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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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joeyfed55
88 posts
 

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!

markalarsen's avatar
markalarsen
666 posts
 

Loggins & Messina opening for Rare Earth in 1976.  Big mistake for Rare Earth.

richmon
254 posts
 

@joeyfed55 - Also was at that Emerald City Beefheart concert, one of the few memories I have of the show is the Captain doing a song where he did his impression of a man in a straitjacket where the song lyric was 'I need some thorzine'

Always will remember the day my friend came over with orange sunshine and Trout Mask Replica - we musta listened to it 5 times and my brain never returned to earth wink

awboat
42 posts
 

Outlaws opened for Skynyrd. "There goes another love song" was on the radio some, but few were prepared for The Florida Guitar Army. 40 minute long Green Grass and High Tides encore blew everyone away.

Skynyrd came out drunk and were terrible and we left. 

csmgolf
899 posts
 

Night Ranger opened for 38 Special at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in 1984. 

I saw the Journey Departure tour in 1980. The Babys were originally scheduled to open but the date got pushed back and they had a conflict with the make up date. Too bad, I would have liked to have seen them live.

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