I’ll give you a few examples of what I mean:

I went to see Nine Inch Nails about 12 1/2 years ago, and the Jim Rose Circus was touring with them. When I got there, they brought out The Melvins, who were not listed in any of the press for the show, they just showed up. For me, that was the best surprise, but there have been a few others.

One of the 5 times I saw Pantera live, they had the Deftones and White Zombie opening. The Deftones did their set and before White Zombie took the stage, Pantera’s singer came out and said that the second leg of the tour which was about to kick off in a few weeks was going to feature a 4th band, some friends of his from New Orleans. They were called EyeHateGod, and they were not exactly my thang…a little too much growling/not quite enough singing. They were however, shall we say…entertaining, quipping at times things like, “how many of y’all like to fuck your sisters? Alright, this one’s called sisterfucker.”

Then there was the time I went to a huge outdoor festival, I think it was 2 days, 28 bands, a TON of big names, and they were touting this “surprise guest” who turned out to be Gavin Rossdale (Mr. Gwen Stefani), who came up and did about 4 Bush songs.

Or there are the bands I knew about and didn’t expect to see…like the time I went to a free outdoor concert where the Black Crowes were playing, and the crowd was about 100k people deep, I couldn’t see anything, so I started walking away and I saw a local band setting up on a side street. About 20 people all told saw Semisonic play, about a year before they hit big with “Closing Time”, which was pretty cool as well (I had been into their first album so I knew who they were and to be honest, I’d already seen the Black Crowes play that year, so this actually was much better).

So, I’d like to hear your stories. Did you ever get to see someone live that you didn’t expect to get to see live? Who was it? Was it a thrill or a letdown?

Topics: fun, music, surprise, bands, concerts