Support acts - do you watch them?

Drew_TNBD

I've already mentioned the support band that absolutely butchered Lateralus by Tool at a gig once. I still watched them. True I was incredulous and I was stifling laughter.. but I still watched.

lustycourtier

Ah my good friend Rob Vincent is currently supporting Paul Carrick so is it him you are talking about? He's brilliant and a few of his singles have been radio 2 play listed. He's also just did some shows with James Blunt. 

freakboy1610

Sometimes worth a look. Some good ones that spring to mind:
The Jazz Butcher supporting Rain Parade
Adorable and The Cardiacs supporting Robyn Hitchcock
Luluc supporting J Mascis.

HAL9000

lustycourtier said:

Ah my good friend Rob Vincent is currently supporting Paul Carrick so is it him you are talking about? He's brilliant and a few of his singles have been radio 2 play listed. He's also just did some shows with James Blunt. 

Yup, it was indeed him. Maybe not really my taste but played and sang well and had good rapport with the audience.

ArchtopDave

I usually do, though, given how many decent bands there are, I'm regularly surprised by major bands having distinctly poor support bands.

richardhomer

I once went out of my way to get a ticket to see Chris Issac as Shawn Colvin was the support act....

Whilst I agree it's rude not to take the trouble to watch them - I'm often guilty of not doing.

I've seen some very impressive ones over the years. A (then) completely unknown Tracey Chapman supporting John Martyn in the late '80s springs to mind....

english_bob

freakboy1610 said:

Sometimes worth a look. Some good ones that spring to mind:
The Jazz Butcher supporting Rain Parade
Adorable and The Cardiacs supporting Robyn Hitchcock
Luluc supporting J Mascis.

I read that as Lulu supporting J Mascis. Weird billing.

hugbot

Drew_fx said:

I've already mentioned the support band that absolutely butchered Lateralus by Tool at a gig once. I still watched them. True I was incredulous and I was stifling laughter.. but I still watched.

I saw a support band we were playing with once do a pop punk cover of Rick Astleys Never Gonna Give You Up, this was like, within the last 2 years too.

Philly_Q

english_bob said:

freakboy1610 said:

Sometimes worth a look. Some good ones that spring to mind:
The Jazz Butcher supporting Rain Parade
Adorable and The Cardiacs supporting Robyn Hitchcock
Luluc supporting J Mascis.

I read that as Lulu supporting J Mascis. Weird billing.

Me too.  Could make an interesting showbiz couple, but he's probably a bit old for her....

John_P

We went to a strange gig on Sunday - Europewere the headline band, supported by Black Star Riders (sort of ex thin lizzy), and the ammorettes.

First band came on - 3 piece, all girl band that looked about 17 - good players, some ok tunes and they did a reasonable job - not sure I'd go out of my way to see them but they did enough of a job that I see them locally and look out for them in a few years.

Then came BSR - just awesome and the place exploded with the crowd really excited about seeing them.    The band were fantastic and got a great response.

Europe came on and played a bunch of songs we didn't know,  they were pretty static on stage and although they could play - the show was dull with no talking in between songs apart from some mumbling and chatting to each other.      They didn't get a great response - a few boos and people started leaving.   I would estimate a third of the crowd had gone by half way through their set.

Not quite a conventional headline/support gig but the "support" bands made the gig and I'm looking forward to seeing BSR again.

joes16

Absolutely. Sometimes they end up being better than the star performer.

XWulfhere

I went to see Def Leppard in Sheffield 1999  and the support act were called Lukan. They were absolutely brilliant and seemed to blow many minds. I've never been able to find anything about them since.

richardhomer

Wulfhere;554584" said:

I went to see Def Leppard in Sheffield 1999  and the support act were called Lukan.

I think he did a bit of a disappearing (support) act....

rsvmark

Yup. Best recently ws Laurence Jones supporting Kenny Wayne Shepard. He was mighty good

Teetonetal

I always endure the support act, sometime wonderful : jack Garrett blew Ben Howard away in November, sometimes awful - muse supported skunk annansie in 2000 and are the worst band I have seen to date. Always pisses me off that support acts get crappy sound. Thunder and Van Halen support Bon Jovi in 95 was good!