Diabolic Scheme
Here’s an interesting bill, Maroon 5 and The Hives. Two, snazzily-dressed, 5-man bands with cocky frontmen. Oh, and both groups are on the Universal label. Don’t want to forget that most important stat. So what to make of this still severely abby normal frankentour? First of all, we want to say that we don’t have a problem with either of these bands, except that Maroon 5 is basically the gay heir to the Eagles’ throne: shitty LA muzak to star fuck to. Other than that, no problem. Besides, they did pick The Hives as their tourmates, right? They can’t be all souless, neu-disco poseurs, right? As for the bright side, you’re totally going to beat the traffic home. Let’s do something kinda stereogum-y: What’s the worst opening band/mismatched opener to headliner you’ve ever seen? We’ll go first (and reeeeeeeally age ourselves in the process), The Beastie Boys opened for Madonna on the Like A Virgin Tour and got booed off stage by the entire sold-out 13-year-old girl crowd at Madison Square Garden. Yes. That’s right. We felt the silky touch of Madonna’s caresses. At the time, and given our tender age, the Beasties seemed pretty fucking cool to us; they were drinking beers and cursing, and they had girls in cages. Our adult chaperones did not find them as equally amusing. Either that or Jimmy Fallon’s band opening for The Strokes on the Wyckd Sceptre tour… good lord, did that really happen?
- The Hives :: “Hate To Say I Told You So” live at Leeds (mp3)
Yeah, me too, U2 & the La’s. Even then remember liking the opening act better.
mid 90’s - Huntsville, AL - Col Bruce & the Aquarium Rescue Unit opened for Microwave Dave & the Nukes
I saw The Walkmen open for The Killers. Yuck. I’d rather see Maroon 5 than The Killers.
I also bought a fucking Panic! At The Disco ticket to see Dresden Dolls open the show.
The firm of Date Rape, Cokington, Cheeseball and Jag. Oh and Adam Levine.
The splifffork headline on this: Hives “Stuck” Touring North America with Maroon 5. Heh!
Weezer open for Lush at the Trocadero, Philly.
Love Tractor opening up for Parliament-Funkadelic at a pre-CMJ tuneup show in Port Chester, NY, in 1989.
rusted root opening for toad the wet sprocket, Toronto, in 93 or 94. 2 VERY different crowds, meant that there was nearly a 100% turnover in crowd between acts.
Also: Train, opening for Radiohead, in 95? 96? in Vancouver. I remember thinking “man this band sucks, but they’re going to be huge”
Saw Will Oldham open up for Bjork a few years ago. The crowd was NOT amused, even as he was wearing an inexplicable furry pink sweatsuit.
The only reason I think Maroon 5 might be “kind of okay” is that they are BFFs with Jenny Lewis/Rilo Kiley. Doesn’t mean I’ll buy their freakishly inoffensive music, just sayin’.
Outkast opened for Queen Latifah at the Masquerade. Far better act, and on their own turf.
I saw Frank Black (solo) open for the Sundays some years ago. It was great. Frank started off with an acoustic guitar and played a couple songs. When he was done, he swung it around on his back and picked up another 12-string acoustic. When he was done with that, he swung it around and picked up a Gibson, when he was done with that, he picked up a Fender. By the end of his 40 or so minute set, he had 6 guitars hanging off him and was playing an old Epiphone that was placed into a stand by a roadie. He could barely get his arms around it (due to his enormous belly, coupled with the guitars hanging off him).
Oh and I saw Luna open for the Screaming Trees, but I think that was a mix up by the booking agency…
Was the Frank Black show circa ‘93? I saw him do the exact same thing opening for They Might Be Giants show back then…
Bwahaha. I once saw the Chickasaw Mud Puppies open up for Jane’s Addiction in Omaha. Do I win?
The Strokes open for Stereophonics in Boston at the Paradise, circa 2001.
Not sure if this would count, but Live, Big Audio Dynamite II and Public Image Ltd. on the same bill in the 120 Minutes Tour back in I think it was 1992. I remember thinking Live was a very adequate bar band that had no place sharing the same stage the same night as PiL.
nelly furtado opening for jacksoul @ the phoenix in toronto. just before that ‘like a bird song’ exploded. she was so painful to listen to that we actually stuffed kleenex in our ears…what ever happened to jacksoul anyways…?
Radiohead opening for Alanis Morissette in ‘95 or ‘96.
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While I can’t say this was terribly mismatched, I saw the Pixies open for U2 a million years ago. My little sister (I think this was her first big show) turned to me and said, “These guys are just ripping off Nirvana.” Fortunately for her, I was too into the show to take the time to bean her with something hard. But she got an earful on the way home.