Worst Opening Act You Sat Through...

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by World of Genesis, Aug 14, 2006.

  1. World of Genesis

    World of Genesis Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Just curious about the WORST opening act you ever sat through at a concert. I recall two terrible ones. I saw Styx in 1990/91 and the opening act was the band called Audio Mob who were also on the A&M label at the time (the same as Styx). They played at a volume so loud, even with hands on my ears it was unbareable! Ugh! I probably lost more hearing in that 45 minut set than in all other concerts combined.

    My other one was The Escape Club, who opened for Mike And The Mechanics back in 1989 on the Living Years tour. Man, were they terrible! They were really sloppy live and just all over the place, musically speaking... painful to listen to and even more dreadful to watch. Talk about an hour that I'll never get back! LOL! ;)

    Dave

    P.S. Sorry for the typo in the title.
     
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  2. mrtanner

    mrtanner Active Member

    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    George Throrogood opening for Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes.

    There was a saxophone on stage, but evidently the mic wasn't on because I never heard a note from it. I heard drums, bass, and George "played guitar" without using his left hand at all on several songs. Just awful! He did mention the city or state he was in an average of 5.7 times per song in order to get a reaction from the crowd. [I was surprised he knew where he was.]
     
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  3. jojopuppyfish

    jojopuppyfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Damian Marley before u2 was pretty bad. They had a guy at the front of the stage who kept waving a flag the whole time.

    The other was Eric Burdon who opened before War at the HOB about 10 yrs ago. It was so bad, I left before War came out.
    I didn't want to see 2 hasbeens on the same night.
     
  4. reechie

    reechie Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    A bunch of aging rock star wannabes who opened for The Smithereens at Tink's in Scranton, PA in November of '95, who called themselves "The Swinging Johnsons"

    These guys came out, and started their set with a couple of straight classic rock songs, which was pleasant enough. Then they went in to this really misguided off-color X-rated act, singing offensive songs, telling dirty jokes, and yes, swinging "johnsons", or in this case rubber sex toys. Truly appalling, inappropriate, and uncalled for.
     
  5. mcow1

    mcow1 Sommelier Gort

    Location:
    Orange County, CA
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Motorhead, I don't even remember who they opened for. Finally Lemmy started cussing out the audience, like it was our fault they sucked.
     
  6. Pickoid

    Pickoid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Little Rock, AR
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Dinosaur Jr. opening for Neil Young in 1993. They were so cranium-splitting loud, I had to leave the auditorium.
     
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  7. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Faith No More, opening for PIL in San Francisco, circa 1987 or so. They were boring the audience with their music, so the Bass player decided to drop his pants and play in his underwear whilst headbanging and whipping his hair up and down constantly through the song. Then one of the band members stepped up to the mike and started berating the audience for not pogo dancing or being really into it or whatever. Then the lead singer who was a male and wore a dress with no panties underneath (I forget his name, now) did a somersault onstage and flashed the audience with his genitals. The music wasn't too bad (they were competent on their instruments), though not to my taste, but this desperate nonsense to get attention during the show turned me off big-time.
     
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  8. gener8tr

    gener8tr Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver, WA USA
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Well, I watched Journey's road crew / guitar techs, etc. open their show couple of years ago... that's right, the road crew. Not terrible as far as musicians go, but terribly dissapointing Journey didn't have either:

    A) A real band opening the gig
    B) Nobody opening and playing a few more songs
     
  9. nosticker

    nosticker Forum Guy

    Location:
    Ringwood, NJ
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    K's Choice, opening for the Indigo Girls about 4 years ago. Self-indulgent, awe-inspiringly, laughingly bad. I've actually stopped going to Indigo Girls shows altogether, just because of their horrendous openers. I feel as if they inflict sub-par acts on their audience just to stack the deck in their favor.

    When I see a bad opening act, I sometimes feel insulted by the headliner, even though I know promoters, management companies, and record labels probably have more of a hand in the decision.



    Dan
     
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  10. gener8tr

    gener8tr Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver, WA USA
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    One more...

    UGLY KID JOE opened for Def Leppard in 1993 and they were the worst band (that night) I've ever seen... And I've see A LOT of them!
     
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  11. John Cantrell

    John Cantrell Active Member

    Location:
    Outta here
    The Cult.
    They opened for Aerosmith at the time and were extremely loud. That was one thing, but what really pulled my chain was that suddenly, out of nowhere, and for no fathomable reason, the guitar player - or bass player, I don't really recall - began cussing us, the audience, out. Mothereffing this, Mothereffing that, and all you Mothereffers...and so on.

    My wife and I were there with another couple. Though no prudes, I finally suggested we retire to the lobby to escape the onslaught of profanity. So I guess my experience doesn't really qualify for this thread, as I really didn't "sit through" the act...:p
     
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  12. Marty Milton

    Marty Milton Senior Member

    Location:
    Urbana, Illinois
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    10 or 12 years ago I went to an Art Garfunkel concert and there was a solo opening act with a guy singing and accompaning himself on guitar. Almost all his songs were covers of other artists, until the last song. He was the guy who wrote and sang the song that is played during the final video montage at the final four NCAA tournament. That was the only redeeming aspect of his act.
     
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  13. Evan L

    Evan L Beatologist

    Location:
    Vermont
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    The worst act I saw was called The Fools(from Boston)who opened for Van Halen in 1980. They had tomatoes, toilet paper and even a three-quarter pizza thrown at them:)eek: )!


    Evan
     
  14. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    nosticker, I'm glad you brought up Indigo Girl concerts, because during their "Honor The Earth" tour in Denver we were treated to Indigneous, which I guess we were not prepared to hear (a bunny with a pancake on its' head would have been preferable!).

    Along those same lines, opening for a Swing Out Sister show a couple of years ago in Baltimore, was a Native American rapper whose name escapes me...but sure didn't fit the sort of smooth-groove music people were there forr. Bit too brazen with the wordplay, as well.

    And then the night Ben Lee opened for Ben Folds...WTF?! Pitch issues should not be part of a singer's act, no matter how "precocious" he is.
     
  15. seg763

    seg763 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Oasis, oh wait they were the headliners. :shh:

    It's gotta be tough opening up for someone else's audience I remember the Clash getting booed in '82 before The Who @ JFK. And a band called Crocodile Shop really getting abused for no reason before New Model Army.

    I guess the worst was some band who's name i've long forgotten, they opened for Queen @ MSG in september 1980 (The Game tour) if anyone else was at that show and remebers who they were I'd be curious to look up that band and see if they ever released an album.
     
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  16. rinso white

    rinso white Pale Fire

    Location:
    Kingston, NY
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    I saw the Rembrandts open for Lucinda Williams at Town Hall in NYC. They were atrocious. The worst part was when they did their only "hit" (aside from the Friends theme), That's Just the Way It Is, Baby. They would not stop exhorting the half-full auditorium to go through the cheesiest arena-rock motions--"Okay, THIS side of the crowd, c'mon! Now THIS half! I can't hear you! That half was louder! Let's show 'em what you can do!!" Meanwhile, not one person was singing--this is during a break in the song designed to let the crowd sing a capella. Truly the most frightening, sad thing I've seen at a concert. Lucinda was great, though.

    Gort: can we change the title of this thread to "Worst?" Thanks.
     
  17. major_works

    major_works This is my Custom Title

    Location:
    Ramsey, NJ, USA
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Graham Parker opening for Nektar at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. Must have been around 1976 or 1977. This was one of the most mismatched bills I've ever seen. Parker was being booed roundly and got angrier and angrier as his set went on. He may have even cut his set short; may as well have as no one was listening to him.
     
  18. pecanrood

    pecanrood New Member

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Dokken opened for Blue Oyster Cult in the early 80s. the band was awful, but it was pure Spinal Tap ... at one point the lead singer had removed the mic from his stand and when they came up on a chorus, the lead guitarist went to said mic stand to begin singing harmony (as it were), but there was no mic for him to sing into. oops.

    But the best part was after the amazingly dull drum solo, the drummer sprang to his feet to accept the muted applause of the bored audience, only to trip over a cymbal stand and fall face first to the stage, bringing his drum kit down with him.
     
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  19. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    The worst opening act I ever saw was John Cougar Mellencamp....who had the admittedly unenviable task of opening for The Who and Jethro Tull at Folsom Field in Boulder 1982. He was terrible....got boo'd off the stage...and flipped everyone off on his way.

    More recently...Fiona Apple opening for Coldplay was a disaster. She screamed the entire time, and continually lost her place in her own songs. A far cry from the fantastic headlining performance I saw her give 3 months prior.
     
  20. gd0

    gd0 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

    Location:
    Golden Gate
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Eddie Money.

    Two words: Sad Sack.

    Forgot the headliner... ca 1982... ???
     
  21. 51nocaster

    51nocaster Senior Member

    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    I was at that show as well. IIRC, both The Clash and Santana opened for The Who. Life didn't get much better, for a sixteen year-old, than being at that show with 100,000 other Who fans!
     
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  22. WizardGlik

    WizardGlik New Member

    Location:
    OHIO
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    BONHAM (Jason Bonham's band) opened for Emerson, Lake & Palmer at a smallish open air venue (Nautica) in Cleveland in 1992. They came onstage and you could see the hate/disgust vibrating off of them. I don't know what the deal was but they couldn't wait to get off that stage. Needless to say, they sucked.
     
  23. World of Genesis

    World of Genesis Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Another one... I saw this two girl vocal duo (The Murmurs) that was absolutely terrible. Come to think of it, they WERE the worst live act I've ever seen in my entire life and in over 100 concerts and festivals. They opened for Joe Jackson in the early 90s (Night Music Tour). I remember that they had a minor hit with a song called "You Suck" (not kidding) and as they performed it, people were heckling them saying - "No, you suck!" they only applause they got was when they said, "I'm sure this will upset all of you, but this will be our last song" amongst a battering of boos and hisses from the crowd suddenly everyone cheered. Priceless... At least they knew nobody liked their performance. The Escape Club seemed clueless.
     
  24. Jerry

    Jerry Grateful Gort Staff

    Location:
    New England
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    For "unknown openers", Gerard opening for Kingfish at the Pinecrest Country Club, Shelton, CT in 1977 or 78. For established acts, Livingston Taylor, solo acoustic, opening for Yes in 1974 at the Boston Garden. Bizarre billing.
     
  25. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through...

    Damien Rice opening for Counting Crows. The consensus among us there was that he'd maybe stayed a bit long at hospitality before he hit the stage.

    And a group called Avail which supported Lagwagon. The sound was terrible and it was just like mush at 120dB's
     
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