Friday open thread: support acts

[dolorosa_12]

It's the first day of a four-day long weekend here. The sun is shining, the fruit trees are blossoming, and I'm remaining blissfully close to home for the entire time, which is very much needed after an exhausting few weeks.

Matthias and I have made a tentative return to live music. We saw one concert — God Is An Astronaut — in London a couple of weeks ago, and Goldfrapp in Cambridge on Monday. Both were great, but what really blew me away was Goldfrapp's support act, Salt Ashes, whose music reminded me of that of another of my favourite bands, The Knife, during my very favourite period of their music. (Less sharp, and more conventional lyrics, maybe, but a similar sound.)

Watch on YouTube

So my question to you all on this Friday open thread is this: have you ever experienced a gig where you went in knowing nothing about the support band, and came away with new, enjoyable music? And, if so, what was the gig, and who was the band/singer?

Comments

[likeadeuce]

I've encountered several of these, but my favorite find is David Wax Museum, who I saw open twice for Josh Ritter before I started seeing their solo gigs. The core of the band is a married couple, David Wax and Suz Slezak, and I first saw them at a show in Charlottesville, Virginia. Suz's family is from the area and her father and several local friends joined the band on stage. What wowed me about them was the number of different nusucal instruments they went through -- Suz famously plays a cow skull, but they just have a ton of stuff. And they just bring so much joy to their performance.

When I first saw them, they were based in Boston, but shortly after they moved to a farm near Charlottesville, so I've gotten to see a lot of smaller scale at intimate venues -- they have opened for a lot of big acts on tour but in the Charlottesville/Richmond area they are headliners.

Lemme find some links.

[likeadeuce]

For David Wax Museum, this is the song/video that hooked me on them:

https://youtu.be/w9zhaqp4l7k

[likeadeuce]

And this is the surefire singalong https://youtu.be/1YOOlc0y6Ps

[dolorosa_12]

They sound like such an amazing act to discover live — I like the two recorded songs you posted, but from your description it sounds as if they're even better live, and put in a fantastic performance. Thanks for sharing the links!

[likeadeuce]

Yes, I do occasionally put on their albums -- including Suz Slezak's recent solo release -- but I'm more likely to pull up a live performance video when I'm in the mood + of course am hoping to see them play again when the opportunity arises.

[torachan]

There's been a few, but my problem is that the sound mixing for opening acts is usually not great so it's hard for me to process the music if I don't already know it and thus it's not going to make a big impression on me.

The one opening act that I liked the most and still regularly listen to their songs is Maximo Park, who were opening for Travis.

[dolorosa_12]

You're so right about the sound mixing!

Maximo Park is the favourite band of one of my good friends, so you have great taste there!

[trepkos]

I went to see Queen in Leeds in 1982, with Teardrop Explodes, Joan Jett and Heart in support. I knew little or nothing of Teardrop Explodes, but they were AMAZING, despite some idiots in the crowd pelting them with bottles etc. and yelling - would you believe it - "Poof!" at Julian Cope. They'd come to se a band called Queen, and they thought that was okay? But Teardrop's album "Wilder" became the soundtrack of my ten year relationship with my BFF.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, what an amazing lineup — although, as you say, you wonder what was going through the heads of the homophobic audience.

[tetralogy]

I had no idea who Tancred was before she opened for The Joy Formidable, but I sure learned fast! Huge fan now.

[dolorosa_12]

Amazing!