What band did you see before they hit bigtime.?

totally agree on snapcase. easily the most amazing hardcore show i've ever seen, and it was for like 50 people. i was standing face to face with frank and darrell. unfortunately their latter material was not as good and they broke up earlier this year....expecting a dvd release soon though!

I've seen the following in very small clubs in the USA, but these bands were all much bigger in the UK.

Blur

Oasis

The Verve

Radiohead

A guy I used to work with saw White Clover before they became Kansas. Yes, that was a few years back.

nothing wrote:

hootie and the blowfish at Pterodactyl club Charlotte NC 1994

hootie and the blowfish at Ziggy's in Winston Salem, early 90's. Outdoors, under a tarp.

saw dave matthews band in a frat house. they played in exchange for free beer. everybody won.

blues traveler (went to see them only because my then-gf went to hs with them and wanted to watch them play)

phish (didn't know a single song at the time, except their encore, Highway to Hell by AC/DC)

widespread panic (opened for blues traveler)

Skuj wrote:Tragically Hip, Dartmouth Nova Scotia, 1987, a dingy bar, no-one in the place except for me gave a fook.

I also saw the Hip in the mid-80s before they made it big. Great show in an indoor gym at university. I love their old stuff.

Unfortunately, I've also seen them a couple of times since they faded after making it big. I hate their new (post-early 90s, Gord Downie has officially lost his talent) stuff.

SB wrote:

blues traveler (went to see them only because my then-gf went to hs with them and wanted to watch them play)

phish (didn't know a single song at the time, except their encore, Highway to Hell by AC/DC)

widespread panic (opened for blues traveler)

Where did your girlfriend go to HS? The big guy is from Stamford, CT.

Saw the Wildweeds before they became NRBQ. Saw a group they weren't called Steam at the time, in Bridgeport, CT that later recorded NA Na Hey Hey (kiss him goodbye). Saw Van Morrison with a small group in the early 70's. He had already left Them. Saw a guy named Johnathan Edwards (Lay around the Shanty, Sunshine) in a coffee house in New Haven numerous times.

Nice Pick wrote:

Where did your girlfriend go to HS? The big guy is from Stamford, CT.

.

they're from princeton, nj. she went to princeton hs.

Weezer in 1994 at a hole-in-the-wall bar in Boston (I think it was the Rat) that closed two months later. One of the best shows I have seen, they were a lot different than they are now. Also saw Radiohead at a small bar in Saratoga Springs in '95 when they just started promoting Bends, so I guess they were kind of known at that point because of Creep but weren't at the stadium level yet.

Phish. More times than I wanted to, actually. I used to hang out at Nectar's in the mid '80s.

Fall Out Boy.

1. REM- irvine auditorium u.of PENN, fall of 1983...Murmur had just come out. they were pretty good. Next time i saw them was in the spectrum a few years later and the fun was definitely over for me.

2. White Stripes- saw them open for Guided By Voices at the older, smaller (and very tiny) Black Cat in DC about 5 or so years ago- it was just before they opened the new place. i can't remember the date but they had just released their first album and weren't on MTV/magazines yet. i was leaning right against the stage. They were not as good as GBV then, and they still aren't, but they have proven that with the right "look," anything is possible.

Nice Pick wrote:

Saw Van Morrison with a small group in the early 70's. He had already left Them.

Wow, that's pretty neat. I'm mean gosh, by then he had only recorded a few albums like Astral Weeks, Moondance, Tupelo Honey, and a greatest hits album. You certainly were on board that train early.

Knuckledragger wrote:

Oh, and I recently saw a band called Blue Merle. Not big yet, but they will be. Haven't yet heard another US band sound so much like Coldplay and they have some pretty catchy material to boot.

a little too much like coldplay if you ask me. when it comes up on iTunes and people ask what song it is, i usually just say, uh, coldplay i think. and then later realize it's not.

I saw Brad Paisely at a county fair with like 1000 spectators or less about two years befroe he made it big. He was traveling with some other guy that didn't make it. They were both funny on stage and good, don't know why one made it and the other didn't.

(Paisely is a country star by the way)

You're right, but he had actually just recorded Moondance which was the album that put him up there. Astral Weeks was released earlier that same year. The place was not sold out which didn't happen just a year later after Tupelo Honey came out. The guy used to record at least two albums a year. His next US tour resulted in Too Late to Stop Now which put him over the top as a concert performer, but I'll bow to your point.....well taken.

AS for John Popper, I beleive he claims to have been born in Ohio and went to school in CT so hard to see how he's from Princeton, NJ. In fact, I taught his little sister many years ago and he was a biggy in the drama club before I got there.

Nice Pick wrote:

AS for John Popper, I beleive he claims to have been born in Ohio and went to school in CT so hard to see how he's from Princeton, NJ. In fact, I taught his little sister many years ago and he was a biggy in the drama club before I got there.

Soon after forming in Princeton, New Jersey in 1983, these high school friends moved to New York City playing nightly in the club and bar circuit.

this is direct from

Now, maybe they're wrong about it on their own website, but it seems unlikely. That and the yearbook photos I've seen of them have me convinced. i'd guess his sister went to a different school than he did ...

"Silver Beatles" the Caravan club in 1962.