Went to see Derek Trucks last night, and was disappointed to learn, upon getting to the theater, that there was an opening act. Actually, I’m almost always disappointed when there’s an opening act – generally, I’ve bought the tickets to hear the people I want to hear, and I get impatient about sitting through a set by an act I’ve never heard of before we can get to the good stuff.
I’m sure not every single opening act I’ve experienced has been bad (or at least irrelevant and thus annoying), but I’m having a hard time coming up with counterexamples.
I’m a fan. I like being exposed to music that might otherwise go under my radar.
Sometimes I go to a venue to see the opening act more than the headliner - like when The Tossers opened for Rev. Horton Heat. Now, I of course stayed, and the good Rev rocked my face off, but I went for the The Tossers.
Back in the early 2000s I saw Foo Fighter’s open for Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the FF blew them out of the water. Later, I heard some buzz from the tour that RHCP were becoming a little pissed at getting upstaged at every concert. In this case, I was there more as a fan of the Chili Peppers, but Foo Fighters won me over in about two and a half songs. Great show.
I went to see Bob Dylan a couple of years back. Now, I have no interest in Bob Dylan. And even my friends, who adore him, said that his performance that night was beyond bad. At least on that night, the man simply cannot carry a tune. Even his biggest hits, some of the most often-played songs in the world, were unrecognizable.
However, the opening acts were Junior Brown, followed by Jimmy Vaughn. I would happily have left after seeing them, but my friends were there to see Dylan.
Years back I went to a huge arena show of the Barenaked Ladies (my friend had fan club seats, 4th row!) This band “Guster” opened for them. They rocked!! A few months later I went to a show at a much smaller, club-type venue, which Guster headlined. It was PACKED to the rafters. The band guys were plainly surprised at the turnout, asking the crowd “huh. Good crowd! So, how many of you guys saw us open for the Barenaked Ladies?” upon which there was a huge roar from the audience. So clearly, I wasn’t the only one.
I also saw Wilco once when they opened for REM.
So, yea, when there’s a good match between the opening band and the headliner in terms of the type of music they play.
It’s a thankless job, but it’s the way bands find new fans. The only thing worse than a terrible opening act is being at a show for the opening act and having to suffer through all the thoughtless morons who won’t freaking shut up because they are only there for the headliner.
It works when the headliner and opener are well matched, but not so close in style that the opener is going to be compared unfavorably to the headliner. For instance, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band toured with Flogging Molly. For those who don’t know, Flogging Molly is punkish Celtic, in the tradition of the Pogues. The Big Damn Band is punkish take on delta blues of the 1930s. Both were high energy music that you can bounce around to, but not musically stepping on each others toes, the BDB picked up a lot of fans from that tour and the Flogging Molly fans were entertained.
The first time I saw Death Cab for Cutie, they were opening for Franz Ferdinand. Now I have all their albums, and I love their live shows. I never would have seen the infamous Deerhoof in concert except that they were opening for the Flaming Lips. The only time I really didn’t dig an opening act was St Vincent, the music just didn’t come across well live, but then I went home and listened to her album and loved it.
I am all for the opening act. It’s a great way to catch smaller name artists and I’ve been exposed to such a lot of great music that way. The only thing that’s irritating is sometimes it can take really too long to change out the stage setup between acts.
I caught both Wilco and Modest Mouse opening for REM–though, in Modest Mouses’s case, I’d been a fan before. I’d never heard of Wilco before then, thogh.
Also, upon hearing that Mercury Rev was going to be opening for REM on the other half of the tour, I checked out “Deserter’s Songs.” One of the best albums ever, hands down.
That being said, in this internet era, I can usually check out the band before the concert. If I have assigned seats, and the opening band doesn’t seem to be my style, I’ll just arrive a little later.
I love Rebecca Pronsky, but she’s based in New York and her internet presence is so tiny that I never would have discovered her had it not been for her opening for Sarah Bettens a couple years ago.
I also discovered **Elsiane **when they were one of the two opening acts for Delerium. The other opener, Sarah Fimm, was the reason I even bought a ticket and drove the hundred miles to go to the concert in the first place. I didn’t care at all about the headliner, but I stayed and enjoyed myself.
That said, OnlySon, the opener for **Regina Spektor **the last time I saw her, was horrible.
I saw X open for Oingo Boingo (god damn that was quite a show) in 1984, I think. I saw Souixsie and the Banshees open for ? Bowie ? once. I loved Nanci Griffiths when she opened for The Chieftains. And I think I saw Squeeze open for Fleetwood Mac once.
Opening bands can be a great way to discover new stuff.
ETA- does anybody remember who opened for the Pogues last time they were in SoCal? Like 2 years ago? I know they alternated opening acts, this was at the venue that shares a parking lot with Angels Stadium in Anaheim, a night or two after Spider Stacey got married. The band was good, the lead singer was outrageous- we learned WAY TOO MUCH about his pregnant wife and her vibrator, as he pranced around in a thong and a Thurston Howell the Third captain’s hat…
The second concert I went to, I was very disappointed that this unknown group (with the obviously hippie name) “The Allman Brothers Band” (All men are brothers. How corny can you get?) opened for Chicago.
A few months later, these “Allman Brothers” guys opened for Mountain. So I had to see these guys twice. Oddly, the more I listened, the more I liked them.
Oh, but in the day–King Crimson opened for Steve Miller and Ten Years After. UFO opened for Rush. The Clash opened for The Who. Uriah Heep opened for Blue Oyster Cult. Aerosmith opened for The Kinks. And the aforementioned Rockpile opened for Tom Petty.
I’ve seen some opening acts that I grew to like or even love.
The Presidents of the United States of America (for They Might Be Giants) Cub (for They Might Be Giants) The Beautiful South (for Barenaked Ladies) Common Rotation (for The Nields) DaVinci’s Notebook (for The Bobs)
And I’ve seen at least one that really sucked. On the whole, I like those odds.
I’ll very often check out the opening bands, except it seems when the headliner is of the AbsoluteFavouriteBandInTheWorld variety. I purposely came late to The White Stripes when I say them in 2007, because I really just wanted to them, and I can’t even remember who the open was going to be. Celtic Frost was the same thing. Just the headliner please, especially since the boring as all get out 1349 was opening.
Other than those two examples though, I’m always at least a little interested to see what the opening bands are about.
I love opening bands and I try to be on time for them. The one thing I would add that hasn’t been said is that if it’s an obscure band, they need to play at least one cover that the audience can relate to. I’m surprised more opening acts don’t do this, because it really gets folks to pay attention.
It kind of depends for me - one opening band is usually cool, two is kinda pushing it, and three or more is too much. I’ve found many bands that I’ve gone onto to listen to after they opened for a band I really like and for some bands in the electronic scene, it’s a great way for bands to share touring costs so you get more bang for your buck (i.e. band A would never come to Chicago on their own, but they will as an opener).
The only time I get really annoyed is when I find out that there is an opener and the show is already starting way too late. That just tells me I have at least another hour until the band I came to see hits the stage.
“Why do they play parts of songs I don’t want to hear?”
“Can I come up and fiddle with the knobs until I think it sounds right?”
I am reminded of Homer Simpson attending a Bachman-Turner concert and requesting, no, ordering, that they play ‘Taking Care of Business’, and further ordering in midsong that they hurry up and play the title.
To quote (IIRC) John Prine: “Play me something I know, so I can tell if you’re any good.”
You’re the customer, but that doesn’t make you the expert. To some extent, you need to let the plumbers fix the faucet.
