Back in November 2009 we presented our list of the Greatest 50 Concerts from 1959-2009 with commentary by our staff and some special guest writers. We’re going to revisit the list over the coming Thursdays, starting today with the countdown from 50-31.

50. Arcade Fire, Coachella, Indio, Calif., May 1, 2005
Arcade Fire had already appeared on the cover of Canada’s Time and scored a near impossible 9.7 on indie music site Pitchfork Media by the spring of 2005, but it was the Montreal collective’s debut performance at Coachella that instantly catapulted them from a buzz band into a careerband. From the anthem-like opening guitar riff of “Wake Up” through the barrage of keyboards, percussion and guitars pulsating through the set’s climax “Rebellion (Lies),” Arcade Fire positioned itself as an arena rock band in the guise of an artsy club act. In an era where multi-genre music festivals function as three-dimensional radio stations, it was the move that anointed Arcade Fire as a voice, if not the voice, of the indie generation – and it sounded pretty great, too. Mike Greenhaus

49. Pantera, Santa Monica Civic Center, Santa Monica, Calif., May 2, 1994
Texas cowboys from hell emasculated just about every other thrash band of its day when it came to six-string fueled high-octane, heavy rock and roll. This shredding set delivered by one of metal’s most important institutions of higher yearning even attracted fellow musicians from Exodus and Metallica – as nod of respect, Pantera closed the show with the latter’s “Whiplash.” The band’s locomotive rhythm section married perfectly with Dimebag Darrell’s face-melting Flying V playing and Phil Anselmo’s brick-busting vocals saw full impact on the medley “Domination” / “Hollow,” “Walk” and, of course, “Cowboys from Hell.” Lonn Friend

48. Phil Ochs, Carnegie Hall, New York, N.Y., March 27, 1970
Phil Ochs was one of the most politically conscious of the sixties-era troubadours. Somehow inspired by the vision of a fusion between Che Guevara and Elvis Presley that might spur revolution, he appeared at this Carnegie Hall show in an Elvis-style gold lamé suit. Two concerts were scheduled that night; the first was interrupted by a bomb threat. The second featured medleys by Buddy Holly, Elvis and various country songs as well as several of Ochs’ best known protest songs. Audience reaction – at first hostile – turned appreciative. Power in the hall was turned off at midnight, but Ochs led a “power” chant and the lights were turned on, so he played into the early morning. A recording ( Gunfight at Carnegie Hall ) was his last before his eventual suicide – not released in the U.S. for 20 years – and documents his search for a way to unite radical action and popular culture. Dick Flacks, author and professor

47. B.B. King, Regal Theater, Chicago, Ill., November 21, 1964
B.B. King combined the raw emotion of traditional blues with the elegant delivery of a jazz singer, playing terse, single-line guitar solos to match his powerful vocal style in a call-and-response pattern that created a template for modern blues. Live at the Regal documented a Chicago performance in which King fronted a sextet with a crack rhythm section that followed his every move. He turned the set-opening “Every Day I Have the Blues” into a statement of purpose, and had the crowd responding gleefully to the double entendre of “Sweet Little Angel.” The concert reached its triumphant peak with King’s witty catalog of complaints about an ungrateful woman, “How Blue Can You Get?” John Swenson

46. H.O.R.D.E., Cumberland County Civic Center, Cumberland, Maine, July 9, 1992
The premise seemed logical. Bring five bands together (Phish, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, Widespread Panic, Aquarium Rescue Unit) that were still slogging it out in the clubs, with the hope of reaching the critical mass(es) to fill arenas and amphitheaters. ARU opened it all in Portland before their largest audience to date and as the members of Widespread Panic stepped out for the first of the galvanic full-band segues that would come to mark the opening installment of the HORDE tour, it was clear that this was more than a multi-band bill. It was a celebration of community on both sides of the stage and everywhere in between, buttressed by a mutual admiration for crackling, capacious improvisational music. Dean Budnick

45. Janis Joplin, Monterey Pop Festival, Monterey, Calif. June 17, 1967
To me, Monterey was the announcement that the San Francisco counterculture had arrived. The people in Los Angeles who organized the festival were also the headliners and they were going to sell that “San Francisco Sound” to the world, but it kind of backfired. The performers who weren’t really known – Jimi Hendrix, Moby Grape, Big Brother and The Grateful Dead – were the ones who made the splash at the festival. We probably played to 80 percent capacity, and I thought we could have played a lot better. But just being there and having Janis there made it a good performance – she was so talented and so good that even if the set was a little off, it was shocking to people to see her perform. Sam Andrew, Big Brother & The Holding Company

44. Radiohead, Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, Calif., June 30, 2001
It’s one thing to follow a hands-down masterpiece ( OK Computer ) with a paranoid nightmare ( Kid A ) that arguably eclipses it, and still another when the leftover material from that album becomes a minor masterpiece of its own. Less than a month after the release of Amnesiac, Radiohead stormed into Santa Barbara at the tail end of what was less a tour than a military musical offensive, armed with a live arsenal that mixed riff-vamping fight anthems ( “I Might be Wrong,” “National Anthem” ) with android pop ( “Kid A” ), gorgeous piano dirges ( “Like Spinning Plates,” “Pyramid Song” ) and a few songs ( “Paranoid Android” ) which wove all of those threads together. How do you follow a tune that spins social anxiety into Beckettian beauty ( “How to Disappear Completely” )? An encore cover of “Cinnamon Girl,” of course. Bret Gladstone

43. Rage Against the Machine, Democratic National Convention, Staples Center, Los Angeles, Calif., August 14, 2000
There was no permission for this: Rage Against the Machine, one of the biggest bands in the world, protesting the two party system on a flatbed with a PA. I loved the audacity of it: take no prisoners in the balls out way that Rage conducts itself. There was no security, no nothing and they thought, “We may get arrested, but let’s just go for it – the time is now.” Even the camera footage of the show is all shaky. Every Rage show is kind of like a mini-riot anyway, but to have it be more than that – a riot, if you could call it that, with real purpose. When a band ponies up and puts some money where their mouth is it goes back to Dylan or Woody Guthrie playing a concert because of the cause and being a real vehicle for change – beyond their records. Chad Urmston, State Radio, Dispatch

42. My Morning Jacket, Bonnaroo, Manchester, Tenn., June 12, 2004
It was, as they say, a hair-raising spectacle of the highest order. Saturday afternoon Bonnaroo 2004, the festival coming into its own during year three. My Morning Jacket moving from a Friday noon tent slot the previous year to a Saturday afternoon second stage showcase (while music was down on the main stage). And then came the tempest. Yet as the rain flew sideways on squalls of bombastic wind, everything seemed to swell: the band, its sound, its gestures, the moment, the event. My Morning Jacket wasn’t swinging for the fences, it was taking two strides and bounding over them. It was epic. A perfect storm. Dean Budnick

41. The Clash, Bonds International Casino, New York, N.Y., June 1, 1981
When I heard shows were announced at the disco in Times Square where high school seniors had their prom party, I was confused yet ridiculously excited. When the band got into town, they were all over the place. Those amazing yellow posters with the huge pink star in the middle were up everywhere, they were being interviewed on television and in all the papers. It was such an incredible moment. The Clash totally took over. At the show, I left my brother and his girlfriend in the back and I fought my way to the mosh pit and waited for the band to come on. What I wasn’t prepared for was the mayhem that was about to explode both on the stage and around me. It was insane. People were losing their minds. I was one of them. Ken Weinstein

40. Muddy Waters, Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago, Ill., November 22, 1981
The Checkerboard Lounge was located on 43rd Street on the South Side of Chicago. Muddy Waters used to play there all the time and Buddy Guy eventually bought the club. I was shooting pictures and knew Junior Wells and got a call saying that I might want to come down and check out this Muddy Waters gig. At the time, he was playing theaters and didn’t play the South Side clubs very often. Over the course of the night, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Ian Stewart of the Rolling Stones – who were playing Chicago around that time – all came down and sat in. It was a mad house and most people were passing into the club through this back door that led into the office. All hell broke loose – you couldn’t breathe, move or even spit, but was one of those amazing nights I was fortunate enough to be at. Kirk West

39. Metallica, Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nev., January 4, 1992
This was the never-ending tour, the one that lasted almost three years and more than 200 performances that spanned Planet Rock. The Black album, which went on to be the biggest selling record of the ‘90s, fueled the campaign that would not die. When the band pulled into Sin City, they left nothing in limo. Hammering through a two and a half hour set that featured the majority of Black – “Sad But True,” “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven,” “Nothing Else Matters” and “Wherever I May Roam” – as well as molten classics from Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets and …And Justice For All, the one-time garage band blew the roof off. Lonn Friend

38. Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable with the Velvet Underground and Nico, The Trip, Los Angeles, Calif, May 3, 1966
What did the Velvet Underground sound like when they opened a 15-night engagement with Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable at The Trip in West Hollywood on May 3rd, 1966? With telling hyperbole, the Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Thomas described the year-old Velvets’ “searing sound from another planet,” though failed to detail a single song. And while there are some truly righteous Velvet Underground bootlegs, the shimmered-out drone-punk jams one imagines at The Trip – supported by an ice goddess chanteuse (Nico), a spastically dancing whip freak (Gerald Malanga) and the century’s foremost Pop conceptualist (Warhol) – are undoubtedly more mindbending. Especially knowing the sheriff shut them down after the third night. Jesse Jarnow

37. Bob Dylan, Boston Music Hall, Boston, Mass., November 21, 1975 second show
Everything about Bob Dylan’s fall 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue was mysterious, from its tour schedule to the ambling performance order to the white face make-up Dylan wore during his four mini-sets. In his most accessible, articulate voice, Dylan delivered unreleased songs from the forthcoming Desire fronting the incomparable Guam (T-Bone Burnett and Mick Ronson?!), rearranged old favorites, did sublime solo numbers and duetted with Joan Baez for the first time in a decade (begun with the lights off and curtain down). Was the long-bootlegged late show from the Boston Music Hall on November 22nd the best of the best as many say? Rolling Thunder retains some mysteries yet. Jesse Jarnow

36. Pearl Jam, Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill., July 11, 1995
Two days after the last Grateful Dead show with Jerry Garcia in the same venue, Pearl Jam stumbled into this booking in front of 47,000 fans in Vedder’s Chicago hometown, and the results are nothing less than astonishing. At the height of its fame, the band tears through signature rockers like “Go,” “Last Exit” and “Animal” with punk abandon, prompting singer Eddie Vedder to smash his beloved black Telecaster. Later, Pearl Jam plays classic rock karaoke with covers of “Everyday People” and “Let My Love Open the Door,” and turns the place into one giant sing-a-long with “Elderly Woman” and “Better Man.” The best part: this 30-song, 155-minute epic was broadcast live on Pearl Jam’s own pirate radio station, becoming an instant must-have bootleg. Jonathan Cohen

35. Nirvana, Sony Music Studios, New York, N.Y., November 18, 1993
We had been on tour with Nirvana and they asked us to play a few of our songs with them for the show. They covered some crazy stuff – from Lead Belly to David Bowie – but it all made perfect sense and connected with this violin, cello, Celtic thing they had going on. The vibe was pretty chill all in all, with this bittersweet, almost coffee shop feeling to the tunes they wanted to play – both the covers and their songs like “All Apologies.” It was a different side for them, but I always thought their stuff was beautiful at its root, so it wasn’t a surprise that is translated over to that setting. There are a lot of similarities between that show and when Dylan went electric, although people weren’t booing when Nirvana unplugged. Curt Kirkwood, Meat Puppets

34. Various Artists, Concert for Bangladesh, Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y., August 1, 1971
The Concert for Bangladesh at New York’s Madison Square Garden, starring George Harrison, Badfinger, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and a stellar list of musicians and vocalists, raised money for starving people in India. Beatle reunion rumors aside, there was a huge surprise that afternoon, namely, the unannounced appearance by Bob Dylan with a set that dazzled the crowd. It was the coming together of rock royalty for a worthy cause and the gesture contained the seeds for all the mega-charitable events that have occurred since. Pete Fornatale, New York radio personality

33. Miles Davis, The Plugged Nickel, Chicago, Ill., December 22, 1965, second set
At the end of 1964, trumpeter Miles Davis finally solidified what would become his second “classic” quintet: pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Tony Williams, bassist Ron Carter and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Davis had been laid up for most of 1965 while recuperating from hip surgery, and he was eager to play again with his group. After warming up in Philadelphia, Detroit and New York, they played Chicago in late December. Though the band would record its first album together the following month – ESP – these sets saw them playing Davis’ older catalog with vigor and a ruthlessness that would preface the group’s next five years. This was a new band, a new Miles and, shortly, a new jazz. Josh Baron

32. MC5, Grande Ballroom, Detroit, Mich., October 30, 1968
Turned loose on a bare stage, the Motor City Five were among the most awe-inspiring perpetrators of sheer bombast and rock and roll brinkmanship ever to play. They outsold The Beatles in their hometown of Detroit, were championed by The New York Times and The Village Voice and landed on the cover of Rolling Stone before they had even recorded an album. In the liner notes to the reissue of Kick Out the Jams, singer Rob Tyner waxed nostalgic, advising fans to “Let yourself step back to a time when muscle cars ruled the Detroit streets and Motown battled psychedelia for the airwaves.” This was a band that never played by any rules, and tonight they were about to break an important one: they were going to record a live album as their debut. The Grande’s unofficial house band since it opened in 1966, the MC5 permanently etched their sound into rock history with these legendary shows over Halloween weekend. Jaan Uhelskzi

31. Roosevelt Sykes, B.B. King, Bukka White, George Porter and Professor Longhair, New Orleans Jazzfest, New Orleans, La., 1973
In 1973, back when the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was still in its infancy, the event hosted what longtime producer Quint Davis has described as “the greatest jam we ever had.” The events leading up to it began late on Saturday afternoon as The Meters took the stage for what bassist George Porter Jr. describes as “the biggest audience we had ever seen in our young career. It was heart-warming and scary.” The Meters performance was further animated by the surprise appearance of Stevie Wonder, who guested on keyboards before appropriating Zigaboo Modeliste’s drum kit for a song. As The Meters set concluded, Porter recalls, “Me and Zig jumped off stage onto carts Quint had ready for us and went over to where ‘Fess was.” Fess, of course, was celebrated NOLA icon Professor Longhair – and those fortunate enough to be on hand witnessed a jam session in which The Meters rhythm section joined Professor Longhair, fellow New Orleans pianist Roosevelt Sykes and two cousins by the names of Bukka White and B.B. King. “It was musically incredible,” Porter reflects. “We threw down hard, hard, hard and let it lay as it lay.” Dean Budnick