When I saw the Beatles in 1966, Bobby Hebb opened the show. Even as a naive kid, I thought that was pretty weird. In retrospect, it would have been weird for anybody to open for the Beatles. Talk about an “ante”-climax.
I am going to date myself with these. One of the first concerts I ever went to Led Zeppelin opened for Marilee Rush and The Turnabouts.
Also saw Aerosmith open for 3 Dog Night.
The Irish Rovers opened a concert for the New Barbarians. The New Barbarians featured Keith Richard, Ron Wood, and Stanley Clarke. The big rumor was that Mick was going to join his bandmates for this one show. Of course, he didn’t.
Whoever put together the lineup for Cal Jam 2 at Ontario Motor Speedway (since closed) did not realize you better have someone pretty good before Ted Nugent plays. Chaka Kahn was not it. She got booed off the stage.
A couple of days before I got out of the Navy I saw Willy Nelson open for Waylon Jennings then both played. When they were done about a quarter of the people left. The rest stayed for ZZ Top.
AAARRRGH! Exactly what I thought of when I saw the thread title. U of Illinois, ca. 1975. Bad combination. Some guy was yelling “Boogie!”. Ian Anderson said “A boogie is an antelope turd.”
Kiss have just announced a one-off Melbourne concert early next year - they’re playing with the Melbourne Symphonic Orchestra (its members will be in Kiss makeup too).
nusrat fatah ali khan performed with some american pop stars, i cant remember which ones though on vh1, i found it kind of strange kind of nice
That was the first thing I thought about when reading the thread title.
In the early 1970’s Billy Joel opened for YES. I didn’t see this show, but was told about it during a conversation on set once in 1983, when I was a production assistant on some Billy Joel music videos. He told me about doing his set, then hearing the opening of the YES show- which was and usually still is the last part of the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
He said he was like, okay, what the hell??? He said he stayed for the show, and loved it.
My two top fave bands. I would have been verkelmpt. Of course, I also would have been about 11 years old then. 
Cartooniverse
Out of the ones I’ve actually been to I’d say The Alley Cats (a punk band, basically) opening for King Crimson on the Pier in NYC in the early 80’s (the Beat tour, I think) was the most ill-conceived. They were pretty much booed off the stage.
I saw AC/DC open for Savoy Brown at the Community Theater in Morristown, NJ. That was interesting.
Also interesting was the Stones concert I went to in '82 where they were carrying wasted people out during the opening acts (Molly Hatchet and George Thoroughgood IIRC). What a waste!
I saw David Bowie’s “Glass Spider” stadium tour in the mid-80s; it was a super-theatrical (well, it was Bowie, of course) extravaganza complete with a giant fake spider draped over the stage. There were at least three opening acts – I think because the spider looked stupid before dark, so Bowie couldn’t start until after sunset – and the middle ones have fallen from my brain.
But the first opening act, the one playing when my no-wife and I arrived, was Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. The mind boggled then; it still boggles now.
Sonic Youth opened for Neil Young and Crazy Horse back in about 1990. I saw them at the Summit in Houston. My friends and I went for Sonic Youth and we were part of only two hundred people who stayed the arena when Sonic Youth started to play (it was a sell-out show.) The band was obviously tired of playing to crowds that hated them, but I thought it was cool that when I shouted out a request from the back of the arena they played the song next.
On their first American tour, the Who opened for Herman’s Hermits!!!
Last weekend’s Bridge School Benefit Concert lineup included Neil Young, James Taylor, Leeann Rimes, The Other Ones, and Tenacious D. Go figure.
October 2001: in me & 46,000 others were in Washington’s RFK Stadium for was a benefit concert which raised more than $2 million for the Pentagon Relief Fund, the American Red Cross, and the Salvation Army Relief Fund.
Performers included:
Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, & O-Town,
Aerosmith, James Brown, & Rod Stewart.
Destiny’s Child, Mariah Carey, & Pink.
As well as Carole King, , Bette Midler, Ce Ce Peniston, America, the Goo Goo Dolls, Train, Usher, Billy Gilman, & Mya
…and of course what circus would be complete without a walk on by Michael Jackson.
Here’s the kicker: it was hosted by John Stamos.
The (and I mean this literally) all day event was a train-wreck as an event & a “concert” but I think well of all those folks (even Michael) for the effort - which doesn’t come thru in the snide way this is written.
Charlie Daniels opened for the Grateful Dead
:rolleyes:
(actually, I quite liked it!)
A while back, Neil Young opened for Dave Matthews. Talk about getting it backwards!
It’s been mentioned before but a friend of mine at work remembers going to see the Monkees and watching this wild black guy playing guitar like nobody’s business. Of course it was Jimi Hendrix and of course my friend who was about 10 years old at the time couldn’t wait for him to leave the stage so the REAL show could begin. He does say that Hendrix left quite an impression on him.
I saw mickey hart and family at the side of the stage for almost the whole femmes set. general admission got me quite close to the stage for that one. most of the heads weren’t digging it. i went to see the dead, and when the femmes came out, i thought “bonus!”.
i saw that tour as well, but got social distortion>sonic youth>neil young. thurston and co. looked bored, and neil blew both bands away, playing well after they brought up the house lights. i think he might have been fined for that one, union rules and all.
On a similar note, Metallica teamed up with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. They released an live CD of the show, S & M. I’m not a Metallica fan, but that CD is a lot of fun.
How about Pat Boone, Ethel Merman and the Baha Marimba Band salute the Southern Baptist Hymnal?
just kidding…
I have to say, that the whole genre of " Mega-Line-Ups For A Good Cause" ought to be exempt here. Live Aid, Band Aid, Aid Aid, Kool Aid, Aids Aid, The Concert for Kampuchea, The Concert for Bangladesh, The Concert For Toledo, The Concert for NYC ( post 9/11 ), The Concert For The Pentagon, etc.
These are driven by an entirely different kind of energy and dare I say, karma? The confluence of bands at these events is happenstance. Anyone who feels so moved, and can be crammed up onstage, gets a shot. It is the nature of such events. I agree, that they are stellar in terms of motivation and sometimes lacking in terms of content, but then we’re talking about a 5 hour rockshow, not Senate Hearings in invading Iraq.
Ya take what ya get. As an aside, I’d say that Neil Young should never open for anyone. That guy owns the stage…