I saw them before they were popular Tour • Page 2

I love a good brag thread, trust me. But Turnover, Movements, Microwave, and Like Pacific?

 

I saw Pvris open for PTV/SWS in 2015, But it was a huge venue (To big for either band, Tsongas center for anyone from mass) But I’m not sure how big Pvris was then

 

My point in making this thread, and my use of the word "popular" measns any and all bands with any amount of notoriety to them, which all the bands you mentioned have. So carry on posting any bands you have seen before they got popular :)

 

Saw Five Finger Death Punch open for Dragonforce, All That Remains, and Horse the Band in 2006. They were a last minute local band added to the LA date and I don't think one person in the crowd knew who they were. This was before they put out their debut album. I can't stand them or anything they put out but i thought they were decent live.

There's more but this came to mind first.

 

I saw ADTR on a side stage at Bamboozle Left 2008 a few months after the reissue of FTWHH. It was a pretty small, dedicated crowd.

I've caught a lot of first headlining tours by many bands, but nothing really impressive first shows or anything else like that.

If Teenage Wrist blows up know I went to the record release show for Chrome Neon Jesus.

 

Saw The Menzingers as he first opener at an Anti-Flag show at the Bottom Lounge show a couple months before Chamberlain Waits came out at the bottom lounge in Chicago.

I saw Frank Turner at the beat kitchen in Chicago in May 2011. The next time he headlines a show, it was a venue about four times that size.

 

Most notable:

- Been a fan of Twenty One Pilots since 2011. Was supposed to see them then at my brother's college but they pulled out last minute. First time I saw them was at a private set with 10 of my friends (2013 i think?). Nobody else even applied to win their way into the session. Got to meet them and chat with them for a bit too.
- Seen The Front Bottoms quite a few times with crowds in the double digits. One of my favorite shows of all time was seeing them headline the venue I used to work at (150 cap) and selling it out.
- The venue I used to work at hosted G-Eazy once (150 cap), that was weird
- Saw State Champs quite a few times around 2012/2013, still have a copy of Apparently I'm Nothing from the first time I saw them.

 

2002 - Taking Back Sunday and The Used opened up for Box Car Racer. Most people had no idea who TBS were (they played first) and "The Taste of Ink" had just started to become a popular song. I still brag about knowing who these bands were before most people.

2003 - Bayside and Hawthorne Heights both opened for Mest. It was a 2000 person theater and MAYBE 150 people showed up for the show. I had no idea who either of these bands were, but Bayside has since become my favorite band.

2007 - A Day to Remember played first on the Victory Records Tour alongside Bayside, The Fall of Troy, and The Sleeping. Maybe 100 people were there to see them. It was crazy seeing them get so huge after.

 

The first time I saw Real Friends was in 2013 at a dive bar in Saginaw, and before the show when I was writing for a music blog, they agreed to do an acoustic session. I assumed the venue would have some kind of a back room we could do it in, but they didn't, so we ended up driving to my friend's apartment down the road and shooting it there - that was super surreal.

I also saw The Chainsmokers open up for LMFAO at Central Michigan University in 2011, well before even Selfie was out by that point, when they were just a pretty standard EDM act.

 

Went through my concert lists and found a few.

Saw Architects with Suicide Silence, Emmure, After The Burial, Beneath The Massacre back in 2008. Besides SS, that the was first time i had heard of any bands on the lineup. No one in crowd knew who Architects but they're incredibly popular nowadays.

Saw ADTR play to a small but very enthusiastic crowd at Warped 2008.

The Ghost Inside at Spring Breakdown Fest with Suicide Silence in 2009. A few people in the crowd were singing along. I believe they said it was one of, if not the first time they ever played Between The Lines.

I guess that's all I have.

 

I'm from Erie, PA and we've had tons of bands play here before they got big. Some of the more notable ones:

TDWP in early 2008

ADTR in 2008

We Came as Romans/Broadway/Tides of Man/Sleeping with Sirens in 2009. Less than 15 people came.

Alesana/Enter Shikari/ Asking Alaexandria in 2009. I think this was AA's first US tour.

Beartooth played a house show before the Sick EP came out.

 

Polar bear club opening for in 2008.
Fireworks opening for Broadway Calls in 2008.
Menzingers opening for Broadway Calls in 2009
ADTR opening for Silverstein/TDWP
Frank Turner opening for Gaslight Amthem
Japandroids on a random side stage at Sasquatch 2010

 

A Day To Remember opening for Bayside in 2007.
The Devil Wears Prada opening for Chiodos in 2007.
Turnover played a living room show here in San Antonio on NYE 2011, and then saw them the next day at a frat house in UT.

Will edit as I remember more but those are some of the main ones (that I can think of).

 

top in 2012 to like no one in Ct

 

The biggest band I've seen early is probably twenty one pilots. Saw them a couple times in the summer of 2011 open for friends of mine in local Columbus bands. I also saw avenged sevenfold and lamb of god open for mushroomhead, for like 7 bucks, back in college (i'm old)

 

Living in the uk I have got to go to some awesomely small shows for now bigger bands. Off the top of my head
Gym class heroes and academy is played their first ever uk shows at a tiny bar in Manchester, it was part of some sort of industry conference and gym class heroes were the first band on and didn’t take the stage until well after midnight.
Good charlotte in a smallish venue in Liverpool on their first run of uk shows, the next time they came over they sold out two nights at a 4000 capacity venue in Manchester.
Fall out boy supporting mest in a smallish venue and then on their first headline tour (without Pete, tj from spinal field filled in on bass) in a 200 capacity venue
Saw flogging Molly,all American rejects and gym class heroes headline the same 200 capacity venue.
Saw neck deep over five times as local support for various bands and then was really shocked when they got mega. They definitely put the miles in playing support shows around the uk.
Not a before they got popular but saw new found glory play a set of fan requests supported by international superheroes of hardcore in a 650 capacity venue

 

Was this by chance at School of Rock in South Hackensack, NJ? I vividly remember being at the Hackensack date with ADTR opening for The Sleeping, but do not remember Bayside or Fall of Troy being there. Full disclosure, I went only for The Sleeping at the time, but was completely blown away by ADTR.

 

Ah, I assume Gob had a bigger following at the time (not sure what year?) since Michigan is so close to Canada?

 

It was at Slims in San Francisco. I looked up the tour again, and I think I'm misremembering The Fall of Troy being on that tour. They must have played a different tour I attended at that venue.

 

They're not super massive, but I saw Silent Planet play at a dive bar to less than 100 people when they released The Night God Slept.

 

I know it was just as Take This to Your Grave came out

 

A girl I had a huge crush on took me to the 1975 in a 500 cap room a month after their first album came out. So they were popular-ish. Couple months later she started dating another dude named Steve.

 

The two big ones I remember are State champs at a dive bar in Fort Worth where they literally played to me, my ex and like 5 other people, and twenty one pilots before came out at some festival where they were like second and most of their set was that ukelele mashup they used to do. Also none of them are “big”, but being at South by So What when it used to be at Plano Centre was bananas, those lineups are all the scene bands before they broke

 

Seeing State Champs in a classroom at Bled Fest in 2013 was a cool experience too.