What opening act killed the main band at a concert you went to. *

Read on, McDuff. You haven't got to the good parts yet.

 

Guns N Roses opening for the Cult at the Long Beach Arena in 1987. GNR wouldn't stop playing so they had to cut the power.

 

The Wildhearts (just before Mondo Akimbo A-Go-Go was released), supporting Gun...they absolutely killed it; the best support band I've ever seen and in my top 10 gigs ever.

Watched the first two songs of Gun's set, bought a VHS video of 'Nothing Changes but the Shoes' (the only VHS I still own) and went home happy!

 

Are you referring to the Hollywood Palladium show of West Bruce & Laing in November 1972 which Mott was on the undercard? West Bruce & Laing killed Mott in my opinion.

 

Yeah, I dunno. If it was at UMD, I'm still leaning Ritchie just because that venue hosted so many bands that "fit" with Nick Lowe...

 

Bob Mould (solo) opening for the Pixies at the Boulder Theater in 89.

 

Los Olvidados, whoever they played under. Social Distortion for one, and I'm talking in '82 and '83. They destroyed everyone that played above them on a bill.

 

Late 70's- Heatwave opened for Rufus feat. Chaka Khan. Heatwave was energetic and engaged the audience. Rufus, even with Chaka, was fairly bland.

 

Green Day absolutely destroyed Blink 182 when they toured together. This was just prior to their regaining headliner status with American Idiot.

 

Any band opening for Blink 182 destroyed them. Blink 182 is the worse live band I have ever seen.

 

Tom Petty opening for Nils Lofgren in Brighton, May 1977 is the one that really stands out

I did see Queen opening for Mott The Hoople in 1973, but Mott were better; ditto Dire Straits for Talking Heads in 1978

My wife dines out on seeing the Sex Pistols support Joe Strummer's 101'ers in early 1976...

 

Uriah heep opened up for KISS.......KISS didn't belong in the same universe as Heep back then...but then, who says the music business is fair?

 

Two worst bands I ever saw? Kid Rock,,,,,,and TOOL....not together, different shows, but oh my god, it's amazing what people will throw down their hard earned money, to go see.

 

Elvis Costello acoustic opening for Bob Dylan in 2009-ish? Concert was $50 and I consider that $1 per minute that EC played - during Dylan's set I just sat with my head in hands - not one of Bob's best shows.

 

My best friend's mother attended one of these shows as a pre-teen/teenager and talks about how the parents of the adolescent Monkees fans were horrified by Jimi's antics. Phallic gestures with the guitar neck and smashing his instruments - they were apparently not prepared.

 

Georgia Satellites opening for REO in 1987.
REO was not bad, actually very good. But the Satellites...my rear end was sore, they kicked it so hard. I would not have wanted to follow that band onstage.

 

Hate to pile on the Black Sabbath thrashing but I thought Rival Sons wiped the floor with Sabbath on this recent retirement run. Sabbath had the same staid, predictable setlist and just didn't have the energy I wanted. The Sons felt like a vital, up and coming hungry rock band and they stole the show for me at the Garden.

 

In 2001 I watched Candiria completely upstage the reformed Soul (Bad) Brains. H.R. was having a fit at the monitors or something of the sort, and the beginning of their set was plagued by constant starts and stops until my friends and I just left.

 

Two Seattle shows immediately come to mind.

1. Stevie Ray Vaughan opening for The Moody Blues in the 80's. The Moody Blues put on a big show - massive visual effects - lots of spectacle. Stevie's lone visual effect was a single spotlight on the bottle of Miller Beer on his amp. Guess who was more memorable?

2. Young Fresh Fellows opening for the Replacements. Now this one is weirder. The Young Fresh Fellows did their normal tight set. The Replacements came out beyond drunk - couldn't remember their songs and kept asking for requests. It barely qualified as a show - it was more like watching a slow motion train wreck.

That wasn't the end of the story though. A few months later, the exact same double bill. Me, curious to see what would happen, bought tickets. YFF came out and played.. off. Disjointed and weird. At the end of the set, their bass player said "Yes our lead singer has no eyebrows" - and he didn't.

Apparently it was a weird bet with the Replacements, because they came out, sans eyebrows, wearing garage mechanics overalls, and proceeded to tear the roof off the joint.

So I got to see both Replacements extremes - the bad and the good.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. Slim Dunlap-era Replacements, BTW. Around the time of Pleased To Meet Me.

 

Local H opening for Helmet

Alice Cooper opening for Mötley Crüe on December 31, 2015. By the very last Crüe show of the tour you could tell none of them save for possibly Mick gave a **** about being on that stage, and it showed.

Mötley Crüe opening for KISS.

 

Sunny Day Real Estate opening for Velocity Girl right before Diary came out.

 

Rob Halford playing before Iron Maiden January 2001
Even his encore was a ballad (Beyond the realms of death).

 

huh?

 

Early version of Lick My Love Pump.

 

Great show, lucky man