Show where the opening band was better than the headliner?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

I can think of two immediately:

Wang Chung (yes, believe it or not!) opening for The Cars at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. WC kicked ass and put on an amazing show. The Cars came out and almost out the place to sleep. :(

Graham Central Station opening for Tower of Power at Winterland in San Francisco. Larry Graham and Co. had the crowd on their feet and in a funky sweat by the end of their set. TOP takes the stage and it is all down hill. The place actually started emptying out around 20 minutes in.

On edit: Thought of another - The (International) Noise Conspiracy opening for Offspring at the Warfield. TINC did punk like it's supposed to be done -- made Offspring look like the punk posseurs they are.

What about you???

[taterguy]

1. Ben Folds Five opening for Hootie and the Blowfish

But I can't say for sure since I only stayed for about 10 minutes of Hootie

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Are BFF still...

performing together? I haven't heard much about them, but maybe I'm just not paying attention.

[taterguy]

4. They broke up a few years ago

Ben moved to Austrailia and started a family. He tours and puts out solo albums. Robert and Darren are in other bands but the names of these bands escapes me at the moment.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. I'l have to check...

out his solo stuff.

Thanks! :hi:

[warrens]

3. Kinks opening for (gulp) Styx

we left after one Styx number. God, they sucked so bad.

And I saw the Cars one time, because my gf loved them. You would have had a far more rocking time listening to the album in your bedroom while looking at the cover. One of these days, those guys are going to almost get buried before someone thinks to check their pulse. And who needs wax dummies at Madame Toussaud's? Just go see them "live."

[jpgray]

6. That's a topsy turvy bill if I ever saw one

:crazy:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

9. The Kinks OPENED for Styx?!?!

Holy shit, talk about a musical outrage!

And yes, I agree completely -- The Cars -- who I adore musically, had the stage presence of three week old trout onstage. The only band who was less "live" onstage was The Cure -- for 2 hours the only things that moved were their lips (nicely glosses as they were). :D

[NNadir]

7. I saw Steely Dan open for Cheech and Chong.

It was the early 1970's.

[Strawman]

8. Throwing Muses opened for REM on REM's Green tour

I think Throwing Muses were touring for Hunkpapa at the time.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

25. I saw Radiohead open for REM

When Radiohead was on The Bends tour.

That would be a close call. REM was really, really good, but Radiohead was outstanding.

[taterguy]

10. Steven Wright opening up for the Creek 1985

The Creek was some generic rock band. The venue was the chapel at Wake Forest that occasionally hosts Presidential Debates. The show wasn't advertised well and sparsely attended. Some of Wright's great lines:

"I demanded that they put instruments on stage in case I wanted to learn to play them"

"That's a nice chandalier. If it falls down, you're gonna die."

[Arkansas Granny]

11. Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show opening for Rare Earth.

I think I just revealed my age.

[RedStateShame]

12. Brian Wilson opened for Paul Simon

July 4, 2001, Indianapolis.

Now, I'm not a big Simon fan, and I have taken quite the bit of flak for that from some of my friends, but I have replied to those same friends, "OK, you like Paul Simon, I don't, but Brian Wilson?! Opening?!" to which I received a usual, "Well, yeah, you have a point."

So, I saw Brian Wilson, damn near broke down tears several times---including when he dedicated one song to his late brother Carl Wilson---and I beat the traffic rush home.

[Taverner]

23. Ooooh I would love to see Brian

Raw emotion....I have the SMiLE DVD and never saw such raw emotion

[RedStateShame]

24. It was really incredible.

He opened the set by doing a verse of the Barenaked Ladies' song "Brian Wilson."

[dipsydoodle]

42. Yes - excellent DVD

and you have expressed it well. :)

[ceile]

13. Pearl Jam-Sound Garden

Pearl Jam-Red Hot Chili Peppers
now, don't laugh....Ned's Atomic Dustbin-(jesus jones). :yoiks:

[JVS]

48. You went to a Jesus Jones concert!

*points and laughs*

[ceile]

14. Got another one....

Catherine Wheel-House of Love

[Burma Jones]

15. Jimmy Buffett opened for Frank Zappa

:hide: :hide: :hide: :hide: :hide: :hide: :hide:



:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:


I actually DID see Buffett open for Frank Zappa, but no, I did not prefer the Parrothead to Frank.....

[TommyO]

16. Nik Kershaw opening for Paul Young

Many, many, many years ago in Philadelphia.

[dipsydoodle]

44. Paul Young in The Q Tips

opening for the Who - Wembley c. 1981

I still think he's great. Just plays Tex Mex these days with Los Palominos.

[progmom]

17. MeShell Ndegeocello opening for Sting

She tore it up. He was...Sting. (and I like Sting...but...you know...)

[jmowreader]

18. I have two...

First is Accept and Aldo Nova opening for Blue Oyster Cult in Nashville three weeks before I went to Korea in 1984. Accept kicked ass, Aldo Nova was fair and Blue Oyster Cult was in their "really ponderous monster of rock" phase (right now you're going, "wasn't that the total output of that band?" At this show they were exceptionally ponderous.) so pretty much everyone left. Giving a free cowbell to everyone in the audience wouldn't have saved that show.

The other is Alarm opening for Pat Benatar in Spokane in 1986 two weeks before I went to spy school in Texas. This was a strange one. Alarm kicked ass. The headliner...well...Pat was great, most of the musicians were rockin', but this was right after the Emulator II (a very early, very good sampling keyboard designed to be played primarily in the studio) came out. Their keyboard player had one. One. This instrument requires two minutes to load a sample set from its 5-1/4" floppy drive, and apparently no one thought "we should sequence the set so we can play three or four songs on the same sample set" or "we should schedule a lot of guitar solos and have Pat lay down two-minute raps between the songs" or "we should buy another one of these, set 'em to different channels and plug both of them into a MIDI keyboard controller so the roadie can load one while we play the other." Or even "we should buy a shitload of $1500 Ensoniq Mirages and resample the Emulator samples onto the Mirages, because through a PA no one will be able to tell Mirages sound like shit." Nope, the stage went black between songs so the guy could reload his machine.

Now you want a concert where the crowd was ready to kill the warmup band? New Model Army opening for David Bowie at the Concert for Berlin 1987. This was a three-day gig on the lawn in front of the Reichstag. Those two bands were the first night, Bruce Hornsby opened for someone I can't remember the second night, and Genesis played the third. New Model Army is the band every freeper wants to be in. There are only three problems with a New Model Army concert. First is that they should rename themselves "New Model Electrolux," they suck so fuckin' bad. Second is that all their songs are straight out of David Duke's "KKK-Tel" catalog of racist music that he was selling mail order for a few years. And third, their on-stage banter is even more racist than their songs. These guys were so bad that people were throwing the beer bottles they had smuggled onto the grounds at the band with the beer still in them. My lieutenant went to the concert with a bunch of us, and after the Polizei had taken them away from the stage in an armored personnel carrier, the LT mentioned that there were probably a dozen skinheads in the crowd who liked those guys.

[RandomKoolzip]

19. Polvo got upstaged by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 at a show

in New Orleans in 1996. Compared to TFUL282's ghostly jazz spindle-rock, Polvo couldn't help but seem monochromatic. And I LOVED Polvo at the time....

[Midlodemocrat]

20. Van Halen opening for Black Sabbath in New Haven.

I think Oz was ossified.

[geniph]

68. In 1977, right?

I saw that same tour, in Seattle, and was about to make the very same post!

[Taverner]

21. Mother Love Bone opening for Anthrax

Mother Love Bone (who later evolved into Pearl Jam) was pure bliss

Anthrax, well...they sucked

[Ohio Joe]

22. Big Head Todd and the Monsters opening for Hootie

I got some free tickets to see them up at Polaris and had never heard of Big Head Todd but they really rocked.

[MrSlayer]

26. Def Leppard opening for Billy Squire.

Of course this was right after the release of Pyromania before they went soft. Just blew Squire off the stage.

[flvegan]

27. Faith No More opening for Billy Idol, for one

More recently Rise Against opening for Alkaline Trio (still a good show).

From the late 80's, Poison opening for Ratt, and then in the early 90's, Poison opening for David Lee Roth (hey, they were stockholders is L'Oreal lipstick and hair products, but they put on a good show).

[nicktom]

28. Captain Beyond and Little Feet (I believe) opening for

Black Sabbath at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972 or 73. The guitarist for Black Sabbath got sick on stage
(threw up) halfway thru their first song. They announced they would take a break and come back. 45 minutes later they canceled the rest of the concert. Oh well, the tickets were only $10.00 back then.

[greendog]

29. Muddy Waters opening for Eric Clapton

~

[AngryAmish]

30. Sonic Youth over Public Enemy

it was an infamous concert.

[Initech]

31. Porcupine Tree opening for Opeth

First time I ever saw them, and it was a killer acoustic show (for Opeth, normally a death metal band), too!

[bobby911]

32. GnR opened for Aerosmith

Can't remember for sure but think it was permanent vacation tour.

GnR had just broke worldwide with Appetite for Destruction and destroyed aerosmith.


Funny part was that in the paper the next day they reported that axl fired the sound guy after the show.

[HughBeaumont]

33. Several -

Mr. Bungle opening for System of a Down, Incubus and Boy Hits Car. System was only OK that evening but the bands that went on directly before them sucked furious amounts of ASS. Why Incubus got immensely popular besides the lead vocalist being a jeans-creamer is beyond me completely. That was the WORST ersatz-Def-Leppard-covering-the-Chili-Peppers crap I've ever seen in my life. Their hour seemed like days. And Boy Hits Car was a forgettable half-drunk embarrassment. Bungle is such a great collection of talent and composition and the audience knew it. They were chanting their name throughout other band's sets.

Nine Inch Nails as the middle act on Lollapalooza I. NIN in a Cleveland return. Terrible Lie started and turned the entire Blossom music center into a riot and the pavillion area into a giant mosh pit (which included several hundred people from the lawn). Not even Jane's Addiction, whom I love to death, could top that performance.

Pearl Jam opening Lollapalooza 2, thouroughly embarrassing the Lame Hot Boring Peppers and upstaging Ministry, who pretty much peaked with this show.

Mastodon opening for Killswitch Engage. No small wonder why Mastodon is going to be the next huge metal act, as their riffing, sound, songs and stage presence made KE's metalbore sound plain in comparison.

High on Fire opening for Mushroomhead. Having to sit through Mushroomhead's non-educated 'Crombie-core fanbase cover their ears while HOF blew them off the stage was truly amazing.

Helmet opening for Faith No More. To FNM's credit, it's really REALLY hard to upstage them live, but Helmet had such perfect sound and vibe that night that they did. Plus FNM's classic line-up (Bottom, Patton, Bordin, Martin and Gould) was on their last legs, as there was just in-fighting and you could tell.

Primus opening for Fishbone. Fishbone is a way better live act than they are a studio one, but Primus was coming up through the ranks with Sailing the Seas of Cheese, one of the 1990's best albums. They owned that sold-out night.

Neurosis opening for Integrity. This was in 1996. That isn't a typo. Some brain surgeon actually scheduled Neurosis, one of the best live bands like, EVER, to job for Cleveland-core heroes Integrity. To the uninitiated, 1996 Through Silver and Blood-era Neurosis is as close as you're going to come to hearing a nuclear war accompanied by tribal juggernaut beats. It took all heavy music that was coming out back then and squashed it like a mere grape. And this was the first time I'd ever heard anything by Integrity. It was like following the DC firework display with backyard bottle rockets.

Forced Entry opening for Atrophy. FE were miles ahead of their time in 1989, but things simply didn't pan out for them. Their off-time heavy thrash served as a blueprint for many bands of this day and age. Anyway, Atrophy were nothing spectacular and they should have been placed lower on this bill.

Obituary opening for Sacred Reich. First Cleveland Obituary show. They turned the whole Agora ballroom into a giant pit and upstaged Sacred Reich and their pissy-pants frontman Phil Rind.

Napalm Death opening for Sacred Reich and Sepultura. This tour featured a Max-fronted Sepultura and Napalm Death was still the best act on that show. WAY more memorable than SR and just as good as Sepultura. That was a very riotous evening, as fans and the jock security butted heads quite often.

DBC and Forbidden opening for Sacred Reich. One of the best metal shows I've ever been to. Both openers scorched SR. Sacred Reich was the pushed underground metal act of it's day, but they didn't really endear themselves to crowds much (not Cleveland's anyway), so they didn't pan out. The frontman always yelled at the audience and was completely condescending for no reason.

[Kat45]

34. Fleetwood Mac opening for Jefferson Starship

The Chesterfield Kings opening for The Lyres.

[u4ic]

35. Chalk Circle opening for Crowded House

I know there are many CH fans here on the board, but they didn't impress me very much live. The former band - a local one (Toronto, in the 80's) had so much energy and uumph...they rocked! :D

[Jara sang]

36. Ziggy Marley opening for INXS.

Can't remember the year. INXS sucked though.

[leftofthedial]

37. Hot Tuna

opening for The Carpenters

[Hissyspit]

38. The Verve Pipe opened for Kiss.

What the fuck was that about?

[ghostsofgiants]

39. When I saw Pearl Jam, the band Wintersleep opened for them...

And I dunno if I'd say they were "better", but I do like them way more than I do Pearl Jam.

[speedoo]

40. I saw Santana open for CSNY.

Rich Stadium, Buffalo, mid-70's.

[dipsydoodle]

45. UB40 opening for Santana

here in the UK a few years back :)

[RetroLounge]

41. Soundgarden opening for Danzig

Went just to see Soundgarden...

RL

[mtnester]

43. Opening band - Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, Headliner - B52's

Nuff said

[CBGLuthier]

46. Mountain Smoke (Vince Gill) opening for Kiss

Bluegrass band that just blew Kiss away. Well, for the 20 minutes they got to play before the Kiss army pummeled them off the stage.


And yes, I really was there. :-)

I didn't get to see Cheap Trick open for Aerosmith recently but I would wager any amount they blew those bloated over-rated bean-towners off the stage.

[Nailzberg]

47. Cracker opening for Gin Blossoms, mid nineties

Toward tour's end, Gin Blossoms started selling t-shirts that read "Cracker Kicked Our Ass"


Also both times I've seen Red Hot Chili Peppers, thier opener was always better.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

49. Flaming Lips opening for Cake

Cake was good, but The Flaming Lips just have such a ridiculous live show.

[Jets2Brazil]

50. Or the Flips opening for Candlebox, or Beck, or...

Man, the Flaming Lips have been opening up for crappy bands for time immemorial. (Okay, Beck's not crappy...just not as good).

[Tyrone Slothrop]

52. Yeah, I was at a show a couple years ago

Where De la Soul, Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips were all opening for Cake.

I like Cake and all, but all three of those bands put on a much better live show.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

53. Was it in Prospect Park?

If so, that's the show I'm referring to.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

55. 'Twas

The Unlimited Sunshine tour or something like that.

Which was ironic seeing as there was a torrential downpour during Cake's entire set.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

56. Yep. The weather sucked.

The friend with me enjoyed jumping in puddles though. She's completely sober, but also completely insane.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

59. I remember kind of enjoying it

Granted, I had spent some time in The Hackensaw Boys' van pre-show (my then-gf was friends with some of them), so my memory may be a little hazy...

[kwolf68]

51. Bad Religion opening for Blink 182

...Just my personal ops

[Dora]

54. A3 opening for Spacehog at SXSW, 1998.

:wow:

I left halfway through Spacehog's second song - and they were the reason I went in the first place.

Best $20 cover I ever spent.

[Ramsey]

57. 1981: INXS for Adam Ant

INXS had just put out their first album Shaboo Shabah but nobody had heard of it yet. Now, I loved Adam Ant at the time, but INXS did great show and you have to admit they had more staying power.

[Phillycat]

58. White Zombie opening for Testament.

They played for 45 minutes and tore the roof off the place, then Testament came out and everyone left (except me, because I got to go backstage and meet White Zombie! *sigh*)

[kwolf68]

60. I take it that was after Alex Skolnik had left Testament

Skolnik was and is a master guitar player.

[Phillycat]

61. Oh geez, I have no idea. Everyone just went for White Zombie.

I don't think anyone in Philly even knew who Testament was. To me, the three minutes I caught of their set on my way backstage, sounded like:

*incoherent roaring* KILL YOUR DOG! RAPE YOUR CAT! *more incoherent roaring, accompanied by double bass and digital-delay guitar*

but hey, what the hell do I know. :)

[kwolf68]

62. Well

In the 1990s...Testament sorta became a death-metal type band (which would explain what you heard), but their work with Skolnik was nothing short of brilliant.

His solos were masterful. After a couple albums with standard metal cliche's (but rapidly improving musicianship) they began to write about social issues, and became a much more mature band musically and lyrically. Then Alex left the band for Savatage before forming his own Jazz ensemble... old school metal was out and you either had to be grunge, labor in obscurity, or go with a growling/puking death metal sound...So Testament choose the later. To hear singer Chuck Billy (who can actually freaking sing) growling and puking was just horrible and I quit listening to the band.

Skolnik's work will forever be among the most under-rated in the history of heavy metal. Put it this way, an Alex Skolnik lead Testament would have been blown off the stage by almost no one.

I saw Testament open for Slayer and Slayer is positively lethal live and Testament hung with them. Slayer only won the day because of Dave Lombardo's drumming which simply was too much for the ordinary Louis Clemente. I saw Testament blow away Megadeth among many other superb bands.

[warrens]

63. The Ramones opening for a band called Maze

At New Canaan High School, just before the first Ramones album came out. How bad were Maze? They opened with Smoke on the Water. We were out of there before the first line of the song...just the riff had us on the run.

[WoodyTobiasJr]

64. There's a few that I've been to

The Cult - Billy Idol
The Cult kicked Billy's ass

Platinum Blond - Bryan Adams
Not that I really care for Platinum Blonde, but I really detest Bryan Adams. I got dragged to this concert

The Tubes & Peter Gabriel - David Bowie
Bowie put on a good show but Peter Gabriel was way better and The Tubes were amazing! They were my favourite band at the time.


And one tie...
Nitzer Ebb - Depeche Mode
Best one two punch concert I ever saw

[WoodyTobiasJr]

65. Joy Division once opened for The Bay City Rollers

I think this one wins

[Phillycat]

66. Okay, you made that up.

[WoodyTobiasJr]

67. No for real! They did!

[geniph]

69. Santana opening for the Grateful Dead

the Dead were fine, but Santana was ON FIRE.

Tacomadome in Tacoma, Washington in 1987, I think it was.

[mwdem]

70. Yes opening for Alvin Lee & 10 Years After.

First time I'd heard Yes, and they blew me away.

[Jean Louise Finch]

71. Radiohead opened for Alanis Morrisette

At Great Woods outside of Boston. My friends were super jazzed about Alanis, and the only way they could lure me along was when they told me Radiohead was opening. Oh, the delight. I think that this was back when Creep was their only cause for fame!

[LibDemAlways]

72. OK, you probably will have a hard time

believing this, but back in the mid 60's I went to a show at the Anaheim Convention Center where The Who opened for Herman's Hermits. Talk about strange bedfellows. There were two entirely different groups of fans in that arena. After the Who ended with their trademark destruction of the equipment and their fans were in a frenzy, poor mild, teenybopper Herman's Hermits took the stage to a bunch of jeers and boos from the Who fans who hadn't left. They looked like they didn't know what hit them.

[Jamastiene]

73. Joan Jett opening for Aerosmith.

I like both, but I was going to see Joan Jett. It was a Joan Jett concert to me, not an Aerosmith concert. She rocks hard, always pleases me.