Probably not the worst, but I remember really not liking Red Red Meat when they opened for Liz Phair back in around 1993 or '94. Also, Hootie and the Blowfish opening for Victoria Williams. Not that Hootie were bad, but the fans that came to see them and then stayed around to loudly talk through Vic's performance were the absolute worst.
agreed. seems like an odd pairing but I know perry is a fan of them and I'm sure living colour enjoy aerosmith tunes
As with the "Boring Opening Act" thread, Santana in 1994 opening for Jeff Beck. They opened and closed for each other on alternating dates, but had Beck opened the night I was there, I would have walked out on Santana's set. As it was, Santana held 12,000 people hostage that night for Beck's set afterward.
I saw that tour in Memphis at Mud Island Amphitheater (I guess that place is no longer there). The opener was some woman with guitar act. I think her name was Garrison Star (may have been Starr with two R's). She wasn't terrible, but not my kind of thing. Beck came one and was amazing as usual, but the crowd was definitely there to see Santana. I couldn't believe the lack of interest in Jeff's set. I watched about three Santana songs, it started raining, and I decided I didn't like Santana enough to get rained on and left.
I've seen Lucinda Williams three times and she's been awesome every time and all three of her opening acts sucked every time. They only one I can remember the name of was Ron Sexsmith. Was at the New Daisy in Memphis. Some guy up front leaning against the stage kept hollering real loud "Hey, Ron you suck." "Hey, Ron, get off the stage man. You suck." He did it over and over again. Kind of felt sorry for Ron, but the dude was right. He sucked.
We went to see MGMT in Boston last week and oh my lord, the opening act Matthew Dear was pure torture. I’m not one to notice how bad lyrics are most of the time but his lyrics and rhyming scheme could easily be outdone by a third grader. And it was just a guy basically playing karaoke to a machine so there wasn’t anything interesting to watch either. Agony!
it's always hard for an opening band. a) not many people actually care that they are there b) more often than not they get very limited mixing and p.a. access ... and little to no lights c) often times the main act will sabotage their sound to make sure they can't be upstaged at least that's what it used to be like
A lot of them don’t need help. They sabotage themselves. My parents used to claim that Blue Oyster Cult was an awful live band because they saw them open up for somebody (I wanna say Alice Cooper) back in the early seventies, but I eventually convinced them to concede to your points b and c as a possibility. But who knows, they could have legitimately sucked that night.
everyone has a bad night ... i saw acdc and metallica on bad nights according to their huge fans, because they were both awful on the occasions i saw them
b) is pretty much the standard although some headliners are secure enough to at least give the opener full sound volume or close to it. as far as c)... I saw Mahavishnu Orch. open for Zappa in 1973 in an arena. Evidently there was some tension between the bands because Mahavishnu John's guitar was totally off in the house mix. You had to strain to hear what he was playing through the stage amps. Problem miraculously fixed when Zappa came on.
Van Halen supporting Black Sabbath at Sheffield City Hall Didn't know of them or their music. Thought the guitarist was good but the singer was pure spinal tap with an annoying voice. Didn't think they was going to make it
Some DJ was playing before a Black Sabbath concert a few years ago. Not sure how that pairing happened.
Man I love Darden Smith. Talk about an underrated songwriter. "Frankie and Sue" is still one of my favorite songs to this day.
I saw them too. Horrifically, laughably bad. They are currently 'opening' for the Eagles. Helps to be buddies with Irving Azoff.
I'm very surprised Arno Carstens is on your list. I saw him headline an intimate gig at London's Shepherd Bush Empire sometime between 2oo5 and 2007 and he tore the roof off. Maybe the wrong type of opening act for Little Feat?
T-Rex, in late 1974. They were opening for ZZ Top at the old Michigan Palace in Detroit. Bolan was at that point just about washed up. The nadir of his act consisted of flogging a cheap electric guitar with a bullwhip.
I'd love to see footage of that! It sounds dreadful! I'm a big T.Rex fan but it did go terribly wrong for Bolan at that time. There's something fascinating about it to me though.
It was solo on acoustic guitar and very boring. Maybe it would have been better and more exciting with a band, but this solo performance almost made me fall asleep.
