Music Performances That Made You React Emotionally
 

What musical performances have you seen either live or on video that made you really "feel" something, whether ecstatic, angry, sorrowful, or just plain happy? For me, one of the top ones has to be Jimi Hendrix's set at Woodstock. I know, kinda cliche, right? I have a pretty complete video of his show then and it blows me away every time, I have to wipe my eyes because they start tearing up.

Re: Music Performances That Made You React Emotionally
 

Good thread! Music has been an important part of my life so I could probably write a book on this topic. But I'll limit myself to the most recent time I was just blown away. Devin Townsend performing Kingdom for EMGTV.

I knew of Devin from when Steve Vai selected him as his singer when he was 17 years old. He stayed with Vai for a bit, left, and started some extreme metal bands which I was not interested in at all. Then he started a solo career. I'm not familiar with his music besides having heard a few songs here and there on SiriusXM.

Then a couple of months ago, for some reason the video for Kingdom showed up in my Youtube feed, and out of curiosity or boredom I clicked on it.

When he started singing at about the one minute mark my jaw dropped. As the Brits might say, I was gobsmacked. It's an incredibly powerful, clean, almost operatic vocal that builds to a fry that you'd think would shred his cords, then he seamlessly returns to clean for the "Stay with me, Lord" chorus.

It's a moving, uplifting song that is buoyed by Devin's humor and mugging for the camera. For example, he says he's going to play the most epic guitar solo in EMGTV history, then proceeds to tremolo pick a few notes (the irony is that he's such a good guitarist he probably could rip off an epic solo).

There are a lot of songs that move me, from Pink Floyd's Time to Allman Bro's Blue Sky to Opeth's Coil to Irma Thomas's Anyone Who Knows What Love is (Will Understand). I hadn't heard anything new in quite a while that had that same affect until Kingdom.


As a technical side note, the "EMG" in EMGTV is the company that makes guitar pickups. Devin's performance was a demo for the two types of EMG pickups he uses in his guitar. His guitar and vocals are recorded live; all of the other instruments are from the studio backing tracks.

Re: Music Performances That Made You React Emotionally
 

The Floor Jansen / Henk Poort version of Phantom of the Opera left me amazed and moved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plCScjvDOJM

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Good choices guys. James, I don’t know the song, but I had a Devin Townsend vid in my YouTube feed yesterday. I watched some but will need to see if I can find it again, plus look for Kingdom. I remember him from his Vai days also. Guys has some pipes, plus a really good guitar player.

Marc, Floor is incredible. I believe the Nightwish CD I have is her singing. She’s also been on The Charismatic Voice YouTube channel (opera singer who more than reacts to other singers/bands).

I’d have to say for me the one memory that still gives me tears is listening to TSO, Christmas Eve and Other Stories. Took my Mom to see them a couple of times. Never knew she liked rock operas, or maybe she was humoring me. One year I scored front row center seats. That was the year my Mom was dealing with cancer. She had a blast seeing the show that close.

A close second is remembering seeing Rush at the old Palace venue, north of Detroit. Alex Lifeson standing in a wall of light, playing his solo during Limelight.

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I'd never heard of Floor Jansen until about six months ago. Then once again thanks to the Youtube algorithm, a Nightwish video showed up in my feed. Damn, she's got some pipes!

You know the old saying "I'd listen to them sing the phone book"? Yeah, a radio interviewer had her do that.

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Roy Orbison did "The Star Spangled Banner" at an L.A. Kings hockey game one time (that my searching found). That song is tough to nail but it was no problem for his multiple octave vocal range.

The audio/video quality is less than stellar but Roy knocked it out of the arena.

I realize that's an obscure choice but dang, that guy had chops.

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November 8, 2020. A year into the pandemic and I hadn't really dealt with the "loss" of so many things.

My favorite band, the Foo Fighters, played on Saturday Night Live. A slowed down acoustic (to start) version of Time Like These. Suddenly all the things sacrificed the last year...including live music... hit me like a sledgehammer. I bawled like a child. It was the beginning of the end of sacrificing for me, and it took Dave Grohl to bring it to the surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEiIN3e_QW0

Re: Music Performances That Made You React Emotionally
 

The first time the Cro-Mags played at TT the Bears in Cambridge. The intensity and power of the music and crowd I cannot forget.

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Eric Clapton p!ssed me off royally by d!cking around onstage during a concert in 1974 - so much so that I cussed him out, yelling from 5 feet away to "Quit f^ckin' off!!"

Yeah, he heard me. :r

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Songs that have moved me:

Temple Of The Dog - Hunger Strike
When Chris Cornell starts singing I get chills every time!
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadents
But I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeah
But it's on the table, the fire's cookin'
And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'
The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'
But I'm goin' hungry, yeah

When I was around 15 teen my grandfather played me Marty Robbins "Gun Fighter Ballads"
When I play it now it takes me back to that day!

Live - Throwing Copper
Lightning crashes "chilling"
I remember having this on Cassette and a walkman and playing it as I skied down black diamond moguls and it gave me such a rush!

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Rick Astley. Gets me right there , every time

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Nice performance! I had only heard of him from Dean Lamb's Youtube channel. He seems to have a good sense of humor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDb85gzVzzQ


Being up close is the way to enjoy a show! I'm glad you got to share that with your Mom.

I've seen quite a few episodes of the Charismatic Voice! I've been meaning to dedicate an hour or so to watch the throatcam video on the singer from Lorna Shore's vocal cords.

I like Floor the best of all the Nightwish singers. Tarja was amazing for all of the early operatic stuff. Anette was great with all the music they wrote with her, but I saw them twice with her fronting and her performances of some of the old songs were painful. Floor can do everything with her own twist.

I've been a fan of Floor since her early days in After Forever. I didn't enjoy her Revamp stuff as much, but was ecstatic when she joined Nightwish.

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Yes - Lightning Crashes is a great one!

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So many but in the past few years there's only one that really hit me hard as to how brilliant it is!
Zach Bryan's All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster is the best concert I've heard and I've seen Elton John, The Stones, GnR in their prime and Metallica and VH at the Texxas Jam in 88.
I've seen some great shows but I had no familiarity with Zach Bryan's music and just stumbled across it by accident and his story.

Every song was amazing! The show was last year at Red Rocks during a November snow storm and it moved me.

There's a YouTube of it where someone took the album and stitched it together with live clips.
He's not the typical bro country hack that infests country radio today and that's what I found so refreshing!

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George Michael was a magical performance. One of the best concerts I ever went to.

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For me it was Chris Stapleton singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl last year. I didn't watch the Super Bowl, but seeing the emotions displayed on the faces of the people in the video and hearing his voice was phenomenal.

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Went to see Pearl Jam with my wife last year. During the St. Louis show she got Eddie Vedder to give her a shout out and a song dedicated to both our dads who passed away the year before. Was a very cool moment and we have a copy of it on the bootleg.

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So cool! :tu :cool:

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I have seen a lot of great performances over the years, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper and Jethro Tull, but now we're into the Blues and one of our best shows was about 8 years ago when we saw Buddy Guy. He was great and walked around the audience greeting everyone. A lot of the blues concerts we attend are at smaller venues and you really get to interact with the performers.