Odd opening acts

What are some opening acts that seem odd choices for bands? I'd go with the Manowar opening for Ted Nugent. Yeah, most of us love Ted and Manowar, but can you really see most nugent fans sitting through stuff like this:

Type O Negative opening/co-headlining with Hatebreed came to mind for me. That was an odd mix for sure.

I saw Cinderella opening for Judas Priest's RAM IT DOWN tour in 1988... I liked both bands but I had to admit that it was a rather strange combo.

When I saw KISS' Reunion Tour in NYC in 1996, the opening act was... 311. As you might imagine, they did not receive a very warm welcome from the KISS crowd.

Flotsam and Jetsam opened for KoЯn back in the mid 1990s.

Faith no More and Sound Garden opening for Voivod.....I think it was 1989.....

"Kool and the Gang" are opening for Van Halen on the new tour. I think the RHCP would've been a better choice... (If they wanted a funky band)

Megadeth opening for Aerosmith. It didn't last long, and I saw a one of the few shows.

Yngwie Malmsteen opening for AC/DC (someone was tripping)
Galactic Cowboys opening for Overkill.
Souls At Zero opening for Skid Row
Gentle Giant opening for Black Sabbath (1973)
The Cult opening for Metallica

all time winner....

Jimi Hendrix opening for The Monkees

Anybody opening for Iron Maiden or Rush.

S.D. wrote:

Gentle Giant opening for Black Sabbath (1973)

Now, that would be an awesome concert IMO.

Metal-On-Metal wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Gentle Giant opening for Black Sabbath (1973)

Now, that would be an awesome concert IMO.

Oh yeah, I would KILL to see that show...however it's notorious because the average Sabbath crowd in 1973 had no patience for Gentle Giant...they almost disbanded because the tour was so awful.

Didn't King's X open for AC/DC in the early 90's?

That's an odd pairing for sure.

-Alice in Chains opening for Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax in 1991
-Any of the times that mallcore bands played with Slayer (saw Soulfly open for them in '02 )
-When I saw Deicide for the first time in '05, they had a bunch of crappy local mallcore acts open for them. At one point, I was tempted to just go home, but luckily the singer of that band said that Deicide was on next. When they took the stage, somebody in the crowd even said, "About time we got some true metal in this place"!

Also, I remember hearing about how Running Wild opened for Celtic Frost and Voivod in '84 or '85 and received a lot of animosity from the audience. Although I think that might have had something to do with the fact that they claimed to be the "heaviest band in the world" while they were opening for Celtic Frost and Voivod. Still, I think that nowadays most metal fans would love to see those three bands together. I know I would!

I once saw Consecrator open for Holy Soldier. Interesting to say the least.

stevegarveyfan wrote:

I once saw Consecrator open for Holy Soldier. Interesting to say the least.

That reminds me of One Bad Pig and Holy Soldier.....

Would have loved to seen Consecrator.....

Coram Deo wrote:

stevegarveyfan wrote:

I once saw Consecrator open for Holy Soldier. Interesting to say the least.

That reminds me of One Bad Pig and Holy Soldier.....

Would have loved to seen Consecrator.....

Consecrator was one heck of an awesome band. I miss 'em.

Nico wrote:

Any of the times that mallcore bands played with Slayer (saw Soulfly open for them in '02 )

I think SOAD opened up for both Slayer and Black Sabbath back in '98. Needless to say, the crowds weren't all that welcoming. Soulfly opening for Slayer now would be a great show, they've come a long way from what they were like in '02.

Eyesore posted this a few weeks from the upcoming Soulfly album in case you missed it to hear what I mean:

Pantera opening for Skid Row back around '91.
Slayer opening for WASP back in the 80s.
Green Jello touring with Testament and Pro Pain in '93.

Nico wrote:

...

Also, I remember hearing about how Running Wild opened for Celtic Frost and Voivod in '84 or '85 and received a lot of animosity from the audience. Although I think that might have had something to do with the fact that they claimed to be the "heaviest band in the world" while they were opening for Celtic Frost and Voivod. Still, I think that nowadays most metal fans would love to see those three bands together. I know I would!

Not so odd when you think about the fact that Running Wild and Celtic Frost shared the same label back in the 80s - Noise Records. Also both Running Wild and Hellhammer were featured on an early Noise compilation called Death Metal from 1984. So them touring together may have coincided with that compilation.

Also, Running Wild back in '84 - '85 hadn't yet switched to their pirate moniker. At the time (84 - 85) they were still doing their satanic themes / lyrics and musically they incorporate elements from NWOBH / Venom (although they definitely played better than the latter).

So RW and CF touring together at the time makes a bit more sense than it may seem at first glance. Granted, CF were a much darker, dare I say heavier act than RW. Not sure about having Voivod thrown in the mix though...

Coram Deo wrote:

Faith no More and Sound Garden opening for Voivod.....I think it was 1989.....

This makes perfect sense though, in the way that all 3 bands at the time were out of the ordinary for their genre, all three could have been considered "progressive" at some level, and Voivod was making a bid (or MCA was making a bid for them) for mainstream acceptance. This would have been a killer show!

Primus for Rush on the RTB tour I think. Had tickets but the show got cancelled here.
Type O for Pantera. that show got cancelled here too. The fire marshall said there had to be seating on the floor, folding metal chairs mind you. Could you imagine 1000 folding metal chairs at a Pantera show?? neither could Dime & Vinny. We went to the Isle of Capri casino & watched Dime blow about 20 grand instead.

Suicidal Tendencies opening for Queensryche

Jesse James Dupree opening for Queensryche

Type O Negative opening for Motley Crue

Candlebox sandwiched between Suicidal Tendencies & Metallica in 94.

It seems to have become popular for big metal bands to have some lame metalcore or nu metal band open for them during the last 10 years or so.

I seem to remember Metallica taking Kid Rock and Linkin Park out on the road with'em a few tours ago.