Has any band had as many GOAT opening acts as U2?

This Heat
The Fall
Björk (as well as The Sugarcubes)
Einstürzende Neubauten
Jay-Z
Kanye West
B.B. King
Billy Bragg
Patti Smith
Mission of Burma
Big Audio Dynamite
Pixies
R.E.M.
The Chemical Brothers
The Pogues
Public Enemy
Arcade Fire
The Pretenders
Moby
Garbage
The Pretenders
Interpol
Primus
The Ramones
Lou Reed (as well as the reformed The Velvet Underground)
Pearl Jam
Rage Against The Machine
Pylon
PJ Harvey
UB40
Stereo MCs
The Alarm
Big Audio Dynamite
Dream Syndicate

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=hT_nvWreIhg
youtube.com/watch?v=ZSM3w1v-A_Y
tours.atu2.com/opening/b-b-king
youtube.com/watch?v=VlQpvy6w49w
youtube.com/watch?v=QFHX4chJ7PQ
youtube.com/watch?v=6pJmt_kh2ik
youtube.com/watch?v=6QZu7U_BAkE
youtube.com/watch?v=kJgM-3te9Lc
youtube.com/watch?v=y8Tiq31RS8g
youtube.com/watch?v=6NkAVKW3VBc
youtube.com/watch?v=mwJyMlN_CvU
youtube.com/watch?v=FszU-Mfcl_4
youtube.com/watch?v=Lk7g0lvGliQ
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

Never been into U2 but now I want U2 tickets.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but the support acts are pretty shit on this tour because they're touring their most popular record so they'll draw in far more normies and AAA radio-listening 40 year olds than usual.

It's like fucking Mumford and Sons, Noel Gallagher from Oasis, and the Lumineers and shit.

OneRepublic when i'm seeing them

who the fuck even is that

Oh christ I forgot about them. Literally very generic pop rock that did these songs:
youtube.com/watch?v=hT_nvWreIhg
youtube.com/watch?v=ZSM3w1v-A_Y

Pretty sure they only got on the tour because the singer dude has a history of brown-nosing Bono. He's on the same level as Chris Martin in terms of ass-kissing (not just to U2 and Bono, but anyone really) and hopping on musical bandwagons/selling out.

Can't imagine B.B. King supporting anyone.

Early in their career, a then-unknown U2 opened for Buffalo NY heroes Talas, who were Billy Sheehan's first professional band.

tours.atu2.com/opening/b-b-king

He opened for them 47 times. BB King and U2 also did a song together.

Well I guess he was famous for the amount of live performances he did, but still, feels odd the king of blues opening for anyone.

Nine Inch Nails deserves a mention

>Explosions in the Sky
>GY!BE
>Bauhaus
>TV On the Radio
>Death From Above 1979
>QOTSA
>HEALTH
>Saul Williams
>Type O Negative
>Marilyn Manson
>Dresden Dolls
>Boris
>Crystal Castles
>Deerhunter
>A Place to Bury Strangers
>Perfect Circle
>Melvins
>Oneohtrix Point Never
>Dilinger Escape Plan
>Cold Cave
>Atari Teenage Riot

Not even close to being a complete list btw

Between 1978 and 1983/4, U2 were also the opening act for the J Geils Band (RIP), The Police, The Stranglers, The Greedy Bastards (supergroup of Sex Pistols, Thin Lizzy and Boomtown Rats members), Echo and the Bunnymen, Talking Heads, Thin Lizzy, a few others I may have forgotten.

They didn't make the transition from full-time headling act until the mid-80s.

Yeah, this is a solid fucking list.


The problem with U2 is that they're one of the biggest touring bands and play absolutely massive shows to a lot of normies, so they're kind of limited in what opening acts they could get.

R.E.M. has had some interesting ones:

IRS era/rise to fame (1982 - 1988)
>Let's Active
>Guadalcanal Diary
>The dB's
>The Replacements
>Dream Syndicate
>My Bloody Valentine
>Husker Du
>The Minutemen
>10,000 Maniacs
>Widespread Panic
>Camper Van Beethoven
>The Feelies
>Throwing Muses

Warner Brothers era during height of fame (1988 - 1996)
>Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians
>Indigo Girls
>Drivin' N' Cryin'
>NRBQ
>Smashing Pumpkins
>Grant Lee Buffalo
>Sonic Youth
>The Cranberries
>Oasis
>Blur
>Radiohead

Second contract with Warner Brothers/mid period (1996 - 2003)
>Suede
>Wilco
>Stereolab
>Teenage Fanclub
>Mercury Rev
>Olivia Tremor Control
>Elf Power
>Cat Power
>Sparklehorse
>The Dandy Warhols

Later era of career (2003 - 2011):
>Bright Eyes
>The National
>Modest Mouse
>Elbow
>Kaiser Chiefs
>Travis
>Editors

Blur:

>Saint Etienne
>Slowdive
>co-headlining tour with My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., The Jesus and Mary Chain
>Suede
>Elastica
>Pulp
>Supergrass
>The Boo Radleys
>The Cardiacs
>Sparks
>Sneaker Pimps
>The Dandy Warhols
>pre-mainstream fame Smash Mouth
>Super Furry Animals
>Tony Allen
>Elbow
>Adrian Sherwood
>Crystal Castles
>Foals
>Florence and the Machine
>Deerhoof
>Vampire Weekend
>Savages
>New Order
>The Specials
>Beck
>Metronomy
>The Horrors
>Courtney Barnett

U2 is shit
Shit smells like shit
You can't stop shit
From smelling like shit

And they were never post-punk right?

Quite a few good bands there.

>Oasis
>Blur
>Radiohead
These would have been at the height of their success too, surprised they were still supporting

Is U2 a British thing? I'm 26 and the only time I hear people talk about U2 is when they're saying that U2 is overrrated or Bono sucks. So who actually listens to them? Is it Britfags?

I don't even know any songs of theirs outside of that 2003 iPod ad campaign.

Networking does not equal talent.

>These would have been at the height of their success too, surprised they were still supporting
REM in 1995 was HUGE in england. Like 80,000 at their Slane Castle gig huge. Radiohead and Blur would never quite reach that level. Oasis well surpassed it the following year.

I don't think I've ever met a U2 fan. They've dominated mainstream radio though.

REM are also pious cunts.

>So who actually listens to them? Is it Britfags?
>I don't even know any songs of theirs outside of that 2003 iPod ad campaign.

You realize they've been a band since 1976 right? They had a career long before "Vertigo".
It's not just a "britfag" thing. Here's a list of Top 40 charting songs U2 has had in the US:
#1 - With or Without You
#1 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
#3 - Desire
#9 - Mysterious Ways
#10 - Discotheque
#10 - One
#13 - Where The Streets Have No Name
#14 - Angel of Harlem
#16 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
#21 - Beautiful Day
#26 - Staring At The Sun
#31 - Vertigo [note: this song is terrible]
#32 - Even Better Than The Real Thing
#33 - (Pride) In The Name Of Love
#33 - XXX (with Kendrick Lamar)
#36 - Who s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
#37 - Get On Your Boots [note: this song is terrible]
#39 - All I Want is You
#40 - Numb


Honorable mentions:
#43 - In God's Country
#52 - Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
#53 - New Year's Day


Now these songs, by nature of being big hits represent a far more accessible side of the band, but there you go.

this. Except for
>They've dominated mainstream radio though.
Only that one Vertigo song did, but I couldn't name another song by them that got played.

Also, that stupid iTunes thing still pisses me off. And yeah Bono's a fucking cunt and U2 are the Nickelback of America.

this is bait

>but I couldn't name another song by them that got played.

Neither can I, but they've released a ton of top 10 singles in the UK over the years so they must have had.

Their album sales all over Europe are insane too, #1s everywhere. I'm completely indifferent to U2 but I don't understand how I've barely heard their music yet they're one of the best selling bands of all time.

Fucked if I know or care.

Cared enough to post apparently...

Sales figures. So U2.

>I'm completely indifferent to U2 but I don't understand how I've barely heard their music yet they're one of the best selling bands of all time.
When were you born?

1990

Why's Big Audio Dynamite on there twice?

Also that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

>primus
K E K

Not sure if you're from the US or the UK, but here's some that you probably have heard before:
youtube.com/watch?v=VlQpvy6w49w
youtube.com/watch?v=QFHX4chJ7PQ
youtube.com/watch?v=6pJmt_kh2ik
youtube.com/watch?v=6QZu7U_BAkE
youtube.com/watch?v=kJgM-3te9Lc
youtube.com/watch?v=y8Tiq31RS8g
youtube.com/watch?v=6NkAVKW3VBc
youtube.com/watch?v=mwJyMlN_CvU

>with or without you
>I still haven't found what I'm looking for
>where the streets have no name

I thought these were all part of the same song

I was born in 92 and pretty much know their whole body of hits, I don't even like them. Didn't grow up listening to radio did you?

nigga who cares about charts

just more proof that u2 are nothing more than a derivative adult contemporary top 40 forced onto consumers by some corporate suits

the only defense you fans have is "but... they have a bunch of high charting singles that nobody actually knows"

pathetic. critical acclaim counts for a hell of a lot more than than sales you poptimist idiots.

Might as well be.

lol. As much as I love the Joshua Tree and Eno/Lanois' production work, it's always bugged me how similar the first 3 tracks are to each other sonically when the rest of the album is actually quite a bit more varied.

Track 4 though is something else though. It's a bit jarring coming after With or Without You:
youtube.com/watch?v=FszU-Mfcl_4

They still put on one hell of a show one of the best bands I've seen live

>I was born in 92 and pretty much know their whole body of hits

Uh like what exactly? Seriously. Name 10 off the top of your head.

>youtube.com/watch?v=VlQpvy6w49w
wait what the fuck

i never knew this was a u2 song

>with or without you
>sunday bloody sunday
>where the streets have no name
>new years day
>you're the sweetest thing
>beautiful day
>desire? (that one where he sings about the shotgun under a counter)
>vertigo (even if its shit)
>zooropa
>where you go I will follow

this is just what I can think of without checking anything, maybe my locals stations just really like U2 but I heard alot of that shit when I was a boy.

In addition my father owns the red rocks concert DVD which I understand was a big deal for U2 in the states.

>zooropa
How would you consider this a hit? It's a 6 minute long album track with 2 minutes of ambient buildup at the beginning

It's what I know homie, I think there was another hit off the album but all I can ever remember the album was zooropa.

this?
youtube.com/watch?v=Lk7g0lvGliQ

That's because they probably copied something like Killing Joke.
U2 are Borg. They assimilate like Facebook, in which they have major shares btw.

>U2 are Borg. They assimilate like Facebook, in which they have major shares btw.
This. They're nothing but a totally plastic manufactured pop act and always have been. Industry plants.

that's the ticket.

zooropas a departure for u2, brian eno produced. weird through out.

like I said I'm not a big fan I just heard a lot of it growing up. I wish I didn't have so many melodies for u2 songs in my head.

>zooropas a departure for u2, brian eno produced. weird through out.
too true. i wish they had kept on that path

>like I said I'm not a big fan I just heard a lot of it growing up. I wish I didn't have so many melodies for u2 songs in my head.
to be quite honest, there's nothing wrong with 80s and 90s u2


now the later stuff is a different story

They also asked NMH to open for them before Jeff had a breakdown about being popular

I was going to mention this too, U2 opened for a lot of big and important musical acts when they were trying to make it big, I honestly think it was thanks to The Police that they got as a big as they did. The Police fizzled out right at the time U2 were ready to take the torch from them.

U2 ...
And now The Police ...
Bono ...
And here comes Sting ...

Except the Police are far better and more legitimate than Poo2 ever were.

Sting and Bono should've been told to gtfo after year #1.

what does that even mean?

i never liked u2 bc the first song i heard was "vertigo" and the second i heard them not knowing how to count to 4 in spanish i was done

this isn't real

>Tfw your best song by far charts at 53 and all the mindless garbage is more popular

Because U2 weren't that popular in 1983

The story about Neubauten opening is so hilarious. Regards, big Neubauten fan