Band You Saw Live the Most Times

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nightsblood
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Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by nightsblood »

Inspired by Rob & Christian's MOTORHEAD discussion is a different thread.

Ground Rules:
Not your favorite live band, just the band you saw the most times.

For me, it's easily DECEASED. Not a lot of metal bands come through the American South, where I've spent most of my life. DECEASED are a regional favorite, due in no small part to their willingness to get out and play shows to metal-starved fans at small venues in states like Virginia and the Carolinas. No idea how many times I saw them: at least 6, maybe 12. Sometimes as headliner, sometimes as opener. Highlight was probably seeing them with SIGH- how the hell SIGH ended up in NC I don't know, but I bet King Fowley was responsible... that was a cool show! Always entertaining band. I got to know King and Mike Smith through the old Metal Maniacs forum; Mike shared my love of obscure NWOBHM and old Pentagram demos. And while I know a lot of folks don't like King Fowley- he's very outspoken, and those early Old Metal releases were bootlegs- I always found that his heart was in the right place. He just loved metal and wanted to talk about it, he just talks with the volume & rhetoric turned up to 11, but he was a nice guy. No pretensions of rock stardom. Never trying to suck up to or impress anyone. Mark "Chainsaw" was also a super nice guy who unfortunately later left the band under strained circumstances.
I got into DECEASED before I ever saw them live. Heard 'Luck of the Corpse' and thought 'Meh', but 'Fearless Undead Machines' really hooked me, and follow-up 'Supernatural Addiction' was also a great listen. I say 'was' because those albums haven't aged that well for me. Haven't played them- or seen the band or chatted with the guys- in many years now.

BONUS TRACKS:
Best/Favorite Show Ever Seen-
MISFITS 1st reunion tour in May of 1996, at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit. Fucking. Crazy. Deserves it's own thread; at least its own post. But not tonight (sit down Dave Gahan, it is NOT your turn!).

Worst/Least Favorite Show Ever Seen-
RHAPSODY opening for MANOWAR at Ziggys in Winston Salem, NC, in, hmmm..... I think January 2004. I have only ever walked out of two concerts (I've walked out on plenty of acts, but just to go get a beer until the next band came on) and this was one of them. I only liked Rhapsody's 1st album, so by 2004 they had worn pretty thin, but the chance to get to see Euro power metal in the Southern US was very rare then (and still is) so I wanted to check it out. And Manowar is an old favorite, so the bill had lots of potential. Plus, i had been to plenty of shows at Ziggys and it was a decent venue.- not the best, but not bad.
Everything went wrong.
Lousy day at work had me in a shitty mood.
No one wanted to go with me, so I drove the 2 hours on my own.
For the first time ever, the club had hired real asshole security who wasn't letting folks leave and come back in. Typically, people ducked across the street to a bar if they didn't like the opener. But not that night. And you could tell these jerks were looking for ANY excuse to throw people out.
The guy running the sound board was trained by Helen Keller.
The guy running the lighting board was trained by Stevie Wonder.
Rhapsody's schtick just did not work. While they played OK, they were trying to ramble on about dragons and fairies while standing in a relatively small, wooden stage in rural North Carolina. It was like seeing Ziggy Stardust trying to wow a crowd in Smallville, Kansas, with zero technical support.
Manowar just sucked. Terrible sound, sloppy playing, and their rhetoric made Rhapsody's seem elegant by comparison. After 30 minutes or so, when they dragged some 13-year old kid on stage and started this long, rambling gimmick of 'knighting him into the Brotherhood of True Metal' (I shit you not), I thought to myself, "why the fuck am i standing here watching this shit?" and I left. The bouncers did not have to worry about me trying to get back in; I jumped in my pickup and drove 2 hours to get home, in an even worse mood for having wasted the time and money on a crappy show that HAD the potential to be really good.
"I'm sorry Sam, we had real chemistry. But like a monkey on the sun, our love was too hot to live"
-Becky
humus
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by humus »

Besides some local bands I'd have to say Bolt thrower. Seen them between 10 and 15 times in 5 countries. No real story here, I just loved the band and would try to catch them live often. I also never minded driving a few hours for a gig, even if it was just for one band. Metal has been a big part of my life AND of my ecological footprint.
Aiden
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Aiden »

I would guess it is Pagan Altar. Got to travel on the bus with them when they played Dublin followed by Belfast the next night. Always had a good bunch of fans who showed up at their gigs all over Europe and I got to know quite a few people from going to those gigs.
The best gig was probably in the chapel at Doom Shall Rise. Incredible atmosphere and an amazing location. I miss those nights...
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martinsane
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by martinsane »

Certainly not a metal band but Kings X I have seen almost every time they have come through the Pacific NW.

A close 2nd would go to local metallers Metal Church. Seen all renditions multiple times, ironically sans the Ronnie Monroe version...
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Pavlos
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Pavlos »

MAIDEN!!!!!!!

Bochum 1988 (Monsters Of Rock, my first concert ever!!)
Saarbrücken 1990
Stuttgart 1990
Frankfurt 1990
Mannheim 1992
Würzburg 1993
Stuttgart 1993
Saarbrücken 1993
Athen 1995
Thessaloniki 1995
Stuttgart 1995
Neu Isenburg 1995
Athen 1996
Athen 1996
Stuttgart 1998
Düsseldorf 1998
Athen 1998
Thessaloniki 1998
Offenbach 1998
Paris 1999
Stuttgart 1999
Athen 1999
Mannheim 2000
Stuttgart 2003
Frankfurt 2003
Stuttgart 2006
Ludwigshafen 2007
Frankfurt 2010
Stuttgart 2010
Frankfurt 2013
Frankfurt 2013
Oberhausen 2017

Bonus:
Freiburg 2018
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bastard priest
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by bastard priest »

Entombed. 6-7 times in Turkey, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia.
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rumblefist
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by rumblefist »

Maiden.

Between 1984 and 1990 - 6 times

Never saw them again

From the local bands probably Tarantula or Thormenthor :

[youtube]plwra6zco8M[/youtube]
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Le fjump
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Le fjump »

Portrait 12 times
Candlemass 8 times with very different lineups
Nifelheim 7 times
My steel isn´t true and that makes me a sad panda...
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Khnud
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Khnud »

I’ve seen Motörhead at least 15 times, and they were probably my favourite band to see live. For me, they’re not a ”songs only” band, I own all of their albums and love every single one to bits. They used to play quite often around these parts, likely due to one of the members being Swedish. So from 1998 up until 2013 or so I saw them play at least once per year.

Don’t know who comes next to be honest. Dio 4 times, Saxon 4 times, Portrait 4 times might come second. But I’ve never kept track of my concerts.
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Heavy
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Heavy »

I think it's 'Kenny Powell's Omen™' :P for me - 6 times (with 10 different band members all together)... I am a big fan of original line-up's work, but have never travelled only for this band (as most of these concerts were festival appearances with other goodies on the bill). A couple of these six were quite awesome concerts... a couple of these were quite amateur-ish.

The second place with 4 times each: Manowar (the best every time), Helstar, Manilla Road.
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nightsblood
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by nightsblood »

Glad Manowar was good when you saw them. Similar to SLAYER, their live shows seem to vary in quality a lot from night to night; some concert reports are great, some are terrible.

#2 for me is probably MISFITS. Not metal, but metal fans have a strong affinity for them, and they're one of my most favoriteist bands ever. Seen 'em 4 times in four different states:

1996 in Detroit, MI- see below

1997 in Lubbock, TX- good show in a small bar

1999 in Milwaulkee, WI- part of 'Milwaulkee Metal Fest '99', which was a pretty shitty festival overall, but then again none of Jack Kosnik's festivals had a very good reputation back then. This one had a big punk contingent at it b/c one of the stages was used for some 'Legends of Punk' tour that happened to be going on at the time, so i got to see acts like UK SUBS. The big headliner was CRADLE OF FILTH, making their 1st US appearance. They sucked so bad! I remember there was some dude on the plane in a Cradle shirt; I kept asking him what other bands he wanted to see, and all he could say was, "uh, I'm really just going to see cradle". Poor, deluded wanker! Festival highlight was probably IN FLAMES (1st US appearance I think), who destroyed the stage for their 20-minute set, and MORGION, who were incredible. But way too many cancellations and crappy Relapse bands overall. Funniest thing was watching NILE completely and utterly fail to get the audience interested until they broke down and played a SLAYER cover song.

ca 2001 in Winston Salem, NC. I think this was literally days after Graves and Chud quit the band, so Jerry was singing, which was a disappointment b/c I do not like Jerry as a vocalist. Not a bad show otherwise. Highlight was actually getting to see the opener, MURPHYS LAW, who are terrific live. Jimmy Gestapo did such a great job working the crowd that night. At one point he was asking "who wants a beer?" and some dumbass vegan type in the front row started heckling him about "beer is for meat eating losers". Jimmy just tore him to shreds. "What the fuck's your problem? There's no meat in beer dumbass! Here, let me show you" as he poured the beer on the guy's head.

Now, about that '96 show.... this was the band's first reunion tour. 'American Psycho' wouldn't be released for another 12 months, so the band was playing all the old stuff; only new tunes were early versions of 'Blacklight' and one other. If you don't know, Detroit is MISFITS unofficial home town. Kids and bands from Detroit, like NECROS, are largely credited with spreading the Crimson Ghost gospel and helping elevate the band to the mythical statue they achieved during the years following their breakup.
I got hooked on MISFITS during a road trip in '95 with a friend from Detroit who had been into them since the early 80s; we hit it off in class b/c i was the only person on campus who seemed to know the skull logo on his leather jacket was the Crimson Ghost, and he was the only person on campus who knew 'Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1' is the best heavy metal album ever made :) So when, the following year, we found out MISFITS were gonna play Detroit, we HAD to go. I actually had to move out of my dorm and live in his spare bedroom for a couple of days b/c the concert was a day or two after the end of the Spring semester.
Now I had never been to a Hardcore concert like this, much less one in downtown Detroit. I had seen some hardcore/crossover acts in Toledo. But this was MIFITS. In Detroit Rock City, murder capital of the world. My buddy had warned me it would be rough and I'd better be careful- fights, stabbings, etc were inevitable. He was especially worried b/c I still had a noticeable Southern accent. His advice was "don't talk to anyone; if they hear your accent they'll think you're a country redneck and start beating the shit out of you". Duly warned!
So he, his fiance, me, and a couple of other people get to Saint Andrews Hall, which has one big room and a wrap-around balcony on the second floor, and I immediately get separated from the others while the bouncer pats me down extra thoroughly. The place is jam-packed with hundreds of dopeheads, punks, headbangers, skinheads, and every other form of lowlife you'd imagine showing up to a MISFITS concert. Again, this is Holy Fucking Ground for MISFITS fans, and it's the band's first show here since Glenn left over 10 years prior. The place is PUMPED. I cannot find my mates. So I just hang out in the middle of the main floor and wait.
There were no opening acts; I think everyone knew better than to give this audience a target or to make them wait longer for their heroes to return. The lights drop, four coffins onstage are kicked open, and the opening chords of 'Halloween' are launched into.
The place goes totally fucking insane.
The entire floor IS the pit, and everyone is looking to hit someone. Me and this short guy in a flannel shirt and glasses end up back to back, blocking punches and throwing elbows, just barely able to keep from getting overwhelmed. 30 feet to our right a gang of skinheads are making war on anyone within arms' reach, throwing up 'sieg heil' signs every chance they get. The band tears through 5-6 songs before they pause long enough to speak, and then they launch right back into more. The bouncers are throwing people out as fast as they can, and they cannot keep up. I watch a bouncer approach some spike-wearing asshole on my left. The asshole swings but the bouncer ducks, then shoots up, grabbing the dude's neck, then lifts him and choke slams him to the concrete floor. He kneels on the guy's chest and 2 seconds later there are three other bouncers on top of him. Each bouncer grabs an arm or a leg, and they carry the guy to the doors where they literally heave him into the middle of the street. Meanwhile, kids are climbing the PA and diving out of the second floor balcony into the crowds below.
The band plays for almost 3 hours nonstop.
Eventually my mates find me; they had immediately gone upstairs since they knew what would happen on the main floor....they just forgot to tell me! My buddy's response on finally spotting me about halfway through the show, "Christ man I thought for sure someone had knifed you and thrown you in the river out back, how the fuck are you still standing?" I just grinned and waded back into the chaos.
Best fucking show I've ever seen :)
"I'm sorry Sam, we had real chemistry. But like a monkey on the sun, our love was too hot to live"
-Becky
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Khnud
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Khnud »

Hell, Alan, didn’t know you were such a mosher. :-)

Reminds me of when I saw METALLICA for the first time, at Roskilde Festival 1999. Around 40.000 to 50.000 people in the crowd (they’re HUGE in Denmark due to Lars Ulrich). The first day of the festival I managed to slam my right tibia on a metal staircase, causing myositis in my leg and it swells up to twice its’ normal size. But no way I was going to let this hinder me from seeing the bands I want to see, right?

So of course I end up 30 meters from the main stage with tens of thousands of fans behind me, barely able to stand on my right leg. And when the show starts there is this huuuge pressure wave from the back as everybody is trying to get closer to the stage. This was before Roskilde added the security fences at the main stage, after 9 people were killed the year after (yeah, I was at that concert too...). The pit is trying to form, but everything is so tight people are sort of rolling left and right, back and forth like waves. And I’m starting to wonder how the heck this is going to end with my leg being in the condition it’s in. Theres just no way out of there.

Well, turns out there’s this huge Dutch fellow standing right next to me, and he wants to crowd surf. ”I want up!”, he was yelling repeatedly, and I don’t know if it’s his kind of having fun or if he’s getting claustrophobic. So I try my best to lift him up, but I’m just about the only one. So naturally I can’t lift him but he decides I’m a nice guy and proceeds to body slam everyone coming within half a meter from the both of us during the remainder of the concert. So afterwards I was pretty much unscathed, besides having to visit the doctor directly when I got home and was prescribed penicillin and pain medication for 10 days to get rid of the infection.
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Hans
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Hans »

Testament , 10 times followed by Overkill 9 times, Saxon 8 times.
Good live stuff.
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Avenger
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by Avenger »

Not at all obscure but Priest 6 times from 2002 up until a few years ago throughout Alberta. I guess Maiden, Anthrax and Metallica would come in next at 4 each. Only really see the bigger bands during major tours in this neck of the woods.
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doomedplanet
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Re: Band You Saw Live the Most Times

Post by doomedplanet »

Testicle! I might have seen them that many times. I never kept track...
Hans wrote:Testament , 10 times
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