Am sure this topic was covered recently, but I didnt find it.
Times i saw an opener blow the main act off: Little Feat killed Quicksilver at Winterland 76, Clash vs Who Seattle 82, and Kansas blasted Hot Tuna in 74, but i was there for Tuna, nobody heard of kansas, i would kill to hear that again - kansas was unknown, tshirts ripped jeans, none of the 77 star glam.
The Little Feat was the biggest smackdown. From who are these guys to omfg .
Couple more: Crucif*cks stole the show from Dead Kennedys seattle 84. Most recently The Greyhounds before Tedeschi Trucks - got standing ovation, TTB didnt. Sacrilege here, but thats how it went down.
I can't really recall any, though when I saw the Replacements open for Tom Petty, I was certainly a bigger Replacements fan.
A tour I did not see but that is legendary for this is when in the early 80s, Billy Squier was on top of the world and Def Leppard opened for him on a tour when they had just released Pyromania. They were initially seen as mini AC/DC clones, but that album blew up while this tour was on. Billy Squier had some solid FM hits but suddenly everyone was nuts over Def Leppard. For the second half of the tour, apparently, people would leave after Def Leppard and ignore Billy Squier.
Actually, now that this thread prompts me, Alice Cooper blew Heaven and Hell off the stage at Mohegan Sun in CT. I hate to admit it because I prefer Sabbath over Alice by far, but there ya go.
In the mid 80's I saw Omar & The Howlers open for The Fabulous Thunderbirds , the T Birds were real good but not as good as the Howlers who blew the roof off the joint .
I went to see Boston in South Florida in the late 70s or 1980. I'd never heard of Sammy Hagar, the opening act. The Red Rocker easily ruled that night.
I thought the Brains easily knocked out Devo at the Fox in Atlanta.
[Edited on 10/15/2018 by JakeBlues69]
Eagles opened for Procul Harum. Warehouse, New Orleans.
Kansas opened for Bad Company in 76, like was said earlier, before the hits.
SRV opened for (3/4 of) The Who in the Astrodome.
He was so much better.
zztop opened for Mountain in 1974 at the capitol in NJ.
Not that zztop "smoked" Mountain but it was an excellent top notch opening act for me.
Joe Bonamassa opened for Dr. John at the Ridgefield playhouse in CT some years back and I walked out on Dr. Johns show.
Kinda feel a little bad for the Who, seems like they got beat up by the bands up before them a lot. Couple mentions here, then there was the Skynyrd coup in 73. May be "The Curse of Monterey", from following Hendrix. Townshend might have picked up some bad opener juju from the Ronsonol Ritual Circle of Doom...
The Who opened for the Dead one time -- how they came up w/that bill.....
another, Mahavishnu Orchestrea opening for J. Geils 1973 in Foxborough -- going off topic, both smoked the stage
Hunter/Ronson band opening for Blondie. Hands down Ian and Mick
Most recently, Train absolutely "smoked" Hall and Oates.
On a different "track"....I remember paying $6 @ Winterland to see, the CDB, MTB & Lynyrd Skynyrd, with Charlie and company starting the fire MTB pouring gasoline on it, and Skynyrd turning up the heat.
Awesome
Not a strange bill at all, tho a bit tough on the acid crowd. Janitor In A Cube.
Actually every Deadhead I knew back then also loved the Who. Then again Deadheads liked all kinds of music, thats why they understood the Dead.
The Who/Dead was Kezar in SF 75 or 76 right? My brother was there, he was on cloud nine they were both his favorite bands.
Im sure the Dead were standing in a pretty big crater after the Who.
[Edited on 10/15/2018 by BrerRabbit]
CDB, MTB & Lynyrd Skynyrd
yeah caught that revue, somewhere in the mid70s fog, good good times.
I didn't see it, but Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees has to take the cake for this thread:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31214/1967-jimi-hendrix-opened-monkees
The two times I saw the ABB opening for Tom Petty, I did not make it through more than 3 or 4 Petty songs before I had to leave.
Saw Stevie Ray open for Joe Cocker at the Gorge in George, WA shortly before he died.
I still wonder why he was the opener. Crowd was going ape s**t the whole time he was on stage.
The loudest they got for Cocker was when Stevie Ray came back out and played a few songs with Cocker. I left a few songs after SR left the stage & I love a lot of the music Cocker created.
Friend of mine caught the Hendrix/Monkees thing. Said it was unbelievably surreal, tripping in a sea of teenyboppers His exact words were "the sounds were not of this earth". Also, he described there were flashbulbs popping like crazy the entire time Jimi was on, and with Jimi so kinetic he kept vanishing and reappearing in a different spot several times per second, like a rapidfire strobe. Shifting the whole place. He didn't walk out on the Monkees, he simply had zero recall of their set, period.
Joe Bonamassa opened for Dr. John at the Ridgefield playhouse in CT some years back and I walked out on Dr. Johns show.
When I saw the thread title this show instantly popped into mind.
More recent, John Fogerty blew away Hall & Oates.
the Who getting blown away by Skynyrd; T-rex emabarrassed by the Doobie Bros; Mountain by Johnny Winter,brother Edgar & Rick Derringer all in 1 band; Jethro Tull opened for Van Morrison & the crowd were electrified. Lamb of God before Alice Cooper & Marilyn Manson as headliners-blew them away. There were others but those stand out.
Original Whitesnake blew Tull off the stage. One of my first shows. They were pretty much Purple minus Blackmore.
Guns n Roses opening for Motley Crue in the fall of 87. The Crue weren’t bad but it was a party time for them but Guns just lit it up.
the one I always think of is van halen opening for Santana, maybe before their first album, Santana was ok but VH was total high energy and nobody had any idea who they were. Personally I thought the Time blew Prince away when they toured. Pretty sure I was there for that brains/devo fox show, good to know somebody remembers that one. good old days.
Saw Bloodrock open for Grand Funk in '71 in Raleigh NC, they were fantastic!
James Hunter smoked Keb 'Mo
Nickel Creek killed John Legend
John Fogerty and John Mellencamp in 2005. Fogerty absolutely rocked the stage!!!!
how about when the allmans opened for johnny winter in march of 71?
Got one for sure, 1975, I saw Rush on their first US tour, Fly By Night, they laid waste to headliner Blue Oyster Cult. Or were they touring on By-Tor and the Snow Dog? Played songs from that when they ran out of Fly By Night stuff. I remember BOC sounded like a folk hootenanny after Rush.
[Edited on 10/16/2018 by BrerRabbit]
Saw Stevie Ray open for Joe Cocker at the Gorge in George, WA shortly before he died.
Saw SRV on the same tour but the playing order was reversed. My show was right around the 4th of July. Wonder if this change happened as the tour progressed or did they just swap off on alternate shows? In any case SRV smoked but I thought a cleaned-up Joe certainly held his own.
1993 Horde Fest ,Deer Creek ,Noblesville,Ind. Aquarium Rescue Unit stole the day for sure.
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
Saw Stevie Ray open for Joe Cocker at the Gorge in George, WA shortly before he died.
Saw SRV on the same tour but the playing order was reversed. My show was right around the 4th of July. Wonder if this change happened as the tour progressed or did they just swap off on alternate shows? In any case SRV smoked but I thought a cleaned-up Joe certainly held his own.
Saw this tour in SD, SRV was King that evening.
Saw ZZ TOP smoke the stones in the cotton bowl Dallas TX. 1981. saw SRV smoke the Moody Blues Hartford Civic center 1983 [he had his first album out] he came out and sat in the audience for Moody Blues.
I also saw SRV open for The Moody Blues , and believe it or not I saw SRV open for Men At Work , left when he done , man I miss Stevie .
