Best opening act you've sat through. *

WHAT A SHOW! You have my undying envy.

 

Ted Nugent opening for ZZ Top in Marysville CA in 2003 - Shouldve been the other way around

Kenny Wayne Shepherd opening for Ted Nugent, the same concert

King's X opening for Dream Theater, who in turn opened up for Joe Satriani, in Concord CA 2003 I believe. That was a GREAT show!

Eric Johnson opening up for Joe Satriani in Austin, May this year. I actually went to see Eric Johnson, as I'd seen Joe several times before. Great show!

 

Heavy Metal Day on the Green, Oakland Colisseum '85: Malmsteen, Metallica, Y&T, Ratt, and the Scorpions (in that order).

Guns and Roses opening for Queensryche, Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, 1987 or thereabouts.

 

Livingston Taylor opening for Linda Ronstadt back in the 70s.

 

recently:
Drive By Truckers opening for The Black Crowes

years ago:
John Hiatt opening for Little Feat

and
The Scorpions opening for Rainbow

 

King Crimson, first slot,opening for Procol Harum , third slot, with Yes sandwiched in between. NYC's Academy of Music in 1971. Crimson closed with 21st Century Schizoid Man and Yes opened with Heart of the Sunrise. Two completely different renderings of a great riff.

Another great opener was Joe Cocker with the Grease Band - He opened for everyone in 1969 - I saw him open for the Jeff Beck Group (the Beck-Ola tour) the Jefferson Airplane (Volunteers) and he was at the Atlantic City Pop Festival, too (I think - I know I saw him three times that summer). The third could have been opening for Zeppelin, though as that the Saturday of Woodstock, I think my memory may be fuzzy. Maybe it was Mott the Hoople opening for Zep. I wish they printed the opening act on the ticket stub!

 

Saw John Hiatt open for Robert Cray back in '88. Both put on a great show. IMO that was a great period for both.

A few people on this thread mentioned Loverboy. Saw them open for Kansas back in '80. It's a long time ago, so I can't say definitively, but if memory serves, it was right before their debut album took off. I suspect they were headlining fairly soon after that.

 

Way back when ('70s) I saw Climax Blues Band open for Bad Company. CBB blew me away.,,,as well as the rest of the arena. They came out for two encores. Bad Company followed and acted as though they didn't even want to be there. Very little applause, a short set, followed by one brief encore. I'll never forget the concert review headline in the local paper the next day - "Climax Blues Band Plays in Bad Company" - Priceless.

 

No question: Steve Goodman as opening act for Steve Martin in 1979.

 

Living Colour and Guns n' Roses, both opening for the Rolling Stones.

Guns only opened for the L.A. shows. Axl Rose managed to piss some group off every night with his stage banter.

 

The Dirty Three opening for Man or Astroman

 

Royal Crescent Mob opening for Camper Van Beethoven

 

Triumph before Foreigner, World Series of Rock - mid 80's

John Waite before Scandal, he was great, still is! - mid 80's

 

J. Geils--twice--1977 opening for Peter Frampton (blew him off the stage) and 1981 opening for the Stones (better than the Stones!)

 

I have seen many over the years but instead of mentioning the ones who smoked the headliner (Jeff Beck for The Jefferson Starship comes to mind) I'll instead mention two excellent openers who I had up until then never heard of who opened for wonderful main acts:

Marah who gave The Jayhawks a run for their money on their Sound Of Lies tour and I love that album
Tim Easton who opened for Alejandro Escovedo. They were and remain both excellent

Just saw a band from England called IV Thieves open for The Pretenders a few weeks ago and they are quite good. No match for Chrissie mind you...

Peace-
Norm

 

Camper Van Beethoven opening for REM in 1985

Jellyfish opening for World Party in 1990

Wilco opening for REM in 1999/2000

 

Chris Whitley with band opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in LA in 1991. Mind-blowing.

Stevie

 

Brian Wilson opening for Paul Simon in 2001.
Grandaddy opening for Elliott Smith in 2000 (?).

 

That's absurd, I didn't think Neil opened any shows much less DMB.

 

Rick Derringer opening for Peter Frampton, summer 1977, Market Square Arena, Indianapolis

Cheap Trick opening for Styx, late summer 1977, Circle Theater, Indianapolis

Loverboy opening for ZZ Top, summer 1981, Market Square Arena, Indianapolis

...and last but not least & the absolute best:
The Minutemen opening for R.E.M., December 1985, Clowes Hall, Butler Univ., Indianapolis

About 12 days later Minutemen guitarist & singer D. Boon dies in an van crash,
but I did not know this at that time. After that show, I bought every Minutemen record I could find. I even mail ordered direct from SST. I sent my ballot that was inserted into 3-Way Tie (For Last) to vote for songs for the live album. Again, I had no idea what had happened to D. This was my favorite band at that time. It must have been a somewhat old issue of Spin magazine that I purchased one cold morning in February of '86 but inside was an acticle that started out with: "D. Boon of The Minutemen is dead." My first reaction was "It's a joke!??" but as I read on it was not so. I realized then that that show I had seen that past December was something special and I would never see that awesome band again....

 

Best opening act I ever saw was ENSAMBLE GURRUFIO in Caracas, Venezuela opening for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones in 1997. The group was a quartet consisting of acoustic bass, flute, mandolin, and cuatro. Their music was certainly based on the "gaita" style of fast tempo, melodic tunes with a strong triplet feel to the rhythms. These guys were so virtuosic on their acoustic instruments, and the rhythmic connection that they made in the absence of a drummer was phenomenal. (I think they had a fifth player, on maracas, accompany a few songs). There was a lot of improvisation, and while they didn't ever slip into a swing feel, they were definitely a jazz group in spirit. Their cuatro player, Cheo Hurtado, is a legend in South America. He later did an improvised duet with Bela Fleck that was another highlight of the evening.

 

I won't say anyone blew anyone else away. Just 2 or more great acts together.

The Band opened for The Grateful Dead who opened for The Allman Brothers Band

Dream Theater opened for Yes

Eric Johnson opened for Joe Satriani

Kenny Wayne Shepherd opened for Dickey Betts

Willie Nelson opened for Bob Dylan

The Charlie Daniels Band opened for The Marshall Tucker Band

 

Gentle Giant opening for Yes, July '76, Seattle Center Coliseum. Probably the single best prog show ever, IMHO. GG's chops stimulated Yes to take it to another level that night; I recall Alan White and Steve Howe being on fire in a way I never witnessed before or since (and I've seen Yes a dozen times across the decades).