support bands

[mwmusic]

wat do u lot think of support bands?, they usuallysuck, and quite badly aswell!! at the chili peppers concert in hyde park they were terrible, altho james brown was ok i s'pose.

i just think you go to the concert to hear your favourite band play or w/e but there is noo need for support bands.

i wanna hear your views on this 1 people!!

[Mellomeh]

I thought the whole point of support bands was that they sucked and made you think that the band you went to see are better than usual.

[therhino]

I have become suicidal while listening to support bands. If you want to get to the front, you're going to have to stand through all the support acts, and then wait for 40 minutes before the headliners come on. It actually detracts greatly from the gig experience, as far as I'm concerned. Ok, have supports, but for god's sake

1. please get people who can play music and

2. cut down on the gaps between the acts- my anticipation peaks at about 5 minutes, then turns to sheer hatred.

The White Stripes, this means you.

[Tommuz]

The only time there have been decent support acts was at the Coldplay gig where they had Ian McCulloch (of Echo and Bunnymen fame) and Feeder supporting. Also when I went to see Feeder in May, they had Kid Symphony supporting them and they were quite good. The rest of gigs i've been to though, the support acts were pretty naff.

[therhino]

Originally posted by Tommuz
The only time there have been decent support acts was at the Coldplay gig where they had Ian McCulloch (of Echo and Bunnymen fame) and Feeder supporting. Also when I went to see Feeder in May, they had Kid Symphony supporting them and they were quite good. The rest of gigs i've been to though, the support acts were pretty naff.

I went to that feeder gig. Kid symphony were ok, but my god Blade were dire. Thank god they got bottled, that's all I can say. And we still had to wait forever before feeder came on.

But hey, they played well, so all is (almost) forgiven.

[Tommuz]

THe bottling blade almost made up for them being on there. Who on earth arranges for some crappy garage act to perform at a rock gig?? Fools

[GorillaBearBear]

I've only once seen a bad support band. It was Jesse Malin and he was shit. His problem was he was just trying to be the person he was supporting (Ryan Adams). A friend of mine who was at the back (seated hahaha) didn't realise the difference! Other than that, support bands I've seen have all been very good: I am Kloot, Cooper Temple Clause. Oh, I forgot that the Delays were a bit shit, but not unlistenable.

Just btb, what the hell was James Brown doing supporting the Chilis? He is the grandaddy of soulfunk! I mean he's actually good!

[Mystical Parrot]

anyone who says godsmack suck after seeing them supporting metallica is a moron. The stuff they did was excellent and if they ever toured on their own id go see them

[problem child]

I went to see maiden last year and there suport was funiral for a friend thay were the crappiest band i ever herd.Every one was booing them though.

[mwmusic]

Originally posted by GuerillaBaaBaa
I've only once seen a bad support band. It was Jesse Malin and he was shit. His problem was he was just trying to be the person he was supporting (Ryan Adams). A friend of mine who was at the back (seated hahaha) didn't realise the difference! Other than that, support bands I've seen have all been very good: I am Kloot, Cooper Temple Clause. Oh, I forgot that the Delays were a bit shit, but not unlistenable.

Just btb, what the hell was James Brown doing supporting the Chilis? He is the grandaddy of soulfunk! I mean he's actually good!

i went to their friday gig with james brown, it is weird that he played but he is ok. whatever the other band was is very poor. On the other days of the gig chicks on speed got booed of twice hahaha

[mr jones]

The chili's first support was a band called chicks on speed and yes they were truley awful, but they didnt get boeed of twise. they pulled straight thru on the saturday and on the sunday they left after 15 minutes due to amount of bottles/crap being thrown and hitting them.
The english are disgraceful :(

I'm all for support bands! its a great way for a new unheard band to get their name around and maybe get thier own gigs lined up. Also, it adds length to the show, not many bands could play for 3-4 hours so by having other bands you get more for your money so too speak.
Also the spport bands are more likely to give you back stage passes (\o/ to NHOI at truro :D)

[Pixel]

I went to see Chili Peppers too,

I think Chicks On Speeds main problem was that they tried to hard, and played totally the wrong music.. although James Brown was quite a tangant too.

I dont think it was very fair for people to throw bottles and crap at them though..

[Dingbat]

When I went to see Travis at the Doncaster Dome, the support group were Keane. They were in fact brilliant, and a lot of people felt they were in fact better than Travis.

They lied, but Keane were still great.

[mr jones]

Originally posted by Pixel
I think Chicks On Speeds main problem was that they tried to hard, and played totally the wrong music
you mean that god awful sound was music?! :P

the two things that effect a support are experiance. ifs its a young/new band theyre not used to performaing and working the crowd and also the style of music. if its complettly diffrent to the main line up then its ont going to go down well.
the maidan/funeral for a friend is a perfect ecxample/. you got heavy metal fans being forced to listen to whiney emo set. its not gonna go down well :rolleyes:

[dogincognito]

heh, ive seen some great support bands, when i saw RHCP a while ago, not the recent gigs, they were supported by The Mars Volta who are excellent, and when i saw System of a Down they were supported by The Dillinger Escape Plan who are good. Oh, and when i saw The Offspring (i was about 13 ok? :( ) they were suported by AFI who rock. in conclusion you = wrong :p

[Minted]

I went to see Radiohead at the SECC in Glasgow, and the support was The Asian Dub Foundation.

Why? They were quickly renamed The Asian Crud Foundation.

My word that was just plain wrong....

[GorillaBearBear]

OK, I understand ADF may not be good for radiohead support, but they are fucking ace, if you ask me.

[mwmusic]

Originally posted by dogincognito
heh, ive seen some great support bands, when i saw RHCP a while ago, not the recent gigs, they were supported by The Mars Volta who are excellent, and when i saw System of a Down they were supported by The Dillinger Escape Plan who are good. Oh, and when i saw The Offspring (i was about 13 ok? :( ) they were suported by AFI who rock. in conclusion you = wrong :p

i guess you were just lucky, i would love to system live that would be cool. All i am saying is that in my experience it aint been so good

[mr jones]

The best support i've seen was foo's and q.o.t.s.a. for the chili's :P heh.
Also swingin' utters for nofx. i'd loved that and for years and only found out on the day of the gig they were supporting :D

[Digga]

all the support bands i have ever seen ever were utter shite. Somehow at one gig i ended up at the moshpit for a support act and we were just walking around it in because it was shit.

Worst support band ever were oceansize, 3 guitarists, a bassist and a drumkit. Rumble with cymbal smashes at its best :rolleyes:

[donkey_pie]

I have seen some amazing support bands... The Doves, The Basement, Blue Ruby and the fantastic Keane.

I don't like the Doves very much, but they gave a good performance.. the other 3 were amazing.

However, other support bands have't been that great, namely the support for Green Day.. don't remember their name, probably blanked out :p as is pretty much the entire gig.. eep.. bad.

[BFCA]

I've seen some pretty damn good support bands... Colour of Fire, Kasabian, Raveonettes, Lamb have to have been the best few, the rest have been alright/mediocre/can't remember. The only actually bad support band was some Bulgarian communist people called Imbecile, who supported Placebo. Now these guys really were shit...but it was quite funny to watch, how they sucked so bad and got pissed off when the crowd get swearing at them. Kinda like a not-as-good scene of events (or so I've heard) than the Chicks on Speed thingumything...

In conclusion........good support bands are good, crap support bands are crap....

[Mellomeh]

The worst support band I saw was Ian Brown at the Manic Street Preachers gig a couple of years ago. He was a total wanker, swearing at the crowd and throwing bottles full of water at us.

The best was Feeder at the Stereophonics gig in the Millenium Stadium last christmas, they were even better than the Stereophonics!

[therhino]

Originally posted by GuerillaBaaBaa
OK, I understand ADF may not be good for radiohead support, but they are fucking ace, if you ask me.

I agree with that 100%. It's just that if you have a bunch of people waiting for sort of psychedelic electronic depressing guitar rock (I can't really classify radiohead, but that'll do), they get a bit confused when you throw ADF at them.

I enjoyed it though. :D

[mwmusic]

damn you lot who get all the good support bands!!

[Spratley]

Support bands eh? I can comment on them from 3 different perspectives. As a musician myself, I know that a lousy support band always makes you look 300 times better than you otherwise would when you're due to play afterwards. I've never played as support myself but I imagine it must be really nerve racking, knowing that the majority of the audience doesn't give a damn about you and just wish you'd fall through the stage and get out of the way so that they could watch the guys they've paid to see. I've been to concerts where the support guys were really great musicians, but it just wasn't my music, and while I appreciated their talent I just couldn't wait for them to get finished so I could see who I'd come to see.
The third angle is scary to me as a musician/vocalist: If you get a support band that are about 500 times better than you! Hasn't happened to me yet, but I don't doubt that it will. There's always a struggling little band on the club circuit that by rights should be signed to EMI and earning 5 times what you are.
In my experience though, I've never been to a gig where the support act played the same genre of music as the headline act, so really there's no comparisons to be made.

[Sturge]

heh, I go to lots of gigs to see support bands rather than the headliners, sometimes headliners are the shit band, and the support are fooking awesome.

[Spratley]

That happens a lot with local bands in small towns. Round my area (Co. Durham, north east) there's a few bands with an almost religious following who open for supposedly 'bigger' bands from, for example, the Newcastle area, and once they've played and the headliners take stage half the bloody audience sods off LOL!
It's all down to personal taste. I prefer playing gigs without support- just get in there and do it. I get even more nervous waiting around to play while the support play their set and I'm usually too busy having a nervous breakdown to give them the attention they deserve anyway.

[plattbridger]

Originally posted by Dingbat
When I went to see Travis at the Doncaster Dome, the support group were Keane. They were in fact brilliant, and a lot of people felt they were in fact better than Travis.

They lied, but Keane were still great.

I saw Keane/Travis when they kicked off the tour in Blackpool and I have to say that I agree!

The worst ever support act was who ever supported The Phonics, they didn't even introduce themselves properly I think they were just called "The Official Stereophonics Support Group" needless to say they were pants anyway. But Peter Kay coming on stage saved it all from oblivion.

[mwmusic]

what was peter kay doing there?

[plattbridger]

I'm not all together sure but the ticket said Stereophonics And Friends. He came on made a few jokes about Michael Jackson which were topical at the time and then the phonics came back on.

I think that entire concert was so painful because I went with my ex, though she wasn't my ex 4 days before the gig.