Did they not spell it with 2 Zeds? (Zees to you over there). Zzebra. If so, I saw them open for Soft Machine in about 1975…
I usually quite enjoy support bands
Probably the most annoying time was when I thought I was going to see David Thomas & Pere Ubu (who hadn’t toured here for a few years) supported by (unknown to me at the time) Yo La Tengo.
But in fact Pere Ubu were the support band. Grrrr. Missed the beginning of their set, and YLT weren’t really that good…
One support act I saw that really went down well was Chris DeBurgh supporting Supertramp. It was before he had a record contract and he did a solo spot consisting pretty much of the songs that made up ‘Spanish Train & Other Stories’ a year or two later. The audience loved him!
Course, we all hate him now!
The Trucks-Santana combination was pretty incredible. Walking out of the Palace (Auburn Hills, Michigan) a friend said “Now that was some guitar-playin’ right there”. Joe Cocker and Johnny Winter together would be a winner, too, I think.
When you look back at all the concerts you’ve attended that didn’t leave much of a lasting impression, you realize that the truly good ones stay with you and become high points in your life.
It depends. I haven’t seen many concerts but what annoys me is when the opening act seems to be totally different music than the headliners. WTF is that all about? I’m way more inclined to sit patiently through an opening act if it’s at least similar music to what I came to listen to.
That being said, I remember out of the very few concerts I went to more than half of them having mediocre opening acts and at least one being downright suck, and none of them really wowing me. I don’t think that’s a very fair average, there.
In general, I enjoy opening acts, and there has been more than one concert that I showed up to for the supporting act rather than the headliner. It’s a treat and it exposes me to music I would perhaps not have been actively seeking out. Plus I enjoy that element of surprise. And, sometimes, the opening act can just completely blow me away, as when I saw Kid Koala scratch circa 2000/2001 before a Poi Dog Pondering show. I wasn’t that exposed to turntablism at the time and his performance had me completely at awe at what was possible with virtuosic record scratching. Unreal.
Could be any number of reasons, but I’m assuming the two most common explanations are 1) it’s an act the headliner wants to give exposure to; and 2) it’s an act that they got saddled with by a tour manager or the venue they’re playing.
Whether or not I show up in time to see an opening band depends on two factors:
Whether I know and like them
Whether I will have a chair
If I know and like the opening band, I will generally show up in time to see them. If I do not know the opening band, but will have a chair to sit in while they are playing, then I will show up in time to see them, and hope that they’re good. If I don’t know and like the opening band, and will not have a chair to sit in, then I will generally not bother, because the possibility that I will like them isn’t worth the extra hour or two of standing.
I saw the Foo Fighters open for Dylan and much preferred the Foo Fighters, even though I’d gone to see Dylan. I also saw the Old 97s open for Train and Matchbox20, but I really only went for the Old 97s and stayed for the rest because I was already there. I once bought Dixie Chicks tickets and then later found out that the opening act was Jann Arden, who I like as much, if not more than the Chicks, which was nice.
Other than that, most of the headlining and opening acts that I see are all small time enough that few people will have heard of either of them.
Nah, it was a different band. The one I saw did the song Who’s Behind The Door.
and Justin_Bailey, Martini Enfield and anyone else to whom it applies:
I didn’t post a list of bands you should know. I posted a list of bands I didn’t know and maybe never would have known except for seeing them open for someone else. One of them (Aaron Squirrel) is a local guy. If he’s ever played outside the OKC area, it’s news to me. (But he was asked to open for Johnny A, Joe Bonomasso and Eric Johnson (3 different shows) so if you like that kind of guitar you might keep your eyes open for him. He has a website.;))
Although I do wonder how you or anyone could not have heard of (at least) Stevie Ray Vaughan if only for the circumstance of his death. If you don’t know, you don’t know. I just thought it was a major story when he died. I didn’t know (or particularly care about) Glenn Miller’s music, but I know he died in WWII when his plane was (presumably?) shot down. That was way before my time.
I think I’ve seen more good opening acts than bad, but I’m fairly open to new ideas in music. Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra was probably the strangest, being something like a jazz version of what Parliment/Funkadelic did later, but it was at least interesting for an hour or so. I’ve seen a few bad enough to get booed off, but even that was entertaining. (Who thought booking a local bluegrass band to open for Kiss was a good idea?)
I’ve heard of both Stevie Ray Vaughn and Glenn Miller.
And I was never accusing you of posting a list of bands everyone should know. I was responding to people that seemed horrified that half your list was completely unknown to me. Basically, it’s not you, it’s them.
In 1984 I saw the Scorpions in Charlotte, and the opening band was somebody we’d never heard of, some band out of New Jersey that had just released their first album. Bon Jovi? What kinda name is that?
In 1995 (I think?) I saw Nine Inch Nails “open” for David Bowie, in the sense that the first band was Prick, then NIN, then Bowie, with no gap in between NIN and Bowie. At the end of NIN’s part, the lights went down, “Hurt” started but it was Bowie singing, then Reznor sang “Scary Monster” and they went back and forth for a couple more songs before NIN left the stage and Bowie took over completely.
Next time I saw NIN, Maynard (from Tool) opened with his side project, Perfect Circle.
So, I’ve seen some awesome opening acts, and some “meh” ones, and others that sucked. I don’t mind them, I just plan around them if I am not interested.
A couple of concerts where I was there to see the “opener” and couldn’t care less about the “headliner”: Both times I saw the Sugarcubes.
Once, they opened for U2 on (I think) the Pop-Mart tour. The staging for U2 was neat, but I’ve never liked their music, but the 'Cubes were great. Wish more of the audience had been paying attention.
The second time, they were the first band of a show headlined by New Order. My wife and I had truly amazing seats (my brother had bought a season pass and let us use his tickets to this show), dead center, 5 rows back. It was insanely hot, above 100 degrees, and crazy girl from Iceland was wearing a long-sleeved leather jacket! The next band was PiL, but we skipped to go to the “Meet & Greet” with the Sugarcubes where we got to talk with Bjork. New Order was great, but the combination of crazy volume and the heat, we decided to head home early in their set. This was at a “shed”, so we found a pair of kids back in the “lawn” area who were really into the show and gave them our stubs so they could go right up front.
That was the very first concert I ever went to. I think they subtitled it “Monsters of Alternative Rock”. There weren’t a lot of people there when the Sugarcubes went on and Bjork and Einar kept encouraging people to stand up and dance.
I didn’t see them as an opening act, but when they opened for Jerry Garcia’s solo tour in Boston they were so much better than Jerry that they were the talk of the radio. That convinced me to buy Inner Mounting Flame, which I listen to to this day. When I saw them on the Birds of Fire tour, I saw what the DJs were talking about.
Two Dylan concerts ago, Paul Simon opened for him. That was pretty good. I also saw Pearl Jam open for the Stones.
I’m fine with opening acts, so long as they know when to stop. I saw the New Riders open for the Dead. Two hours later, when they were finally finished, and the Dead came on, I was exhausted and ready to go home. And I was in college then.
Worst opening act: trained chimps before a Captain Beefheart concert.
I like them - it’s an opportunity to sample new music, and also, if you’re running late for the concert, at least you have a cushion before the act you really paid to see goes on.
My wife and I got tickets to a Bon Jovi concert two years ago November, but traffic was horrible, and we would have missed a lot of Bon Jovi music if the first hour+ wasn’t the country band Big & Rich. I would have loved to hear them as well, but I would have really, really hated to miss Bon Jovi.
I’m old enough to remember two tours where **Iron Maiden **Opened for Judas Priest.
My ears still ring a little bit.
I saw Saga open for Jethro Tull. Still one of the best shows I have ever seen.
I love it when there is a great opening act, whether it’s someone I already know or something to broaden my musical world.
I Hate, **HATE **it when a big rock act would offer up a sacrifical lamb. Van Halen would have someone open that they knew their audience would …dislike. **After the Fire **barely escaped with their lives.
Yes, it IS ignorant - ignorance is not knowing something.
Being ignorant is not a problem. We’re all ignorant of stuff. Most people, more than we aren’t ignorant of. Because there’s a lot of stuff in the world to know.
The problem is your ignorance is getting really wilful - you keep claiming that internationally known artists with major hits are ‘artists with zero profile to the Average Person In The Street’, even after being informed that, no, they are not.
There are local bands on the list, most of them, though, are not. No matter how much you insist that, say, The Guess Who, are obscure nobodies, because you haven’t heard of them, therefor nobody can have, that doesn’t change that they’re an internationally known, influential band, with hits in multiple countries (including Australia).
I had never heard of the band who was opening when I went to see Ozzy at age 16. You may have heard something about then since, they’re a little group called Metallica. Fresh after releasing Master of Puppets. I was blown away, almost literally considering I was about 6 rows from the stage.
Ever after, I’ve always been willing to give a listen to the opening act. You never know, it might be something you’ll like for the rest of your life.
Seriously, I learned a looooong time ago not to be surprised when others weren’t as interested in music as I am. Thirty years ago almost everyone I knew* (around my age, anyway) kept up with what was going on and talked music incessantly. Almost as much as sex. Or drugs. Now it’s down to maybe four, three of whom are musicians and all of them (and probably me as well) have narrowed their interest more and more as time goes by.
Even then I knew people interested and engaged in life who just didn’t care one way or the other about music. Or drugs*. We still found things to talk about.
I’m sure I must have, but I don’t remember knowing anyone uninterested in sex.*
First off, calling someone ignorant is the same thing as calling them stupid. It may be technically accurate, but it is not something you say if you don’t want the other person to be offended. Particularly bad is if you call the person willfully ignorant.
NOT EVERYBODY KNOWS EVERYTHING YOU DO. That may make them ignorant about a specific fact, but that does not make them ignorant by itself. Or should I call you ignorant because you don’t know the word ignorant can be offensive?
