The Best and Worst Opening Bands You've Seen

[lateralus88]

Worst: That Gotika band or whatever it's name was that opened for Metallica on the U.S leg of the World Magnetic tour.

You better not mean Gojira

Yep, them.
But let's all be friends 

I want you dead right now.

[Progmetty]

 
They might be a good band but the live performance I saw sucked beyond recognition, their set was continuos noise and all the songs sounded identical.
So yeah they might be a good band, didn't hear any of their studio stuff to be honest so I can't judge that.

[faemir]

Best: Opeth for Dream Theater, though that's kinda cheating and will never ever be beaten.
Worst: Sitting through 3 awful bands for As I Lay Dying. Don't remember their names.

[hefdaddy42]

Fail of the year, anyone?

Heavens no, not even close.

[faemir]

Fail of the week perhaps.

[Sigz]

Rage. Indescribable rage.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Not counting local bands....


Best - Dream Theater, opened for Maiden this Summer. Slapped the taints off of Iron Maiden

Worst - System Of A Down, opened for Metallica as part of the Summer Sanitarium tour (2000).  They were horrible.

[LCArenas]

Worst: That Gotika band or whatever it's name was that opened for Metallica on the U.S leg of the World Magnetic tour.

You better not mean Gojira

Yep, them.
But let's all be friends 

NO U DIE RIGHT NOW

[bodiesinflight]

They might be a good band but the live performance I saw sucked beyond recognition, their set was continuos noise and all the songs sounded identical.
So yeah they might be a good band, didn't hear any of their studio stuff to be honest so I can't judge that.

Yeah but the fact is that Gojira are incredible live, that's the point 

[Gorille85]

Worst: Unexpect for DT (PN09)

[Jamesman42]

Best: 3 opening up for Dream Theater. Such a fun set for barely knowing their stuff.

Worst: Queensryche opening for Heaven and Hell. Bleh.

[aurorablind]

3 best:
1. Symphony X opening for Dream Theater. Mostly because i was such a big fan at the time. The sound was horrible, but Russel Allen completely owned the show. He acted like it was a full-blown Symphony X-concert, and i think even the ones there who didn't like the music was very impressed by his performance.
2. Mastodon opening for Iron Maiden. I had never heard them before at the time (it was during the Leviathan-period), and i thought it was so wierd and heavy, yet very interesting. This concert made me a fan of them. Was completely blown away by Branns drumming.
3. Avenged Sevenfold opening for Iron Maiden. When i saw them i had only heard rumors about them being a terrible emo-pop-metalband. I was completely blown away by their performance. The music was so-so. Something i really enjoyed, something i didn't care for, but they played their asses off, and i started listening to them right after that.

The worst:
Lauren Harris opening for Iron Maiden. Crappy, uninteresting music and a lame performance. She used half the time talking about where we could buy her album and promoting her myspace-page. After the first two songs i went to the bathroom and hanged around in the bar-section of the arena trying to avoid the music and her annoying persona.

[Birch Boy]

Best - Dream Theater opening for Iron Maiden on the Final Frontier 2010 North American tour

Worst - A lot of people said Lauren Harris opening for IM on the Somewhere Back In Time tour was terrible, but I don't remember if she was good or not, so I'd say Middle Class Rut opening for Alice In Chains on the 2010 North America tour

[Gadough]

The worst:
Lauren Harris opening for Iron Maiden. Crappy, uninteresting music and a lame performance. She used half the time talking about where we could buy her album and promoting her myspace-page. After the first two songs i went to the bathroom and hanged around in the bar-section of the arena trying to avoid the music and her annoying persona.

She's hot though. I would have stayed and endured the music just so I could look at her.

[The Awesome]

The best was probably Zappa Plays Zappa. They were interesting and unique. The worst by far was Between the Buried and Me. Chevelle is the only other really terrible band I can remember seeing. The rest of the warm up bands I've seen weren't really noteworthy.

[Global Laziness]

Let's look at the concerts I've seen that had opening bands:

Date – Headliner (Support)
2003-07-07 – Sum 41 (Jersey, Flashlight Brown)
2005-09-05 – Green Day (Jimmy Eat World)

The openers here all sounded relatively similar to the headliner, and that was the style of music I was into at the time, so no complaints. *shrugs*

Date – Headliner (Support)
2008-08-17 – Rufus Wainwright (Odetta)

This was a show at a folk festival that I went to with a friend. I'm not really a huge fan of folk but she paid for the tickets so it really wasn't a big deal. Like all folk, it was easier to appreciate live, but neither act really blew me away, even by folk standards.

Date – Headliner (Support)
2009-08-12 – Dream Theater (Zappa Plays Zappa, Bigelf, Scale the Summit)
2009-11-26 – Protest the Hero (Iron Giant)
2010-05-07 – Porcupine Tree (Bigelf)
2010-07-06 – Iron Maiden (Dream Theater)

I was a huge fan of all of these opening bands; great shows, no complaints. (Although I will admit that my memory of Iron Giant is a little hazy because I was drunk during their set. I sobered up in time for Protest the Hero, though.)

So yeah, I guess I've never really had a bad experience with an opening band.

-----

And just for the heck of it, here's a list of shows I've seen that didn't have opening bands:

Date – Headliner
2010-07-11 – Rush
2010-07-13 – The Cat Empire
2010-07-31 – Matt Mays
2010-07-31 – Telfer

[zxlkho]

Shit, Lauren Harris is hot...




her music still sucks though

[Global Laziness]

Shit, Lauren Harris is hot...

Hell yeah! (I've never heard of her before but I was impressed by the photo haha.)

[Jamesman42]

I have found the girl of my dreams. She is perfect.

[73109]

If you don't open for Iron Maiden, we are not a match.

[Jamesman42]

If you don't open for Iron Maiden, we are not a match.

If you are not Steve Harris' hot daughter, we are not a match.

Oh shoot, she's only 2 years older than me. Perfect again.

[sneakyblueberry]

She's a lot hotter than Steve, eh.

[Jakartabassplayer]

I have found the girl of my dreams. She is perfect.

[icysk8r]

Best:  DT opening for Iron Maiden.  They were better. 

[RobD]

Not really an opening band as it was a festival slot, but I caught Gorgoroth at Bloodstock this weekend. Officially the worse live performance I have EVER SEEN BY ANYONE. They really were THAT bad...

[chrisbDTM]

worst = shinedown. fucking terrible, to say the least

best = btbam

[bosk1]

Best:  DT opening for Satriani or Queensryche

Worst:  Kill Hanna opening for Lacuna Coil.  Horrible, horrible, horrible performance.  I cannot find anything kind to say about them.

[icarus4321]

Best:  I've seen a lot of great openers, but my favorite would have to go to Opeth (PN '08).

Worst:  The worst that I can remember was mewithoutyou opening for Thrice and Coheed at different times.  The first time I saw them, I honestly thought they picked up a bum off the street to use as the frontman.  He doesn't really sing, moreso rambles/screams.  I was genuinely perplexed.  Their stage presence was fine, but I just wasn't diggin' it.

[Arch Benemy]

Rage. Indescribable rage.

I understand, friend

To counter the fail, my fav opening bands were

1. Gojira, opening for Trivium

2. BTBAM, opening for The Dillinger Escape Plan

3. Cannibal Corpse, opening for Children of Bodom

4. Mendeed, opening for Avenged Sevenfold

and the worst would be American HiFi, opening for Sum 41. Remember this song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FevZoMknl3M 
Yeah, them

[Adami]

Oh yea, I saw Volbeat opening for some band some time. Never heard of them before that, I was quite impressed despite it not really being my thing.

[73109]

worst = shinedown. fucking terrible, to say the least

No. Get out.

[Adami]

Oh, I also saw some band called Saosin opening for some band once. I thought they were some horrible local band, but appearently they're a horrible national band. I actually wrote the sound man a little note asking him how much it would cost to turn all of their mics off. He said he felt my pain.

[AcidLameLTE]

I've also seen them. They were playing before Porcupine Tree at the Download festival.

Pretty damn horrible.

[chrisbDTM]

worst = shinedown. fucking terrible, to say the least

No. Get out.

i wish i did do that, they really were bad. but luckily avenged sevenfold came on to end the fail.

[flawlesslife]

Worst: Lacuna Coil.