Openers Blowing Away the Headliner

[BDG135]

Many bands will speak from their ego and say they blew the headliner off the stage when they were opening. What times do you think that really was the case? I've heard stories about Van Halen opening for Sabbath and many say Pantera was too much for Skid Row on the Slave To the Grind tour.

[kytepunches]

I believe Wasp took out Slayer as an opener for a very short time.

[guitardiet]

Maiden opening for Priest in ‘82. Number of the Beast tour. Syracuse, NY

[Velvis]

I never believe any of that shit. Postings on sludge, blabbermouth, and KISSFaq always have stories of someone's experience of a concert and it's always people seeing what they want to see rather than reality.

[daveg]

The ones I've seen.

Metallica killed WASP, although I think it was a swapping co-headline thing.
Honeymoon Suite destroyed Bad Company.
Poison Opening for DLR. It was right at the end of the run together and Poison was at their peak and just about to go on a headlining tour. (which came through our town about 3 months later, and it sold out and killed) DLR just seemed old by that point.

Kiss > Whitesnake
GnR > Cult
Helix > ZZ Top


As for the OP, Pantera was awesome on the Skid Row Tour...but SR brought their A game as well, and in no way got blown away. Pantera had the most hardcore fans I might have ever seen, and to them, it probably didn't matter who else was there..

Bon Jovi did not blow away Priest on the Turbo tour...but it was all anyone was talking about the next day

[Kid-Wicked]

motley blew away ozzy in 84.
metallica blew away ozzy in 86.
really, every opener has blown away ozzy since randy died.

[cowpins]

Joan Jett Poison > Motley Crue Def Leppard

[FreddyFender]

Motley blowing away Ozzy on BATM Tour is fact.

Had nothing to do with technical performance or ability, they were the exciting, sexy new band. Ozzy was fat and had short hair.

[SexxAtraxxion]

Alice in Chains opening for Poison in 1990.

[DemonFilth2001]

Metallica killed on the Puppets tour. Show was better than Ozzy’s. They just didn’t have a catalog that people knew.

Great show.

Megadeth killed Dio on his Dream Evil tour.

Killed Crue on whatever tour that was (one where Anthrax got dumped due to attendance)

[Bono Nettencourt]

motley blew away ozzy in 84.
metallica blew away ozzy in 86.
really, every opener has blown away ozzy since randy died.

Truth.

[ParaDime77]

I watched The Struts blow RHCP off the stage back in April. No comparison.

[bill_kir]

saw the Skid Row/Pantera Slave to the Grind tour and Pantera was not better than Skid Row

the ones that come to mind are

Damn Yankees > Bad Company
Dope > Kid Rock

[Bono Nettencourt]

I've seen some good openers, but can't say anyone dusted the headliner. Extreme opening for Cinderella/DLR might be the closest, cause Extreme was hot and they were not.

[Ziggy Sawdust]

Queensryche opening for Metallica.

[(((\m/)))]

GnR opening for Aerosmith ‘87
Poison opening for Ratt ‘87
Def Lep opening for Blackfoot ‘81

[Bono Nettencourt]

GnR opening for Aerosmith ‘87

It was '88, and disagree. GnR was great but so was Aerosmith.

[Charles Bukaki]

Alice in Chains opening for Poison in 1990.

It was actually January of 91, but boy did AIC tear it up that night. The crowd wasn't having it, but they gave it their all and turned me and a few of my friends into instant fans that night. One of our buddies sold Layne a joint for $5 before the show.

[LeeRatbag]

Vain annihilated Skid Row in '89. Skid Row were great (if a bit brief - 45 mins is not enough for a headline set) but Vain were fucking phenomenal.

[Traxan]

I'd say Metallica trouncing Ozzy in 86 takes the crown.

[Blumpkin King]

Bon Jovi really crushed Ratt opening on the Invasion tour.

[SikSyko]

Metallica blew Wasp off the stage.

[rubysdad]

Suicidal Tendencies flogged Alice in Chains in Melbourne.
Layne was a mess.

[El Vampiro Blanco]

The Cult opening for Aerosmith on the Pump tour, but that was a very specific situation.
Basically the Cult had been very popular in the Netherlands since their beginning, drawing both hard rockers and the alternative crowd and having actual top 40 hits.
Aerosmith meanwhile never really meant anything here up to that point and the big ballad hits of Pump had not hit yet.
That night most of the crowd seemed to actually be there for the Cult and their merchandise sold out.

[Love_Industry]

Skid Row destroyed Mötley on the Euro Feelgood tour. This seems to be a fairly common opinion with those who saw that tour.

IMO, Pretty Maids blew away a tired Saxon in 1985. Innocence is my favorite Saxon album but they weren't at their best on that tour. Maybe there was tension in the band and Steve Dawson had already checked out as he left before the next album. One of the few 80s bands that got better live in the 90s and beyond.

[TravisBicklesMohawk]

Melvins >>>>>>> L7

[Nobodyspecial]

Tesla opening for Poison on the Open up and Say Ahh tour. Tesla was so much better

[AlexVonHaig]

Im sure it seemed like a safe bet at the time but who knew that a cartoon artist would blow KI$$ away

[Black Stuff]

back in the day, I always caught all of the openers. Saw many great bills and saw plenty of openers go for the jugular.

Best was VH opening for Sabbath at MSG. VH blew the doors off them. When sabbath came out, Ozzy was sh*tfaced and could barely stand up.

[kevind2112]

Alice Cooper blew Motley Crue off the stage at both of the "Final Tour" shows I saw.