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[skateandannoy]

At my first (non local band) show I saw Dan Potthast from Mu330 play solo and was immediately in love. And another band named Vuvuzela who opened for my friend's band and they were amazing. They play dark creepy chamber music. Your stories will probably be more exciting and relatable than mine....

[BlakeK]

Does it count if I saw bands before they were big, they got big and popular, and then somewhere down the line they started to suck? I have tons of those from my years on going to the Warped Tour in the early 2000s. If it does count, I will say Anti-Flag as the band that epitomizes that. I saw them on like the 3rd or 4th stage in 2000 where they were playing to maybe 15 people. I bought A New Kind of Army and really loved it. They were pretty damn good live. Six years later they were headliners and still pretty good live.

I'll tell you another band that put on a really fucking good show even though there were only 20 people watching and that was New Found Glory. They were awesome live that year. I saw them on the main stage a few years later and they were terrible. It's like they lost their spark and were just going through the motions.

Since I'm getting feeling nostalgic for that year, Green Day were one of the headliners that year and they were awesome. They had just released Warning and were on a down swing but I fucking loved it. It was the only time in my life that I felt star struck.

[skateandannoy]

That totally counts! I feel like that happened to all the 90's/ early 2000's Warped Tour pop punk bands. It's like the era's legacy.

[ramblinrabble]

I had never listened to the Soviettes before seeing them live.  I was pleased to have found them.

[BlakeK]

This is embarrassing and off topic to a degree but I saw Nickelback open for Staind (yeah, I was into Staind  as a teenager, wanna fight about it?). There was no indication at that point that they would end up being the biggest (and one of the worst) bands in the world.

That year at the Warped Tour in 2000, Papa Roach played and everyone left. Another case of a band that got popular out of nowhere and it being surprising to me.

When I was like 11 to 14 I used to tape 120 minutes every Sunday night on MTV. I had a pretty good sense for what bands were going to be big. I lost that as I got older and had an increasingly harder time identifying what bands would end up being popular.

[skateandannoy]

I forgot I also went to see the band Skaters a couple years ago and an Australian band I'd never heard of called San Cisco that play super cute indie pop opened. Love both of them now.

[AaronTheCabe]

when i went to my first diy show was going to see cheap girls, whom I had heard of and thought was alright but was more interested in the two opening acts that Dakota had booked. Jebediah Springfield was great but the The Sidekicks blew my mind and was definitely the high point of the show for me. Never listened to Cheap Girls again, The Sidekicks is one of my favorite bands. As well as Places to Hide who also played. I'm not sure these even count as opening acts, while Cheap Girls was the more well-known band, Wonderroot always bills their events collaboratively, as a show that includes bands X and Y and so forth. Or maybe that was just Dakota's influence on the place, but whenever he puts a show together, there really isn't a main act and opening act. But at that time, a few people I talked with between sets were all their for Cheap Girls and I was like 'really?' cause Places to Hide i think was the original thing that got me to go, it being a local band and featuring friends and members of The Wild, the bestest band that beats bitterness before business. i digress a little  but aye, the sidekicks, aye.

[momitsnowme]

I don't really listen to them anymore but I saw Bad Religion open for Blink 182 before I knew who they were.

Also, my first concert, when I was 9, was They Might Be Giants. I didn't know them at all, they were just playing the college in my hometown and I wanted to be cool and go to a show.

[RankResistance]

Generally, I get to any Against Me! show early to see the opening bands and am rarely disappointed. I really enjoy Off With Their Heads and they were openers in Athens. That was how I  first saw Fake Problems for the first time, and though at the time, they had that same AM!, I believe they've become a much better band. Lately though, they've been even more on point. They had Screaming Females one time and that was mind-blowing experience. Likewise, they brought The Shondes out last time they were in Athens and it was just great.

Seeing War on Women was pretty cool, as well. Shows are way better than the first album, but I enjoy the new full-length tremendously.

[BlakeK]

I don't really listen to them anymore but I saw Bad Religion open for Blink 182 before I knew who they were.

Also, my first concert, when I was 9, was They Might Be Giants. I didn't know them at all, they were just playing the college in my hometown and I wanted to be cool and go to a show.

I have seen Bad Religion a few times and they are one of my top 5 bands that I've seen live. I think they may be only second to Green Day and Tool when it comes to shows/sets I've seen. I know Tool won't get a lot of love on here but damn they put on a hell of a show.

My first concert was going to see Smashing Pumpkins in 1996. Fountains of Wayne opened for them. I had never heard of Fountains of Wayne and then years later that Stacy's Mom song came out and I was retroactively embarrassed for having seen them live.

I still love Bad Religion and don't really see them as a band that people grow out of like NOFX. I will say that I can put Punk in Drublic on and have a good time singing along, though.

[skateandannoy]

I still listen to Bad Religion like every other week haha

[momitsnowme]

I don't dislike them, I just don't really ever listen to them now

[BlakeK]

I still listen to Bad Religion like every other week haha

How can you not? I would like to think that even if people don't listen to them all the time, Bad Religion are probably a band that most people on the board would agree that they like. Some of their later albums are bland but the good shit is really fucking good. I'm a No Control kind of man. That or I'll cheat and just listen to All Ages.

[amanda]

Teenage Bottlerocket!

[momitsnowme]

I just remembered! I learned about koalacaust when they opened for mischief brew!

[Aaron]

A few shows at the Death Star in Silver Spring, MD come to mind:

I remember seeing Potboiler and Lemuria open for Latterman.

Also, Delay was really catchy and friendly one time.  I forget who the "headliner" was.

Also, this banjo-player/singer called Adam Frumhoff opened for Paul Baribeau once.  His music and presence was so intense, and resonated with me way more with me than Paul's.  I immediately bought his two CD's, which I still continue to listen to, although I've since lost one of them :(  Anybody know anything about him or where I can get his music?  He was from Arizona...I haven't heard anything since that show in 2006 or so...

[BlakeK]

Cheap Girls is a band I had never heard and they opened for Against Me! I liked them and still do. They had a female solo artist open for them the last time and she was amazing. I wish I could remember her name.

Someone else said Teenage Bottlerocket. I saw them and was impressed. I still like them I just can't remember where I first saw them.

I hi saw the Bronx open for Poison the Well (I went with my roommate and have never been a huge fan). I liked the Bronx when I saw them and they ended up getting kind of big.

[jer]

am i crazy or do Cheap Girls sound a little like J Church (that's a compliment)

[pronetoaccidents]

first time i saw the ergs it was right after they put out ben kweller and i was a freshman or sophmore, just getting into punk, and they were playing with my high school punk band, skynet (soon to be For Science!) and other local bands from town. They blew me the fuck away.

against me was still playing basement shows and it was one with latterman and this band guadaulupe and these younger kids, there band was called for those who can't wait, opend and ruled. it was sweet.

[CrackyMcCrackerson]

I still love Bad Religion and don't really see them as a band that people grow out of like NOFX. I will say that I can put Punk in Drublic on and have a good time singing along, though.

I'm damn near 30 and still love the shit out of NOFX.  I haven't grown out of them and it has been 17 years.

[BlakeK]

first time i saw the ergs it was right after they put out ben kweller and i was a freshman or sophmore, just getting into punk, and they were playing with my high school punk band, skynet (soon to be For Science!) and other local bands from town. They blew me the fuck away.

against me was still playing basement shows and it was one with latterman and this band guadaulupe and these younger kids, there band was called for those who can't wait, opend and ruled. it was sweet.

I forgot about Latterman, I saw them open too and really liked them. Whatever happened to them?

[BlakeK]

am i crazy or do Cheap Girls sound a little like J Church (that's a compliment)

I think they do. I prefer J Church just because they're a little more standard pop punk than Chrap Girls

[pronetoaccidents]

first time i saw the ergs it was right after they put out ben kweller and i was a freshman or sophmore, just getting into punk, and they were playing with my high school punk band, skynet (soon to be For Science!) and other local bands from town. They blew me the fuck away.

against me was still playing basement shows and it was one with latterman and this band guadaulupe and these younger kids, there band was called for those who can't wait, opend and ruled. it was sweet.

I forgot about Latterman, I saw them open too and really liked them. Whatever happened to them?

they actually got absurdly big and toured the world and all the members have branched off into a ridiculously large amount of side bands. Some sound exactly like pasteurized Latterman and some are awesome.. the ones I know off hand are RVIVR, Shorebirds, Iron Chic, Bridge and Tunnel, Laura Stevenson and The Cans, The Brass, Mutoid Man, Daytrader

[pronetoaccidents]

I still love Bad Religion and don't really see them as a band that people grow out of like NOFX. I will say that I can put Punk in Drublic on and have a good time singing along, though.

I'm damn near 30 and still love the shit out of NOFX.  I haven't grown out of them and it has been 17 years.

My love for NOFX, Bad Religion, and Rancid will never fade. It's impossible for me to listen to Punk in Drublic and not feel that same welled up feeling in my chest, same as when i first heard it, and the only thing to do for it is to drum on my knee, bob my head, smile, air guitar, sing with the headphones on i don't know how loud and outta tune and how much of an asshole i must look/sound like and not caring.. Great memories of driving fast, smoking weed and bumping the Decline.. my band playing Linoleum at every show no matter what, and mikey erg grabbing the mic and singing too and we were all ecstatic in the basement..

Bad Religion also had a huge impact on me. They were my absolute favorite band when I was about 15, 16 or so. It was evident in my band at that times sound. I loved the soaring melodies and I loved reading the lyric book with a dictionary by my side. Against the Grain/Generator/Suffer.. top 3 but I love em all, with the exception of anything new they've released because I haven't had the time to check it out. But I'll never forget being on shrooms and listening to the lyrics of generator..  i mean, look at this amazing shit!!

"Like a rock,
like a planet,
Like a fucking atom bomb,
I'll remain unperturbed by the joy and the madness
that i encounter everywhere I turn
I've seen it all along
In book and magazines
like a twitch before dying
like a pornographic sea
there's a flower behind the window
there's an ugly laughing man
like a hummingbird in silence
like the blood on the door..."

[lindsey]

i once saw soophie nun squad open for tbiapb before i knew who they were and HOLY SHIT that was one of the best (and craziest) shows of all time and also i was like 15