Here’s a topic I picked up from Facebook friend yesterday: Who’s the best artist (solo or band) you just happened to catch in concert? I’m talking about an artist you knew nothing about but simply stumbled into seeing as an opener, as a chance encounter on a night out with friends, or whatever?
My answer is The Embarrassment, a band I’d never heard of but saw as the first of 3 bands on a Public Image Ltd show in Chicago in 1981 or 1982. The Embarrassment were these nerdy guys with Oxford shirts, sweaters, and horn-rimmed glasses who put on a short set of incredibly high-energy, guitar-driven, fun (and funny) pop songs. They blew away the next band on the bill, The Effigies, and gave PiL (with John Lydon and Keith Levene playing half the set offstage, in the wings) a run for their money. In the early days of Nerd Rock, The Embarrassment delivered Nerd Rock at its finest!
A few years later I’d see Big Dipper for the first time and realize that the familiar-looking high-octane guitarist/singer from that band was Bill Goffrier, from The Embarrassment!
This one is easy for me. Mia and I went to a show which I thought was going to be some semi-famous Dutch garage band. Turned out to be the Ex playing with Tom Cora. Our jaws hit the floor from the first chord. Amazing, out-of-control noise punk–NOT a garage band and one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. (this was about 1991 I think)
…in PGH.
I think for me it’s two local bands, The New Lou Reeds and Coffinberry. I really like both of them a lot, unfortunately The New Lou Reeds don’t really live here anymore, and Coffinberry broke up.
On a more national level, I saw Those Darlins open up for The Dexateens, which was right before their first album came out. I think they’re super and I love seeing them get more popular.
I saw Bon Iver open up for Black Mountain. I hated every second of it. They seem like nice people, but man, I thought they sucked.
We went to see Blitzen Trapper as part of Noise Pop a few years ago. A new band opened for them; it was their first show outside of Seattle. A bunch of bearded guys singing lovely harmonies. The band: Fleet Foxes. We’re still fans.
Walked into the middle of a Whiskeytown set at a local bar ca. 1994 or 5. They were opening for an area band in front of about 12 people.
2nd place goes to the newly Holsappian dB’s opening for REM, which eventually led me back to Stands for Decibels and Repercussion. Incidentally, the area band for which Whiskeytown opened (the Knobs) did a spirited cover of “Black and White” that night.
I walked out on Nirvana after Bleach in a local bar, JC Dobbs. My friend and I went to see the openers (Napalm Sunday), whom he knew from a recording studio. We were talking to those guys and hanging out with the 20-30 people there on a weeknight and these 3 gangly longhairs got up on stage and played so ungodly loud we couldn’t make out any songs, couldn’t talk and had work the next day so we blew out.
No joke, k., in RTH Hipper Than Thou terms, which I honestly do cherish, you walking out on Nirvana at JC Dobbs is as cool as it gets!
I saw a band called “Orange” open up for The Apples In Stereo, and thought they ruled. Then I bought their then-current album, and found it pretty one-dimensional. Every now and then, a track from that CD pops up on iTunes shuffle, and I think, “what’s this? It’s pretty deece” — but the fact that I can never remember anything on that album 30 seconds after I’ve heard it speaks volumes.
Whoops — turns out the band’s name was “Oranger.”
I went to Dobbs to see the Lyres, based on something I read in the paper that made them sound as if they might be good. They weren’t but the opener, The Original Sins, fulfilled every garage-rock promise the write-up had promised from the Lyres and more.
[Insert Comparing apples to oranges joke here]
I walked out on Nirvana the second time they played the Reading Festival, the “classic” headlining gig which has gone down in RAWK history blah-blah-blah after about two songs to go and see The Rockingbirds in the tent over in the corner, a decision I’ve never regretted, they were utterly dreadful.
The year before when Nevermind came out I’d commented to the guys I was sharing a house with that if Nirvana came over I’d like to go and see them – they pointed out that we had seen them, at the 1991 Reading Festival, very low down on the bill, and (without even the excuse of booze or substances to fall back on) had proved completely unmemorable.
A band called the Ravishing Beauties, supporting the Teardrop Explodes on the Wilder tour, at the Brighton Dome. They were, collectively, Virginia Astley, Kate St John and Nicky Holland. They were pretty shambolic, but the music was absolutely gorgeous. They never released any records, although a very lo-fi recording of the radio session they recorded for John Peel is easily come by online.
Close second was when Nico pulled out of a support spot for Siouxsie and the Banshees on Hastings Pier and were replaced at the last minute by the Gang of Four, before Damaged Goods was released. I would have liked to have seen Nico, but wouldn’t have traded it in for that gig.
When I was bartending at the Warfield in SF, I specifically requested not to work the Nirvana show on the Nevermind tour. That has to trump those guys who merely just walked out on Nirvana. (Although I’m not particularly a fan of Nirvana, I actually kind of regret that move, but I was tired of dealing with punk and metal crowds, who, in terms of bad tipping, rival Jerry Garcia Band fans on the last night of a multi-night stretch.)
I went to a friend’s wedding reception and was surprised to find the Original Sins as the wedding band. I had heard of them but never actually heard them. The reception also had Guinness on tap. Goddamn that was a great wedding.
I smell an RTH Cool-Off, maybe steel cage match style!
Really? I thought it was more of a nerd-off.
Well if we’re going by a band I had never heard of it would have to be the Royal Crescent Mob at Dobbs who followed Nixon’s Head. Their car had broken down, they had to borrow the Head’s instruments but they put on a seriously great show. You recall this Mr, Mod? Really impressed by those guys. Like Bakshi, I also went out an bought their album and it didn’t come close to capturing their funky rock energy.
I’ll never forget that show. I thought we played a fine set, then they took the stage and kicked our asses with our own gear. Major league!
The Sins released a CD that contains some recordings from that wedding under the title “Rhythm & Booze.”
For real? I have to track that down.
I was going to write something similar but was trying to be charitable. They were seriously locked in.
At the old Bayou in DC, we went to see Blue Rodeo and the openers were Blue Mountain (cute, huh?). Cary Hudson and Blue Mountain were the real deal — and he can still get it done if you ever have a chance to see him.
I saw Morphine in Central Park, the day I went to see Junior Brown. I hadn’t heard them before, and figured I wouldn’t like them, mainly because I didn’t like “Morphine” as a band name, and partially because I was never crazy about Mark Sandman’s previous band, Treat Her Right (a band name I also disliked). I thought they were pretty good, and definitely not what I’d imagined when I first heard of a band named Morphine.
Excellent!
Mr. Royale’s story of pearls before swine is this:
In college, he went to Danceteria on a New Year’s Eve to dance to the dj and scope out girls. They also had bands playing on each of their 3 floors. The first floor showcased an almost performance-art style rock that used a lot of power tools; the next floor featured a trio of fat, warbling Scots; the last floor had a seemingly straight-forward band except that the lead singer was a flamboyant gent who wore a big pearl necklace and threw flowers into the audience. Mr. Royale didn’t care for any of these bands and stuck to the dj. A month later when he got really interested in Einsturzende Neubauten, Cocteau Twins and The Smiths, he realized he had been horridly and regretfully close minded.
A couple of their albums get closer but along with Dash Rip Rock and Evan Johns & the H-Bombs, the Mob epitomize those Dobbs acts that ruled live but never got close to capturing the magic in the studio.
Dare I point out that Embarrassment drummer Brent went on to be in the Del Fuegos?
I went to Six Flags to see Jason & The Scorchers open for Cheap Trick (a band I did not know at the time) and I was trying to get back to the amusement park after The Scorchers when Cheap Trick started and I got pushed up to the front and decided to stay. I left a huge fan.
Wilco opened for The Jayhawks right as their 1st CD came out. I bought their CD the next day.
I saw a band at a radio convention that I really liked but they never made it called The Cash Brothers, I bought their CD and the follow up.