I once had ticket to see The Jayhawks, just after they released Tomorrow the Green Grass.
Well the tickets were actually for The Counting Crows and the Jayhawks were to be the opening act.
Singer from The Counting Crows got sick, tour got cancelled and I never got to see the Jayhawks.
Still hurts.

I've seen some good ones and some bad ones. Here in Australia we always, no matter how dreary the artist, give them a sympathetic hearing.

I remember going to see Harry Manx one time and the support act was a quaint little guy who entertained us by playing a marimba and singing a heap of songs in African. I was not tempted to rush to the merchandise stall and purchase his CD, but I must admit he was different.

My least favourite opening acts are those solo singer songwriters who bore one to tears with their earnestness. Not all of them - some are quite engaging and have a lot of promise.

The only support act I can recall being impressed with was Shane Nicholson who was opening for Kasey Chambers. Fred Eaglesmith was also on the bill, but it was Shane who was the discovery of the night for me, as I'd seen Kasey and Fred before. The next day I raced out and purchased Shane's CD "It's A Movie" and loved it.

I saw Minibar open for the Jayhawks in SF on the "Smile" tour. They were pretty good but I was having a musical overload from having seen Elliot Smith, Vic Chestnutt and the jayhawks in the same weekend. I next saw them opening for the Old 97's for at least 6 shows in a row. I got pretty used to seeing them and when I went home and bought hteir CD at my local record store I was pleasently suprised to find that I knew all the words to all of their songs. I have since been a huge fan.

I also saw Tom Brosseau open for Aimee Mann and then Jon Brion at Largo and he won me over with those shows.

Seeing Roman Candle open for Thad Cockrell in Chris Stamey's "open recording sessions" in Carrboro called "Exile on Main Street" per the Rolling Stones album. I've never seen Roman Candle play that well ever since.

Hmm, seeing Rusted Root open for Page & Plant back in the mid-90s was a great shock.

Todd Snider opening for John Prine right before the album with Beer Run came out. Sitting there thinking, "who *is* this guy", I have to see him do a full set. He can't be this good if he has to fill more than 30 minutes...

I've seen this in print numerous times but never confirmed with an "I was there" story: Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees before quitting the tour.

I've read that Hendrix was booed off the stage here in Charlotte on that Monkees tour. That sounds like my home the Queen City all right.

I caught Tim Easton opening for Cowboy Junkies in Knoxville in 2001, and his first tune "Lexington Jail," along with the spooky bottleneck tune "They Will Bury You" made me an instant fan.

Saw Teddy Thompson last year opening for the Junkies here in Charlotte and liked him a lot, though he needed some more variety in his song choices.

In 1995 I had very good tickets to see PJ Harvey open for that awful grunge band Live at Merriwether Post in Maryland. Excited? In 1993 in the 10th grade I had worn out my cassette tape of "Dry." And yet somehow I never bothered to read these tickets to see that the show started at 6:30 rather than the usual 8pm. I took my seat just as Live took the stage. I stayed heartbroken until I finally caught PJ in 1998 at the 9:30 Club ... with Rob Ellis back on drums, so worth the wait.

In November 1968 I went to see the Jeff Beck Group @ Eagles Auditorium in Seattle.

The opening act was an unknown band- Chicago Transit Authority (and my god, they had horn players!)

They blew everyone away. Their debut album was still six months away.

Terry Kath & Jeff Beck back to back- one of the greatest shows I've ever seen.

Oh yeah, the Sadies -- when they toured with Neko Case a few years ago. I'd heard them on The Tigers Have Spoken, but nothing could have prepared me for the spring-reverbed Telecaster/Gretsch onslaught of their opening set. They KILLED.

I just remembered - eons ago I saw ACDC opening for Frank Zappa. Not a bad support act at all.

@brendan: good call, the Sadies rocked my world before Neko in Chapel Hill. I've been a huge fan since.

I remember being blown away by Blue Rodeo when they opened for Edie Brickell in 1990 or 1991(?)

I also was impressed by Norah Jones in a club opening for Taj Mahal before her first album came out...

I saw the Bottle Rockets open for Steve Earle at the New Daisy on Beale Street in Memphis in '95 or '96. I was knocked out by both acts. It was a Great night.

This one goes in the memorable category for me: Chris Knight played a solo show and they had two opening acts. The first guy, Mando something, was pretty mellow, after him was some local guy that literally screamed all of his songs. He then said he sent a demo to Chris Knight's manager and never heard back. Then he said, "I guess they don't want to make any f'n money." At which point Chris, who had been in the back of the small room listening, threw his beer bottle all the way across the room barely missing the guys head. they guy didn't know who threw it and started threatening whoever did it and Chris shook his head and went into the other room.

Thanks for posing the question, Hal. I had fun yesterday brushing off some dusty brain cells thinking more about it. Now I'll add a couple of more.
Stevie Ray Vaughn opening for Charlie Daniels a couple of months after the famous Montreux performance (which I hadn't heard about at the time).
Van Halen opening for The Steve Miller Band in the mid-70's.

I'm not sure, but I think I might have seen Carla Bruni (the singer/supermodel who may or may not now be secretly married to French president Nicolas Sarkozy) open for the Old 97s one time. It was a long time ago, though, so I might be remembering wrong.

Opening acts I've dug for reasons other than they boned a world leader: Grey Delisle, r.b. morris, Greg Trooper and a long-defunct outfit called Big Back Forty that I really wish had survived. Oh, and I think I saw Todd Snider on that same tour, Shawn! He was great.

Oh! One of my all-time favorite opening acts was Erin McKeown, opening for Ani Difranco. I was an instant fan.

But the WORST opening act I've ever seen also is Ani's fault. An outfit called Bitch & Animal. Seriously, seriously horrible.