Head of Femur opening for Wilco Scatterbrain opening for Prong The American Flag opening for Guided by Voices Slant 6 opening for Unrest Train opening for the Connells Crash Worship opening for Fugazi
What year was this? Seems like the opening act should be the other way around. Although, personally I love SSJ and I don't much enjoy George so that's all good w me.
Ah, Vintage Trouble were just OK. Nowhere NEAR as good as T-Bone Burnett (w/Mick Ronson in the band) opening for The Who in 82 (my first Who concert).
When I saw Elvis Costello And The Attractions in 94 they had the incredibly annoying Crash Test Dummies opening. Their set couldn't end soon enough for me! Not the worst opening band I ever saw by a long shot, but a memorably annoying one!
Whew! Good thing Train were never heard from again! (The Connells, of course, went on to million-selling albums and multiple #1 hits.... )
Stephen Jenkins of TEB had a bad rep for being full of himself.... I opened for them years later, and he was still insufferable. That said, you could forgive him in 1997 for thinking they were awesome.... That was the year they had three Top 10 hits and sold 6 million, while U2 was struggling just to sell a mil with their worst-reviewed album to date....
Brett Netson sat on a stool and played the loudest, tuneless feedbacking guitar opening up for Built To Spill. I was relieved to sit thru his awful set only to find out he was also in Built to Spill. BTS were great but this guy....
Saw Todd Rundgren open for The Band and Clapton in 1974. It was God-awful like fingernails on a chalkboard to my 18 year old ears but The Band and Clapton were my heroes so I might have looked at any opener as a waste of time. I might feel different if I could go back in time and relive that experience but I doubt I'd feel much different,never connected with TR.
Yeah, I get that. It's just not a good "look" for an opening act to behave in such an arrogant manner - especially when they're a new band. It's one thing if the show is closer to a "co-headliner" situation, but even though TEB was at their peak and U2 at their nadir, that wasn't the case. U2 may've been "down" in 1997 but they were still the draw for 99% of that crowd - can't say for sure no one went mainly to see TEB, but I doubt it!
Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through... In 1994, if I remember the year correctly, I went to see the The Proclaimers play in a small theater downtown Victoria, British Columbia. They put on a great little show. Intimate, no more than 200+ people bought tickets to see them live. The majority of people were in their 30s and up. But the opening act, for the life of me I can't remember the name of the band, was absolutely atrocious. The band members were early 20s, up and coming american rock group, loud as ****. They played extreme hard rock cranked to the max which didn't fit the mood and atmosphere of the main act. They would throw out comments to the crowd like, "you Canadians are so polite, you can't even get out of your seats and enjoy yourselves". After listening to their **** for 20 minutes The Proclaimers came on and we really enjoyed their show.
future US Senator: Kid Rock was easily the worst opening act i've ever seen. and the headliner was a terrible band in their own right.
Sleeping in the Aviary opening for Daniel Johnston. Just awful, just googled them and apparently they broke up not long after that show, thankfully.
I've given some thought about this over the past four decades +, I know I maybe missing a better... er, rather a worse one. I must say sitting through Foghat, and then Spooky Tooth prior to the great King Crimson - "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" U.S. tour in 1973 Pgh, PA. Severe prolonged pain... then pure bliss!
I must admit local indie/calypso rockers The Eclectic Moniker opening for Elton John was a weird coupling, but apparently Elton wanted them to do it. Took its sweet time! All I could see from the back row was a huge beard and a guitar. But their lead singer did sing Elton's Blue Eyes briefly which was kind of fun. Again... Support acts... I'm really not that interested. Sure, most of them are great musicians and deserve to be heard, but e.g. when your ticket says "X artist + support" and you don't really know who's going to be there you just hope it's over quickly so you can get to the good stuff.
Oh some weird duo that opened for Peter Hammill at the GAMHin '08. Basically they were booed off but it was clear we were all just itching to see the Thin Man live in action. I would have sat there instead of being subject to...whatever minimalist crap these guys were doing.
Long Beach Civic Auditorium, 1972. A band named "Adam Strange" opened for Chuck Berry. They were almost as bad as the clueless local hacks CB hired for his gig.
I can't even remember their names, but I've been burned multiple times by openers marketed as "regional favorites" or similar nonsense. Probably the promoters' drinking buddies. Speaking of drinking buddies, I also recall going with friends to a few hair/glam metal shows in the '80s; Quiet Riot/Twisted Sister and David Lee Roth/Cinderella come to mind...I knew those shows were mistakes (openers and headliners!) even while I was attending them, but I succumbed to the teenage tribe mentality. For my third marginally relevant comment, I'll say that a very pleasant surprise for an opener was a rock singer/songwriter who opened for Journey and was brand new at the time; none of us had heard of him. His name was Bryan Adams and he and his band put on a hell of a show.
Giuffria opening for Deep Purple on the Perfect Strangers tour in Wichita. KS. 1985. The crowd had no patience for them. We were front row center at this general admission show and watching things bounce off the band. They made it through maybe 3 songs when a wadded up cup full of ice hit Greg Giuffria mid-keytar solo. They left the stage as soon as that song was over.
Oats dad said: When did you see REM as an opening act? i distinctly remember them opening for Gang of Four in maybe 1982 out west somewhere, maybe Phoenix or LA?