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

 

I have two:

 

In 1983 I went to see The Plimsouls (Peter Case’s pre-solo career band) at The Garage, a tiny little "club" on Ventura Blvd. The room had filled up (elbow-to-elbow tight), and the opening act started their set. My woman and I both looked at each other, our mouths agape. It was Los Lobos, and they were great! Their debut album How Will The Wolf Survive? had yet to be released, but I sure picked it up when it was.

 

I went to see John Hiatt at The Roxy Theater on Sunset Blvd. during his Perfectly Good Guitar tour, entering the room just as the opening act was starting her final song. The ads for the show listed her name, which was unfamiliar to me. As the song started and progressed, I was stunned; the song she and her band were performing was a great one, and I knew I had missed a quality set of music. It was Sheryl Crow, whose debut album had not yet been released. Damn it!

 

bdp24

Showing 4 responses by mitchagain

mitchagain
471 posts
 

J. Geils Band opened for Humble Pie - 1972

James Gang (Tommy Bolin version) opened for Beck - Bogart & Appice - 1973

New York Dolls opened for Mott the Hoople - 1973 ("Halloween on acid")

Mannfred Mann's Earth Band opened for Blue Oyster Cult - 1974

China Crisis opened for Simple Minds - 1984

The Silencers opened for X and Warren Zevon - 1987

Richard Thompson opened for Bonnie Raitt - 1989

House of Freaks opened for Concrete Blonde - 1989

Pylon opened for R.E.M. - 1989

Hunters & Collectors opened for Midnight Oil - 1990

Wendy MaHarry opened for The Blue Nile - 1990

The Go-Betweens opened for Lloyd Cole - 1991

Sam Phillips opened for Bruce Cockburn - 1991

Dada opened for Sting - 1993

Ivy opened for Lloyd Cole - 1995

Mark Eitzel opened for Everything But the Girl - 1995

mitchagain
471 posts
 

@maskmann , I was at that show (2nd row center) and you are correct, The Waterboys were fantastic! I almost included that show in my list, but I couldn't bear mentioning U2 in the same sentence, probably because of the way the crowd tried to climb over my friends and I as if we were some type of human fence.

One the bright side, that show made me focus on attending shows in venues that seat 1,000 people or less. That is a habit that I continue to this day.

mitchagain
471 posts
 

@tonyrox, I saw a similar show in 1977 when Eric Clapton and Santana toured together and they took turns as the opener and headliner. It was a rather competitive situation; and, it inevitably ended with an encore of everyone from both bands on stage for a long jam to close the show.

mitchagain
471 posts
 

@bdp24 , Great story!

I've often wondered about the future of the music industry, because I'm not seeing enough quality individuals to replace the likes of A&R men like: Ted Templeman, label exec's like: Ahmet Ertegun, Barry Gordy, Seymour Sten or Lenny Waronker, or mastering engineer's like: Bernie Grundman, Steve Hoffman or Bob Ludwig.

 

There's way too many producers to mention; but, I had a real interesting conversation with Alan Parsons about this very subject after he led a panel discussion at SXSW back around 2013 or 2014. I know David Kershenbaum was one of the other producers on that panel 

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