Best live show / DJ you saw perform 🎤

Hi,

Carl Cox, Berlin mid 90s. Can't remember when and where exactly, which might give an insight into the 90s mindset. There was a DJ on before him. I exclusively listened to rock music back then. Friend took me with him. I wasn't too sure about all of it. Wasn't bad, but it started to bore me. Then Carl Cox started his set. 4 hours later, I took my first break, sweating like someone had dumped a bucket of water over me, panting, happy, thirsty, confused. This wasn't rock music, the other band members can never know (lol). But I realized that this was an art form. A bit late to the party, but better late than never.

DJ Fitchie 2018, Berlin

I think he was doin the intro to Shiverman, IIRC. It took FOREVER, something I really love about Fat Freddy's Drop. It was a subtly whirling, amorphous vortex, creating an immense tension. Thousands of people on their toes knowing something was coming. And then a kick and a rim click washed over us and I heard a sound I had never heard on a concert before: thousands of people going "whoa", each one pretty silent, because it wasn't meant as a crowd noise like all the "woots" and applause we all know. It was a private sound, but amplified thousandfold. Magical moment. And then the song. God, I can't wait to see them again. Have tickets pinned to the mirror ever since the pandemic set in. They are postponed to this July. Fingers crossed

Saw Leroy Burgess That was at the Jazz cafe The songs sounded like the record it was great.

Hallucinogen in.... Philadelphia? Boston? Upstate New York? He was doing live PA with synths, and he had a surround sound setup in the club. It was the most insane aural experience I had ever experienced at a party, before and since.

Also the Cocteau Twins at Roseland in NYC in support of Heaven or Las Vegas.

Also Florence and the Machine at Mohegan Sun in Ct. This was before she blew up. She said it was the largest theater she had ever performed. Such a mystical experience.

There are many many others, but I'd have to say these are probably my top three.

This was back in 2012.

I'm not sure if this really fits here but then again... I can still think back about the amazing Blue Man group performance in the BLUEMAX theatre... none other than in Berlin itself.

The thing which makes this so special for me was that I roughly knew about Blue Man group but had no clue that they performed in Berlin. So during my first vacation in Berlin (this is one of my favorite cities to go to on hollidays) I bought a local newspaper and found a discount coupon for the Blue Man group performance. So... I grabbed a telephone in the hotel and called to see if this would work out. Unfortunately you had to live in Germany to be entitled for that discount, and to make matters worse... they were also fully booked. Best I could get was a ticket for their show in 3 - 4 months time. Obviously that woudn't work for me.

So... 2 years later my boss told me that I really needed to take some vacation days and thus I decided I'd go to Berlin again. Only this time I came prepared ;) I booked the whole vacation by myself (hotel, "Welkoms Karte" (= free travel throughout all of Berlin's public transport (U Bahn, S Bahn, busses, everything))) and... I got myself a ticket to the Blue Man group performance, 4 months in advance! 😎

Well, I can tell you that the performance was a real highlight of my vacation, it was completely awesome. Truly spectacular in both audio and (visual) performance! Very good music, awesome songs, what a truly amazing and great band!

Heck, know what... Shake your booty!! The video is dated but you'll get a really good impression of some of the idiotic and awesome things that happen on stage. And here's the official trailer of Blue Man group Berlin:

It is because of this performance why I never look (or listen 😉) the same to Live's Dynamic Tube sound effect again 😁

Ellen Allien filling in for Carl Cox at the last minute, Sónar 2004. She was no newcomer, but she seemed a bit taken aback by the big stage. It was obvious because the still used the huge screens and tight camera shots of the DJ's face. So even if the venue had tens of thousands of dancers, there was this weird sense of intimacy. In 04 everything was a bit electro/electroclash, the musical scenes that would define the aughts were still just one big pool, everyone was playing a lot of the same tracks, especially that pre-release copy of the We Are Your Friends remix. the seperation into electrohouse, french house, minimal house etc had yet to happen. But Ellen was doing something slightly more subtle, more emotional, more deep. And the crescendo was when she plugged the headphones into the mic port and did a vocal performance. Voice slightly frail, imagine the nerves, but the performance was all the better for it, soooo moving.

That's the one. Later I saw Justice in one of their earliest gigs, they were drunk prats. Unless that was at 07? Dunno. Oh well.