Any special pre-concert PA music (picked by the artist?) at shows you attended over the years?

Iron Maiden always plays UFO's "Doctor Doctor" before they go on.

I saw Sonic Youth right after Don Cherry had died and they played his Complete Communion album pre-show in tribute.

 

When I saw Peter Gabriel in 2002, they played the Birdy and Passion soundtracks between during the intermissions between the 2 openers.

I know between the opening band and Depeche Mode, Martin Gore makes great mixes of underground techno music to play over the PA. It would slowly get louder until show time.

 

U2 using Clannad's "Theme From Harry's Game" after a show in Philly on The Joshua Tree 1987 tour; they'd used a snippet of it as intro/outro on the live at Red Rocks video.

 

When I saw Steven Wilson a couple years ago, pre Raven..., his opening music was some ambient stuff I quite liked, that my friend told me was a side-project of his. I forget which, though. IEM, perhaps?

Oh, that can't be good. (wanders off to listen to it)

 

When I saw Bob Seger in 2011 the playlist included some Funhouse Stooges and Rock And Roll by Detroit.

 

I remember around that time (2003) Billy had made some positive comments about acts like the Chemical Brothers, and these tracks were in that vein. Did the tracks you heard sound positively old (you mentioned 80's), or could they actually have been contemporary?. I'm sure there are tons of unheard Billy/ZZ outtakes, I would love to hear some, but I have never encoutered any "leaks".

 

King Crimson played Fripp & Eno's No Pussyfooting before shows back in the day. They've played Fripp's soundscapes before all the shows I've seen since the early 80s.

 

Bob Dylan, on his UK tour back in 1984, had a great selection of old electric blues, country and gospel tracks playing before he came on, interspersed with a few more modern things. I can't recall any of them now, but they were all tremendous, and we convinced ourselves Bob himself had selected them from his own record collection. It was probably a roadie or someone who had actually done it, but I still like to think it really was the man himself.

 

Like I said, it sounded like the 80's ZZ Top to the point I thought they were outtakes at first. They had the Eliminator/Afterburner/Recycler sound and grooves of the hits. The soundman specifically said they are unreleased Billy Gibbons solo tunes. I'm telling you, they sounded great. No idea why these wouldn't be released. I'd love to know what they are, why they were recorded, and why they didn't come out.

 

I remember Dream Theater (or Portnoy, more specifically) piping Transatlantic's "All Of The Above" in between Spock's Beard and Dream Theater's set in the summer of 2000, which was really cool, since I hadn't heard Transatlantic before, and had just heard Spock's Beard/Neal Morse for the first time. Free promotion, but it made for great set break music.

 

When Ben Folds dropped the Five, I saw solo shows where he opened with Beethoven 9th, 2nd Mvt. ("Huntley-Brinkley theme")...only the version he used, was...Wendy Carlos', from her work on A Clockwork Orange!

 

Mars Volta always had a very eclectic pre-show "tape". If memory serves, I heard Ornette Coleman before one show.

 

When I saw Saga/Jethro Tull in the early '80s, I remember that the between set music included a lot of Pablo Cruise. I also remember that two well dressed women got into a knock-down, drag-out fight between sets, but that's another story...

 

Macca has, for a while now, had a pre-show tape of odd Beatles and solo covers that always ends with 'The End' just before the show starts. I don't know half of who the covers are but they're an eclectic collection and really hype the audience up for the show without actually playing any fabs/solo stuff beyond a couple of remixes of Paul stuff. Really enjoyable and a clever way to please and hype an audience without spoiling the show.

 

I think so. On Google I found mentions of Tweedy and other members of the group being Patto fans.

 

I was at the NJ show in 1987 where they recorded the Dylan and the Dead album and they played most or all of the Sgt. Pepper CD that just came out.

 

I believe Neil Young uses the Jimmy Reed album 'Sings The Best Of The Blues' as his pre-show tape and has done for several years now.

 

When I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Grand Rapids in 2012, they played most of the Beastie Boys' Pauls Boutique before the show.

 

I've never heard this on Zappa tapes from that era, but I have heard one from 1980 where before the show you can hear the last track of Bill Bruford's Feels Good To Me.

 

When I saw Springsteen in 1992, I really liked that one of the songs before he took the stage was Social Distortion's Born To Lose.
He also had This Is England by The Clash on the same pre-show tape, both nights at the Shoreline. I don't remember these songs being played before the show in Sacramento that year.

 

I saw John Fogerty in 2012 and when he came on he used Almost Saturday Night as his intro music. I would have preferred he play it himself at the show, but it worked.
Also Stiff Little Fingers came out to their instrumental Go For It the last time I saw them; again, I'd rather they played it themselves live, but...it works very well.

 

U2 and Metric have done carefully curated PA songs for a couple tours.

First time I saw St. Vincent she was setting up her gear with 500 people waiting and a Steely Dan album playing at fairly high volume.

David Byrne and John Fogerty have done jungle sounds of birds chirping. Byrne also used sound of the inside of a commercial flight before take off from the passenger point of view.

Springsteen in 2003 played an episode from Little Stevens Underground garage. Enjoyed the DC5 type songs, but if you were in the pit you heard the 60 minute tape twice. It was also repeated show after show.

Various Artists - Come Together: Black America Sings Lennon & McCartney - Amazon.com Music

Many of the songs can be purchase on this very well regarded cd compilation.

 

When I saw the Stones in Cleveland in 1978 the pre-concert music was......the Rolling
Stones. Hadn't heard anyone do that prior and haven't heard any artist do that since.

 

I liked when the Stones were using "Continental Drift". It was a good fit.

 

I remember hearing Hayseed Dixie before a NRBQ show, it must have been right after the first Hayseed album came out. I remember part of one of the songs was looped repeatedly.