The Best and Worst Opening Bands You've Seen

[Sigz]

Like the title says.

Best - 3 at Prognation '08

Worst - Into Eternity on the Chaos in Motion tour. Jesus christ they were terrible.

[ShadowWalker]

Best - Queensryche opening for Def Leppard in September 1988. Wasn't all that familiar with QR at the time and became an instant fan by the time Revolution Calling wrapped up.

Worst - tie: Warrior Soul opening for Queensryche in November 1991 / Primus opening for Rush on the Roll The Bones tour...

[Cool Chris]

I thought Presto Ballet were pretty awesome when they opened for DT back in June. (I guess I could include DT opening for Maiden this year, but had seen them the night before headlining, so it was harder to think of them as an opener).

3 was pretty when they opened for PT a couple years ago.

I can't think of any terrible opening bands off the top of my head. Lauren Harris maybe for Maiden's 2008 tour, but I honestly wasn't really paying attention.

[73109]

Best known band-Machine Head opening for Metallica

Best relatively unknown band-Z02 opening for Alice Cooper

Worst opening band-don't know the band but they were a threesome from canada, I think, and they opened for The Who...I think. I tried to forget it. And no, it was not Rush.

[Sigz]

Worst opening band-don't know the band but they were a threesome from canada, I think, and they opened for The Who...I think. I tried to forget it. And no, it was not Rush.

What kind of stuff did they play? There was a trio that opened for The Who when I saw them, but they were decent. Rather derivative of Zeppelin, but still decent.

[robwebster]

Best opening band: Frost*, for Dream Theater. Leeds 2009. I'd've been happy to pay the admission for Frost* alone - but followed by Dream Theater playing a full not-even-a-festival-or-nuffink set? Beautiful, that.

Worst opening band: The Noisettes, for Muse - somewhen or other in 2006. They weren't a crock of shit per se, but they certainly weren't grand. They weren't an opening band so much as a thing that happened for a while before Muse played.

[73109]

I don't remember. I probably saw them on the same tour you did. October...26th I think, 2008.

[RobD]

Best:
-Dream Theater for Maiden in Paris 2005
-The Scorpions for Judas Priest in 2004 (they were actually the better act too )
-The Folksmen for Spinal Tap in 2009
-Tyr for Alestorm in 2009 (probably the best out of this list)
-Bigelf on Progressive Nation 2009

Worst:
-Funeral For A Friend for Maiden in 2003 (they went down badly in their home town, go figure)
-Whoever the hell were supporting AC/DC in Wembley Stadium in 2009
-Some nobodies from the area that brought their girlfriends to cheer for them when I last saw Alestorm for the second time in 2009. Alestorm closing with Lazytown's You Are A Pirate more than made up for it though

[Sigz]

Alestorm closing with Lazytown's You Are A Pirate more than made up for it though

Oh my god that is epic.

I don't remember. I probably saw them on the same tour you did. October...26th I think, 2008.

Probably. I want to say they were a local LA band, but I don't remember.

[73109]

Worst:
-Whoever the hell were supporting AC/DC in Wembley Stadium in 2009

Was it The Answer? Some band from Ireland? I thought they rocked.

[yorost]

Worst was definitely whatever band I saw opening for Live in Kenosha, WI.  They had one song that is forever stuck in my head, where they kept singing "put the gun down" over and over and over and over and over...  I can't believe we left our curling practice early to catch that.

Best I'm not really sure.  Peter Frampton was a lot more fun than I had expected, so probably him.

[ZBomber]

Worst opening band-don't know the band but they were a threesome from canada, I think, and they opened for The Who...I think. I tried to forget it. And no, it was not Rush.

I know what band you are talking about, and yes, they were dreadful. I've never seen an opening band get such a horrible reaction.

MGMT opened for Paul McCartney last year.... weird match up, but they are great.

[zxlkho]

Best: Queensryche opening for DT, PN09
Worst: Job For a Cowboy opening for Megadeth, Gigantour 2008

[Pyroph]

Worst: Down opening for Metallica. Anselmo is a terrible singer.

Neutral: The Sword

That's all I've seen.

[skydivingninja]

Best: Zappa Plays Zappa at PN09
Worst: Torche at Coheed & Cambria

[73109]

Worst opening band-don't know the band but they were a threesome from canada, I think, and they opened for The Who...I think. I tried to forget it. And no, it was not Rush.

I know what band you are talking about, and yes, they were dreadful. I've never seen an opening band get such a horrible reaction.

They were horrible weren't they? But speaking of horrible reactions, I just remembered what was probably the worst opening band ever, and I'm just waiting for Birch to come in. The band that opened for Alice in Chains sucked so bad and got such a bad reaction, the singer told the audience to go fuck themselves.

[sneakyblueberry]

Anselmo is a terrible singer.

Actually tbh, Phil has one of the most brutal voice in metal tbh.  Actually. tbh.

[ReaperKK]

Best:
- From Monument To Masses

Worst:
- Torche

Funny enough this was at the same dredg show.

[Jakartabassplayer]

Worst: Victims opening for Municipal Waste
          Drives like Maria opening for Motorhead

Can't chose between those two.
they were both horrible


Best:  The Sword opening for Metallica

[zxlkho]

Worst: Victims opening for Municipal Waste
          Drives like Maria opening for Motorhead

Can't chose between those two.
they were both horrible


Best:  The Sword opening for Metallica

The Sword is pretty good. The performance I saw wasn't exactly that great though.

[Jakartabassplayer]

They were great on the show I went to

[King Postwhore]

Best.  Queensryche opening for Kiss on the Animalize tour 1984.
 Marillion opening for Rush on the Power Windows tour,1986,  and they played the whole Missplaced Childhood album.
Dada opening for Sting on the 10 Summoners Tales Tour. 1993


Worst.   Mountain opening for Triumph on the Thunder 7 tour.
I can't remember the band that opened for Porcupine Tree on one of the Deadwing shows that I went but they had a xylophone player and after 2 songs I wanted to kill someone.

[73109]

Another one...Like a Storm opening for Creed.

Emo metal...ugh.

[TAC]

Best:

1. Dream Theater..opening for Iron Maiden..The Ritz, New York City 6/8/92
2. Accept..opening for Iron Maiden..Providence Civic Center 6/2/85
3. Ted Nugent..opening for Aerosmith..Providence Civic Center 3/18/86


Worst:

1. Faster Pussycat..opening for Alice Cooper..Boston Garden 11/17/87
2. Savatage..openiong for Dio/Megadeth Providence Civic Center 12/28/87
3. Bachman Turner Overdrive..opening for Van Halen Providence Civic Center 8/22/86

[73109]

Best:
3. Ted Nugent..opening for Aerosmith..Providence Civic Center 3/18/86


Worst:

3. Bachman Turner Overdrive..opening for Van Halen Providence Civic Center 8/22/86

Awesome, and why?

[TAC]

Awesome, and why?

Ted Nugent came out and kicked so much ass. He blew Aerosmith off the stage. The band was tight and it was just all around awesome.

BTO was horrible. When the highlight of their set was the sinbgalong part to Takin' Care Of Business..you know it sucks. It was like they were filming one of those Public television fundraising DVDs...And Van Halen sucked too. Especially compared to the smokin' David Lee Roth/Tesla show 6 months later!

[73109]

Awesome, and why?

Ted Nugent came out and kicked so much ass. He blew Aerosmith off the stage. The band was tight and it was just all around awesome.

BTO was horrible. When the highlight of their set was the sinbgalong part to Takin' Care Of Business..you know it sucks. It was like they were filming one of those Public television fundraising DVDs...And Van Halen sucked too. Especially compared to the smokin' David Lee Roth/Tesla show 6 months later!

Was it BTO or the way they were live? Like the raw music, or the show?

[TAC]

Was it BTO or the way they were live? Like the raw music, or the show?

Well, it was everything. The music was boring, they were visiually boring. It was the wrong band to be opening for Van Halen. But of course, VH never brought anyone decent out on the road with them in those days. I think they were afraid to get shown up in any way. I went to the show, but I'm not a Hagar fan, and I thought 5150 sucked. It's actually one of my least favorite concerts I have ever seen.
Like I said, the DLR/Tesla show kicked all sorts of ass. Although VH may have won the war, Round 1 easily went to DLR..(off topic..sorry!)

[TheVoxyn]

Best: Anathema for Porcupine Tree. I'm probably a bigger fan of Anathema than of Porcupine Tree and it was my first time seeing them live. Saw them headlining a few months later. Honorable mentions: Symphony X for Dream Theater, Pure Reason Revolution for Porcupine Tree and Demians for Anathema.

Worst: Non-Divine or something like that. They were opening for Sonata Arctica and they were pretty bad. Kamelot also knows how to get annoying openers. And they usually have more than 1, which is extra annoying.

[lateralus88]

Best:
Dream Theater opening for Iron Maiden (this was the obvious choice) - June 2010
Warbringer opening for Obituary - September 2009
Rajas opening for Tool. These guys got a lot of crap that evening, primarily because they "weren't Tool" and all the fans just wanted Tool. I thought they were really good. - July 2010
Arsis opening for Exodus and Arch Enemy - February 2010

There are several others, but those are the most notable at this time

Worst:
Suicidal Tendencies opening for Lamb of God - April 2009
Mutiny Within opening with Arsis for Exodus and Arch Enemy. Oh god were they terrible - February 2010
In This Moment opening for Megadeth - September 2007
High on Fire opening for Opeth - October 2008
High of Fire opening for Mastodon and Dethklok - October 2009
Converge opening for Mastodon and Dethklok - October 2009

[skydivingninja]

Best:
- From Monument To Masses

Worst:
- Torche

Funny enough this was at the same dredg show.

Why do awesome bands like dredg and Coheed love shit bands like Torche?

[Sigz]

Converge opening for Mastodon and Dethklok - October 2009

God dammit lat.

[lateralus88]

Converge opening for Mastodon and Dethklok - October 2009

God dammit lat.

All the vocalist did was grunt "UGHUGH". They were terrible.

[Sigz]

I'm going to light you on fire with my mind.

[lateralus88]

Please do.