant with probably about 50-75 people, if even that many. I saw the Mats/Morgan Band in another restaurant/club with about 40 people in the audience. And I think the audiences at Jacki McShee & John Renbourn, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Maria Muldaur (all at the same jazz club/restaurant, though on different nights) were all pretty small too.

    Oh, and the "I've never heard of..." line sounds like something my parents would say. In fact it was something they used to so regularly, when they'd ask who I was to see in concert, I started replying, "Don't worry about it, you've never heard of them" (and I still use that line a lot of times with people at work, etc, because they've never herad of Magma, Gong, Hawkwind, Nektar, etc).

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Bartellb View Post
    I saw that tour. Billed as final tour of The Who lol.
    If Entwistle had been able to keep his cash flow under control, the 82 tour might have stayed that way. It's a known fact that the only reason they got back together in 89 (and possibly even the mid 90's Quadrophenia tour cycle) was because Thunderfingers was on the verge of losing his house.

    BTW, I remember either Mad magazine or Cracked, I forget which, predicting, not long after The Who's 82 tour, that eventually, old bands would come out of retirement and do more touring. As I recall, the phenomenon was depicted with an elderly Mick Jagger, sitting in a wheelchair onstage, with a big fat nurse seeing to him, while an MC says "As soon as Mick is done having his pulse taken, he'll sing Get Off Of My Cloud".

  20. #20
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    But I'm pretty sure the largest crowd was for The Clash and The Who at Buffalo's Rich Stadium in 1982 I think.
    I wished I'd gone to Buffalo to see that tour, coz the Toronto CNE show wasn't very good... If only for the fact that Joe Jackson was opening instead of The Clash... and it was a disastrous choice... and TBH, the cold & windy conditions didn't help.

    I'm so glad I got to catch them again at the MLGardens a couple of months later... Much better show.

    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    The Who in 89
    Pink Floyd in 94
    Most likely, you mean 82 for The Who, coz I'm not aware they toured in 89.

    But yeah, it seems like Floyd in 87 (opening date of the tour) and 89 in Lille (France) and Who were also my biggest shows, by quite a margin too. Next up are the Hockey arenas concerts (many of them) in either Toronto's MLG or Montreal's Forum.

    As for the smallest, I got three or four candidates:
    For major artistes, it's a toss-up between Hammill at some Brussels Flemish anarchist club Exito 13, holding 25 places (and crammed with double that) in 92 and on the other side, The Police at The Edge in Toronto in 78 with 13 people in attendance, half of them won though a radio contest (I was one of them, and had trouble getting in, because under-aged)

    For more minor artiste:
    Steamboat Switzerland in Verviers' Spirit Of 66 (seven people in attendance, and four of them working for the venue)
    NeBeLNeST (same place) in the middle of a snowstorm, where the Luxemburg band No Name couldn't cross the Ardennes hills. We were something like 15 in attendance, five of them came in my car, profitting from my Canadian ability of driving on winter roads.
    Last edited by Trane; 08-18-2017 at 03:27 AM.
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    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    I saw Richard Sinclair in the basement lounge of a Chinese restaurant in Seattle. There were about five of us -- including Richard (with Heather manning a card table)! He took requests and asked each of us our names.
    We didn't have a mob for Richard in Cleveland, but we had more than that! He was shaking everyone's hand at the door as we entered, though.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by nosebone View Post
    Biggest:

    The Who
    U2
    Pink Floyd
    Paul McCartney

    all at giants stadium

    smallest:

    Gov't Mule at 7 Willow Street PC NY in the early 90s

    25 people , poorly publicized show
    how come its only 25?

  23. #23
    Biggest : Cologne Müngersdorfer Stadium 1977 Genesis, Manfred Manns Earth Band, Lake ...Gentle Giant was programmed (my main reason for having bought a ticket) but cancelled last minute. this and a David Bowie concert were actually the last Stadium concerts I saw....

    Smallest : Le Silo & Sebkha Chott in Le Mans in 2012 , unfortunately a Gong concert at the same time drained all Prog fans, from memory two people arrived one after the Gong concert
    Dieter Moebius : "Art people like things they don’t understand!"

  24. #24
    Largest - Yes / Frampton JFK Philly 76

    Smallest - Illuvatar in a Baltimore record store

  25. #25
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by moecurlythanu View Post
    We didn't have a mob for Richard in Cleveland, but we had more than that! He was shaking everyone's hand at the door as we entered, though.
    I remember I embarrassed myself by requesting "Fitter Stoke Has A Bath" (one of my favorite H&TN songs) and he replied, "Ooo, that's one of Pip's, not mine" -- but being the trooper he is, he attempted it anyway.

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