The 35 Greatest Concerts of the Last 35 Years
We know, we know — the best concert of all-time is your friend’s obscure indie-punk band playing a sweaty neighborhood basement back in ‘94. We admit that one slipped through the cracks.
Maybe it’s a fool’s errand, but this list is our attempt to narrow down three and a half decades of worthy live music events — legendary festivals, headlining tours from major artists, one-off stage collaborations, multimedia spectacles — into an eclectic and satisfying blend. – Ryan Reed
35. Heilung at Castlefest (8/5/2017)
Music-related viral clips tend to be silly and easily digestible, like the dude riding a skateboard to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” while sipping on Ocean Spray. So it’s heartening that Heilung’s debut live show, a menacing and meditative performance at Castlefest in the Netherlands, has earned nearly 5 million YouTube views (as of this writing). The 2017 gig, later released as a concert film/LP under the title Lifa, presented the band’s multi-cultural “amplified history” to the wider world — using primal throat singing and chants, booming frame drums, crackling human bones and words inspired from ancient texts. – Ryan Reed
34. 2Pac and Biggie at Madison Square Garden (10/24/1993)
Even before the war of words and bloodshed, there was always a rivalry between the coasts. During a late November 1993 show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden billed as Budweiser Superfest, Big Daddy Kane brought out a young California rapper named Tupac Shakur, best known for his performance opposite Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice. Also on hand was a Brooklyn up-and-comer named Notorious B.I.G (or Biggie Smalls), who had a spot on the Who’s the Man? soundtrack that year and was emerging as a force within the New York rap community. According to DJ Mister Cee, Kane told him to invite B.I.G. to the show. “’Pac, Big, the Rugged Child Shyheim. We just brought all of them onstage, and the magic happened. I recorded that on a cassette inside Madison Square Garden,” Cee told MTV in 2010. It proved to be both a magic and tragic what-if — glimpsing what could have been in both artists’ careers had things gone differently. – Daniel Kohn
33. Genesis Reunion Tour (2007)
Genesis’ beloved ’70s lineup — Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Phil Collins — met in 2005 to discuss a possible reunion, but the talks quickly fizzled. Luckily, the latter trio carried on for the Turn It On Again trek: the first Genesis run since 1998 and first with Collins since five years prior. Given the frontman’s lowered range, they had to lower the keys of almost every track — a jarring change. But the band’s chops remained in-tact, and the career-spanning setlist seamlessly mingled prog epics (“In the Cage”) with pop ballads (“Hold on My Heart”). The tour wrapped that October with a North American leg, but the most memorable show came three months earlier at the Circus Maximus in Rome; an estimated half-million fans attended the rapturous, free gig, documented on the live DVD When in Rome 2007. – R.R.
32. Pearl Jam at Chicago’s Wrigley Field (7/19/2013)
Pearl Jam avoided playing U.S. stadiums for years — except in Eddie Vedder’s hometown. The band commanded Soldier Field in 1995 with a set immortalized as part of the band’s Vault series. Twelve years later, having conquered the house of Butkus and Payton, they rode up Lake Shore Drive for one of the first concerts at Wrigley Field, fulfilling a lifelong dream for (then) long-suffering Cubs fan Vedder. After gliding through seven songs under a scenic Chicago sky, a dangerous thunderstorm derailed the show for nearly three hours. But calm prevailed, and the band returned for the doubleheader: They steamrolled through an additional 26 tenacious songs, debuting two new cuts and even bringing Cubs legend Ernie Banks onstage. – D.K.
