Companion thread to good opening acts. Heart (Anne and Nancy are rock goddesses IMHO) was on their first tour behind Dreamboat Annie. They came to Allentown, PA. Opening act was a magician, a bad magician. Can't imagine the brain trust that decided a magician should open for Heart. The magician was not well received and after 20 minutes retired from the stage.

Heart ROCKED it.

Dexy's Midnight Runners got booed off the stage opening for David Bowie.

Tool, when they opened for Metallica.

I think they were a little dismayed when nearly 90% of the seats were filled for their first song and less than 10% when they finished (everyone was walking around at the concessions stand). They ended with a "well fuck you San Diego" and got booed by those still in their seats AND those walking around.

I went with a buddy to see Natalie Merchant at the Joint in the Hard Rock LV (way before it was remodeled....like, 1996 or so). We have great seats, first or second row. So the opening act is just billed as a "Joni Mitchell Tribute" show. OK, not really my favorite but whatever..... So the show starts and the Joni Mitchell singing is more "John Mitchell".....some guy in a blue sleeveless dress wearing a bright yellow wig and with GUNS for biceps. It was freaking weird. Just.....weird. I couldn't stop laughing. There was a huge security guy standing by us, he had to face the seats, and when he saw our reaction and turned around and saw the freak show, I wish I had a camera to catch it.
We headed to the back of the room to the bar, had a few drinks and waited for the main act. Natalie Merchant was like, 2+ hours late to take the stage, ended up just leaving and going to play blackjack.

quote:

Originally posted by SPWAMike0317:
Companion thread to good opening acts. Heart (Anne and Nancy are rock goddesses IMHO) was on their first tour behind Dreamboat Annie. They came to Allentown, PA. Opening act was a magician, a bad magician. Can't imagine the brain trust that decided a magician should open for Heart. The magician was not well received and after 20 minutes retired from the stage.

Heart ROCKED it.

he's a Magic Man.

When I saw Tool in Denver a couple years ago a band called 3 Teeth opened up for them. Yeah, I couldn’t drink that cool aid.

Back around 93 or 94 I saw Kings X open for Pearl Jam. Kings X put on a tepid performance at best and Pearl Jam was in the height of peak Ten popularity and hadn’t become serious and jaded yet. You can imagine how that worked out. Also terrible was Candlebox opening for Living Color.

Not really an opening act, and not an untalented performance, but I once went to a clinic put on by Dennis Chambers (P Funk’s inhuman drumming machine for a while) and Victor Wooten (one of the baddest bass players to ever live). With these two virtuoso monsters of funk was guitarist Shawn Lane, who could play scales really, really fast. Lane passed on not long after that, and he was technically phenomenal, but the fit was probably the worst I’ve ever seen for a live performance.

Y&T (a very mediocre, IMHO, hard rock band) opened for Rush when their Grace Under Pressure tour came to Charleston, WV. Pretty much the same scenario as LS1 GTO's Tool/Metallica, except the seats started about 10% filled and stayed that way until they left the stage.

It's a tie:

Lili Haydn opening for Page & Plant, 1998.
It Bites opening for Jethro Tull, 1989.

Ted Nugent opened for Aerosmith in the 80's. He was awful and the sound was so distorted. Aerosmith killed it though.

When I was in high school, at a weekend rock festival, the first day featured co-headliners Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent. The Boomtown Rats opened that day and I actually thought they were good. But the entire audience hated "punk rock", booed them throughout, throwing stuff at at the band, including clumps of dirt and grass torn up from the infield. Lead singer Bob Geldof would insult the audience, egging them on to throw more stuff. There were moments when literally hundred of items were raining on the band. I heard the same thing happened to an unknown Prince when he opened for The Stones a couple of years later.

I saw Taylor Swift open for Brad Paisley once.

cannot think of one that was horrible, (mostly cause I can't remember who they were,,,, see lots of shows)

do recall a few, one that opened for Morrissey years ago, a couple that opened for Costello, that were not good at all,

I was at a Yes concert in Austin in the early 90's. The opening act was honest to God black and white Popeye cartoons on a giant screen.

I guess they figured that most of the audience was going to be getting "medicated" on one thing or another and Popeye cartoons were a good way to judge when to level off. LOL