Greg -- I probably should have added that Big Star was, IMO, pretty good. Maybe the effect for me was akin to DL Byron and The Boomtown Rats for you -- getting so knocked out on my heels by a total unknown. Two other things -- 1. I think we've had this debate before (or me and others), but some may like 'always mercurial,' it means little to me. Chilton was fairly engaged, but he was the weak link out of the four guys on stage, and, 2. while I love the best of Big Star, I just don't love them the way most do. It was a swell show on both ends. But I thought Frisbie raised the roof that night. Mike Bennett Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/mrhonorama Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com Find out about Chicago shows: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagopopshowreport/ >From: "Sager, Greg" >Reply-To: audities@smoe.org >To: audities@smoe.org >Subject: Re: openers > closers >Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 07:18:43 -0400 > > > Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:21:11 -0500 > > From: "Michael Bennett" > > To: audities@smoe.org > > Subject: Re: openers > closers > > Message-ID: > > > > Of course, I'm sure a lot of us have gone to our fair share > > of shows only to > > see the support band. Thinking back -- > > > > Frisbie opening for Big Star. And I really enjoyed Big Star > > -- this was the > > first time I saw Frisbie, who I had never heard of before that night. > > >I was at that show, too, and I have to vehemently disagree with Mike on >this one. Frisbie was great; Big Star was transcendent. Part of that was >the musicianship of the more predictable 3/4ths of the band, and part of >it was the sense of bated-breath suspense one always gets when the >ever-mercurial Alex Chilton is in the room. > >Auer & Stringfellow themselves pulled off an opener-beats-the-headliner >feat one night back in the '90s at Metro. The Posies opened for Pere >Ubu, and as much as I liked the Posies I was really looking forward to >seeing David Thomas & Co. But they turned out to be pretty listless >live, whereas my first experience of hearing Jon & Ken work those >harmonies onstage was a revelation. > >I must be living a parallel existence with Mike Nicholson, because two >of my better opener-beats-the-headliner experiences from back in the >Cretaceous Era were seeing AC/DC (then unknown in the States) absolutely >crush top-billed Syracuse favorites Rush in '78, and then seeing the >Sweet better the featured band, Foghat (admittedly, not much of an >accomplishment), a year later in another Onondaga County War Memorial >show. > >My favorite story of this ilk concerned a show I saw here in Chicago at >the Vic when I was in college, when my then-favorite band the Boomtown >Rats came through town. The Rats were tons of fun, but I was so blown >away by the unknown opener, D.L. Byron, that I bought his *This Day And >Age* LP at the merch table at the back of the theater after the show. >I've treasured it ever since; it's one of my all-time favorite albums. >Who would've thought that Billy Joel's backing band could play power >pop? > > >Gregory Sager