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

Hmmmm . . . once I bought real expensive tickets for Tom Petty and company because I wanted to see Lucinda Williams and her band who was opening for him.

I thought Patty Griffin was a good opener for Lucinda and her band back in The Car Wheels days.

Back in (I think) 1980 we went to see South Side Johnny And The Asbury Jukes at The Kiel Opera House and I thought that John Mellencamp (who was John Cougar at the time) put on a better show.

Going back even further, Sammy Hagar opening for Boston and on another occasion Thin Lizzy opening for Nazareth. 

I saw Jill Sobule open for Warren Zevon a couple of times and I always thought she was pretty good.

. . . I guess that Paul Simon opening on the Paul Simon?bob Dylan tour might have to be up there.

And Annie Difranco opening for Bob Dylan also.  

@immatthewj I saw John Cougar Mellencamp open for KISS. Maybe 1979? I’d never heard of him and he was really good.

Come to think of it, @sls883 , it was 1979! I had to ponder it, but I hadn’t moved off base yet so it would have had to have been ’79. Anyway, I enjoyed the John Cougar part of the show so much that I bought his self-titled LP because of it. I remember it had I Need A Lover (That Won’t Drive Me Crazy) and Night Dancing on it.

I took a fairly long hiatus from live music after I got out of the Air Force, but in retrospect an opener I would have really liked to have seen/heard would have been Townes Van Zandt when he was opening for the Cowboy Junkies on their Caution Horses tour. I guess when it comes down to it, I would have liked to see Townes anywhere anytime with anybody. But with the CJ? That must have been fantastic.

@bassbuyer , going way back, I remember renting a VHS of Bob Dylan playing with Tom Petty and The Heart Breakers. It must have been that tour, huh?  That's another one I would have liked to have seen!

Steve Earle and The Dukes opened for Bob Dylan.

@winoguy17 , Steve Earle is one of my favorites; I would have loved to see that.  What year was that?

 Jason Isbell joined him towards the end of his set and they performed a John Prine song together.

@wharfy , was it Daddy's Little Pumkin?  I like Josh Ritter a lot.  Girl In The War back in '07 is what turned me on to him. But sadly, I haven't followed up on him much.

March 18, 1973 Linda Ronstadt opened for Neil Young and so began my total love affair with her. A voice that touches my soul.

@tony1954 , and Linda Ronstadt is another one of my favorites!  I remember seeing a documentary about her (I think it was on CNN) and I kind of remember that the documentary talking about that tour (Young & Ronstadt) and saying that she did such a great job as an opener that Young had her alternate with him on who would open and who would headline.  If I remember correctly, he could get some extra rest this way.

Immatthewj, Im thinking it was mid 80's...?

Maybe it was during his Guitar Town heyday, @winoguy17  ?

I know that he went on to say something to the effect of "Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."  I heard him interviewed sometime after that and he walked it back a bit, saying that at the time Townes was in a rough period and that he was just trying to bolster him up.  I saw another interview on youtube, and Steve said that Townes said something to the effect of being appreciative, but considering Bob Dylan's bodyguards, maybe he ought to reconsider.  Steve said that he has seen Bob Dylan's bodyguard and he wasn't worried because he (the bodyguard) was nothing special.  

I recall in the summer of 1980 a bunch of us rode our motorcycles across from SAFB in Illinois over to Louisville Kentucky to see the "Louisville Super Jam."  It was Point Blank, then the Rockets, then REO, and then Bob Seger played under the lights.  I really have no desire at all to hear REO anymore, but back then we considered it a great show.  I can still appreciate much of what Bob Seger did.  

The Babys were originally scheduled to open

Wow, @csmgolf , I haven't heard anyone mention that group for a long long time.  As I remember, I kind of liked them.