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

@BDP24 – fantastic post idea!

I had a similar experience the first time I saw Los Lobos in 1983. Robert Cray was then king of the West Coast blues circuit, but on this night in Portland, OR he was headlining the Key Largo, not a blues bar (saw the great Emily Remler there on another occasion). One of the pre-concert rumors was that Los Lobos included the son of Garth Hudson. They had to have meant David Hidalgo, who kept soloing on different instruments throughout their set.

When Gram Parsons died with an album in the can, the studio needed to do something to reclaim the situation. They put together a hot studio band, recorded an album featuring Gram’s backup singer, and got them a slot opening for solo guitarist extraordinaire Leo Kottke on tour (late ’74 or early ’75?). We were front row center, and didn’t even know there was an opener until we saw the stage set up for a band! The evening ended up being truly life-changing from the moment the young Emmylou Harris walked onstage and literally stunned the audience.

Many years later, I saw an interview of Leo where he talked briefly about this tour. On later dates, Emmylou joined Leo onstage to sing some harmony vocals. Leo was flat-out amazed.

“I don’t sing in tune. How can you harmonize with me?”
“I sing halfway between where you’re singing and where you should be.”

Some other special opening acts:

Stevie Wonder opening for The Rolling Stones in 1972 - as mentioned several times by others
Bonnie Raitt opening for John Prine in 1973 - my first live "Angel from Montgomery", done as a duo with the author & Bonnie Raitt
Marshall Tucker opening for Charlie Daniels Band & The Allman Brothers in 1973 - the MTB seemingly owned the Santa Monica Civic for good stretch of the 70s
The Band opening for Bob Dylan in 1974 - first time seeing my all-time favorite group
Jackson Browne/David Lindley acoustic duo opening for Bonnie Raitt in 1975 - just before the Running on Empty tour, when Bonnie opened & Jackson had a kick-ass band featuring Lindley
Roy Buchanan opening for Robert Cray, Albert Collins & Freddy King in 1984? - Roy could do anything that could be done on an electric guitar

Since Santana & Michael Shrieve have come up a few times I’ll relate a story told to me by a friend of Michael’s:

Carlos & Michael were friends and hung out together a lot. To see the movie Woodstock they, like everyone else, went to the theater when it first came out.

At the end of the show, when the light came on, people looked over, recognized them, and everyone there started applauding them!

I would’ve loved to have been there.

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.

I have to agree with everyone who's said this is a great thread!  Brought back lots of memories.

For me, the first great opening act I ever saw was UK with Bill Bruford, John Wetton, Allan Holdsworth and Eddie Jobson at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1978.  They did the entire first album and repeated "In The Dead of Night" for the encore.

The main act was Al Di Meola doing the Casino tour.  When he came out for his encore, he said he'd like to introduce "3 very special friends."  Chick Corea, Lenny White and Stanley Clarke came out and they did a 45 minute improv of "Romantic Warrior" mashed with "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant."

No one was "better" than anyone else that night.  It was simply 8 of the best musicians on Earth at the top of their game playing for people who loved them.  A truly transcendental experience.

The only other one as memorable was seeing a young Joey Bonamassa at all of 10 or so doing a set with his dad's band at a place called the Beginning II in East Syracuse NY.  We saw him play a couple of years later with B.B. King in the Landmark Theater in downtown Syracuse.  5 or 6 years later, he was showing up on PBS specials.  We can truly say "we saw him when..."

Hey Richmon that must have been a great show! I did see Allen Toussaint open for Little Feat at the Irvine before Lowell left us. Caught The Captain with The Mothers for the Bongo Fury tour at the Trenton War Memorial and at Emerald City with Rootboy Slim opening. Saw him at the Bijou for the Bat Chain Puller tour also, a true original. We were shouting " webcor, webcor, webcor!