A HUGE band you saw before they broke?

Donnie B.

Donnie B.

Banned
Well-known member
1970?
Coca-Cola had their annual 'day' at this really cool old-time amusement park built within the woods.
Think they may have (or have had) the last running wooden roller coaster.

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Aerosmith - who wouldn't be on the radio for another year or so.

This was the first local hit months before Dream On exploded.

 
I would say for me Tesla. I’m sure they were popular. But saw them open for David Lee Roth for eat em and smile. Freaking blew the roof off!!
Bought the tape the next day. They just exploded that summer.
 
I saw Pantera play a small club in SF (The Stone) when "Cowboys from hell" came out. They destroyed the place and it was clear they were destined for greater things. I also saw Living colour at Berkeley square just after "Vivid" came out. There was maybe 50 people there. I was so close, Vernon Reid's microphone stand got knocked over and i just casually reached up and grabbed it and set it upright for him.

Actually, come to think of it, the next time I saw Living colour after that berkeley show was in an arena in San Jose and the FOH guy was playing this brutally heavy band that I had never heard of before. I couldn't figure out who it was. It was as heavy as Metallica, but the musicianship was too good. I went up to ask him who it was (which I had never done before), and he told me it was Pantera and that their album was coming out the following week. I thought they were my own hidden gem and then I saw them at the aforementioned Stone show in SF and the rest is history.
 
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This ain't mega huge unless it's the guitar community. Saw Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs on their 'What If'
tour up the east coast. They played on the floor of a college gym while a New England Nor-easter raged outside.
Only a couple dozen of us showed and the gig was ridiculously intimate.

I'd spun What If to death but seeing the guy doing it six feet in front of me was mind melting.
Was getting goosebumps all night.
 
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I seen Clutch here in town playing with the local scene. Been a fan ever since. Also, Korn played a show here I think somewhere around early 94 in a small club. I was hooked ! I still think their first album is one of the best. I resonated with it deeply!
 
Pantera on CFH tour
Slayer on Hell Awaits tour
Kreator on Pleasure to Kill tour
Machine Head on Burn My Eyes tour
VoiVod on RRROOOAAARRR tour
Disturbed when they were local, called Brawl and did covers
Exodus on Bonded by Blood tour
Testament on The Legacy tour
Death on Leprosy tour
Deicide on S/T tour
Malevolent Creation on Retribution tour
Coroner on Punishment for Decadence tour
TJ Helmrich in local band Premonition
Joel Hoekstra in numerous local bands, and he sang in a thrash band I was in called Fear Itself
 
I don't know about HUGE, but I saw Black Stone Cherry before they were big. They played a show in town with a couple other bands. They were first up, set up their own equipment and then just started playing. YOu would have thought they were roadies but then just went into a song.
 
I saw Steve Stevens' Atomic Playboys at the Paradise in Boston. Those guys just exploded after...lol. But did see RATM there as well touring for their first record. God damn that was epic.
 
Pantera Opening for Wrathchild America at the Button South in Hallendale Beach, FL. It was right before or Just After CFH Came out. I still have a Dime Bag Pick from that Night.
 
Pantera when Metal Magic first came out. They played in the gym at the YMCA on Cooper street. Darrells guitar was bigger than he was.
Metallica and Raven on the "kill em all for one" tour in Tyler TX. Only like 30 people there including the bands.
Megadeth in 85 at the Ritz in Dallas. Dave was a drunken dick(imagine that).
 
Maybe mine aren't "Huge" but anyway. Most seen in the Dayton/Cincinnati area...

Collective soul @ Bogarts 1992/3 I cant quite remember the year right before Shine hit the radio, I was 12/13 at the time.
Mighty Mighty Bosstones a bunch of times/places before they had a radio hit
Dropkick Murphy's when they still had Mike Mccolgan as a singer, opening for the Bosstones @ Hara Arena
Dream Theater w/ Queensryche @ Hara Arena, at the time DT was still pretty obscure, at least to anyone my own age... Mike Portnoy Drum Clinic @ Hauer Music in 1992/3
White Zombie - Hara Arena, last bit of La Sexorcisto tours just before Astro Creep. Thanks to my middle school wrestling coach for taking me...
Queens of the Stone Age, starting in 1999. Cincinnati x2, Cleveland, and London before Songs for the deaf came out.
Tenacious D - Amsterdam 2001
Disturbed on their first Ozzfest
Incubus - Bogarts 1998/9 Sno-Core tour / Science was out at the time.
Black Label Society Sonic brew tour
Tool - Springfield ohio, some radio station rock festival 94/95, they were known but not big yet.
30 Seconds to Mars - They opened for Incubus before they had any radio hits
Just about everyone who opened for Stuck Mojo from 1998-2000 became bigger than them so...

Also, I saw Clutch for the first time in 1998. I've seen them 15 or 20 times since, and I've never once gone to a Clutch show... They have opened for every damned rock band on earth.

My middle school wrestling coach was super cool so I also got to see a bunch of the Seattle scene in the early 90s, they already had radio hits at the time but no were near as big as they became in the mid/late 90s
 
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GOHOINC said:
Maybe mine aren't "Huge" but anyway. Most seen in the Dayton/Cincinnati area...

Collective soul @ Bogarts 1992/3 I cant quite remember the year right before Shine hit the radio, I was 12/13 at the time.
Mighty Mighty Bosstones a bunch of times/places before they had a radio hit
Dropkick Murphy's when they still had Mike Mccolgan as a singer, opening for the Bosstones @ Hara Arena
Dream Theater w/ Queensryche @ Hara Arena, at the time DT was still pretty obscure, at least to anyone my own age... Mike Portnoy Drum Clinic @ Hauer Music in 1992/3
White Zombie - Hara Arena, last bit of La Sexorcisto tours just before Astro Creep. Thanks to my middle school wrestling coach for taking me...
Queens of the Stone Age, starting in 1999. Cincinnati x2, Cleveland, and London before Songs for the deaf came out.
Tenacious D - Amsterdam 2001
Disturbed on their first Ozzfest
Incubus - Bogarts 1998/9 Sno-Core tour / Science was out at the time.
Black Label Society Sonic brew tour
Tool - Springfield ohio, some radio station rock festival 94/95, they were known but not big yet.
30 Seconds to Mars - They opened for Incubus before they had any radio hits

Also, I saw Clutch for the first time in 1998. I've seen them 15 or 20 times since, and I've never once gone to a Clutch show... They have opened for every damned rock band on earth.
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A little story about Disturbed on that Ozzfest tour...

My band, Systematic, was playing second stage on that tour and Disturbed was originally slated to headline the second stage. We had one rehearsal day in Chicago and then the first show was there, as well. Disturbed, being home town Chicago guys, crushed every band at that first Chicago show. The crowd was so wild, they knocked down the second stage barrier during their set. The very next show, Sharon Osborne bumped Disturbed up to the main stage where they stayed for the rest of the tour. They actually asked us to do their next tour after Ozzfest with them and we ended up doing the "Music as a weapon" tour with them that following September.

Also, at that first Chicago Ozzfest show, some random guy named Dave came up to me before the show and told me his band was playing the third "Levi" stage, which was basically a stage set up where the people walked in through the gates (They were basically lower than the second stage). I had never heard of his band but he was an awesome guy and knew just about everything there was to know about hard rock and metal bands. His band was Drowning pool and their album hadn't come out yet. When "Let the bodies hit the floor" took off, Sharon bumped them to headline the second stage and by the end of the tour they were on the main stage. They also did the "Music as a weapon" tour with Disturbed but at that point they were main support. The best part is all of the guys in both of these bands were really cool and are still the same people today (RIP Dave Williams) as they were when they were "on the lower stages". Definitely "good dudes" who deserved what they got.
 
Detroit1973 said:
Dream Theater at The Plus 5 Lounge in Davie, FL. Right before images & words came out.
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Saw DT at The Alrosa Villa (place where Dime went down) just after when Images & Words came out. Wow. Seeing musicians like that in a bar.

Black Label Society also played there on a very early tour for them. Zakk killed!

Saw GNR open for Aerosmith just before Appetite went insane. They were great that night.
 
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