What’s the best live show you’ve seen?
There is nothing that can compare to live entertainment. Recordings are good, but the immediate flow of energy between the artists and the audience is something our technology cannot even begin to mimic, yet. My best live experience is a Christmas concert at Boston’s Symphony Hall, featuring Liza Minnelli, Ben Vereen and the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. Liza and Ben are both fantastic dancers, so I hoped they would dance. They did not. They sang. Ben opened the show. We gave him a standing ovation. He answered, “Liza is just going to eat you up.” My city gives good audience! We may be the reserved “Athens of America,” we may be the educational center of the Western world and the biotech center, too; but we have a fucking heart that none dares trifle with. Ask those Marathon bombing assholes. Oh, wait. You can’t, anymore.
Y’know, I’ve gotten to know a few entertainers: Patty LaBelle, Queen, Patti Smyth,my father. When they say something, they say it from their heart. That is 1 reason why they are mesmerizing entertainers.
My second best live experience was Man of La Mancha. “To dream the impossible dream”? Are you kidding me? You’d have to be DEAD not to be moved by that performed live in a Standing Room Only theater.
My third best was Queen in concert.
My fourth was the Moody Blues, in concert with John Mayall on his The Turning Point tour.
My fifth best was 10 Years After in 2 separate concerts.
My sixth best was Bo Diddley, who’s a gunslinger.
My seventh was The Mothers of Invention.
Now it’s your turn.