Opening Acts and Co-bill Discoveries

Excluding Festivals (that could be a whole other thread if someone wants to start it) what are some of the best acts you discovered as opening acts or co-bills for the act you went to see? Off the top of my head two that I can think of her Carbon Leaf that I saw open for GBS and The Kennedys who I saw on a bill with Happy Rhodes. I just thought of more. Diana Froley 3 played with Radiant Pigs, Andrew Kerr opened for the Kennedys, and Stephan Kellogg opened for Voices on the Verge. I discovered Erin MeKeown on a bill with the Kennedys and EFO. That's a nice chain Happy Rhodes - Kennedys- Erin McKeown - Stephan Kellogg. I saw Mary Lee's Corvette opening for the Kennedys. Wow the Kennedys are good musical luck for me. John Forster I first saw opening for Christine Lavin. ] disappear fear I saw open for Renaissance. I bet I make other posts on this thread. I discovered a lot of music this way.

THE best one has to be Peter Mulvey. Jess Klein was opening for him and I was a fan of her because of Fruvous. So I went to see her and stuck around. (Heee and I saw Josh up on the balcony!) And Peter....blew me away pretty much. :) I'm sure y'all know THAT by now. :)

Sarah Slean for Fruvous

Sarah Harmer for Fruvous

Tory Cassis for Fruvous (though I didn't like him at first. I thought his stage presence was lacking. Once I got his album though my opinion really changed.)

Edie Carey for Melissa Ferrick

Jump, Little Children for Great Big Sea

Russell Wolff for Fruvous

Susan Werner for Fruvous

Christina Abbott with Russell Wolff

Jess Klein for Fruvous (though she got on my nerves at first. Saw her open like 5 times though and it got through to me. :) )

Dan Bern with Fruvous

Janis Ian when going to see Susan Werner in a "round"

Willy Porter for I don't remember who, maybe Fruvous or the Nields

John Wesley Harding for Ellis Paul

Hennessey for Fruvous

Deb Talan for, um...every act at the Iron Horse? :)

David Poe for Dan Bern

Danny Michel for Fruvous

OK I'll stop now but I'm very open to...uh...openers! :) There are a ton more I didn't even mention. It's also funny how many chain together. Like I got jess from fruvous and peter from jess. Dan from fruvous and david from dan. A LOT of things tie back to Fruvous eventually for me.

Sarah Slean was a definite great discovery. Sarah harmer I saw open for Furvous in Utica, and I wasn't quite impressed with her then. It wasn't until Grape Jam that I really got into her.

Tory Cassis was also fun. Opening Harbourfront in Toronto... great show. Especially when he came out and played trumpet for Jockey.

I have to agree with Gordon on Carbon Leaf opening for GBS. Russell Wolff... well.. 'nuff said. :-D

Alan Whitney, a local Rocheser singer went to a Christine Lavin concert her ein Rochester. She got him up for Sensitive New Age Guys. As they were leaving the stage, she took off her guitar and gave it to Alan and said "here. You sing a couple songs." That was so cool.

for fruvous: mike errico and, well, kevin so.
rod picott opening for slaid cleaves.
peter mulvey opening for dar.
stephen kellogg opening for votv.
andrew kerr opening for the kennedys.

I didn't mention Rod did I? Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

yeP! opening for fruvous (sorry for the content).

god.
mind... drawing... blank.

OH!
Obvious one.... Russell Wolff opening for fruvous.

There are so many... I just never can remember specific shows.
Heh.

my favorite performers I saw with Fruvous were people I knew already, Dan Bern, and Valentine Smith. The best I discovered with them might have been Sarah Harmer. I might have seen her with GBS first.

Oh, actually.... I also discovered Susan Werner as an opener for fruvous.
That was another great one.

Honestly, I can name FAR more openers who were painfully bad than openers who were good.
Ugh.

I saw this band called "cowboy mouth" open for BNL in burlington VT once.
Worst opener ever.

Except, perhaps, for this one Primus show in MA where this opening band was physically painful.... (too loud, and when they got booed, they kept playing just to spite the audience. I know, because they SAID so.)

I like Cowboy Mouth! :)

My worst openers ever is probably a tie between "Bitch and Animal" opening for Ani and "Hammel on Trial" opening for Fruvous. Ugh.

I saw Cowboy Mouth open for BNL, thought they were good too. BNL tends to have awesome openers. I saw Hammel on Trial open for Squeeze a bunch of years ago. Ugh! (Two nights in a row had to suffer through that.)

As for others, lets put it this way, if I can remember their names they were usually pretty good. The "indie folk singer" doesn't usally get my attention. And for the most part, these weren't really "discoveries", just good opening acts....

The Beautiful South (for BNL)
Guster (for BNL)
Duncan Sheik (for BNL)
Santana (for Dave Matthews Band)
Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (for Depeche Mode)
Trout Fishing in America (for Fruvous)

I forgot:� Ozomatli opened for Pietasters/Cherry Poppin' Daddies.� They went on to open for DMB.� Fun, fun, fun band.� Take a horn section, a mixture of latin with hip-hop, and lots of percussion, and you've got Ozomatli.� They make an instant impression by taking the stage by having a drum circle right in the middle of the crowd.

http://www.hamellontrial.com/ opened for Fruvous during the late 1997 Your New Boyfriend tour.

In Syracuse I was standing in the front. I never saw a singer spit so much!

The Beautiful South I discovered in 1989-90 when working in a record store along with discovering "House of Love." We played a lot of alternative music there.

Now I bought the CD before I even saw them. Someone sent me their tape with "jenny says" on it. That song isn't loud like they are from that series of shows.

What they did at the BNL show was nothing like the live show I have (non-bnl) or their studio CDs.

Great Band!

Also I love "From good Homes" who opened up for BNL in May 1997.

i really like "jenny says," too.
and from good homes! they've broken up now, unfortunately, but the lead singer (and maybe some others from that band? i don't know) is now in railroad earth, a groovy band that's been at frff for the last two years.

TMBG
-Lincoln
-You Were Spiraling

Fr�vous
-EFO (my first show even)
-The Supers

GBS
-The Push Stars

And I wish I remembered his name, but the guy who opened for EFO last time in Columbus was great...(I didn't have CD money though) Lacy, do you remember?

I saw the Push Stars open for GBS and I got their CD.

One more I just remembered. Golden Carillo opened for The Story. For a while they were my favorite performers.

Aw shoot.� *roots around disorder for the CD in question*

Eric Bogle.� Which reminds me I haven't listened to this CD in a while.� Thanks Talcott.� (Er, that is if I�haven't gotten a wire crossed,�and this is the guy you meant.)

TMBG: Mike Viola, OKGO, Spiraling, Muckafergason, Common Rotation

Fruvous:� Mike Errico

Bosstones: Pietasters

I'll agree with Muckafurgason, who, unfortunately, broke up prematurely. Pretty much the same deal with Lincoln, although I never got to see them live. Maybe there's some kind of curse on TMBG openers.

Ben Folds opening for Tori Amos was great, but he wasn't exactly a "discovery"; I'd seen him live before.

oh! neil hannon (of the divine comedy) opening for ben folds. i had never heard of him before, but came away a huge fan, and the next time i saw the two, i was just as excited about neil as i was about ben.

The Silos opening for Matthew Sweet (1994 Chicago)

Dolly Varden opening for the Silos

And on the Fleadh tour in '99, Martin Sexton went on after Luka Bloom and before Fruvous. Woowwwwwwwwwwww...

Seen a lot of great openers but usually I've known in advance, like this year's stellar Jayhawks/Thorns tour.

as i only have been to one show.

Rusted Root for Santana