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Nothing better than getting a great double header for your $$. And IMHO its even better if you catch the acts in a small theater/club. Here are a couple of the better opener/headliner combos that I can recall seeing. Most these were during the 1990's, as memories of much of my pre-1990 concert activities remain a little fuzzy :-)Little Feat & Grateful Dead
Los Lobos & Grateful Dead
Jeff Healy Band & Little Feat
Gov't Mule & Black Crowes
Jayhawks & Black Crowes
Gillian Welch/David Rawlings & Son Volt
Derek Trucks Band & Gov't Mule
Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks Band
Robert Walter's 20th Congress & Soulive
Hot Tuna & Allman Brothers Band
Follow Ups:
nt
On New Year's Eve
it was a hot one
Black Oak Arkansas and Blue Oyster Cult back in '75 I think it was.
Yo la Tengo and The Aislers Set
...at the original 'Pointfest' in St Louis in 1993, I believe, the last two acts were Hothouse Flowers and Midnight Oil
Absolute magic in the air that evening and everyone on the lawn was feeling it
... Teenage Fanclub open for Radiohead near the beginning of the OK Computer tour when they were still playing small places and you could get close enough to 'em to catch the sweat... good time
Day in the Park (I think it was Wrigley Field, or maybe Comisky Park?), Chicago, late 70's. Tickets were, IIRC, about $12.
At the Orange Bowl in the late 70s. Try to top that bill for the ticket price of $13.00!! That, plus the righteous windowpane we ingested, made it one of the best concerts I've ever seen.
At Joyous Lake, a small club, in Woodstock NY in the mid 70's. Richie opened with a solo set and then was followed by Charlie Mingus in a quartet or quintette formation. Bonnie came on last and was joined at the end of her set by Eric Andersen and Paul Butterfield.Another odd lineup I saw was Seals & Crofts, Chuck Berry and Chicago in 1969.
Ten Years After / Slade
Kiss / Camel / Wishbone Ash
Journey (Prog version) / Todd Rudgren's Utopia
Rory Gallagher / Wishbone Ash
Church / Peter Murphy
Chameleons / Mighty Lemon Drops
Simple Minds / Echo and the Bunnymen
BOC/ Kansas / Ted Nugent
Hirsch Memorial Collosium, Shreveport, Louisiana, 1978-ish. 4-plus hours of hard rockin' great time.
During their Grumpy Old Men tour in the late 90's. Not too bad of a show considering their personalities. Lucinda Williams was a great opening act.
In the mid 80's. Thompson opened followed by Los Lobos and the headliners were The Del Fuegos. Go figure.Great show though.
Both as unique as the other....
Q-Fest in Phoenix
ZZ Top was the warm up band. Chicago's Aragon "Brawlroom" -- late 60's or early 70's ?? ...... too long ago to remember for sure. On second thought, maybe this didn't happen .... 8> )
Saw Soul Asylum at a very small bar in Denver on the Hang Time tour. The opening band couldn't play, apparently because of an illness (don't remember who it was).
Anyway, Dave Pirner walks on stage and says, "We're the opening band, Chicken Fist." He got behind the drums, the bass player (Karl?) played guitar, a roadie played bass and whatshisname, the other SA guitartist played guitar, another roadie sang. They did a variety of covers, much like the olden day Replacements.Otherwise, U2 with the Divinyls on the War tour, was one of my most memorable.
and something called "orange barrel".....
I guess the Rolling Stones with Living Colour in 1989 was a decent double bill, but I have yet to see a stadium/arena show that made me want to actually see another one. By anyone.Maybe the best, actually, was Big Star, with the Meat Puppets, 10 years ago.
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Madison Square Garden.What a show! Rory Gallagher was unreal! What a legend he was!
Awesome show! Just picked up a Rory album the other day.
These stand out because on both occasions UFO had Michael Schenker's leads; even though we arrived late for the '75 performance and only got to witness two or three numbers I knew that UFO was a band I'd be following from that moment on. Tull was quite good back in '75, so I'm ranking that as a memorable double bill. The next time I caught UFO they were legitimately doubled-billed with Blue Oyster Cult and their infamous soon-to-be-banned laser show in support of the Agents of Fortune album; UFO was the closer.
I never saw UFO live. Damn.
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90 degrees out, Sun Ra had already had a stroke or two & there was a lift that brought his wheelchair onto the stage. Sonic Youth were amazing.A year later I saw the Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden, then went downstairs to the theater (Felt Forum/Paramount) to check out James Brown. Who blew their boring, bloated, tired asses all the way back to San Fransisco. Yikes.
Electric Theater..AKa Kinetic Playground Chicago 1969...blew my mind
That must have been a fantastic show !!
Lucky You.
Jackson Browne opening for Laura Nyro- Seeds and Buffalo Springfield
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Yes, an actual fistfight on stage. Randy C. and Jay F. got into it when Jay brought out a drunk neil Young to join the band on the finale "Like a Rolling Stone". The bald drummer father figure had to climb down from the drum riser and break up the fistfight.BTW: I did not realize that I had known Randy when we were younger.
Outdoors at the Philadelphia Zoo, 1983 probably. Fun show.Sleater-Kinney and Helium, 1998.
Mostly it's hard sitting through all the opening bands.
Except how about the Avengers opening for the Sex Pistols for their last show, not that I got to see it.
Gregg Allman - Fabulous Thunderbirds & Stevie Ray Vaughan
Here's one from the early 70's at Philly's Spectrum: Humble Pie/Alice Cooper/Black Sabbath. (A.C. got booed off the stage).
Others: Joe Walsh/Wishbone Ash, Queen/Mott The Hoople, Four Tops/Temptations (the real ones), many opening acts for Roxy Music (they all sucked 'cause Roxy rules).
Status Quo - Ted Nugent - Blue Oyster Cult 1975
Kiss - REO Speedwagon 1974 (KISS opened)
Def Leppard - Scorpions - Judas Priest 1980 or 1981 ?
Rush - Styx 1975 (Rush preformed 2112 prior to the LP coming out)Rory Gallagher - Rush 1982 (Rory's one of my all-time favorites!)
Around 73 at the Auditorium in Chicago, I saw Blue Oyster Cult backed up by the Raspberries. It was quite sad. The BOC crowd was in no mood for pop and was booing so loud it was hard to hear them. During the 2nd or 3rd song, I saw something (beer bottle?) fly through the air and hit the drum kit.
Blondie opening for Television at the Birmingham Odeon in 1977 was a good one.
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I saw that tour at Birmingham Barbarella's, but I thought that Dire Straits were well named, I fell asleep during their set. I did wake up in time to see their second rendition of Sultans of Swing.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience with The Soft Machine as opening act in '67 or '68
At the time i thought KC outplayed James gang.JG had Tommy Bolin at guitar.I will blame my enjoyment of KC on the acid i was ingesting.Once I quit that I woke up out my drug induced stupor and realized what pompous crap/prog they represented.
Still a great concert for four bucks and the blond Lebanese hashish was lung bursting.
YECH
Great Triple Bill:
- King's X, Joe Satriani and Dream Theater... terrible sound for King's X but all three acts kicked a$$ that night. Satriani loves playing.
Great Double Bills:
- Dream Theater and Yes
- Tom Cochran & Red Rider and RushGreat Headliner, Awful Opening Act:
- Aldo Nova and Saga
- Platinum Blonde and TriumphGreat Performance in Small Venue:
- Marillion, 1987... 150 people tops. In Waterloo, Ontario, for the Clutching at Straws tour. Fish handed out beer and sandwiches from the stage, passed the microphone around for the audience to sing along. 'Edgy eggs and queueing cumbers, rudely wakened from their slumbers...' Ahhh, wonderful!
Thanks for the thread - it has reminded me of some wonderful memories.
The ones I remember off the top of my head (usually a good indication):Camper Van Beethoven/REM
Dylan/Tom Petty
A few come to mind:Neurosis & Libido Boyz = 1990 or 1991 in a church basement
RHCPs & Smashing Pumpkins & Pearl Jam = 1992(?) before PJ was big but SPs were disappointing
New Order & PiL & Sugarcubes = 1988(?)
Rollins Band & Helmet = 1995(?)
Beastie Boys & Fishbone & Murphy's Law = 1987
Mighty Lemon Drops & Ocean Blue & John Wesely Harding = 1990
The Black Heart Procession & Cherry Valence = 2003
Here's some.Stones/Stevie Wonder
Santana /Earth Wind and Fire
Mott the Hoople/Free
Free/Queen
Lynerd/Skynard/Golden Earing
Argent/Procul Harum
Slade/Sensational Alex Harvey Bandand a weird one
Uriah Heep/Sha Na Na and Osibisa
A whole bunch more, back in the late '60's early '70's in England, when rock was just getting on its feet most of the new bands used to tour together to save money on transportation.
Plus a whole bunch of early '70's festivals, Reading etc.
I'm not a big Dead fan but they seem to be inspired on the Dylan/Dead and Santana/Dead tours in the early 80s.Clash/Who
Ozomatli/Santana
SeaTrain/Procul Harum
More often than not it's been the opposite experience for me: you go see a great headliner & the opening act SUCKS! Eg.,- 1974 Frank Zappa & The Mothers; opening act was Elvin Bishop (!?!?) and fortunately he got booed off the stage after 20 minutes of inappropriate boogie. He sucked.
- 1975 Renaissance; opening act was Al Stewart & I only wish he'd been booed off the stage. He sucked.
- 1990 The Rolling Stones (or whenever the Steel Wheels tour was); opening act was Living Color, & while they *should* have been a killer band (& on record they were, IMHO) they were just too inexperienced to know how to work a 50,000 seat stadium. They sucked.
- 2000 Yes (Masterworks Tour); opening act was Kansas. Despite what prog critics might suppose, these are not two peas in a pod; more like Night & Day. They sucked.
In fact, the only good double bill I can remember was in 2003, when John Paul Jones opened up for King Crimson.
So normally I avoid double bills like the proverbial plague.
Luckily we arrived late and missed Dione.
The 5th of 101 Wild Turkey got the better of me and I vomited in the parking lot after the show.And vomited on the side of the car.And vomited when I got home.And vomited the next day.
Reminds me of the scene from American Graffitti when Terry the toad is vomiting and the old lady sez,"look Harry he looks just like a dog".
YECH
...in the greatest era of rock music - when I was in college - I saw:- B.B.King and the Rolling Stones
- Yes and the Allman Brothers
- Steve Miller Band and Janis Joplin
- Mountain and Blues Image
- Long John Baldry and Savoy Brown
...at the Santa Monica Civic, it was:The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur in various bills and guest performances.
HEADLINER: Sly and the Family Stone OPENING ACT The original "Wailers" (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh & Bunny Wailer) Nassau Colisieum Long Island, NYHEADLINER: Wishbone Ash OPENING ACT Joe Walsh (Central Park, NYC)
HEADLINER: Joe Walsh OPENING ACT the original Lynard Skynard (before the plane crash) Passaic, NJ
HEADLINER: War OPENING ACT Weather Report
HEADLINER: Return to Forever w\Chic Corea OPENING ACT The Eleventh House featuring Larry Coryell (a monster show White Plains, NY I beleive)
HEADLINER: Return to Forever w\Chic Corea (With replacement guitarist Earl Klugh) OPENING ACT Bruce Springsteen (that's right) Kutztown, PA
HEADLINER: Brian Auger & The Oblivion Express OPENING ACT Bruce Springsteen (I've seen Springsteen twice in my life never as a headliner) Trenton, NJ
HEADLINER: Electric Light Orchestra OPENING ACT Return to Forever w\Chic Corea
HEADLINER: Mountain OPENING ACT Yes (NYC)
HEADLINER: Procol Harum SECOND OPENING ACT King Crimson FIRST OPENING ACT Yes (Academy of Music, NYC)
HEADLINER: Kinks OPENING ACT Aerosmith (first U.S. tour and boy did they suck) Lawrenceville, NJ
HEADLINER: Bob Dylan OPENING ACT The Band (Philadelphia, PA)
HEADLINER: Cracker OPENING ACT the original Gov't Mule (Philadelphia, PA)
An unsigned Dave Mathews Band, Col Bruce and Aquarium Rescue Unit, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler.I saw that Hot Tuna/Allman Brothers Band, good show.
Also saw Gov. Mule open for Tull!
Like a dumbass, I was late for Procol Harum opening for Tull, and I had car trouble that made me miss most of Little Feat opening for The Allmans.
I saw one of the earlier Horde tours - can't recall which number though. Some of the acts that I recall at that show were: Medeski Martin & Wood, Morphine, Beck & Neil Young.Speaking of jambands - I also caught 2 club shows featuring these not-yet-famous bands: Phish, Widespread, Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors. I think Phish and SD both had record deals at that time, but the other 2 did not. This is prolly sacrilidge to some people, but I thought (still do actually) all of these bands sucked except for the Spin Doctors. (Phish was especially awful and in fact I left about 1/2 through their set.) One of wierdest things that I recall about those shows was that during the SD set, there was a bunch of frat dudes slam dancing near the front of the stage.
Black Sabbath; Mountain
Rod Stewart Group; Deep Purple
John McLaughlin & Mahavishnu Orchesta; Allman Brothers
Jo Jo Gunne; Wishbone Ash
Eagles; Jethro Tull
Jesse Colin Young; Beach Boys; Crosby, Stills and NashThese all date me--I did all my concert going during the early 70s, and saw these groups with classic line-ups (except Allman Brothers?).
I didn't even hear the Eagles; no one knew who they were, I was interested in Tull, so I arrived just when Eagles were winding up their set . . .
all the best, regards
P.S. Loudest of all these groups--Rod Stewart Group by far. I don't know why, but they were painfully loud. That really turned me off to live concerts. Human hearing can be damaged permanently . . .
I've seen Sabbath thrice at various Ozzfests (once with the drummer from Faith No More, twice with Bill Ward), I saw Mountain open for Foghat (before Lonesome Dave died), saw Deep Purple in 2003 with The Scorpions and Dio, Crosby Still and Nash was the first concert I went to without my parents, and I saw them with Young on the last go-round, I've seen the Allman Brothers more times than I can keep track of, saw the Dead at least half a dozen times, same with Tull, and saw the Eagles on their first reunion.Loudest Group: Prong opening for Ozzy, but I had protection.
Most Hearing Damage: Georgia Sattelites at red neck bar in Hickory, NC, though BOC was a close second, but the crowd was so Roided up, I was afraid to approach the stage.
The Feelies opening for Lou Reed
The Call opening for Peter Gabriel
Leo Kotke opening for Michael Hedges (RIP)
Shawn Colvin (so so, no offense) opening for Richard Thompson with band which compensated for the opener and rates as one of the best shows I've seen. A study in understated magnificent playing.
> > The Feelies opening for Lou Reed < <How cool must that have been. Did The Feelies do "What Goes On"?
The first one that came to mind for me had The Feelies as the opening act too, but for R.E.M.
a couple of others...
Aztec Camera / The Smiths
Billy Bragg / The Pogues
The Pogues / New Order
Screaming Blue Messiahs / Gang of Four
and recently...
Yep, they did "What goes on", and they just smoked through the set. It was so good in fact, that I drove 3 hrs the next night to see them again. I was much younger then. Lou was great also. He lit up a cig between songs and some lady yelled "boo" from the audience. Lou looked in her direction and said "fuck you, I kicked horse, let me have one vice".
Love the Pogues, who I've seen ( how did he pull off singing like that for 1.5 hrs, THAT drunk?), and SBM, who I never had the luck to see.
I remember that Feelies/Lou Reed bill, great show.
Babe Ruth opening for Roxy Music.
Nazareth in Corpus Christi, 1997ish. They rocked. (2nd time seeing them, first was 1977ish.)Quiet Riot in a SMALL club. Best thing was the band opening for them called SSIK. All they play is OLD Kiss. No makeup or anything, just four guys in jeans and T-shirts playing pre-Detroit Rock City KISS and they kicked ass! Strutter, Cold Gin, 100,000 yrs. etc...
Quiet Riot again in smallish club. Only reason I went was my friend's band was opening for them. WILD night! They wouldn't let us bring beer in, so the drummer and I used the back stage door and filled his bass drum case with the beer. Later one of the security guys noticed we weren't drinking a brand sold there. I had to give him the drummer's stage pass (souvenir) to keep the beer. After the concert the drummer was messing with the guitarist's (my friend) wife and they were fighting. Meanwhile, the bass player fell off the stage backwards onto concrete and was taken away in an ambulance.
More stuff happened too but this is getting too long.Saw Head East the night before I left for active duty in the Navy.
(March 18th 1986) They were good.
Rush (2112) ZZ Top (Fandango) Rush blew ZZ away.Scorpions/Def Leppard/Judas Priest
Some combination of Jethro Tull/Uriah Heep/BTO/Montrose
(I think Tull/Heep and then BTO/Montrose)Rory Gallagher/Rush
Edgar Winter Group/Nazareth
Great White/Judas Priest (beleive it or not, Great White once rocked and were a good band. Too bad it only lasted for their first album/tour.)
Ted Nugent/Kiss
Motorhead/Dio
Martha Reeves/Beach Boys
Lots of REALLY good concerts with less than impressive opening acts.
Open-Headlne
Original Iron Maiden-Judas Priest 1981 Would love to see that again.
Def Leppard-Blackfoot 1981, before Def Leppard went pop, blew away Blackfoot
Yngvie Malmsteen-Ted Nugent, 83? umm, no contest!! The Nuge lost that one!
Well, I guess most people would consider them both to be arrogant pricks, but I've yet to see anyone put on a better show than Ted.I've seen him four times and going to see him again next Saturday.
I'm not saying he's the best musician, but he is an underrated guitar player.
81 or 82 - Headliner: J Giels Band, Opening Act: U280 or 81 Headliner: The Police, Opening Act: REM
79 Headliner: Eric Clapton, Opening Act: Muddy Waters
Beck w/The Cardigans and Atari Teenage Riot at The Edge in Ft. LauderdaleI don't think a single person "got" Atari Teenage Riot except me. Beck was great.
Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson at the Miami Arena.
At this particular show, Mr. Manson decided it was appropriate to perform fellatio on his fellow band member while on stage. Aside from that, the show was really good.
As to one of the worst...
Soundgarden and Guns n' Roses. New Year's Eve at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Absolutely awful. I left half way through the show. The only other concert I did that for was Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tour.
Opener/HeadlinerEagles/Procol Harum, 1972 ( <1000 venue )
Howling Wolf/BB King, 1973 (moderate size)
Linda Ronstadt/Neil Young and Crazy Horse, 1973 (moderate size)
Buffalo Springfield/Beach Boys, 1967 or 68? (Moderate size)
Tim Easton/Cowboy Junkies, 2001 ( <1000 venue)Saw some sorry opening acts for great mains, Soft Machine opening for Herndrix? Outright disdain for the crowd. ZZ TOp opening for the MC 5, never thought the Top was that great live wayyy back in the day.
Mothers of Invention, on acid, 4 months before Lenny died.
Any number and combo of San Francisco bands at Winterland, Fillmore and the Beach Chalet and many other places.
Bob Dylan AND The Band
Buffalo Springfield and The Byrds
I could go on....
Buddy Miller and Emmylou Harris
Allison Krauss and Ralph Stanley...
It is an endless task you asked.
Back in April of '74, there was a KZAP-sponsored concert advertised as THE BIG BOOGIE, with Marshall Tucker, Elvin Bishop, & southern-fried rookies Lynyrd Skynyrd! Skynyrd had recently been kicked off the Who tour as opening act, because Ronnie-n-da-boyz wuz consistently givin' Pete-n-crew a hard act to follow(methinketh Bad Company replaced 'em)! So them cocky, self-assured upstarts blew out Sactown's Memorial Aud'torem as well(back then, set closer "Free Bird" was their tribute to Duane Allman)! Well, since Elvin was a boogiemeister in hiz own right, he followed with a "hey, I can play that shit too" attitude! Naturally, Marshall Tucker couldn't match the energy levels of those two scintilatin' sets! Quite a few drained patrons staggered homeward, & Tucker finished before a sparse crowd! ... A month or so later, inside Winterland, Holland's Golden Earring was riding "Radar Love"'s chart success & opened the evening's festivities to rousing ovations! But most of the crowd had come to see middle-act Robin Trower channel Jimi Hendrix! Headliners Sha Na Na performed to an exiting mass! Heard the Tubes blew out Kiss in similar fashion inside Winterland as well! B.T.W., does Bill Cosby opening for Ray Charles qualify?
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