a concert sixer of some sort

admittedly the title today doesn’t reveal much…

…which is basically because i’m making it up at this point as i go.

welcome to the creative process!

i originally was going to do a sixer of shop stuff, but that’s a good bail out when nothing else is going on. and since last night was an awesome date night with the ufc at the “end of times” tour featuring the smashing pumpkins and marilyn manson i figured we’d go the concert route. it was her first time to see either, but my fifth pumpkins show and third manson one. great sets by both, and the opening band was “cage”, a rap/rock duo. they weren’t bad, but weren’t great. i might give their album a listen to see which way it swings me on them, but they didn’t spoil the show by any means. i’ve seen some killer opening acts in my day – rage against the machine opening for house of pain, and then wu-tang clan opening for rage against the machine (two separate tours there, i might add). of course, i’ve seen some really great shows with some truly lame opening acts, which now inspires me to scribble down:

one bad apple DOESN’T always spoil the bunch – lame ass opening acts that didn’t fuck up a show for me (save for the 30-45 minutes they were on the stage

1988 – dan reed network opening for UB40 at the Austin Opera House – first off, RIP to a good venue. secondly, this band was lame enough to remind me of some of the schlock that made it onto the gym stage at the lockhart junior high when a band would grace a school assembly with it’s presence, except this one i somewhat paid for with a ticket fee. pure, unadulterated shit. in case you wondered why you never heard of them, now you know…

1989 – throwing muses opening for new order at the austin city coliseum – these guys became “college radio darlings” in the early 1990’s when i did college radio…but after seeing them live NOTHING recorded in a studio would bring this one back for me…no matter what.

1999 – mercury rev opening for r.e.m. at retama park polo fields in san antonio – one of only three times i ever saw r.e.m., but i hung out with them two of the three, and the first featured radiohead and natalie merchant opening, the last was closing out acl in 2003…and in the middle? well, we got this – another college radio fave band that i just never got the appeal of, and live they translate even worse. what was even worse? well…

1999 – cree summer opening for lenny kravitz & the black crowes at retama park polo fields in san antonio – what can i say? this short lived venue near where verizon wireless amphitheater would rise and then fall gave me two great shows with two lame openers. in case you’re thinking, “a band named themselves after the cute, natural haired girl from a different world that later went on to do cartoon voices?” the answer is “no – it WAS the cute, natural haired girl…”. we get it lenny, your wife was on a show with her and y’all stayed in touch over the years. two great headliners don’t need one lame opener (the other opener on the tour, everlast, was pretty good)

a note before we leave 1999 behind – it was also the year filter opened the family values tour 1999 which i was all excited to see since their latest album at the time was phenomenal, but they actually sucked REALLY bad live, which did almost ruin the show for me…but since they were just first on a festival bill i didn’t feel that really counted here.

2005 – death from above 1979 opening for nine inch nails at the sbc center in san antonio – another great example of “you don’t need two fucking openers”. the other opener, queens of the stone age, were awesome. these guys? i couldn’t wait for the songs to end. i counted the moments. i counted too much. just one note from this bullshit was one too many.

2013 – crystal castles opening for depeche mode at the woodlands amphitheater in houston, texas – after some killer opening acts in the past (o.m.d., nitzer ebb, stabbing westward, etc) this was just lame. of course, i didn’t drive to and from houston in the same day to see THEM – it was for my ninth depeche mode show…but still, not a good way to unwind from the drive. gave me time to buy beer and feel like i wasn’t missing jack shit, though.

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