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

Alice Cooper opening for Motley Crue.
Motley Crue F*****G blows.

 

Rollins Band opening for Naked Raygun
Melvins opening for Primus
Jenny Lewis opening for Father John Misty

 

Lindsey Buckingham opened for Tina Turner, close to 25 years ago.

He was really terrific. Tina was just great, but a different type of show.

 

Rory Gallagher opening for Rod Stewart. Had little interest in Rod, Rory was terrific.

 

I saw Iggy Pop open for The Pretenders and Cheap Trick open for Motley Crue. I did not stick around to see the main acts.

 

Wolf Alice in 2016 (actually the 2nd act)

The 1975 was the headliner.

 

The Runaways opening for the Ramones in '78.

 

Somehow that doesn't surprise me

 

Only did this twice and these were 2 nights apart at the same venue, Darien Lake, NY.

ELP opened for Jethro Dull
King Crimson at HORDE Festival

 

I've gone to shows to see Garbage over the headliners.

2002 - opened for No Doubt. I skipped the headliner - I'd seen ND open for U2 the prior year and that was enough.
2017 - opened for Blondie. I stayed for the headliner since I like Blondie!

Also saw Garbage open for Smashing Pumpkins (1996) and U2 (2001) but I went to those shows for the headliners - I didn't become a Garbage fan until after the 2001 U2 shows...

 

I've been to a bunch of shows where the act I wanted to see wasn't the "closer", but they weren't traditional "openers", either:

1986: Dylan/Petty "opened" for the Dead. They fit the bill of "opener" but I regard them as co-headliners - somebody's gotta play first!

1986: U2 played before the Police at the all-day Amnesty show (Giants Stadium)
1994: Peter Gabriel played before Midnight Oil on WOMAD tour
2002: Bowie played before Moby on Area: One tour

 

Both fantastic live bands but so different...I always thought that was a really odd pairing!

 

Nice. I saw Blind Lemon play at my college, opening for the Spin Doctors (who were just horrid). BM was awesome though.

 

KT Tunstall opening for Better Than Ezra & Barenaked Ladies. I left after her 35 minute set was over.

 

Electric Hot Tuna opening for Tedeschi Trucks Band. Thunder/lightning at the outdoor venue, so they canceled the opening sets. (Hot Tuna played like two songs as guests during the main set.) We could only make it halfway through Tedeschi Trucks and left ...waste of time and money.

Joe Henry opening for David Byrne. Not a big Byrne fan, but we stayed and were pleasantly surprised as he was doing mostly acoustic world music stuff.

And from the way back machine: The mostly-unknown Police opening for Black Oak Arkansas!

 

Early in 1988 I saw Motorhead open for Alice Cooper in Winnipeg. Lemmy & The Boys sounded like a jet taking off...awesome.

 

Michael Hedges opening for CSN. I like CSN ok, but not nearly as much as CSNY, and not enough to have seen them by themselves on that tour (which focused on the slower all-acoustic songs).

CSN was fine, though they imported more cheese than is contained in the states of VT and WI combined when they did the inevitable “Our House” audience singalong schlock.

Hedges on the other hand absolutely blew my mind. I’ve still not heard/seen any acoustic playing which quite measures up.

 

Sarah MacLaclan / Josh Grobin
Liz Phair / Alanis

 

2002 - Porcupine Tree opening for Yes
2018 - Whitesnake opening for Foreigner

 

David Johansen opening for Pat Benatar. I was there alone so I left after 1 Benatar song.
Clutch opening for Primus.
Coathangers opened for Minus the Bear
And a couple years ago I went to a small festival in Toronto primarily to see the Hives who were an early act. The rest was a bonus.
A few others who I was as happy to see the opener as the headliner.

 

Toni Braxton opened for Kenny G. when her Secrets album came out. I left after she performed.

 

Back in 1994. It was Cracker, Gin Blossoms, and The Spin Doctors. I went to see Cracker but liked the Gin Blossoms too. My friend went to see the Gin Blossoms, but also enjoyed Cracker.
We left like 3 or 4 songs into the Spin Doctors. We had no interest in seeing them at all. We got our money's worth with the first two bands.

 

Graham Parker and the Rumour opening for Thin Lizzy in 1977

Big fan of GP who was great.

Knew nothing about Thin Lizzy. We left after just a few songs and about the 10th flash pot.

 

2006:

The Scorpions
Tesla
KEITH EMERSON

 

Soul Asylum opening for Matchbox 20, a band I had -- and still have -- zero interest in. My friends and I headed straight for the exit after Soul Asylum wrapped up their excellent set.