Awesome Opening Bands

[funcrusher]

Pixies opened for Love and Rockets, Penn State, 1989.
The Pixies absolutely destroyed.
Love and Rockets had to have been absolutely embarrassed.

I was there visiting friends, and went to see the show w/them. Man oh man. The Pixies were beyond ferocious, I can't overstate how good they were.
In fact, had opener/headliner been switched, nobody would have blinked twice.
L&R shouldn't have even played.

Saw pixies open for u2 zoo tv tour in austin in '92

U2 was meh...

[davids]

I never saw the Pixies and I too would like a do-over.
Kim Deal must be part of that deal.

[dashDustin]

one of the last shows i recall going to...

Blue Meanies opened up for Flogging Molly here in Austin. That was one one of the best shows I've ever experienced.

[Chad]

I saw Sammy Hagar open for Kiss.

Here are excerpts from the review by the Hartford Courant:
"Like a migraine headache, the rock group Kiss has to be experience to be believed."
"The carefully programmed 80-minute show included nearly every cheap and not-so-cheap trick of pop stagecraft: explosions, towers of flame, fake snow, a fire-eating torch bit and a smashing the guitar bit, among others."
"Musically, to stretch the use of that word, the act consisted of grinding, pounding, screeching, deafening noise. It was well-rehearsed, however."

This from the Hartford Advocate:
"Not having liked Kiss in the past isn't quite accurate: I had always despised them. More to the point, I ignored them; everything about their ungodly theatrics made them seem pathetic, made their music trivial. These were four pop hustlers who were determined not to let a lack of talent keep them from the top."
"In performance, Kiss has taken a quantum leap from three-chord rock right into a new realm -- they're a one note band. And it tends to be a loud note at that."

Sammy was marginally better, at least musically.

Ahhh, KISS. I've seen them 3 times. First was as it should be, cool. Second was a let down for sure, but Skid Row and Ted Nugent opened, openers far surpassed the KISS spectacle, not very impressive the second time. Nugent is an idiot, but a pretty decent rock show if he'd shut up between songs. I was surprised at how many Skid Row songs I knew the words to, they rocked as well.

At some point I told my nephew that I'd take him to KISS if they ever came to town. Shit, they did and he remembered my promise, couldn't go back on my word and couldn't leave my 3 kids out. Told them on the way in, you'll see better bands but you probably won't see a better rock show. They all tried to get me to take them again, nope.

[chasea]

I saw Kanye West open for Usher

[72gmc]

Cypress Hill, opening Pearl Jam's "Drop in the Park" in 1992. They didn't overshadow the headline act, but my ears were opened.

[9tubes]

I'll be honest, in almost 50 years of attending concerts I cannot recall ever having heard an opening act that was better than the headliner (or even good enough to take much notice) ...but I can remember a few times when the opener was so horrifically mismatched/inappropriate that it detracted from the entire experience, or at least sullied my memory.

Stevie Ray Vaughn told the story about getting to a show and learning that BB King was opening for him. He thought the promoter was being disrespectful to King so he invited King onstage with him.

I once saw BB King at one of those winery outdoor shows. Buddy Guy opened for him. And Susan Tedeschi opened for Buddy Guy. A very good evening.

[bigbill]

In 2007, Porter Wagoner opened for White Stripes.

[spopepro]

Stevie Ray Vaughn told the story about getting to a show and learning that BB King was opening for him. He thought the promoter was being disrespectful to King so he invited King onstage with him.

Not exactly the same but it made me think of one of my favorite shows--a Mardi Gras show at Tips with Kermit Ruffins, Rebirth Brass Band, then Trombone Shorty. Kermit was, of course, in full party mode from minute one and just never left the stage. In fact, very few folks did throughout the night. It ended up being like a 4-5 hour party/jam session. The musicians outlasted most of the audience.

Can't be an opening band if you never leave the stage *taps forehead*

[Britishbane]

LCD Soundsystem in 2006(7) was > Arcade Fire for whom they opened.

[donk]

"In high school, I saw the Chili Peppers on the Blood Sugar Sex Magic tour. Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins opened. I had heard a little Smashing Pumpkins. Pearl Jam Ten had been released a couple months earlier, but hadn't "hit" yet. So I had no idea who they were. Glad we weren't late to that concert. We were blown away. "
OOPS forgot to quote...

I saw the same tour in Detroit, and they changed the time earlier so we got their just as Pearl Jam was finishing. Still a great show.

One show I went to where the opener blew the doors off the headliner was Foo Fighters opening for Bob Dylan about 6 or 7 years ago.

I really got into Wilco after seeing them open for Neil Young about 15 years ago.

[davids]

James Brown opening for the Rolling Stones. And Chuck Berry, too:



I still remember the first time I saw this, in a hole-in-the-wall theater in Central Square in the early 80s. James Brown's performance killed me. It still does, every time.

[ColonelJLloyd]

JB knew what he was gonna do to them. I've read a quote something like "they're gonna wish they never left London" in regard to having to follow him. He's was working.

I've also read similar "we fucked up choosing to go on after James Brown" quotes from Keef.

[9tubes]

Nancy Wilson tells the story of being unknown and playing small clubs and getting fired from some crappy place. But they just put out a record called Little Queen, and the same night as getting fired they got a call to open for Rod Stewart. Imagine being in the crowd at that show.

[eb125]

[QUOTE=treadonme;1031517]Pixies opened for Love and Rockets, Penn State, 1989.
The Pixies absolutely destroyed.
Love and Rockets had to have been absolutely embarrassed.


Saw that same lineup in D.C. on that tour. Both bands sounded great.

But the show that first came to mind was The Kinks in the mid-80's with John Cougar opening. He only had a couple of hits at the time but put on a helluva show. Made a bunch of new fans that night.

Honorable mentions:

Talk Talk opening for Psychedelic Furs
Soundgarden opening for Danzig
Fugazi opening for Sonic Youth
English Beat opening for The Pretenders
Smithereens opening for The Ramones
Toke opening for Church of Misery (only wanted to see Toke anyway and got to bed by 9). This is obviously the only show on my list from this century.

[htwoopup]

I'll be honest, in almost 50 years of attending concerts I cannot recall ever having heard an opening act...<snip>.... (or even good enough to take much notice) ...

Well, since Bob put it out there, I will totally date myself compared to all of you young whippersnappers....Junior year of college (at a very small school in Poughkeepsie NY), we had a concert that was all local bands for all intents and purposes. I saw Orleans (which went on to some renown but at the time was the house band at Frivolous Sal’s Downtown Saloon where I was slinging drinks) open for The Band who played before Bob Dylan (both of whom hung up the road maybe 20 minutes north). The concert was in the College Chapel as it was the only facility on the campus at the time that could hold almost all of the student body. Oh, and the ticket was two bucks if memory serves me right.

[beeatnik]

It's interesting when you go to a small show and the headliner who has been building a (critical) buzz ends up being the de facto 2nd fiddle for the opener whose trajectory is on another plane. Not uncommon in the big cities, I'd imagine. When Radiohead opened for PJ Harvey they were an annoying grungy out-of-left field new hit wonder on KROQ. At the time English bands had totally been eclipsed by Seattle bands and awful California pop-punk (Green Day and Offspring). Anyhoo, Radiohead must have been booked to open for PJ Harvey before Creep became a hit. I didn't like Creep and even though I didn't listen to commercial radio I knew it was huge in LA. That was confirmed by the appearance of (actual) girls and really good looking dudes (not slacker indie kids!) at the show. The star-making power of KROQ!

Oh, Radiohead's guitar tones were interesting. Although all the songs were interchangeable with the awful muddy mix, they held my attention. They're pretty good live now...

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...142-story.html
In its purity and power, the PJ Harvey band--which was joined on the bill by the well-received English bands Radiohead, an especially accessible group with a huge college radio hit in “Creep,” and Moonshake, a harsher, more alternative entry--displayed an honesty and passion that reaffirmed what the group’s two albums suggested:

This is the most exciting British pop-rock arrival so far in the ‘90s.

[bking]

Sometime around 1971 or '2 I got to San Francisco and found myself living in a basement on Belvedere, two row houses off Haight, two blocks from Ashbury. For a young kid it seemed like the center of the known world then (truth told, that world had already started to move on). I got to a concert there in Winterland to see Savoy Brown. They had two bands I'd never heard of with them. The first, with a laughable name, the Doobie Brothers; and the second was just three guys from Texas. Both of those bands went on to far outshine the headliner. Can't be more than a few of you know of Savoy Brown.

[GonaSovereign]

There haven’t been many openers who upstaged the headliner, but I can think of a few. These don’t reflect my musical preferences necessarily; just what happened on the night

Uncle Tupelo > Teenage Fanclub (I didn’t even know Uncle Tupelo was playing until I got to the show)
Duran Duran > David Bowie (I adore Bowie, but that night Duran Duran killed it and that tour Bowie was more focused on choreography)
Pere Ubu > Violent Femmes
Cult > Billy Idol (I understand the Cult were threatened with being punted from the tour if they didn’t tone down their sets)
The Alarm > Bob Dylan (The Alarm were full on, while Dylan mailed it in)
Ministry > Red Hot Chili Peppers (maybe doesn’t count as it was a festival… a Lollapalooza tour. No band in the history of people making music could have followed Ministry that night…they just laid waste to everyone)
Stevie Ray Vaughan > Robert Plant
Faith No More > Soundgarden > VoiVod (in that order on the bill, too. Plus, all of them were good)

[Chad]

There haven’t been many openers who upstaged the headliner, but I can think of a few. These don’t reflect my musical preferences necessarily; just what happened on the night

Uncle Tupelo > Teenage Fanclub (I didn’t even know Uncle Tupelo was playing until I got to the show)
Duran Duran > David Bowie (I adore Bowie, but that night Duran Duran killed it and that tour Bowie was more focused on choreography)
Pere Ubu > Violent Femmes
Cult > Billy Idol (I understand the Cult were threatened with being punted from the tour if they didn’t tone down their sets)
The Alarm > Bob Dylan (The Alarm were full on, while Dylan mailed it in)
Ministry > Red Hot Chili Peppers (maybe doesn’t count as it was a festival… a Lollapalooza tour. No band in the history of people making music could have followed Ministry that night…they just laid waste to everyone)
Stevie Ray Vaughan > Robert Plant
Faith No More > Soundgarden > VoiVod (in that order on the bill, too. Plus, all of them were good)

What a killer list of concerts!