Bands that you saw as an Opening-Act before they became "Big"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Tone, Mar 9, 2015.

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  1. johnnyyen

    johnnyyen Senior Member

    Location:
    Scotland
    Simple Minds supporting The Stranglers
    Joy Division supporting Buzzcocks
    The Cure supporting Siouxsie And The Banshees
    Madness supporting The Specials
    UB40 supporting The Pretenders
    Squeeze supporting Eddie And The Hot Rods
    The Associates supporting The Fire Engines
     
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  2. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    Not sure if she has really "made it" so to speak (she has done the TV rounds on Conan, Last Call, Kimmel, etc, plus Live @ Darryl's House), but I saw Diane Birch open for Gabriel Kahane at a venue in the Lower East Side of NY back in 2008, about a year or so before her Bible Belt debut CD came out, and she didn't have a backup band, just played solo piano, and was pretty good.
    I don't even know if she had played any major shows at all before this one, and I think she said during the set she wasn't playing much music before this gig.
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2015
  3. dennis the menace

    dennis the menace Forum Veteran

    Location:
    Montréal
    Rush opening for Aerosmith at the Montreal Forum
    Scorpions opening for Rainbow (same venue)
    In both cases, the headliners were swept off the stage by the opening act.
     
  4. Hamhead

    Hamhead The Bear From Delaware

    The Alarm open for U2 at the Sunrise Musical Theater in 1984 (War tour)
     
  5. Duke Fame

    Duke Fame Sold out the Enormodome

    Location:
    Tampa, FL
    Judas Priest opening for Kiss
    Metallica opening for Ozzy
    Poison opening for Ratt
    Bon Jovi opening for Ratt
    Ratt opening for Billy Squier

    Hard to top my dad's entry though, he saw:

    Aerosmith opening for Black Oak Arkansas
     
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  6. That's pretty cool. My Uncle Mike saw Rush open for Aerosmith. It must have been about 1975 or so.
     
  7. Duke Fame

    Duke Fame Sold out the Enormodome

    Location:
    Tampa, FL
    Must've been Aerosmith's first tour as a headliner then, 'Toys' was released in 1975. I'm thinking that BOA show my dad saw was around 1973 or 1974 so that seems to fit the time frame.
     
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  8. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    It's slightly outside the context of this thread, but saw them in early '93. They were actually the main act. In our hometown of Buffalo, they were very big around town, but have doubts that anybody expected them to breakl big and pretty soon thereafter. Anyhow, the tickets were purchased to impress a young lady, who liked them. Despite multiple opportunities to see them after they made, they put on a free concert, outside Buffalo City Hall on July 4, 2004. Didn't make it down, and never regretted not going. It's on DVD though. Finally saw them again last year, after all that time, to help support Robbie's Music is Art Festival.

    As for the thread topic, never saw any opening acts who were completely unknown before getting big.
     
  9. Farmer Mike

    Farmer Mike Forum Resident

    Faith No More, with Chuck, opening for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
    Faith No More ,with Patton, and Soundgarden opening for Voivod
    The Go-Go's with Rick Sprinfield
    R.E.M. with the English Beat
    Van Halen with Black Sabbath
    Primus with the 24/7 Spyz, and Primus killed it
     
  10. Jvalvano

    Jvalvano Senior Member

    Location:
    NH
    Def Leppard opening for AC/DC touring their On Through The Night album
    Metallica opening for The Rods and Vandenberg in some small club on Staten Island
     
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  11. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Iron Maiden touring with their first album release. Man I wish I kept that signed album I got from them....
     
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  12. the sands

    the sands Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    DeLillos
    Radiohead
     
  13. Crossfire#3

    Crossfire#3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Burlington Vermont
    Saw Skynyrd open for the Who in December of 1973 on the latter's first and only tour (with the original foursome) in support of Quadrophenia and what I presume was the Southern band's first major tour...don't remember much of Van Zant and co. except the feverish close (which I presume was "Freebird")--too pumped for Pete and the boys!!!
     
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  14. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    I saw REM open for Joan Jett and the headliner...The Kinks at Red Rocks.

    I also saw John Cougar (as he was known at the time) attempt to open for Jethro Tull and The Who in Boulder. He was getting booed constantly and ended up flipping off the entire crowd and storming off.
     
  15. tiger roach

    tiger roach Forum Resident

    I saw Judas Priest opening for Foghat in 1978. I'm not a Judas Priest fan, but still, I got that going for me. :p

    Saw Cheap Trick open for Foreigner that same year, and they were by far the more entertaining of the two acts (IMO of course).
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2016
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  16. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Completely correct. Ed likes to tell how they were told the day before they had to hit the road.
    .
     
  17. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    The Marshall Tucker Band - Feb.1974
    The Charlie Daniels Band - Feb. 1974
    Lynyrd Skynyrd - June 1974
    Atlanta Rhythm Section -1976
    The Outlaws - 1976
    Heart opening for Loggins & Messina - 1976
    Boston opening for Foghat - 1976
    Foreigner opening for Ted Nugent - 1977

    My friends The Winters Brothers Band, opening at the last minute for Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band !!!!!! (proud)

    (editing as I check my scrapbooks)
    .
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2016
  18. Crossfire#3

    Crossfire#3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Burlington Vermont
    Saw Skynyrd one more time with Ed in the lineup @SPAC: not sure what year --but had to be early to mid-Seventies, right?-- stunned to see the crowd all jump to their feet when the band came on and unfurled a huge Confederate flag behind them on stage: had no idea they're gotten so popular
     
  19. Crossfire#3

    Crossfire#3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Burlington Vermont
    I recall seeing MTB open for the Allmans @ SPAC in June of 1973
     
  20. agaraffa

    agaraffa Senior Member

    I saw The Black Crowes open up for Aerosmith on the "Pump Tour". It was January of 1990, don't know they were big yet though... they broke on the scene pretty quickly if I remember correctly.
     
  21. Chazzbo13

    Chazzbo13 Forum Resident

    Saw Concrete Blonde open for Dave Edmunds in 1987 at the Chestnut in Philly...not a good match at all from my perspective...
     
  22. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Ed left May, 1975.
    .
     
  23. iainbaker

    iainbaker Well-Known Member

    Location:
    London
    Coldplay, third on the bill, on an NME tour. About 20 people in the crowd. Nirvana, again - third on the bill, to Tad, at the Astoria in London. Of these two shows, Coldplay were incredible, and I always knew they'd be huge. Nirvana were the worst band I'd ever seen
     
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  24. rwil

    rwil Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Fayetteville, AR
    Old Crow Medicine Show opening for Gilian Welch is the closest I can think of.
     
  25. dmiller458

    dmiller458 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midland, Michigan
    Metallica opening for Ozzy
    the Cult opening for Billy Idol
    Bob Seger opening for Queen
     
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