When Openers Become Headliners (#whiskyrocks)

Is that time of year again, where I team up with Aux.tv for their Whisky Rocks competition.  If you’re in a band, you might want to it out.

Here’s a post that I wrote on what band I’d love to open for.

—

When asked the question of “what band in music history (living, dead or defunct) would you want to open for?”, I stumbled to think of a good answer right away.  It’s both a question one could be always prepared for (like naming your top 5 bands), or one that you’d never even put any thought into it.  It kind of depends on the person.

I’m the type of guy that is absolutely obsessed with new music, especially the sorts of bands you see emerging from music blogs.  When I hear a great song and get hooked on it, I sometimes picture myself performing on-stage with (or as) the band or artist.

I think a good amount of us do the same.

But that’s not the question, is it?

Slightly different to playing in that band, is opening for that band.  There are those instances where opening for that band, just turns into performing with them.  For example, a few months back, I attended a show at the Phoenix in Toronto.  Two of my favourite bands performing together, Wintersleep warming up the stage for Scottish band Frightened Rabbit.  I think it was arguable who could have drawn more in Toronto and been the headliner, but for this show, Wintersleep took the stage first.  The crowd went from chatty to completely engaged by the time their set was done.  When Frightened Rabbit took over, completely engaged turned to fans going absolutely nuts.  But we all really lost it in the encore.

Frightened Rabbit asked Wintersleep to come back on stage, so we’d get to see the two bands perform together.  They put on a rowdy and fun version of “Living In Colour” that was quite unforgettable.  I guess it could be the time the two bands spent on the road together, but they all looked like life long friends performing together.

Circling around to the original question, I think I’d want to open for Frightened Rabbit.  Not only because I’m a huge fan of the band, but there’d always be that chance they’d ask me out on stage with them to close out the night.

—