Astounding Concert Mismatches

Knitting Factory NYC. maybe like summer 2001.

A "double headliner" and an unmitigated disaster. About 40 people were there for Mr. Barlow.

For me, the Pixies opening up for the Throwing Muses in 1987. I know they were friends and all, but it was a joke. The Muses were never much of a live band and the Pixies were absolutely astounding.

I would have loved to have been at the show where Klaus Nomi opened for Twisted Sister...

-- gear (speed.to.roa...), January 25th, 2006.

see also Rage Against the Machine/U2, on the Popmart tour

No, I swear this really happened.

The In-Out, who were pompous and dreadful, playing what seemed like a 1,000-year-long opening set for Cibo Matto.

And although it makes a certain McSweeney's kind of geek-rock sense to me, I recall a great many They Might Be Giants fan being horrified by The Magnetic Fields as their sardonic, audience-baiting openers.

-The James Cotton Band opening for the Runaways, 1976 (Chicago)
(The Cotton Band was supposedly booed. Actually, during the hippie era, Cotton opened for rock bands all the time, and went over well, but by the time of the Runaways show a new generation was slowly taking over, and a middle-aged blues harmonica player opening up for five teenaged girls in a punk/metal band young enough to be his daughter wasn't gonna get it.)
- Howlin' Wolf opening for Alice Cooper, 1972 (San Francisco)
(Apparently both acts went over well, although God knows what the Wolf thought of Alice Cooper.)
- The Grass Roots and Santana, 1968 (San Francisco)
(And this was at the Fillmore, too. As someone who wasn't there, I always wondered how a bubblegummy band like the Grass Roots managed to still get booked at some hipster rock venue like the Fillmore, but this guy I know who was a teenager back then insists that while the FM rock crowd weren't big fans, the Roots were at least tolerated, for some reason.)

That sounds like a contender for the most awesome concert ever, though!

No one can possible top this without making stuff up.

I remember seeing a poster for this and assuming it was a misprint for two separate shows.

Control is a mexican hip hop band that was hot at the moment, opening for the Irish band through the Pop MArt tour at a 60,000 stadium... what an idea.

Control Machete/ Erasure/ David Bowie!

Control is a mexican hip hop band that was hot at the moment, opening for the Thin White Duke through the Earthling years at a 60,000 stadium... fuck!

Friday the 13th, October, 1972. Aragon Ballroom, Chicago. The opening band is Triumph, the Rush-like trio (although the band's biography says they started in 1975, I believe they started earlier, but were soooo bad, they went back to the shed for a few years). They play a short set as openers, and proclaim that they have palyed everysong they know. They come back out, unbidden, for an encore, and play the first tune again. Lead singer makes a big show of drinking straight from a bottle of bourbon. And falling down. A lot.

Second band was Sailcat. Known for their "hit" that summer, Motorcycle Mama--a lightweight sing-songy pop thing complete with Harley sound effects. Band has the house lights dim as they come on, motorcycle sounds blasted through the mic as one of the band rides down the aisle & up onto stage, on a Honda! The band's confectionary pop is in stark contrast to the complex music of the headliner, touring in support of their new LP, Clear Spot, that Sailcat is booed off the stage after performing about 20 minutes.

Which earns the crowd a lecture from the headliner, Captain Beefheart. There is a wait for the Magic Band to get set up (due to the rather unscheduled departure of Sailcat), so he tells us in his cryptic way that we need to be nicer to each other, especially (apparently) to traveling rock bands. The Captain & the Magic Band start with "Lo Yo Yo Stuff" and a few others from "Clear Spot" (I clearly remember Sun Zoom Spark and Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles) and after about 15-20 minutes they abruptly leave the stage.

Things get pretty tense--it's Friday the 13th afterall, and there were more than enough hallucenogenics to levitate the Wrigley Building--and after about 10 minutes break, the Captain commes back out and says that Rockette Morton has cut his fingers and that the show cannot go on.

Weird pairings, weird vibes, weird concert.

Cactus, doomed to perennial opening status, opened. This was a supergroup that never was. A couple of ex-Vanilla Fudge inexplicably paired with midwesterners--Jim McCarty in between the demise of the Detroit Wheels and before the inception of the Rockets, and the sinnger from the Amboy Dukes.

The Flying Burrito Brothers came from the ashes of the Byrds, but by this time, everyone of note in the band had already been replaced and re-replaced. Parsons was gone, Leadon was gone, in fact, the band thatt showed that day was probably fulfilling some contractual obligation.

Sly is reported to be on the way. Crowd is getting anxious.

A local hand drumming group sets up on stage and gets the crowd's attention with some Woodstock-like antics.

An announcer says that Sly's plane has landed and he's on his way.

Cactus plays another set, the game troupers. Their choogling boogie is not quite as satisfying the second time through, not for the swelling crowds who've come to see Sly for free.

Another lengthy delay, and perhaps 3 hours after Sly is supposed to hit the stage, the official word is, Sly has stomache problems and won't be making the gig. True to Sly's "There's a Riot Goin' On," there's a riot going on. Chicago's Finest roll out the paddy wagons and the tear gas.

But you could have almost figured that a triple bill festival style concert with Cactus, Flying Burrito Brothers, and Sly Stone was doomed from the get.

Actually, I can now contribute to my own thread. I saw Six Finger Satellite open up for Clutch.

It was a one-off show, I think. It was at the 9:30 club in DC. I was there reviewing the show for Creem because it was the hometown record release show for the first Clutch disc on the major label East West. I got the feeling that the club booked SFS and then, when the label/management/local band-done-good asked for the date, Seth Hurwitz did the best he could, but I could be mistaken.

Six Finger Satellite was supporting its first disc, which was not as experiemental as later material, so it possibly could have worked. Except the hometown Clutch fans didn't react. The packed crowd sat there looking very bored waiting for their conquering heroes to arrive.

When the band's set was finished, amidst feedback, the SFS singer grabbed the mic, gritted his teeth and sneered, "Stick around for Helmet."

If you know both bands, you'd know how hilarious this was. The entire TISM crowd up and left when the 'Gurus came on (inc myself).

I kinda thought that Motorhead with Clutch supporting was a little strange, given the jam-band tendencies of Clutch are pretty opposite of the song-oriented style of the headliner but Clutch went over pretty well when I saw them both a couple nighs ago.

Speaking of Vanilla Fudge, they were on a tour with Led Zeppelin - not a bad pairing in itself, but.... Vanilla Fudge was the headliner!

But Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees still stands as the worst mismatch ever.

I wasn't there but heard about it from someone who was: Boredoms followed by John Cale, 2 or 3 years ago.

I was at this! it was astoundingly ill-conceived, especially given that it was part of a percussion-oriented festival called rhythm sticks. boredoms (in 3-drummer mode) were originally the headliners, but cale was shoehorned in above them at the 11th hour.

after their frenzied ecstacies, which inspired much dancing and unfettered joy, cale's dour solo piano intonings about dylan thomas went down like a mugful of cold bum gravy. there were many walk-outs. and rightly so.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/802hendrixmanchester4.jpg

... I wasn't there by the way!

that's a great bill!

The 23 Minutes Over Brussels riot EP was Suicide opening for Elvis Costello.

Oh yeah I was at the Boredoms / Cale mismatch, what a fucking downer to finish the evening! We walked out after 30 mins or so, along with pretty much everyone else in the front stalls who'd bought tickets early. I guess the Cale fans were up at the back of the hall somewhere, the man himself was looking suitably embarrassed and rightly so.

I have held a grudge against cale ever since for his joy-killing antics. not his fault, really, but still.

the boredoms/michael gira gigs a few years back were arguably equally mismatched, but with a more sensible running order – the mirror image of the RFH incident.

I know I've posted about it before, but I saw that '93 tour with the Cranberries opening for Frank Black opening for The The (who were awesome and worthy of the top spot).

Also, pretty sure in the '70s the Eagles opened for Yes, or vice versa. Weird either way.

Gary Clail/On-U Sound supporing Foetus @ Town and Country for the THAW tour was a bit of a mess of a double bill.

[great for me though .. ]

The Pogues were always pretty choosy about their opening bands back inthe mid-80s - usually garage rock bands they liked. Then for a one-off show at Hammersmith Odeon in 85 (I think) they asked the booker to get the post-punk band Delta 5 on the bill. The booker fucked up and got a glossy Scouse pop-rock group with big hair called Major 5, who were an unmitigated disaster.

Future Balearic favourites Thrashing Doves opening for the Ramones in 86.

Oh, the most infamous in recent memory: hype-peak Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! opening for the National. I remember half the crowd leaving after Clap, then the National absolutely destroying the place. Mucho awkwardness whenever anyone reminds the National about this tour. "They're good friends of ours, etc."

Rothko opening for Porcupine Tree

three-bass lineup or later?

The Jam opening up for Blue Oyster Cult
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:56 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

I hope the BOC fans tore the Jam limb from limb.

And the Cactus, Sly Stone, Burrito Bros bill sounds pretty good to me.

XP- Three bass

Did anyone see the one gig Neubauten did supporting U2?

Didn't M83 open for Kings Of Leon a couple of years ago. I imagine that must have perplexed many a KoL fan.

The Eagles did in fact open for Yes. After their first LP too and so Bernie Leadon was still in the band. We teenage Yes fans did not expect or really want an acoustic bluegrass set in the middle but we got one! Also, unfortunately, the night one of our pals got his medication all wrong and decided he needed to personally meet everyone on the floor of the Jacksonille, FL Coliseum. Long night.

Also saw Echoplex-era John Martyn do a solo opener for Yes and--seriously--Poco!

Rothko opening for Porcupine Tree

Ha ha was it that bad?

Oh, the most infamous in recent memory: hype-peak Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! opening for the National

how is two Pitchfork indie bands touring with each other an "astounding mismatch"

man i thought this thread said Astounding Concert Mustaches. Now there is a thread.

jimi hendrix/the monkees=just totally totally beyond...

apparently Hendrix was a friend of Peter Tork from the days they were both gigging in Greenwich Village pre-fame. Not sure if he'd be the last member of the Monkees you'd think of being a friend of Hendrix, possibly more likely to be Davey (or is that less likely).

& the whole Daughters Of The Revolution complaint thing that got the tour stopped was a scam invented on realising how mismatched the bands actually were in terms of then fanbase. Can see how much a fanbase would crossover now in terms of cool 60s pop/psych, but not in terms of invention of metal of course.

man i thought this thread said Astounding Concert Mustaches. Now there is a thread

http://newsletter.canbrass.com/images/CanadianBrassWithGlassesAndMoustaches_v01sm.jpg

VU/U2 seconded. it pretty much wins the thread to me (and i was there). i mean, WTF !?

Think the Einsturzende Neubauten/U2 pairing may have been weirder and shorter lived. EN got kicked off tour after about 3 dates, amid claims that Mufti was throwing things at the audience

Tim Buckley was featured on a late Monkees TV episode. That would have made for an interesting concert billing....

the boredoms/michael gira gigs a few years back were arguably equally mismatched, but with a more sensible running order – the mirror image of the RFH incident.

sounds similar to the swans + wooden wand bill i saw a couple weeks ago. i mean, i like wand just fine, but most anyone solo & folky is in waaaayy over their heads opening for swans. dude got annihilated

What about Public Enemy opening for the Sisters of Mercy, in 1989.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, January 25, 2006 4:38 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

Would have been my answer. So wtf it's not even funny. Also - kind of awesome.

Rothko opening for Porcupine Tree

Ha ha was it that bad?

Just odd :)

Circle as the support for Mclusky in Oxford, UK, circa 2002. Maybe this doesn't seem that weird written down but it really didn't work.

Circle were at their most sublimely hypnotic and put me in a blissful trance which was pretty brutally ruptured by Mclusky, who were pissed off for some transport-related reason and possibly also because the sound was really fucking awful for them.

I love both bands and had been looking forward to both (I'd loved Circle for years and only found out about their one and only previous gig in town the day after it happened; I'd been at Mclusky's one and only previous gig in town, which ended after 1.5 songs because Falco's guitar broke and all the other bands and most of the crowd had gone home, so no chance of a loan) but the contrast was painful.

weirdest I've ever attended: Billy Joel (ca. "Piano Man") opening for Hendrix-inspired heavy rocker Robin Trower. 1974, Northern Ky State College.

worst i've seen personally was literally four terrible generic hardcore bands opening for Rye Coalition, who were just entering their Led Zeppelin swagger-rock phase. The opening acts took up so much time that Rye Coalition only had like half an hour to play before the club had to close. But shitty hardcore opening bands and poorly-run shows were standard in Richmond.

most anyone solo & folky is in waaaayy over their heads opening for swans. dude got annihilated

are they/Gira actually permitting supports to use electricity? It was James Blackshaw on the UK tour, same deal

public enemy/U2

― gear (gear), Wednesday, January 25, 2006 6:08 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

rmde @ u

sounds similar to the swans + wooden wand bill i saw a couple weeks ago. i mean, i like wand just fine, but most anyone solo & folky is in waaaayy over their heads opening for swans. dude got annihilated

― Damn this thread seems so....different without ilxor (ilxor), Tuesday, March 8, 2011 10:19 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"solo and folky" describes like 80% of the stuff that Gira releases on Young God

yeah, gira was that solo acoustic support guy on the boredoms tour.

he's really exacting about Swans' live sound, so I guess having a solo artist in support makes the whole soundchecking/changeover process much simpler.

"solo and folky" describes like 80% of the stuff that Gira releases on Young God

i know that, just saying it's a mismatch w/ swans live

I saw the Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Sonic Youth/Social Distortion tour. The arena sound system did SY no favors.

Other quality pairings I've witnessed: Red Hot Chili Peppers opening for Killing Joke in '89 or so; Tad opening for Primus, same year; Rasputina opening for Neubauten; Junior Kimbrough opening for Iggy Pop (this one was actually awesome); Randy Newman opening for stand-up comedian Stephen Wright.

The arena sound system Neil Young sound crew did SY no favors

I'm pretty sure Young himself invited them onto that bill, so I doubt he and his organization were going out of their way to sabotage/subvert their set. SY probably just weren't prepared for venues of that size in '91/'92.

Neil Young <> Neil Young sound crew

He might have invited them on the tour but he's the headliner, they're the support, that's the way it works most of the time

Oh, the most infamous in recent memory: hype-peak Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! opening for the National. I remember half the crowd leaving after Clap, then the National absolutely destroying the place. Mucho awkwardness whenever anyone reminds the National about this tour. "They're good friends of ours, etc."

I was at this show and yeah, while it wasn't an "astounding mismatch" on paper, it was incredible to see the difference between the two bands. The National were fantastic and played to about half the crowd the openers did, it was sort of sad to see.

Saw Rush open for Bob Seger once. Looked it up -- 3/6/77.

BOC & the Faces.
Triumverat & BOC.
Thin Lizzy & BOC.
Kiss, Teenage Lust, Stooges & BOC.

I used to see BOC quite a bit.

I've mentioned it before, but I saw Screaming Trees open up for Soul Asylum open up for … SPIN DOCTORS in 1993.

And really wish I could've been a fly on the wall backstage at the US Festival, watching David Lee Roth and Joe Strummer go after each other's throats.

Thin Lizzy & BOC.
Kiss, Teenage Lust, Stooges & BOC.

great bills IMO

If you read BOC as Boards of Canada then the inclusion on this thread makes much more sense.

Teenage Lust < not gonna google this, but who are they? Some sort of MC5 offshoot?

dolls wannabe's from back in the day.

http://teenagelustband.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/image-39.jpg.w560h452.jpg

drat

Tripod strikes again! (but thanks anyhow!)

Astounding Concert Mustaches
has been done!

I've mentioned it before, but I saw Screaming Trees open up for Soul Asylum open up for … SPIN DOCTORS in 1993.

― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 12:09 PM

Yeah, I was at that show somewhere in northern New Jersey. Giant amphitheater filled with people... I wonder how many those bands could draw these days?

http://www.kissfaq.com/KissFAQ-wiki/images/c/cb/Teenagelust.jpg

xpost

I've mentioned it before, but I saw Screaming Trees open up for Soul Asylum open up for … SPIN DOCTORS in 1993

Yeah, this was a weird one. I went for the Screaming Trees (who did not disappoint!) but I met the Spin Doctors, who were just bumming around hoping to meet fans. They were really nice guys - security had confiscated my friend’s camera batteries, and the drummer went backstage and brought her a ziploc full of of AA’s.

Oddest I ever attended was Beans/Ex-Models/Tortoise

I've mentioned it before, but I saw Screaming Trees open up for Soul Asylum open up for … SPIN DOCTORS in 1993

me too...haha. i also caught a glimpse of my friends gf's bush this day.

Are you sure it wasn't Chris Barron?

B-52s and The Who, 1982.

circa 1993, Sun City Girls and Thinking Fellers opening for Bettie Serveert at the Off Ramp in Seattle.

one, two, bushes kneel before you.

BOC & the Faces.
Triumverat & BOC.
Thin Lizzy & BOC.
Kiss, Teenage Lust, Stooges & BOC.

I used to see BOC quite a bit.

― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 12:06 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

The Jam's first US tour was as BOC's opening act. I like both bands, but apparently there wasn't much overlapping interest in the audiences.

I don't see exactly what the mismatch was with Miles Davis and the Steve Miller Band.

Simple: Steve Miller was a non-playing motherfucker.

I saw the Melvins Open for Rush... I thought this odd. Yeah, the Melvins got bo-ed when they would feedback for 10 minutes at a time.. I rerally think they only played songs..

Primus would do their NYE shows here in the bay area and one year had them, Tool, and with Everclear opening up..

My mom swears she saw the Kinks open for Roy Orbison in the mid-60s, before their US touring ban i guess.

I saw Elliott Smith open for Tindersticks, and I remember US Maple opening for Pavement during maybe their last tour.

And didn't the Beastie Boys open for Madonna in 85 or so?

american music club and pearl jam, 1993 or so.

american music club and smashing pumpkins, 1994 or so

mark eitzel opening for everything but the girl, 1996? doesn't seem bad on paper but it went over with a thud and EBTG's audience was surprisingly hostile.

Didn't see it but Voivod supporting Rush was a big deal for us underground metallers who rooted for Voivod.

Not completely off the wall though since both were proggy Canadians, but I still had to ask Alex Lifeson what he thought of them. He said they were okay.

I saw Elliott Smith open for the Tindersticks, too, with a subtle but still noticeable pre-Sticks exodus. I also saw Elliott Smith open for Run On open for Will Oldham.

x-post Rush, like Morrissey, is one of those acts only generally impressed by bands that sound influenced by them. (My sister's theory is that Morrissey picks acts that sound vaguely influenced by him but nowhere near as good as opening acts, and if you're too good - say, Suede - you get the axe.)

Peter Hammill opening for Marillion in 1982-83. Because they're prog and he isn't. He got booed ffs

I saw that Marillion tour with Hammill. The gig I was at he was studiously ignored. Not surprised the music he was playing then didn't go down well with Marillon's crowd. Fish had quite adventurous taste with supports - the next year Marillion took out the Cardiacs, who also went down very poorly.

Yea, then it was shit like Beltane Fire after that.

Geddy Lee comments on how in Canada there was a show where Genesis opened for Lou Reed at Genesis' first gig in Toronto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBZY_loemUw?t=2m24s

(It starts at around 2:24)

Geddy left after Genesis... :(

Wasn't there some extremely mismatched bill in London a few years ago with Leonard Cohen? Like, Boredoms/Cohen or something? I can't remember the particulars.

not sure abt that, none of Cohen's recent UK shows have had a support band afaik

Coil opening for Sigur Ros at the Festival Hall was quite a weird one. Me and all the Coil fans adjourned to the bar after their set.

Two I saw that were a bit strange:
Enon opening for The Mars Volta, circa the first Mars Volta record.
Neil Hamburger opening for Danielson, circa Ships.

And one I wasn't there for: Peter Ivers opening for Fleetwood Mac in the mid-70s.

B-52s and The Who, 1982.

― Josefa, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 1:36 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This was in a stadium in Orlando. The B-52's got booed off after about 15 minutes.

Other wacky Who bills:

- the Who opening for Herman's Hermits (the Who's first US tour, 1967)

- Toots & The Maytals opening for the Who (1975 US tour, at Townshend's insistence. By most accounts, Toots didn't go over too well, sadly)

- Rahsaan Roland Kirk opening for the Who at the Boston Tea Party in 1969. Great story about it in Pete's autobio, where Roland first thanks Townshend for writing an opera about a blind kid (and stays listening to the Who's set for all three nights), and then recognizes Townshend's voice as the one that heckled Kirk in London a year before.

Wasn't there some extremely mismatched bill in London a few years ago with Leonard Cohen? Like, Boredoms/Cohen or something? I can't remember the particulars.

This was the John Cale / Boredoms show mentioned upthread somewhere I think.

I adored seeing the just reformed and country as hell Earth open for Autechre a few years ago.

I guess they do share some fans but there were a lot of confused pilled up guys in the toilets after Earth's drone-athon.

Misread that as "a lot of confused piled up guys in the toilets".

if i could attend one past concert this might be it:

http://o.b5z.net/i/u/10023017/i/byrdsbluetc.jpg

This was the John Cale / Boredoms show mentioned upthread somewhere I think.

― ~ (Matt #2), Tuesday, October 16, 2012 11:14 AM (45 minutes ago)

Ah yeah, that's the one I was thinking of, thanks. Not sure how Cale morphed into Cohen in my head.

second me in on the Byrds, BOC Mahavishnu show. I could make an argument that that is a very logical show.

His Name is Alive
Adult
Ectomorph
Knitting Factory NYC. maybe like summer 2001.

^ awesome!

Kid Rock / Kool & The Gang / Uncle Kracker
Tuesday 07/09/2013 @ Susquehanna Bank Center (Camden, NJ)

I don't plan on going.

Just found this stub on eBay:

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/K~kAAOSw~gRV060a/s-l1600.jpg

That seems pretty... Diverse...

once saw a show in 99 that was Sevendust/Kid Rock/Creed/Metallica

and then there was the Black Sabbath tour where Andrew WK "opened".

wasn't so much a weird pairing given what WK *actually* did (heavy metal dj). but a weird pairing given that those of us who didn't really read up on the bill prior thought WK was actually going to play his own music and then he just took the stage playing heavy metal songs for a half hour.

Deicide had a strange bill in Orlando in 2010 where this local math-rock band (ie late-era DEP) opened, and then (probably only because he produced their album) the final opener was this band that sounded like Chaos-AD Sepultura if they had a shitty generic power metal vocalist singing over their riffs. not a single other death metal band was on the lineup, like, at all.

kiss opened for the new york dolls early in their career.
john cale's first solo gig in '71 (with one of the incredible string band backing him) was opening for pink floyd.
mr. bungle was for some reason booked on the "snocore" package tour in 2000 with incubus and system of a down. this was while they were touring to support _california_. they did not go over well with the audience.
this happened a lot in the prog era. gentle giant opened for black sabbath in '72 (a few months after their tour opening for, seriously, a concert film of jimi hendrix). sabbath fans did not take well to their madrigals.
i also have a very film transfer of '70s king crimson where the title text reads "KING CRIMSON and BLACK OAK ARKANSAS". i have never seen the black oak arkansas portion of the film. weirdly the two bands actually played together a number of times during this era.

Barenaked Ladies + Howard Jones + OMD touring the US together this year. Is this a strange combination or is my assumption of what BN are like completely wrong?

http://olivier.landemaine.free.fr/vu/live/1971-73/vu_ticket_721130.jpg

... Doug Yule led Velvets, but the original band played with a lot of interesting people too: Dr. John, Chambers Brothers, Sly & the Family Stone, Tim Buckley, Taj Mahal, The Nice, the Allman Brothers...

PJ Harvey opening for U2 like 15 years ago was kinda weird.

'72 elo were an interesting band. here's them on a bill with a bunch of italian prog bands (osanna, jumbo, rocky's filj, banco, alan sorrenti, etc.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq5GCrpx7bw