What was the band/artist that put on the greatest show you've ever seen? The question is greatest showmanship. Great music, great musicians are not necesarily the most important - (although it helps).
Who put on the best show?

1.) F Zappa - any of his tours...1974 was the best but you can't go wrong with 72, 73, 76 or 88 either

2.) The Kinks - Never seen a bad Kinks show but...(I know this is not the top of everyone's list) School Boy In Disgrace tour was a great show.

3.) The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. A true Rock Circus in the mid-70's - never to be duplicated.

Frank, Ray and Alex were three great ringleaders (Ray could still be).

John Fogerty: Once he finally decided to abandon his childish "I won't play Creedence" policy, he's blossomed into a late-blooming enthusiastic performer and crowd-pleaser.

Elton John: Always a consistentally excellent live performer.

Talking Heads: One of the greatest shows I've ever seen. Everyone in the audience was up and dancing throughout the concert.

U2: Same as above. Saw them very early in their career (after the release of the October album. They performed "I Will Follow" twice (once at the beginning, then again during the encore) and it sounded GREAT both times.

Supertramp on their "Famous Last Words" tour and Genesis on their "Mama" tour immediately come to mind. Peter Gabriel on his "So" tour as well, just to be able to have a "Biko" sing-a-long at the end of the concert was worth the price alone.

Jeff, I saw Elton John in 1985 on his "Farewell Tour" and he was terrible, I almost left early, except I wanted to hear "Bennie & The Jets", which was his encore. And THAT was terrible as well and I left before it was over. Worst concert I've ever been to, right there with Van Halen in 1984 when David Lee Roth forgot the lyrics constantly and the stupid solos he and Michael Anthony did. In contrast, I saw Van Halen again when they opened their tour in Houston with Gary Cherone and they were awesome, EVH was on that night.

I saw FZ three nights in a row at the Tower Theater in Phila. in 1988. My favorite shows ever. Every night a different set, wacky shenanigans, and a heart-shaped valentine's day cake from the audience with band requests - which the band then proceeded to do. The extended improvs were great with FZ pointing to individuals and sections, and using hand signals identifying key, style, time signature etc. Then he would fart around on the synclavier - the sounds coming out of that thing were truly bizarre. And the highlights were of course his great guitar playing throughout the run. Some of this has shown up on a few FZ releases. There's a lengthy clip on Youtube of a pre-show soundcheck from one of these shows.

That's an easy one - The Tubes 1976 Now Tour.

James Brown, the hardest working man in showbusiness, really lived up to that title all four times I saw him, but of course the first time was the most memorable.

Pete Townshend and John Lydon were both great showmen when I saw The Who in '02 and PiL in '92.

Pete wins out, because he was playing better music.

Prince, on the "Purple Rain" tour.

a tough one for me, as many concerts as i've seen i've never been one for the flamboyant bands, just straight ahead rock and roll.

for sheer showmanship and drama and pizazz i'd have to go with the elton john "red piano" show i saw last week, or blue man group, which was also a vegas show so i guess you expect that in vegas.

outside of those vegas shows i really can't recall anything that was over the top or outrageous. even bowie, who i saw on the "station to station" tour wasn't all that glitzy by then as the ziggy persona was gone.

gino vannelli was quite theatrical also.

for sheer sound and musicianship and damn good playing the CSNY 2004 tour was amazingly good as was the jackson browne/keb mo/ steve earle show.

and one of my all-time favorite shows was 10CC back in 77 on cold winter night playing to a half full house in cleveland music hall, they just plain played their asses off.

renny

May be cause it was my first concert in 8 years, but I'm gonna go with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They were the opening act, but, DAMN. The skin-tight pants helped, no doubt.

Being less than 10ft away from the stage was a factor as well, instead of 200ft away.

A few.....The Who 1982, KISS 1978, Genesis 1977, ELP 1977, Bruce 1986.

Bruce Springsteen 10/31/81 LA Sports Arena is still the #1 show for me in this category.

I've seen Mr. Springsteen 26 times over the years. With the exception of the two shows from the '92 Tour that I saw, all of them qualify as being the best for showmanship that I've ever seen. Plus, I have to give kudos to the guy for being able to hold 85,000 people for 4 shows in a row (I was at the last 3) at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles in 1985 to end the whole Born In The USA Tour. I never thought that anybody could keep a crowd that big (and with the reputation that L.A. crowds for being nonchalant) zeroed in on the shows like he did.

The Beach Boys once played to 500,000 people at a 4th of July concert in DC. The biggest concert draw I've seen was 85,000 for the Rolling Stones; luckily I was close enough to see them on stage, half the audience must have made do with the screens.

Tough one.....
lots of the ones mentioned are right up there at the top of my list too.
Bruce, Kinks, Elton, KISS, ELP, Genesis, Stones, Pink Floyd,, REM
ZZ Top, Cheap Trick, Porcupine Tree, Queen, Jefferson Starship, The Cure,
Todd Rundgren/Utopia, Neil Young, Midnight Oil, any intimate setting with
Victoria Williams.

There are some that are such a profound experience that I refer to them
as chuch. These would be Peter Gabriel and Patti Smith

Saw Tangerine Dream free on the Optical Race tour and that was sweet
(Andy Summers opened) but for hands down fun it had to be....
The J. Geils Band on the Freeze Frame tour...nothing but a houseparty!
The crowd was dancing and on its feet for the whole show even during the
beautiful Teresa (from Sanctuary) Good memories there.

peace,
joebase

sure would have liked to be in that half empty Cleveland hall for 10cc

Bruce is the best showman I've ever seen.

Laurie Anderson is hypnotic. I would gladly sit for hours and hours listening to her perform.

Annie Lennox has enormous star power, as does John Lydon.

Ian Anderson is a riot on stage.

And then there's Mick, of course.

I've Elton at least 12 times, and have never been disappointed, but the best performances were during the '76 tour with his full band from "Rock of the Westies". (only my second concert ever). There were a couple of surprises such as him performing "Empty Sky", and "Love Song" with Kiki Dee. The second best was his first "solo" tour in '79 with Ray Cooper. Hearing him do solo versions of things like "Harmony", "Roy Rogers", and "Ticking" was amazing. Also covering Jim Reeves "He'll Have to Go", and performing what was his latest hit at the time "Mama Can't Buy You Love" on just piano.

Others would be McCartney and Wings, you could feel the electricity in the air from the opening of "Venus and Mars/Rock Show", and it never let up throughout the night.

Billy Joel running all over the stage from Grand Piano to standup, and even climbing up the monitor cables like a gym rope.

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band on the last night of '81 tour in Chicago.
The whole band was outstanding, particularly Alto Reed. I can still picture him sliding across the stage on his knees while playing TWO saxophones at the same time!
During "Night Moves" where Bob sings "I awoke last night to thunder..." the crew decided to pull a prank on him and dropped a huge boxload of womens panties on top of him from the rafters. I can still see him laughing uncontrollably, as he tried to tell the audience the reasoning behind it.

Jeff

James,
Wow, I'm surprised and sorry that you caught Elton John at a bad time. I've been lucky - he was excellent the three times I saw him (although the 1985 "Farewell Tour" was not one of those shows).

Bruce. Especially at Giants Stadium in 2002. I had been laid off and just got back to work when my firend gave me a ticket to go with him and refused to accept any payment.
Southside Johnny
The ARMS Tour at MSG in '83. Clapton, Page and Beck.
Carlos Santana at the Pier in NYC.
Steve Ray Vaughn, saw him three times. Once in Avery Fisher Hall. Where George Benson started the show in the Summer Jazz Series, when Stevie Ray showed and turned up the volume to 11, all the regulars fled the hall and us rockers rushed to the expensive seats!
I may have more.

My favorite artists don't usually go for big production values but P-Funk in 1978 (I think) with the giant mothership landing, the costumes and the cast of thousands was a musical and theatrical blast.

For the rest, it was artists that blew me away by the force of personality and joy in performing.
Springsteen on the Born in the USA tour
James Brown - early '80s (I can't remember)
The Clash at Bonds
Smithereens last year