AC/DC opening for Blue Oyster Cult at Red Rocks in Denver around 1978. Man, they stunk! Sammy Hagar opening for Nils Lofgren in Kansas City around 1976 or '77. He was also awful.
Billy Connolly He opened for Elton John in the 70s. Apparently EJ liked him... which is never a good way to pick an opening act. Though technically not an opening act, that DJ that McCartney has open for him is dreadful.
The Juggler for the Jackson's Victory Tour...no, wait a minute, I think I enjoyed his act more than Michael & his brothers. $40 well wasted.
The band that opened for the Smashing Pumpkins in the fall of 93 (I saw them in Pittsburgh) was so awful and so loud that I started to become seriously ill. I got sick to the stomach from all the noise. I can't remember their name now. If anyone knows, I'd be interested. Either way, WORST - OPENING ACT - EVER.
Sorry, I didn't see your post before I wrote mine. Billy Connolly is a decent actor and one time decent folk writer/singer. I don't remember him ever being funny as stand-up comic.
Rex Alllen, Jr. opened for Marty Robbins at a show in Green Bay in 1977. At that time Rex was recording for Warner Brothers and was building up some career momentum. His cocky attitude during his set, which featured a lot of immature "pee-pee-doo-doo" humor was a total turn-off. My admiration for Rex abruptly ended that night.
Stabbing Westward opening for KISS on the reunion tour in '96. Not only were they awful, they were also excruciatingly loud!!
Believe it or not, Santana in 1982. They went on for 2 hours with extended jams that led nowhere (Winning was the big hit then). The Police were so much more exciting as the main act.
by far, the worst thing I ever saw was DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 Absolute torture opened for Queens of the Stone Age during NIN's [Awitha_Teetha] tour truely godaweful loud noise with a drummer/voxist was actually a bang-on-kit/screamist the bassist f()ked around on a microkorg vocoder and a Nord for a while obviously not knowing how to use either but to try to "un-suck" their "music" Nine Inch Nails commentator, Meathead, aptly described them as "Sh^t from Above" a title well earned. thank god the disbanded The rest of the concert was AWESOME! / 5
I'm betting it was Swervedriver. They opened for the Pumpkins in Detroit on December 3, 1993. I had seen another hideously bad band called Catherine open for Smashing Pumpkins the previous August.
Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through... Obviously, asserting your superiority is VERY important to you. You've proven that elsewhere on this forum on more than one occasion. It's really very charming. I hope this went a little ways toward satisfying your crying need. Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out. An absolutlely priceless demonstration of how out of touch with reality you are. Thank you! (Why, I have it on good authority that they're preparing the Afghan Wigs wing of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame at this very moment!)
My very first rock concert...the Village Theater, NYC, summer 1967, my brother bought me a ticket to see my idols, the Byrds. Opening act was the Vanilla Fudge. I am mortified to admit that I liked the Fudge at the time (or the Sludge, as they may more accurately be referred to). It was the Byrds in early quartet form, minus Gene Clark. I do recall feeling a bit disappointed with their performance....my impression at the time was that they were already jaded rock stars, and didn't seem to be having any fun. For me to even notice this in my virginal 16 year old state seems significant. The Fudge, on the other hand, were enjoying their brief heyday. Their one trick was to play S L O W renditions of other peoples' hits (didn't they do the Supremes "Stop in the Name of Love"? After they sang "Stop" there was a 5 second pause...)
A few things to my friend from Ontario who saw the Spin Doctors open for the Stones in 95, did you happen to catch the Detroit show? This has always been etched in my mind as one of the worst openers ever. and I owned their debut record, but my god it was as unispired mess as I've come across. Being 5th row center added to the unbearableness. Speaking of Stones openers is it really necessary to chalk up Shannon Hoon's death as a gift to music lovers? I find myself squarely on the opposite side of that one. Speaking of Blind Melon, I had to make it through 45 minutes of Dishwalla prior to catching Blind Melon on their very last tour. I still cringed as I would come across their music in every used cd bin in the late nineties from coast to coast. Apparently Dishwalla didn't have too big of following. Indigenous? no thanks that was the surliest bunch of hoodlums I ever came across in my brief stint with a well know concert promoter. Right up there with the Long Beach Dub Allstars being so foul and indignant as to...well how do I say it politley, "poo in the greenroom". Lastly there was good old Russel Crowe and his 30 odd feet of grunt opening for David Byrne. The music was ****, as was the crowd of 30 something boozy women trying to throw themeselves at MAXIMUS, literally stepping on the feet of patient David Byrne fans. Cheers Cassius
So many concerts, so many awful (and just as many terrific) opening acts. Sexy Death Soda, who opened for Beck in Oakland (1998?), were truly painful to sit through. If you pulled 5 people from the audience who never played before and let them noodle around on stage, it would have the same effect.
Re: Worse Opening Act You Sat Through... Hey Jerry, would that have been one of the WPLR summer picnic concerts? Nothing like wasted hippies ALL OVER a major state road! Anyway, nothing so extreme as some of those previously mentioned, but my section next to the stage at the New Haven Coliseum was particularly vocal (who, me? ) in getting Loverboy booed off the stage when they warmed up for ZZ Top. (SArcasm starts now) - At least they played their new big radio hit before getting off the stage...Turn Me Loose. The second worst has to have been Yngwie Malmsteen. Can't remember who he warmed up for (Iron Maiden, perhaps?), but he was just ridiculous to watch, and his reeeally looong adventures into guitar noise were just painful to listen to.
Well, yes, that was in poor taste. For one thing, when he died he left behind a 3 month old daughter. I'm not so sure about that one, but they did have a hit with a very slow version of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On".
Ben Kweller, opening for Belle + Sebastian in 2003. God, what an embarrassment. Say dude, maybe you should learn to play that thing before you get onstage. I'd probably have forgotten, had he not found it necessary to include "Ice, Ice, Baby" in his set.
You are right, of course! But it is scary that I can imagine hearing the fudge butcher a song they never recorded....
I have no idea what you're going on about. I gather from the 5 "realmad" emoticons that you didn't care for Death From Above but I can't make heads or tails of anything else in your post. I think Death From Above are fantastic. Just one man's opinion... BTW, what's up with the size 36 font? That's really annoying. Kind of like something a child would do..
I've only ever been to one and a half live shows because none of the bands I like for are around anymore (that and Beck is taking WAY too long to tour Australia ) The one proper show I've been to was by The Atlantics (early 60's Australian surf group who had a hit with "Bombora") when they reformed a few years ago. While the Atlantics were played superbly and put on a great show, the TWO opening acts were HORRIBLE! They were called "The Exotics" and "Hands Of Time". I can't remember which was which but the first act came on with a bass player who played CHORDS on his bass while singing tunelessly, an organ player you couldn't hear unless he was playing ear-splitting high notes and a guitarist whose favorite "effect" was hitting the reverb tank on his amplifier during EVERY song. The drummer proved his intelligence when packing up the gear by dropping his bass drum off the stage and piercing the drum skin with the still attached pedal! The second act were a little better, only due to the fact there was no great wall of mushy bass. I seem to remember they were trying to be a 60's styled psych-rock band and failing miserably with their pedestrian songs and playing. (The half show was the Presidents of the USA doing an instore appearance, which was the tightest 25 minutes of live music i've ever seen )
Many of them are hard to name since they sucked so bad. The easiest one to remember was Ryan Downe. This guy opened for The Who's Quadrophenia tour in 1997 at the Marcus Amp. in Milwaukee. He must of known how crappy he was and lucky he was to be opening for the who on such a special tour as he seamed to thank The Who for having him open after almost every song. I use that term 'song' loosely since everything was loud, undistinguishable screaming, and the band was so loud you couldn't tell where the rhythm was or what pitch they were playing. The other that comes to mind was some band (forgot the name, if you know please let me know) that opened for Weezer at The Rave in Milwaukee, September 2000. Loud, annoying, screaming, mood breaking crap is what they should of named the band. That way we'd know what we were in for! I remember the bass player was the lead screamer and wore a cowboy hat and a fake beard during the whole performance. In fact I think the whole band had fake facial hair. Must have done that for a disguise so they wouldn't get there butts kicked by the whole audience after the show. Oh, I've been trying to forget that loveable group "Sweet-tarts" that pleased us this last 5th of July as we waited for Andrew Bird & Wilco to each delivery Jaw-dropping sets. This "ear-friendly" band covered songs by Marilyn Manson, Black Eyed Peas and those other crappy songs that get played at weddings, like "Hey-ya" and "Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me" (no I don't, I'd rather date farm animals, now eat a sandwich for god's sake and shave your arm pits!!). I'm not exaggerating! The female singer must of been glad it wasn't windy since she was only 37 pounds, the mail singer clocked in at 300 pounds and wore black shinny plastic pants, and the guitar player was this biker looking dude. Did I mention that not one of them were younger than 40 YEARS OLD!!! I wish I was the owner of the company that sold them the pills they needed so they could sleep at night. I'd have enough money to buy the Beatles Master Tapes from EMI!! That's all I'd like to remember.
This was of the period, in other words, the opener was a current act just coming off a major hit while the headliner was already an established cult favorite. Two different styles completely, think Up With People followed by Captain Beefheart. Had enough? Opener: Alive N Kickin' (Tighter, Tighter) Headliner: Mothers Of Invention The crowd just didn't know what to make of the opener and they certainly were out of their league with the crowd and it showed. Poor buggers couldn't get done fast enough.
