From my days growing up outside Philadelphia... a local band called the Hooters fronted for a lot of national bands and for a while, the conversation went a bit like this...
"You going to see the Hooters this weekend?"
"Yeah"
"Who are they opening for?
"Dunno. You going?"
"Dunno. Saw them a couple of weeks ago."
"Were they good?"
"Great!"
"Who came after?"
"I forgot"
Then, after a while, when others started opening for them, they seemed to lose their hunger to play for a small enthusiastic audience.
Otherwise... I remember seeing the Bus Boys open for someone at a concert at a university. I went to see the main act, and have long forgotten who that was, but have never forgotten how good the Bus Boys were...
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The Replacements opening for Elvis Costello at MSG. I was, and still am a Costello fan but the Replacements totally kicked ass ending the show with each band member swapping instruments and bringing the house down. Early 80's? |
I saw New York Dolls and Aerosmith in October 1973; both of them smoked the opening act, Mott the Hoople.
I enjoy Mick Ralphs and Ian Hunter but Mott is a very overrated band in the annals of rock and roll history. |
I enjoy Mick Ralphs and Ian Hunter but Mott is a very overrated band in the annals of rock and roll history.
Audiofeil You're just saying that because you ain't a young dude anymore Bill. :) John |
Ejvl752 you saw Steeleye Span? They are quite accomplished. TAS raved about their stuff for years as terrific music and quality recordings and I have to agree. Commoners Crown is a good one to start with if anyone has an interest.
sorry to get off topic... |
once saw stevie ray vaughn open for the moody blues during their long distance voyager tour. while srv did not blow away the moody's (they were both performed extremely good sets). I bring this up only because the pairing was odd. |
Update on my previous post:
03/08/74 - SCHAEFER MUSIC FESTIVAL, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK
JUNGLELAND / KITTY'S BACK / ROSALITA
ONE show, triple bill, with Springsteen & The E Street Band occupying the middle slot in a show headlined by ANNE MURRAY, with BREWER & SHIPLEY as the opening act. This was an evening show held outdoors in the Wollman Ice Rink Theatre within Central Park. This concert had originally been booked with Boz Scaggs headlining, Anne Murray billed second and Brewer & Shipley opening. When headliner Scaggs pulled out of the gig in June promoter Ron Delsener replaced him with Springseen in the headlining slot. However Shep Gordon and Johnny Podell (managers of Murray) objected to Springsteen receiving headlining status, citing Murray's then-superior commercial success. As a consequence the schedule was changed the week before the show, with Murray receiving the top billing. Advertisements exist from both before and after the change of headlining status (see photos below). Mike Appel reluctantly agreed with the change on the condition that Springsteen would be allowed to perform for at least 80 minutes. As it turned out approximately 80% of the 5,000-strong crowd came specifically to see Springsteen - and half way through Bruce's performance Murray's managers realized they'd made a serious mistake, even trying in vain to get Mike Appel to yank Bruce offstage prematurely. Needless to say Bruce played his full show and Anne Murray was placed in the nightmarish position of having to follow him. Partial setlist above is from an attendee recollection. THERE IS NO CIRCULATING AUDIO FROM THIS SHOW. This would turn out to be the last time (excepting charity benefits) that Springsteen & The E Street Band opened for another artist.
A BRUCEBASE reader who attended the show statesÂ….Â…"It is absolutely true that most of the crowd booed when the announcer informed us that Anne Murray would be out in 15 minutes - while we were still screaming for another encore. Most of us left. In Los Angeles Mark Brickman (Bruce's lighting director) was talking to my wife and said that Anne Murray was hysterical backstage - really pissed off that her manager had forced Bruce to play second. The story made it to JOHN SEBASTIAN, who voluntarily took second spot on 18/10/74 in Passaic." |
Calbrs03
I also saw AC/DC on the same tour (seattle 1978) Cat Scratch Fever i think and AC/DC with Bon Scott blew both Ted Nugnet and Cheap Trick away.
I saw a triple bill in the Paramount in Seattle (1979?) with Wireless, Judas Preist and UFO as the headliner. Judas Preist was unbelievable they killed UFO (no michael schenker, he had just left UFO) no contest. We were in the third row over to right in front of the speakers and ears rang for 2 days. |
On the odd combo side
Toots & The Maytalls opened for The Who on the Quadraphrenia tour. This may have worked in England, but at that time the crowd in Detroit (Pontiac, actually) wasn't very receptive. They literally booed Toots off the stage. The Who followed with the worst set I've ever seen them deliver. |
odd pairing..both great...redbone, charles lloyd |
Hatpanley
That was 1978? Ouch. |
T bone
I often saw the Hooters at the Main Line Cabaret. Fun bar band. Phillips Hall at West Chester University had some great shows around the same time. Marshall Crenshaw played for maybe 13 people counting myself--the guy was just fantastic. King Crimson played there, too. And the Pretenders once just before they hit it big, once after. The first time, a tiny, drunken Pete Farndon punched-out a bouncer in the parking lot after the show. Lunatic.
This is a great thread. Sorry for sidetracking it.
Odd couple: The Blasters and UB40 at the Mann in Philadelphia. |
Martkyl,
I was at that show in Detroit Dec 1975 (I still have the ticket stub - $6.50) and Toots & The Maytalls had bottles thrown at them! Nobody knew who they were and Reggea and the Who do not mix IMO. FWIW I always thought the Who that evening was the best rock concert I had ever seem and I have seen them 3 times since. |
Philo,
I'm glad that you have fond memories of the show. I remember 3 unpleasant things (in addition to the flying bottles!) abou that concert:
1 - The band seemed pissed off from the start - I assumed they didn't like the glass assault on Toots.
2 - Kenny Jones had just replaced Keith and IMHO he didn't pull it off.
3 - It seemed like 1/2 the music was taped accompaniement.
Different strokes and all, but I've seen the band once before that show and 3 times since then and much preffered the other concerts. But, again, that is only MHO.
Marty |
Marty,
My mistake, when I saw them Keith Moon played the drums. You must have seen them later as Keith Moon died in 1978
sorry.. |
Aug, 1970 saw the orginal Allman Brothers Band open for Canned Heat. The crowd literally wouldn't let the Allman Brothers leave the stage and they ended up doing three encores. By the time Canned Heat hit the stage, they did about 3 or 4 songs before calling it quits. Of course, by that time about half the audiences had already left. |
Philo,
Probably my mistake - I'd guess that the years have fused the memories of 2 different shows into 1. Definitely not a good sign.
Funny part is, every time I see The Who (about once a decade) I like the show more than the previous one. A few years back they played the Hollywood Bowl and tore it up,
If the Pontiac show you saw was on a freezing cold day, I'd say I'm the guilty party here.
Marty |
the foo fighters opening for the police dodger stadium 2007.
i don't know what the police was thinking. they sounded
terrible. |
AC/DC in one of their first U.S. performances made Savoy Brown look like a garage band. Savoy Brown was booed off the stage after their 2nd song. |
Jerry Garcia Band opened for Bobby and the Midnights, So. Fallsburg, NY, 1982. Rained hard on Bob, everybody went home, except for some guy with a bottle of Jack who kept screaming "Ain't it good to be alive!" at the top of his lungs.
More obscurely, the smokin' hot cowpunk band Speedball opening for a lamentable Toad the Wet Sproket, Ann Arbor, early nineties. Anyone remember Speedball?
John |
Holy poop... I wanna see Mahavishnu in 71!!!
Judas Priest drained the crowd, (77') before Mahogany Rush hit the stage, Frank Marino was visibly bummed and did no encore. On July 25th 1976 Portland Oregon, Gentle Giant blew the doors off the headliner, (just put out too much energy and precision for Yes to match). |
Not saying they blew him off the stage, but I saw the Feelies open for Lou Reed and they were so good I copped seats at the next show a couple days later and drove a hundred miles to catch it again. Just to see them. |
Mes,
I used to live in Hoboken, NJ - The Feelies adopted hometown. They played a local club called Maxwell's all the time and I saw them a lot. I've also seen Lou Reed a bunch of times, some great shows and some pretty awful. On his best night, I'd still take The Feelies over Lou Reed. Just MHO.
Marty
BTW, the new Glenn Mercer cd "Wheels in Motion" is very good. It's not a Feelies record without Bill Million, but it's still worth a spin. |
Hey thanks Marty, I'll check the Mercer CD out. Luna, Feelies and Galaxy 500 all had some good stuff around then, and all were good live shows. I think they had some member hopping between those bands also. |
This post brought back great memories.
Golden Earring dusted Joe Cocker big time. I was not there for Cocker, that's for sure but he was realy bad, we walked out. Earring played just a few songs but eeach was a bout 15 minutes long, they were awesome and still are one of my favorite bands.
Blue Oyster Cult rocked out and were followed by Jefferson Starship. Totally different styles and once again I went only to see the former. Starship came on and I was asleep in minutes.
Scorpions destroying Ted Nugent, we walked out on Nugent he was so bad.
I went to a show that had Aerosmith headlining and Rick Derringer opening. Canned Heat was in between. Heat was treated horribly by the crowd that was itching for aerosmith and had enjoyed Derringer. It was so bad Bill Graham himself came onstage and asked the audience to show some respect. He was booed too. Aerosmith put on a great show and I guess I was lucky with some other reviews I've read from other shows they did. |
Metallica opening for Ozzy in '86 on the Masters of Puppets tour.
Metallica on the Monsters of Rock tour of '88. They blew everbody away that day. Of course given the lineup(see below) it's not as impressive as blowing Ozzy away in '86.
Van Halen (headline act)
Scorpions
Dokken
Metallica
Kingdom Come |
Jethro Tull completely killed Led Zeplin the first time I saw LZ. I had never even heard of Tull back then. Left (along with many others) halfway through the LZ show. |
A couple of friends saw a Judas Priest/Aerosmith show in the 70s and said JP blew away Aerosmith. |
OK, I have an opposite experience in the same vein. I went to see The Cult open for Metallica in 1990 and I really was not a fan of Metallica at all. I just wanted to see the Cult, and Ian Ashbury could not sing a lick at the show, which made it suck (as another aside, I saw them 4 times from 86 - 90 and twice they were phenomenal, and twice Ashbury had no voice at all). We decided to stay for the first song or 2 of Metallica and ended up staying the whole show and I bought all of their albums them. They absolutely rocked, one of the top 5 shows I have ever seen. |
Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band (the tour their "Live Bullet" came from), opening for the Doobie Brothers, maybe 1976. |
In 1968 I was at a concert at the Garden State Arts Center with the bill being CHicago as headliner and Iron Butterfly ( go on, laugh). Iron Butterfly absolutely blew Chicago away. CHicago appeared ill-prepared and unrehearsed, Terry Kath broke a string and seemed unable to comepensate for it until the end of the song when he had a roadie give him another guitar. I heard Chicago about a year later in Asbury Park's Convention Hall, and they seemd like a totally different band, much tighter and with much improved sound. Go figure.--Mrmitch |
I meant Bob Seger, not Seeger (obviously). |
Black & Blue Tour at the Garden (79 or 80); Blue Oyster Cult totally blew away Sabbath (Ronnie James Dio--not Ozzie). First time I saw BOC and they made Dio/Sabbath look absolutely terrible. Made me a BOC fan. |
Again back in the day I saw Bruce Springsteen open for Winter Consort, apples to oranges, but it still was no contest. A favorite was the TRIPLE billing of the original YES (3rd), original Humble Pie (2nd), and Black Sabbath. The night before Yes and the Pie destroyed Sabbath so the night I went they cancelled!! Talk about a rockin' night! |
Ratt opening for Billy Squier in 1984. Dating myself on that one. |
Mitzi Gaynor performing "Too Darn Hot" plain and simply blew the Beatles out of the water on their headline premier performnace on Ed Sullivan. |
Ike & Tina Turner with the Ikettes at Madison Square Gardens were the "warm up" group for the Stones MANY years ago ! |
I have two.The first one I saw. August 16 1977 Montreal Forum.
J Geils Band opening for Peter Frampton
The second was one I didn't see but read about,
Miles Davis opening for Steve Millar Band, around 1970. As I recall,Miles was to open for Miller on a few consecutive nights. By the second night he showed up"late"he wasn't going to open for that mother%@#% he was quoted saying! |
Montejay -- I also witnesses Geils open for Frampton in '77 (in Miami), and yes, they blew Frampton away. |
Rnm4. I remember it was at a time when Frampton was at his peak fame wise and was a huge live act. Geils takes the stage whipping the crowd to a frenzy with the energy they brought. By the time Frampton appeared there was no way he was at the right concert venue for his show. I remember feeling sorry for him but Geils was amazing! |
Pink Floyd (opened for Savoy Brown) at the Electric Factory in Phila - Sat 9/26/70
An unknown band, ELP (touring in support of their first album) opened for Procol Harum at the Phila Spectrum Sun 4/25/71 - Keith playing the keys with knives, standing on the organ rocking the bejesus outta it, throwing knives at the speaker columns etc etc. Procol was sheepish, they knew they had a tough act to follow. |
When I was in high school in the 1970's I saw Bruce Springsteen open for Chicago at the Spectrum in Philly. I wouldn't say that Springsteen blew Chicago off the stage... In fact, nobody knew who he was back then and after a few songs people started to get ugly and boo. Not nice! |
Led Zepplin's debut(in the States) blew away Spirit(I think it was the Filmore West.). Lonnie Mack blew away Edgar Winter at the Filmore West. Grateful Dead blew away the Band-New Year's Eve at the Civic Auditorium in S.F. |
Youngbloods blew away Electric Flag, Loading Zone, the Doors and other groups at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds circa 1969. It might have been because they used tube equipment(just guessing). |
John Cougar Mellencamp destroyed Heart in Casper,WY.(early 80's) He did 3 encores to boot. Great show. |
I didn't think anyone would remember the Loading Zone. They made the bill with the Who at the Fillmore in '67, but they did not blow away the Who. The real ear opener was some unknown group not even on the bill - Santana! I saw the poster for sale a couple of years back and I wanted it for what was not on it, but at this point, collectible and expensive. |
Styx opened for Joe Cocker in Birmingham, AL back in the '70's. The audience either booed Cocker or simply left. |
Curt Stigers at the Montreux Jazz Festival as an opening act for Diana Krall. Curt gave a much better show than Diana, in fact listening to the CD and Diana live made no differences :-( |
This one is easy. Nazareth opened for deep Purple and they were in top form. Deep Purple was just onstage, nothing more. |
Enjoyed Jimmy Vaughn & Band much more than Clapton from his From the Cradle tour in St.Louis ! |
