Concerts you went to for the opening act, not the headliner

Several, and on a few occasions we stopped for the headliner too!!!

Spent 2 1/2 hours driving to a gig to see the support, Kiama, play 45 minutes, then had a chat with them and left, getting caught up in road works and took over 3 hours to get home. Worth every penny and every minute.

Booked to see Thunder last year principally because I had heard Cats in Space might be bing announced as the support. Fortunately they were!!

Others too when I put my mind to it.

 

My first date with my wife was seeing the Ass Ponys at the Somerville Theater. And we were explicitly there for the Ass Ponys and not the headliners, Throwing Muses, who were touring behind the terrible University.

 

Not sure if this counts but in college i went to an entire out-of-state weekend jam band fest just to see Toots & the Maytals, who were mid-bill.

 

Soundgarden opening (middle act actually) for Nine Inch Nails.
Wallflowers opening for Buckingham/McVie

 

Michael Schenker opening for Molly Hatchet Capital theater Passaic NJ.

 

I went to see Jefferson Starship in January of 1979 at the Aragon Ballroom because Rory Gallagher was supposed to be the opening act. Unfortunately his truck broke down and couldn't make it to the gig. At least that was the report given. So the Starship played an expanded set.

Really disappointed. And I never did get to see Rory.

 

My Brightest Diamond opening for The Decemberists.

 

Damn Yankees opening for Poison

 

I went to see a classic rock festival when I was 16 where Kansas opened and if I ranked the bands on who I wanted to see most Kansas would've been at the top. There were several other bands but the last two bands were Foreigner (the last year with Gramm) and Bad Company. That was when I found out I knew a bunch of Foreigner and became a fan. Not being a big Bad Company fan, me and my parents were sufficiently entertained by Foreigner and decided to beat the traffic when their set was over.

 

That sounds awful, horrible.
I hate Heineken !

 

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians opening for 10,000 Maniacs @ Theater Gallery in Dallas in the late 80's.

I didn't know who 10,000 Maniacs were and didn't stay for it (was going to start after midnight). Ooops.

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Edie Brickell & New Bohemians open for Old 97's and didn't stay for the second band. Don't feel nearly as bad about that one.

 

Some time in 1970, yes it was great but I was bummed Duane didn't come out and play with Frank!

 

A long time ago I believe Leo Kottke opened up for Shawn Phillips (anybody remember him? Oh, I'm sorry).
We actually liked Phillips back then, but Leo is so fun to see live and Shawn put on a serious show, so I think Mr Kottke won the night.

More recently, I went to see Los Lobos hoping they were going to headline over Los Lonely Boys, but alas ....

Then there was the time Little Feat (post Lowell) opened for Neville Brothers. You'd think Nevilles could out groove the Feat, but I thought Feat were more relaxed, bluesier and rockier (two guitars) and entertaining than Aaron and co.

 

Robert Fripp opening for Porcupine Tree - 2005 in Cincinnati...

 

In 2013, Maroon 5 headlined, but I went to hear Kelly Clarkson. I avoided the post concert traffic nightmare too.

 

Bow Wow Wow for the Pretenders.

 

fairly recently.... Blood Ceremony opening for Ghost.

 

Blind Melon opening for Neil Young w/ Booker T. and the M.G.s...1993. Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheater.
Although I love Neil Young...I wasn't going to miss Blind Melon...and they were incredible!

 

George Thorogood opening for ZZ Top in the early 2000's

 

Whitesnake with John Sykes and Cozy Powell, opening for Quiet Riot in 1984.

Uriah Heep and Gary Moore opening for Def Leppard in 1983.

 

2012 - Patti Smith opening for Neil Young & Crazy Horse

 

You sure were in the minority! I saw The Mats at Blossom Music Center outside of Cleveland for the Tom Petty tour. The pavilion was nearly empty except for a few loyal fans watching them. I was backstage with the band before the show and they were in great spirits. They went on stage and for the first few songs they blew the roof off the dump. The complete and utter apathy of the crowd got to them and by the end of the set they were switching instruments mid-song and the set collapsed into chaos. I remember a handful of people clapping as they left the stage and the rest were wondering what the hell they just witnessed. The band was not in a good mood after their set. I thought it was a pretty exciting set. As I've mentioned to some friends, The Replacements could be the best band you ever saw and the worst band you ever saw in the very same show.

Imagine my surprise when on Tom Petty's next album he used the Paul line 'rebel without a clue.'
Hmmmmmm....

 

Tom Petty opened for Nils Lofgren at Brighton Dome May '77
(ok I love Nils but wanted to see the new guy and his band that I heard on the radio and I didn't hang out in the bar like we would normally do during a support act)

Van Halen opened for Sabbath at Portsmouth Guildhall - May '78

( we knew the best days of Ozzy and Sabbath had long gone and my mate had just got the VH album 2 days before the gig and were blown away by it, had to see if they could pull it off live, well they did such a good job of it Sabbath pulled the plug on their own gig half way through their set as fans were still calling for Halen best part of an hour into Sabbath's set)

 

I knew about it.........had to do with Bob Dylan being anti-taping, while Grateful Dead/related allow it. So it was decided that Bob would go on first, then people were free to record.

 

REM opening up for The English Beat at Oberlin's Finney Chapel in April of '83 a month or two before 'Murmur' was released. I really liked the Beat but I went to see what REM was all about. Their first single and 'Chronic Town' EP
truly blew me away.