For me, it's a three way tie.

A horrible surf/hotrod/lo-fi band from San Diego called Deadbolt. They had a really cool set up: while plugging in their guitars, amps, setting up their drums, they'd occasionally grind on a mic stand or something with a power circular saw, shooting sparks out into the audience. But once they struck their firs chord of the set, all the excitement went out the window.

A band from Dallas, who I saw in Deep Ellum, called Trailer Park. The only thing at all entertaining about them was the the singer had a Jacksons Victory Tour shirt on.

John Cale opened for Siouxsie's band The Creatures. One word - UNLISTENABLE! And I'm a Velvet Underground fan!

A Rush tribute band from the Milwaukee area; I think their name was "Group Therapy".

The drummer had a (what seemed) piece for piece recreation of an early 80's Neil Pert setup complete with tubular bells and the electric pad set side and the acoustic set side.

Everyone in the group had too much equipment, including a huge 42 channel (if I remember, Peavey) board that they'd use even when practicing in the basement.

They'd haul all this shit to their shows....and they couldn't even play. The drummer could not keep a tempo and all Pert's change ups were completely fucked. The bassist was closer to Estelle Getty in skill than Geddy Lee. Everyone in the group seemed to hate each other....Oh, yeah, and the only non-Rush song they played was Golden Earring's "Radar Love" - in a slightly less fucked up manner than the Rush tunes.

They were so bad, as to almost justify seeing more than once.

Other than that.... dozens of unskilled shitty punk groups who's names I forgot upon leaving the venue.

HAAA HAAA....Classic! A Rush tribute band.

The only thing I could imagine being more horrible than sitting through a Rush tribute band's "concert" would be sitting through a Rush concert!!!!

As much as I am ashamed that I went to lollapalooza once, I really wanted to see the jesus lizard and sonic youth. Hole was in between. Worst crap of all time. Pathetic bullshit. I can't even go into detail about what was wrong, because nothing, and I mean nothing, was right.

I went to whatever Lollapalooza it was that had Green Day and The Beastie Boys.

I went for one reason only - SHONEN KNIFE!

I was thrown out for stealing a very gay looking Shonen Knife t-shirt with a big yellow "kitty cat" on it, from the merch table. But at least it was AFTER their set.

Everybody has seen a terrible band or wedding band. I think it should be limited to "famous" bands.

I am Palace fan, but the first time I saw them at the Lounge Axe they were god awfull band. Will kept looking at the other guitar players hands to see what chord he was on or to see the next change. The rhythm section was totally lost. He really butchered the songs.

I saw him again at some small bar (I think it was the Rainbow?) and it was quite good.

When I saw Rush for the Grace Under Pressure Tour it was terrible. They refused to play their old tunes (pre signals Rush is the only Rush worth listening too). Save your "Rush sucks comments", I know, I know, I know they suck. We all have guilty pleasures. I was so mad. Gary Moore opened and even he was better than the headliner.

One of the greatest shows I ever saw later became one of the worst.
I saw Yngvie Malmsteen on his first tour. After the second song the horrible metal singer said "good bye" and for the next hour or so it was the most glorious guitar masturbating/ never ending solos that you have ever witnessed. Sure, it was real cheesy, but he was motherfuckin' wankin some
awe inspiring "guitar player of the year award" crap. At my age at the time (around 16) it blew my mind. - - - - - - - Then I saw him a year later open for AC/DC and the singer sang on every song and it was painfull. Wretched
tunes with a horrible singer. Painfull!!!!!!!

I saw the Japanese metal band Loudness open for, I think it was Iron Maiden but may have been AC/DC and they were real bad.

I saw Accept at the same time and Udo aint much of a front man. Funny though.

You can tell I saw a lot of bad bands in the 80's.

I stood through a pretty large chunk of Interpol when they played Belmont & Sheffield last summer. They were pretty terrible. Not quite the worst, though.

When I was in high school I went to see what was advertised as a Jethro Tull concert. What I got was Ian Anderson with an all-but-crippled voice, a 17 year old lead guitarist, an 18 year old drummer, and what would end up ranking #1 on my list ghastly musical listening experiences.

Queens of The Stone Age was god-awful last summer. Not their front-man's fault, but their bass player sang like he had never heard music before in his life, literally. He looked like he was really coked-up. The drummer did a lackluster job of filling Grohl's loafers, but there aren't even many decent drummers that can do that. (no time to google for names)

Rolling Stones at Soldier field...but that wasn't entirely their fault. I mean can you really expect good sound from Soldier Field?? I remember Keith was the king of klangers that evening.

Rush, whom I saw when I was still in the infantile stages of drum training, had a similar problem as far as the sound in The United Center goes. Unfortunately for them, they also lacked more crucial elements. For example: GOOD SONGS!!!!! (NP's drum solo softened the blow of Geddy Lee's horrible.....horribleness).

I was never disappointed by the performance in the 3 Who shows I got to see, but they played Quadrophenia in the first two!! C'mon, once with fair warning was bad enough, but they didn't even advertise the second as a Quadrophenina performance.
(The last Who show I saw, at World Music Theater, was the best fucking concert of my life. Front row, watchin 'em play all non-crap. RIP Johnny)

I saw the last Grateful Dead concert at Soldier Field when I was a sophmore in HS. I was too high to remember how bad that must've been.

OK, so they don't have to be hugely famous, but they have at least not be your buddy's band's garage rehearsal, or a wedding band. They have to have been playing a real gig, at a bar, club, arena, where some people (maybe not necessarily you) paid to come see them.

I saw the dead in 87/88 at the Rosemont Horizen and it was real bad. Talk about boring. It was fun to watch the whacked out drug freak show that wandered the aisles and halls. Fot that alone it was worth the ticket. Can't beat a good freak show!!!!

I saw Blink 182, when they were just Blink, before they were forced to change their name.

I was working at a club in Corona, Ca where they were playing. It was an atrocious show!