Worst. Opening Acts. Ever.
In one of the worst pairings in the history of concert promotion, Jimmy Hendrix was once picked to the opening act for The Monkees. He managed to make it through seven gigs in the summer of 1967 before he bailed.
This was far from the only such chalk-and-cheese move by a promoter. Here are some other examples:
–Ramones opening for Toto. They also played shows with Styx and Boston back in the 70s.
–Counting Crows opening for Cracker (December 1993)
–Radiohead opening for Alanis Morrissette on her Jagged Little Pill tour (August 1996)
Then there were occasions where the opening act soon became much, much larger than the headliner.
–1985: When X was the shit in LA punk circles, they picked a group called the Red Hot Chili Peppers to open for them.
–1987: Some new LA band called Guns ‘N Roses opened part of the Electric tour for the Cult
–1988: Nine Inch Nails opens for Peter Murphy
–1991: A new group called Nirvana opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That same bill also featured some new Seattle band called Pearl Jam.
–1992-ish: Stone Temple Pilots opening for Toronto act hhead. (Was it at the Horseshoe?)
–1996 (?): No Doubt opened for Bush. At least Gavin Rossdale got a rich hot wife out of the deal.
Any other weird pairings that you’ve seen?
I thought Rancid being the opening act for Rise Against was a little backwards (Toronto in '09). Made me a little sad that there were probably a bunch of 'young punks' (tongue in cheek from the old guy) there that were thinking "Ran…who? Who are these old guys?"
Jimi
When I saw Soundgarden in Winnipeg in the late 90s, the opening act was The Reverend Horton Heat. Both good bands, but man was it a mismatch.
That '91 RHCP tour also had a leg with Pearl Jam opening and Smashing Pumpkins in between before any of them really went mainstream. Saw it at The State Theatre in Detroit.
Also, Ivan (Men Without Hats) opening for Duran Duran. He was just awful.
Somehow the NIN Peter Murphy combo makes sense to me…like opening bands paying homage to their influences.
I saw GNR open for The Cult, in Waterloo in '87. Not sure that was a worst pairing. But a year later, The Cult were opening for GNR. Also, I remember reading (I wasn't there) Joe Jackson was booed off the stage at CNE Stadium in Toronto opening for The Who – 1982.
I was at that Who concert, someone started throwing golf balls at Joe.
Here's another for Peter Murphy–but much worse than NIN. In '95 I saw Jewel open for Murphy in Rochester, NY. Needless to say the crowd wasn't overly gracious to her…
Beastie Boys opening for Madonna
Weirdest pairing I saw was Colin James and the Little Big Band opening for the Rolling Stones. Swing-jive and the Stones just didn't mix. Also, Fun Lovin' Criminals as a U2 opener was pretty weak.
Stone Temple Pilots opened for hHead at the Rivoli not the 'Shoe. I remember seeing the ad in Now Magazine and thinking "No I'm not going to see hHead again as the opening band sounded like they could have been from Ajax." So I missed it! D'oh!
But did see Rage at the Opera House for $4 with a coupon from Now magazine. Greatest cheapest show ever.
Don't forget that Jimi Hendrix opened for The Monkees.
Yes Blake, people have only heard that a million times!!!!
Oh no, my friends. I think I may just have seen the very, absolute worst opening act.
In 1984, when I was 12 years old, I was taken to see the Jacksons on the "Victory" tour. (Don't ask. Please. Don't.) Their opening act was a dude name Chris Bliss. If you've never heard of him, Chris Bliss is…wait for it….a juggler.
Yes, that's right, a juggler. He apparently is (or rather was) a friend of Michael Jackson, which is how he got the gig. Even back in 84, we could see that Jacko was coming a bit unstuck, because he honestly seemed to think that it would be a great idea to have a f–king juggler warm up the crowd.
At Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. In front of 60,000-odd people.
Worst. F–king. Opening. Act. In. The. History. Of. Opening. Acts.
Saw the Cracker / Counting Crows stop at the Moore Theatre in Seattle. Even though CC's were hitting at radio with "Mr Jones", the crowd really didn't care and couldn't wait for them & their plain vanilla blandness to get the hell off stage. Even though Cracker never became huge, Dave Lowery & the band had the chops and dynamic talent equal to the biggest superstar acts on the planet.
Worst match I've seen? Rufus Wainwright opening for Sloan at The Drink in London, Ontario. Don't get me wrong – I love both acts – but not together on one stage. Poor Rufus. The crowd was really not friendly to him.
The Strokes opened for Doves on their North American Tour in 2001. Is This It hadn't quite taken off yet, but the musical pairing is just odd, regardless of which band is opening.
I saw the Reason open for (The) Saint Alvia (Cartel) back in 09. Hostage Life was also on that bill great show.
…and in the category of "opening act eventually overtaking the headliner":
In 1967, my father took my grandmother (don't ask me why he took her, of all people) to see Jefferson Airplane at what was then the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto. Also on the bill: The Grateful Dead.
Now, you could see this as a double-bill, since the Dead had been around for a couple of years already. But the way Dad tells it, most of the audience was there to see Jefferson Airplane, and was way more interested in Grace Slick than in this bunch of guys called the Dead. In fact, Dad knew next to nothing about the Dead at the time. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Bad pairing — Nitzer Ebb opening for Depeche Mode.
Opener becoming bigger — Rammstein opening for Project Pitchfork
I saw The Cult on that 1987 Electric tour – they played the Max Bell Arena here in Calgary – at the time, that album, at least for me, saved rock n' roll. Rick Rubin's Zeppelin-esque injection gave The Cult a power rock element that the world was sorely missing at the time. Nonetheless. I remember the opening act came out and we tried to boo 'em out of the joint. Some joker with long, permed hair and a top-hat with a smoke sticking out and a jackass lead singer who looked like his tattoos were drawn on with mascara and danced and pranced like a fool. Little did we know we were sticking it to the soon-to-be bigger than life Guns n' Roses. Appetite for Destruction went on to become one of my favourite all time albums – but at the time, and don't let anyone tell you any different – The Max Bell crowd hated 'em that night with a passion.
Worst opener/headliner match I can remember? Alice in Chains opening for Sammy Hagar's Van Halen on the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tour. Kick Axe opening for Rush on the Power Windows tour is up there too.
I didn't think Axl Rose's look was too different from Ian Astbury's at the time…
Kool & The Gang opened for Van Halen.
I heard (but did not see) Ashley MacIsaac opening for Crash Test Dummies. Weird pairing, I think.
I saw that tour, at the Electric Factory in Philly circa 1992-2000 range. They also had a third act open there, was kinda like a garage band not anyone I had heard of. They weren’t bad, but the trio of groups was an odd mix. I had never heard of MacIsaac before but he stole the show in my mind, was really high energy fun.
NIN opened for Guns and Roses for a few shows in the states….
I was at the nin/peter murphy show it was actually great.
(1969) The Headliner: Iron Butterfly with opening act Led Zeppelin
Moldy Peaches opening for The Strokes in Vancouver '01. Terrible band with terrible songs. Everyone was wondering what the hell was going on. Then The Strokes played and wiped everyone's memory clean.
In the category of opener overtaking the headliner in popularity, Nickelback opened some shows for the Headstones in late 2000. That being said, I'm a huge Headstones fan and I can't abide Nickelback. But Nickelback wins the popularity contest by a wide margin.
I think Maroon 5 doing a tour with the Hives as the opener was one of the oddest pairings. Also didn't Nickleback once open for Slipknot? I seem to remember reading about that
I saw Talk Talk open for Berlin. Okay, that's not weird. What's weird is that the concert was a double bill and the other headliner (and the act immediately after Talk Talk) was … blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.
@ Tim McMullen: that is a GREAT story about GnR. About a year later, I saw them open for Iron Maiden at the old CNE Grandstand in Toronto. (They were the second band on a three-band bill. The first was Zodiac Mindwarp.)
"Appetite for Destruction" was gathering steam at that point, and there was some buzz about it. Judging by the t-shirts in the crowd, some people were there specifically to see GnR. I was there to see Maiden, but thought I'd check out the newcomers…and THEY SUCKED DONKEY BALLS. Axl couldn't keep his voice together, and Slash seemed so out of it that he could barely stand up. As I recall, the Iron Maiden fans didn't have much patience for them at all. It was definitely an "off night", so much so that I thought: "nah, these bozos aren't going anywhere." 🙂
Incidentally, I saw Slash perform at the Kool Haus in Toronto on his solo tour in 2010. The show was BRILLIANT. Amazing what a difference 22 years, a pacemaker, and kicking heroin can make.
the Hhead/STP show was at the Rivoli. Keep in mind nobody knew who STP were at the time. Just like nobody knew who Pearl Jam was until they blew Smashing Pumpkins and RHCP off the stage at the concert Hall in 1991!
How about Nick Gilder opening for Peter Gabriel?
has anyone mentioned alice in chains opened up for EXTREME! omg… that was pretty ridiculous!
I’m obviously an old fart. Started going to gigs in ’71 when I was 14. Saw Earth Wind & Fire open for Uriah Heep, Lynryd Skynryd open for the Who (1st Quadrophenia tour) and Kiss open for Argent. Local radio station held a free concert for a number of years once with Rush opening, Charlie Daniels Band up next, then Kiss headlining.
1967 USA tour – The Who opening for Herman’s Hermits
1978 USA tour – The Jam opening for Blue Oyster Cult
I saw Aerosmith open for the Guess Who in the early Seventies. Aerosmith, unknown to most of us at that point, tore the place up. The Guess Who had a deep enough catalog to do a strong rock set, but for some reason chose to kick things off with “These Eyes,” a real easy listening ballad. We all headed for the exits. And by “we all,” I mean several thousand of us.
By the way, I now think that having Hendrix open for the Monkees was one of the all-time great PR strokes, and whoever thought of it was a freaking genius. It got both acts a ton of free publicity, and how many other double bills from nearly fifty years ago do people still remember?
I’ve seen a few weird pairings in just the past 8 years I’ve been going to shows.
In 2012, Death Cab for Cutie opened for The Hip at a Canada Day show in Niagara. Obviously most of the crowd was there to see The Hip, and during Death Cab’s set several drunk, impatient Hip fans kept chanting HIP! HIP! HIP! Fortunately the band took it well, and before they left the stage they started their own HIP! chant.
In 2013, I saw Big Wreck open for Motley Crue in Hamilton. I know that Motley Crue is more popular than Big Wreck, but it felt weird seeing Big Wreck, who is a much more talented band that Motley Crue, give an amazing performance for a half empty arena of mostly unappreciative Motley Crue fans.
Also in 2013, I saw 54-40 open for The Sheepdogs. The Sheepdogs at the time were a cool new band in Canadian rock, so I understood why they were the main act, but it annoyed me that a band like 54-40, who had 20 years of hit after hit in Canada was now resorted to opening for a band that had only been popular for 2 years.
Oh, and in 2016 I saw Collective Soul open for the Goo Goo Dolls. It was weird seeing a rock band that went 8x Platinum in Canada during the 90s open for a pop rock band that only had a few hit songs.