Mine was also in the Ambassador. Biffy Clyro. I'd liked them since Blackened Sky but with each album I felt they were touring more and more into an emo band. My suspicions were confirmed when I turned up to a gig (can't remember if it was this year or last) in the Ambo and my wife and I were the oldest people there by a long way and there were lots of pasty kids with tim burtonesque t-shirts mooching around.

Should never have gone, haven't listened to Biffy (even B. Sky and Vertigo of Bliss, both of which I love) since.

that's the way it was at fall out boy. we didn't realise it was one of those over 14s gigs until we got there. we couldn't even get a drink at it. it was like being stuck outside the central bank on a saturday afternoon x 100. likewise i haven't listened to those guys since.

that's the problem, i like rock music but since i turned 24 ( a few years ago) i just feel too old to go to the gigs

I hate these gigs. I appreciate that kids want to haer music too but these over 14 show's should be exclusively for under 18's. I'm not that big a drinker but something about 'dry' gigs really really makes me want a pint. (probably to throw over someone tbf)

Well in fairness what were you thinking going to see Fall Out Boy? Ha...
The only gig that comes to mind for me would be The Frames in oxegen '05 (I think it was that one anyway),
and that is quite simply because with the festival crowd that was in it, the tent was jammed with nothing but teenage headwrecker girls singing over the entire performance and generally just being a damn nuissance. 'Oh my god theyre playing Star, Star!!!!' Of course they are are, they always do you retards! Although I should have seen that coming as well!

These experiences would seem to suggest that the majority of the time it's the audience who's at fault for a crap gig...doesn't surprise me really.

yeah, and maybe have an over 18s gig later in the night or just put all the kids up in the balcony and let the grown ups drink downstairs. i don't actually drink that much at gigs these days but i think not havin the choice is bit of a killer. i'd say sometimes it drives away more punters than it attracts

i was thinking "wow, we live so close to the ambassador and we never go there"

what were you thinking going to see the frames?! it's oxegen, there's always loads of good bands there. i could understand if you were standing around at the main stage and they happened to come on but you sought them out....

yeah, actually it is a lot of the time. Like when I went to see albert hammond jr in the village last year. He played a great set but the night was kind of ruined by drunken retards. Very much a young studenty crowd. i felt like turnin to violence that night. i've never been had to share so little space with so many idiots before.

sometimes it's the bands fault too. like that stand gig. they just sucked. for hours. and then played an encore.

also went to see johnathan richman in may. it was one of those things where i felt i had to go see him once. he was charming and funny by times but when he wasn't he sooo boring. the last song he played was about his mother dying. i never left a gig feeling so depressed

although he did play one song that night that was really good. it was about when he was 15 and tryin to chat up a 16 year old girl. it went somethin like "The smell of her coat, the smell of her hair and the cold new england air". somethin like that. anyone know the name of that song?

I've enjoyed the vast majority of gigs I've been to..there have been a few that didn't live up to expectations (Cat Power, Explosions in the sky) but I was still glad I went. The only gig I can think of where I thought I should have stayed at home was when Ulrich Schnauss played at the Button Factory last May. Schnauss wasn't actually the problem, it was the support band 'Aeriel'. All the promo for the gig and even on the ticket said it was an Ulrich Schnauss gig with Aeriel as 'support'. I turned up at 9-ish expecting Schnauss to be on in a few minutes and Aeriel gathering up their stuff and f**king off. Unfortunately Aeriel, an absolutely Godawful tune-free neo-shoegazing act from the US who seemed completely in love with themselves, continued playing until about 10.30, with Schnauss joining them now and again on keyboards. Schnauss didn't begin until about 10.40 but to add insult to injury, I had to leave at 11 so I only caught about 15 mins of his set. I'm still baffled as to why Schnauss would have picked such a crap band to tour with him and why he let them play for so long. So I ended up paying 24 euro to see a rubbish band I never heard of before and only catching a short bit of Ulrich Schnauss. A complete farce.

I won tickets on the radio for the Budrising gigs a few years back (also got free hotel rooms - class!). The first few gigs were class - Sonic Youth & Chemical Bros, Kings of Leon & The Pixies and I think there was another gig, but I'm not sure.

Anyhow, the last gig was Franz Ferdinand & The Scissor Sisters. Franz were OK - but after 4 songs, I'd lost the will to live. Then on came Scissor Sisters & the place went mental - but not your usual loud mental - just a sea of high pitched shreiks! They are terrible on record & absolutely abysmal to watch live... it's like been at a teeny boppers version of the Rocky Horror Show. Myself & the missus lasted 3 or 4 songs before we left, with the sounds of the worst gig I'd ever been to, following us back up the road to our hotel.

Landsdowne Road was possibly the WORST venue I've ever been to - one sniff of wind & the sound was blown all the way across the Liffey.

poor man, that sounds awful. yeah, I remember the pixies gig that year. it like was listening to a chewed up bootleg cassette the sound was so wavy

I don't know the name of it but I echo the sentiment that it was a great song.

and i don't know if i want to start trawlin through all his albums to try and find it

brilliant!!!

no real poop gigs stick out for me tbh..maybe a mixture of luck and being easily pleased, oh sailor

PQ

Haha! That's a very perfect way to describe it - that & PQ's "Oh Sailor!" comment gave me a good laugh (well, a broad smile at least!).

should also mention that Marilyn Manson was a huge disappointment when he played the rds. Just went through the motions, zero crowd interaction. I'd waited ages to see his show and it was such a let down

was at the strokes when they played the music centre a few years ago. that stuck out for a while as being memorably bad. after all the hype that had gone before them, they were bound to be a let down

Interpol in the RDS...read my review if you like...biggest let down from a band ever....Don't even want to think about it actually...and then they repeated the trick at Oxegen...I blame the supermodel girlfriends myself.