Kris Kristofferson opening for George Jones at Carnegie Hall on Halloween. Jerry Lee Lewis opening for Chuck Berry Little Richard opening for Chuck Berry
Around 2000, at a small outdoor venue in Northampton called the Pines Theater. I also saw Shawn Colvin open for Rikie Lee Jones there.
Mid 90’s. We went to see Digable Planets. The opener was Mike Franti’s Spearhead. They were GREAT. Months later Spearhead was back headlining and Brooklyn Funk Essentials was opening. BFE was incredible. Local band Beats the Hell Out of Me opened for the Cramps and they killed it. Saw little known band Kyuss (we were fans already) and Babes in Toyland open for FNM. All were great.
I saw INXS open for Men at Work. I saw NSYNC open for Janet Jackson. I didn't know who they were and they came out and the crowd went crazy...
Bob Dylan opening for the Grateful Dead Merle Haggard opening for Bob Dylan Trey Anastasio opening for the Black Crowes Trombone Shorty opening for Galactic John Doe opening for Nick Lowe
I can't say definitively what was best, but Y&T opening for AC DC was great. When Metallica wrongfully headlined Lollapalooza, I thought the Screaming trees were really good, Soundgarden at the same gig were decent IMO, but deferred a little too much the headliners. Having been to a good few Soundgarden shows, a couple years ago they shared billing with NIN and played before them and IMO were great, a well presented show.
I saw John Craigie open for Todd Snider, during which he sang the tale, "I Almost Stole Some Weed From Todd Snider."
The aforementioned J. Geils Band opening for Black Sabbath at the Fillmore East. If you never thought Ozzy had stage fright, you didn't see him try to follow Peter Wolf & Co. that night.
Back in[68]opening for[Gene Chandler]was a group outta Chicago called[The Chi-Lites]who were pretty good.
I could name hundreds. Great bands play clubs all the time. And I go to clubs almost exclusively. Most recently? The Queers opening for The Dickies. Death By Unga Bunga opening for Stiff Little Fingers 27 years ago? Nirvana opening for Dinosaur Jr.
I saw Jeff Buckley open for Juliana Hatfield once. That was fun, because he came back later and sang with her.
BBKing opening for the Stones in 69 Bobby Blue Bland opening for BBKing Buddy Guy opening for Santana New Riders opening for the Dead Neville Bros opening for the Dead Wilbert Harrison opening for CCR Freddie King opening for the Who&Lynyrd Skynyrd Moving Sidewalks opening for Jimi Hendrix Savoy Brown opening for Deep Purple Joe Ely opening for the Clash Fabulous T-Birds opening for the Stones
I'm a big Dylan fan and saw this bill on 2 nights at Hammersmith and thought he was far better than Bob.
I was gonna chip in with Joe Pass opening for Count Basie but you have a winner there. What was that gig like ? It would be enough to see The Doors but then Buffalo Springfield and then, wait, hang on, who's this, it's The Byrds. I think I'd still be wetting myself 50 years later. In terms of my current (ancient) musical tastes, one gig I'd like to have seen would be Johnny Kidd and The Pirates headlining the Cavern Riverboat Shuffle on August 10th 1962. Johnny Kidd and The Pirates on a boat !! "Support" act was some band called The Beatles. Member of The Pirates "what did you think of them?" Johnny Kidd "They're good but they'll never be as big as Joe Brown".
I've done a bit more digging and the most reliable gig listing I can find is in the Remembered for a While book, which lists all Nick's known gigs, less than thirty in total including a few private parties and low-key appearances when he was at university. In most cases they have details of who else was on the bill and the only two that mention Genesis are the Ewell Tech and Leicester Uni gigs (although it does erroneously show it as Leeds Uni rather than Leicester). There are a couple with no details but they don't correspond with any known Genesis gigs at the time, so that looks like being all there was.
Def Leppard, opening for Scorpions, who opened for Judas Priest. August 3, 1980 - the Heavy Metal Marathon in Syracuse, NY.