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

November 17th 1978, The clash played my local town and The Slits were one of the warm up acts. They were outstanding. Between the Clash and The Slits it was certainly the best concert I have been to.
Hooten Hallers warming up for Reverand Horton Heat a close second

Several years ago, at the Sheldon in St. Louis. The featured act was the Milk Carton Kids. The opening act was Molly Tuttle with, I believe, "She's with Her" as her band. IMHO, they blew the Milk Cartons into the weeds.

For those who don’t mind a history lesson as a post :

The first concert I attended was The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in the Summer of 1964 (before a fair number of ya’ll were born, right?). The opening act was a 4-pc. Surf band from nearby Santa Cruz California (a town on the northern tip of the Monterey Bay that was a hot spot for surfing) named The Tikis. When the curtains opened the audience saw four guys in regular business suits, but with the trouser legs cut off at the knee (perhaps in acknowledgment of the knee-length swim trunks surfers wore).

By that Summer the Surf craze was obviously on it’s last legs, the British Invasion making the music seriously out of fashion. The Tikis therefore headed in a more trendy direction, recording demo tapes and submitting them to San Francisco label Autumn Records (home of The Beau Brummels). Autumn released two Tiki’s singles in 1965, both of which flopped. Autumn Records sold their catalog to Warner Brothers in 1966, including all the Tiki’s recordings.

Warner Brothers put The Tikis in the hands of a young producer named Lenny Waronker, who decided to have them record the Paul Simon song "The 49th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)". The Song was released under their new name, Harper’s Bizarre, and it turned out to become a hit single. I remember looking at Harper’s Bizarre’s debut album and seeing a 5-pc. lineup, which included Beau Brummels drummer John Petersen. Original drummer Ted Templeman was still in the band, having moved over to guitar.

So what’s the point of the above three paragraphs? Running across the top of the mountain range that separates San Jose from Santa Cruz is a road upon which in 1970 was located a biker bar named Chateau Liberte’. In 1970 a band formed in San Jose that often played at the bar, who were going by the name The Doobie Brothers. And in 1970 Ted Templeman was now an A & R/talent scout for Warner Brothers. Ted secured The Doobies a record deal by year’s end.

Lenny Waronker and Ted Templeman became the main players in Warner Brothers and associated labels throughout the 1970’s and beyond, and The Doobie Brothers one of the biggest bands in Rock music. One early casually was Dave Shogren, bassist on the first album. During recording sessions for the band’s second album (the first stiffed) Shogren was shown the door. Funny story: In the Summer of 1975 I was driving through a residential neighborhood in Santa Clara (a suburb of San Jose) when I spotted an odd sight-----a Rolls Royce parked in the driveway of one of the tract houses I saw up the block. I slowed down to get a good look at my first Rolls, when out of the house sauntered.....Dave Shogren. I guess he took his share of the advances on the first two Doobies albums, put a down payment on a house, and bought himself a Rolls Royce.

@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