Bands you saw in concert before they were famous

I saw The National several times before they released Alligator in 2005.

 

I assume you are a Charleston native. That was a wild time right before McCain's first album and Cracked Rear View blew up nationally. Edwin and Darius Rucker were really nice guys.

I remember seeing Hootie play in Charleston, going on deployment and then coming back to find out they were the biggest band in the country. What a difference three months makes.

Also, in this club called Friar Tucks (we called it Friar Jerks) across from Old Dominion, we saw this weird band called the Dave Matthews Band. Then they blew up and became the biggest thing in the country. I was in the Caribbean and heard "What Would You Say" at a hotel. Bizarre.

 

Jimmie's Chicken Shack baby!!!!

Not super famous like those others mentioned here, obviously, but they played at our fraternity house a bunch of times in the mid to late 90s.

 

Bruce Springsteen was strictly a regional act when he played the Mosque and the old gym at UVA when I saw him in spring/fall of 1974.

 

I saw Dave Matthews open for Hootie and the Blowfish when I was in college.

I saw Pearl Jam open for the Chili Peppers in 1991.

I saw Nirvana in a club in early 1991 before Nevermind had come out.

Rage against the Machine at Lollapalooza.

Tool on the second stage at Lollapalooza.

Alice in Chains opening for Van Halen in 1989 or 1990.

 

Phish
Radiohead
Jewell

Those are the only three I can think of who went on to have any real level of fame.

 

Pantera.

No, seriously.

 

Thursday around 2001 when I was at UB. Believed they played in my friends basement on UB South.

 

There is a ton of Bruce/Virginia/Richmond stuff in the R&R HOF

 

I was at a fraternity party at UCSB in 1990 and Toad the Wet Sprocket and the Gin Blossoms played.

 

Monster Magnet - About a week before Space Lord cracked the top spot on the old TRL.

I think I bumped into the White Stripes in the '90s. I was too drunk to remember for sure.

 

I saw Smashing Pumpkins open for Guns N' Roses in the early '90s in Oklahoma (Tulsa or OKC, don't recall). Pumpkins had released their first album Gish a few months before. I had it because a friend told me they were gonna be the next Jane's Addiction (who I liked a lot).

I was looking forward to seeing Smashing Pumpkins. Unfortunately, most of the crowd couldn't care less. The crowd is chanting "GNR, GNR, GNR" through the Pumpkins' first two songs. Clearly pissed off, Billy Corgan says "Now I see what you all do when you're not milking cows all day" and the crowd erupted into a chorus of boos. People started throwing beer cups at Corgan. He sang only two more songs before leaving the stage. The band stayed and played one more song with no vocals before slinking off.