Concerts Where the Groups Didn't Match Up

bobsvinyl

Painfully Aware
I've been playing The Concert Poster of the Day thread here on AK and I've run into some interesting concerts where the bands were pretty far apart in style.

This thread can be posters from a show, or just your recollections of a show you went to or read about.

I know the one that comes to mind for me is Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees. Micky Dolenz liked Hendrix's music and asked him to join their tour. Apparently all the fans for the Monkees came and yelled for Davy Jones as Hendrix played. Jimi finally had enough and left the tour.

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I remember seeing Uriah Heep headlining, with Earth ,Wind ,and Fire opening, the act in between was some band we never heard of called Z Z Top. This was in Baltimore , in 1974 or so. E,W,& F stole the show. David Byron was pissed off because no one cared during Heep's set.
 
I went to a concert in the early 70s with Cat Stevens and Mountain. I thought that was an interesting one. The funny thing was, Stevens turned the crowd with his opening act and people were booing Mountain as they were playing.
 
Saw Suzi open for Blue Oyster Cult & Kiss. We happened to end up sitting behind her parents and some of her other relatives from the Detroit area. Felt bad for them as some of the guys around us were yelling, "Take it off!" and "Show us your tits, Suzi." The family did not stay for Kiss.


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How About Jethro Tull and Suzi Quatro?

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I saw the first date in the 1991 “The Tune In, Turn On, Burn Out” tour at Poplar Creek IL. The tour was abandoned half-way through; the Denver show in the poster below was moved from Red Rocks to a different venue and then cancelled.

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My friends went to see Flogging Molly several years ago. The opening act, which they cannot remember of the name of, was a white mariachi band.

This next bit probably does not count, but I have seen music festivals where the schedule did not quite make sense. The festival in particular was the Iceland Airwaves Festival, which had multiple venues. In a smaller, but more locally significant, venue, they had Of Monsters and Men playing towards the end of the evening. The venue was packed and they had to close the doors to keep people from coming in. After Of Monsters and Men was a local group I had seen earlier named Sturla Atlas, who I did not care much for. That packed venue virtually emptied before Sturla Atlas got on.

(I had seen Sturla Atlas the night before. They were a hip hop boy band that I felt tried too hard. I was only there because I wanted to see Reykjavikurdaetur (a very in your face, all female feminist rap ensemble) afterwards. While hip hop and rap have similarities, those two groups were extremely different.
 
This may not count, since it was billed as The Charlotte Jazz Festival (1969)...
...but the weirdest matchup I ever saw was Duke Ellington and the Mothers of Invention.

Zappa was influenced by Ellington and would play Satin Doll and Caravan at concerts. I think he felt a kinship to Ellington as a bandleader. Zappa also told a story about Ellington begging for a $10.00 advance backstage which caused Zappa to become disheartened and shortly after disband his group. This story has been disputed by others who said Ellington was living comfortably at the time.
 
Zappa was influenced by Ellington and would play Satin Doll and Caravan at concerts. I think he felt a kinship to Ellington as a bandleader. Zappa also told a story about Ellington begging for a $10.00 advance backstage which caused Zappa to become disheartened and shortly after disband his group. This story has been disputed by others who said Ellington was living comfortably at the time.

If I remember correctly (and there were reasons to suspect I don't...), Zappa followed Hugh Masekala, and the crowd started emptying immediatly when they saw the Mothers coming on stage. Then they cut the power about halfway through his set, blaming local ordinances or something, and that may have pushed Zappa over the edge. Good times.
 
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