The 10 Most Memorable Performances in Live Music History

Image via Complex Original

Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan had his legend cemented by his untimely passing in 1990. But he wasn’t always so widely respected: The first time Vaughan and his band, Double Trouble, came to the Montreux Jazz Festival​ in 1982, his loud and unorthodox take on the blues was booed by some members of the audience. When he returned to the festival three years later, the skeptics were silent, and the performance was recorded and released as part of his platinum album Live Alive. 

The 25th anniversary that brought rock fans back to Woodstock, N.Y., for three days of music may have been born out of ’60s nostalgia. But what made the concert a success in its own right was an infusion of new blood from the world of alternative rock and punk. And no band experienced a greater breakthrough that weekend than Green Day, the California punk-pop trio who played the South Stage on the third day of the festival. Their major label debut, Dookie, released six months earlier, was climbing the charts, and Green Day’s playful set for an audience covered in mud helped boost the album to multiplatinum sales. 

Rob Halford left Judas Priest in 1992, after two legendary decades together as a trailblazing speed-metal band. And even when the band drafted the talented imitator Ripper Opens from a Priest tribute band, there was always something missing that the band’s new work, and Halford’s later projects, couldn’t match. So it seemed somewhat inevitable that Halford and Judas Priest would finally come back together for their Reunited Summer Tour in 2004, before recording the 2005 comeback album Angel of Retribution. The band kicked off the tour at AWD Hall in Hanover, Germany, opening with “The Hellion/Electric Eye” from 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance and finally letting fans hear Halford’s powerful voice singing Judas Priest again. 

Over half a million rock fans piled onto the Isle of Wight, a small island in the English Channel, to set a Guinness record for the most attended concert at the time in 1970. On a bill packed with legends, the Who performed the festival’s most storied set, with the entirety of their blockbuster rock opera, Tommy, bookended by early hits like “My Generation” and brand new songs like “Naked Eye.” 

One of the defining moments of California’s “Summer of Love” was the festival held that June on the Monterey County Fairgrounds. And Monterey Pop’s most famous set was the first major American appearance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, just after the young American guitarist had rocketed to fame with his London trio. A fiery set of Are You Experienced hits ended with literal fire, as Hendrix concluded a cover of “Wild Thing” by smashing his guitar and setting it ablaze—his most immortal moment of showmanship. 

Several major cities, including Boston, erupted in rioting during the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968. And though Mayor Kevin White canceled many public events, he allowed James Brown’s concert to proceed the next day. Brown rose to the occasion, dedicating his performance to King and using his powerful music to help begin the healing process for a heartbroken community. 

Michael Jackson was no longer a Motown artist when he released Thriller in late 1982. But a few months later, when the label that launched his career celebrated its 25th anniversary, he was there with bells on, reuniting with the Jackson 5 and giving a solo performance of the song then topping the charts, “Billie Jean.” And so it was a song released by Epic, not Motown, that dropped jaws at “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever,” with Jackson debuting his signature moonwalk move to an amazed audience both in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and those watching the special at home on NBC. 

U2 pushed back the recording of the album that would launch them into superstardom, The Joshua Tree, to put together a tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of Amnesty International. And the brief tour concluded at Giants Stadium with what would be the farewell performance by the Police, who were then still the biggest band in the world, enjoying the afterglow of Synchronicity’s success. At the end of the concert, the Police passed their instruments to U2, symbolically passing the torch to the band that would soon occupy their No. 1 spot.

Jay Z had been hip-hop’s biggest star for years in 2001, but his headlining performance at Hot 97’s Summer Jam was his imperial moment—the power play that cemented his dominance. He brought Michael Jackson to a hip-hop show, and he put rivals Mobb Deep on the now famous Summer Jam screen for the debut of his scathing diss track “The Takeover.” His classic album The Blueprint wouldn’t be out until that September, but with one performance, he owned the summer. 

The big stage sets and bigger crowds that EDM has enjoyed over the past decade have been a long time coming. But if there’s one moment that both DJs and fans can point to as the tipping point for EDM as a major force at festivals, it was Coachella 2006. Daft Punk debuted the fantastic pyramid of light, masterminded by Martin Phillips, that set a new standard for stage design at dance-music events, and twisted the sounds of their estimable catalog into intriguing new shapes.