Concerts are a long-standing pastime for music lovers and those looking for a wonderful time to share with their loved ones.
That said, in 2025, concerts are more expensive than ever, so it's important to be selective about which concerts to attend to save money and time for the most top-notch concerts. But sometimes, the ones we attend aren't worth the wait.
Curious, Redditor pinheadbrigade asked:
"What's the worst concert you've ever been to?"
Funny At Least!
"James Brown was the headliner one night at a festival in the early 2000s."
"He was wasted. He kept singing the same lines over and over. He introduced the band at least five times."
"He just laid down on the stage and didn’t sing for a while."
"Terrible concert, funny memories."
- zack_bauer123
"You forgot that it's your responsibility when James Brown lays down on the stage, you have to yell at him, 'GET UP OFFA THAT THING.'"
- callmeneow
He Could Sing In His Sleep
"When I saw Ugly Kid Joe, the lead singer was completely wasted. He couldn't even stand up."
"At one point, he just lay across the steps between the main stage and the riser where the drum set was for three songs."
"The crazy part was that he never stopped singing. And his singing was on point. He just wasn't physically capable of moving."
- 12altoids34
Quality, Not Quantity
"I went to see Lightning Hopkins out in the field on a flatbed trailer outside of Fort Worth in 1971."
"He was so drunk, he played three songs, and two of them were the same song."
- LayneLowe
"Honestly? Worth it."
- Friskfrisktopherson
Brutal Foreshadowing
"Sir Mix A Lot. The opening act warned us it was going to be terrible, and they were right."
- Easy_Square_3717
"Your opening act dissing you is hilarious."
- beartheminus
"I have never heard an opener say a disparaging thing about who they are opening for. That's hilarious."
- YourMatt
Consistently Bad
"I’ve worked in a concert venue for the past 20-ish years and have seen almost everyone at least once. Black Eyed Peas were atrocious, like the truck with their auto-tune got lost on the way. Tone deaf."
- SousVideAndSmoke
"So they’re always bad. GF dragged me to see them at The Staples Center, and acoustic, they are horrible. I thought it was just The Staples Center."
- Ok-Wasabi2873
"I saw them open for No Doubt on the 'Return of Saturn Tour,' shortly before they got really famous. They were so awful that the entire sold-out crowd at a large amphitheater was dead silent and sitting down the entire time."
"When they finished, they got a golf clap out of pity from like 20 people. My high school orchestra was more in tune and played with more energy and charisma than those a**holes."
"I was absolutely gobsmacked later after they hit it big."
- communityneedle
Newfound Fandom
"Aging myself, but sometime in the early 90s, I was a huge Guns N' Roses fan and they were touring with Metallica. I ditched a prom to go in full glam with my date there instead, and GNR was very late to set."
"When they came out, Axel threw a fit, and it ended very quickly."
"Metallica, on the other hand, KILLED it, probably to make it up to fans. I had been indifferent to Metallica before, but I became a huge fan afterward. I still can't believe the adult temper tantrum that thousands of fans witnessed that night by a musician they paid a lot of money for."
- Content_Mountain5579
An Egotistic Trip
"The Brian Jonestown Massacre… holy s**t, what a f**king epic disaster that was. It was like the worst train wreck you’ve ever been able to look away from."
"At one point, his whole band left the stage, and he started playing all their instruments and saying he could play better than any of them."
"He ended up rolling a joint on stage, going up to the bar, and getting liquor to make his own drink on stage, too."
"It was three hours of WHAT THE F**K AM I DOING HERE… oh, and it was a Monday night!"
- Flandersar
Painfully Bad
"I went to a festival concert put on by our rock station in the late 90s. Most of the concert was great, with many of the acts being awesome (Collective Soul and Lenny Kravitz were awesome)."
"One of the acts that day was Smash Mouth. Holy crap, they were terrible. I think the audience was generally in shock at how awful they sounded live vs their albums."
- Supermac34
"I was also going to say Smash Mouth. I wasn't a huge fan or anything, but I got free tickets to one of their shows. Holy s**t, it was painfully bad."
- garbagegoat
Low Effort
"Rihanna. I loved her up until the concert. I wish I never went! She lip synched the whole entire time. We were so upset that we went to an entire pre-recorded concert."
- Bamboozle_330
"I saw her at Sziget festival in Budapest in 2016 or so. Yeah, she just wore a hoodie, and looked like she'd just woken up. The music sounded exactly the same when the mic was away from her face. Phoned it the f**k in."
"I'm not a fan, but I enjoy watching hard-working pop acts. She barely lifted a finger."
- boxofrabbits
Cookie Monster
"Bob Dylan in 2014. I love him, but unfortunately, he sounded like Cookie Monster. Can’t imagine it’s improved."
- gogo7891011
"Saw Bob Dylan 10 years later. If you heard the Cookie Monster, I heard the corpse of the Cookie Monster reanimated."
- penilebr3ath
"I love Bob Dylan, I have always loved Bob Dylan. I love live music and I see a lot of it. Just saw Casey Abrams tonight. I saw Bob Dylan in 1982. I have never, ever wanted to see Bob Dylan again."
- Fiendish_Jetsanna
Booed Off The Stage
"They weren’t the headliner, but 30 Seconds to Mars was awful to the point where they were nearly booed off the stage."
"They were the act leading up to Linkin Park, and all I remember was their singer kept yapping on and on instead of playing a song."
"At one point, he wanted the crowd to cheer louder before they started their next song, and he was either ignored or booed. Not sure what happened, if he was drunk or on drugs or something, but this was the only bad performance I’ve been seen by a professional band."
- maceman100006
Angry Vibes
"Lauryn Hill on the night of Trump’s first election win. Miseducation was/is one of my top five favourite albums of all time, and the way she sang every song was so different from the album. It was awful."
"And she kept gesturing angrily to someone off stage… audio tech? I don’t know, but it was super uncomfortable. Top that with the audience constantly checking their phones for election results, it was a pretty s**tty night."
- louiemay99
Very Repetitive
"Alien Ant Farm. They played Smooth Criminal about four times, and the entire show was just awful."
- dtrain85
"That's exactly how I imagine their concerts, given I don't know any other song."
- Schmarsten1306
A Double Rip-Off
"Kanye in the early 2000s. He was booked for a local festival here in NC (given this is when he was blowing up after college dropout and booked the gig before it dropped)."
"But he showed up almost two hours late, and then once on stage, he stopped the show several times to yell at the lighting guy. I left after the second time he stopped the show. It was the worst concert experience by far I’ve ever endured."
"A close second: Lil Wayne was supposed to do a small show in our same town, and he sold a bunch of tickets, came in his bus, sat backstage, had a bunch of small-time rappers perform as well as anti-drug speakers, and he never came out. He just took everyone’s money and left. That also sucked."
"F**k both of them."
- Ncgarrett3
"Could Have Been An Email" Vibes
"The worst act I've seen live is Buckcherry. Their radio-length songs were what I enjoyed, but their live version of songs just ran on to the point of 'this song should have ended five minutes ago.'"
"Every other artist that I've seen live has been good to great."
- sasksasquatch
Concerts are already expensive enough to attend, and most people have very little time to dedicate to them outside of work. Attending a concert that's a terrible time and a waste of money is such an insult, especially when concerts used to be such an affordable and accessible pastime.
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