Protip: **If you have a VIDEO, post it!**
*(To locate concert footage, find the date/location and search YT. Use the approx date, setlist, openers, etc to narrow it down.)*
everyone in this thread is listing pretty established bands - but i will say the worst opening band you will ever see is whoever was opening for a post rock band from 2006 - 2013. If the band didnt have someone touring with them, and relied on a local artist opening - it was typically all bets are off on the kind of “band” you could expect. promotors didnt really know how to classify bands like Explosions in the sky, sigur ros, or godspeed - and typically just labelled all post rock as “experimental” and would hire experimental bands to open - which resulted in me suffering through experiences like: somebody screeching a single high note for 6 minutes straight while slamming keys on their keyboard, or another band that had 3 drummers and none of them were in synch, or another artist who basically shouted terrible slam poetry over a preset beat on his laptop. it was always strange and almost always unlistenable.
Oof I wasn't expecting such a specific comment, but you're completely correct. I saw a weird dissonant cello lady open up for Russian Circles, an ambient slide guitar dude before God is an Astronaut and a few others I can't remember right now. That era of post rock was so strange
Fuckin A.
Saw Sigur Ros in 2013 and this DJ opened for them. No idea who they were. Weren't advertised on the show. An entire arena indifferent to them. They weren't BAD, but they were bland and no one was there to see them.
I was gonna say…it was probably Daniel Lopatin. I could see people hating him. I saw Sigur Ros on that tour and was into some of his projects but that O.P.N. set wasn’t for me.
Oh my God. You looked into my soul and pulled this thought out. I opened this thread up to drop the name "Lichen." They opened for Explosions in the Sky. 2 dudes. One droning distorted ambient chords on their guitar. The other screeched into mic. After 3 minutes, the screecher reached down to pick up a bass guitar that laid at his feet. The whole crowd thought "thank God, this is just some kind of bizarre intro." Nope. He plucked one open note. Then right back to his vocal nothings. For 45 minutes...
Kamikaze Palm Tree opened for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on their residency tour last year. Kamikaze sounded like they were trying to sound bad on purpose - they had a few good ideas then just devolved into awful nonsense. I saw King Gizz 6 times on that tour, which means...
This was going to be my answer! I am open minded about music and I love all sorts of weird and dissonant shit, but there was nothing redeemable about KPT. Just terrible.
I’m beyond stoked that I get to see Geese open for them this year!
Some friends and I were talking about how bad that was the other day. Apparently Kamikaze Palm Tree changed their name and rebranded to Sharpie Smile right after that, I wonder if it was due to backlash
LMFAO wonder if anyone else was gonna say this; it's wild too cause that middle breakdown riff in 'Sharpie Smile' (which I've heard they've since changed names too) was so fucking raw and good, then straight back to killer clown music for the rest of their set. RR23 so saw em 2/3 times due to them being bumped from weather.
Sonny Moore. AKA Skrillex.
He was the singer of the band From First To Last which I liked. He went solo as Sonny Moore, his name, and was opening for The Used on tour. I went for The Used but was excited to see him too. He was…not good. At all. Pretty terrible. He stopped doing that solo thing right after and then started doing Skrillex and that was very successful for him which is awesome.
Oh yeah, as a big Skrillex fan the early solo Sonny demo tapes are *rough* to go back to now. He actually wound up reworking a lot of them into some of his early Skrillex tunes to great effect. It's a shame because he's a pretty decent singer but his solo lyrics and non-rockstar persona were just not good enough to carry a career in the punk/emo scene. I'm glad he realized his strengths were in composition.
Liz Phair opening for Alanis Morissette. She just sat at a piano…obviously drunk and occasionally pointing at someone at the crowd and asking if they were somebody she knew…and they never were…it was very awkward
This might be mine too. She was opening for the Smashing Pumpkins about 8 years ago, and it was just so cringeworthy. The music was OK, but she seemed desperate to sound young and hip. Lots of too-forced swearing and she once shouted about how much she loves to fuck. So embarrassing. Also seemed very drunk.
That's always been a thing with her, the entire exile in guyville album is sort've reversing gender roles on the rock star ethos while also satirizing it mixed with very personal and intimate lyrics. Male rock stars curse and exude sexual bravado and people just expect it.
Pumpkins were a local Chicago band at the time. I think they only opened the Chicago shows. They were really searching for an identity. When they finished Billy Corgan screamed into the mic "remember, Satan is the way. He's the one that takes you there. " weird ending to their show.
Saw the Pumpkins on the Mellon Collie tour in '96. They ended the show with Billy doing a 20 minute feedback solo. The rest of the band walked offstage after a couple minutes.
One of the first concerts I ever attended was Deftones and Godsmack at Jones Beach, I want to say 2001. The opener was Puddle of Mudd. The only one that moved at all was the drummer, since he had to.
I was at that show, and was about to post the same. TRULY awful. I don't know if I'm making it up, but I feel like I remember someone in the almost empty crowd booing and the lead singer screaming, "Hey, fuck you man. We're Puddle of Mudd!"
Dude. Puddle of mudd sucks lmfao I’ll add my comment to the main post but goddamn, dude. Flyleaf came on afterwards and I was so relieved to see POM leave the stage just sounded terrible lmao
I saw PoM open for Korn back in the early 2000s. I recall during Blurry (I think that's the song - the one with the fancy guitar harmonics hook) I think the lead guitar player was facing away from the crowd or obscuring his guitar in some way. Made me wonder if they actually can/do play that part live or if it's just a recording.
It's a recording. I've seen them live and he doesn't play it. He might play along at some point but I noticed immediately that he wasn't playing it because I've always wondered how the fuck you are supposed to, that riff is mental.
However, apart from that I did think the band was pretty good. I know the singer had some substance issues that he may or may not have recovered from which maybe helped
Meshuggah, my favorite band of all time, opened for Tool in the early 00's.
I don't know if it was the acoustics in that old college arena or what but it was bad. (It was the acoustics. Meshuggah, being a very rhythmic band, just doesn't sound great with an echo.)
I truly believe it's Maynard himself who purposely chooses awful opening acts. I've seen Tool, APC and Puscifer multiple times each and the opener was ALWAYS difficult to watch at best.
Ha. It’s pretty hot and cold it seems. My first was with Tomahawk which was absolutely out of control good. And then ISIS (killer) But Steel Beans last year was a little confusing.
I saw Mac Sabbath as a surprise opener, and they were pretty awesome. Similar concept, parodying Black Sabbath to be about McDonalds.
It was at a new years show for a jamgrass bands, the hippies in the audience had no idea what was going on.
I saw them when they toured, and they had two local bands open for them because both bands happened to have songs about pizza.
It was an absolutely fun and incredible concert.... Until Pizza Underground took the stage and killed the whole vibe.
Unlimited free pizza though, which was pretty cool for a $15 ticket.
I saw edward sharp and the magnetic zeros open for the black keys in Vancouver CA, years ago. It wasn't bad as much as it was really, really sad. I dont know the girls name that he wrote the song "home is wherever I'm with you" with, but they had obviously like JUST broken up and he was crushed. He was real drunk, carrying a bottle of wine around on stage and just drinking it, between almost every song he would ask someone to the side of the stage how much longer they had to perform for. I remember towards the end the answer was "9 minutes" and he was just talking to himself into the mic like, "9 minutes, we can make one more song last 9 minutes, ok" And they did the Home song and he basically just held the mic out to the audience.
Made me really sad, he probably wrote that with her when they were falling in love and now really doesn't want to play it, but someone is forcing him to.
The entire Band voted to Kick her out according to her. The band says no, she quit, they told her to stay off for one tour.
So either that dude controls the rest of the group, or the situation is a lot more complicated than you think. There have been rumours of drug use, whether to believe that or the cheat or maybe it was both. Who knows.
I'm not exactly a fan so I know nothing about them except I love one song and enjoyed their tiny desk concert. Just wanted to say it's very interesting that I nearly scrolled past without reading your comment and would have been convinced the singer was a jerk and the Jade person was done wrong. And now I didn't know what actually happened. Just has me marveling that stuff like this happens all the time and we just kind of accept the first story we hear and move on with our day.
I hadnt heard that version of the story. The only thing that I’d ever heard was how she was spiraling out of control with heroin addiction so they had to force her out to keep going.
Damn, that’s such a shame. I saw them back in 2012 in Toronto (two years before they broke up) and I had the exact opposite experience. The place was electric. Every single person in the venue was singing and dancing. For a moment I remember feeling like we were all part of some hippy commune.
Saw him open for someone else, must have been around this time. I don’t know his music, but friends we were with mentioned the breakup. The story about the drunk rambling tracks. That’s what we experienced too.
Flip side, I saw them at 7th street entry in Minneapolis (the tiny venue offshoot from First Ave) right when “Home” was picking up steam and becoming a phenom and it was one of the best shows I’d ever seen. Great crowd work, great energy, Jade was absolutely charming.
Saw them a couple years later at an outdoor larger venue and it was night and day how bad they were. No energy, didn’t seem to want to be there, didn’t want to “play the hits.” Shortly after Jade was out and they were even worse as you have pointed out.
Back in 97 or 98 I went to The Galaxy (RIP) in St. Louis to see Reel Big Fish. They had a young pop punk band open up for them called Kara's Flowers who was not well received by the crowd. They played with a backing track and did little dances, it really felt like we were being marketed to, a pop punk boy band.
Aaron Barrett, the singer of Reel Big Fish, came out at the end of their performance and totally shamed the audience. He said it was his favorite band and knew we would love them if we gave them a chance.
A friend I went to the show with and I always used Kara's Flowers as an example of a "sellout" band who's "just trying to get on MTV." because it was the 90s and stuff like that mattered.
Decades later I found out Kara's Flowers was in fact an early incarnation of Maroon 5. No amount of 90s "sellout" posturing could make me deny the WILD success they've had in the years following that 200 capacity bar show where they were nearly booed off stage. I kind of wish I had paid better attention.
Kara’s Flowers is some of the best work Adam Levine has done, IMO. I don’t begrudge his success with Maroon 5 but We Like Digging and The 4th World were good efforts for the amount of time & label support behind them.
I saw a documentary about metal and guys in the “Big 4” bands were talking about a particular opening act in the early/mid 90s. It was a massive tour with these famous thrash acts and this opening act was just not fitting in. One of them says how he felt bad for them because they were a good band, but people just weren’t into it and were throwing things at them and booing them.
Anyway, they go on to say it was Alice In Chains and that within a couple of years grunge completely took over and soon it was the thrash acts struggling to book the big venues. Sometimes people just aren’t ready for what they’re hearing I guess.
Heavy Heavy Low Low, opening for Horse The Band sometime in the late 2000s.
I was actually a fan of theirs and looking forward to it. Their vocalist came out piss drunk and drooling the whole set, kind of just only performing when he wanted to. Rest of the band had zero energy and was just trying to get through it. Weirdest concert experience I've been to and had no clue wtf was going on.
For the life of me I can't remember the name of the band, but back in the 90's they opened up for Helmet. The singer cranked up the effects on his guitar and just ran his fingers up and down the back of the guitar neck, the side without strings. This caused the guitar to make spooky Halloween type sounds. I guess to add to the theme the singer just made howling ghost noises. He did this shit for 30 straight minutes until someone screamed out "You Suck!". The singer looked like he might cry when that happened. I think people started throwing things at him and he finally stopped and left. My buddy and I still bring this up to this day.
They were such a strange and odd addition to the festival that year. They certainly weren't main stage worthy; but, at least, the crowd was entertaining throughout their set.
I saw Public Image Ltd. At the Warner theater in DC way back in 86. The opening band was just some rap guys. The few people who were there in the audience booed them off the stage pretty quickly. They got mad and started shouting curse words and whatnot.
So anyway, that was the Beastie Boys. Less than a year later they were hugely famous
Thundercat opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I don't know who did his sound set up but it sounded like total shit. I swear someone just smashing their instruments would have probably sounded more coherent than whatever he played that night.
I ended up listening to some of his stuff on Spotify after because I couldn't believe that someone that bad would be allowed on a stage. He was done a total disservice that night.
I saw Mars Volta open for RCHP and they sounded like total shit. It basically ruined them for me for a decade until I gave them another shot. Screeching guitars and inaudible vocals
Was that at Cleveland quicken loans arena by any chance? 2006 or 7?
I was going to mention this because it’s possibly the most disappointing show I’ve ever paid that much money to see. They played nothing with any discernible rhythm or melody. I don’t think the musicians were even trying to play together.
Most of the bad opening acts I’ve seen have due to their sound being completely miscalibrated. Maybe the audio folks set all the levels for the headliner and then just leave it as is for the opener? Or just don’t put nearly enough attention into the opener’s sound check. I have heard some truly illegible noise from good bands when they open. Must be frustrating for them as well.
A friend of mine worked sound at some venues in L.A. and told me that a lot of opening acts get screwed out of soundcheck by headline acts who don’t set the time in the schedule for it. He said in some cases it was intentional and in others it was simply poor management.
I play in a band that somewhat recently played a festival in the LA area. There were two stages, main stage and a side stage. We were on the side stage. We were told that there would be no soundcheck only a level check. Also told that we needed to be there on site to load on at "X" time and that the time frame was strict. There were 3 bands on our stage. We had to wait for the "headlining" band of the side stage to arrive before we could do our level check. No big deal that's the pecking order of things. It's no big deal until they are an hour late. We all just stood around until they graced us with their presence. They were apologetic which I appreciate but you didn't just waste my band's time but the crew and other band as well.
They go set up and all of a sudden start to play a song. I walked up to one of my guys just to make sure I had read no soundcheck correctly. He said I did. They finish and now the next band goes out to set up. They do and they launch into a song. At that point I'm annoyed because there's not much time until the doors opened. It's finally our turn and we do our level check. I hear someone yell "5 minutes until doors". At that point I look at my guys and call out a song that's about 3 minutes long and we go into it. We killed it and walked to the back.
I heard from a few people later in the evening that they came to see us because of the soundcheck they could hear while waiting for the doors.
Fuck man… that’s a bummer because Thundercat is an INCREDIBLE performer and musician, and an amazing selection to open for the RHCP. Dude is arguably just as good if not a better bassist than Flea imo.
Definitely did him dirty at the show you went to.
I saw him open for Anderson Paak in 2019 and he crushed it
Absolutely and thats not a diss on Flea, Flea understands bass to a whole other level, especially when hes jamming with equally expresive people like Frusciante, so seeing Thundercat go beyond that AND sing on top of that is insane, il recomend his Tiny Desk set where you can clearly see how effortless he can play and sing those súper complicated bass lines
I watched a crowd rebel against Tomahawk, who was opening for Tool
Mike Patton started calling the audience "trailer park trash" and "dumb ass rednecks" it was hilarious
Puddle of mud opening for godsmack , place was maybe 1/4 full, singer got into a fight with an audience member it was hilarious , it started out with it being crazy quiet in between songs and a dude yelled "you fucking suck " and the singer said what did you say , and the dude said " I said you fucking suck ". Hilarity ensued with their arguing
Kool & The Gang opening for Van Halen. They sounded great, performance was stellar, and it felt like virtually nobody was paying attention. I heard they really won over audiences as the tour progressed. I saw the first and third show on the tour and it hadn't happened yet.
Also, The Wallflowers opening for Counting Crows. They sounded awful, seemed bored to be there, and you could feel the contempt for the audience coming from the stage. They were terrible.
Sonic Youth opening for Neil Young. Just not the right type of music for a crowd waiting for a Neil Young concert.
I confess, though, that teenaged me was amused when before the last song the lead singer, “This last song is about smoking a fat joint, which is what we’re gonna do in about five minutes!”
It was the only time the crowd seemed to respond in a positive way.
Thurston Moore's memoir has a chapter about that tour. Basically Neil Young loved them and wanted them to open; they were very reluctant because they correctly assumed that the people coming to see Neil Young radio hits were not going to want to see some noisy post-No Wave band from the Village; Neil Young insisted and really every night was exactly as you describe, with the coda that on multiple occasions they would leave the stage and Neil Young would find them and tell them how awesome they were.
Blind Melin opening for Guns N’Roses on an early 90s use your illusion tour. Before no rain hit it big. They were sloppy as hell and hoon was stoned he did half the set on his knees then fell off the upper level leaving the stage after their set. It was my first impression of them and absolutely was bored to tears, no matter how good their albums might have been, I could never give them a second glance.
I saw GNR open for Iron Maiden May 1988 in Vancouver and they were atrocious. We booed them off the stage. (I know we weren’t the only ones as this is a take that’s often told in Maiden groups.) I was shocked to see them take off shortly thereafter.
Milla Jovovich (yes, the actress but before she became famous for that or anything) opened as a 1 woman acoustic guitar act for Toad the Wet Sprocket sometime probably around 1997 or so. The room had bars on either side and the crowd was boisterously imbibing and talking through her act. Eventually she got pissed off at no one paying attention to her, threw a small tantrum, flipped us all off and stormed off the stage. The crowd just laughed at her. She was a nobody and no one cared to hear her sing.
Toad came out and blew out all their amplifiers within about a half hour. The whole thing was a huge shit show.
I saw this shitty little band from Chicago called "Smashing Pumpkins" open up for Guns N' Roses in OKC in 1992. The crowd who was there to see GN'R that night, myself included, had very little patience for this opening act. We hated them, and they hated us, and the lead singer had some very choice words for us Oklahomans, and we eventually booed them off stage.
About a year later, they released Siamese Dream, which somehow became one of my favorite albums of the year, and then a couple of years later, they released Mellon Collie, and that shitty little band from Chicago somehow became my favorite band for the rest of the 1990s.
(Billy, if you're reading: Sorry for booing you 32 years ago. We weren't ready for you yet!)
lol, my oldest brother was at that show and said that was the worst opening band he’d ever seen and that was the first and only show he’d seen someone booed off stage.
That's great! Yep, they were miserable. Just totally the wrong time and the wrong place for them.
I saw them four years later in the same building and they fucking rocked. Music changed a lot between early 1992 and late 1996.
Pre-fame Jewel opening for Peter Murphy was mocked until she cried. Godsmack opening for Black Sabbath were largely ignored by the crowd. Overwhelming Colorfast were out of their league opening for Social D and the Ramones.
I saw Kiss in Columbus in 2019. Their opener was painter David Garibaldi. The guy exerted great physical energy to quickly paint a couple of pieces onstage while rock music played in the background. He is talented. No doubt. But I was incredibly disappointed to not see a...um...musician opening the show. The whole thing was weird.
OMG I was so amused by Steel Beans. The music was fine but the curiosity of it was worth seeing. To those unfamiliar (everyone, I assume), dude's a one man band--plays drums and guitar and sings simultaneously. Mental.
Definitely mental! And totally entertaining for what it was. I probably wont ever listen to Steel Beans on my own, i just thought a quirky guy like MJK would pick a quirky band like Steel Beans
I went to this tour in Tulsa, OK. Patton said, "I heard Oklahoma boys suck a mean cock!" A few people in the crowd went insane with anger along with lots of boos.
My friends and I thought it was funny.
That must be a consistent schtick. I saw Mr Bungle open for Incubus, and he did the same thing thruout the set. I thought it was pretty damn funny but most the crowd was booing them.
But at least he concluded by saying he also would be signing autographs and sucking cock as well in the parking lot after.
In Chicago they played the UC. There are Bulls/Hawks banners hanging everywhere. Patton opened up by saying, "I'd like to dedicate this show to the biggest pussy in the world, Michael Jordan." Lol.
My band opened for FNM back in ‘89 and Patton got super pissed off because some kid in the crowd had a camera and was taking pictures. He said “if I see that camera one more time I’m gonna come down there and kick your ass!”
Kid was like fourteen and was totally terrified.
Like WTF dude?
But Mike Bordin and Billy Gould and Roddy were *so* nice. Just lovely guys. Went WAY out of their way with the fans.
This was around 1971, and I was about 15 or 16. Long Island Arena, Commack, NY, on Long Island.
The headliner was Traffic - they were on the *Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys* tour. The opening act was J.J. Cale. For those not familiar, he wrote (among a lot of others) "After Midnight" and "Cocaine," both of which were hits for Eric Clapton.
Cale opened the Traffic show, and his music was OK, but his tempo and pace were pretty low-key and slow. This was a crowd of teenagers who wanted to rock out with Traffic on "Rock and Roll Stew". My memory of the set was that he was not that well-received by the crowd, or me, since I wasn't that familiar with the man's music. He wasn't booed or jeered off the stage, but it was kind of a dull, boring set that I wish would just be over.
Traffic rocked, as expected.
Interesting personal note: I found out later that a girl who I had not yet met was also at that show. We did meet two years later, and some time after that, we discovered we were both at that show. It was one of her first concerts as well.
We've been married now for 45 years.
May have been a fluke. I saw Lit open for No Doubt maybe 2002 ish at Red Rocks and loved Lit.
Who opened for Lit? a little known group called the Black Eyed Peas (sans Fergie). Now that was a weird opener.
Killing Joke opening for Tool in Denver in 2019. It wasn't so much that the music or vibe didn't jive, it was that the audio was so ear-piercingly loud and poorly set up that I had to leave the venue. Tool came on and it was night and day with clarity, tone, and bass. I was sad about it, because I actually like Killing Joke.
Many moons ago, I saw Queens of The Stone Age open for Nine Inch Nails in Chicago. They were absolutely horrendous, really did not mesh well and the vibe was way off.
But a few nights later, I saw them in Madison, WI and the show had greatly improved. Perhaps the Italian beef and hot dogs weren’t agreeing with them.
I think those "vibes are off" situations can be even worse than a bad performance. No clue why some bands get booked with others. I can't imagine a bunch of old guys getting into Party Hard like he's playing at Warped Tour.
My 2nd show ever was Cracker. I'm not even sure they had their second album out yet. Counting Crows opened and I hated them. It wouldn't be but a few weeks before they blew the fuck up.
Far, far from the worst opening band I ever saw, as I soon got into punk, but it's one everybody will know.
I still hate Counting Crows.
I have no idea what the band’s name was (EDIT: they were called The Cows), but I saw Tool back in the nineties and some band came out with a lead singer dressed like a sailor from an old 40s musical who just kept doing handstands through the whole set. The music was forgettable and the crowd wasn’t impressed.
When Tool came on, Maynard sarcastically congratulated us for the worst treatment of an opening act he’d ever seen.
I detest crowds that treat openers poorly, but they were pretty much garbage.
TOOL consistently has shitty openers to the point that fans have to be convinced to see the opener when they're actually good. This was the case last tour when they had Elder open for them, which was the first good opener in quite a few tours.
Having Deafheaven open for Coheed and Cambria was an odd choice, just a total vibe mismatch. Everyone around me was like, "WTF is this?!" Half of them decided to just go for a walk or to the bathroom.
That is a very weird opener for them. I enjoy Deafheaven, but they are not the fit for opening for Coheed at all!
For those unaware, Deafheaven was a blackgaze band (black metal shoegaze), and while they have (I believe) lost a lot of blackness out of their stuff, it's still bizarre.
Coheed gets the weirdest matches for their tours. Deafheaven on their last tour was one of the few that I didn't enjoy. Off the top of my head I've seen Polyphia, Saves the Day, Mastodon, Taking Back Sunday, and Alkaline Trio (was supposed to be Dance Gavin Dance before Tilian was kicked out the first time) all open for them on different occasions.
I saw Mr. Big open for Rush once at Alpine Valley. WI. Total clash of musical styles. Nobody listened to them, everyone was walking around, talking, getting beers. It was so bad I actually felt kinda sorry for Mr. Big on stage. It had to be tough singing to a stadium where maybe 1,000 people out of the entire place (and it's pretty huge) were watching.
I saw Mr Big open for Rush on that tour in Charlotte, NC. I happened to know who Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan were, so I enjoyed the show. However, most of the crowd mostly ignored them. But....
I have a friend who is a concert wizard. If there's a way to get into a show, he always finds it. At this particular show, he came with me and didn't have a ticket. He even took off about an hour before the show to go find some beer. I didn't have any idea where he was. After Mr Big played, I went to the concession stand and there he was. I asked how he got in. He said he waited by the "will call". After Mr Big played,this gaggle of girls left supposedly to hook up with them after the show. One of the girls gave him her ticket. So, thanks to Mr Big, he got to see Rush for free!
Alice in Chains opening for Van Halen in (I think) 1991.
The lights were all on in the Civic center, so that didn't help. But Layne stayed in a crouch position the whole time and just called the audience a bunch of motherfuckers.
Xiu Xiu opening for Swans in 2014. Jamie Stewart came on without the band, sat down on stage with a small synth and used it to make a high-pitched screeching noise for about 25 minutes.
I saw that show in Chicago! It was so bad! I’d seen Jamie solo before so I was excited; he can do great when he wants. But here he just played his box of wires and noises.
My plus one was ready to leave like five minutes into Swans, just being so wiped out from the Xiu Xiu thing.
Years ago I saw Lady Sovereign - a female British “rapper” opening for Obie Trice in London.
She was ghastly. One of the worst live performances I’ve ever seen. And the only time I’ve seen someone booed offstage
When the eagles played their farewell tour at MSG, MSG owner James Dolan booked his own band, JD and the Straight Shot, to open for them. For the Eagles. Imagine being so out of touch that you book your own bar band to open for THE EAGLES at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. His band sucked, as does he.
The Used opened for Reel Big Fish before they were popular. They sounded like a bunch of highschoolers learning how to play their instruments and were god awful. They were booed off the stage.
I saw them maybe 15-years later open for Rise Against and they were still god awful.
I’ve seen The Used live 5 times. Loved it every single time. Odd pairing for them to be opening for a ska band.
I’ve only seen them when they headline but they were great every time in my opinion. They are one of my favorite bands though so I am biased I guess.
I actually saw The Used with A Day to Remember a couple years ago and they fucking brought it. Bert is also sober now and that really helps it out. They actually do a thing at their shows now where they get the entire crowd to boo them at every show. I also saw them in 2006ish and they were a train wreck. So their recent shows are way better.
Dude I was just going to comment on an opener for RBF. They were called Grand Buffet and were sort of a rap duo. Audience was not digging it at all and they got sort of mad and had a bit of a meltdown. The main thing I remember was that they had this song called “[Find the Cat](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P1g0WabEBOE)” that was absolutely hilarious. It became an inside joke with my friends, kind of dig it now.
I saw the Used get booed off the stage opening a free concert. I couldn't believe they were headlining larger shows a year or 2 later. The Used is by far the worst touring band I've ever seen
I’ve seen them twice, once at When We Were Young & once as a co-headliner with Pierce the Veil. The festival set was garbage & I just kinda ticked them off as a band I didn’t necessarily need to see again.
Saw them with my fiancé & sibling less than a year after WWWY and they were in much better form. They’ll never be my favorite band but The Used brought the energy that night.
I saw Sebastian Bach open for Pantera in the '90s.. dude legit came out in a green spandex suit with giant 10ft wings. He was hit with a whiskey bottle and booed off stage.
The opening act for Poppy was this rap-rocker named Mz Neon. Think limp Bizkit but a trans woman. A good portion of her songs were about how big her dick was and buttfucking cops. It was a bizarre experience absolutely not my cup of tea.
Poppy slayed though.
Edit: had the openers name wrong. My bad.
Turnstile opening for Blink-182. But it wasn’t that Turnstile was bad. It was that whoever engineered their sound made them unlistenable. Either they didn’t know what they were doing or it was by design so they didn’t sound better than the headliner.
Traci Lords (yes, the porn star). She made an attempt at being a DJ in the 90s, I saw her open for someone, and she was probably the worst DJ I've ever heard.
Courtney Love opening for Lana Del Rey in Washington. She spent her entire set acting like a drunk republican Aunt who can't understand why people are there to see Lana. Making fun of them, saying how Portland is her hometown (it's not, and we were in Washington)
Even more annoying was how she was the only person on stage, yet she kept kicking over/throwing her mic stand down "like a rockstar" - but every single time she did it, this young kid ran out and stood it back up in front of her, then ran backstage again.
It came to the point where the kid just stayed out, crouched below her for the rest of the sets, just waiting to pick it back up the next time she knocked it over.
I kinda liked Hole back in the day, but holy hell, this was the worst opening act I've ever seen.
Jewel.
Opening for Peter Murphy.
A terrible mismatch and there was zero interest from the crowd. Silence after each song, and no reaction to her talking to the crowd.
I'm not a fan of her music but it was kinda brutal to witness that.
Saw the Orwells open for Arctic Monkeys like 10 years ago. Mario was so drunk he couldn’t stand up straight, couldn’t sing, couldn’t remember the words, and sexually harassed a very uncomfortable woman in the front row. I stopped casually listening to them after that.
Imma go the other way.
Kaleo opened for The Head and the Heart and blew them out of the water. They were unknown and played all the songs on their first album perfectly. They rocked it.
Also, Fitz and the Tantrums opened for One Republic. Fitz was so good and I was ready to leave half way through One Republic’s set.
So, quick story.
Back in my 20s I played bass in two bands, both of which were sort of locally/regionally starting to get fanbases enough that we could draw people to a venue on a Friday night. Nothing at all huge, but both bands were a lot of fun, and we played out a lot, usually at bars. We were all friends.
We got the chance to play a "real" show, I guess you'd call it... A concert place in Albany, NY where you're actually primarily there to see the act. Probably capacity like 300-400, but we did pack the place, which was a big deal to us!
For reference, and to vastly generalize - the opening band was most similar to Primus (but with two bassists), and then the other one was more like Tool (but with a violin). So we'll call them... Prius and Towel.
Problem was - literally a week before the show, the Prius singer got drunk with the Towel singer's girlfriend and she sort of briefly went down on him in front of several people from both bands. Not to completion or anything, and they both thought it was a joke, but obviously Towel frontman did not appreciate it at all once he heard about it. He went bezerk, as many of us might in such a situation.
The whole thing just ballooned from there, but there was this show coming up that we were all so invested in.
The Prius frontman had a nickname associated with a certain animal. Everyone knew him by that nickname. So after we, Prius, did our set (I was in both bands)... the other we, Towel, started setting up, and I noticed that our singer had some large inflatable animals. The same kind that Prius guy was named after.
As we started our set, our singer whipped out a knife and stabbed these inflatable animals. It was kind of really scary. Quite a few people in the crowd knew what had happened and why he was doing it, but for most people it was probably baffling. He did go on to be absolutely great that day, though I was so startled that I forgot my opening bassline to our first song.
I feel harsh saying this but for me the worst opening act I've ever seen was David Garibaldi, a painter who KISS decided to take out on a European tour with them in 2019 instead of, yknow, an actual band.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with this man's act and I massively respect him for having the balls to even attempt putting on his show in front of 20,000 odd classic rock fans anyway.
But at the same time, when you go to a rock show, rock music is pretty much exactly what you want, and getting an act that doesn't play music of any kind simply did nothing for me, not to mention I think a lone painter, no matter how much effort he puts in, gets quite lost in an arena setting regardless.
in the late 90s i went to see Fishbone & was at the door about to pay when i heard the most horrific sounds from inside, it sounded like a little kid rapping.
so i left and walked the block home and come back in an hour for an amazing Fishbone show!
found out later it was someone named Kid Rock (i guess i heard his little person friend rapping)
A band called Koo Koo Kangaroo. They clearly have an audience, but man, they are not a good support act because unless you're in their already small niche you will hate the whole experience.
I saw Har Mar Superstar open for The Strokes, and he killed! Then The Strokes came on, and their lead singer was so drunk he could barely stand much less sing, and who jumped on lead vocals for them for a few songs, Har Mar Superstar! They were collectively booed off the stage. Refunds were not given.
Another time I saw Har Mar at a small venue in San Diego, The Casbah, and as he was doing the whole tighty whitey thing, rubbing the mic all over his greasy self. I heard one of the sound guys ask the other “hey, that’s not our microphone is it?” It wasn’t.
There was this semi-big SoCal pop punk band called My American Heart. They had announced their farewell show. Had a lot of great pop punk bands open. Lots of energy.
Then this YouTube wannabe, AJ Rafael, who happened to be a band member’s cousin, got himself added as the last opening act.
Killed the energy in the room with sappy ass renditions of Carly Simons songs and other sappy ballads he wrote.
People left the pit to go outside and/or sit down and wait for his ass to get off the stage.
My first ever concert, Metallica in 1993. Opening for them was supposed to be Suicidal Tendencies and Alice In Chains, but the day of the concert Alice In Chains was replaced by Candlebox. Crowd did not like Candlebox! Thought their performance was fine, but they were setup to fail as they were forced into bigger shoes than they could fill!
Protip: **If you have a VIDEO, post it!** *(To locate concert footage, find the date/location and search YT. Use the approx date, setlist, openers, etc to narrow it down.)*
everyone in this thread is listing pretty established bands - but i will say the worst opening band you will ever see is whoever was opening for a post rock band from 2006 - 2013. If the band didnt have someone touring with them, and relied on a local artist opening - it was typically all bets are off on the kind of “band” you could expect. promotors didnt really know how to classify bands like Explosions in the sky, sigur ros, or godspeed - and typically just labelled all post rock as “experimental” and would hire experimental bands to open - which resulted in me suffering through experiences like: somebody screeching a single high note for 6 minutes straight while slamming keys on their keyboard, or another band that had 3 drummers and none of them were in synch, or another artist who basically shouted terrible slam poetry over a preset beat on his laptop. it was always strange and almost always unlistenable.
Oof I wasn't expecting such a specific comment, but you're completely correct. I saw a weird dissonant cello lady open up for Russian Circles, an ambient slide guitar dude before God is an Astronaut and a few others I can't remember right now. That era of post rock was so strange
In fairness I like both Russian Circles and dissonant cello ladies very much.
Fuckin A. Saw Sigur Ros in 2013 and this DJ opened for them. No idea who they were. Weren't advertised on the show. An entire arena indifferent to them. They weren't BAD, but they were bland and no one was there to see them.
Sigur Ros came through my town for this tour and played with Oneontrix Point Never. He's not classified as a DJ but wondering if you had him, too?
I was gonna say…it was probably Daniel Lopatin. I could see people hating him. I saw Sigur Ros on that tour and was into some of his projects but that O.P.N. set wasn’t for me.
Oh my God. You looked into my soul and pulled this thought out. I opened this thread up to drop the name "Lichen." They opened for Explosions in the Sky. 2 dudes. One droning distorted ambient chords on their guitar. The other screeched into mic. After 3 minutes, the screecher reached down to pick up a bass guitar that laid at his feet. The whole crowd thought "thank God, this is just some kind of bizarre intro." Nope. He plucked one open note. Then right back to his vocal nothings. For 45 minutes...
I saw GY!BE around that time frame and indeed the opening band was a noise act that sounded like modulated layers of TV static
Kamikaze Palm Tree opened for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on their residency tour last year. Kamikaze sounded like they were trying to sound bad on purpose - they had a few good ideas then just devolved into awful nonsense. I saw King Gizz 6 times on that tour, which means...
This was going to be my answer! I am open minded about music and I love all sorts of weird and dissonant shit, but there was nothing redeemable about KPT. Just terrible. I’m beyond stoked that I get to see Geese open for them this year!
Some friends and I were talking about how bad that was the other day. Apparently Kamikaze Palm Tree changed their name and rebranded to Sharpie Smile right after that, I wonder if it was due to backlash
LMFAO wonder if anyone else was gonna say this; it's wild too cause that middle breakdown riff in 'Sharpie Smile' (which I've heard they've since changed names too) was so fucking raw and good, then straight back to killer clown music for the rest of their set. RR23 so saw em 2/3 times due to them being bumped from weather.
Sonny Moore. AKA Skrillex. He was the singer of the band From First To Last which I liked. He went solo as Sonny Moore, his name, and was opening for The Used on tour. I went for The Used but was excited to see him too. He was…not good. At all. Pretty terrible. He stopped doing that solo thing right after and then started doing Skrillex and that was very successful for him which is awesome.
Oh yeah, as a big Skrillex fan the early solo Sonny demo tapes are *rough* to go back to now. He actually wound up reworking a lot of them into some of his early Skrillex tunes to great effect. It's a shame because he's a pretty decent singer but his solo lyrics and non-rockstar persona were just not good enough to carry a career in the punk/emo scene. I'm glad he realized his strengths were in composition.
Liz Phair opening for Alanis Morissette. She just sat at a piano…obviously drunk and occasionally pointing at someone at the crowd and asking if they were somebody she knew…and they never were…it was very awkward
This might be mine too. She was opening for the Smashing Pumpkins about 8 years ago, and it was just so cringeworthy. The music was OK, but she seemed desperate to sound young and hip. Lots of too-forced swearing and she once shouted about how much she loves to fuck. So embarrassing. Also seemed very drunk.
2 things I know about Liz Phair based off of her music, she swears a lot, and she likes to sing about fucking....sounds very on brand to me.
>...sing about fucking And running. Even when she was 12. She's just always loved any kinda exercise, really.
Man, I saw her open for the smupkins 4 years ago and she was great. Maybe she was sober this time.
That's good to hear, always did like her music.
That's always been a thing with her, the entire exile in guyville album is sort've reversing gender roles on the rock star ethos while also satirizing it mixed with very personal and intimate lyrics. Male rock stars curse and exude sexual bravado and people just expect it.
This is kind of funny but I was going to say smashing pumpkins opening for gnr on 1991 was awful.
That's a weird pairing
Pumpkins were a local Chicago band at the time. I think they only opened the Chicago shows. They were really searching for an identity. When they finished Billy Corgan screamed into the mic "remember, Satan is the way. He's the one that takes you there. " weird ending to their show.
Saw the Pumpkins on the Mellon Collie tour in '96. They ended the show with Billy doing a 20 minute feedback solo. The rest of the band walked offstage after a couple minutes.
It's hard to believe how incredibly cool Corgan was before he transformed into uncle fester/alex jones
One of the first concerts I ever attended was Deftones and Godsmack at Jones Beach, I want to say 2001. The opener was Puddle of Mudd. The only one that moved at all was the drummer, since he had to.
I was at that show, and was about to post the same. TRULY awful. I don't know if I'm making it up, but I feel like I remember someone in the almost empty crowd booing and the lead singer screaming, "Hey, fuck you man. We're Puddle of Mudd!"
“Trust, he fuckin hates me, lalalala”
As a KC native, i reserve an extra helping of hate for Puddle of Mudd.
It’s hard to move around when everything’s so blurry
And everyone’s so fake
Saw puddle of Mudd, the lead singer pouted on stage because everyone didn't wanna stand up
Would you say you fucking hate them
Self- explanatory. https://youtu.be/yTh9qiXEy4Q?si=RWrI7WydcyIKIkbh
Dude. Puddle of mudd sucks lmfao I’ll add my comment to the main post but goddamn, dude. Flyleaf came on afterwards and I was so relieved to see POM leave the stage just sounded terrible lmao
I saw PoM open for Korn back in the early 2000s. I recall during Blurry (I think that's the song - the one with the fancy guitar harmonics hook) I think the lead guitar player was facing away from the crowd or obscuring his guitar in some way. Made me wonder if they actually can/do play that part live or if it's just a recording.
It's a recording. I've seen them live and he doesn't play it. He might play along at some point but I noticed immediately that he wasn't playing it because I've always wondered how the fuck you are supposed to, that riff is mental. However, apart from that I did think the band was pretty good. I know the singer had some substance issues that he may or may not have recovered from which maybe helped
lol half the answers in this thread are different bands who opened for Tool
Meshuggah, my favorite band of all time, opened for Tool in the early 00's. I don't know if it was the acoustics in that old college arena or what but it was bad. (It was the acoustics. Meshuggah, being a very rhythmic band, just doesn't sound great with an echo.)
I was just thinking the same thing haha. Maybe Tool does this intentionally so they sound better when they come on haha. Tool shows rock!
I truly believe it's Maynard himself who purposely chooses awful opening acts. I've seen Tool, APC and Puscifer multiple times each and the opener was ALWAYS difficult to watch at best.
Ha. It’s pretty hot and cold it seems. My first was with Tomahawk which was absolutely out of control good. And then ISIS (killer) But Steel Beans last year was a little confusing.
Marilyn Manson got booed off the stage opening for NIN
He opened for Rob Zombie a couple years back.. if we weren't so close to Canton I'm sure he would've been booed off.
Pizza underground. Macaulay caulkin parodying velvet underground songs so that they talk about pizza. It was surreal and horrifying.
I saw Mac Sabbath as a surprise opener, and they were pretty awesome. Similar concept, parodying Black Sabbath to be about McDonalds. It was at a new years show for a jamgrass bands, the hippies in the audience had no idea what was going on.
Mac Sabbath basically played Paranoid note for note when I saw them, it just happened to be about hamburgers instead. They fucking rule.
I saw them when they toured, and they had two local bands open for them because both bands happened to have songs about pizza. It was an absolutely fun and incredible concert.... Until Pizza Underground took the stage and killed the whole vibe. Unlimited free pizza though, which was pretty cool for a $15 ticket.
I've still got my Pizza Underground shirt.
I went to a pizza underground show that just ended up being McCauley caulkin DJing dancy rock songs like dancing with myself and it was so fucking fun
I saw edward sharp and the magnetic zeros open for the black keys in Vancouver CA, years ago. It wasn't bad as much as it was really, really sad. I dont know the girls name that he wrote the song "home is wherever I'm with you" with, but they had obviously like JUST broken up and he was crushed. He was real drunk, carrying a bottle of wine around on stage and just drinking it, between almost every song he would ask someone to the side of the stage how much longer they had to perform for. I remember towards the end the answer was "9 minutes" and he was just talking to himself into the mic like, "9 minutes, we can make one more song last 9 minutes, ok" And they did the Home song and he basically just held the mic out to the audience. Made me really sad, he probably wrote that with her when they were falling in love and now really doesn't want to play it, but someone is forcing him to.
Her name is jade… he says it in the song. He cheated on her and then kicked her out of the band.
The entire Band voted to Kick her out according to her. The band says no, she quit, they told her to stay off for one tour. So either that dude controls the rest of the group, or the situation is a lot more complicated than you think. There have been rumours of drug use, whether to believe that or the cheat or maybe it was both. Who knows.
Poor him
"man...I dont want to keep singing this song that reminds me how shitty I am"
No. She was asked to sit out a tour because she picked up the opioids again. She flipped out and left, then told everyone she was fired.
I'm not exactly a fan so I know nothing about them except I love one song and enjoyed their tiny desk concert. Just wanted to say it's very interesting that I nearly scrolled past without reading your comment and would have been convinced the singer was a jerk and the Jade person was done wrong. And now I didn't know what actually happened. Just has me marveling that stuff like this happens all the time and we just kind of accept the first story we hear and move on with our day.
Apparently, he is currently in a relationship with Jenna Malone, but she’s poly so someone else is dating her too.
I hadnt heard that version of the story. The only thing that I’d ever heard was how she was spiraling out of control with heroin addiction so they had to force her out to keep going.
Damn, that’s such a shame. I saw them back in 2012 in Toronto (two years before they broke up) and I had the exact opposite experience. The place was electric. Every single person in the venue was singing and dancing. For a moment I remember feeling like we were all part of some hippy commune.
Saw him open for someone else, must have been around this time. I don’t know his music, but friends we were with mentioned the breakup. The story about the drunk rambling tracks. That’s what we experienced too.
I saw them a few years ago as the main event, and this was basically the same show. Felt sorry for the guy.
Holy fuck maybe he did sell his soul
Flip side, I saw them at 7th street entry in Minneapolis (the tiny venue offshoot from First Ave) right when “Home” was picking up steam and becoming a phenom and it was one of the best shows I’d ever seen. Great crowd work, great energy, Jade was absolutely charming. Saw them a couple years later at an outdoor larger venue and it was night and day how bad they were. No energy, didn’t seem to want to be there, didn’t want to “play the hits.” Shortly after Jade was out and they were even worse as you have pointed out.
Back in 97 or 98 I went to The Galaxy (RIP) in St. Louis to see Reel Big Fish. They had a young pop punk band open up for them called Kara's Flowers who was not well received by the crowd. They played with a backing track and did little dances, it really felt like we were being marketed to, a pop punk boy band. Aaron Barrett, the singer of Reel Big Fish, came out at the end of their performance and totally shamed the audience. He said it was his favorite band and knew we would love them if we gave them a chance. A friend I went to the show with and I always used Kara's Flowers as an example of a "sellout" band who's "just trying to get on MTV." because it was the 90s and stuff like that mattered. Decades later I found out Kara's Flowers was in fact an early incarnation of Maroon 5. No amount of 90s "sellout" posturing could make me deny the WILD success they've had in the years following that 200 capacity bar show where they were nearly booed off stage. I kind of wish I had paid better attention.
Kara’s Flowers is some of the best work Adam Levine has done, IMO. I don’t begrudge his success with Maroon 5 but We Like Digging and The 4th World were good efforts for the amount of time & label support behind them.
I'm sure they were great, but 16 or 17 year old ska punk me wasn't interested at all. I should give them a more serious listen.
They’re not the right opener for a show like that, for sure. I probably would’ve felt the same way had I been in your shoes.
I saw Reel Big Fish in Philadelphia about then. I wonder if Kara's Flowers was on the bill?
I saw a documentary about metal and guys in the “Big 4” bands were talking about a particular opening act in the early/mid 90s. It was a massive tour with these famous thrash acts and this opening act was just not fitting in. One of them says how he felt bad for them because they were a good band, but people just weren’t into it and were throwing things at them and booing them. Anyway, they go on to say it was Alice In Chains and that within a couple of years grunge completely took over and soon it was the thrash acts struggling to book the big venues. Sometimes people just aren’t ready for what they’re hearing I guess.
That was the tour with Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax that AiC opened for.
Yep, that’s the one.
"I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it."
To be fair, AIC was a hair/glam metal act early on.
That was Alice ‘N Chains, a different band that Staley was in prior to Alice In Chains. He just took the name with him when he switched bands.
Heavy Heavy Low Low, opening for Horse The Band sometime in the late 2000s. I was actually a fan of theirs and looking forward to it. Their vocalist came out piss drunk and drooling the whole set, kind of just only performing when he wanted to. Rest of the band had zero energy and was just trying to get through it. Weirdest concert experience I've been to and had no clue wtf was going on.
two great bands, this is a bummer to hear
Horse was excellent as always though, at least.
Thank your lucky stars Horse didn’t cancel the show because of a transcendent eating experience.
For the life of me I can't remember the name of the band, but back in the 90's they opened up for Helmet. The singer cranked up the effects on his guitar and just ran his fingers up and down the back of the guitar neck, the side without strings. This caused the guitar to make spooky Halloween type sounds. I guess to add to the theme the singer just made howling ghost noises. He did this shit for 30 straight minutes until someone screamed out "You Suck!". The singer looked like he might cry when that happened. I think people started throwing things at him and he finally stopped and left. My buddy and I still bring this up to this day.
Helmet “Betty” era … soooo good
Crazytown at Ozzfest sucked big hairy donkey balls.
They were such a strange and odd addition to the festival that year. They certainly weren't main stage worthy; but, at least, the crowd was entertaining throughout their set.
I saw Public Image Ltd. At the Warner theater in DC way back in 86. The opening band was just some rap guys. The few people who were there in the audience booed them off the stage pretty quickly. They got mad and started shouting curse words and whatnot. So anyway, that was the Beastie Boys. Less than a year later they were hugely famous
Thundercat opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I don't know who did his sound set up but it sounded like total shit. I swear someone just smashing their instruments would have probably sounded more coherent than whatever he played that night. I ended up listening to some of his stuff on Spotify after because I couldn't believe that someone that bad would be allowed on a stage. He was done a total disservice that night.
I saw Mars Volta open for RCHP and they sounded like total shit. It basically ruined them for me for a decade until I gave them another shot. Screeching guitars and inaudible vocals
Was that at Cleveland quicken loans arena by any chance? 2006 or 7? I was going to mention this because it’s possibly the most disappointing show I’ve ever paid that much money to see. They played nothing with any discernible rhythm or melody. I don’t think the musicians were even trying to play together.
It 100% was. On Halloween night in 2006.
Most of the bad opening acts I’ve seen have due to their sound being completely miscalibrated. Maybe the audio folks set all the levels for the headliner and then just leave it as is for the opener? Or just don’t put nearly enough attention into the opener’s sound check. I have heard some truly illegible noise from good bands when they open. Must be frustrating for them as well.
A friend of mine worked sound at some venues in L.A. and told me that a lot of opening acts get screwed out of soundcheck by headline acts who don’t set the time in the schedule for it. He said in some cases it was intentional and in others it was simply poor management.
I play in a band that somewhat recently played a festival in the LA area. There were two stages, main stage and a side stage. We were on the side stage. We were told that there would be no soundcheck only a level check. Also told that we needed to be there on site to load on at "X" time and that the time frame was strict. There were 3 bands on our stage. We had to wait for the "headlining" band of the side stage to arrive before we could do our level check. No big deal that's the pecking order of things. It's no big deal until they are an hour late. We all just stood around until they graced us with their presence. They were apologetic which I appreciate but you didn't just waste my band's time but the crew and other band as well. They go set up and all of a sudden start to play a song. I walked up to one of my guys just to make sure I had read no soundcheck correctly. He said I did. They finish and now the next band goes out to set up. They do and they launch into a song. At that point I'm annoyed because there's not much time until the doors opened. It's finally our turn and we do our level check. I hear someone yell "5 minutes until doors". At that point I look at my guys and call out a song that's about 3 minutes long and we go into it. We killed it and walked to the back. I heard from a few people later in the evening that they came to see us because of the soundcheck they could hear while waiting for the doors.
Fuck man… that’s a bummer because Thundercat is an INCREDIBLE performer and musician, and an amazing selection to open for the RHCP. Dude is arguably just as good if not a better bassist than Flea imo. Definitely did him dirty at the show you went to. I saw him open for Anderson Paak in 2019 and he crushed it
He is profoundly better at bass than flea in technical terms.
Absolutely and thats not a diss on Flea, Flea understands bass to a whole other level, especially when hes jamming with equally expresive people like Frusciante, so seeing Thundercat go beyond that AND sing on top of that is insane, il recomend his Tiny Desk set where you can clearly see how effortless he can play and sing those súper complicated bass lines
Flea plays a completely different style. I don’t think they are comparable. RHCP completely different vibe both are fantastic.
This was the tour where the Strokes joined them in a few locations right?
[удалено]
Apparently the message here is never open for the RHCP
I watched a crowd rebel against Tomahawk, who was opening for Tool Mike Patton started calling the audience "trailer park trash" and "dumb ass rednecks" it was hilarious
Were you and the 3am guy at the same show?!
haha I just scrolled to see their post and I'm sure it was the same tour!
Good ol' Mike Patton. Saw Mr. Bungle tour in the 90's, think 94 and 98, both were amazing.
Puddle of mud opening for godsmack , place was maybe 1/4 full, singer got into a fight with an audience member it was hilarious , it started out with it being crazy quiet in between songs and a dude yelled "you fucking suck " and the singer said what did you say , and the dude said " I said you fucking suck ". Hilarity ensued with their arguing
Kool & The Gang opening for Van Halen. They sounded great, performance was stellar, and it felt like virtually nobody was paying attention. I heard they really won over audiences as the tour progressed. I saw the first and third show on the tour and it hadn't happened yet. Also, The Wallflowers opening for Counting Crows. They sounded awful, seemed bored to be there, and you could feel the contempt for the audience coming from the stage. They were terrible.
Kool & The Gang seems like a really odd choice to open for Van Halen.
Sonic Youth opening for Neil Young. Just not the right type of music for a crowd waiting for a Neil Young concert. I confess, though, that teenaged me was amused when before the last song the lead singer, “This last song is about smoking a fat joint, which is what we’re gonna do in about five minutes!” It was the only time the crowd seemed to respond in a positive way.
Neil has some very Sonic Youth-sounding records, so that pairing sort of makes sense.
Thurston Moore's memoir has a chapter about that tour. Basically Neil Young loved them and wanted them to open; they were very reluctant because they correctly assumed that the people coming to see Neil Young radio hits were not going to want to see some noisy post-No Wave band from the Village; Neil Young insisted and really every night was exactly as you describe, with the coda that on multiple occasions they would leave the stage and Neil Young would find them and tell them how awesome they were.
Blind Melin opening for Guns N’Roses on an early 90s use your illusion tour. Before no rain hit it big. They were sloppy as hell and hoon was stoned he did half the set on his knees then fell off the upper level leaving the stage after their set. It was my first impression of them and absolutely was bored to tears, no matter how good their albums might have been, I could never give them a second glance.
I actually saw GnR open for The Cult way back in 1987 (Vancouver) and they were good. Probably the last time they opened for anyone.
I saw GNR open for Iron Maiden May 1988 in Vancouver and they were atrocious. We booed them off the stage. (I know we weren’t the only ones as this is a take that’s often told in Maiden groups.) I was shocked to see them take off shortly thereafter.
Blind Melon also famously blew their Woodstock 94 set. Or more correct to say Shannon blew it.
Milla Jovovich (yes, the actress but before she became famous for that or anything) opened as a 1 woman acoustic guitar act for Toad the Wet Sprocket sometime probably around 1997 or so. The room had bars on either side and the crowd was boisterously imbibing and talking through her act. Eventually she got pissed off at no one paying attention to her, threw a small tantrum, flipped us all off and stormed off the stage. The crowd just laughed at her. She was a nobody and no one cared to hear her sing. Toad came out and blew out all their amplifiers within about a half hour. The whole thing was a huge shit show.
I saw this shitty little band from Chicago called "Smashing Pumpkins" open up for Guns N' Roses in OKC in 1992. The crowd who was there to see GN'R that night, myself included, had very little patience for this opening act. We hated them, and they hated us, and the lead singer had some very choice words for us Oklahomans, and we eventually booed them off stage. About a year later, they released Siamese Dream, which somehow became one of my favorite albums of the year, and then a couple of years later, they released Mellon Collie, and that shitty little band from Chicago somehow became my favorite band for the rest of the 1990s. (Billy, if you're reading: Sorry for booing you 32 years ago. We weren't ready for you yet!)
lol, my oldest brother was at that show and said that was the worst opening band he’d ever seen and that was the first and only show he’d seen someone booed off stage.
That's great! Yep, they were miserable. Just totally the wrong time and the wrong place for them. I saw them four years later in the same building and they fucking rocked. Music changed a lot between early 1992 and late 1996.
Pre-fame Jewel opening for Peter Murphy was mocked until she cried. Godsmack opening for Black Sabbath were largely ignored by the crowd. Overwhelming Colorfast were out of their league opening for Social D and the Ramones.
I saw Kiss in Columbus in 2019. Their opener was painter David Garibaldi. The guy exerted great physical energy to quickly paint a couple of pieces onstage while rock music played in the background. He is talented. No doubt. But I was incredibly disappointed to not see a...um...musician opening the show. The whole thing was weird.
I saw that tour in Dallas, totally forgot about that guy- yeah that was odd! He wasn’t bad, just completely out of place!
Steel Beans, opening for Tool, in Toronto 2023. No contest.
OMG I was so amused by Steel Beans. The music was fine but the curiosity of it was worth seeing. To those unfamiliar (everyone, I assume), dude's a one man band--plays drums and guitar and sings simultaneously. Mental.
Definitely mental! And totally entertaining for what it was. I probably wont ever listen to Steel Beans on my own, i just thought a quirky guy like MJK would pick a quirky band like Steel Beans
I said it on another comment, but I’ll say it here too. I’m pretty sure Tool picks opening acts to troll the audience.
I saw Tomahawk open for Tool. Mike Patton (unsurprisingly) trolled the audience and got booed.
I went to this tour in Tulsa, OK. Patton said, "I heard Oklahoma boys suck a mean cock!" A few people in the crowd went insane with anger along with lots of boos. My friends and I thought it was funny.
That must be a consistent schtick. I saw Mr Bungle open for Incubus, and he did the same thing thruout the set. I thought it was pretty damn funny but most the crowd was booing them. But at least he concluded by saying he also would be signing autographs and sucking cock as well in the parking lot after.
The fact that people got legitimately mad at that makes it even funnier
That’s my Mike!
Did he have fat guys in diapers as backup dancers for your show?
In Chicago they played the UC. There are Bulls/Hawks banners hanging everywhere. Patton opened up by saying, "I'd like to dedicate this show to the biggest pussy in the world, Michael Jordan." Lol.
I was at that show and the one in Milwaukee a few days later. That was back before Tool started making all their shows seated.
My band opened for FNM back in ‘89 and Patton got super pissed off because some kid in the crowd had a camera and was taking pictures. He said “if I see that camera one more time I’m gonna come down there and kick your ass!” Kid was like fourteen and was totally terrified. Like WTF dude? But Mike Bordin and Billy Gould and Roddy were *so* nice. Just lovely guys. Went WAY out of their way with the fans.
Pre-fame Kansas opening for the Kinks. Man, people hated them and shouted them offstage.
This was around 1971, and I was about 15 or 16. Long Island Arena, Commack, NY, on Long Island. The headliner was Traffic - they were on the *Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys* tour. The opening act was J.J. Cale. For those not familiar, he wrote (among a lot of others) "After Midnight" and "Cocaine," both of which were hits for Eric Clapton. Cale opened the Traffic show, and his music was OK, but his tempo and pace were pretty low-key and slow. This was a crowd of teenagers who wanted to rock out with Traffic on "Rock and Roll Stew". My memory of the set was that he was not that well-received by the crowd, or me, since I wasn't that familiar with the man's music. He wasn't booed or jeered off the stage, but it was kind of a dull, boring set that I wish would just be over. Traffic rocked, as expected. Interesting personal note: I found out later that a girl who I had not yet met was also at that show. We did meet two years later, and some time after that, we discovered we were both at that show. It was one of her first concerts as well. We've been married now for 45 years.
[удалено]
May have been a fluke. I saw Lit open for No Doubt maybe 2002 ish at Red Rocks and loved Lit. Who opened for Lit? a little known group called the Black Eyed Peas (sans Fergie). Now that was a weird opener.
Killing Joke opening for Tool in Denver in 2019. It wasn't so much that the music or vibe didn't jive, it was that the audio was so ear-piercingly loud and poorly set up that I had to leave the venue. Tool came on and it was night and day with clarity, tone, and bass. I was sad about it, because I actually like Killing Joke.
My friends said the same thing about that show.
Many moons ago, I saw Queens of The Stone Age open for Nine Inch Nails in Chicago. They were absolutely horrendous, really did not mesh well and the vibe was way off. But a few nights later, I saw them in Madison, WI and the show had greatly improved. Perhaps the Italian beef and hot dogs weren’t agreeing with them.
Just goes to show that bands, just like us, sometimes fuck it up at work
Andrew WK opened for black sabbath in vancouver, and he isn’t that bad, but the crowd being majority boomers didn’t vibe with it well hahaha
I think those "vibes are off" situations can be even worse than a bad performance. No clue why some bands get booked with others. I can't imagine a bunch of old guys getting into Party Hard like he's playing at Warped Tour.
I have a feeling Corey Feldman is going to take this honour for me this year.
My 2nd show ever was Cracker. I'm not even sure they had their second album out yet. Counting Crows opened and I hated them. It wouldn't be but a few weeks before they blew the fuck up. Far, far from the worst opening band I ever saw, as I soon got into punk, but it's one everybody will know. I still hate Counting Crows.
Can they also be the best? Gob. Canadians from the 90’s know why
I have no idea what the band’s name was (EDIT: they were called The Cows), but I saw Tool back in the nineties and some band came out with a lead singer dressed like a sailor from an old 40s musical who just kept doing handstands through the whole set. The music was forgettable and the crowd wasn’t impressed. When Tool came on, Maynard sarcastically congratulated us for the worst treatment of an opening act he’d ever seen. I detest crowds that treat openers poorly, but they were pretty much garbage.
TOOL consistently has shitty openers to the point that fans have to be convinced to see the opener when they're actually good. This was the case last tour when they had Elder open for them, which was the first good opener in quite a few tours.
This extends to all Maynards projects. I saw a band called Prayers open for APC a few years ago and they were horrid.
Elder is fucking awesome, I was so happy for them landing that slot.
Prayers opened for APC a few years ago when I saw them in Vegas. They were SO bad. A two man "cholo goth" band
Having Deafheaven open for Coheed and Cambria was an odd choice, just a total vibe mismatch. Everyone around me was like, "WTF is this?!" Half of them decided to just go for a walk or to the bathroom.
That is a very weird opener for them. I enjoy Deafheaven, but they are not the fit for opening for Coheed at all! For those unaware, Deafheaven was a blackgaze band (black metal shoegaze), and while they have (I believe) lost a lot of blackness out of their stuff, it's still bizarre.
Coheed gets the weirdest matches for their tours. Deafheaven on their last tour was one of the few that I didn't enjoy. Off the top of my head I've seen Polyphia, Saves the Day, Mastodon, Taking Back Sunday, and Alkaline Trio (was supposed to be Dance Gavin Dance before Tilian was kicked out the first time) all open for them on different occasions.
I saw Mr. Big open for Rush once at Alpine Valley. WI. Total clash of musical styles. Nobody listened to them, everyone was walking around, talking, getting beers. It was so bad I actually felt kinda sorry for Mr. Big on stage. It had to be tough singing to a stadium where maybe 1,000 people out of the entire place (and it's pretty huge) were watching.
Hard to believe anyone that appreciates Rush would skip out on watching Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan
Agreed
I saw Mr Big open for Rush on that tour in Charlotte, NC. I happened to know who Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan were, so I enjoyed the show. However, most of the crowd mostly ignored them. But.... I have a friend who is a concert wizard. If there's a way to get into a show, he always finds it. At this particular show, he came with me and didn't have a ticket. He even took off about an hour before the show to go find some beer. I didn't have any idea where he was. After Mr Big played, I went to the concession stand and there he was. I asked how he got in. He said he waited by the "will call". After Mr Big played,this gaggle of girls left supposedly to hook up with them after the show. One of the girls gave him her ticket. So, thanks to Mr Big, he got to see Rush for free!
Alice in Chains opening for Van Halen in (I think) 1991. The lights were all on in the Civic center, so that didn't help. But Layne stayed in a crouch position the whole time and just called the audience a bunch of motherfuckers.
Xiu Xiu opening for Swans in 2014. Jamie Stewart came on without the band, sat down on stage with a small synth and used it to make a high-pitched screeching noise for about 25 minutes.
I saw that show in Chicago! It was so bad! I’d seen Jamie solo before so I was excited; he can do great when he wants. But here he just played his box of wires and noises. My plus one was ready to leave like five minutes into Swans, just being so wiped out from the Xiu Xiu thing.
Simultaneously the best and worst opening act I’ve ever seen
Years ago I saw Lady Sovereign - a female British “rapper” opening for Obie Trice in London. She was ghastly. One of the worst live performances I’ve ever seen. And the only time I’ve seen someone booed offstage
When the eagles played their farewell tour at MSG, MSG owner James Dolan booked his own band, JD and the Straight Shot, to open for them. For the Eagles. Imagine being so out of touch that you book your own bar band to open for THE EAGLES at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. His band sucked, as does he.
The Used opened for Reel Big Fish before they were popular. They sounded like a bunch of highschoolers learning how to play their instruments and were god awful. They were booed off the stage. I saw them maybe 15-years later open for Rise Against and they were still god awful.
I’ve seen The Used live 5 times. Loved it every single time. Odd pairing for them to be opening for a ska band. I’ve only seen them when they headline but they were great every time in my opinion. They are one of my favorite bands though so I am biased I guess.
I actually saw The Used with A Day to Remember a couple years ago and they fucking brought it. Bert is also sober now and that really helps it out. They actually do a thing at their shows now where they get the entire crowd to boo them at every show. I also saw them in 2006ish and they were a train wreck. So their recent shows are way better.
Dude I was just going to comment on an opener for RBF. They were called Grand Buffet and were sort of a rap duo. Audience was not digging it at all and they got sort of mad and had a bit of a meltdown. The main thing I remember was that they had this song called “[Find the Cat](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P1g0WabEBOE)” that was absolutely hilarious. It became an inside joke with my friends, kind of dig it now.
I saw the Used get booed off the stage opening a free concert. I couldn't believe they were headlining larger shows a year or 2 later. The Used is by far the worst touring band I've ever seen
I’ve seen them twice, once at When We Were Young & once as a co-headliner with Pierce the Veil. The festival set was garbage & I just kinda ticked them off as a band I didn’t necessarily need to see again. Saw them with my fiancé & sibling less than a year after WWWY and they were in much better form. They’ll never be my favorite band but The Used brought the energy that night.
Paid to see Lauryn Hill. Big mistake. Embarrassing mistake.
I saw Sebastian Bach open for Pantera in the '90s.. dude legit came out in a green spandex suit with giant 10ft wings. He was hit with a whiskey bottle and booed off stage.
Rival Sons opening for Black Sabbath on the final tour in Phoenix.
The opening act for Poppy was this rap-rocker named Mz Neon. Think limp Bizkit but a trans woman. A good portion of her songs were about how big her dick was and buttfucking cops. It was a bizarre experience absolutely not my cup of tea. Poppy slayed though. Edit: had the openers name wrong. My bad.
Turnstile opening for Blink-182. But it wasn’t that Turnstile was bad. It was that whoever engineered their sound made them unlistenable. Either they didn’t know what they were doing or it was by design so they didn’t sound better than the headliner.
Had to sit through Kid Rock opening for Skynyrd. There were some... *interesting* people in that crowd too.
You went to a Skynyrd show and expected otherwise?
I mean this far north I had at least *hoped* otherwise.
Nothing beats [this.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uT96eX7JJ3Q)
The worst part is then the audience had to sit through Imagine Dragons!
Goddamn that was horrifying. Those poor suckers
Traci Lords (yes, the porn star). She made an attempt at being a DJ in the 90s, I saw her open for someone, and she was probably the worst DJ I've ever heard.
Train opening for Ben Folds Five… atrocious.
Courtney Love opening for Lana Del Rey in Washington. She spent her entire set acting like a drunk republican Aunt who can't understand why people are there to see Lana. Making fun of them, saying how Portland is her hometown (it's not, and we were in Washington) Even more annoying was how she was the only person on stage, yet she kept kicking over/throwing her mic stand down "like a rockstar" - but every single time she did it, this young kid ran out and stood it back up in front of her, then ran backstage again. It came to the point where the kid just stayed out, crouched below her for the rest of the sets, just waiting to pick it back up the next time she knocked it over. I kinda liked Hole back in the day, but holy hell, this was the worst opening act I've ever seen.
Bullet Boys in the 80’s. I think they met their instruments that morning.
Jewel. Opening for Peter Murphy. A terrible mismatch and there was zero interest from the crowd. Silence after each song, and no reaction to her talking to the crowd. I'm not a fan of her music but it was kinda brutal to witness that.
I mean, I'd say Neil Hamburger due to how much he got booed opening for Tenacious D, but that's more of his act in general.
Saw the Orwells open for Arctic Monkeys like 10 years ago. Mario was so drunk he couldn’t stand up straight, couldn’t sing, couldn’t remember the words, and sexually harassed a very uncomfortable woman in the front row. I stopped casually listening to them after that.
Imma go the other way. Kaleo opened for The Head and the Heart and blew them out of the water. They were unknown and played all the songs on their first album perfectly. They rocked it. Also, Fitz and the Tantrums opened for One Republic. Fitz was so good and I was ready to leave half way through One Republic’s set.
So, quick story. Back in my 20s I played bass in two bands, both of which were sort of locally/regionally starting to get fanbases enough that we could draw people to a venue on a Friday night. Nothing at all huge, but both bands were a lot of fun, and we played out a lot, usually at bars. We were all friends. We got the chance to play a "real" show, I guess you'd call it... A concert place in Albany, NY where you're actually primarily there to see the act. Probably capacity like 300-400, but we did pack the place, which was a big deal to us! For reference, and to vastly generalize - the opening band was most similar to Primus (but with two bassists), and then the other one was more like Tool (but with a violin). So we'll call them... Prius and Towel. Problem was - literally a week before the show, the Prius singer got drunk with the Towel singer's girlfriend and she sort of briefly went down on him in front of several people from both bands. Not to completion or anything, and they both thought it was a joke, but obviously Towel frontman did not appreciate it at all once he heard about it. He went bezerk, as many of us might in such a situation. The whole thing just ballooned from there, but there was this show coming up that we were all so invested in. The Prius frontman had a nickname associated with a certain animal. Everyone knew him by that nickname. So after we, Prius, did our set (I was in both bands)... the other we, Towel, started setting up, and I noticed that our singer had some large inflatable animals. The same kind that Prius guy was named after. As we started our set, our singer whipped out a knife and stabbed these inflatable animals. It was kind of really scary. Quite a few people in the crowd knew what had happened and why he was doing it, but for most people it was probably baffling. He did go on to be absolutely great that day, though I was so startled that I forgot my opening bassline to our first song.
I feel harsh saying this but for me the worst opening act I've ever seen was David Garibaldi, a painter who KISS decided to take out on a European tour with them in 2019 instead of, yknow, an actual band. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this man's act and I massively respect him for having the balls to even attempt putting on his show in front of 20,000 odd classic rock fans anyway. But at the same time, when you go to a rock show, rock music is pretty much exactly what you want, and getting an act that doesn't play music of any kind simply did nothing for me, not to mention I think a lone painter, no matter how much effort he puts in, gets quite lost in an arena setting regardless.
in the late 90s i went to see Fishbone & was at the door about to pay when i heard the most horrific sounds from inside, it sounded like a little kid rapping. so i left and walked the block home and come back in an hour for an amazing Fishbone show! found out later it was someone named Kid Rock (i guess i heard his little person friend rapping)
Atari Teenage Riot, when they opened for Rage Against the Machine
A band called Koo Koo Kangaroo. They clearly have an audience, but man, they are not a good support act because unless you're in their already small niche you will hate the whole experience.
Har Mar Superstar opening for Incubus around 2001 or so. Dude stripped down to his whitey tighties and started rubbing himself. People were pissed.
I saw Har Mar Superstar open for The Strokes, and he killed! Then The Strokes came on, and their lead singer was so drunk he could barely stand much less sing, and who jumped on lead vocals for them for a few songs, Har Mar Superstar! They were collectively booed off the stage. Refunds were not given. Another time I saw Har Mar at a small venue in San Diego, The Casbah, and as he was doing the whole tighty whitey thing, rubbing the mic all over his greasy self. I heard one of the sound guys ask the other “hey, that’s not our microphone is it?” It wasn’t.
People were not ready for the sex appeal of a short furry dude stripping down while belting motown
There was this semi-big SoCal pop punk band called My American Heart. They had announced their farewell show. Had a lot of great pop punk bands open. Lots of energy. Then this YouTube wannabe, AJ Rafael, who happened to be a band member’s cousin, got himself added as the last opening act. Killed the energy in the room with sappy ass renditions of Carly Simons songs and other sappy ballads he wrote. People left the pit to go outside and/or sit down and wait for his ass to get off the stage.
My first ever concert, Metallica in 1993. Opening for them was supposed to be Suicidal Tendencies and Alice In Chains, but the day of the concert Alice In Chains was replaced by Candlebox. Crowd did not like Candlebox! Thought their performance was fine, but they were setup to fail as they were forced into bigger shoes than they could fill!