FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: emdasher on January 07, 2009, 02:48:25 AM
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Have you ever been to a concert with a bill that could never be ordered the same way if all the bands were to play another show together in the present day?
Example: In the summer of 2004 I saw the Arcade Fire opening for the Fiery Furnaces opening for the Unicorns.
Here's what I remember--the Arcade Fire were great, the Fiery Furnaces sounded like a 30-minute train wreck, and the Unicorns mostly antagonized the audience.
Alternate topic-- Has a concert performance ever won you over to a band who you thought you didn't like going in?
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I've been won over to bands that I'd never heard of going in: for example, the Smoking Popes opening for Morrissey.
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In 1992 I saw the Flaming Lips open for Porno for Pyros.
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I saw Guns and Roses open for The Cult
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I also saw Jane's Addiction open for Fishbone (I was very young)
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I thought the Fiery Furnaces were pretty great live.
I didn't like The Mentors so much on cassette, but they really won me over when I saw them live*.
Actually, this is a pretty tough question. Recently I saw Pale Nimbus open up for The Black Hollies and The Nouvellas open up for The Dirtbombs, and loved both bands. I also saw a few acts at City Gardens in the 80s who went on to become pretty huge in the 90s (Flaming Lips, Fishbone, Rollins Band), but I was usually already converted. In the case of The Flaming Lips, they were opening for The Dayglow Abortions and no one paid attention to them because they were a weird hippie band (I thought they were OK but honestly was not paying much attention to the show).
I think I've told this story here before, but I bought a pink Dayglow Abortions t-shirt with Ron and Nancy Reagan eating a fetus and saying "aargh fuck kill," and my Mom made me get rid of it. I traded it for an Adrenalin OD EP, I think.
Yep, just an old farty-fart ex-hardcore kid over here. I have a theory that ex-punks who don't succumb to drugs or violence wind up in academia.
*not
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I think I've told this story here before, but I bought a pink Dayglow Abortions t-shirt with Ron and Nancy Reagan eating a fetus and saying "aargh fuck kill," and my Mom made me get rid of it.
With them and the Fried Abortions, "abortion" was to the 80s was "kids" is right now (Cool Kids, Black Kids, Cold War Kids).
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I once saw Momentum Flux open for Six-and-a-Half Shooter! How the mighty have fallen.
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I think that most big-ish bands have at times opened for bands they later notably eclipsed in terms of fame or what-have-you.
Alternate topic-- Has a concert performance ever won you over to a band who you thought you didn't like going in?
Many, many times. If you work around live music you find yourself continually subjected to bands you probably would never pay to see ~ so things like "wow, that zydeco band is pretty great!" happens often enough.
For me, this most often occurred with country bands or blues acts, less frequently with hip hop.
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I saw Sinbad open for Kool and the Gang.
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I thought the Fiery Furnaces were pretty great live.
I haven't seen them live since, but in 2004 they mashed all of their songs together without ever taking a breather for the entire set--not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but with their music the effect was incredibly disorienting. They sounded like a train wreck by design.
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Groteface Killah wrote:
I also saw a few acts at City Gardens in the 80s who went on to become pretty huge in the 90s...
I worked at City Gardens from 1986-1990ish, and my favorite upside down bill there was Soundgarden opening a show with Faith No More in the middle - both supporting Voivod.
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I thought the Fiery Furnaces were pretty great live.
I haven't seen them live since, but in 2004 they mashed all of their songs together without ever taking a breather for the entire set--not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but with their music the effect was incredibly disorienting. They sounded like a train wreck by design.
This is purposeful. You can question the value of it, but that's just the way they are. I think they are not necessarily great, but certainly an intriguing band.
Comparatively speaking, they are less predictable than most bands in the "experimental" genre.
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Groteface Killah wrote:
I also saw a few acts at City Gardens in the 80s who went on to become pretty huge in the 90s...
I worked at City Gardens from 1986-1990ish, and my favorite upside down bill there was Soundgarden opening a show with Faith No More in the middle - both supporting Voivod.
Haha, talk about a backwards bill. I can totally believe it though ~ at that particular narrow window in time.
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Groteface Killah wrote:
I also saw a few acts at City Gardens in the 80s who went on to become pretty huge in the 90s...
I worked at City Gardens from 1986-1990ish, and my favorite upside down bill there was Soundgarden opening a show with Faith No More in the middle - both supporting Voivod.
That was 1990, I think. At any rate, I was there as well.
Two other interesting shows from the early 90s (probably 1991)-
Alice in Chains/ 3rd Bass/ Fishbone/ LL Cool J (The Academy)
Dead Milkmen/ Dirty Dozen Brass Band/ 2 Live Crew/ Fishbone (The New Ritz or may have been The Palladium)
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I saw Mercury Rev in a tiny club in '95. They had 3 guitarists playing through extremely loud Orange stacks, plus a flute being run through some effects. They also had a projector screen behind them looping through all this very-'90s imagery (baby doll heads, heroin needles, etc) with a color filter. I also happened to be super fucked up, so the combined effect was paralyzing.
When they were done, everyone in the room had to kind of collect themselves. Then came the headliners: Hum (http://www.amazon.com/Youd-Prefer-Astronaut-HUM/dp/B000002WSX). Their stage show consisted of a single disco ball which they fumbled with while installing in the ceiling. They didn't beat around the bush and led off with their one-hit wonder "Stars". 20 minutes in, half the crowd had already filtered out. The singer made a couple bitter remarks suggesting he knew they'd been upstaged.
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I saw Beck open for Evel Knievel. Seriously.
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Oh, and Soundgarden open for the Asexuals.
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Soundgarden and Soul Asylum shared a similar fate ~ played for like a decade as support, always the bridesmaid, never the bride ~ until they finally won a little (hard earned) recognition.
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I obviously didn't see this show, but I heard Alan Vega say that Cheap Trick once opened for Suicide.
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I saw the Oakridge Boys open for Alan Parsons Project.
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Groteface Killah wrote:
I also saw a few acts at City Gardens in the 80s who went on to become pretty huge in the 90s...
I worked at City Gardens from 1986-1990ish, and my favorite upside down bill there was Soundgarden opening a show with Faith No More in the middle - both supporting Voivod.
Haha, talk about a backwards bill. I can totally believe it though ~ at that particular narrow window in time.
I saw this tour in Milwaukee except Soundgarden was in the middle slot. The crowd kept getting thinner and thinner, by the end of Voivod's set everyone could have set up lawn chairs with room to spare. I felt kinda sorry for them.
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its threads like this that remind me how badly i dream of being born in the seventies. it makes a huge difference in the context of this thread. i was too young to see the bands i like(d) and when i was old enough to go to shows nothing noteworthy comes to mind.
im jealous of the thirty-somethings.
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its threads like this that remind me how badly i dream of being born in the seventies. it makes a huge difference in the context of this thread. i was too young to see the bands i like(d) and when i was old enough to go to shows nothing noteworthy comes to mind.
im jealous of the thirty-somethings.
Doesn't everyone feel this way? I remember feeling like a big loser because, by the time I discovered all of this stuff, D. Boone had already passed, HR had already quit Bad Brains, and Minor Threat, Black Flag, and (don't judge) The Dead Kennedys and The Misfits had already broken up. And this was just 1986! Plus, according to everything I've read, all those guys had complicated issues with their having missed punk rock's "real" days.
Nowadays I regret having missed out on the 1980s midwestern rock renaissance, even though I just found out about it, like, last year. I bet at last a few of those bands came through NJ, but I skipped almost everything that wasn't hardcore because I was a stupid kid.
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Yeah, we all had older folks hanging around talking about things before our time. For some of us, it's simply our turn to be those people. It's how local music traditions get passed down and scenes perpetuate themselves in a manner that makes sense.
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its threads like this that remind me how badly i dream of being born in the seventies. it makes a huge difference in the context of this thread. i was too young to see the bands i like(d) and when i was old enough to go to shows nothing noteworthy comes to mind.
im jealous of the thirty-somethings.
It's not like in the old days, when you and I could walk down and see Nirvana at the local club.
It's even better to be in your thirties and have missed all the great shows because you wouldn't get up and go to the Cat's Cradle. Four years at UNC, and I saw one show, and it sucked.
And I still won't go when decent acts come through. I never learn.
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Ben Harper opening for Luscious Jackson (one of the few times I've seen the opening band get an encore)
And in an attempt to regain some street cred, Neutral Milk Hotel opening for Superchunk.
Donnas opening for The Groovie Ghoulies
Does the Roots opening for Goodie Mob count if the Fugees headlined? Or are they both, in essence, just opening for the Fugees (and funyons).
Bands I didn't think I liked that won me over live: Spiritualized (this just happened this year)
On a related note, the first time I saw The Lazy Cowgirls, looking at them take the stage I was like, whuuuuut, then they proceeded to convert me real quick.
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I think I've told this story here before, but I bought a pink Dayglow Abortions t-shirt with Ron and Nancy Reagan eating a fetus and saying "aargh fuck kill," and my Mom made me get rid of it. I traded it for an Adrenalin OD EP, I think.
Yep, just an old farty-fart ex-hardcore kid over here. I have a theory that ex-punks who don't succumb to drugs or violence wind up in academia.
This must be why I only like late period Darkthrone.
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They were lucky to open for Voivod and were probably happy they got to, since they are all metal fans. R.I.P. Denis D'Amour. And get off my lawn.
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The most vivid one to me was Faith No More (in the "Introduce Yourself" era, with Chuck their crazy original singer) opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was such a route - the bands were in a similar zone soundwise and Faith No More just crushed them.
Soul Asylum's time as an opener was pretty short, at least in the Midwest. They were headlining large clubs by '87 or so.
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I saw U2 open for The J. Geils Band. Both were great.
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I like to think the Black Keys would still open for Sleater-Kinney today
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(Full disclosure: I'm old)
One of the first concerts I ever saw, in Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, was B.B. King opening for--who was that band? Green Earth? Something? White--signed to Motown. They had a big hit that they didn't write but probably still get royalties from. Who gives a shit. B.B. King, when he was still pretty awesome!
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(Full disclosure: I'm old)
One of the first concerts I ever saw, in Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, was B.B. King opening for--who was that band? Green Earth? Something? White--signed to Motown. They had a big hit that they didn't write but probably still get royalties from. Who gives a shit. B.B. King, when he was still pretty awesome!
Rare Earth.
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Nirvana opening for Sonic Youth. Nirvana sucked. Before Nevermind came out Nirvana was like the 8th best band in Seattle.
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I saw the Pogues headline at City Gardens, and the next night they opened for U2 at Madison Square Garden. They did a similar performance (different set list), but in MSG the lights were on in the stadium and maybe 20 people spread throughout the massive arena were paying attention and dancing.
I also saw Bob Dylan open for The Grateful Dead at Giants Stadium, and The Flaming Lips open for the Canadian hardcore band The Dayglow Abortions, also at City Gardens.
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This bill might not be reversed even today from a financial perspective, but I saw Son Volt open for battering-child-raiser John
Cougar Mellencamp at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in the early 2000s.
I did not stick around for the headliner.
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Pearl Jam followed by Smashing Pumpkins followed by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
I remember nothing from Pearl Jam's set. I didn't know who they were.
Billy Corgan and D'arcy tormented and taunted the crowd, but I liked them.
I'm embarassed to have been to an RHCP show.
Perhaps the ultimate backwards bill was Miles Davis opening for 'that no-playing motherf****' Steve Miller, as described by Miles Davis in his autobiography.