Last night we (husband, daughter and I) went to see They Might Be Giants at the 930 Club (I am willing to bet at least one other person from this NG may have been there) and we saw ... or maybe I should say were subjected to ... what was, IMHO, the all-time worst opening act I have ever seen at any kind of legit venue ... they are called OkGo (pronounced Okay, Go! which we were wishing they would do by the end of the first song).
I mean, we are talking massive lack of anything resembling song-writing talent here ... and to make matters worse, they played for 45 minutes!!! Usually, when the opener isn't a real double bill kind of situation, you don't have to listen for THAT long ...
By the third song, Dana (she's 10, by the way, very good judge of talent apparently since she loves TMBG, Fruvous and the Jackson 5) turns to us and asks "And they got to open for TMBG HOW?????"
So here's me question/poll to the NG ... who are the BEST and WORST openers you have seen for legit headliners (yes, Fruvous counts as headliner but NOT as opener, since you went to see them in all likelihood ... )
I mean, we're not talking double bills here (I have often gone to shows to see the opener when it's been, for example, NRBQ with Elvis Costello, etc.) ... I mean a show where you probably knew nothing about the opening act till you got there.
I would say the best I've seen was Kevin So, one of two openers for Fruvous at the Birchmere this past summer. I would absolutely go see him if I saw him listed playing somewhere, He may be one of the few openers I can say that about (the other was, believe it or not, an acapella doo wop band called 14 Karat Soul I saw open for NRBQ at the BottomLine about 20 years ago).
Oh and in response to my own post here (yuck,I know)... I JUST found out that guess who the opener will be for TMBG at the Bowery in two weeks??? MIKE VIOLA.I would die for that one. And I get stuck with OkGo. Life is unfair ...
> Last night we (husband, daughter and I) went to see They Might Be Giants at > the 930 Club (I am willing to bet at least one other person from this NG may > have been there) and we saw ... or maybe I should say were subjected to ... > what was, IMHO, the all-time worst opening act I have ever seen at any kind > of legit venue ... they are called OkGo (pronounced Okay, Go! which we were > wishing they would do by the end of the first song).
(so where were you all standing/sitting that I didn't see you?)
yeah, I thought they were pretty bad, too (and I get to see them *again* tonight... fun) but mostly it was just that they were too loud and had way too much bass, which normally I enjoy, but not when it's giving me a headache through my earplugs.
I've seen worse, though - anyone who saw TMBG at the 9:30 club in December, 1996, was subjected to Goatboy, which was by far the second worst opening act I've seen for them (the worst being Double Dong, which, as the name kind of implies, had songs about pretty much only one thing)
> So here's me question/poll to the NG ... who are the BEST and WORST openers > you have seen for legit headliners (yes, Fruvous counts as headliner but NOT > as opener, since you went to see them in all likelihood ... )
in the "best" category...
Russell Wolff or Tory Cassis, opening for Früvous Guster, for Barenaked Ladies[1] (I just wish the audience had been more appreciative) Candy Butchers, for TMBG (I envy the people who saw TMBG '86 open for TMBG '97) The Kennedys, for the Nields
and in the "worst" category:
those "hillbilly fag bar" guys who opened for Früvous in Columbus. offensive *and* bad. perhaps the only slightly redeeming factor was "Friends don't let friends watch Friends." Double Dong, for TMBG
hrm, I guess I really haven't seen that many really bad openers. most are tolerable. I think there are very few that I would be willing to miss (but for some reason feel compelled to show up 2 hours early for anyway :)
[1] in fact, I found Guster much more enjoyable than BNL. Guster haven't sold out. -- lawrence solomon * http://www.fruhead.com/users/zaph * z...@fruhead.com "And I don't know whether I believe in me, but I still believe in my friends." -The Nields
Best Opener: Peter Mulvey (Somerville, March '98). Runners Up: Great Big Sea, EFO, Martin Sexton, Nields, Kid Kazooie
Worst Opener: No question, that horrible guy in Columbus last year. I don't remember his name, nor do I want to. Anyone who was there will agree. :-) Runner Up: Angry Salad (not bad, just didn't fit with Fruvous)
>So here's me question/poll to the NG ... who are the BEST and WORST openers >you >have seen for legit headliners (yes, Fruvous counts as headliner but NOT as >opener, since you went to see them in all likelihood ... )
>I mean, we're not talking double bills here (I have often gone to shows to >see >the opener when it's been, for example, NRBQ with Elvis Costello, etc.) ... >I >mean a show where you probably knew nothing about the opening act till you >got >there.
I'll play :)
Best: Tegan and Sara- saw them last year opening for Mae Moore, had no clue who they were, and was thrilled to find out how much they ROCKED!
Worst: some guy named Douglas September- opened for the Wyrd Sisters last year...ugh :p He looked like Bob Dylan and sounded like some half-alive, drugged up guy with no reason to be there at all. Runner up: Ben Sures- Oh man...I didn't *know* the show was a "shared stage", I thought he was just the opener. I went to see Martina Sorbara. This guy spent loooong amounts of time boring us to death, and then trying to amuse us with funny stories and induce singalongs. It got to the point that my friend's MOM (who loves Martina) actually started yelling rude comments to him!
On that note, the best "headliner" I discovered (after going mainly to see the opener), was Laurel MacDonald...very nice.
Cheers, Shawna
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ sha...@fumblers.com AIM: Fumblefly fumbler\passenger\fruhead\headliner\canmuser **dancing around the handbasket**wink** --------------------------------------------------------- "everybody looks more or less like a barbie doll... ...if that's your point of reference..." -a.g. --------------------------------------------------------- *Are you a Michaela Foster Marsh fan? Join the mailing list! http://the_foothills.listbot.com
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Worst: This comedian for Weird Al. I forget his name. He just wasn't that funny. Maybe I didn't get the jokes... nah. Weird Al was awesome though.
Best: Trout Fishing In America at the Ocean City show. They were just fabulous. They are the only opening band I've seen that came back out because the audiance wanted an encore.
-Saph *~~*~~*~~*~~*~~* "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
>So here's me question/poll to the NG ... who are the BEST and WORST openers you >have seen for legit headliners (yes, Fruvous counts as headliner but NOT as >opener, since you went to see them in all likelihood ... )
Oy, there's a can of worms...
Best: The Paperboys, opening for Fruvous at the Ark in.. er.. '97? '98?
Best, non-Fruvous that I already knew about: Peter Mulvey opening for the Nields sisters at the Freight & Salvage about a month ago; and Guster opening for BNL, like Lawrence said.
Best, non-Fruvous that I didn't already know about: Christina Abbott, opening for Russell Wolff on their western trek.
Worst: The 'Hillbilly Bar' guys from Columbus. Hands down.
Worst, non-Fruvous: James Michael, opening for the Beautiful South last week; Chainsaw Kitten, opening for TMBG in '97.
I'm sure there's more on that "worst" list, but it's early out here :-)
On 04 Nov 2000 13:31:38 GMT, bbwmin...@aol.com (BBWMinors) wrote:
>So here's me question/poll to the NG ... who are the BEST and WORST openers you >have seen for legit headliners (yes, Fruvous counts as headliner but NOT as >opener, since you went to see them in all likelihood ...
BEST (Fru): Tory Cassis Had never heard of him, but he was great. Of course, you all know that already.
BEST (non-Fru): The Darkest Of The Hillside Thickets (opening for Huevos Rancheros) I do concert reviews (cheap plug - read'em or sign up for my mailing list at http://www.geocities.com/jkalyn/reviews.html) and this is what I said about The Thickets:
"There were five guys in this band. Four of them were wearing matching red jumpsuits with military bars on the sleeves and stenciled numbers on their legs. One of them didn't seem to have any purpose except to jump up and down in time to the music, and move his arms in time to the drums. The lead singer was wearing a pink glittery spacesuit. He had a lasergun strapped to his waist, and he'd play it like an instrument. He sang a song where the only words seemed to be "He made love to the fishies" while the other guy took a camera and ran around the stage taking pictures of the band and the crowd. Then they all drank out of some water pitchers, spaceman guy played with the gun some more, and then they sang a mathematical formula. Then they sang a song in German before discussing Police reunion concerts (or a lack thereof). This was easily the best thing I had ever seen."
WORST: Xylon (opening for Kim Stockwood) Xylon was apparently a founding member of Streetnix (if there are any a-capella fans out there), but I didn't know this at the time, I just knew he was awful. He was so bad that people at the bar were asking the servers if they could get him off the stage early.
Since I've only seen Fruvous once (and the comedian they had was rather unremarkable) most of these are for Great Big Sea:
Best opening acts: Sarah Harmer (for GBS) Guster (for GBS) Melanie Doane (for GBS) The Push Stars (for GBS)
Honourable mentions: The Ennis Sisters, Bran Van 3000, Bass is Base
Worst opening acts: The Sadies (for Blue Rodeo) - what I like to call "spacey-60s-hillbilly-hoedown" music Monkey Wrench (for BNL back in 1993) - it was just bad
> << Guster, for Barenaked Ladies[1] (I just wish the audience had been more > appreciative) >>
> Where did you see them? I saw the combo 4 times at the beginning of the tour > in September, and each night Guster got a standing ovation!!
hrm. I saw them at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, NC last Friday...
a few people were paying attention, but people were mostly just talking through them, and a lot of people hadn't even shown up yet. the place was very empty when they took the stage. and after 8 songs they left the stage to very scattered applause.
in fact, the people in front of me left their seats before Guster came out, and I overheard one of them say "I might come back if they play that 'Fa Fa' song." Well, they did come back, unfortunately, during Guster's first song (What You Wish For) and wouldn't shut up the whole time, especially saying things like "I wonder if they've played that 'Fa Fa' song yet." (what, did they leave the venue and not hear that the band hadn't even finished playing its opening song yet?!) these were the same people who wouldn't sit down during the slow songs in BNL's set when the rest of the audience did, leaving me unable to see, and not wanting to stand up because I'd end up blocking the people behind me... -- lawrence solomon * http://www.fruhead.com/users/zaph * z...@fruhead.com "And I don't know whether I believe in me, but I still believe in my friends." -The Nields
z...@fruhead.com wrote: > > Last night we (husband, daughter and I) went to see They Might Be > > Giants at the 930 Club (I am willing to bet at least one other > > person from this NG may have been there) and we saw ... or maybe I > > should say were subjected to ... what was, IMHO, the all-time worst > > opening act I have ever seen at any kind of legit venue ... they are > > called OkGo (pronounced Okay, Go! which we were wishing they would > > do by the end of the first song). > yeah, I thought they were pretty bad, too (and I get to see them > *again* tonight... fun) but mostly it was just that they were too loud > and had way too much bass, which normally I enjoy, but not when it's > giving me a headache through my earplugs.
I think the 930 Club tends to push the levels with the sound sometimes. I saw No Knife open for Sunny Day Real Estate a few months ago, and I swear, I have never heard anything that loud in my life. I came home with the worst headache. And while I actually like No Knife a lot, I was almost wishing that they would spontaneously combust.
After reading this, I went to the TMBG show in Towson expecting OkGo to be horrible, but I really, really enjoyed them. They had catchy, upbeat, songs and a lot of enthusiasm. The bassist's crazy dancing could have kept me entertained all night. I thought they had a kind of Soul Coughing/Starling/Ben Folds/Weezer vibe going.
Besides, not to many bands can open their set with Toto's "Hold the Line" :)
>So here's me question/poll to the NG ... who are the BEST and WORST >openers you >have seen for legit headliners (yes, Fruvous counts as headliner but NOT as >opener, since you went to see them in all likelihood ... )
Best ever: Squeeze opening for Elvis Costello in 1981. Set up a lifelong lover affair
Second-best ever: The Thieves opening for Jeff Healy in 1989, when about six people knew who Jeff Healy was. (I think 12 know now)
Runners up: CIndy Lee Berryhill for the Smithereens; David Wilcox for Jars of Clay
Best Fruvous opener: Susan Werner (unless Candy Butchers and Too Cynical to Cry from Fleadh last year count. I know, I know, Candy Butchers weren't on the same stage. Details.)
Worst opener ever: Sammy Hagar for Nazareth in 1978. He was booed off the stage, cursed at the audience as he left. Three people held up lighters. Sammy comes back out and says, "OK, the matches [sic] have it. We're playing another one." That announcement was greeted by a cascade of boos. Funnier than hell.
Worst Fruvous opener: I know lots of people love her, but I just don't get Sarah Slean at all
Openers I'm most ashamed to admit I enjoyed: Color Me Badd for Paula Abdul; Jackyl for Aerosmith.
(Hey, at least this indicates my musical tastes are all over the map.)
--tc
timc...@onemain.com; http://www.webmart.net/~tcain1 "More of what you need and less when you don't." -- Genuine submitted advertising copy
Was it Sarah Slean who opened for Fruvous at the 930 Club back in February 1999? Or was it Susan Werner?
I also just remembered another great opener who was at the time very obscure, and that was k.d. lang ... can't remember who she opened for but I think it was, once again, NRBQ at the Bottom Line ... she had long hair and was wearing a skirt and it was right before Torch and Twang came out ... she still went by k.d. lang and the Recliners, and did the whole Patsy Cline thing.
I saw Jesse Camp, that idiot from MTV warm up for Alice Cooper in Atlantic City. He was pretty bad. Horrible. I wanted to kick his ass. But I just walked out.
Best (Fruvous) - Great Big Sea. (Cinti - 97) What a fantastic surprise, I had no idea who they were!
Worst (Fruvous) - "White Lightning". (Cinti - 98) Actually not as bad as some of the other horror stories posted since he knew he was bad and was real good humored about it, so it was actually somewhat entertaining. i.e. so bad it was funny.
Best (non-fru) Paul Thorn opening for John Prine (Cinti-00). Had the Prine fans, who had never heard of him and were anxious for their man, singing along, laughing, paying attention to the quiet songs and loudly applauding at the end of each number. Puts out more emotions with his voice and accustic guitar than most bands. I'm now a big fan - check him out at http://www.paulthorn.com/
Worst (non-fru) (Cinti, 00) Went to see Paul Thorn again, this time as a headliner at a small club in town. His opener was "Chuck Wagon", who couldn't sing or play a guitar well. The first two songs were kind of interesting but he ran out of material after that. However he continued to play for almost an hour! After his set he sat at a table with a few friends in the front and proceed to talk with them all through Paul Thorn's set! We were all ready to kick his butt, but he was a very large individual :-0
>Best (non-fru) Paul Thorn opening for John Prine (Cinti-00). Had the >Prine fans, who had never heard of him and were anxious for their man, >singing along, laughing, paying attention to the quiet songs and loudly >applauding at the end of each number. Puts out more emotions with his >voice and accustic guitar than most bands. I'm now a big fan - check >him out at http://www.paulthorn.com/
Yup, I saw Paul Thorn last month and I have been listening to his live cd almost every day since...
Worst opening act: I think I'm gonna have to go with Kim whose-last-name-I've-forgotten, one of the openers for Fruvous at the 6/2/00 Vault show. There wasn't anything particularly offensive about her (except that she was badly in need of some conditioner), she was just bloody boring. And her set went *way* over her alloted time, if I remember correctly.
Best opening act: I'm either gonna have to go with Lisa's answer of Kevin So at the Birchmere, or go back to Peter Mulvey opening for Dar in '97. I'd rave about them for awhile, but I suspect I'd be preaching to the converted, and I'm too tired anyway. :)
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>Worst Opener: No question, that horrible guy in Columbus last year. I >don't remember his name, nor do I want to. Anyone who was there will >agree. :-)
thinks* Was this the *drunken frat boy*? At the show where I was being stalked? No, I think that was Cincinatti the year before. HE has my vote for worst opener.
ladywench
FruSpace - We came, we saw, we slept on the floor.
First there comes trust, then passion, then death. Princess Elizabeth, "The Lion's Cub"
The worst opening act by far for Fruvous was on 9.12.1999 at Ludlows in Columbus... anyone remember the "Two Yahoos"?? THEY SUCKED! I personally am scared forever with their greatest hit "Hillbilly Fag Bar" (I shit you not...)
BBWMinors wrote: > So here's me question/poll to the NG ... who are the BEST and WORST openers you > have seen for legit headliners (yes, Fruvous counts as headliner but NOT as > opener, since you went to see them in all likelihood ... )
Here ya go. Order means things to me, not necessarily to you.
WORST: Goat Boy (TMBG opener from aways back - 95 or 96)
[Space here to show that Goat Boy is by far the worst]
White Lightning (Fruvous opener from Cinti in 98 I think) Whomever opened for Fruvous at Ludlow's recently
BEST (but shouldn't be opening for people): Fruvous (seen them open for a couple people) Eddie From Ohio (opening for Fruvous) Peter Mulvey (opening for Patty Larkin in Cinti) Ben Folds Five (opening for some loud ass mainstream band I can't recall whose lead singer was in Nirvana I think) Dan Bern (co-billed with Fruvous) Laura Love (co-billed with Fruvous) Tori Cassis (opening for Fruvous) Susan Werner (opening for Fruvous)
BEST: Johny Vegas (opening for Fruvous quite a bit over the years and damn good) Hammell on Trial (opening for Fruvous quite a bit also) The Good (Fruvous opener from Chicago 98 I think) Butch Ross (Fruvous opener from Philly 99 I think) Hotel Faux Pas (Fruvous opener from St. Louis 99) Ballroom Roustabouts (Fruvous opening from Bloomington 98)
