We all love top lists, don’t we? Especially when it comes to music. The charts, the top of the year, the decade, the century… EVER!

Classics or living legends?

At Gigit (Gigit? Who or what’s that?), we definitely are a bunch of top list nerds (not to be confused with topless nerds). We stopped counting the (drunken) discussions we’ve had over the years about what we think the best gigs ever were. Is it a given that the top 10 will be filled with only classic (rock) bands? Or is the past overrated? And what about the gigs you’ve been to yourself? Nothing beats the live experience of being there, so is it even possible to compare these personal experiences with “the legendary” shows that happened way before you were born?

Let’s grab a beer and start the discussion…

Here we go, a top 10 that we at Gigit don’t even agree on.

What are your favourite gigs?

Add them to the Gigit live music app!

10. Arcade Fire - Best Kept Secret Festival, 2017

Photo by Koen Keppens

When? 17th June 2017
Where? Best Kept Secret Festival. Hilvarenbeek, The Netherlands

Can a gig from 2017 compete with revolutionary concerts from the early days? Of course! When Arcade Fire are on fire, it’s on! From the visuals to their outfits, and obviously their remarkable sound, everything about these Canadian indie rockers was perfect that night. And all the while the sun was setting at the waterfront of one of the most beautiful festival fields in Europe. Who said a concert from 2017 can’t be on the list?

9. Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch the Throne Tour, 2012

When? 2012
Where? Paris, France

The hip hop entrepreneur and the rap rebel together on tour. Jay-Z and Kanye West know how to throw a party with this greatest hits show of two living legends. Their hit single N*ggas in Paris “gets the people going”. And they know it. Every show of the tour ended with the song being performed multiple times in a row. With the absurd record of 11 times for almost 50 minutes straight, in...where else? Paris, of course. Taking an honourable second place: Vancouver with 10 times. See it for yourself in this video (though, seriously, why would you film this for 45 minutes?! You’re missing out on the party!)

8. Daft Punk - Alive at Coachella, 2006

Photo: Magnetic Magazine

When? 29th April, 2006
Where? Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Empire Polo Club, Indio, California

Want to have an all night pub discussion with your guitar playing friends? Tell them your all time favourite concert was a DJ gig.

Is it really a live performance? Or do they only “hit play” (according to Deadmau5). One thing is certain, nobody had this discussion on the 29th April 2006 when Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, a.k.a. Daft Punk, hit the stage at Coachella Festival. With a dazzling show these space invaders changed the world of electronic music concerts forever.

7. Prince - Sziget Festival, 2011

Photo: Silvio Severino

When? 9th August, 2011
Where? Sziget Festival, Óbudai-sziget, Budapest, Hungary

Yes, we millennials know that we “should” like Prince. Yeah yeah, he was an iconic musician, etcetera. But, wasn’t he just one of these artists that should have retired sometime during the 90s?

No.

Definitely, not.

As soon as he hits the stage at the Sziget Festival in 2011, the crowd - that might have come to see Thirty Seconds To Mars that weekend - forgot that the man on stage could have been their dad. Dazzling, rocking, sexy… a true legend.

What’s your all-time favourite gig?

Share it on Live Music App Gigit!

6. Foo Fighters - Hyde Park, 2006

Photo: Tony Woolliscroft

When? 17th June 2006
Where? Hyde Park, London, UK

They might not be the hardest rocking band on their albums, but go and see them live. Natural born frontman nice-guy-Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters rock, hard. Especially this particular night in 2006. Not only the radio friendly Foo Fighters’ hits pass by, also Grohl’s heavy metal side project Probot comes along (is it really…? Yes, that’s Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister on stage!) And just when you think these 85,000 people were only shouting ‘we want more’ to hear Everlong, drummer Taylor Hawkins “does a Freddie” (heeeey-oo) and introduces two special guests for the encore: Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May. Mic. Drop.

5. Beyonce - Formation World Tour, 2016

When? Any random night in 2016, it’s too damn perfect every time
Where? Everywhere

Is it possible to be a legend when you are still alive, don’t have a criminal record, no past of drug abuse, are happily married, never have an off-night… actually being too damn annoyingly perfect? Yes you can. We might miss a few legendary artists of the 60s, 70s and 80s on this list, but we can’t ignore the spectacular world tour of this millennial icon… the Mother Teresa of pop music: Beyonce!

4. David Bowie - Santa Monica, 1972

When? 20th October 1972
Where? Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California

Davy Jones. No, not the singer of The Monkees, but the legendary artist also known as Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, Aladdin Sane, Jareth the Goblin King, or just Bowie. David Bowie. From his revolutionary breakthrough with Space Oddity to the last painful notes of Black Star, Bowie was a true artist. It’s not possible to choose the best concert of an artist with such a rich history of live performances. But let’s just tell ourselves that it was the 1972 Santa Monica concert. Just because we can pretend we were there when listening to its recording, released as a live album in 1994.

3. Led Zeppelin - Royal Albert Hall, 1970

When? 9th January 1970
Where? Royal Albert Hall, London, UK

One singer, one guitarist, one bass player and a drummer. Classic. Rock.

In 1970 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham celebrated Jimmy’s 26th birthday at the Royal Albert Hall. “At the time the largest and most prestigious gig”, according to the birthday boy himself. Only two years after their first gig (as a band called “The New Yardbirds”) they gave rock history one of the most legendary two-and-a-half-hours of all time.

2. Radiohead - Glastonbury Festival, 1997

When? 28th June 1997
Where? Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, Pilton, UK

Bad English weather, failing equipment, blown up monitors, and a frontman that is about to walk off-stage. Sometimes the worst situations end up being the most legendary moments in history. Radiohead’s Glastonbury gig was one of those. “This should be a heaven but was like a kind of hell’,” according to guitarist Ed O’Brien. Frontman Thom Yorke added: “I thundered offstage at the end, really ready to kill.” Nevertheless, they hypnotised 100,000 people with new classics like Karma Police and Paranoid Android, not even two weeks after the release of their most celebrated album ‘OK Computer’. How a gig from hell became a historical concert...

1. Queen - Wembley, 1986

When? 12th July 1986
Where? Wembley Stadium, London, UK

Exactly 365 days after their world famous Live Aid gig, Queen returns to Wembley Stadium. Why this concert is better than the Live Aid one? Simple. Because it’s longer. A full-length rock show instead of a 20 minute TV gig. From the first chord of One Vision to the last euphoric singalong of We Are The Champions; Freddie, Bryan, Roger and John show London who the best live band in the world is. Who would have expected that not even a month later they would play their last concert ever…

Show us how wrong we are

You probably don’t agree with the list above, do you? Of course not, there is no such thing as one top list for everybody. And that’s what makes “the best … ever” discussions so great. So don’t hold back and show us how wrong we are. Download the Gigit app and share your favourite gigs!

What is Gigit!?

Gigit! is your concert and festival app in which you can save, review and share all of the concerts you go to.

Start your Gigit Liveline and share all your live music memories with your friends and all the other music lovers out there. Connect with like-minded people or discuss with dissenters: share the love for live music all round and be inspired for new gigs and glory.

And guess what? You’ll find all this in one app: Gigit!

Join the live music community today!