Here we are, another week, another Top 5 Tuesday. It's my week to choose the topic…ALL MINE.
…ahem. Anyways.
I decided to veer back towards music on this one. So this week's top 5: TOP FIVE OPENING ACT SURPRISES.
I've been to lots of shows. I've seen lots of bands. I've seen lots of godawful opening acts, but I've also had some bands REALLY surprise me. So here we go.
#5. Chris Mills
Chris Mills is a fantastic singer-songwriter out of Chicago, and I got to see him open for Ben Folds at Lupo's back in 2006. (By the way, it was the best time I ever saw Ben Folds…we got "Emaline" and "Underground". My shit was flipped.)
Mills' albums are generally grandiose affairs, beautiful horn arrangements, a full string section, lots of flutes. This time though, it was just Mills on an electric guitar accompanied by a drummer. I'd never heard of Chris Mills before this show, but I was pleasantly surprised. He played some solid Power-Pop tunes with a HUGE amount of energy.
#4. Pela
This one is funny. I first saw Pela during the CMJ Festival in 2007. I actually went to the show for the first opening band, Stardeath and White Dwarfs, who were pretty good. I was followed by my buddy Ian, who was there for the headliners, British Sea Power (they were terrible. He would disagree, but this is my blog, goddamnit.).
I really didn't know what to think when they took the stage. The bass player looked like the blue Power Ranger, the singer resembled an army douchebag, and the lead guitarist was wee and Spanish looking. The second they started playing, however, everything changed. The singer, Billy, had a smile as wide as the stage, and was just putting all of his heart and joy into the music. As they kept on playing their early U2 inspired indie-rock, I was hooked. The passion, the happiness, and the hooks caught me.
Unfortunately, they broke up about two years later, never releasing their second album. I heard rumors that they have reformed under a different name. I certainly hope so, because they were / are amazing.
A nice touch is that this video is from the show I was at. You can see me nodding my head in front, between the singer and bassist. Random side story, but this is also the night that I met MTV's John Norris, and talked to him for about 10 minutes about how good it was that real Rock 'N Roll seemed to be coming back. It was funny how much he didn't seem to care about my rambling.
3. Titus Andronicus
When I first saw Titus Andronicus, I really didn't know what to think. I saw them open for Lucero at Pearl Street in Northampton in 2009.
I had heard things about them. Ted Leo talked about them constantly in interviews, I'd heard that they had some Hardcore influences, as well as some Shoegaze. This made me very skeptical that I'd like them. Then they took the stage. They were filthy, had gear that was half falling apart, and had terrifically terrifying beards.
All Sara and I could do was stand in the back of the room and take in the explosion that was happening on stage. Patrick Stickles' yelps were almost painful, but they were rocking the fuck out. This was less than a month into Sara and my relationship. The entire time I was terrified that Sara was hating this, and that she was going to leave me immediately after the show. But as Titus Andronicus left the stage, after finishing up a cover of Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock", Sara turned to me and said: "That was amazing…"
Funny enough, we left two songs into Lucero's set, because of some stomach problems, and since then I haven't listened to Lucero once. Their fans were so terrifying that I kind of realized that I didn't want any part of that scene.
#2. The Figgs
The Hold Steady played about a half-hour from my house this past October. My former band tried to get on the bill, to no avail. I came into the show kind of frustrated, and I expected to shit on the opening act a bit, because they weren't us, and I was so sure that we would have been a better fit. (Note: We wouldn't have.)
The Figgs took the stage, and needless to say, I was taken aback. These guys were older than the Hold Steady. I settled in expecting some boring-ass Dad rock. That didn't happen though. Instead I got the best set of Power-Pop / Rock that I'd ever heard. It was also the first time that I've ever seen an opening act get called back for an encore.
After their set, I was basically ready to leave. I didn't really care about The Hold Steady at that point, because I'd just had my face melted off with pop-rock. I was convinced to stay, and while The Hold Steady were great that night, The Figgs were outrageously good. On the way out I bought five of their albums, spending money that I absolutely did not have. I didn't care though, it was worth it.
#1. The Hold Steady
I saw The Hold Steady a week after I finished my Junior year of High School. They were opening up for the Get Up Kids on their "farewell tour" (only to come back less than 5 years later…)
I'm not gonna lie, I thought the Hold Steady was fucking terrible. The singer couldn't sing, he kept on clapping really fast, and there weren't any chorus' in the songs. I made jokes about them on the way home, in-between talking about how blown away I was by The Get Up Kids performance. (They really were great, they played a good deal of everything, unlike last year when I saw them in New Haven, and were painfully bad.)
The next morning though, I had "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" stuck in my head. I went online and streamed it at their website about 6 or 7 times, and it started growing on me. A few weeks later I went to the record store and bought their most recent album, "Separation Sunday". I gave it a listen and thought it was only okay. Then I started listening to it more and more. I got pulled into the stories, and the songs hooked me in.
Within the next six months, The Hold Steady was my favorite band. I tried to convince everyone I knew as to how great they were, a few people even listened.
Cut to six years later. I've seen the band thirteen times. I've travelled up and down the eastern seaboard to see them, and I've met some amazing people, along with making some great friends. This band literally changed my life. To think, I wouldn't have gotten to hear them unless I loved Pop-Punk so much in High School.
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