Asking Alexandria, the standard bearers for crabcore, opening for GnR, 2009 I guess. The bar was not set very high when this very young band opened for the odd, bloated GnR lineup for CD tour. While the staccato, sledgehammer riffing wasn't all that bad, the lead vocal veered from deep low death metal style grunts to flat out screaming, often within the same song.
They came back thru here in '06 & headlined a theater show, and it was nirvanic. Much better vibe when everyone is on the same tribe. It was at the (then) Hilton, which has a huge gaming floor, and I passed Kim Gordon walking along. Just gave her a nod, which she returned.
There's NO contest for me. This unbelievably horrible band called Push, that opened up for Cheap Trick in Walnut Creek at Rock The CASA benefit. The singer was a DJ who put on the benefit, so no one could boo. He could not sing at ALL. TONE DEAF. Did some horrible songs and made others that weren't horrible, equally unbearable. It was torture. I'd honestly never seen a band that bad in my life, and neither had my friend who was with me. He was lucky enough to miss the National Anthem being sung by a girl who the Rock the CASA program helped, which was the most non-rock-concert thing I'd experienced at a so-called "rock concert" ever, until this band PUSH, a cover band (supposedly of '80s songs, but they did mostly '70s songs), until Push played afterward. One thought before they might be cheesy fun. Wrong. They SUCKED THE AIR out of the place. They sucked the enthusiasm out of the entire building. I used to be on facebook - I'd comment on the Cheap Trick page - people were writing after I wrote about them as nice as I could, that the atmosphere when Cheap Trick came on was mostly dead (Rick Nielsen turned to the crowd after two or three songs and went "what is this? A Republican town hall meeting?" then he said the crowd needed more to drink anyway so everyone agreed this band Push was so unbelievably terrible beyond words, and one person even said "my wife wanted us to leave" - she couldn't take it. They were the worst band in my entire music going history. WE should have been paid for having to see them! The tickets were NOT cheap, and then to be tortured like that? Oh my GOD.... And my friend had to go to a club afterward just to get a feeling of a real rock and roll atmosphere after that ****. Cheap Trick played great, but... Yes, the worst band in the entire world is named PUSH.
That’s an easy one: Dominic Gaudious opening for Eric Johnson in Atlanta, GA at the Variety Playhouse (a horrible sounding venue to begin with). He was nothing more than a Michael Hedges clone (and there’s many of those out there). What made it all worse was that he wasn’t playing anything. He was just banging on his fretboard, but nothing was coming out that resembled music.
I saw the Stones at Soldier Field in September 1997 - we got Blues Traveler. I'd have killed for Lenny Kravitz instead!
Tangential story: I saw Social Distortion open for Foo Fighters here in DC in 2011. They didn't do anything for me, but they were okay. The guy next to me loved them, though, and refused to accept that they wouldn't play an encore. I explained very few opening acts did encores, but he kept saying "No way, man - they gotta come back!" Even when the roadies hit the stage, his optimism for an encore persisted. He just wouldn't say die - even when I explained that their instruments had all been taken off the stage, he still thought they'd play another song! I think he's still at Verizon Center - never say never!
Circa 1982, before R.E.M. were established, they were the opening act for the English Beat. I know this for a fact, as I saw them at the Agora in Hartford.
Ok Jimmy B, this is a band called Complete, doing a melody-less, talent-less song called 'Hoogie Boogie Land.' If you can get through this ear torment, and then objectively and honestly say that Push is worse, then you're really saying something indeed. Because this is ear torture to the nth degree:
Oh, I know REM did some opening gigs in their early days - I saw 'em open for the Police in 1983. I was just curious to hear when "Henry Babenko" saw them as an opener...
Sorry, guess I came in in the middle of something. On a side note, even as an opening act, I saw something in them. We were playing their debut EP on my college radio station, as we had a sub to IRS Records.
I had friends who were into REM from the very start as well - they saw their circa 1982 shows at the 9:30 Club in DC. I think like 5% of the Police crowd knew about REM - they really were still pretty unknown in 1983 - but I had awareness of them due to my friends. Didn't like 'em, though - IIRC, they put on a pretty awful performance. I think the size of the venue probably overwhelmed them - tough to go from 500-capacity clubs to an 18,000-capacity arena of people completely disinterested in your music!
Saw them in the Fall of '84, headlining w/ The dB's in support. Clearly, Stipe was trying to find his stage persona, he spent an awful lot of time with his back to the audience, lights were real low, and he didn't move much. He did have that stencil of the "Monster" bear on the back of his stage jacket. Maybe they were using that to get him to open up on stage at the time. They obviously made a decision that they were not going to open after those initial experiences, then took to the road to make it happen for themselves. Quite a trip in 5 years, seeing them for free in a darkened field playing to a college audience, to watching Stipe throw himself around stage in a packed sports arena in '89 for the Green tour.
B-52's opening for The Who! This had to be the worst pairing ever. People were throwing shoes and other items at them. After three sings, the band was booed off the stage.
Wow. That is just wrong on so many levels. Almost lost for words at how atrocious that actually is... Thanks, thanks a bunch
Which tour was this? I saw the B-52s open for the Police at MSG in 2008. I'd never seen the 52s in the past and their performance didn't make me regret that decision - they were okay, I guess, but they're not my thing!
The worst opener for me was Blind Melon, who opened for the Stones on their '94 Voodoo Lounge tour stop in Philadelphia. They didnt play their vastly popular single "No Rain" and I just didnt like their set. Crowd didnt give them much noise. Thankfully the set didnt last too long.
Orlando Florida, November 1982. B-52s were on their way to Jamaica for a festival, so this was a one off deal for them, and it was not pretty that afternoon. It may have been 4 songs, 20 minutes, Fred announced he was taking us to Planet Claire whether we wanted to go or not. Cindy Wilson got hit in the midsection with something that knocked her off mike, and that was pretty much the end of the show. The opener, Joan Jett, finished her set, spent dodging stuff, with a hearty **** YOU ORLANDO! as she walked off. Tangerine Bowl, now the Citrus Bowl, was dangerously oversold, as pics and video (on You Tube) show, that Thanksgiving weekend. Its a pretty infamous show, among many, if you lived in Florida at that time.
the jumped shipped from Geffen to epic for their 3rd album , can't remember why, and epic ended up not really pushing them
I might be wrong but that tour FP had 3 of the 5 guys from the 80's. at least 2. can't remember when greg steele (sp?) left again
Further to my last post I also saw Donovan open for the Happy Mondays in 1990. Great choice for a crowd off their heads on E and acid. He was bottled off. I don't like the guy myself but still felt he was treated very badly. Totally inappropriate choice of support act given the audience, not Donovan's fault at all. I thought one heckle of, "Get in your grave you old b**tard!" was a bit strong too!
