The Who as openers for Herman’s Hermits. Pretty much a failure. John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra opening for Zappa and the Mothers. Worked so well I attended in Milwaukee and Boston. McLaughlin and Zappa call and response noodling was spectacular. Roger Daltry did not join Peter Noone for a duet of, “Mrs. Brown you’ve got a lovely daughter “
Wendy Williams and the Plasmatics opened for Kiss- probably 1982. Hard core punk warming up for theatrical rock. Enjoyed both bands immensely. Wendy was in saran wrap.
Buddy Guy and Junior Wells opening for Dave Mason at the Iowa Fieldhouse in the early 70's. BG and JW was the best live performance I've ever encountered and started me on that long road with the blues. And that's coming from an old Deadhead. However about a third of the way through Dave Mason, there was hardly anybody left in the audience. They weren't bad. Just didn't have near the energy and showmanship of the first act.
In the 1970's, I saw Journey open for Emerson, Lake and Palmer -- Journey was not well-received. Also saw Little Feat open for Electric Light Orchestra -- another odd combination but not nearly as poorly received.
Sammy Hagar opening for Boston. Hagar put on such an energetic performance and Boston just kind of stood around and played their instruments. No stage presence, at least not after the full on blitz from Sammy and his band.
Just to be clear, I merely provided information about the Beastie Boys opening for Madonna. Was NOT at the concert. Although the BB's are kinda cool.....
I saw Livingston Tayler open for Jethro Tull in 1972. It was a disaster for him. People were throwing eggs and tomato’s at him and yelling “we want Tull”. He got booed off the stage.
I recall Edgar Winters White Trash opening for Emerson, Lake, & Palmer at a very trippy Fillmore East. White Trash annihilated ELP! And a practically empty My Fathers Place (mid-week) had Jazz band Winters Consort headlining with this skinny runt of a dude from Jersey opening. It wasn't even close, not too many bands in the country stood a chance against Bruce Springsteen and the E St. Band!!;)
When Dylan toured again following his near-death illness in the late-90’s, he played The Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Blvd., a beautiful Art Deco building (while the sound on the audience side is okay, the sound on stage is not; the sound from the house speakers bounces off the rear wall and gets back to the stage just in time to confuse the timing of the musicians, making playing music more difficult than it already is!). He played five nights in a row, every night a different opening act. On the night I attended (the demand for tickets was so great I was able to get only one from his record company, not the "Plus One" that is customary) that opener was Beck. I was (and remain) ambivalent about he, and the audience that night responded likewise: tepid at best.
After the break, Dylan came out and played for about an hour before saying a word. And that word was to acknowledge Beck: Dylan said "He’s going to be around for a long time." That comment elicited laughter from a fair percentage of the audience, which I found: 1- Interesting. Did the audience think Dylan was being facetious? The audience was mostly middle-aged, of course, and apparently as unimpressed with Beck as I; and 2- Rude. No matter how you feel about Beck, that’s just not right.
In that same venue I attended a show with two great acts---Nick Lowe and his band, with Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham (alone, no band) opening. If Penn and Oldham are unfamiliar names to you, do yourself a favor and look them up. They didn’t just happen to be the opening act on Lowe’s tour, they were hand-selected by he. The style Nick has adopted since becoming a "mature" artist is very much in the style Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham have been masters of since the 1960’s. That they were Nick Lowe’s opener is absurd, but that’s showbiz for ya!
December '69 at the Fillmore East, I saw the Flock and Lighthouse open for the Grateful Dead at the early show. The first two bands are long forgotten. The Dead went on and on and ...
I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn open for the Moody Blues in Denver. I had never heard of SRV before that night, but I along with about 18000 people became fans that night. Everyone enjoyed the Moody Blues but two totally different performances, and when SRV left the stage the crowd clearly had not had enough, he came back out for 2 encores and played a couple songs a second time as he wasn’t prepared for the 2nd encore. Seeing that little 3 piece combo in the shadow of Graeme Edges drumset dwarfing them, and Stevie Rays guitar with gold hardware store SRV letters and the guitar looked like it had never been in a case...but the sound, wow the sound!!
Al Dimeola and his band including Jan Hammer, Anthony Jackson and Steve Gadd opening for Renaissance. Renaissance never stood a chance. It was a slaughter.
Squeeze opening for Elvis Costello was a great pairing. Dion opening for Graham Parker was a very strange one. The poor guy had a terrible case of stage fright that evening and could barely perform.
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