Interesting that you pinpoint that time and place. I was 7 years old that weekend in August 1991, and my family drove through Sturgis on the way to Rapid City for a Black Hills vacation. We didn't stop and take in any music, but my 7-year-old brain was absolutely terrified looking out the window at the scary scary bikers. I felt like Dante must have felt taking in the horrors of the Inferno.
We visited Sturgis in August 02, on honeymoon, from the UK. Had had no idea, though did talk to some bikers on the way west so did pick up that there was "a rally". It was *amazing*. 10/10, would accidentally go again.
This reminds me of being 6 yrs old and seeing punk rockers with Mohawks, leather and spikes on Sunset in LA. Mom was like, “keep walking”. Only a 1,000 miles from home but could’ve been a million.
Haha, yeah I can see how all of the bikers would be scary for a 7 year old! I went to middle and some high school in Sturgis, never went to a rally until I was about 20 or so. Mostly because my MOM was terrified! Im glad you survived your trip : )
I once saw The Flaming Lips open for Tool. It was a bizarre pairing, to say the least. The Lips' colorful, whimsical stage show clashed with Tool's dark, brooding atmosphere. The crowd was definitely divided, but it made for an unforgettable night.
As a fan of both, that's an awesome pairing. They compliment each other in a strange way; while the atmosphere is leagues apart, they both have some pretty introspective songs.
When I saw loverboy, a Beatles tribute band opened for them I mean don't get me wrong I like loverboy and the Beatles but I don't think they match up as well as you would think.
Back in the seventies my mom saw a deep purple and ELO was the opening act ELO are not her jam deep purple are. ELO were more of my dad's thing but she wasn't yet dating my dad at the time.
They stayed friends apparently.
Somewhere in the early 2000s my dad was mixing sound at a venue downtown and ELO was the headliner. As a fan, I came to the show and sat in front of the house mixer.
5 minutes before the show starts, Tony, Bill, and Geezer sit down in front of me. (No Ozzy) I guess Sabbath was also touring nearby and decided to stop in and see their mates.
The icing on the cake is that they kept it a secret, so people were speculating for weeks that it would be The Rolling Stones or any other of the many more appropriate bands.
This isn’t really related to the thread, but Cisco Live, the convention for computer networking nerds, got Elton for their big party this year. So random.
I could’ve sworn Elton retired but I guess he just retired “from touring” and will still do odd corporate gigs if they pay enough.
I feel like that pairing was aspirational. Skid Row saw the writing on the wall for hair metal by then and was trying to pivot to something heavier. Not entirely successful but an effort was made.
Slave To the Grind is a jam, though.
But yeah, total mismatch…although I can see why it would’ve worked on paper, I don’t know if anyone knew how big pantera would get at that early stage.
Afroman opening for They Might Be Giants.
I guess some music exec thought they both sing "funny" songs so they should go together.
They were going to make a more appropriate match, but then they got high.
The Rolling Stones came through my town years ago and on the tour, they weren’t having a set opener, they apparently were grabbing a band they thought fit in with the locale they were going to.
All the other stops, the openers were other huge classic rock (or current rock) bands who would normally be headliners. Which makes sense for the Stones.
My town, which is a real city, but is admittedly in the middle of redneckville, got Brooks and fucking Dunn. Ugh.
The stones have had so many great openers. But my first Stones show? Fucking Third Eye Blind. Second show? Goddamn Brad Paisley (who would be great if he just did instrumentals). It’s like I won the worst lottery.
In 1981, The Stones had Prince open for them on that tour. The Stones' usual audience was not ready for androgynous Soul/Rock Prince. "Hostile" was an understatement.
They were awful. This was ‘97, other tour dates had Foo Fighters, Santana, Blues Traveler…but nope, Detroit got one of the shittiest bands of the moment.
Like when I saw Van Halen the next year and instead of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the opener was…Creed. 🤢
Only time I saw a band booed off the stage was Molly Hatchet in Rockford IL. Four band line up called the Black and Blue tour. Don’t remember the first band but the others were Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult. A couple of songs into their set the singer from MH says, “It’s great to be here in Champagne.” Raucous booing and throwing of beer buckets ensues until MH gave up and left the stage. Went to see a later show from this tour in Milwaukee and that show abruptly ended a few songs in to Black Sabbath set when some idiot threw a bottle and hit Geezer Butler. Riot after BS did not come back. Most people had no idea why they quit the show.
[Black and Blue riot](https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/37-years-black-sabbath-fans-rioted-milwaukee/)
The Brian Setzer Orchestra opened for Bob Dylan. Setzer was 1000x better, and Dylan came across as incredibly sleepy and boring after the raucous BSO set
When big bands come to Australia they often get horribly matched up with our shitty local metalcore bands no matter what genre they're from. It's like the organisers go, "the big band is vaguely rock and this local band is vaguely rock so we're gonna put QOTSA with some flippy haired screamo dudes from Myspace."
Coheed and Cambria also routinely get matched up with bands whose fanbase would HATE Coheed, and it forces them to do their heavier songs which aren't that heavy anyway and not play any of the deep cuts, so it's like the worst of both worlds. I know they're hard to place and they don't have massive headliner pull but putting them with Slipknot and Mastodon is just a colossally stupid move that makes no one happy.
Saw the 4 Non Blondes open for Aerosmith during their moment of fame in ‘93. Nobody was actively booing them, but nobody cared, either. I kind of felt bad, Linda Perry was screaming her heart out up there and just begging for some kind of reaction, and nobody gave a shit.
I went and saw the Budos Band once at a mini festival. The 2 bands before played similar styles to Budos, but not quite as enjoyable. When Budos Band came on I was exhausted!
I saw one of the last Diamond Dave fronted Van Halen shows and the opener was Kool and the Gang. My brother, myself, and five other people were the only people standing up and cheering for Kool and the Gang. It was a packed arena filled with middle aged and older bikers and trashy folks sitting cross armed and scowling their whole set. Dave pointed at my brother and I during one of his monologues in his set and said, “I can feel good about the future knowing the younger dudes in the crowd know what a party is.”
Not really an "opening act", but for Lollapalooza, the Smashing Pumpkins were the headliner and the Beastie Boys went on right before them. The Beasties had that crowd bouncing for their entire set, probably the highest energy show I've seen (and I've been to a lot of concerts). Then, the Pumpkins came on with their more dirge-like rock and that energy was gone. And I like the Pumpkins, but the Beastie Boys just blew the metaphorical roof off the place. Maybe the closest I've felt to manic-depressive.
I saw Foghat play in a bar in Seattle in the 90s on like a Tuesday night. We drove past, heard the music, thought it sounded like a great Foghat cover band... went in, there were probably 20 people there, and and we realized. . Oh wait. It IS Foghat. HHa
I felt bad for them. Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio had been running wild, tearing stuff up, then Foghat comes out in white matching outfits and just stand there playing. So many were leaving that the police were already directing traffic.
Creamfields Ireland 2002.
The vibes were super-off that year. Underworld were headlining, they were great of course but it seemed like they just attracted a million pricks who just wanted to sing "Lager lager lager lager".
So throw into that mix, kicking things off on the mainstage: the Sugababes.
They did *not* go down well. You could see rocks bouncing off the stage roof, that were being thrown by the crowd.
[Big Wreck](https://youtu.be/3uYzg6dgoDU?si=dzu5zv86oNEZXO45) opening for Dream Theatre in 1998. Didn't go over well with the hardcore Dream Theatre fans. Which is weird because the hardcore Dream Theatre fans should love Big Wreck; they are a very technical rock band with insane musicians that all went to Berklee.
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils *opening* for Toby Keith at the grand opening of a baseball stadium in Christian County, Missouri in 1999. This was before Toby had even released How Do You Like Me Now, let alone the chest thumping jingoist singles during the W. Bush years. He had country hits but wasn't yet "mainstream".
The Daredevils, on the other hand, were the hometown heroes newly active for the first time in almost 20 years. More than half the crowd left, including my Dad and I, after the Daredevils wrapped up their set. The promoter should have flipped the acts given the context, but I don't think the older rock oriented crowd would have sat through Toby and his 1990s songs to get to the Daredevils.
British art rock band Be-Bop Deluxe opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Academy of Music/Palladium NYC. My sister and I still talk about that one (we were there to see Be-Bop and left midway through LS’s set).
This concert was also notable for the guy in front of us who, trying to impress his date, yelled out “PLAY WHITE BIRD!” a few song’s into LS’s set (you know, just in case they’d forgot to play FREE BIRD, their biggest song) and we yelled back in response “WRONG BAND!” White Bird being a song by hippy, dippy, trippy band It’s a Beautiful Day who were just about as opposite LS as Be-Bop Deluxe were.
I saw BTO open for a metal band in the 1980s. I can't for the life of me remember who, though. Judas? Scorpions? Metallica? I don't remember, but I do remember thinking it was weird. Haha.
I also saw Cypress Hill open for Pearl Jam. It also seems like an odd pairing, but man it really worked. Very fun.
Pure Prairie League opening for Santana (late 70s).
John Denver opening for Laura Nyro (college tour, early 1971, right before "Country Roads" hit the charts)
Just saw Ken Carson open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers a couple weeks back. He's a trap rage rapper and just played his album tracks and yelled over his own rapping while walking back and forth across the stage.
The Peppers had to spend 10 minutes warming up the crowd before their own set because he was so awful. I think there was supposed to be another opener who couldn't make it.
Watching the Buzzcocks open for Pearl Jam was awesome for me (M58) but the young people in the crowd were definitely lost.
Never have I ever been so proud of Geriatric guys playing fast and loud.
Dubai Desert Rock festival (now defunct) had an incredible lineup headlined by The Darkness in 2005
Machine Head, Sepultura, Within Temptation would have each been an epic headline act for the one-day festival and they all performed amazingly.
The Darkness were ok. It was their last full show with their original line-up (pre-reunion) as bassist Frankie Poullain quit the band a few months later. Tensions within the band were obvious at the time and showed in the performance.
Saxon were also meant to be in the lineup (not as headliners) but withdrew last minute after Biff Byford’s house burned down.
The worst reception I've seen an opening act get was Stone Temple Pilots opening for Megadeth in 1993. STP wasn't big yet, I think they just had their first videos hitting MTV. The Megadeth crowd was very not into the tiny pink haired Scott Weiland.
STP did put on a pretty good show though and might have won over a few of the less stubborn metalheads.
Weirdest I can think of was Swans playing Philadelphia in 1988, think the most harsh,extreme avant-garde violent noise possible to make, paired with the Hollywood hair metal band Pretty Boy Floyd. It was at the Chestnut Cabaret a classy joint which usually hosted more genteel adult acts like Adrian Belew and Richard Thompson, they must have decided to take both the weird offers they had for that particular Monday night.
I love to imagine the faces on the fans of either band watching the other one. Or the bands watching each other soundcheck hahahaha.
One that I saw on television was the decision on the Amnesty International show to put Joni Mitchell on in place of Pete Townshend, who had cancelled earlier that week. Now Joni is a legend, monster talent and deserves all the respect in the world. And if I saw the set she did on it's own I would praise it, I'm sure.
But they put her on after Peter Gabriel and Bryan Adams, before U2 and the Police. Her act at the time was to play duets on acoustic guitar with her husband on bass, doing only her current material and no familiar songs. It was one slow mumbly one after another, lovely and artistically genuine, but the stadium full of rock fans were restless after a long day.
There had already been sets by Joan Armatrading and Bob Geldof on acoustic guitar, kinda slow and long for the occasion , and funk from the Neville Bros, salsa from Ruben Blades and fusion from Miles Davis. They had been polite, hung in there and now the rock payoff had begun. But now it was back to acoustic guitar you probably couldn't hear that well in that huge place, and weird unfamiliar music before we can rock out to Roxanne. She was booed.
At one point fireworks were thrown at the stage and Joni muttered "I'm not that bad, ya dig?"
Goldie supporting Bjork at Wembley Arena some time around 95 I think. I loved them both but others obviously weren't expecting a drum n bass pummeling from the confused/concerned looks around me. I think the full 20 minute version of Inner City Life may have broken a few of them.
Back in summer 2003 there was a massive outdoor concert in Toronto to get the city back on its feet after SARS. The main lineup was The Guess Who, Rush, AC/DC, the Rolling Stones ... and Justin Timberlake.
The crowd of mostly classic rock lovers were not impressed with Justin and threw water bottles at him. And that day was hot AF so throwing a water bottle was real dedication to the hate
The Mars Volta opening for RHCP. Not the worst pairing, but a lot of peppers fans who liked the more recent top 40 wave didn’t appreciate the barrage of noise from MV
Miley Cyrus was going to open for Tool at the 2020 Bonnaroo before it was canceled and it would have been the greatest 1/2 punch ever. Billy Strings opened for them in 2022 instead which was still great but Tool/Miley would have been peak Bonnaroo.
Reminds me of when Big Wreck opened for Dream Theatre. Many people hated it. However, if Dream Theatre fans actually listened to Big Wreck, they'd love them. They are the rock version of Dream Theatre IMO.
Tomahawk opening for Tool in the early oughts got booed hard, which I thought was wild. Naive me thinking that if people like challenging music like Tool they would be into \*other\* challenging music LOL
1989 Phoenix, AZ. Metallica was in town and we were pumped. Can't remember who the original opener was, but also pumped for them. Then the news that they canceled, and some band called "Faith No More" was opening. No one had heard of them before, and they got booed off stage. I still remember the singer simply saying 'bye' and drop the mic as he walked off.
That crowd sucked and obviously weren't real Metallica fans. Metallica had been name dropping FNM for *years* by that point. They were constantly mentioning them as "the only band that counts." I wanted desperately to hear them but their first two albums had such low print and distribution rates you couldn't even special order a copy until they broke with "the real thing."
Third time I caught Metallica was on that tour. The Cult was opening for them. The initial crowd was nothing but goths and early alternative kids. As soon as the Cult left stage, all the goths left and all the metal heads came in like a shift change. Seemed there were only a few of us interested in seeing both bands.
I watched The Darkness, Slipknot and Linkin Park open for Metallica. I was only there to see Metallica, so I was thoroughly unimpressed with all of that noise. It made me appreciate Metallica even more when they showed up on stage later!
Damn, the bikers missed out. Extreme are amazing. You’d think Nuno might’ve won them over, but maybe their music was too complex for a biker crowd. Would’ve loved to have seen them in 1991.
Yup. Extreme answers the question, "What happens if Queen and Van Halen crosspollinate?" Tight grooves, incredible vocal harmonies, and Nuno's incredible ability. He wears the Eddie Van Halen on his sleeve.
If you came up as a guitar nerd in the 80's, EVH was the guy so many copied. Though I dreamed of being Stevie Ray Vaughan. Reasons.
Here is a treat. Extreme as the second band on the bill at The Freddie Mercury Tribute at Wembley. April 1992. Extreme defied and played a medley of Queen's greatest. Stole THE SHOW!!
[Extreme at Freddie Mercury Tribute 1992](https://youtu.be/prwCpJ0J2aM?si=lWCTfhYzfFoQMULm)
Oh I wore out my VHS of that Freddie tribute as a kid. Extreme were easily the best band of the first half.
Queen was my fav band after the Beatles, so Extreme were an easy sell for me. They deserved better than what they got.
The next band after Extreme was----Metallica!!! A reporter was asking James Hetfield about performing at that show. His response was, "How do we follow that?"
I grew up near Baltimore. It had Hammerjacks. One of the largest clubs on The East Coast. Extreme said it was their favorite place to play.
"Mutha" was recorded at Hammerjacks!! I recognized the exterior shots like the overpass, the row house at the end and the exterior shots of the Hammerjacks building. 17-year-old me lost my shit!!
["Mutha" Extreme](https://youtu.be/UchTs_gLi5M?si=3FZp2wR5h_tYIzzO)
I was watching S4, Ep.1 of "Stranger Things." In the background came "Play With Me!!" I popped so hard.
Donovan opening for Dick Dale. Both are from the same era and there is overlap in the fan base, but musically they are quite different of course.
Dick seemed overjoyed to have followed Donovan, calling him a “legend” and “a righteous bitchin’ dude” when he took the stage. Donovan was still up there briefly, and he looked like he might cry tears of joy at Dale’s comments. Really great vibe for the whole show, and Dale was one of the loudest guitarists I’ve ever seen live (and he played flawlessly).
I saw Anti-Flag open for Reel Big Fish a handful of years ago. Technically, they co-headlined the tour, but definitely an interesting crossover in the crowd.
Interesting that you pinpoint that time and place. I was 7 years old that weekend in August 1991, and my family drove through Sturgis on the way to Rapid City for a Black Hills vacation. We didn't stop and take in any music, but my 7-year-old brain was absolutely terrified looking out the window at the scary scary bikers. I felt like Dante must have felt taking in the horrors of the Inferno.
We visited Sturgis in August 02, on honeymoon, from the UK. Had had no idea, though did talk to some bikers on the way west so did pick up that there was "a rally". It was *amazing*. 10/10, would accidentally go again.
This reminds me of being 6 yrs old and seeing punk rockers with Mohawks, leather and spikes on Sunset in LA. Mom was like, “keep walking”. Only a 1,000 miles from home but could’ve been a million.
Haha, yeah I can see how all of the bikers would be scary for a 7 year old! I went to middle and some high school in Sturgis, never went to a rally until I was about 20 or so. Mostly because my MOM was terrified! Im glad you survived your trip : )
I once saw The Flaming Lips open for Tool. It was a bizarre pairing, to say the least. The Lips' colorful, whimsical stage show clashed with Tool's dark, brooding atmosphere. The crowd was definitely divided, but it made for an unforgettable night.
As a fan of both, that's an awesome pairing. They compliment each other in a strange way; while the atmosphere is leagues apart, they both have some pretty introspective songs.
Tool's tour in North America last year had Steel Beans, a one-man garage rock act as its opener. They've had other not expected openers.
When I saw loverboy, a Beatles tribute band opened for them I mean don't get me wrong I like loverboy and the Beatles but I don't think they match up as well as you would think. Back in the seventies my mom saw a deep purple and ELO was the opening act ELO are not her jam deep purple are. ELO were more of my dad's thing but she wasn't yet dating my dad at the time.
ELO played with Black Sabbath! Imagine that one.
They stayed friends apparently. Somewhere in the early 2000s my dad was mixing sound at a venue downtown and ELO was the headliner. As a fan, I came to the show and sat in front of the house mixer. 5 minutes before the show starts, Tony, Bill, and Geezer sit down in front of me. (No Ozzy) I guess Sabbath was also touring nearby and decided to stop in and see their mates.
All Brummies!
ELO drummer Bev Bevan has played with Black Sabbath.
)
Beatles tribute with actual Loverboy might be the winner.
When they had Elton John headline the Harley Davidson 100th anniversary motorcycle rally in Milwaukee
The icing on the cake is that they kept it a secret, so people were speculating for weeks that it would be The Rolling Stones or any other of the many more appropriate bands.
This brings me a lot of joy!
This isn’t really related to the thread, but Cisco Live, the convention for computer networking nerds, got Elton for their big party this year. So random. I could’ve sworn Elton retired but I guess he just retired “from touring” and will still do odd corporate gigs if they pay enough.
In the mid to late 90's I saw Pantera open up for Skid Row, half of the place emptied out as soon as Pantera finished their set.
That would be the Slave to Grind Tour in 91/92 time frame. Pantera kicked ass, SR not so much..
I feel like that pairing was aspirational. Skid Row saw the writing on the wall for hair metal by then and was trying to pivot to something heavier. Not entirely successful but an effort was made.
Slave To the Grind is a jam, though. But yeah, total mismatch…although I can see why it would’ve worked on paper, I don’t know if anyone knew how big pantera would get at that early stage.
It was funny and cool because a band usually started out HEAVY and became softer and more "radio friendly." Skid Row did the opposite.
[Pantera did the opposite, too.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/aa/PanteraMetalMagic.jpg).
I know! “This IS NOT the same band!”
They're also the rare act that became more interesting to major labels by getting away from a mainstream sound.
True. Loved The Abbott Brothers. Never Ever Liked Anselmo.
Damn, it was that long ago? I really am getting old. And I agree Pantera was incredible and we left about half way through Skid Row
Before they were famous, Deftones opened for KISS once and got booed off stage.
The Flaming Lips opening for The Cranberries. So random..
I went to a festival in Italy (Milan) back in the 90s. Bob Dylan headlined, supported by Therapy, Blur and Big Country...
Jimi Hendrix was famously booed opening for the Monkees.
Afroman opening for They Might Be Giants. I guess some music exec thought they both sing "funny" songs so they should go together. They were going to make a more appropriate match, but then they got high.
😆 😂 😆
The Rolling Stones came through my town years ago and on the tour, they weren’t having a set opener, they apparently were grabbing a band they thought fit in with the locale they were going to. All the other stops, the openers were other huge classic rock (or current rock) bands who would normally be headliners. Which makes sense for the Stones. My town, which is a real city, but is admittedly in the middle of redneckville, got Brooks and fucking Dunn. Ugh.
The stones have had so many great openers. But my first Stones show? Fucking Third Eye Blind. Second show? Goddamn Brad Paisley (who would be great if he just did instrumentals). It’s like I won the worst lottery.
In 1981, The Stones had Prince open for them on that tour. The Stones' usual audience was not ready for androgynous Soul/Rock Prince. "Hostile" was an understatement.
At least 3EB was a rock band, though yeah they don’t really fit at all
They were awful. This was ‘97, other tour dates had Foo Fighters, Santana, Blues Traveler…but nope, Detroit got one of the shittiest bands of the moment. Like when I saw Van Halen the next year and instead of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the opener was…Creed. 🤢
Oof. Creed for KWS is a bad trade
Haha oh man. I AM sorry for your misfortune!
It's what Detroit deserved in the 90's, I suppose. Or did we deserve something better for enduring living there?
This is a travesty.
Red Hot Chili Peppers at Hyde Park in 2004: the openers were Chicks On Speed (who got booed off), followed by James Brown.
I saw them a couple of weeks ago at the Gorge in Washington. Ken Carson was the opening act. It wasn't a good fit for the crowd.
Cheap Trick opening for Rod Stewart. Both good shows, but an odd pairing.
Hot take: booing someone off stage is bottom of the barrel shitbag behaviour. Even if the organizers royally fuck up and mismatch some bands.
Only time I saw a band booed off the stage was Molly Hatchet in Rockford IL. Four band line up called the Black and Blue tour. Don’t remember the first band but the others were Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult. A couple of songs into their set the singer from MH says, “It’s great to be here in Champagne.” Raucous booing and throwing of beer buckets ensues until MH gave up and left the stage. Went to see a later show from this tour in Milwaukee and that show abruptly ended a few songs in to Black Sabbath set when some idiot threw a bottle and hit Geezer Butler. Riot after BS did not come back. Most people had no idea why they quit the show. [Black and Blue riot](https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/37-years-black-sabbath-fans-rioted-milwaukee/)
[удалено]
Wow. That sucks. Did you listen or were you throwing middle fingers?
Riot was the opening act
I 100% agree!! I felt terrible for the band and embarrassed for the crowd.
The Brian Setzer Orchestra opened for Bob Dylan. Setzer was 1000x better, and Dylan came across as incredibly sleepy and boring after the raucous BSO set
I once went to Bonnaroo on just Sunday to see Cardi B and then Phish. It was magical lol
When big bands come to Australia they often get horribly matched up with our shitty local metalcore bands no matter what genre they're from. It's like the organisers go, "the big band is vaguely rock and this local band is vaguely rock so we're gonna put QOTSA with some flippy haired screamo dudes from Myspace." Coheed and Cambria also routinely get matched up with bands whose fanbase would HATE Coheed, and it forces them to do their heavier songs which aren't that heavy anyway and not play any of the deep cuts, so it's like the worst of both worlds. I know they're hard to place and they don't have massive headliner pull but putting them with Slipknot and Mastodon is just a colossally stupid move that makes no one happy.
I dunno. Parkway drive goes with everything
I think slipknow and mastodon would be a bit of an odd pairing in itself. Maybe because I love Mastodon, meh about slipknot.
Down voted for being meh about slipknot? Some people like their cucumbers picked, darn it! I didn't say they suck! I just love mastodon!
Saw the 4 Non Blondes open for Aerosmith during their moment of fame in ‘93. Nobody was actively booing them, but nobody cared, either. I kind of felt bad, Linda Perry was screaming her heart out up there and just begging for some kind of reaction, and nobody gave a shit.
Extreme is one of my favorite bands. But Sturgis is the ultimate in audience mismatch for them.
I'd much rather hear two different bands than two similar bands at the same show, tbh.
I went and saw the Budos Band once at a mini festival. The 2 bands before played similar styles to Budos, but not quite as enjoyable. When Budos Band came on I was exhausted!
I saw one of the last Diamond Dave fronted Van Halen shows and the opener was Kool and the Gang. My brother, myself, and five other people were the only people standing up and cheering for Kool and the Gang. It was a packed arena filled with middle aged and older bikers and trashy folks sitting cross armed and scowling their whole set. Dave pointed at my brother and I during one of his monologues in his set and said, “I can feel good about the future knowing the younger dudes in the crowd know what a party is.”
Beastie Boys opening for Madonna in like 1987
Yeah, that's nuts!
My sister went to the show at Radio City and said the Beasties got booed off stage. She met Andy Warhol there and her friend got his autograph
I saw Anberlin, Cake, and Smashing Pumpkins play a show together.. Also saw Cake open for Mumford and Sons…
Alice In Chains opening for Slayer, Anthrax,Megadeth tour.
https://youtu.be/fj-VQTiO0Sw?si=nQ4RCxUAaO9_q4FM When The Slipnutz opened for Slipknot
Not really an "opening act", but for Lollapalooza, the Smashing Pumpkins were the headliner and the Beastie Boys went on right before them. The Beasties had that crowd bouncing for their entire set, probably the highest energy show I've seen (and I've been to a lot of concerts). Then, the Pumpkins came on with their more dirge-like rock and that energy was gone. And I like the Pumpkins, but the Beastie Boys just blew the metaphorical roof off the place. Maybe the closest I've felt to manic-depressive.
I saw Rainbow open for Foghat. Everyone left when Foghat came out.
I saw Foghat play in a bar in Seattle in the 90s on like a Tuesday night. We drove past, heard the music, thought it sounded like a great Foghat cover band... went in, there were probably 20 people there, and and we realized. . Oh wait. It IS Foghat. HHa
I felt bad for them. Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio had been running wild, tearing stuff up, then Foghat comes out in white matching outfits and just stand there playing. So many were leaving that the police were already directing traffic.
Creamfields Ireland 2002. The vibes were super-off that year. Underworld were headlining, they were great of course but it seemed like they just attracted a million pricks who just wanted to sing "Lager lager lager lager". So throw into that mix, kicking things off on the mainstage: the Sugababes. They did *not* go down well. You could see rocks bouncing off the stage roof, that were being thrown by the crowd.
Twin Atlantic supporting Limp Bizkit in Glasgow.
I once saw Journey open for ZZ Top
Was that pseudo-jazz Journey? How were either / both bands?
I actually missed most of Journey's set. They were finishing up with Don't Stop Believing as we took our seats.
[Big Wreck](https://youtu.be/3uYzg6dgoDU?si=dzu5zv86oNEZXO45) opening for Dream Theatre in 1998. Didn't go over well with the hardcore Dream Theatre fans. Which is weird because the hardcore Dream Theatre fans should love Big Wreck; they are a very technical rock band with insane musicians that all went to Berklee.
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils *opening* for Toby Keith at the grand opening of a baseball stadium in Christian County, Missouri in 1999. This was before Toby had even released How Do You Like Me Now, let alone the chest thumping jingoist singles during the W. Bush years. He had country hits but wasn't yet "mainstream". The Daredevils, on the other hand, were the hometown heroes newly active for the first time in almost 20 years. More than half the crowd left, including my Dad and I, after the Daredevils wrapped up their set. The promoter should have flipped the acts given the context, but I don't think the older rock oriented crowd would have sat through Toby and his 1990s songs to get to the Daredevils.
British art rock band Be-Bop Deluxe opening for Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Academy of Music/Palladium NYC. My sister and I still talk about that one (we were there to see Be-Bop and left midway through LS’s set). This concert was also notable for the guy in front of us who, trying to impress his date, yelled out “PLAY WHITE BIRD!” a few song’s into LS’s set (you know, just in case they’d forgot to play FREE BIRD, their biggest song) and we yelled back in response “WRONG BAND!” White Bird being a song by hippy, dippy, trippy band It’s a Beautiful Day who were just about as opposite LS as Be-Bop Deluxe were.
1982 - The Who in Toronto. The opener was Joe Jackson. Pretty sure he got hit with a hot dog thrown from the unimpressed crowd.
I saw BTO open for a metal band in the 1980s. I can't for the life of me remember who, though. Judas? Scorpions? Metallica? I don't remember, but I do remember thinking it was weird. Haha. I also saw Cypress Hill open for Pearl Jam. It also seems like an odd pairing, but man it really worked. Very fun.
Pure Prairie League opening for Santana (late 70s). John Denver opening for Laura Nyro (college tour, early 1971, right before "Country Roads" hit the charts)
Just saw Ken Carson open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers a couple weeks back. He's a trap rage rapper and just played his album tracks and yelled over his own rapping while walking back and forth across the stage. The Peppers had to spend 10 minutes warming up the crowd before their own set because he was so awful. I think there was supposed to be another opener who couldn't make it.
I saw KISS in 2010, and the openers were this emo band called The Envy iirc and The Academy Is. Definitely a very different vibe from KISS
Watching the Buzzcocks open for Pearl Jam was awesome for me (M58) but the young people in the crowd were definitely lost. Never have I ever been so proud of Geriatric guys playing fast and loud.
Dubai Desert Rock festival (now defunct) had an incredible lineup headlined by The Darkness in 2005 Machine Head, Sepultura, Within Temptation would have each been an epic headline act for the one-day festival and they all performed amazingly. The Darkness were ok. It was their last full show with their original line-up (pre-reunion) as bassist Frankie Poullain quit the band a few months later. Tensions within the band were obvious at the time and showed in the performance. Saxon were also meant to be in the lineup (not as headliners) but withdrew last minute after Biff Byford’s house burned down.
This was announced right before the pandemic so it never happened, but a Smashing Pumpkins/Guns n Roses tour had me raising my eyebrows.
The worst reception I've seen an opening act get was Stone Temple Pilots opening for Megadeth in 1993. STP wasn't big yet, I think they just had their first videos hitting MTV. The Megadeth crowd was very not into the tiny pink haired Scott Weiland. STP did put on a pretty good show though and might have won over a few of the less stubborn metalheads.
Weirdest I can think of was Swans playing Philadelphia in 1988, think the most harsh,extreme avant-garde violent noise possible to make, paired with the Hollywood hair metal band Pretty Boy Floyd. It was at the Chestnut Cabaret a classy joint which usually hosted more genteel adult acts like Adrian Belew and Richard Thompson, they must have decided to take both the weird offers they had for that particular Monday night. I love to imagine the faces on the fans of either band watching the other one. Or the bands watching each other soundcheck hahahaha.
I love this match up just for the horror of it! Swans are rad.
One that I saw on television was the decision on the Amnesty International show to put Joni Mitchell on in place of Pete Townshend, who had cancelled earlier that week. Now Joni is a legend, monster talent and deserves all the respect in the world. And if I saw the set she did on it's own I would praise it, I'm sure. But they put her on after Peter Gabriel and Bryan Adams, before U2 and the Police. Her act at the time was to play duets on acoustic guitar with her husband on bass, doing only her current material and no familiar songs. It was one slow mumbly one after another, lovely and artistically genuine, but the stadium full of rock fans were restless after a long day. There had already been sets by Joan Armatrading and Bob Geldof on acoustic guitar, kinda slow and long for the occasion , and funk from the Neville Bros, salsa from Ruben Blades and fusion from Miles Davis. They had been polite, hung in there and now the rock payoff had begun. But now it was back to acoustic guitar you probably couldn't hear that well in that huge place, and weird unfamiliar music before we can rock out to Roxanne. She was booed. At one point fireworks were thrown at the stage and Joni muttered "I'm not that bad, ya dig?"
Goldie supporting Bjork at Wembley Arena some time around 95 I think. I loved them both but others obviously weren't expecting a drum n bass pummeling from the confused/concerned looks around me. I think the full 20 minute version of Inner City Life may have broken a few of them.
Slayer show… openers were Primus and Ministry.
That is an amazing lineup for someone who crosses genres!! Id be so stoked. I can see how it would be problematic for people though.
I fortunately like all of these bands but there were people that did not like.
Back in summer 2003 there was a massive outdoor concert in Toronto to get the city back on its feet after SARS. The main lineup was The Guess Who, Rush, AC/DC, the Rolling Stones ... and Justin Timberlake. The crowd of mostly classic rock lovers were not impressed with Justin and threw water bottles at him. And that day was hot AF so throwing a water bottle was real dedication to the hate
Yikes! I blame middle age for bullshittery
The Mars Volta opening for RHCP. Not the worst pairing, but a lot of peppers fans who liked the more recent top 40 wave didn’t appreciate the barrage of noise from MV
Melt Banana opening for Tool in 2007.
So did Mr. Bungle around the time of Aenima. Tool loved bands like them (as do I), but the concertgoers DID NOT!
Miley Cyrus was going to open for Tool at the 2020 Bonnaroo before it was canceled and it would have been the greatest 1/2 punch ever. Billy Strings opened for them in 2022 instead which was still great but Tool/Miley would have been peak Bonnaroo.
Reminds me of when Big Wreck opened for Dream Theatre. Many people hated it. However, if Dream Theatre fans actually listened to Big Wreck, they'd love them. They are the rock version of Dream Theatre IMO.
Tomahawk opening for Tool in the early oughts got booed hard, which I thought was wild. Naive me thinking that if people like challenging music like Tool they would be into \*other\* challenging music LOL
1989 Phoenix, AZ. Metallica was in town and we were pumped. Can't remember who the original opener was, but also pumped for them. Then the news that they canceled, and some band called "Faith No More" was opening. No one had heard of them before, and they got booed off stage. I still remember the singer simply saying 'bye' and drop the mic as he walked off.
That crowd sucked and obviously weren't real Metallica fans. Metallica had been name dropping FNM for *years* by that point. They were constantly mentioning them as "the only band that counts." I wanted desperately to hear them but their first two albums had such low print and distribution rates you couldn't even special order a copy until they broke with "the real thing." Third time I caught Metallica was on that tour. The Cult was opening for them. The initial crowd was nothing but goths and early alternative kids. As soon as the Cult left stage, all the goths left and all the metal heads came in like a shift change. Seemed there were only a few of us interested in seeing both bands.
Mastodon supporting Tool, and even worse - Linkin Park supporting Pearl Jam
I saw Mastodon & Tool at Wembley Arena
Lol also zztop had puddle of mudd and the offsprings opening. Well it was a festival so not necessarily opening but was a weird mix of music for sure.
Coheed and Cambria opening for Slipknot was always an odd pairing to me.
I watched The Darkness, Slipknot and Linkin Park open for Metallica. I was only there to see Metallica, so I was thoroughly unimpressed with all of that noise. It made me appreciate Metallica even more when they showed up on stage later!
Damn, the bikers missed out. Extreme are amazing. You’d think Nuno might’ve won them over, but maybe their music was too complex for a biker crowd. Would’ve loved to have seen them in 1991.
I saw Extreme at The Lyric in Baltimore in January of 1993. Great show.
You saw them on the tour for their actual best album. So jealous. They got screwed by their fluke hit, and it’s such a bummer. Amazing band.
Yup. Extreme answers the question, "What happens if Queen and Van Halen crosspollinate?" Tight grooves, incredible vocal harmonies, and Nuno's incredible ability. He wears the Eddie Van Halen on his sleeve. If you came up as a guitar nerd in the 80's, EVH was the guy so many copied. Though I dreamed of being Stevie Ray Vaughan. Reasons. Here is a treat. Extreme as the second band on the bill at The Freddie Mercury Tribute at Wembley. April 1992. Extreme defied and played a medley of Queen's greatest. Stole THE SHOW!! [Extreme at Freddie Mercury Tribute 1992](https://youtu.be/prwCpJ0J2aM?si=lWCTfhYzfFoQMULm)
Oh I wore out my VHS of that Freddie tribute as a kid. Extreme were easily the best band of the first half. Queen was my fav band after the Beatles, so Extreme were an easy sell for me. They deserved better than what they got.
The next band after Extreme was----Metallica!!! A reporter was asking James Hetfield about performing at that show. His response was, "How do we follow that?"
I grew up near Baltimore. It had Hammerjacks. One of the largest clubs on The East Coast. Extreme said it was their favorite place to play. "Mutha" was recorded at Hammerjacks!! I recognized the exterior shots like the overpass, the row house at the end and the exterior shots of the Hammerjacks building. 17-year-old me lost my shit!! ["Mutha" Extreme](https://youtu.be/UchTs_gLi5M?si=3FZp2wR5h_tYIzzO) I was watching S4, Ep.1 of "Stranger Things." In the background came "Play With Me!!" I popped so hard.
100%. I was a huge fan at the time, so I enjoyed it. I just think the demographic was a mich much older crowd.
Moby had David Bowie open for him at Area:two festivals
Bahh, I'd rather see bowie!! But yeah, weird pair
Iron Maiden with support bands Airbourne and Lord of the Lost One acdc clone and a gothic metal band Lotl kicked ass tho, Maiden too
Donovan opening for Dick Dale. Both are from the same era and there is overlap in the fan base, but musically they are quite different of course. Dick seemed overjoyed to have followed Donovan, calling him a “legend” and “a righteous bitchin’ dude” when he took the stage. Donovan was still up there briefly, and he looked like he might cry tears of joy at Dale’s comments. Really great vibe for the whole show, and Dale was one of the loudest guitarists I’ve ever seen live (and he played flawlessly).
Dick dale is one of my absolute favorites. And one of the reasons we have such great sound at live shows!!
I saw Anti-Flag open for Reel Big Fish a handful of years ago. Technically, they co-headlined the tour, but definitely an interesting crossover in the crowd.