The power of support acts

So how many of us are guilty of doing this? We book tickets to see a band or a musician we really like, we find out what time they're on and then what do we do, either turn up late or sit outside drinking beer...all the time not knowing or hearing what's going down on stage.

Today I was in the car listening to 2 acts who supported Counting Crows on tour in the UK last month, one being Blind Pilot, the other being a solo artist, Saul Ashby. Whilst Blind Pilot played a set at Wembley I naively sat outside with a beer in my hand pondering the Crows choices for a setlist along with the majority of an 8,000 - 10,000 strong crowd...big mistake.

So then the Brixton gig got re-scheduled because Adam Duritz was ill and this time I made an effort to see the support act...Saul Ashby. The guy was amazing. For a solo artist, virtually, if not completely unknown to come on stage and play a solo acoustic set in front of I'd guess a crowd at that point in excess of 2,500, was simply awesome. Had I opted for the beer and chat outside I would have missed something quite special.

Why do we do it? I guess we have this in built notion that the act we have come to see, in this case Counting Crows is all we really want to see so whatever else is playing no matter how good it is, is just not worth seeing.

This got me thinking...the best way to get people in their seats early is for the "headline act" to open the show, play for a while, go off for an undisclosed amount of time, then come back and play a set. Then an arena/venue would be filled start to finish.

I thought I was being a pioneer and then, well turns out someone else had the same idea. Counting Crows are currently on a tour (with some odd name I am far too drunk right now to remember) with Augustana (who I know nothing of, yet!), and they're doing exactly that according to this update from Adam Duritz.

So it's a request/preach tonight. Next time you go to a gig, get in and see the support act(s). I learnt the hard way of what I was missing whilst having a beer outside...go support the lesser artists...more times than not they're awesome.

I am a bit drunk right now so I hope that all makes sense. Basically drink less. listen and drink more :-)