Worst Support Act

[Adnams Drinker]

The worst support I've ever seen was on the first Depeche Mode gig I ever went to, at the old Wembley Arena - pretty sure it was the Music for the Masses tour. I can't, nor do I wish to, remember the name of the support act, but as I recall they consisted of a female singer backed by 3 or 4 male musicians. Their music was utter trash and in a desperate attempt to get some kind of reaction out of the crowd, during their last number the singer proceeded to get her boobs out - this may have been an intentional part of their act, but given the complete non-reaction of the crowd the desperation angle makes more sense.

Thankfully, on the next tour, promoting the Violator album, DM completely redeemed themselves by selecting Electribe 101, who were fantastic.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Went to Brixton Academy to see either The Sisters Of Mercy or Nick Cave, not sure as it was a couple of decades ago. No idea the name of the support, but their stuff was mostly just swearing and tittering at the use of naughty words, it seemed. Google suggests it was maybe someone called Simon Breed.

I guess it was the venue's choice to have them support, as all they did was drive everyone away from the stage and toward the bar!

 

[ianh]

Hah I remember that, I was near the front and was facing away from the stage watching the hail of rubbish thrown in the air! Dave wasn't happy!

Thing is, despite it 100% happening (I was drunk but not that drunk - Pantera/Slayer pits sobered me the hell up) I can't find any "press" about it at all, not a Kerrang or Metal Hammer review etc, just a few mentions on personal blogs!

 

[Scam]

I like seeing different support acts. Trent Reznor usually has quite different stuff supporting NIN. I remember when I saw Saul Williams support him. I'd never heard of him and he blew me a way, I don't even like that kind of stuff usually but I've been a fan since.

I think NIN/Trent Reznor fans are probably a lot more open-minded when it comes to genre than Feeder's fans. No offence meant to Feeder fans, obviously.

 

[IronWarrior]

I once saw Babymetal

Babymetal is awesome. They ARE the main event. ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ

 

[Squark]

I remember seeing RHCP in Hyde park, supported by some group called Chicks on speed, seem to remember they were utter pants, James Brown on the other hand was freaking awesome.

 

[ci_newman]

I remember seeing RHCP in Hyde park, supported by some group called Chicks on speed, seem to remember they were utter pants, James Brown on the other hand was freaking awesome.

I saw this same concert and I agree with your views. CoS were ****, James Brown was awesome!

 

[Roland Butter]

Trouble was they turned all of the amps up to 11 so that the sound was just a distorted mess and Coverdale was incapable of anything above an indecipherable, pathetic croak - I couldn't wait for their set to finish, they were absolutely awful. Last on was Journey and lo and behold, the sound was crystal clear again and they played an absolute blinder of a set.

Yes, rock lore says that if the main band feel threatened by a good support act the sound guy will deliberately make them sound crap the next
night.

 

[Grimley]

I'm not normally a gig person, but I had to be a chaperone for my little sister when she went to see Michael Jackson at the old Wembley Stadium for his Dangerous world tour way back in 1992 (the very night he decided to throw a sickie so the gig was rescheduled three weeks later) The support act was Kris Kross. They were so 'B' awful, If Simon Cowell had been there the red button would've been pushed straight away.

 

[Haggisman]

I remember seeing RHCP in Hyde park, supported by some group called Chicks on speed, seem to remember they were utter pants, James Brown on the other hand was freaking awesome.

I saw this same concert and I agree with your views. CoS were ****, James Brown was awesome!

Saw the same tour but in Cardiff, fully agree with both the above posts!

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Yes, rock lore says that if the main band feel threatened by a good support act the sound guy will deliberately make them sound crap the next
night.

Not high up the ladder but one of my favourite bands are called Evile and I got there for the support whose name escapes me.
The first thing I noticed was the support act were using Evile's drumkit and on came the band.
It was probably the worst sound I'd ever heard at a gig (besides Kiss in 1976) and I went over to the sound guy and complained, every instrument sounded awful and the drums were worse than Lars Ulrich's kettle drum.
Nothing changed so I waited for Evile to come on and you guessed it, one of the best sounds I've heard with amazing drums.
I went to the sound guy and said that I hope his Mum was proud of him, I even went on Evile's Facebook page and complained.

Another gig that was notoriously bad for sound was Stone Gods supporting Airbourne - Stone Gods sounded awesome and Airbourne ..... I had to leave it was that bad.

 

[Scam]

Yes, rock lore says that if the main band feel threatened by a good support act the sound guy will deliberately make them sound crap the next
night.

That explains why At the Drive In sounded so awful when they supporting Royal Blood at Alexandra Palace last year

 

[Tunney]

Two spring to mind. More funny than outright bad.

The Dead Rat Orchestra supporting Godspeed You! Black Emperor - They had lots of technical issues with the sound system which meant that they only got to play for five minutes. Godspeed You! Black Emperor then spent the first 30 minutes of their gig playing a single droning note...

Doseone supporting Why? - I think it's fair to say that Doseone is an acquired taste. I tweeted that I hated boring support acts and he was anything but boring (read that how you will). He retweeted my tweet, favourited it and then replied saying that he was going to put that in his profile.

 

[MrMD]

15 or so years ago i saw motorhead and they had some awful britpop/alt rock band from wales supporting them,they got sooo much abuse and stuff thrown at them,by the 4th song it was just the crowd shouting abuse at them,and the band shouting abuse back at us,they stormed off stage before they finished that song

Another time i saw motorhead they had in flames supporting them,but this sadly was after they had turned to mallcore or whatev the hell they play now,suffice to say their set was awful,and anders voice couldnt even handle that material,super bad

Another awful band i have regretfully seen around 3/4 times as support for various other better bands is lamb of god,just...wot the hell do people see in dis trash lol.

 

[signs]

It's these that are funny. Why would you have a hip-hop band support a rock/pop band?

I saw Moby support the chilli peppers back in the day

 

[signs]

no one deserves a bottle of **** being thrown at them , but i did walk out on the Lemon heads once

 

[TheSkateyBird]

Haven't seen many live shows but when I went to see Nightwish in 2012, opening for them was PAIN. Now I have no issue with PAIN normally but dear god the mix was horrible. So much low end I could feel the bass in my skull.

 

[MikeTheNative]

I went to see Steel Panther and they had Buck Cherry supporting, they weren't too bad but it was funny Steel Panther having a sort of band that they are a parody of supporting.

 

[Maccy]

HIM supporting Metallica at Wembley, god they were terrible and treated badly by the crowd!

 

[ianh]

no one deserves a bottle of **** being thrown at them

.................but what are we supposed to do with them then?