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

2001 Opeth opening for Nevermore. Kept hearing how great the Swedish band was incredible show. Nevermore was outclassed big time.

 

2001 PJ Harvey opening for U2.

 

Thin Lizzy opening up for Queen in 1976.
Went in a huge Thin Lizzy fan, left being a huger Queen fan.

 

Michael Nesmith opening for James Cotton Blues Band

 

I also saw this tour, only came for Dylan...only about a third of the crowd was there for his set. I remember leaving the venue before it was even dark out and the Dead fans coming in were yelling at us leaving the venue asking where we were going. Had the same experience seeing John Fogerty open for Mellencamp. Stayed to see Fogerty guest with Mellencamp on Scarecrow 2 or 3 songs in and left.

 

I went to a Bryan Adams concert on his Waking Up The Nation Tour in 1992. While I think Bryan Adams is OK I really wanted to see Arc Angels that were slated as the opening act. It wasn't until I got to the site that I heard the Arc Angels had to cancel and were replaced by some band that I don't even recall the name of. Man was I disappointed! I later heard it was because Doyle Bramhall II was strung out on heroin and couldn't play.

 

I travel a lot to see Ian Hunter & the Rant Band... usually headlining in a small club or theater... but during a short 4-date California tour in 2007, IH was in the middle of a triple bill headlined by the Zombies.

This was shortly after the Zombies had reunited and the shows were something of a big deal. But we were there to see Ian Hunter... so I only watched the Zombies the first night. For the other three shows, we left after Hunter's set. In retrospect, I probably should have stayed for what were then rare / significant performances... but hindsight is 20/20.

I also recall having a ticket to see Mott (without Ian Hunter) opening for ZZ Top in 1976. There was a last minute change of support act / no Mott... and I had no real interest in ZZ Top... so I sold off my ticket.

The other one I can think of was in the late 70s... went to see City Boy open for Prism... left before Prism came on.

 

Hooters opening for Loverboy
The Alarm opening for Dylan
The Replacements opening for Tom Petty
Radiohead opening for Belly
Uncle Tupelo opening for Teenage Fanclub
Hamell on Trial opening for Melissa Ferrick
Hamell on Trial opening for The Bogmen
Lisa Germano opening for Eels
Guided by Voices opening for Urge Overkill
Guided by Voices opening for Cheap Trick
Sleater-Kinney opening for Pearl Jam
Camper Van Beethoven opening for Cracker (6 times)
Big Thief opening for that Americana band from Rhode Island whose name I can't remember

 

David Johanson opening for Southside Johnny who were awful btw.

 

I do this all the time.

Most recently: Carlton Melton opening for Mammatus, 2 weekends ago.
Upcoming: Trad Gras Och Stenar opening for Ryley Walker

 

Remembered two more:

The Call opening for the Psychedelic Furs
Tears for Fears opening for Hall & Oates

 

Julia Nunes, sandwiched between the Mowgli's and Walk Off The Earth. They all put on a great show and I ended up buying their albums, but the only one I'd heard of was Julia. Shortly afterwards, she started doing living room tours, and she's played at my house three times since 2013.

 

Ha, I had the same experience. I like Petty, but I was definitely there to see The Replacements!

 

That would be the Stereophonics at the Melbourne Forum around 1999.
I can’t even remember the headliner, precisely because I was not there to see them.
I’m glad I got to see the original trio.

 

allan holdsworth/chic corea

 

Patti Smith opening for Neil Young - 2012 (I think?) Not that I didn't want to see Neil but still

Pretenders opening for Stevie Nicks - 2017

 

I went to see the Replacements opening for Elvis Costello.

Others:
- The Church opening for Echo + the Bunnymen
- The The opening for Depeche Mode
- The Alarm opening for Bob Dylan
- Mark Knopfler opening for Bob Dylan

 

Ian Hunter opened for Heart.
Travis Meadows opened for Jack Ingram.
I would have seen Little Steven open for U2, but when my friend asked if I wanted to go, the full bill had not been announced yet. Oops.

 

UFO opening for Rick Derringer, Bob Seger, and Peter Frampton in 1977

Shearwater opening for Sharon Van Etten

Wesley Stace opening for the Jayhawks (but I adore the Jayhawks, and they were fantastic)

I ended up having to miss the show, but I totally planned to drive three hours to see Martha play for 45 minutes, blow off headliner Jeff Rosenstock, and drive three hours home.

 

I saw that show as well. Somewhat amusing story regarding this show...

I had bought a pair of pretty good floor seats tickets from a ticket agency for both this show as well as ZZ Top playing the Sports Arena the night before. The agency must of had some sort of lock on those rows/seats as they were the exact same seats for both shows. So the day before the ZZ Top show, a long lost High School friend who now worked at the LA Times who I hadn't seen in a few years just drops by my place out of the blue and we hang out for the day. After he leaves, I later discover my tickets for both shows are gone, swiped out of a little music box I had in my living room. Pissed, I contact the ticket agency who of course can't help me but they happen to have *another* pair of tickets right next to my original tickets so I go ahead and buy them.

Next night, my work buddy and I go to the ZZ Top show and kind of discretely hang around near our floor section waiting to see who'd show up in my original seats thinking maybe my old "friend" would show up. Not long before the show starts, these two kids, not more'n about 17 years old show up and we confront them. Turns out my ol' pal sold these two kids who also worked at the Times my ZZ Top tickets but not the J Geils/U2 tickets. So after the show we head straight over to my ol' buddy's house banging on his door at 2am like a pair of hitman. Dude sheepishly apologizes, gives me back the J Geils/U2 tickets and the money he made selling my stolen ZZ Top tickets. Never saw him again.

Went to the J Geils show the next night, had a great time. It was my second time seeing U2 as I had seen them a year before playing the Reseda Country Club during the "Boy" tour. As I recall, J Geils set was pretty epic, they did 3 encores, the last one several minutes after the house lights came on and people were filing out the arena.

 

Little Feat when they opened for George Thuroghgood and the Destroyers.

 

A few where I looked forward more to support acts vs the headliner:

Girlschool and especially Iron Maiden opening for The Scorpions - 1982
The Clash opening for The Who - 1982 (both were disappointing).
Loudness opening for Motley Crue - 1985
X opening for The Red Hot Chili Peppers - 1985
Wendy O'Williams opening for Motorhead - 1985
Motorhead opening for Alice Cooper - 1987
The Cult opening for Billy Idol - 1987
Guns n' Roses opening for The Cult - 1987
Cherry Bombz opening for Poison - 1988
Guns n' Roses opening for Aerosmith - 1988
Black Sabbath with Rob Halford opening for Ozzy(!) - 1992
Bauhaus opening for Nine Inch Nails - 2006
Kings X opening for Extreme - 2008

But probably the most memorable example I recall is Gary Moore opening for Rush in 1984. At the time, a friend and I were really major Gary Moore fans. He didn't play the US much and at the time he was plugging the Victims Of The Future album and the only way to see him was supporting Rush.

My friend and I *hated* Rush at the time.

Still, we bought something like pricey 10th row seats for the Irvine Meadows shed date from a ticket agency just to see Moore. So we see Moore's set, catch maybe 3 songs of Rush's set and decide to go hang out up on the lawn area, maybe drink a few big gulp beers hoping that may make Rush more palatable. No dice, bored outta our minds. So we give our 10th row tickets to this couple who act like they just won the lottery and we leave.

I didn't see Rush again until 2002 on a day-of-show whim and wound up becoming a total convert.

 

Two that I can think of:

February '74 - Allen Theater, Cleveland - Springsteen opening for Wishbone Ash
February '75 - Riverside Theater, Milwaukee - Roxy Music opening for Babe Ruth

 

Dokken opening for Twisted Sister. (I had bad taste in high school.)

Guns n Roses opening for the Rolling Stones. (HUGE GnR fan back then, was not into Steel Wheels and didn't know anything more about the Stones at the time than their biggest hits.)

Exodus played a show during the Headbangers Ball tour in 88 or thereabouts. I don't remember who the headliner was because I didn't care.

 

Went to see The Stereo MCs opening for Jesus Jones