Best Opener/Headliner Combo You've Seen

[lonestar]

Saw this thread elsewhere, figured wtf I'm on a train and bored....

As the thread title says... Off the top of my head I'll start with Dream Theater opening for Yes at Concord in 2007ish...

And to steal Joe's thunder, my time machine show would be Marillion doing Misplaced Childhood with Fish, opening for Rush on the Power Windows tour.

[TAC]

June 8, 1992
The Ritz
New York City

[lonestar]

Saw that same bill in 2010, probably not quite as epic I'd imagine.

[Nick]

June 8, 1992
The Ritz
New York City

That's probably my number two.

Not so long ago the greatest young European act toured with the best young American act and that had to be the best for me: Haken and Thank You Scientist.

[lonestar]

I saw that show in a shit tiny venue that maybe held 250ppl, with a stage that was about two feet high and tiny as fuck. Thank You Scientists could barely fit on the stage, and the singer spent half his time in the crowd. Haken fucking laid waste, and I was leaning on Griffith's stage monitor the whole show. God what a fucking amazing concert that was.

[Cool Chris]

Saw that same bill in 2010, probably not quite as epic I'd imagine.

I was beyond ecstatic when I saw my two favorite bands (those still touring, anyway) were going to hit the road together. Then I saw DT play a one-off show in PDX, which was amazing, and suddenly seeing them play 6 songs as an opener lost its appeal.

[TAC]

Saw that same bill in 2010, probably not quite as epic I'd imagine.

I was beyond ecstatic when I saw my two favorite bands (those still touring, anyway) were going to hit the road together. Then I saw DT play a one-off show in PDX, which was amazing, and suddenly seeing them play 6 songs as an opener lost its appeal.

I saw the headline show in Worcester as the Maiden tour did not play locally.

[lonestar]

It was a trip to see the differences in DT's sets between opening for Yes and opening for Maiden. They were such polar opposites. They did win over the mostly Yes crowd though, who are pretty stuffy group for sure.

[King Postwhore]

Damn you RJ!  

[romdrums]

I saw 3 opening for Porcupine Tree on the First US leg of the Tour of a Blank Planet, and 3 damn near blew PT off the stage.  Porcupine Tree was amazing, but 3 was just ferocious that night.

[lonestar]

Damn you RJ!  

 

[KevShmev]

I think Styx and Kansas in 1996 was technically a co-headliner tour, but I am pretty sure Styx as the closing act played a longer set than Kansas (close to 2 hours vs. around 75 minutes, IIRC), so can I cheat and list that?

[Cool Chris]

I saw 3 opening for Porcupine Tree on the First US leg of the Tour of a Blank Planet, and 3 damn near blew PT off the stage.  Porcupine Tree was amazing, but 3 was just ferocious that night.

I saw that 3/PT tour. I had never heard of 3 prior to that, but thought they put on a heck of a show.

[SoundscapeMN]

dredg and Ours in 2006.

[El Barto]

I'm going with Queensryche (O:M) opening for Metallica (Justice). One of my favorite shows I've seen, and while it's mostly because of Metallica, QR really killed it. Enough that I ran out and bought Mindcrime the next day.

[Zoom E]

I'm going to go with Scorpions and Iron Maiden in 1982. Girlschool were also on the bill.

[PowerSlave]

I'm going with Queensryche (O:M) opening for Metallica (Justice). One of my favorite shows I've seen, and while it's mostly because of Metallica, QR really killed it. Enough that I ran out and bought Mindcrime the next day.

That was the 2nd concert I've ever seen. I was there purely for QR. The thing I remember most about Metallica's set was that it might have been the worst mix I've ever heard at a show. Lars' toms were practically non-existent (not that he uses them that much anyways), and Kirk was completely absent through the PA until he'd start to play a lead. You could see him start to needle away and a second, or two into the lead whoever was running the board would catch up and slide his level up.

[Bentower]

Corrosion of Conformity opening for Metallica '96.
I'll leave Apocalyptica out of the equation, but it was nice hearing Master of Puppets in its entirety at a time when Metallica was only playing the 4-minute version.

Runner up: Vanden Plas opening for Dream Theater '98
VP's name was not mentioned on the ticket or anywhere else and hence it was only later upon hearing Rainmaker that I realized they'd been the opening band.

[mike099]

So many great shows back in the late seventies And early eighties.  The shows that comes to mind are Boston opening for ZZ Top and Kenny Loggins opening for Fleetwood Mac.

[krands85]

Anathema opening for Opeth was the first one that came to mind. Then a couple of others which weren't strictly opener/headliner - Opeth and DT at Prog Nation 09' and Leprous/Haken who I think were maybe co-headliners, but they also had a third band opening. The only other one I can think of is Myrath and Symphony X.

[twosuitsluke]

This may be line up that bombs on here but I remember seeing Slayer, Lamb of God, In Flames and Children of Bodom. That was s sick line up!

[Kwyjibo]

Spock's Beard opening for DT on the Scenes tour (2000?)

Soundgarden & Faith No More opening for Guns 'n' Roses (early 90s)

[King Postwhore]

If I can't use my Marillion opening for Rush, I'll use

Dada opening for Sting
Metallica opening for Ozzy

[Zydar]

I haven't been to many concerts, but seeing Opeth opening for DT on Progressive Nation 2009 was really nice.

[Mladen]

I saw Helloween opening for Judas Priest, which was as good as it gets. The only thing that would be more epic is Dream Theater opening for Iron Maiden, which only happened in USA, unfortunately.

Festivals probably do not count, but Slipknot once performed before Iron Maiden. I loved that combo.

Oh yeah, Ghost opened for Iron Maiden once as well. 

[Stadler]

Iron Maiden opening for Judas Priest in '82.  Changed my life, no lie.

I think I saw Garbage open for U2; that wasn't bad but that wasn't recent.

I have to think about more recent gigs; got to be honest, the shows I've been seeing recently have either no or shit openers... Def Leppard opening for Kiss.  (Oddly, I've seen Def Leppard twice, back in the day and recent, and both times were as an opening act!)   

[New World Rushman]

Iron Maiden opening for Judas Priest in '82.  Changed my life, no lie.

I saw that tour in San Antonio where I was stationed at the time, we got Krokus...Maiden took over as opener 4 days later in St. Louis...
Damn!

My answer would have to be DT/IM in 2010.

[ZirconBlue]

Type O Negative opening for Queensryche on the Promised Land tour.  I had never heard Type O before that show, but they quickly became one of my favorite bands. 

[Learning2Live]

Going off of name-brand/popularity of the bands, I'd have to go with Godsmack / Disturbed / Stone Temple Pilots back around 2000. I think that was the order for opener to closer.

If festivals are permitted for this, I'd probably go with whatever year Metallica headlined Lollapalooza. Soundgarden was part of the bill and believe they were the last act to play before Metallica took the stage.

For overall quality, I'd say Dixie Dregs / DT on the SFaM tour.

[cramx3]

As others have said... Dream Theater opening for Iron Maiden in 2010, saw that show twice.  My top two favorite bands so it really can't be beat for me.

Some honorable mentions:

Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold
Nightwish and Sabaton
Scorpions and Megadeth
Devin Townsend and Haken
Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin

[Phoenix87x]

Between the buried and me Opened for Coheed and cambria, and it was incredible

[King Postwhore]

Kiss/Queensryche in 1984 was another I loved.

[bosk1]

Not having been a Maiden fan back when DT toured with them, I may not have appreciated at the time how epic a pairing that was if I had seen it.  But I still wish I had.  That would have been right up there in my tops.  Metallica/Queensryche, as Barto mentioned, is an outstanding pairing that I never saw as well.

My top would have to be:  Dream Theater/Queensryche (with Fates being the warmup act for both).  This was really a dream bill, with DT being my favorite band, and Queensryche having a bit of a resurgence at the time and having been my favorite band in the '90s.  Plus THE JOINT ENCORES!  I saw this show twice in a row, so I got to see every encore song in the rotation, which was REALLY amazing.  My only gripe, if any, was that QR headlined all dates west of the Mississippi, so DT was the opener rather than the headliner, which I believe shorted them just a bit on the set time.  But still probably my all-time favorite show in terms of headiner/opener combo.

Some others (not ranked):
-Dream Theater/Trivium:  I did not know Trivium at the time, but this was an excellent show.
-Def Leppard/Tesla (Hysteria/Mechanical Res tour):  Def Lep was my favorite at the time, and Tesla was excellent.
-U2/Pretenders/Bodeans (Joshua Tree tour):  I don't remember or care about the Bodeans, but the rest of the bill? 
-Motley Crue/Whitesnake/Poison/Jetboy (Girls, Girls, Girls/87/Cat Dragged In/pre-Feel the Shake):  This was a festival show, so maybe it doesn't count.  WS stole the show, and that's who I was there for.  But the others put on a solid show as well. 
-Quiet Riot/Whitesnake/Kick Axe (Condition Critical/Slide It In/Vices):  This was my first show ever, so it has a soft spot in my heart.  All three acts brought it.

There are probably a couple of others I am not remembering at the moment as well.

[Ben_Jamin]

The Dear Hunter opening for the co-headline of Porcupine Tree and Coheed and Cambria.

It's the show I discovered The Dear Hunter and loved it. Also hearing PT playing my favorite Deadwing song The Start of Something Beautiful.

[Learning2Live]

Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold

I take back my Godsmack / Disturbed / STP submission and would go with this one instead. I missed about half of A7X's set so I forgot about this particular show and that they opened.