# Opening Acts That Upstaged Huge Headliner **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986 "2019-11-25T21:48:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/21 "2019-11-26T02:22:08Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Last summer, I saw _Cheap Trick_ open for _Poison_. No, I have no idea why _Poison_’s management thought that was a good idea. No kidding. A couple years ago, I got tickets to Sound Garden and Nine Inch Nails. It wasn’t clear who the headliner was. Needless to say, I didn’t hang around after the first act, and got to drink beer in the parking lot. A perfect show! Another story: Went to a Drive-By Trucker show, and it was snowing as usual. The opening act didn’t make it. DBT came on stage at 7pm, sharp (the opening act slot), rocked non-stop for maybe 3 hours. They opened for themselves and almost blew themselves away! One of the best shows I’ve ever been to. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/22 "2019-11-26T02:33:13Z")
On their 1967 tour, Herman’s Hermits took the stage after The Who. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/23 "2019-11-26T02:33:43Z")
I took my wife to see Indigo Girls (her favorite; I’m not a fan, at all) for her birthday. No idea who the opening act were, but I remember them being fine. Then come the Indigos. Absolutely freakin’ horrible! The openers sat in on the second half of their set–didn’t help; I felt sorry for them. My wife apologized to _me_ for how awful the show was. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/24 "2019-11-26T02:42:51Z")
At Tiger Stadium, Alice In Chains opened for KISS. AIC somewhat rarely did concerts with Layne Staley in the band, so that concert is very remembered. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/25 "2019-11-26T02:44:20Z")
Another I remember was Donnie Iris (“Ah, Leah” and “Love Is Like A Rock”) opening for Loverboy in the early 1980s. His act was great, and Loverboy’s was padded (with things like dividing up the arena to do cheering contests) to make it headliner-length because they only had 1 or 2 full-length albums out. The OTHER thing I remember about it is that the people I went with and I just plain old had the most fun I’ve ever personally had at a concert. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/26 "2019-11-26T02:45:45Z")
In 1981(?), my brother and I went to see Heart with The Beach Boys as the headliner. Heart was great and when The Beach Boys took the stage, halfway their first song, my brother and I looked at each other and said, “Time to go?”. We both agreed and left. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/27 "2019-11-26T02:46:53Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > At Tiger Stadium, Alice In Chains opened for KISS. AIC somewhat rarely did concerts with Layne Staley in the band, so that concert is very remembered. Wanna know why they toured together? They originally had the same name, which Gene Simmons said on Larry King’s old radio show was “the four-letter word for sex.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/28 "2019-11-26T04:12:51Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > On their 1967 tour, Herman’s Hermits took the stage after The Who. When The Who came to St. Louis in June 1969, the opening act was a completely unknown pre-Woodstock Joe Cocker. I’m not saying he was better than The Who, but he was a hell of a lot better than a typical opening act. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/29 "2019-11-26T04:28:36Z")
I saw Lou Reed upstaged by a relatively unknown-at-the-time band called The Smithereens ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/30 "2019-11-26T05:04:33Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I took my wife to see Indigo Girls (her favorite; I’m not a fan, at all) for her birthday. No idea who the opening act were, but I remember them being fine. Then come the Indigos. Absolutely freakin’ horrible! The openers sat in on the second half of their set–didn’t help; I felt sorry for them. My wife apologized to _me_ for how awful the show was. Saw that tour, they played at the Union Terrace at the University of Wisconsin. [Gorgeous sunset](https://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2019/09/10/mic-drop-open-mic-night-is-back-begins-tomorrow-night/), wine and pitchers of beer… and oddly, quite a few hookahs. The opening act blew me away. A perfect blend of one woman and two guys’ voices. Seamless and smooth. And yes, they joined the Indigos during their set which, to be fair, didn’t have any chance of matching their talent. By the way, the band’s name was Show of Hands. Chris Hickey [tells about his band](http://www.chrishickey.net/show_of_hands.htm), that started with “We sang for Jay Boberg, the president of IRS Records in the stairwell at the label office, quickly made a record deal…” There’s a sample from their album on that page. Still one of my Desert Isle Disks… ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/31 "2019-11-26T05:56:36Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I went to a Santana concert to watch Robert Cray open, then left. So did lots of people at a Mark Knopfler/Bob Dylan show in Calgary a couple of years ago. When they all got up and left after Knopfler had finished, I couldn’t understand why anybody would do something like that. Turns out they were right. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/32 "2019-11-26T06:07:44Z")
I didn’t get to go but I had tickets for bad religion opening for blink 182… I’m told the concert was tense… it was hardcore punks mixed with well people who liked blink 182 which was considered “punk lite”… a lot of people left when BR was done … ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/33 "2019-11-26T09:45:15Z")
This is not quite what the OP had in mind but… In the recent movie _Rocketman_ they show Elton John’s first US gig - his legendary performance on 25 August 1970 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. And even now it is newsworthy: [When Elton John became a rock star: The untold story of the Troubadour concert.](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-elton-john-troubadour-rocketman-20190523-story.html) What is rarely mentioned is that he was only the opening act for headliner [David Ackles.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ackles) ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/34 "2019-11-26T10:08:50Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > David Lee Roth-era Van Halen was notorious for picking crappy no-name bands precisely to avoid being upstaged. They probably still remembered upstaging Black Sabbath (even Ozzy admitted VH should have been headlining by the end of the tour) I saw Van Halen’s very first tour in 1978. They opened for Journey, their first headlining tour, and by some accounts blew Journey off the stage. I don’t know about that. I’d never heard of either group but liked them both and bought their albums the next day. I got more into Van Halen than Journey, at least, their early days. The reason I went to the show in the first place was to see the middle act, Ronnie Montrose, because I was obsessed with his instrumental album OPEN FIRE. RIP Ronnie. Thank you for that amazing album. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/35 "2019-11-26T11:13:00Z")
When the Stones filmed the “Rock’n’Roll Circus” in Dec. ‘68, The Who were in top form, and (in Allen Klein’s words) “blew the Stones” (who basically hadn’t performed in over a year) off their “own stage.” So, the Stones shelved the film for 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/36 "2019-11-26T11:51:40Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > I didn’t get to go but I had tickets for bad religion opening for blink 182… I’m told the concert was tense… it was hardcore punks mixed with well people who liked blink 182 which was considered “punk lite”… a lot of people left when BR was done … Conversely, in the early 2000s I got tickets to Bad Religion but for the opening band The Promise Ring. I can’t say the Promise Ring upstaged them because most of the crowd was more enthused for Bad Religion, but I left halfway through BR’s set because all the songs sounded the same. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/37 "2019-11-26T12:04:08Z")
This is mainly cut and pasted from something I posted a long time ago. In 1970 I went to see a new band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer. At the time, Lucky Man was being played on the radio and that song was really all I knew about the band. The opening act was a band that I knew nothing about called the J. Geils Band. The concert was at a small venue outside of Baltimore called the Painters Mill Music Fair. The J. Geils Band was unbelievable. They had the whole place dancing for 40 minutes. I didn’t see a band with more energy until 1976 when I saw Springsteen for the first time. Then out came ELP to deflate the mood. I’ve never since seen a band suck the life out of a room like those guys did. And since Lucky Man as recorded included Greg Lake singing all of the parts and playing guitar and bass, they didn’t do it. In fact, Greg Lake played nothing but bass all night. Bummer. But at least I got to see J. Geils at their best, which was really something. I don’t know how many shows ELP did with J. Geils as their opener, but the show I witnessed should have been enough proof for them that it wasn’t a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/38 "2019-11-26T12:38:49Z")
Saw 10,000 Maniacs opening for REM. The Maniacs were good - not amazing, but a pretty good gig band. REM are _dull_ live. Really desperately dull. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/39 "2019-11-26T13:20:35Z")
Saw Type O Negative open for Queensryche in the mid 90’s. Type O had this massive sound, they were really tight and they got the crowd so into it that they ran over their allotted time slot. I watched a Queensryche crew member come out on stage as their last song was ending and literally take Pete’s bass guitar off him and run away with it. Pete put his arms up and said “well I guess that means we’re done, thank you Chicago!” Queensryche was good, but they didn’t have any of the energy that TON had and it was obvious. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986/40 "2019-11-26T13:44:51Z")
Early 1982, went to see a Police concert. The Go-Go’s opened for them, and were fantastic. Sting & Co. weren’t bad either, but that night, the Go-Go’s were way better. That was just as the Go-Go’s were becoming known. > [@Crotalus](#): > > I don’t know how many shows ELP did with J. Geils as their opener, but the show I witnessed should have been enough proof for them that it wasn’t a good idea. Probably made their blood run cold. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opening-acts-that-upstaged-huge-headliner/843986.md?page=3)