I saw John Mayer about 25 times starting in November of 1998 in Atlanta - mostly at Eddie’s Attic, but also at other venues such as coffee shops in Vinings and Borders bookstores. Like a lot of people who saw him back then, I’m sad his musical direction went towards the pop side of things, yet happy for his overall success. I still catch Clay Cook when I get a chance. 
I saw U2 in a bar/club in Madison, WI in 1981. There were about 200 people there.
Back in my boyband-crazy days, I saw the Backstreet Boys perform in a dance club in Montreal. There were no more than a couple hundred people there.
The guys from 98 degrees sang for my friends and me when their promotional bus pulled up while we were waiting in line for a big Backstreet Boys concert. Nobody really knew who they were. And now they’re nobody again. The circle of life…
I saw Jerry Seinfeld at the old Punch Line at Northlake in Atlanta, before he had his TV show. (I remember being psyched for the debut of his TV show because I had seen him perform. I think I was one of ten people who watched that first episode.)
I saw Chris Rock at the Funny Bone in Atlanta, before he even made it onto Saturday Night Live. His material has improved considerably since then. I remember not being impressed.
As for music acts, I caught Live and Green Day and Radiohead and The Offspring and 10,000 Maniacs and R.E.M. in various tiny venues before most folks had heard of them. (And probably quite a few more that aren’t coming immediately to mind.)
Oh yeah and
Down:
Saw **Meat Loaf[b/] before his comeback album at the Cotton Club (small venue in Atlanta).
Also caught Flock of Seagulls there on the downside of their careers. This would have been circa 1990, long after their star had faded and all that wild hair had receded to oblivion. It was a sad little show, as I recall. Poorly attended. (Oh dear. It looks like they’re still playing sad little shows.)
I was very happy to catch Carl Perkins very late in his career at a small club here called the Cavern. He still rocked.
Up: My brother had the reasonably well known Australian band **Icehouse ** (who were at that stage known as the Flowers) at his school formal.
This thread reminds me of “Losing My Edge” by LCD Soundsystem.
I have no idea why I don’t personally loathe him. Every single he has released makes me want to run screaming.
Up:
Fiona Apple - before Tidal was released (or just after it was…either way, I hadn’t heard of her), she was opening for Counting Crows as they promoted Recovering the Satellites in concert. She was booed off stage, much to my chagrin. I have a thing for skinny, angsty musician girls.
Old Crow Medicine Show - they were performing OUTSIDE another concert. Amazing band.
The Flaming Lips - they opened in support of Candlebox, who was promoting their debut CD (I think it was their debut…the one with “Far Behind” on it).
Down:
America - I saw them performing at a local zoo (!), as a part of the zoo’s “Roarchestra” program. Within the last ten years.
REO Speedwagon - the same girl who drug me to see The Flaming Lips (a band I hated from their first notes in concert) also drug me to see REO. This was in 1994 or so.
Poison/Enuff Z’Nuff/Ratt/Quiet Riot/Prettyboy Floyd - on various club stages in recent years.
Up: I saw the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at a small Boston area club in 1990 or so. I had never heard of them before. They were very energetic, and I came to like their music later.
On their way down: I saw the Mick Jones-less version of The Clash in, ummm, must have been 1984 or so? They played an arena at my college, it was pretty full. That lineup did not make rock history.
I think I’ve mentioned these before, but I saw Meatloaf when he was in the campus-touring National Lampoon Show. He was replacing their previous heavy-set singer/comedian, who had just gone off to do a new show, Saturday Night Live. The guy he replaced was John Belushi. This was before Rocky Hrror Picture Show and Bat Out f Hell, so no one knew who the hell Meatloaf was.
I saw Raul Julia in the Broadway Revival of DRacula, here he replaced Frank Langella. I don’t know if he was on his way up, but I hadn’t heard of him t the time.
It’s always surprising to look through my old Playbills to see who I’d seen on stage before they were big. I saw Armin Shimerman in Circle in the Square’s Saint Joan (starring Lynn Redgrave) back in the late 1970s, well before he was Quark on Deep Space Nine, or the principal on Buffy.
Both up:
The Replacements: they opened at Fitzgerald’s in Houston, on an off night, to a local R&B band, right about the time that they released Let It Be on Twin Tone. They screwed off for a while, playing ten-second snippets of Hank Williams, show tunes and stupid “ponk rawk” riffs before asking the crowd what they wanted to hear. A friend, glowering in front of the stage said “How about something from the Replacements.”, and they went into “Unsatisfied.” They were great and even finished a few songs.
Flaming Lips: at the time they were some unknown band from Tulsa, and they were opening at the Beach in Austin. They played a couple of their own songs and then went into Tommy. Yes, they played the whole opera. The Hickoids, a popular local band, was headlining, and it was funny to see their singer getting pissed off while waiting hours to play.
Jonathan Chance writes:
> Saw Mary Prankster at a publicity appearance at 6:30AM outside the MCI Arena
> in DC. She stood on the back of a pick up truck with a tiny amp and played
> acoustic. Only 3 people were there. I ended up late for work and she wrote me
> an excused note for my boss.
I saw Mary Prankster play at Jonathan Chance’s house at his annual summer party.
Japanese example, Sentimental Bus. I just thought the complete hyperness was fun but figured that no one outside of myself would like it. They became famous while as another band at the same time, Crybaby, who were really really skilled and good died off without ever getting noticed. I mean fun is nice on the occasion, but a little variety between songs really does make things a bit more listenable.
Dunno how the world works.
I saw Coldplay shortly after the release of “Parachutes”, before they took over the airwaves with the single “Yellow”.
In 1988, I met Alanis Morissette backstage at a teen talent show in Ottawa, Canada, which is my hometown as well. (I was part of a high school production of Cabaret; we did one of our numbers in the talent show.) She was all of 13. It was still a few years before her first dance-pop album was released.
She was wearing this hideous, long, sequinned sweater. Her hair was out to here and her make-up overdone.
She sang “Memory” from CATS next to a cheap street light prop.
She won the talent show.
Up
Joe Cocker in 1969, pre-Woodstock – as the opening act for the Who, no less. No one in the crowd had seen his act before and we thought the guy was having a seizure.
Chicago, same era. Big enough to be the featured act at a festival, but not big enough yet to sell stadium-price tickets.
In 1973 I saw the National Lampoon’s “Lemmings” review. I wish I’d kept a program, but I distinctly remember Chevy Chase.
Down
The Turtles. Well, it wasn’t quite the Turtles, it was Flo and Eddie. Quite entertaining, actually.
The Mamas and The Papas. Like RealityChuck I saw a revival tour, but this one had Spanky McFarland of Spanky and Our Gang doing the Mama Cass parts. At least she was a credible replacement.
I saw Ellen Degeneres ,back in the late 80s before she was on TV, at a comedy club in Raleigh NC. Her material was great.
Not me, but a friend of mine ran into Michelle Branch. Literally. My friend, a tall linebacker type woman, was walking into a bar, Michelle was walking out after a gig, my friend set her on her ass. :eek: Didn’t even know who she was until she read in the school paper the next say she was in town. I think this was just before she hit it big.
Up: Red Hot Chili Peppers on the patio outside the UCLA Student Union (Fall quarter 1984).
Jeff Foxworthy at a small comedy club in the late 1980s. The “you may be a redneck” shtick was only a few minutes of his routine, and some of his weaker material, but that’s what eventually caught on.
Down: Bachman-Turner Overdrive opening for Van Halen in 1986. I knew “Taking Care of Business” beforehand, and was surprised to recognize 2 other songs.
I followed The Kinks’ slide down through the 1980s. First time I saw them was in 1983 (peak of their comeback) at the Forum (~18,000 seats for concerts). Saw them 5 more times at progressively smaller venues until the last time in 1988 (The Road tour) at Universal Amp (~6,000 seats). Last time I had tickets for them was in 1993. The Wiltern (~2000 seats), but that show was cancelled.