Coolest things you've seen at a show?

[ManNamedTruth]

Probably The Flaming Lips coming out of a vagina to enter the stage. For those that haven't witnessed that, they had the outline of a naked girl in trippy colors dancing around before the show started on a screen. After awhile the girl leaned back and her legs opened and they zoomed in on a pulsating vagina. A previously unknown door in the screen all of a sudden opens and out come the Lips one by one.
Other cool shit:
Patrick waving a terrible towel decked out in a Polamalu jersey at the end of the MMJ Pittsburgh show a couple years ago.
DMB's drummer wearing a Jerome Bettis jersey a few months after we just won Super Bowl XL. For those in the lawn we couldn't see what he was wearing until it got dark enough for the large projected screens to start showing us some close ups. The cameraman zoomed in tight on the Steeler logo at first to a great applause, and zoomed out to show that it was the drummer wearing the jersey to an even greater applause.

My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday Live in Pittsburgh 8/27/10

[peafunk31]

Buckethead. A T-shirt cannon, robot dancing & a nunchuck demonstration (all in the same show). Pretty entertaining!

[ericm]

Gotta give this some thought, but one that immediately comes to mind is a John Bonham drum solo. 

Another was Springsteen coming out in 84 at Saratoga doing "Who'll Stop The Rain" as a Soundcheck for all the people on the lawn who waited all day in the pouring rain. That was really cool of him to do, but the rain actually stopping by the time the song was over was even cooler!

[TheBigChicken]

snowed at the Fillmore in San Fran....right ms evon????

[Northern Neighbour]

This is tough.

Let's see.  At the 2011 Byron Bay Bluesfest in Australia, Michael Franti brought out a young woman who had a debilitating disease and asked people to help her and her family since the treatments were extremely expensive.  He then sang to her.

Another Franti moment.  When he was in Ottawa a few years ago, we were close to the stage.  He has the habit of going into the crowd after the show to sign autographs, take photos, and give out hugs.  I was next to a guy in a wheelchair, but I didn't know him.  When Franti came down, I asked him if he could say some words to the gentleman, and he hopped over the barricade to give him a big hug.  Really cool.

Seeing U2 in Hawaii, a guy was holding a sign that he wanted to come on stage and play "Wild Horses" with the band.  In the middle of one of their songs, Bono stops and invites the guy on stage to perform.  The fan wasn't that great, but it was a really cool moment.

Finally, maybe not really "seen" but more of an experience.  Xavier Rudd played a show in Montreal in 2010 I think at the Metropolis, which is a great venue that holds about 2000 to 2200 people (very much like The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester).  He finished his first set with the song "Footprint".  As the song reached its climax, the crowd was yelling and signing so loud that they drowned out Rudd and his band.  Awesome, awesome experience.

[iLikeBeer]

This is easy for me.  It was the Grateful Dead at Three Rivers Stadium in the summer of '95.  I was tripping my balls off and between sets you could see the skies darkening with rain clouds moving in. 

The band comes out to start the 2nd set and, as if they were meeting with Mother Nature backstage, Bobby rips into the first riff of Rain as the skies open up instantaneously!!!     They then proceeded to do a killer rain set finishing with LLR.  We were soaked, but what a great fucking experience that was!

Another cool thing I've seen at a show was just a couple of years ago and was again Dead related as it was at a Furthur show in Columbus.  It was 4th of July weekend and the city of Columbus was putting on their fireworks show the same night as the Furthur show.  When they set them off, they were almost to the side of the stage giving the audience a great view them.  The boys started playing Let It Grow and, in typical Dead fashion, played along with the fireworks and as the last firework went off, they were playing the last chords of Let It Grow.  Nice to see some things never change when it comes to the Dead!!!   

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Probably The Flaming Lips coming out of a vagina to enter the stage. For those that haven't witnessed that, they had the outline of a naked girl in trippy colors dancing around before the show started on a screen. After awhile the girl leaned back and her legs opened and they zoomed in on a pulsating vagina. A previously unknown door in the screen all of a sudden opens and out come the Lips one by one.
Other cool shit:
Patrick waving a terrible towel decked out in a Polamalu jersey at the end of the MMJ Pittsburgh show a couple years ago.
DMB's drummer wearing a Jerome Bettis jersey a few months after we just won Super Bowl XL. For those in the lawn we couldn't see what he was wearing until it got dark enough for the large projected screens to start showing us some close ups. The cameraman zoomed in tight on the Steeler logo at first to a great applause, and zoomed out to show that it was the drummer wearing the jersey to an even greater applause.

My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday Live in Pittsburgh 8/27/10

Carter Beauford, great guy, AMAZING drummer

I have had a number of great moments at shows but I would have to say that the "golden rainbow" (MMJ plays Chicago Auditorium) was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen at a show.

[itrainmonkeys]

I may have seen cooler but this is always my "go to" story for awesome concert experience.  It was a Dr. Dog show and the second night of a two-night run. Here's my story:

Info about the following 2 videos: On the second of a two-night run at the TLA Theater in Philly they did something that was a first for me. On stage towards the end of the show, Scott (lead singer/guitarist/piano) gets on his cell phone and acts like he's ordering a pizza. We all figure he's ordering one for the band after the show or something. We laugh it up when he makes the call. He says stuff like "better make it a large.....there's a lot of us". The band is jamming this whole time, their dog has been walking around on stage a little bit. It's a real loose atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CODp2cJ5w3I


Then a minute or two later.....from backstage comes a bunch of people carrying dozens and dozens of pizza pies. They literally began handing whole pizza pies out to the crowd, encouraging everyone to pass them back and make sure everyone who wanted one would get one. Watch the video below of the awesome moment. They were in an extended jam-out session when they were handing the pizzas out. Just awesome thing for the band to do. Really great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akedOiQvyz8

(Note: The Let's Go Philly chants are because Dr. Dog are from Philly and this was during the World Series)

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I may have seen cooler but this is always my "go to" story for awesome concert experience.  It was a Dr. Dog show and the second night of a two-night run. Here's my story:

Info about the following 2 videos: On the second of a two-night run at the TLA Theater in Philly they did something that was a first for me. On stage towards the end of the show, Scott (lead singer/guitarist/piano) gets on his cell phone and acts like he's ordering a pizza. We all figure he's ordering one for the band after the show or something. We laugh it up when he makes the call. He says stuff like "better make it a large.....there's a lot of us". The band is jamming this whole time, their dog has been walking around on stage a little bit. It's a real loose atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CODp2cJ5w3I


Then a minute or two later.....from backstage comes a bunch of people carrying dozens and dozens of pizza pies. They literally began handing whole pizza pies out to the crowd, encouraging everyone to pass them back and make sure everyone who wanted one would get one. Watch the video below of the awesome moment. They were in an extended jam-out session when they were handing the pizzas out. Just awesome thing for the band to do. Really great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akedOiQvyz8

(Note: The Let's Go Philly chants are because Dr. Dog are from Philly and this was during the World Series)

that is pretty fuckin cool

[itrainmonkeys]

I'm pretty sure they've done it a couple of times for certain shows but this was definitely a highlight for me.

[weeniebeenie]

Seeing Matt Cameron play Jesus Christ Pose.

Also, at a Lanie Lane show she bought out two swing dancers to jive while she
was playing. Very cool.

[he.who.forgets]

anyone who has ever witnessed a Ghostland Observatory laser show..the best.
PJ inviting the charter fan club member on stage who had curated the set list in Amsterdam this year, to take a bow with the band.
In 96 at my first PJ show a fan got on stage and started dancing around with Ed.  Ed proceeded to pick the guy up on his shoulders and dance around stage....silly but entertaining.
Also, it's always fun to see Buddy Guy venture out into the crowd and play, especially at his age these days.
I've seen the FLaming LIps vaginal entrance, of course their whole show is a trip

[MrWhippy]

One thing that comes to mind is the LED ball drop during Arcade Fire's set at Coachella in 2011.  It starts at 1:10:35 in the video below. 

A compartment above the stage dropped hundreds of balls with LED lights in them during "Wake Up", and after they got distributed in the crowd, they started blinking and changing colors in unison to the music. 

You couldn't see the band at all anymore after that, but it didn't matter.  Being in the crowd for this felt like being in a giant version of one of those "lite-bright" toys.

Arcade Fire - Coachella 2011 | full set, 1080p HD

[Northern Neighbour]

One of the funniest - although not the coolest - things that I've seen at a show occurred during a Weezer concert.  Rivers Cuomo brought out a garbage can and pursued to throw garbage on the crowd.  He then got into the can and started rolling in it on stage.  He needed help getting out of the can.  I've seen Weezer a couple of times, but that was a first.

[jadavis7]

I'm a sucker for cool covers and collaborations and that sort of thing over theatrics...

The Flaming Lips singing a slowed down ballad version of Race For The Prize at the beginning of their record-breaking tour.

Built To Spill covering Crimson And Clover with Helvatia and...some band that had Scissor or Sister in the name.

MMJ doing Prince and Dylan covers in the same show while being conducted by some weird Maestro.

Wilco playing In The Street with motherfucking Jodie Stephens from Big Star. Yeah, that might top the list.

[oistheone]

Great idea for a thread! That Dr. Dog ordering pizza one is classic!

I KNOW I have so many moments like this, however, one that sticks out in my mind is the whole Flaming Lips performance from Bonnaroo 2007. Two hours before the show was scheduled to start, there were already tens of thousands of people waiting for the Lips to go on. So what'd they do? Come out and play early of course. Wayne said "Don't tell Sting", who was playing "unopposed" on the main stage with the Police, and they busted into one of the most rockin' versions of "War Pigs" I've ever heard. Wayne said they couldn't play anymore songs before their actual showtime, but he started throwing thousands and thousands of laser pointers into the crowd, saying that we'll need them for later. The next hour and a half waiting for the band to go on was just a wild mess of laser pointing fun, as thousands of kids on acid tripped out over the red and green beams.

But once the show started, it was clear Wayne knew what he was doing. After shooting smoke into the crowd, Wayne grabbed a mirror and instructed the crowd that once he finished counting down, we were all to point our lasers at his mirror at the same time. What followed was THE most surreal visual spectacle I've EVER witnessed. Behold:

2007 Flaming Lips - Lasers at Bonnaroo

[buaawwww]

Simple for me... 9/18/1993... Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden... front row center and standing directly underneath Jerry Garcia's mic.  In between songs crowd's settling down... I screamed for Jerry and he looked right down at me and flashed a big grin.  That was enough for me.

[Hawkeye]

Wow on that Lips vid!  I have also seen the Lips twice now...they know how to make an entrance, that's for sure.
Also:
- GWAR @ Bonnaroo 2010 - explanation needed?!
- Buddy Guy - saw him at this Casino near Iowa City...all the sudden he "disappears" from the stage...he's walking around the casino, just playing and playing...then he's back in the room and he's crawling around in the crowd, still playing...he pops up near this young girl (maybe 7-8 years old)...grabs her hand and uses it to strum the guitar while he continues to shred with his left hand...awesome...and he's gotta be 60-70 years old!
- PJ Champaign IL 2003 - my first and only PJ show...crowd was awesome, singing along to every song...gave me chills.

[oistheone]

Ahhh that PJ mention reminds me of one of my all-time favorites:

September 11, 2011, in Toronto. Pearl Jam had just TORN THE ROOF off the ACC and were gearing up for their final song of the encore. Mike starts the "Rockin' In The Free World" riff and the crowd goes even further insane. Eddie starts singing the first verse, and onto the stage, guitar in hand, walks NEIL MOTHERFUCKING YOUNG, who proceeded to jam with PJ on the longest version of RITFW I've ever heard. Talk about leaving the crowd wanting more. I was literally flying on the way home, I think I high-fived every stranger I saw on the way out. Love surprises like that!

[Tracy 2112]

Stevie Ray Vaughan at The Delta Blues Festival in 1984. He was not on the bill to play and when they announced who was playing next, us white boys lost our minds. He came walking out under a Mississippi-almost-full-moon at midnight and played on flat bed trailer stage, his scarf blowing in the delta early morning breeze.