Best/worst opening act you've seen

[Guest kingkamala]

The Best: Hmmmm slim pickings seeing as how I've been to only five concerts(most of which ranged from meh-pretty good). The best I guess by default was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy opening a radio concert headlined by Vertical Horizon*shudders*. They were the second best band out of the seven or eight bands that were there. The music was pretty good overall and it got the crowd pumped for the mediocre acts to come. A close runner up is The Exies when I saw them open up for SR-71 two weeks ago, they're good live it's just that on there single they have on MTV 2 makes them sound like a weird hybrid between the Foo Fighters and Linkin Park.

 

The worst: The worst was some god-awful Sarah McLaughlin(sp?) rip off who opened up for Weird Al. I found it weird they didn't have another novelty act opening for Weird Al. But anyway this lady just plain sucked and the whole crowd(Mostly kids under 12 and their parents) sat on their hands the whole time she was on. The runner up is some big fat white guy who opened up for the Drifters(60's Motown group) at some County Fair. The big fat white guy was trying to hit the high notes WAYYYY too hard during his tearing apart of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. Now whenever I hear Sitting on the Dock of the Bay I'm gonna think of some big white fat guy trying to hit the high notes too hard.

[Guest spiny norman]

The best: The Band.

 

Enough said.

[Guest bob_barron]

The Best: No Doubt.

The Worst: Uhhh Remy Zero were alright but talked way too much

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Best: Kenny Wayne Shepherd...opened for Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes...he kicked serious ass

 

Worst: Lucious Jackson...openend for REM...they sucked pretty bad

[Guest Ozymandias]

Don't know if this counts since it was a festival, but System of a Down were excellent as the 2nd band onstage at Ozzfest 99. For a regular concert, L7.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

The best opening act I've ever seen was easily Morbid Angel.

 

Worst, Apartment 26, who opened Ozzfest two years straight and sucked donkeys both times.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Best: Vendetta Red, hardcore band out of Seattle, opening up for Andrew WK. Amazingly screamtastic and rock-out delicious live, even if their studio fair is nothing, nothing like it all. Put out a fucking live album, guys.

 

Worst: Oh, the possibilities. Three-way tie between the totally unnecessary Corrs opening for U2, the horrid Mike Patton project Tomahawk opening for Tool this summer, and Calla, who I actually just saw open for Interpol tonight. Least. Passionate. Band. Ever.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

Best Opening Band:

 

Motorhead-Ozzfest 1998

 

Worst Opening Band:

 

Supergrass-Pearl Jam Tour, 2000

[Guest ElectricRaccoon]

The best: Ben Folds Five, opening for Beck at the Molson Amphitheatre. The crowd didn't react well to Sean Lennon, the opening-opening-act, but Ben Folds Five would have torn the roof off, had it not been an open-air arena.

 

The worst: Danko Jones, opening for Beck at Maple Leaf Gardens. He basically made an ass out of himself for forty minutes, with the highlight of his performance coming when he screamed (in cliched rock-and-roll voice) "Do you want some more!?" halfway through his set, and the crowd responded with "NO!". First time I've heard that answer in that context. Also, he punctuated a couple of his songs by yelling for the mic to be turned up, then announcing that "I've got the loudest voice IN this fucking place! Ain't none of you louder than me!". He apparently thought this was cool. Ass.

 

Runner-up goes to The Pretenders, opening for Neil Young at the Amphitheater. They closed out their set with a cover of "Needle and the Damage Done" (bad form there), and a "rocked up" cover, to boot.

[Guest Ace309]

I'd say the best was Doyle Bramhall III and Smokestack opening for The Eric Clapton at HSBC Arena in Buffalo. They were spot-on with picking an act that complemented but neither upstaged the main act (really, how could you?) nor tired out the fans. Tight blues-rock with a great name.

 

The worst... well, I'm not even sure if this counts. I go to a ton of local shows, and of course, when a local band is headlining, SHITTY local bands open. At one show headlined by Dinkus Nine and some other local ska band, they had an opening band that was shitty, shitty, shitty nu-metal. I counted three consecutive songs based on the chord progression from "Crawling" by Linkin Park. No lie.

[Guest converge241]

worst: steel pole bathtub opening for Faith No More king for a day tour

 

best: (mutliple) NIN opening for Bowie, Pearl jam and Smashing pumpkins opening for RHCP, Sepultura and Helmet opening for Ministry, Korn opening for : Megadeth, Ozzy, House Of Pain. System of a Down and Clutch opening for Slayer. Uranium 235 for Life of Agony. Anthrax, Cannibal Corpse, Life of Agony for Misfits. Life Of Agony and GLU for KMFDM. Godflesh for Danzig. Anal Cunt and Deftones for Pantera/Zombie.

[Guest TheyCallMeMark]

Vendetta Red rules

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

BEST: I've never actually been to a show where the opener was that good. They usually throw out the shittiest band they have. I guess, by default, it's Soil, who opened for Rob Zombie and Ozzy on the Merry Mayhem 2001 tour.

 

WORST: Oooooo...tons. Let's see...

Mudvayne (Merry Mayhem 2001), Morbid Angel (Extreme Steel 2001), Skrape (Extreme Steel 2001), every other opening band I've ever seen

[Guest redbaron51]

Best:

 

Joe Satriani opening for Dream Theater

 

Worst:

 

What Corey said

[Guest Matt Young]

Best: Tantric. They opened for Lifehouse and 3 Doors Down, and even though I like all 3 bands, Tantric was the one I wanted to see most. They definitely delivered. Sadly, they were the only band I didn't get to meet after the show.

 

Worst: Um... some local band that sucked.

[Guest The Amazing Rando]

Best: Darwin's Waiting Room opening for Papa Roach ... at Club La Vela Spring Break 2001

 

Worst: I can't remember their name and I saw them a few weeks ago. They opened for Taproot at the Orlando HOB... the guy spent the whole time saying "buy our album"

[Guest Ravenbomb]

I forget what concert it was, haven't been to one in in five years and a month, but this guy/band named Taj Mahal (not kidding, but I might not have spelled it right) and I remember that sucking pretty bad.

 

Best: Little River Band coming on before America, there were some other ones, I can't remember, been so long.

[Guest Matt Young]

Best: Darwin's Waiting Room opening for Papa Roach ... at Club La Vela Spring Break 2001

 

Worst: I can't remember their name and I saw them a few weeks ago. They opened for Taproot at the Orlando HOB... the guy spent the whole time saying "buy our album"

Was it Depswa? They opened for Taproot/Mudvayne here in Springfield.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

WORST: Oooooo...tons. Let's see...

Morbid Angel (Extreme Steel 2001)

::Lights Corey on fire::

 

---

 

Oh man, if we're counting local acts, the winner is...The Christpunchers.

 

My friend's band. I'm not too sure if this really counts, since they went out there as stoned as possible, and sucked on purpose. They cleared a gym of about 150 people down to SIX people, all of which were in on it and found it hilarious. Here's what the band consisted of:

 

2 Guitars.

1 Bass guitar

1 Stand-up bass.

1 Drummer

2 Singers

1 Guy beating the shit out of himself.

 

Basically, it was everybody doing whatever they felt like, with the two singers just screaming at the top of their lungs for 45 minutes, and the one guy standing still for the first 15, then he started to kick his own ass. It was awesome.

[Guest Incandenza]

Some friends of mine's band had a show last night. Though they were the last to go on, they weren't really the headliners--every act performed a set of equal length. However, two of the three bands that came on before them SUCKED.

 

The first act was just some guy performing solo with an electric guitar. I never caught his name, nor do I really care, as his music was basically whiny, oh-so-sensitive ballads. Boring. EDIT: Oh, apparently this guy is named Will, and he's from some band called Centro-matic. Whatever.

 

The second act was a band from Texas I'd actually heard of before, amazingly. They're called Slobberbone, and they do a sorta rockin' alt-country thing, ala Old 97s and early Wilco. They were okay; after awhile, thier songs started sounding same-y, and they pretty much sounded like the much more entertaining live Old 97s. Not bad, though, but nothing I'd go out of my way to hear more of.

 

The third act I failed to catch the name of, as well, and, like the first guy, I couldn't give a shit. They played crappy pop punk (but isn't all pop punk crappy?) and managed to be even MORE boring than the first guy, if only for the fact that I arrived at the club in the middle of the first guy's set.

 

As for regular shows, I'd say no opening act surpassed the crappiness of NOFX, whom I saw opening for Fishbone back in 2/94. Totally lousy. The best opening act would be Elf Power, whom I saw before Guided by Voices in 3/01. I nominate them in spite of the fact that, during their closing song (a cover of Brian Eno's "Needle in the Camel's Eye), the sound got progressively louder and louder, to the point where something popped in my right ear. Since then, I make sure to wear earplugs to each and every show I attend.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Agent, I've got a similar experience.

 

AFF, composed of a pile of local stoners and acid freaks, managed to get into a Battle of the Bands type deal by dubbing a few early Bad Religion songs onto a cassette and turning it in. The people coordinating the program didn't catch on.

 

AFF, for starters, stood for Anal Fish Fuck. Not Fist Fuck. Fish Fuck.

 

Their act was about 9 guys in various tube tops and life vests, with the only real instruments between them being a drum kit and an electric guitar. One guy spent the whole time smashing up lawn gnomes (and sending their pointy pieces into the crowd, cutting several people, which was hilarious in its own right), another hunched over a water bong and tried to make bubbles for the microphone, and everyone else pretty much jumped around and shouted into about 5 different mics. Two of the members just started smacking each other with wiffle ball bats and didn't stop until both were bleeding from the head.

 

After their encore performance of "William Wallace Was 10 Feet Tall And Killed A Thousand Men," I cried blissful tears, for I had experienced something truly beautiful.

 

I'm pretty sure most of the guys were arrested afterwards.

[Guest JAxlMorrison]

Best: Robert Plant opening up for The Who

 

Worst: Mixmaster Mike opening for GNR.......yes I was at that fateful concert Firday night that has probably ended Axl's career.

[Guest What?]

Best: Or at least WILL BE the best is CKY opening for Tubby McGoo and the Guys that aren't Slash. Can't wait to see them live.

 

 

Worst: Sheryl Crow opening for the Rolling Stones. I guess it wasn't bad...I just wasn't in the mood fo her kind of music.

[Guest godthedog]

best: sonic youth opening for pearl jam.

 

worst: don't really know.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

After their encore performance of "William Wallace Was 10 Feet Tall And Killed A Thousand Men," I cried blissful tears, for I had experienced something truly beautiful.

That's a GREAT song title for something stupid.

[Guest converge241]

"Best: Or at least WILL BE the best is CKY opening for Tubby McGoo and the Guys that aren't Slash. Can't wait to see them live. "

 

hope you saw them before the tour got canceled

[Guest hardyz1]

I've been to very few concerts because I'm poor and friendless, but the best I've seen was Kenny Wayne Shepherd opening for Aerosmith in January 1998.

 

Aerosmith is coming back here next week. I wasn't planning on going, but I just saw that Andrew WK is their opener. That might be interesting, if nothing else.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

well, i'd assume the crowd will hate by beloved andrew wk, but jaded or not when I saw him live he was one of the greatest things ever. Honestly, he exceeded my expectations.

[Guest notJames]

Tied for best:

1. that dog, who opened up for Veruca Salt. Truly inspiring to see riot grrls with violins who are more punk than most of the shit that passes for punk nowadays (Avril, Blink, Sum... I'm looking directly at you...)

 

2. Midtown, who opened up for the Descendents as the Lords of Semen, dressed in full-on 80s hair band gear and doing G'N'R perennial fave "Sweet Child O' Mine"

 

Tied for second is Guttermouth (Big Drill Car), Bonfie Madigan (Juliana Hatfield) and Shades Apart (they open for everyone and they kick ass)

 

Worst is a tie between the Supersuckers who opened for Bad Religion (and they totally super-sucked), and Evelyn Forever, an East Brunswick pop-punk band who opened for Goldfinger. Their set felt like it lasted forever.

[Guest mw679]

Best....Another vote for Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band. Seen them open shows 3 times(twice for Van Halen, once for Black Crowes and Jimmy Page) and every time, they have the crowd going strong. Excellent band.

 

Worst...Hmmm, probably Slash's Snakepit. They opened for AC/DC. Eh, Slash was cool to see, but the lead singer sucked. The crowd sat on their hands until Slash busted out Mr. Brownstone. That was the closer for their set and actually got the crowd on their feet, other than that one song, though, nobody cared.