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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!

 

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immatthewj
2,404 posts
 

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.

 

sls883
554 posts
 

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

Papa Roach opened for Shinedown several years ago. Both shows were awesome. 

larsman's avatar
larsman
2,074 posts
 

@bassbuyer - when I first moved to San Francisco in 1973, I went to a show at Winterland with Wishbone Ash headlining, I think. The first band came on, who I never heard of before, and they tore the roof off the sucker. Montrose. I had friends in other parts of the country who had a similar experience with the original Montrose band. If they'd stayed together, I think they could have been the American Led Zeppelin.  

mitch2
4,109 posts
 

@larsman - Wishbone Ash and Montrose, what a show!  Man, we had some good music back then.

I have a few good warm-up memories (like Billy Idol for Def Leppard) but limited to people/groups that I didn't really know well at the time, it would be:

  • Charles Brown (historical blues idol) for Bonnie Raitt
  • Peter Frampton (the summer before Comes Alive! was released) for Yes
immatthewj
2,404 posts
 

@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.

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