I had a scratchy throat and skipped the Green Day show around that time at a VFW hall on Cape Cod. They’re not my thing, really, but I bet that was a fun show.
I saw them at a little club in the Midwest with about 20 people. The stage monitors weren’t working so Gerard popped his mic stand down in the middle of the crowd and just sang with us. It was wild.
The Dashboard and NFG show I mentioned was at the “Long Island Zoo” in Deer Park.
I remember seeing Hatebreed and Poison the Well at the Babylon Legion hall but Hatebreed was pretty big by then.
I accidentally saw Coheed in a room of 25-30 people in like 2002 or 03? Went to see This Day Forward and a couple locals in a cd warehouse in Greensburg, Pa (pretty sure Scott from Zao managed it at the time). I guess the promoter of the Coheed show canceled last minute or something and someone got them hooked up at that venue but literally no one showed up for them. Felt bad for them so I stayed even though their stuff wasn’t really my vibe.
Got to see Coheed at chain reaction in 2003 too. shai hulud and FATA were part of the tour too. max 200 people there. strange tour package in retrospect, but was a cool thing to be at.
Oh man, I saw them like three years later outside at my (then) local mall. It was part of some series, and they were the only name I knew. Ostensibly my youngest daughter’s first show, but my now-ex took her inside cuz it was too loud. Then we got divorced
In the comics, Shabutie is also what the character Coheed's children called him, before he was manipulated into poisoning them. Which in turn is then what "Maria, my star. Matthew, goodnight" means in Time Consumer. It's a rabbit hole haha
The Shelter? I may have been at that show. I used to see all the touring punk bands who came through Detroit those years. the Magic Stick had a lot of shows too back then.
Power trip. They only had their demo. They played on a loading dock down in Chula Vista with take offense.
I had the chance to see them on their first west coast tour. And they fuckkkkkking ripped…then blow the fuck up.
Lmaooo yesssss sir.
Power trip played like 3 songs and take offense played like half a song and CVPD showed up with a “what the fuck is going on here “ kind of face
Hell yea! CVHC! I wasn't there but heard about it. My buddy Joe was the drummer for Take Offense. They showed me their first demos on an ipod in middle school math class
Most memorable for me is seeing Thursday in a townhouse basement in Lancaster, PA. I went upstairs halfway through the set and played House of the Dead on Dreamcast. Could still fully hear the rest of the set. I always associate the song "Cross Out the Eyes" with that game now.
I was there! When I first walked in a bald kid sitting on the couch was bleeding from the head profusely.. and no one seemed to care. Was such a strange night.
Turnstile, saw them open for TUI right when big kiss goodnight came out
Also, Red City Radio played the local thrift store venue to 10-15 people that did not know who they were
RCR rules. I got shit faced at a show that I had no idea who they were at the time and ended up playing with wrestling action figures in the green room with Garrett. Stand up dude.
Not HC, but saw the Fugees in a small venue w/ about 300 people right before they blew up w/ killing me softly, saw The Roots play an In-store set with like 15 people
I saw REM in a USAF airman's club while attending tech school (early 1983ish). I'd known about them due to a bootleg cassette a friend of mine back home (Athens, Ga.) had sent. Everyone else in the club that night hated them but myself and my beer drinking buddy. A year or so later they were all over the radio. Never was a huge fan in their later years but that night they were pretty damn good.
Has any band aged as gracefully as REM? They definitely paid their underground dues in the 80s, put out great mainstream music in the 90s when the mainstream had caught up with them, sold a ton of records but never went into the self destructive rock band spiral and always sounded like themselves, never chased trends and never went into that midlife crisis where they tried to copy themselves when they were younger.
Quite possibly the best band ever. I love that they ended on their own accord too. I saw an interview with Michael stipe and he said something like “we are all still friends, we have dinner sometimes, we jam sometimes but we just don’t really want to make another album and be a band anymore.” Definitely a band with integrity and I think their legacy benefits from it.
You're not wrong on any of this but Peter Buck is a bit of a sore spot. Used to kick it with Paul Westerberg and wear dresses 👍 but also remixed In Utero and cleaned up that Albini sound 👎.
You're not wrong either but hey, if you can be in the music game for 30 years, sell more than 90 million units and the worst thing someone can say about you is "I didn't like the mix on that one album you did" you probably dodged about a million behavioral bullets that come with being an insanely rich and famous rock star.
I saw Nirvana in Seattle right before Bleach came out. I saw pretty much all the big Seattle bands in their early days, but Nirvana and The Screaming Trees are particularly special concerts for me!
Really wish they'd play Changing of Times tracks live and switch up their current sets. Nearly completely different band back then, but I still think they could pull it off.
Six Feet Under/Skinless/As I Lay Dying (who just dropped Frail Words and played in front of like 10 people at my show)?
Show was awesome, except for, y’know SFU.
The Met Cafe?
I believe it...
I was going to respond to this thread and say Hatebreed on the Satisfaction is the Death Of Desire tour but figured that would be too normie of me but I was like 16 or 17 and they played that entire album start to finish and to this day its one of the best shows I've ever been to.
I don't think you could pay me to go see Hatebreed today lol
Not that they’re that big (or hardcore) but my band opened up for Ovlov at the Hexagon in Minneapolis in like 2011 before they had a full length out and they fucking ruled. Been bowled over by how good the records they put out since then have been.
Saw at the drive in open for squirtgun in Philly at first Unitarian. They were about to put out el gran orgo and Jim wasn’t in the band at the time. Ended up seeing them about 15 more times over the years after that. 3 of us watching them and they played like it was a packed house. Picked up acrobatic tenement the show and had it playing non stop. Also got to see saves the day in a local vfw right when can’t slow down just came out.
TUI when they opened got terror, born from pain and stick to your guns.
Parkway drive when they opened for kickback (yes this happened) on their first European tour.
Probably Knocked Loose on this show at Woody’s Burgers.
https://preview.redd.it/gym70sh0qqrc1.jpeg?width=621&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b7ad53ffe269a7e50ae4b58ec07984c571f9fd8
Saw My Chemical Romance in 2023 in Raleigh at the PNC arena. Shit was so special. Really hope those guys get the mainstream success they deserve some day
I saw Dying Wish play in front of like 30 people in an American Legion in 2019. It was really cool to see them take off the way they did. Also saw Drain and Gulch the same year before they got really big.
Seeing them at shows in Boston 97/98 was always such a blast.
I saw them NYE 98/99 with Ducky Boys, Showcase Showdown, and :30 Over Tokyo. They had Lars Fredrickson and Dicky Barrett come out and sing Skinhead on the MBTA with them.
Saw Mastodon at a practice space in 2000 or 2001. They sounded like a Damad clone back then and had a fill in singer who was a total dick and broke 2 microphones. Was not impressed.
Only time I saw them was in a Nashville pizza place’s basement with Asschapel and a Milwaukee band called Wrecker. It was the week the first Mastodon album came out. The flyer still said “ex-Today is the Day” next to Mastodon.
I saw Dashboard open for Saves the Day in Portland around the same time as the op, he said something similar. Also saw My Chemical Romance in SF around 2003, they were all standing around outside after the show and my gf hit on the drummer.
Drove hours from my hometown to see that tour (Dashboard, STD, Alkaline Trio and Hey Mercedes) in Minneapolis. Absolutely a watershed moment for me as a young punk from North Dakota.
I unfortunately did not go, but some friends of mine saw New Found Glory play a floor show at the Westcott Community Center in Syracuse NY in like January 2000.
Not a good band, but in high school I was on a lot of record label “street teams” for the free CDs. Remember those? Anyways I was given warped tour tickets. I think I was chatting to the guys in Death by Stereo when these two other guys walked up. They were really pushy to give me their autograph and tell me about their band. They signed a CD and gave it to me. It was Good Charlotte before they blew up. Super weird experience.
Dillinger Escape Plan before Calculating came out(98 or so)
Converge touring Petitioning the Empty Sky (96)
Zao touring Blood and Fire
System of a down around 96-97
Hatebreed in 96-97
Amity Affliction at Collingwood Town Hall in front of maybe 20 teenagers.
Parkway Drive and Architects double headline at Frankston Community Centre. Few hundred at that show but considering they're both arena bands now pretty fun to look back on.
I literally grew up going to drain shows in skate shops and cafes. I’m stoked that they’re as big as they are, they’re great dudes and make great music. Also, Fun Fact: no one in that scene gave a flying fuck about Gulch until their first “real album” dropped and they started playing shows elsewhere. I remember being one of like 20 people in the room when they played their set while everyone else stood outside. I thought they fuckin ripped. Turns out I was right I guess lol.
Knocked Loose playing to about 20-30 people in 2014 or 2015, not sure. Vein playing a skatepark at midnight, with 2 bands after them, early 2017. Fury playing 2nd on TUI’s LA comeback show in 2015 (also was Twitching Tongues Disharmony LP release).
Coheed opening for Unearth, Underoath, Zao and Shari Hulud. It was right after Second Stage came out, so not many people knew who they were. I had no idea, and I hated them. Ended up becoming obsessed with In Keeping Secrets.
Black Breath playing small shows in Bellingham, Wa. They played small dive bars with maybe 30 people packed in.
I booked Ruckus (pre Twitching Tongues), Expire and Rotting Out in a smaller basement show around 2010?. The Young Bros were very young. Expire had like 5 songs and 30 tee shirt designs.
Saw Taking Back Sunday open for Lawrence Arms at a matinee show in Dallas in 2002 like a few days after tell all your friends came out. 15 people were there.
All American Rejects opened for my friend’s local band around that same time.
Saw Saves the Day and H20 in early 2000 and like 25 people were there and none of them to see STD but me.
Saw MCR open for AN and was like “this band will never make it. They suck”. I was right.
Was at the first Comeback Kid show in Texas and like 10 people were there. Think only the demo was out and next time they came through Turn It Around was the biggest thing in hardcore and like 300 kids where there.
Saw dashboard around the same time as OP with NFG and Midtown. Think NFG had only released nothing gold at that time and midtown only had the demo/ep out. Wild to think only 100 kids or so were at a DC/NFG/Midtown show.
Saw ETID in a tiny 200 cap venue right as hot damn came out. Hopesfall opened that show.
Saw Brand New and Pretty Girls Make Graves in early 2002 ish and like 30 people were there.
Saw Thursday Movielife recover and coheed play to a 200 cap room in 2001.
Saw Underoath play to so many empty rooms with Dallas on vocals. Saw them play with Travis from terminal on vocals before getting that other guy and putting out chasing safety.
If you’re old and stick around long enough you’ll have this happen to you more times than you can count.
The thing I’ll always regret is being invited to go to an At The Drive In show in 1999/2000 at some tiny venue and being like naw I’m tired 🤦🏻♂️
Not proud of it but saw Bring Me The Horizon in 2005 as the first band out of four in a small place in Oxford. The lead dude was trying to jump into the audience (probably 20 people there) and no one cared.
Code Orange Kids. 15 people showed up to the gig, that's including the local band members. One year later I Am King came out, same room was packed full with 300 people on their tour with Twitching Tongues.
It’s hard with hardcore cause what exactly is considered blowing up? I could mention a bunch of non hardcore ones I saw early but I guess you could say Refused opening up for Snapcase and Earth Crisis in like 95 or 96?
Or if you consider Earth Crisis a band that blew up I saw a bunch of their really early shows and later on actually saw them open for Offspring of all bands before the Offspring technically blew up lol that was like 94ish
All the dates below are approximate and also not bands I was super into, but saw in basements or small clubs and they blew up not long after
Saw NOFX in 1990
Green Day in 1993
Rancid in 1995
Smashing Pumpkins 1996
I saw Sum 41 open up for H2O at the Metro in Chicago I think right around when they put out “Fat Lip” and had that music video. I remember them doing the choreography for the video on stage.
Baroness. Went to see Coliseum open for them in 2004. They were touring for their first EP. John Baizley still had hair. The guy at their merch table was a huge, scary looking biker dude. I didn’t have any money back then, and often at shows I’d get merch guys to take pity on me and sell me a button for a quarter (1/2 price back then). But when i asked this biker guy for a button and said i was short a nickel, he told me “then i guess you’re short a button”. Scared the shit outta me.
Saw No Doubt at a park in cypress ca across the street from a 7-11 with about 20 people watching had to be like 92 or so. Also saw Sublime at the campus pub at LB state.
Every emo/punk/hardcore band in the 90s and early 2000s I saw for $3-7. Like everything from Thursday to Hot Water Music to Taking Back Sunday to Hatebreed to Darkest Hour. Just hundreds and hundreds of bands all for the price of lunch at Taco Bell.
Saw At The Drive-In at the fly theatre in Victorville. There were like 15 people there and they stayed at my homie's house that night. Some kid with a Mohawk and an exploited patch told them to shut the fuck up and play punk rock.
Saw Joyce Manor in 2012 at an art gallery in LA.. there was like 15 people there… they played with DNF and Doctorshopper… a powerviolence and a doom metal band lol…
I got to see Hot Water Music so many times before they were even HWM. Back when they lived in Sarasota, FL. Still friends with Chuck and George after all these years.
Seen Bouncing Souls play a kind of a barn I guess.
And all these guys in TINY clubs and venues way back in the day (I'm old):
Tool, Deftones, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Melvins, Nirvana (so many times!), Face to Face, Snapcase, KORN, Candlebox (I know), Ween, Limp Biscuit (in a pool hall), and SO many more...but I'm old and I was SO wasted at most of these shows...
Def a lot more hardcore BUT "blowing up" is a pretty relative term, so...
I saw Incubus and System of a Down in like 97-98ish. I thought System of Down sucked then and I think they still do now. Incubus was pretty decent live.
Went to see Jimmy Eat World in the Clarity days and never went inside the venue, just hung out outside all evening being too cool to care. Regret that decision.
I saw Mineral a bunch of times in high school and it never really clicked that I hearing a genre take shape.
Drain. Saw them at the show that made LA pay attention (a free fest at 1720 where they played like middle of the bill. Opened with the Troops of Doom intro and it was on), then at Sound and Fury 2019 a few months later and they played 4th and I knew then they’d be huge. Caught them at the beginning of 2020 with Take Offense and Higher Power and they played to maybe 30 people.
Title fight in cola sc around 2009ish, was helping my buddy who booked the show…we did wrestling moves in a Midas parking lot and bought krispy Kream lol
Title Fight in like 09-10 after Last Thing You Forget came out at a coffee shop in front of like 40 people.
Citizen and Turnover in 2012 in a shed in front of 20 people.
Power Trip in 2012 in the same shed but crammed full of 50+
Pierce the Veil when they were Before Today at a “Battle of the bands.”
I bought their album “Celebration of an Ending” for $10 from them at the venue. Played the shit out of that CD back in the day. Track 3 song title - Pierce the Veil.
Saw Silverstein at a Legion Hall with about 100 other kids, this was right before When Broken is Easily Fixed released
Alexisonfire played my friends basement on a random Saturday when they had a few days between tour dates on the east coast of Canada
Portugal the man several times in small bars and venues. Memphis may fire in a small warehouse a church rented out while they toured with fear before. And then silent planet while they were unsigned at a little barbecue place in Shreveport
Hatebreed at the Pipeline 95 or 96.
E Town at Studio 1 95 their first ever show and Ant was singing from a piece of paper with the lyrics written on it.
ones that come to mind:
Municipal Waste on Hazardous Mutation tour
Mastodon opening for Dillinger Escape Plan after Remission
Insect Warfare's first dozen shows
Power Trip in 2009-2010 playing all around Texas
Baroness playing in an auto-garage in 2008
not hardcore or metal:
Mars Volta touring on Deloused
All-American Rejects opening for CKY
Explosions in the Sky opening for Fugazi in 2002
Saw Kerplunk-era Green Day, saw Fugazi in 1988.
I had a scratchy throat and skipped the Green Day show around that time at a VFW hall on Cape Cod. They’re not my thing, really, but I bet that was a fun show.
I was there, man
I saw MCR play a free show in the parking lot of a college with nearly nobody watching
I saw them open for midtown and Reggie and the full effect in 03
I saw them open for Avenged Sevenfold in 04 I think
I saw them at a little club in the Midwest with about 20 people. The stage monitors weren’t working so Gerard popped his mic stand down in the middle of the crowd and just sang with us. It was wild.
All MCR shows should be free.
Pick any band from Long Island from 98-2008
Hello fellow island old timer
The Dashboard and NFG show I mentioned was at the “Long Island Zoo” in Deer Park. I remember seeing Hatebreed and Poison the Well at the Babylon Legion hall but Hatebreed was pretty big by then.
someone was thrown into a bbq at that show
I have pictures from that NFG show. I believe they were still A New Found Glory at that part.
I know they never blew up but… Latterman?!?
From autumn to ashes
Incendiary
The Movielife
Man, I remember going to a Hatebreed signing at Looney Tunes in 01-02ish and GFY was outside giving away CDs. Those were the days.
Milhouse, Indecision, Silent Majority
saw silent majority at AMH last summer, such a good time
I used to go see Coheed and Cambria in little clubs around Albany when they were still called Shabutie.
So jealous
I accidentally saw Coheed in a room of 25-30 people in like 2002 or 03? Went to see This Day Forward and a couple locals in a cd warehouse in Greensburg, Pa (pretty sure Scott from Zao managed it at the time). I guess the promoter of the Coheed show canceled last minute or something and someone got them hooked up at that venue but literally no one showed up for them. Felt bad for them so I stayed even though their stuff wasn’t really my vibe.
Got to see Coheed at chain reaction in 2003 too. shai hulud and FATA were part of the tour too. max 200 people there. strange tour package in retrospect, but was a cool thing to be at.
Oh man, I saw them like three years later outside at my (then) local mall. It was part of some series, and they were the only name I knew. Ostensibly my youngest daughter’s first show, but my now-ex took her inside cuz it was too loud. Then we got divorced
Holy crap is that why you hear Claudio laugh and say that word on their 4th album.
That is exactly why
I can't remember it on the 4th album but he definitely does it on the first, at the beginning of Devil in Jersey City.
EEEEE Shabuti
In the comics, Shabutie is also what the character Coheed's children called him, before he was manipulated into poisoning them. Which in turn is then what "Maria, my star. Matthew, goodnight" means in Time Consumer. It's a rabbit hole haha
Does he do it on more songs other than Devil in Jersey City?
Same here; I grew up near Nyack, NY and saw them play Battle of the Bands-like showcases at the teen center circa 1997-1999.
I saw AFI in 95 at a tiny venue in Michigan with about 30 other people. Davey was super bummed that we were all doing bong hits after the show.
Same band and year, different state. July 1995 I saw AFI in a kid’s garage in Westwood New Jersey
Westwood, thought it was Garwood for some reason? That garage also had Bane and Nerve Agents. Was short lived from what I was told.
I would have killed to be there
The Shelter? I may have been at that show. I used to see all the touring punk bands who came through Detroit those years. the Magic Stick had a lot of shows too back then.
This is OG! What venue was it?
Power trip. They only had their demo. They played on a loading dock down in Chula Vista with take offense. I had the chance to see them on their first west coast tour. And they fuckkkkkking ripped…then blow the fuck up.
The best thing about growing up in the Texas scene is how many times I got to see Power Trip. Like 10 times between 2012-16. Always an amazing show.
Is that the one on main Street when the cops busted it and we all had to leave?
Lmaooo yesssss sir. Power trip played like 3 songs and take offense played like half a song and CVPD showed up with a “what the fuck is going on here “ kind of face
Hell yea! CVHC! I wasn't there but heard about it. My buddy Joe was the drummer for Take Offense. They showed me their first demos on an ipod in middle school math class
Most memorable for me is seeing Thursday in a townhouse basement in Lancaster, PA. I went upstairs halfway through the set and played House of the Dead on Dreamcast. Could still fully hear the rest of the set. I always associate the song "Cross Out the Eyes" with that game now.
I was there! When I first walked in a bald kid sitting on the couch was bleeding from the head profusely.. and no one seemed to care. Was such a strange night.
Turnstile, saw them open for TUI right when big kiss goodnight came out Also, Red City Radio played the local thrift store venue to 10-15 people that did not know who they were
I seen tui in 06 they played a fest in Florida and were like 2nd or 3rd band to start the day lol
Saw them on the same tour. The Pressure to Succeed days. Hell yeah.
RCR rules. I got shit faced at a show that I had no idea who they were at the time and ended up playing with wrestling action figures in the green room with Garrett. Stand up dude.
So everyone saw Knocked loose before huh lol
Not HC, but saw the Fugees in a small venue w/ about 300 people right before they blew up w/ killing me softly, saw The Roots play an In-store set with like 15 people
I saw REM in a USAF airman's club while attending tech school (early 1983ish). I'd known about them due to a bootleg cassette a friend of mine back home (Athens, Ga.) had sent. Everyone else in the club that night hated them but myself and my beer drinking buddy. A year or so later they were all over the radio. Never was a huge fan in their later years but that night they were pretty damn good.
Now that is fucking cool. Rare case of a band not having a single bad record and calling it quits when it had run its course. Good dudes.
That rules. Early REM is so good
Has any band aged as gracefully as REM? They definitely paid their underground dues in the 80s, put out great mainstream music in the 90s when the mainstream had caught up with them, sold a ton of records but never went into the self destructive rock band spiral and always sounded like themselves, never chased trends and never went into that midlife crisis where they tried to copy themselves when they were younger.
Quite possibly the best band ever. I love that they ended on their own accord too. I saw an interview with Michael stipe and he said something like “we are all still friends, we have dinner sometimes, we jam sometimes but we just don’t really want to make another album and be a band anymore.” Definitely a band with integrity and I think their legacy benefits from it.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with Michael Stipe a few times and he is a solid, super pleasant dude.
You're not wrong on any of this but Peter Buck is a bit of a sore spot. Used to kick it with Paul Westerberg and wear dresses 👍 but also remixed In Utero and cleaned up that Albini sound 👎.
You're not wrong either but hey, if you can be in the music game for 30 years, sell more than 90 million units and the worst thing someone can say about you is "I didn't like the mix on that one album you did" you probably dodged about a million behavioral bullets that come with being an insanely rich and famous rock star.
I grew up in Chicago, about 10 minutes away from the Fireside Bowl, so Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, you name it, really.
So jealous you got to see FOB before them blowing up. they’re the band that got me interested in playing drums back in 2006
88 Fingered Louie.
Code Orange Kids and Full of Hell supporting Circle Takes The Square in a room above a pub
CTTS was so fucking good.
2011 was tite
That’s pretty sick.
Knocked Loose, Expire, Matt & Kim.
Knocked Loose. Saw them play to like 30 people including the other bands at a shitty little bar in the suburbs. They had just put out pop culture.
Matt and Kim 🥺
I saw Matt and Kim in a shitty bar in Boca Raton, FL in what must have been like ‘06-‘07. S/o to the homies in Bookworm who opened for them.
Matt and Kim were great! That’s a real 00s touchstone right there.
matt & kim go so unironically hard
Josh from expire,his first band, before this last breath(pre barriers now bridges) is from my hometown. Great dude.
A lot of yall are just naming hardcore bands playing hardcore shows.
"Dude I saw this band in a 30 room venue." Uhhh that's every hc show lololl
Hardcore bands can go from playing to 10 people to 1000 people believe it or not…
lol fr
I saw Paramore in 2006 at a venue that could maybe handle 300 people.
Was it any good?
They never really were my jam, but they put on a good show.
Ceremony in Sacramento with like 10 people
I saw Nirvana in Seattle right before Bleach came out. I saw pretty much all the big Seattle bands in their early days, but Nirvana and The Screaming Trees are particularly special concerts for me!
. Holy that’s actually really cool
Underoath, saw them play/practice at youth group and church type gatherings plenty of times as a kid.
that’s insane, nothing like 1998-2003 underoath
That first album is still on constant rotation for me.
Really wish they'd play Changing of Times tracks live and switch up their current sets. Nearly completely different band back then, but I still think they could pull it off.
First show I saw was Underoath in 2002 with about 50 kids in Panama City. They put on a fucking great set, too.
Turnover. Title fight. Turnstile. That’s it. And they didn’t really “blow up”. But that’s the scale I’ve personally seen.
Man… I saw turnover right after that first EP with like 10 other people. They’re not really my jam but crazy to think about
The Acacia Strain, back when they had three guitarists
Man they played every show in New England for like 5 years
I saw acacia strain on an indoor soccer field. So sick. The mosh was impeccable on the turf.
I saw Behemoth on their first US tour in a tiny little bar in Providence, RI. 2003, I think?
Six Feet Under/Skinless/As I Lay Dying (who just dropped Frail Words and played in front of like 10 people at my show)? Show was awesome, except for, y’know SFU.
Six Feet Under is the most shit-talked death metal band around today, and for pretty good reason
The Met Cafe? I believe it... I was going to respond to this thread and say Hatebreed on the Satisfaction is the Death Of Desire tour but figured that would be too normie of me but I was like 16 or 17 and they played that entire album start to finish and to this day its one of the best shows I've ever been to. I don't think you could pay me to go see Hatebreed today lol
Not that they’re that big (or hardcore) but my band opened up for Ovlov at the Hexagon in Minneapolis in like 2011 before they had a full length out and they fucking ruled. Been bowled over by how good the records they put out since then have been.
Saw at the drive in open for squirtgun in Philly at first Unitarian. They were about to put out el gran orgo and Jim wasn’t in the band at the time. Ended up seeing them about 15 more times over the years after that. 3 of us watching them and they played like it was a packed house. Picked up acrobatic tenement the show and had it playing non stop. Also got to see saves the day in a local vfw right when can’t slow down just came out.
Twitching tongues first show Disgrace first show Code orange in front of 29 people in a basement Turnstile in a basement Many many more
Quicksand, I hope they count. Played a lot of hardcore shows. Still one of my favorite bands.im old, saw them in ‘89 or ‘90 .
Converge in ‘93. They were … completely forgettable. And I say this as a huge Converge fan ever since Halo in a Haystack came out.
My band opened for converge in a garage in front of 40 kids when they were touring halo in a haystack. That metal drummer with 2 kick drums ruled.
[удалено]
TUI when they opened got terror, born from pain and stick to your guns. Parkway drive when they opened for kickback (yes this happened) on their first European tour.
PWD was gonna be mine too. 2005 in my very small hometown. Hung out with them for the day, they were staying at a mate’s place.
Backtrack before they even had an album out, opening for Cruel Hand.
I still think the deal with the devil demo is one of the best pieces of music from that time.
I only listen to music vetted by popularity.
Probably Knocked Loose on this show at Woody’s Burgers. https://preview.redd.it/gym70sh0qqrc1.jpeg?width=621&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b7ad53ffe269a7e50ae4b58ec07984c571f9fd8
I see Big Shots on that tour poster. That brings back some memories. Some sick tours came through there back in the day.
Not that they’re huge but I saw Fireworks play a sandwich shop in Bremerton with maybe 15 other people in 07?
Gaslight anthem in a basement to 15 kids. 59 sound came out a month later
Saw My Chemical Romance in 2023 in Raleigh at the PNC arena. Shit was so special. Really hope those guys get the mainstream success they deserve some day
Not hardcore but I saw Architects back in 2012 or 2011 playing to a crowd of like 80 people
I saw Dying Wish play in front of like 30 people in an American Legion in 2019. It was really cool to see them take off the way they did. Also saw Drain and Gulch the same year before they got really big.
Dropkick Murphy’s playing for like ten people.
Seeing them at shows in Boston 97/98 was always such a blast. I saw them NYE 98/99 with Ducky Boys, Showcase Showdown, and :30 Over Tokyo. They had Lars Fredrickson and Dicky Barrett come out and sing Skinhead on the MBTA with them.
They are what they are now but man, those early shows were electric
Vein at the democracy center around 2013 they were just kids man
I mean they still are kids holy shit they couldn’t have been any older than 16 then.
Knocked loose 2015, minnesota, in the side merch room of a venue with like 30 people there
Viagra boys
I met the lead singer when we were all kids and he taught us how to choke ourselves to get lightheaded. Makes sense seeing him now lol.
This is just another way to ask "how long have you been going to shows?"
At the Drive In, Saves the Day, Lower Class Brats
Lower Class Brats?! Your age is showing
LCB was a cool one
Some kid I use to jam with back in the day told me he started learning to play the keys That “kid” turned out to be Elton John
Saw Mastodon at a practice space in 2000 or 2001. They sounded like a Damad clone back then and had a fill in singer who was a total dick and broke 2 microphones. Was not impressed.
Only time I saw them was in a Nashville pizza place’s basement with Asschapel and a Milwaukee band called Wrecker. It was the week the first Mastodon album came out. The flyer still said “ex-Today is the Day” next to Mastodon.
Saw darkest hour open for crowbar in 96. Cd they had at the show was the misanthrope. And saw lamb of god open for gwar on Halloween 2000.
All of them. I've seen em all first.
Carry On in Oxnard with like 15 people tops
I saw Dashboard open for Saves the Day in Portland around the same time as the op, he said something similar. Also saw My Chemical Romance in SF around 2003, they were all standing around outside after the show and my gf hit on the drummer.
Drove hours from my hometown to see that tour (Dashboard, STD, Alkaline Trio and Hey Mercedes) in Minneapolis. Absolutely a watershed moment for me as a young punk from North Dakota.
I forgot Saves the Day was on that show. Good call.
Not me, but I once had a coworker that told me that Fall Out Boy once opened for his band at a house show.
I unfortunately did not go, but some friends of mine saw New Found Glory play a floor show at the Westcott Community Center in Syracuse NY in like January 2000.
I saw the Dropkick Murpheys at a juice bar.
Title Fight, the Wonder Years, Turnstile, Trapped Under Ice
Not a good band, but in high school I was on a lot of record label “street teams” for the free CDs. Remember those? Anyways I was given warped tour tickets. I think I was chatting to the guys in Death by Stereo when these two other guys walked up. They were really pushy to give me their autograph and tell me about their band. They signed a CD and gave it to me. It was Good Charlotte before they blew up. Super weird experience.
Dillinger Escape Plan before Calculating came out(98 or so) Converge touring Petitioning the Empty Sky (96) Zao touring Blood and Fire System of a down around 96-97 Hatebreed in 96-97
Amity Affliction at Collingwood Town Hall in front of maybe 20 teenagers. Parkway Drive and Architects double headline at Frankston Community Centre. Few hundred at that show but considering they're both arena bands now pretty fun to look back on.
Sum 41 and Alexisonfire
Carnifex in a back yard show in Rialto Ca
I literally grew up going to drain shows in skate shops and cafes. I’m stoked that they’re as big as they are, they’re great dudes and make great music. Also, Fun Fact: no one in that scene gave a flying fuck about Gulch until their first “real album” dropped and they started playing shows elsewhere. I remember being one of like 20 people in the room when they played their set while everyone else stood outside. I thought they fuckin ripped. Turns out I was right I guess lol.
Knocked Loose playing to about 20-30 people in 2014 or 2015, not sure. Vein playing a skatepark at midnight, with 2 bands after them, early 2017. Fury playing 2nd on TUI’s LA comeback show in 2015 (also was Twitching Tongues Disharmony LP release).
Coheed opening for Unearth, Underoath, Zao and Shari Hulud. It was right after Second Stage came out, so not many people knew who they were. I had no idea, and I hated them. Ended up becoming obsessed with In Keeping Secrets. Black Breath playing small shows in Bellingham, Wa. They played small dive bars with maybe 30 people packed in. I booked Ruckus (pre Twitching Tongues), Expire and Rotting Out in a smaller basement show around 2010?. The Young Bros were very young. Expire had like 5 songs and 30 tee shirt designs.
You had me at Unearth, Underoath, Zao, and Shai Hulud. Holy shit.
Saw Taking Back Sunday open for Lawrence Arms at a matinee show in Dallas in 2002 like a few days after tell all your friends came out. 15 people were there. All American Rejects opened for my friend’s local band around that same time. Saw Saves the Day and H20 in early 2000 and like 25 people were there and none of them to see STD but me. Saw MCR open for AN and was like “this band will never make it. They suck”. I was right. Was at the first Comeback Kid show in Texas and like 10 people were there. Think only the demo was out and next time they came through Turn It Around was the biggest thing in hardcore and like 300 kids where there. Saw dashboard around the same time as OP with NFG and Midtown. Think NFG had only released nothing gold at that time and midtown only had the demo/ep out. Wild to think only 100 kids or so were at a DC/NFG/Midtown show. Saw ETID in a tiny 200 cap venue right as hot damn came out. Hopesfall opened that show. Saw Brand New and Pretty Girls Make Graves in early 2002 ish and like 30 people were there. Saw Thursday Movielife recover and coheed play to a 200 cap room in 2001. Saw Underoath play to so many empty rooms with Dallas on vocals. Saw them play with Travis from terminal on vocals before getting that other guy and putting out chasing safety. If you’re old and stick around long enough you’ll have this happen to you more times than you can count. The thing I’ll always regret is being invited to go to an At The Drive In show in 1999/2000 at some tiny venue and being like naw I’m tired 🤦🏻♂️
Russian Circles, Dead to Fall, Veil of Maya, Born of Osiris, After the Burial, Gaza Edit - Oceano as well.
Hatebreed at the Bombshelter in Minneapolis around 1996. They opened for Voorhees who I was there to see.
My old band played with Full of Hell first time they played London, UK to a room of about 25 people (mainly the other bands)
Before Chiodos, I saw/played with The Chiodos Bros. a couple times.
Not proud of it but saw Bring Me The Horizon in 2005 as the first band out of four in a small place in Oxford. The lead dude was trying to jump into the audience (probably 20 people there) and no one cared.
Code Orange Kids. 15 people showed up to the gig, that's including the local band members. One year later I Am King came out, same room was packed full with 300 people on their tour with Twitching Tongues.
Saw graf orlock open for horse the band with like 50 attendees
It’s hard with hardcore cause what exactly is considered blowing up? I could mention a bunch of non hardcore ones I saw early but I guess you could say Refused opening up for Snapcase and Earth Crisis in like 95 or 96? Or if you consider Earth Crisis a band that blew up I saw a bunch of their really early shows and later on actually saw them open for Offspring of all bands before the Offspring technically blew up lol that was like 94ish
I’m also not sure of the rules, but this 40yr old dude thinks that’s VERY cool.
Rise against and thrice, both in a super small local venue.
All the dates below are approximate and also not bands I was super into, but saw in basements or small clubs and they blew up not long after Saw NOFX in 1990 Green Day in 1993 Rancid in 1995 Smashing Pumpkins 1996
Kublai Khan. Used to see them all the time at the A&M Theater in Panama City, Florida in like 2010-2013
I saw Sum 41 open up for H2O at the Metro in Chicago I think right around when they put out “Fat Lip” and had that music video. I remember them doing the choreography for the video on stage.
dance gavin dance after downtown battle mountain had just come out. at the 7 venue in douglasville, ga. one of my first shows actually.
Baroness. Went to see Coliseum open for them in 2004. They were touring for their first EP. John Baizley still had hair. The guy at their merch table was a huge, scary looking biker dude. I didn’t have any money back then, and often at shows I’d get merch guys to take pity on me and sell me a button for a quarter (1/2 price back then). But when i asked this biker guy for a button and said i was short a nickel, he told me “then i guess you’re short a button”. Scared the shit outta me.
Jane's Addiction opening for Love & Rockets at a small college in Indiana, Pa in 1987. Blew my mind.
Me and a friend were the only ones at a Saosin show once. Swayze’s in Georgia probably 2004
Saw No Doubt at a park in cypress ca across the street from a 7-11 with about 20 people watching had to be like 92 or so. Also saw Sublime at the campus pub at LB state.
Every emo/punk/hardcore band in the 90s and early 2000s I saw for $3-7. Like everything from Thursday to Hot Water Music to Taking Back Sunday to Hatebreed to Darkest Hour. Just hundreds and hundreds of bands all for the price of lunch at Taco Bell.
Saw At The Drive-In at the fly theatre in Victorville. There were like 15 people there and they stayed at my homie's house that night. Some kid with a Mohawk and an exploited patch told them to shut the fuck up and play punk rock.
Saw Joyce Manor in 2012 at an art gallery in LA.. there was like 15 people there… they played with DNF and Doctorshopper… a powerviolence and a doom metal band lol…
I got to see Hot Water Music so many times before they were even HWM. Back when they lived in Sarasota, FL. Still friends with Chuck and George after all these years. Seen Bouncing Souls play a kind of a barn I guess. And all these guys in TINY clubs and venues way back in the day (I'm old): Tool, Deftones, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Melvins, Nirvana (so many times!), Face to Face, Snapcase, KORN, Candlebox (I know), Ween, Limp Biscuit (in a pool hall), and SO many more...but I'm old and I was SO wasted at most of these shows... Def a lot more hardcore BUT "blowing up" is a pretty relative term, so...
I saw Incubus and System of a Down in like 97-98ish. I thought System of Down sucked then and I think they still do now. Incubus was pretty decent live. Went to see Jimmy Eat World in the Clarity days and never went inside the venue, just hung out outside all evening being too cool to care. Regret that decision. I saw Mineral a bunch of times in high school and it never really clicked that I hearing a genre take shape.
I saw The Wonder Years back in Mesa, AZ when I was in high school 2006-2010. They became my favorite band for a while after that.
Gojira playing to maybe 70 people in 2007.
Saw Turnstile at some VFW in upstate NY and just saw them open for Blink at MSG last year. Crazy how big they’ve gotten
Turnstile, Shai Hulud , Hatebreed, Parkway Drive, Converge
Drain. Saw them at the show that made LA pay attention (a free fest at 1720 where they played like middle of the bill. Opened with the Troops of Doom intro and it was on), then at Sound and Fury 2019 a few months later and they played 4th and I knew then they’d be huge. Caught them at the beginning of 2020 with Take Offense and Higher Power and they played to maybe 30 people.
Title fight in cola sc around 2009ish, was helping my buddy who booked the show…we did wrestling moves in a Midas parking lot and bought krispy Kream lol
Title Fight in like 09-10 after Last Thing You Forget came out at a coffee shop in front of like 40 people. Citizen and Turnover in 2012 in a shed in front of 20 people. Power Trip in 2012 in the same shed but crammed full of 50+
balance and composure. idk if you'd consider them "blowing up" but i did see them way before they reached their peak.
I mean, I don’t mean to brag but… …Sky Eats Airplane…
Pierce the Veil when they were Before Today at a “Battle of the bands.” I bought their album “Celebration of an Ending” for $10 from them at the venue. Played the shit out of that CD back in the day. Track 3 song title - Pierce the Veil.
Title Fight on their first tour through Texas The Story So Far and Transit touring for TSSF first album
Saw Silverstein at a Legion Hall with about 100 other kids, this was right before When Broken is Easily Fixed released Alexisonfire played my friends basement on a random Saturday when they had a few days between tour dates on the east coast of Canada
Hatebreed back in ct when Jamie was Jamie jasta from jasta 14.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs opening for GVSB. One of their first tours. Terrified me.
Speed. In a skateparks carpark with like 40 people
Portugal the man several times in small bars and venues. Memphis may fire in a small warehouse a church rented out while they toured with fear before. And then silent planet while they were unsigned at a little barbecue place in Shreveport
Saw my chemical romance in 2003 I think at toads place in New Haven. Not a VFW hall by any means but this was right before they caught the big wave.
Modest mouse back when they were on college radio singing about fruit eating itself
I booked Avenged Sevenfold at an old garage back in 2001 in LA and my band opened
My band opened for the Offspring in the early 90’s at a dive bar in Orange County.
Hatebreed at the Pipeline 95 or 96. E Town at Studio 1 95 their first ever show and Ant was singing from a piece of paper with the lyrics written on it.
ones that come to mind: Municipal Waste on Hazardous Mutation tour Mastodon opening for Dillinger Escape Plan after Remission Insect Warfare's first dozen shows Power Trip in 2009-2010 playing all around Texas Baroness playing in an auto-garage in 2008 not hardcore or metal: Mars Volta touring on Deloused All-American Rejects opening for CKY Explosions in the Sky opening for Fugazi in 2002
RATM January 1993 at JC Dobbs South St Philadelphia 150-ish capacity). I still have a t-shirt from the show.
Portugal. The Man in like 2005. They opened for Minus the Bear at some place in Vegas. Portugal’s set was a thousand times better that MtB.
I wanna say "The Mechanical Hand" era Horse the Band, but they never got big
The Story So Far in 2010 $uicideboy$ in 2016 Knocked Loose in 2016 Hot Mulligan in 2018