Arrive at almost any gig and you will find the room half empty for the first band, filling up only as the headliner's set approaches. Skipping the opening act has become a habit so normal that most people never question it. They are, without realising it, throwing away one of the most rewarding parts of live music, and often the best chance they will ever get to discover something new.
The support slot is where you find tomorrow's favourites
Opening acts are frequently artists on the way up, playing to audiences who have never heard them, with everything to prove and nothing to coast on. This is exactly the point at which catching a band is most exciting. You see them hungry, sharp, and unguarded, before they are famous, before the shows get polished and expensive. Years later, when that same act is headlining stadiums, the people who turned up early for the support slot get to say they saw it coming. Discovery does not get much more direct than standing in a near-empty room as a great band plays its heart out to win you over.
What you gain by showing up early
Beyond discovery, the early slot offers things the main event cannot.
- Space and ease. The room is uncrowded, the atmosphere relaxed, and you can actually move, see, and breathe before the crush arrives.
- A warmed-up ear. Arriving cold and jumping straight into the headliner is jarring; a good support act eases you into the night and primes you to listen.
- A fuller evening. You paid for the ticket and the trip out either way. Catching both bands simply gives you more music for the same cost.
Why the headliner chose them
It is worth remembering that the support act is usually there by the headliner's choice, picked because the main artist rates them or feels a kinship with their sound. That makes the opening slot a kind of recommendation from someone whose taste you presumably trust, since you bought a ticket to see them. Treating the support band as an inconvenience to be waited out ignores a tip from exactly the right source. More often than you would expect, the two acts share something that makes the whole evening hang together, so hearing both deepens the headline set rather than merely preceding it.
Give them the room
Opening for an audience that came to see someone else is one of the hardest jobs in music, played to people who are often talking, drinking, and waiting for you to finish. The least a listener can do is show up and actually listen. Get there on time, stand near the front, and give the first band the attention you would want if you were up there. You lose nothing, and now and then you gain a new favourite artist and the particular pleasure of having found them first.
So next time, resist the habit of timing your arrival to miss the opener. Treat the whole bill as the show, because it is. The headliner is the reason you came, but the support act is often the reason you leave having discovered something you will still be playing years from now. For more on seeing music live, see our Live coverage or browse all stories.
