Concerts where you went for the headliner, but were blown away by the opener

Jethro Tull 1/22/75 (Okla. City, State Fairgrounds Arena). Unfortunately we arrived late and only caught the last couple of songs by the opening act. Didn't even catch the group's name at the time, but the phenomenal guitarist of the group was so outstanding that I'd go out of my way to see 'em as a headliner several years later. BTW, the last tune they played that night was titled Rock Bottom. Need I say more?


Cat

 

I caught them once more in New York a few years later.

 

Chris Rea opening for Lindisfarne in 1978.

The Last Internationale opening for Neil Young And Crazy Horse in 2014.

 

In, or around 1980 saw April Wine in Toronto. New band with their first album out was opening, Red Rider. They were great, and the next week I was out buying their album.
About a year ago a friend took me to see Black Joe Lewis, who I had never heard of. He was great, but the opening act was a guy called Vug Arakas. I ended up at his Merch table, not Joe Lewis', at the end of the night.
Also saw Bob Seger a few years ago with J Geils Band opening. Didn't blow Seger off the stage, but my wife still talks about how great J Geils, and Peter Wolfe in particular, was. Seger seems to like quality openers, also have seen John Hiatt and Frankie Miller opening for him through the years.

 

Elvin Bishop?

Great, great band!
.

 

Due to popular demand, I did some research and, if the site I saw was accurate, it's likely I saw the amazing Rory Gallagher in the fall of 1973 opening for the Faces.

Was Rod Stewart still fronting the Faces at that point?

If he was, then that's almost for sure who was the headliner (Rod, whose albums I loved, was a snore in concert -- though that may have just been an off show since his live reputation in that era was quite good.)

 

Edgar Winters White Trash - opening act
Procol Harum - headliner

White Trash had an undeniable energy. But there were plenty of PH fans so it wasn't like PH couldn't follow. Procol Harum played wonderfully.

 

SRV and Double Trouble opening for Marshall Tucker around 1977/8. Mega blow out.

 

Los Lobos as the headliner with Del Castillo as the opening act.....had never heard of them, but they blew everybody away. Multiple standing ovations.

 

I went to see Poco last year and the opener, guitarist Toby Walker, was a master finger picker. Incredible!

 

Cactus.........opening for ANYONE!

I only saw Cactus as an opener or in the middle of the bill. Never saw them as a headliner. The two shows I remember the headliners were Ten Years After and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

 

I went to a Murray The K show in NYC in the sixties which had many famous bands
but the opening act was a Canadian group called The Mandala and they were fantastic! Blue eyed soul.

 

And speaking of the great Rory Gallagher (as I did seven posts above) the site I referenced about says that Rory "meets John Lennon and Jerry Lee Lewis at the Roxy (L.A. nightclub) on July 25, 1974"

Does anyone have any details of that?

 

What is a "Healing Band"?

I tried Google, but it was not my friend....

 

Foo Fighters opening for Mike Watt in a club attic (high ceiling) in Denver to 40 people.

 

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer opening for Jethro Tull, 1996.
Rage Against the Machine opening for U2 on the Pop-Mart tour, 1997.

 

Naw, UFO with Michael Schenker. Found this footage on YouTube. Incorrect aspect ratio & ain't the highest resolution footage, but the year and group line-up is right...




Cat

 

Yea, Rage opening for a bloated U2 Pop-Mart show at Mile High Stadium. No olive in the martini.

 

I couldn't believe how good AL and Love were on that tour. The Zombies (who I love) sounded like a garage band in comparison.

 

I saw Starcastle open for Gary Wright and they blew me away. I don't remember Gary Wright's set at all, but I went out and all the Starcastle's
records the next day.

 

The Twilight Sad supporting Editors at Hammersmith in 2015. They were incredible, and I've seen them 21 times since then.

Editors had a terrible night, with a constant mic buzzing for most of the first part of the set, a 10 minute hard desk reboot of the mixing desk, another kit failure 4 bars into my favourite song which they didn't bother retrying ("Bricks And Mortar"), and some diva-ish pounding off stage by the singer who exchanged harsh words with me on Twitter the next morning. As a hint - you could at least talk to the audience and say something like "We're going to restart the sound desk and it'll be about ten minutes" rather than stomp off swearing.

 

Went to see U2 in Vancouver in April 2001 and was blown away by PJ Harvey's electrifying hard-rock set. Wish she continued, instead of U2, with her songs from her recent Stories from the City.. album.

 

Lee Michaels opening for Steppenwolf. Ft Worth Texas in 1968 or 1969. Lee was on Hammond B3 with drummer (Frosty?). I'd never heard of Lee Michaels, but bought everything I could find of his the next week.

 

A triple bill: John Eddie and the Front Street Runners, Robert Ellis Orrall and the headliner The Greg Kihn Band at Montclair State University 4/13/1983 IIRC. Robert Ellis Orrall was nothing special, but I was standing on my seat by the end of John Eddie's set. I think they may have even played an encore. Amazing opener...

Greg Kihn Band was promoting Jeopardy at the time and was a fun band to see. Gregg Douglass, the guitarist smoked a joint on stage during their encore as well which was cool ( or at least I thought that as a 15 year old)...