Artists that have grown more than one level bigger since you liked them

Cafe Society
1

For instance, have you ever liked an artist ever since they were a completely unknown entity (i.e. not even playing shows,) and then they became either an uber-famous local artist, or a very obscure national act?

Or, for instance, you like an artist that was an obscure national act, and they became celebrities?

I haven’t, really. Although I have come within months of doing so. I got into Dashboard Confessional just as his/their first song was becoming popular, and he barely had enough people in the House of Blue to fill the first floor. Then of course they went on to play small stadiums. So, more than 1 but not quite 2 levels of fame (from low on one rung, i.e. medium sized clubs, to low-medium on another.)

Similarly with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. While they had one MTV hit awhile back, they had drifted back into relative obscurity by the time Bloodsugarsexmagick came out. I got into them right as Give It Away came out, and they did become celebrities, but by the time I got into them they were almost at stardom already.

ETA: One more example, Blink 182, I would count them as having risen 2 levels since Dammit came out. But since that’s the only song I like by them, I don’t think they count either.

Unfortunately, none of my favorite completely obscure or local or opener bands have become any more famous than when I first liked them :frowning:

2

I became a fan of REM the first time I heard “Radio Free Europe” in 1983 when I was 14. You know the rest. :wink:
More recently, Alabama Shakes were playing our local brews cruise and at a small local bar for one of my friend’s birthday party about 1 1/2 years ago. They’ve gotten a lot of music industry buzz and are touring with Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

3

I was a big fan of R.E.M., Husker Du and The Replacements from the early to late '80s. R.E.M. blew up, of course, but nobody into them at the time thought the other two would be such well-known “influential” bands decades later. Similarly with the Pixies.

4

I’ve seen several artists very early in their careers. One club has been very lucky for my wife and I - Schuba’s. I saw Sarah McLachlan there back in 1991 when she was promoting Touch. You can just barely fit 200 people in the place. We later saw Tori Amos there.

5

We share the same taste in music. :slight_smile:

6

Looks like Mumford and Sons, Arcade Fire, Black Keys, Kendrick Lamar, OFWGKTA, Schoolboy Q, A$AP Rocky, Danny Brown, and a lot more. I got in on the ground floor of new popular house music (Deadmau5, Swedish House Mafia, etc.), as well as dubstep and trap music. I saw Holy Ghost!'s first live performance and I think they’ll do something cool, seeing that they hit that same nerve that the band fun. does. Of course, I haven’t turn on the radio in forever so I only have a foggy idea of who is hitting Top 40 now.

7

I forgot another one that almost counts: Manchester Orchestra. They’ve gone from opening for House of Blues-sized acts to being a House of Blues-sized acts. If they start playing small stadiums then it would count. In their words the last time I saw them in concert “I’m really happy that we can draw such a big crowd. Now all we need is the money.”

8

I can legitimately claim to have seen Death Cab for Cutie play before they were cool (no hipster) back in high school. The first time I saw Iron and Wine was in a bar/pub and there were probably 40-50 people in attendance. I saw and started listening to Trampled by Turtles a few years ago, and they’re having some decent success now. Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes was my cousin’s best friend in elementary/middle school, and I would play Nintendo with him every once in awhile when I was in Omaha.

I’ve known myself for quite some time and feel like I’m about to burst into the national consciousness. Just this past summer I played guitar at a wedding in Delaware.

9

I was a fan of Pink Floyd about the time of Ummagumma. Saw them in concert in early 1972, right after Meddle was released. Bought Dark Side the week it came out (and thought it was a bit Watered down).

Our college had a great reputation of getting acts just as they were starting out; these included the J. Geils Band, Bruce Springsteen (before Born to Run), and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

I also saw the Allman Brothers Band when they only had one album out.

10

Nirvana, right when Nevermind came out, though they were known before then. Goo Goo Dolls, around 1991, when they were really fucking good, and not horrendously lame. Black Crowes on their first US tour, their first single had just been released, I saw them open for Aerosmith. They stunk live, but I bought the album the next day.

11

The Decemberists. I first heard them in 2003 I think it was. They had just put out their second album on Kill Rock Stars and then were signed to a major label. The only band I have seen more than once in concert and this has taken me from small clubs, to mid-size venues now all the way to the Hollywood Bowl.

Just last week they were featured on "The Simpsons"in the Portland hipster episode.

12

In the late 80’s / early 90’s my friends and I used to see Widespread Panic quite a bit while they were playing in and around the south, before they made it big. We had some mutual friends in common.

13

I was given a copy of an album by friend of the guitarist, in NZ, about 8 years ago.
I quite liked it, and listened to it quite a lot, but I only just discovered a few weeks ago that the singer was Brett Mackenzie, better known from the Flight of the Conchords. Does that count? :smiley:

I also randomly went to a show by comedian Tim Minchin in 2007- when I say randomly, I mean I was in Adeleide and realised the Fringe Festival was on, so went to the site and bought a ticket to the next available show, and that was who it turned out to be.
At the time he wasn’t well known at all in the UK, but he’s since done some seriously big shows over here.

14

I was a first-album fan of both Elvis Costello and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. (also a Peter Frampton fan pre-Comes Alive!)

15

I saw Rufus Wainwright at a small club when we was touring with his first album (and met him backstage, woot!).

I saw Bare Naked Ladies open up for someone at the same small club (I can’t even remember who now) well before they blew up.

I fell in love with Brian Webb’s music when I heard him playing several times in the subway - bought an album from his guitar case, had a few chats with him. He’s a very popular fixture in the folk scene around here now.

16

Nine Inch Nails
Nirvana
Alice in Chains
Offspring (Not sure that one counts)
Pantera (I live in Dallas so that’s probably a given)
Metalica
Ratt
Motley Crue
Suicidal Tendencies

17

When I was a teenager, I saw Ani Difranco play at several “coffee-house” nights at colleges around our mutual home-town - Buffalo, NY. I was a little surprised when in college, some “riot grrl” type friends of mine started wearing her t-shirts and playing her tapes.

Also, 10,000 Maniacs played in clubs in Buffalo around that same time. They often played at a bar called “Nietzche’s” - which was (still is I guess) a hippie / beatnik bar. At the time, the usual cover charge to see a band was perhaps 2 bucks. But 10,000 Maniacs always insisted on $5 per show - which most folks thought was outrageous. Natalie Merchant also had a weird habit of turning her back to the audience and sitting cross-legged on the stage as if the band were playing in somebody’s basement instead of on a stage.

A few years later, the Goo Goo Dolls played around the Buffalo area. Saw them maybe three times. They were supposed to be a grungy punk band. It was funny to see them on MTV just a few years later playing the pandering, banal pop shmaltz they were known for nationally.
I had to drag my brother & a couple friends to see a free concert by the Red Hot Chili Peppers about six months before “Higher Ground” broke out. They all originally said “Chili Peppers” sounded like the name of a ‘fag band.’

18

Oh well, if that counts, I got into the Floyd with the “Soundtrack to the Film More.” My mum heard me playing “More” tracks in the house, and decided that she liked “The Blue Floyd” (as she insisted on calling them), so I bought her a copy of Meddle for Christmas. I saw them live in 1971, before any of the “Dark Side of the Moon” stuff was in their act, and they were still playing all the tracks from the live disc of “Ummagumma”.

I was pretty big into Mott the Hoople from when I first saw them in 1971, and saw them several times before they had their first real hit with “All the Young Dudes.” There was already a lot of buzz about them in '71, but they were unable to get a hit record until Bowie wrote “All the Young Dudes” for them, which really broke both them and him as stars.

Also, although I would not really say I was “into” them, I saw The Gang of Four play to about 50 or so people in Leeds University medical students common room (a one story prefab known as “The Lipman Building”) in late '78 or early '79. Again, there was already a lot of buzz about them, and they never really did have any “hits” (I guess being militant radical Marxists didn’t help, even then), but I understand that the cognoscenti consider them a very “important” band.

Dr. Feelgood were a local band whom I saw several times when they used to gig around my home town, and then I saw them at least once (I think twice) after they began to tour nationally. This was all before guitarist Wilko Johnson, who was then considered very much the star of the band, left, but, somehow, it was after Johnson left that they started having hits.

Oh, and I saw Wings on their secret university tour in 1972. They played at about 3pm on a Wednesday (I think) afternoon, and the gig was totally unannounced and unpublicized. I only found out about it when I was walking back from class past the student’s union, and noticed people lining up outside. As we were filing into the hall, I saw Denny Lane, holding his guitar whilst chasing an escaping toddler (I guess his child, or that of another band member) through the foyer. At one point during the act, there were several seconds of awkward silence because Linda had forgotten the opening organ riff to “Wildlife”, but “Maybe I’m Amazed” went pretty well. Wings went on to much greater commercial success later in the 1970s, although at least one of their number was really already in steep artistic decline even before I ever saw them.:stuck_out_tongue:

19

I saw Muse open for Foo Fighters and RHCP in 1999. They were unknown. I think they only had an EP at the time. Anyways, didn’t care for them, but they’ve definitely improved their songwriting and are getting some national airplay in the last couple of years.

20

Saw the Presidents of the United States of America open for They Might Be Giants[sup]*[/sup]; it was just at the moment when they’d signed for a major label and everyone knew they were about to be big.

Saw Ellis Paul open for another guy at a sorority house at Wellesley College. Just folks sitting on the floor and him in the middle of the room with an acoustic guitar. He has since gone on to some renown in folk music circles.

  • TMBG had good taste in opening acts. Saw Cub open for them once and they rocked; broke up about six months later but I’m glad I saw them live.