Weirdest Opening Acts

Ever go to a show and wonder what the promoter was thinking when he paired a particular opening act with a headliner? I have been to a few:

1) Around '73 I saw The Who's "Quadrophenia" tour and the opening act was a new southern boogie band called, you guessed it, Lynyrd Skynyrd. I heard years later that Al Kooper got the band he had produced the coveted spot. It was a great show but "Free Bird" to "Love Reign" was quite a stretch.

2) Around 1974 I saw Aerosmith open for The Band. Aerosmith rocked out pretty good but the people there could have cared less. During The Band's set Steve Tyler came out and sat about ten feet from me and watched. Maybe two people came over for an autograph.

3) Couple of years later I saw Kiss open for ZZ Top. Maybe not a total mismatch although it was strange to watch kids in face makeup on 'Ludes and kids in cowboy hats drinking Jack Daniels in the same audience. It was also weird watching them take apart the elaborate Kiss stage with the firepots and then haul out all these Marshalls and cacti (that IS plural for cactus is it not?)

4) About '77 or so I saw Angel open for Quicksilver. I believe Quicksilver was touring on the Solid Silver reunion album. Cipollina and Valente were definitely in the band. Punky Meadows and Angel were something of an east coast legend and this was in Baltimore but it was also the early stages of American Glam and it was a definite jeans and flannel shirts crowd. When the roadies pulled down Angels giant letter "A" stage prop the crowd cheered.

5) Not quite so drastic: I always wanted to see Rory Gallagher and got my chance when he opened for Rush. I was surrounded by what must have been the Rush army or something and they had no interest in the Irish guitar legend what so ever. When I voiced my displeasure that they were talking during his set it almost got ugly. I split halfway through Rush's set to mild applause. Easiest ride out of the Cap Centre I ever had.

Any others?
Peace
Norm

 

Of course, one of the all-time bizarre opening acts was Jimi Hendrix for the Monkees on part of the latter's 1967 U.S. tour.

 

lyle lovett opening for sting
etta james opening for the stones
fleetwood mac (with dave mason and bekka bramlett and christine mcvie)
opening for crosby stills and nash.
sass jordan opening for steve perry
lynyrd skynyrd for the doobie brothers

 

How about this one:

Dino Desi and Billy opening up at the Hollywood Paladium for DEAN MARTIN!!

 

One I saw was in 1973 or '74. I don't know why I can't remember more clearly?

Yes with Poco opening. I have talked to many people that saw the same tour and we all agreed: for some reason, it worked.

One thing I do remember was Rusty Young doing an awesome pedal steel solo. I know he didn't set it on fire, I'm pretty sure he didn't hold it up behind his head, but he may have played it with his teeth.

 

I went to a late 80s show where acoustic guitar god Leo Kottke opened for the Violent Femmes at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. (Kottke had recently made a guest appearance on a Femmes album.) I'm a fan of both artists, but not surprisingly most of the teenage Femmes fans had no interest in Kottke and chatted loudly throughout his set, causing me to embarrass my date by shouting "shut up" to the ignorant masses.

I guess Prince opening for the Stones in the 80s was an odd pairing.

I remember reading that Captain Beefheart once had a chimp as an opening act, though I don't know for sure whether that's true.

 

I saw the Stranglers in 1983 and the support act was a tap-dancer! An old guy from Music Hall/Vaudeville, just doing a solo routine in front of a packed theatre full of baying punks... he didn't half earn his money *that* night. But I think the Stranglers used to invite all sorts of oddballs/acts/old friends to do support slots for them

 

Just last summer, i saw a jazz triple-bill with David Benoit, Jean-Luc Ponty and Rippingtons. Benoit was actually a Rippington many years ago, so those two are not a bad pairing. But Jean-Luc Ponty is on a whole different level. You had a mostly yuppie crowd there to see Rippingtons (the main act). But then you'd see the older jazz fans with JLP t-shirts, a few of them looking like remnants of the 70's (or better yet, they look liked castoffs from failed 70's-era Doobie Brothers auditions ). Seeing that Ponty was unknown to many in the audience, I think he got the warmest round of applause after his set. In jazz circles, this is an unlikely grouping for a concert, but since I like both Ponty and Benoit, it was well worth it. Rippingtons were mind-numbingly boring...even with Eric Marienthal up there squealing and posturing with his sax, and in spite of Russ Freeman's guitar playing. The best part was Rippintons' encore--they ripped into a duo of Hendrix tunes that had more energy than the entire balance of their repertoire that evening. The Hendrix tunes probably were something the JLP crowd would have liked, but I think most of them had left by then.

BR5-49 opened for the Brian Setzer Orchestra. All that did to me was turn me into a BR5-49 fan a month later.

 

Hey, does anyone remember when The Police didn't have an opening band, and their roadies actually went on and did a few classic rockers and oldies? That would have been priceless!

 

Rusty Young

I saw Rusty play pedal with a chair once. Killer pedal player. Used to own Guitar Player Magazines pedal player of the year award. Still in Poco actually.
Glad you guys are having fun with this one...Keep 'em coming

Peace
Norm

 

Police

I saw REM open for The Police once!

Peace
Norm

 

Just about anything through a Leslie sounds good, and I always loved the sound Rusty Young got when playing his steel through one. Is he still doing that? (Poco's going to be in my area in June. Sometimes Richie Furay sits in with them)

 

I would think that the Beatles reunion where they opened for Peter Frampton has go to qualify, doesn't it???

<grin>

 

That strange avant-garde dance group that opened for all of Paul McCartney's show on his last US tour. I was at the second Vegas show and was bewildered. Paul's show was pretty good though.

 

The oddest pairing I've ever seen has to be Nick Gilder opening for The Cars. Nick was booed off of the stage after just 3 crappy songs back in 79'. The bonehead didn't even open with one of the 2 hits he only ever had. The Cars were great BTW.

 

The Chuck Taylor Dance company opening for Jefferson Airplane @ The Fillmore East, Thanksgiving, 1968 (the show that was recorded for Bless It's Pointed Little Head)(Buddy Guy was the second act).

1 million freakin' steel drummers opening for The Rolling Stones @ Madison Square Garden, 1975.

The Who opening for Herman's Hermits--US tour, 1967.

PS---I believe that Rusty Young DID set his pedal steel on fire on a few occasions. Amazingly, Poco was the loudest group I have ever heard in concert, even louder than The Mahavishnu Orchestra!

 

The Who opening for Herman's Hermits '67
The Jam opening for BOC '78
The Ramones opening for Cheap Trick '81

Johnny Winter opening for George Thorogood(????) '86... In my opinion George was totally outclassed. My friend and I walked out halfway through his set.

 

In the early 90's Sting opened for the Grateful Dead. I believe it was the summer of '93.

 

Triple bill : David Bowie - Squeeze - Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam circa 1987 at Giants Stadium.

Lisa Lisa got booed off after 3 songs (tough crowd, eh? - or just misguided booking?).

Squeeze did play a COMPLETE 1.5 hour set opening for Bowie, to tremendous ovation. I guess the Bowie crowd did have SOME patience.

 

I saw that show(in Buffalo)where Sting opened for the Grateful Dead. To my surprise, the Dead fans were quite open to him, with a giant psychedelic "Welcome Sting" banner. Sting did a little more jamming than usual, to go with the ebb and flow of the Dead's music.

 

Sometime around 1976 or 1977, Black Sabbath came to town with Bob Seger as the opening act.

In November 1975, I saw Toots and the Maytalls open for The Who. In retrospect, it doesn't seem like such an odd coupling, but at the time none of us had heard that sort of music before.

 

Poco (again) for the Moody Blues in 1970
Flying Burrito Brothers for the Doors
One of the most ill received by an audience I ever saw was a Steppenwolf show with Shuggie Otis and B.B.King opening. During the BB King set the audience started chanting "we want Steppenwolf". I thought it was a damn shame, BB King was great that night.

 

Patti LaBelle & the Bluebells backed by the Ramrods for the Stones - 1965.
Zep for the Who - 1969 (I think)

mud-

 

one weird opening act I remember, was the Hello People, opening for Todd Rundgren and Jeff Beck Group, circa 1972. They were dressed as mimes, and did pantomine stuff between songs. The audience was not amused.

 

Public Enemy opened for U2 in 1990