The best opening act you've ever seen & heard?

For those who don’t mind a history lesson as a post :

The first concert I attended was The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in the Summer of 1964 (before a fair number of ya’ll were born, right?). The opening act was a 4-pc. Surf band from nearby Santa Cruz California (a town on the northern tip of the Monterey Bay that was a hot spot for surfing) named The Tikis. When the curtains opened the audience saw four guys in regular business suits, but with the trouser legs cut off at the knee (perhaps in acknowledgment of the knee-length swim trunks surfers wore).

By that Summer the Surf craze was obviously on it’s last legs, the British Invasion making the music seriously out of fashion. The Tikis therefore headed in a more trendy direction, recording demo tapes and submitting them to San Francisco label Autumn Records (home of The Beau Brummels). Autumn released two Tiki’s singles in 1965, both of which flopped. Autumn Records sold their catalog to Warner Brothers in 1966, including all the Tiki’s recordings.

Warner Brothers put The Tikis in the hands of a young producer named Lenny Waronker, who decided to have them record the Paul Simon song "The 49th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)". The Song was released under their new name, Harper’s Bizarre, and it turned out to become a hit single. I remember looking at Harper’s Bizarre’s debut album and seeing a 5-pc. lineup, which included Beau Brummels drummer John Petersen. Original drummer Ted Templeman was still in the band, having moved over to guitar.

So what’s the point of the above three paragraphs? Running across the top of the mountain range that separates San Jose from Santa Cruz is a road upon which in 1970 was located a biker bar named Chateau Liberte’. In 1970 a band formed in San Jose that often played at the bar, who were going by the name The Doobie Brothers. And in 1970 Ted Templeman was now an A & R/talent scout for Warner Brothers. Ted secured The Doobies a record deal by year’s end.

Lenny Waronker and Ted Templeman became the main players in Warner Brothers and associated labels throughout the 1970’s and beyond, and The Doobie Brothers one of the biggest bands in Rock music. One early casually was Dave Shogren, bassist on the first album. During recording sessions for the band’s second album (the first stiffed) Shogren was shown the door. Funny story: In the Summer of 1975 I was driving through a residential neighborhood in Santa Clara (a suburb of San Jose) when I spotted an odd sight-----a Rolls Royce parked in the driveway of one of the tract houses I saw up the block. I slowed down to get a good look at my first Rolls, when out of the house sauntered.....Dave Shogren. I guess he took his share of the advances on the first two Doobies albums, put a down payment on a house, and bought himself a Rolls Royce.

Damn @petaluma, great post! I saw our (yours and mine) favorite band at The Berkeley Community Theater in 1969, on their tour in support of the brown album. By a wide margin the best band I’ve ever seen and heard live (and I’ve seen a lot). I sent for tickets to their ’74 tour with Dylan (held in my area at The Oakland Coliseum), but wasn’t one of the lucky ones whose number came up (it was a lottery). Damn it! And then I moved away from the Bay Area just before The Last Waltz was announced. Double damn!

I saw The Beatles at The Cow Palace in 1965, and they had a hot opening band, an instrumental one named Sounds Incorporated. Call me crazy, but I found them more exciting than the headliner. My first favorite band was The Ventures, whom I finally saw live in 2003, on the Surfin’ To Baja Cruise. Their opening act was another instrumental band, Los Straitjackets, who were a hard act to follow. And I don’t say that because their bassist was an old friend of mine (we met on the first day of 7th grade, and performed together in the 8th grade talent show). LS are now out on tour with Nick Lowe, doing an opening set and then backing him in his.

I’d give one my two hanging organs to have seen Emmylou with The Hot Band live.

This isn't technically a case of an opening act, but at the 1968 Northern California Folk-Rock Festival I witnessed The Electric Flag precede The Doors on stage. The concert poster shows Country Joe & The Fish as the act between the two, but I don't remember them (didn't like 'em).

The Electric Flag were absolutely on fire, Michael Bloomfield proving what a great guitarist he was, drummer Buddy Miles making Keith Moon seem like a light-weight. The Doors had to follow them, and in contrast sounded pretty weak. I had seen the Doors about six months earlier (at The Continental Ballroom in Santa Clara, where I played my first live show in 1966), and they were much better that night. Maybe hearing The Flag intimidated the members of The Doors.

In the Summer of '68 my best friend and I went to The San Jose Civic Auditorium to see Lee Michaels open for Steppenwolf. The curtains opened, and there was Lee sitting at his Hammond organ and dual Leslie speaker cabinets, with about fifteen Vox Super Beatle amps running from left to right at the back of the stage. Impressive!

Lee and drummer Frosty kicked off the set with one of the songs from his Carnival Of Life album, and they sounded fantastic. A roadie brought out a glass of some liquid for Lee, setting it on his organ. Unfortunately the kid wasn't looking at what he was doing, as the glass fell over, the liquid splashing all over the organ, shorting something out. End of set!

We stayed for Steppenwolf's set, but I can't tell you much about it. The only live show at which I fell asleep.

@drinaldo: I have a friend who saw the last show Jeff Beck played with The Yardbirds. It was Jeff and Jimmy Page on guitars, and Chris Dreja on bass. He saw them again the following night, and Jeff was gone. I never managed to see the band, damn it.

@ozzy: Now there's a band I would love to see live! I have six of their albums on CD, and two on LP.

@pdspiegel's listing of Dwight Yoakam opening for Nick Lowe in 1983 reminded me that I saw the legendary songwriting team of Dann Penn and Spooner Oldham open for Nick and his band in the late-90's at The Pantages Theater on Hollywood Blvd., an incredible Art Deco theater. Nick has great taste in opening acts! Dann played acoustic guitar and sang, Spooner played his trademark Wurlitzer electric piano and also sang. Fantastic!

I also saw Dylan at The Pantages, during his five night run there in the early-2000's. He was great that night, and had a killer band. On each of the five nights he had a different opening act; on my night it was Beck, whom I found underwhelming. I wasn't alone---the audience response to his set was tepid.

I had seen Dylan ten years earlier at The Greek Theater, an outdoor venue in L.A. That night he stunk, as did his 3-pc band.