Band You Saw Live the Most Times

[Aiden]

Nightsblood, that Misfits story is insane! Hahaha!

[borrel]

Satan/Blind Fury/Pariah

Somewhere between 15 and 20 times

[bigfootkit]

Hmm, the bands i've seen most often aren't really Corroseum material, but there are probably some fellow fans here.

No.1 : SUPERSUCKERS, seen them at least 6 times over the years, because they always play like their lives depend upon it, and always with huge smiles on their faces. They never play the same show & they never play a bad show. The hardest working men in showbiz. It's always 'time to fly the finger' when 'the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world' come to town. It's an absolute crime that they've never risen above cult status. If you've never had the pleasure, do yourself a favour & go along next time they roll through your town. You won't have to long too wait & you won't be disappointed.

No.2 : WARRIOR SOUL, who i've seen 5 or 6 times. Yeah, his voice is destroyed now, but back in the day Kory Clarke & his merry band of men were an awesome live band who i saw at every opportunity. Glasgow was a bit of a stronghold for them in the mid-90's, particularly as they had a Scotttish guitarist at that time, so they came through town frequently & there was always a great 'hometown' vibe at those shows.

No.3 : probably METALLICA, who i saw at least 5 times between the 'Master Of Puppets' tour & 'The Black Album' dates. They were devastating on the 'Puppets' tour with Cliff, (for just £4.50 with 'Spreading The Disease era Anthrax as support), but less good each subsequent time i saw them. By the 2nd time 'round on the 'Black Album' dates they were a sloppy, bloated shadow of the band i used to love so much. Never again.

[ION BRITTON]

but less good each subsequent time i saw them

With very few exceptions, this could apply to almost every band I saw more than 1-2 times. For example, Priest were quite good with Ripper first time I saw them, but with a so-so setlist. Next time with Halford they had a better setlist, but I wasn't exactly astonished by their performance. Last time I saw them on their Epitaph tour they bored me to tears with Halford descecrating almost every track that demanded some kind of extra effort from his part. I decided that that was the last time I was paying to see my favorite heavy metal band.

I generally prefer to stay with the good memory of a great show of a band I saw live once, rather than risk being left with a bitter feeling by seeing them again after years.

Band I saw most times is Maiden (5-6 times). I don't intend to see them again firstly because all their albums the last 20 years are a dullfest and secondly because - unlike Metallica - they rarely change anything in their setlist as far as the classic tunes are concerned. Will not spend one single euro to listen to The Trooper and Fear Of The Dark again. And fuck me and my opinion, aren't they bored playing the same tracks 30 years now?

[humus]

I have to say I am somewhat surprised of the low numbers in this thread. Or do you guys only post the big bands and not the underground bands?
There's probably two dozen bands that I've seen more than 5 times, and I only started going to concerts in 2000. Then again, I visit 30-40 shows a year probably.

[Noisenik]

METALLICA, who i saw at least 5 times between the 'Master Of Puppets' tour & 'The Black Album' dates. They were devastating on the 'Puppets' tour with Cliff, (for just £4.50 with 'Spreading The Disease era Anthrax as support)

Holy crap, what a package. How were ANTHRAX then? I dare say you even remember the set-list.

I gather you were also at a gig of ...And Justice tour ...

[malegys]

Probably MELVINS, about 20 times, first time in Feb 1991 with their first UK gig. Second NAPALM DEATH probably about 10 times, first time in July 1987.MOTÖRHEAD comes a close third with 8 times, first time in November 1984 with PERSIAN RISK supporting.

[doomedplanet]

Things are different in the states. In the areas I lived for last 30 years many bands never come around That I would like to see or only afew times, then never again. I have seen Brocas Helm and Imagika probably 10 times, maybe more but have no ticket stubs and never kept track. Most of the big bands I would love to have seen many times at their peak, like Maiden or Priest. I stopped going to these shows because of very high ticket prices, which I refuse to support on principle and their new albums just do not interest me. $100+ to see maiden + 5 Hour drive to venue + hotels. Hell no.

I have to say I am somewhat surprised of the low numbers in this thread. Or do you guys only post the big bands and not the underground bands?
There's probably two dozen bands that I've seen more than 5 times, and I only started going to concerts in 2000. Then again, I visit 30-40 shows a year probably.

[bigfootkit]

METALLICA, who i saw at least 5 times between the 'Master Of Puppets' tour & 'The Black Album' dates. They were devastating on the 'Puppets' tour with Cliff, (for just £4.50 with 'Spreading The Disease era Anthrax as support)

Holy crap, what a package. How were ANTHRAX then? I dare say you even remember the set-list.

I gather you were also at a gig of ...And Justice tour ...

I know there's not a lot of love for Anthrax on this forum, but i always found them to be a consistently great live band.
I think i've seen them 4 times over the last 30 years & they were always thoroughly entertaining & really hard working onstage, far better live than their records. Benante, Bello & Ian are really underrated as a rhythm section. Tight as a duck's arse despite being constantly in motion. Not an easy trick to pull off.
The '86 Edinburgh show was no exception. If memory serves, they got an encore and played an unrehearsed Sex Pistols song.
As a bizarre bonus, i bumped into Wattie from The Exploited as we were leaving that show.
'Are you Wattie Buchan?' i asked.
'Aye!' he replied. 'Dae ye want ma autograph?'
'Err, no', said I.
And off he fucked. Lol.
As for the '..Justice tour', i saw them twice on consecutive nights. Tickets were now almost double the price of 2 years prior at £8, (a trend was developing).
Danzig were supporting & they got a pretty lukewarm response. I think i was the only person on either night who liked them. Missed the last train & got stranded in Edinburgh on the 2nd night, and bumped into Jason, Kirk & Lars whilst wandering the streets trying to keep warm. They were pretty friendly & easy-going and were happy to stand talking with us for a bit, signing stuff. Jason had us all laughing with his attempt at a Scottish accent. Just normal down-to-earth guys, at least then.
We lost one of our guys later in the night, after an incident with some skinheads, and when we finally found each other again at the station the next morning it turned out he'd been back at the hotel drinking with Danzig all night, and had been given freebie t-shirts & stuff and they'd signed a copy of their debut LP for him.
All whilst we'd been freezing our arses off outdoors worrying about him. What a dick.

[Avenger]

I have to say I am somewhat surprised of the low numbers in this thread. Or do you guys only post the big bands and not the underground bands?
There's probably two dozen bands that I've seen more than 5 times, and I only started going to concerts in 2000. Then again, I visit 30-40 shows a year probably.

If any note worthy bands actually toured where I'm at when I'm not away for work and don't consist of a single front man with a thrown together band missing all the other original members, (or at least the prominent ones) for a cash grab then I will attend. Problem is, only major acts do proper tours through the entirety of Canada. Most smaller ones just visit Toronto while touring the east coast of the US and call it a day. I can literally fly to most places in the US for cheaper then I can to Toronto and to drive there is a several day trip by vehicle.

I've also been seeing less shows as I get older due to being disappointed many times. I would love to visit KIT for example as the lineup appears to be impressive most years but that's about a $2,500 investment minimum and upon further consideration I usually decide to put that money else where.

If major cities were as close together in Canada as they are in Europe and quickly/cheaply accessible like they are there by train for example, it would be a different story.

It's a much different scenario here unfortunately.

[humus]

Maybe I project my situation too much on other people. Pretty much all tours pass within an one hour drive. I quite often drive longer distances so I could in theory see gigs pretty much every day.

I wouldn't spend my money on KIT (anymore). My cynical side takes over when I type this, but the last time I was there too many visitors were pre-occupied with patches of obscure NWOBHM-bands, and high white sneakers. Instagram wasn't even active at that time, but I'm guessing a lot of these people now feel the need to post party pics on instagram while at KIT.
I will die old and bitter.

[Andreas]

I will only post bands that I saw at least 10 times.

Manilla Road
Vulcano
Nifelheim
Ostrogoth
Immolation

I will spare myself the trouble listing the local bands.
Thing is that most bands, when on tour have at least a belgian gig and many of those bands do one tour a year, so numbers stack up quickly.

When I was in my grindcore/powerviolence period, you saw the same bands over and over.

On Keep it True, of all bigger fests it still is the fest where I get the least annoyed with the public.

[nightsblood]

Yeah, I too have tended to live in parts of the US where very few shows ever come through. One thing you non-Americans must remember is that the US is a HUGE country.It takes around 6 hours of driving at 60 mph just to cross North Carolina, and that's not even a particularly large state. So while some tours may have a lot of US dates, there are huge areas that are just too far away from any tour stops for folks to reach them.

Another problem is the lack of festivals in the US. You can't go to many fests where you see a lot of bands all at once. The cost for the ones that are in the US can be enormous. For example, when my wife and I went to ProgPower several years ago, it cost us something like $650 for the two days, and we didn't even have to buy plane tickets since we drove! But add up gas, ticket for two people, a hotel, food, a few shirts and records, and, well, two dys later you've spent $650 to see a few bands you really wanted to see, a few bands that turned out to be good, and a few bands that either sucked or that you didn't care about. For someone flying to ProgPower, you'd easily be looking at close to $1,000, especially if you wanted to do a lot of drinking and partying while there.

'Kit- great stories about Danzig & Metallica!

[bigfootkit]

'Kit- great stories about Danzig & Metallica!

Glad you enjoyed 'em mate.
I worried i'd derailed the thread a bit by going off at a tangent, (as is often my way), so to compensate the storied got truncated somewhat, but all the salient points were present & correct. Or as correct as 30 year old memories allow.
Perhaps a thread specifically for amusing/memorible close encounters with bands would be worth starting for tales like that?
To get back to the topic at hand, i do sympathise with you folks in more outta the way places in the States & other locales that don't get many shows. When i was a youngster the closest gig to me was the legendary Glasgow Apollo, where the likes of Status Quo's 'Live!' & AC/DC's 'If You Want Blood' were recorded, but by the time i was allowed to go to concerts at 14 or 15 years of age, the old place was in a serious state of disrepair. I only got to see Maiden/Waysted & Dio/Queensryche, (both in late '84), before they announced that they were tearing it down.
In early '85 we went to see our final Apollo concert, Uriah Heep, Pallas & Shy. The place got decimated at the end of the night as people pulled out, and left with, whole rows of seats (!), entire toilets (!!) and the like for souvenirs.
The final gig ever at the Apollo was The Style Council of all people two weeks later, but i've no idea how they were able to open the venue for that show as it had been absolutely destroyed by those memento-hunters.
Somewhere in here, amongst the mountains of crap which i've gathered over the course of my life, there should be lurking a blue velour arm rest from one of those Apollo chairs, 'liberated' at that Heep show back in '85.
After that, with no obvious replacement venue in the city for large concerts, bands just bypassed Glasgow altogether for many years, which meant travelling to Edinburgh, (at least), for gigs instead, which was a time consuming & expensive business whilst still at school, so i didn't see too many shows during those lean years. It wouldn't have been too bad if we'd been able to go to club shows, but because those venues sold booze we couldn't even do that as we were underage.
Finally, some bands started to use the old Barrowland Ballroom in the late '80's, and Glasgow was returned to the touring schedules of major bands once more. It's a fantastic venue in it's own right, and i actually much prefer it to the Apollo as it's all standing, has unrestricted views, a far better atmosphere & a sprung wooden floor which ensures that everyone is bouncing from start to finish, whether you want to or not.
That period did give me a greater appreciation for the bands i was able to see when the drought ended, and for what some of you folks in more remote areas go through, but I still look back at those lost years between 85 & 88 and kick myself over the bands & concerts i never got to experience at that time.