The worst opening act I ever heard opened for the Decemberists on their second D.C. show. I have blocked the gentleman's name, but I remember an accordian and yowling. I escaped to the bar pretty quickly.

And I had 5,946 songs and 15.5 days of music on my iTunes as of two weeks ago, but I've since added two albums, so ... 5,970 songs or so total? There are 4440 on my iPod. Top artist is probably U2 (huge surprise).

Hec, they're a Berlin band, but the female half of the duo is French. She's lived in Germany since the '80s.

Hec, they're a Berlin band, but the female half of the duo is French. She's lived in Germany since the '80s.

I think I was fooled by her French accent on the English lyrics. I think she's got a solo record out too.

There have been plenty of times I've gone to a show specifically to see the opener (not to mention all the times I've been the opener), so the whole concept of "worst opening act" irks me somewhat. Opening acts are abused enough by clubs, their soundmen, and sometimes even the headliners. Wouldn't it be better to just talk about the worst band you're seen, irrespective of where their name appeared on the marquis?

Wouldn't it be better to just talk about the worst band you're seen, irrespective of where their name appeared on the marquis?

Bonnie Bramlett, post Delaney and Bonnie, at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ, in 1974. The gold standard for bad performances. God, she was awful. She was swearing at the audience as she left the stage.

She was the second of three acts.

Speaking of openers, the Dresden Dolls are opening for Nine Inch Nails on a string of dates across the country. P-C: the closest they come to your neck of the woods is Toronto on May 9 and Chicago May 12-13.

Speaking of openers, the Dresden Dolls are opening for Nine Inch Nails on a string of dates across the country.

That's kinda tempting. I don't know if it's tempting enough for me to go see the Trentlet perform live again, but I'll think about it.

Comments/reactions to some recent posts:

Jon, thanks for the WKRP link. I loved that show. I knew that music was changed for syndication but didn't realize how extensive it was, and I was completely unaware of the redubbing of lines because of it. ("Hold my order, terrible dresser" for "Hold me closer, tiny dancer" - wha? Btw, the INS agent in that episode was Sam "Holland Manners" Anderson.)

Jon, Hayden, other musicians, and anyone else interested either in music theory or pure sonics: I just heard a fascinating interview (not archived yet) with a composer/pianist/piano-tuner-refurbisher-theorist named Michael Harrison. I'll let him describe his harmonic piano and just intonation tunings, but I will note that on Soundcheck he plays one of his compositions on a piano with standard tuning and then we hear the "same" composition on one of his rejiggered instruments. Cool stuff.

Glad to hear the Miles love. I think the Pablo in "Blues for Pablo" was Paul Chambers, the great bassist, but I didn't find anything to back that up. If I remember I'll check Gil Evans' bio (Castles Made Of Sound) when I get home. ("Mr. P.C." on Coltrane's Giant Steps is a Chambers tribute.) "Blues for Pablo"'s album-mate "My Ship" is one of my favorite Miles recordings, certainly a peak of the Davis/Evans collaboration.

Re: "opening bands" - when I was managing a friend's band we went through a weird period where the bookers would tell us, "Oh, you're headlining." Woohoo! We're headlining - except that they just meant that we'd be going on last. So we'd tell our fans to come to the show because we were headlining & needed to turn out a good crowd. They'd come out on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, and at 12:30 we'd still be 45 minutes from going on! "Sorry, guys. We love you, but tomorrow's a work day." We'd go on at 1:30 and play to half a dozen people. Ay yi yi.

There have been plenty of times I've gone to a show specifically to see the opener (not to mention all the times I've been the opener)

Yes. thank you.

Woohoo! We're headlining - except that they just meant that we'd be going on last.

I always call headlining "going on last." After we played our big cd release party last month I was dying for our next show to be one where somebody else set it up and we went on first or second. Which it's going to be. I'm a little worried about the band we're opening for. It's the band of a boyfriend of a friend of ours and none of my band has seen them. Evidently they're sort of "jazz funk"...well...He's seen us so he knows what we're like anyway. And it's at a new place for us so that can be good.

on Soundcheck he plays one of his compositions on a piano with standard tuning and then we hear the "same" composition on one of his rejiggered instruments. Cool stuff.

I met a music professor at UNC Asheville, I forget his name now, back in 1998 or so, who wrote midi software (or had it written for him) that did something like this. He demonstrated a piece by Bach or Mozart on his midi keyboard, first with today's standard piano tuning, and then with the 18th (?)century tuning (damn, where's that musicologist girlfriend when you need her?). It was fascinating how the "color" of the piece changed due to the subtle change in note frequencies.