Elvis Costello and the Attractions
The B-52s
Gary Numan
many others from this era
Saw all of these in little clubs - Elvis and the B-52s in Schaumburg, for Pete’s sake. I don’t remember the name of the club. I got hit in the (fortunately) shatterproof glasses with the drumstick from Elvis Costello’s drummer.
What can I say - I’m old. Maybe not quite as old as Reality Chuck 
- Pink Floyd before “Dark Side of the Moon”? What was that '68?? '69??
I can only think of two, offhand…
Nine Inch Nails I saw when he/they opened for Peter Murphy in 1990 (NIN rocked, PM took off in a snit after 15 minutes of playing). There was a hall from the theater to the backstage of the place where the show was and there was this freaky looking guy staring at me for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a couple minutes. Turned out it was Trent Reznor. I’m still creeped out by it today. So anyways, follwing his Lollapalooza bit a while later he got big, released The Downward Spiral, and I lost interest. Musta been the stare. Or TDS just sucked.
U2 I was into when they were only “slightly big,” that is, prior to the Joshua Tree. Their getting “really big” pissed me off as I was one of the few cool kids who liked them, and then suddenly everyone else did. I wasn’t special anymore. Damn you! It took me five years to finally admit that the Joshua Tree was actually good (but only just). Never bought anything by them until this last one came out last year. I didn’t like it. Prejudice 1, Open Mind 0.
Tool
Korn
American Headcharge (I used to watch them play 1st Ave. in Minneapolis before they got signed.)
Static-X
Deftones (even though they blow)
Concussion - They aren’t huge, but they get their songs played on 93X (93.7FM in Minneapolis) a lot. The bass player was my next door neighbor when I lived in Pine City. He’s the one that helped me scare the little kids away when they’d try to steal the apples off my apple tree.
Korn (a neighbor introduced me to korn back in '94, I was like like ten years old for Christ’s sake)
Linkin Park (Been on their street team for the past two and a half years, since they were called SuperXero and Hybrid Theory)
New Found Glory (They’re still not massivly big, but they do have quite an impressive fanbase now.)
Sum41 (I heard a demo of them a few months before Half Hour Of Power came out)
hed pe (one of the bands off of an underground site that i’ve frequented for the past few years)
cold (bought their first cd… awesome, then 13 ways to bleed on stage came out… soooo gooood.)
non-point
fenixtx (since before their name change and the kicking out of their lead singer, i’ve been in love with this band. not so big, but still their name is definatly out there)
future hopes for bands to become famous:
grey cell green
facing sideways
borne in hand
pome
quarashi
lost prophets
hoobustank
vent
mindless self indulgence (though they are infact really big, they basically do what ICP does)
I was into the Beatles but they replaced me with Ringo cause he was better looking.