Heh - inappropriate pairings... (DBO)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Monday, April 09, 2018, 16:00 (2209 days ago) @ Claude Errera

That U2 show I mentioned--Grand Master Flash opened up for them, and they were great. Seems like that kind of thing was more common then. Maybe I'm wrong.

Late 80s, somewhere in the northeast (can't remember where - some big arena... maybe Worchester?). Stevie Ray Vaughan was opening for the Moody Blues.

I actually went to see Stevie Ray, but for me, the Moody Blues were a nice bonus.

The man was booed off the stage by a bunch of 40-something baby boomers who really, really, REALLY wanted to see the Moody Blues.

I almost left in disgust.

(I guess I was more angry at whoever thought that was a reasonable pairing than I was at the idiots, though.)

Oh my gosh, that's about as bad as Hendrix opening up for the Monkees in 1967. (One my best friends saw this show, was completely ignorant about Hendrix, but to his credit was blown away.)

A big regret is that I never got to see Stevie Ray. We did have an in-store with him so I got to hang with him a bit and get his autograph--he was a very nice guy. Saw his brother's group, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, a few times.

I remember seeing the Cars open for Kansas. New Wave youngsters mingled (badly) with older soft rockers; nobody respected anybody. Again, I enjoyed both acts, but not the audience.

I really liked the Cars until I saw them. They had fully embraced synths by that time, and didn't even seem to be playing. From where I was sitting I could see a guy in back behind the risers pushing a button to start each song. After that I always joked that the "Drive" video, which featured a lot mannequins, was actually live concert footage.

I used to get free tickets now and then and would often go to shows only to see the opening act. I'll tell this story for Cruel's benefit: I was a fan of the first few Bryan Adams records (before he got big and became the soundtrack king). He fashioned himself as kind of Canadian Bruce Springsteen. I saw him open for Loverboy and he was great. I despised Loverboy but my cute date liked them so stayed. It was horrible. Mike Reno in red leather is nightmare stuff. Not worth it.

One more pair just popped into my mind. The Go Gos had just hit, and opened for the Police on the Ghost in the Machine tour. I was actually a big fan of both, but it was funny seeing all these pubescent girls wearing black trash bags as tops file out between sets. The Police were an amazing band live. Remind me to tell you my Andy Summers story sometime...