Incredibly famous artists you saw supporting a group that never made it and could you tell the former were destined for success?

Joy Division supporting Buzzcocks. Mind-blowing.

Simple Minds on a bill that included IIRC Liliput, Wah! Heat and The Comsat Angels all billed aboved them. They were OK but not earth shattering.

U2 supporting Delta 5 and again a few months later supporting The Thompson Twins (back when there were 8 or 9 TT's). They seemed entirely mediocre to me but then they always have and still do.

Stereophonics supporting Dodgy. 2nd rate Manic Street Preachers-lite.

(Hopefully my experiences seeing the Strokes & the YYYs back when they were nobodies will someday be likened to seening the Beatles at the Cavern.)

Also not quite what you're looking for, but I saw Nirvana open for Mudhoney at Raji's.

dude i would have cold sold my left earlobe to be at this gig

I watched Helmet open for Faith No More in Chicago, same deal.

i was at ronanhead supporting f&w too, but didnt see either band(!), also oasis supporting verve. which venues ailsa?

Pixies opened for Throwing Muses.

Pulp for St. Etienne (my good friend was the girl on the cover of Foxbase Alpha and also in the video for Babies with her sister so suffice to say we were 'keeping an eye on the rider').

Shed Seven Supporting The Bluetones

Menswear supporting Shed Seven (or was it Powder?)

Bloody hell, 1994 was fucked up.

Good fucking christ on a crutch. That's a gateway to hell combination if there ever was one.

What can I say? If I'd known you, I'd have taken you with me: god knows, there was plenty of room!!!! Take solace, I saw a lot gigs in the early 90's and most were terrible: the River City People anyone? No, I thought not. Incidentally, am I the only person who too stupid to know where my italics button is?

Jewel opening for Peter Murphy in 1995, before her record took off.

Weezer opening for Lush in 1994, before "BUddy Holly" broke them.

And the winner is...Jeff Buckley opening for Juliana Hatfield in '93 or '94 (can't remember). He blew her ass off the stage -- not a hard thing to do, mind you -- and I'll always remember going backstage to meet him and being surrounded by 25 girls...and me, the only male. But while he signed my date's t-shirt, he signed my ticket with his name and two hearts, and I've always wondered what that meant...

I was looking for a generic "before they were famous" thread for when one might've chanced to see SIGNIFICANT artists very early in their career

pretty sure my only proper one of these is The Dirty Three - who I first saw in Melbourne on NYE 1992, the year they formed, at the bottom of a bill of other Melbourne suspects

they were really good! and perhaps quite a bit different from their sound now? my memory is that it was a bit more improv-y and maybe Velvets-y somehow and that Warren wasn't quite as dominant as we became accustomed to

saw them play to a handful of people in Sydney the next year... they must've started blowing up not long after that

oh I also saw Shellac in a tiny bar in 1993 which I guess is pretty early (even though Steve Albini was a known quantity so it is cheating)

The garage goth era MBV supporting Folk Devils at the Bull and Gate. I still like Folk Devils material but don't think they really made it.

Radiohead supporting Levitation at the Astoria. Never got massively into them. Do still enjoy Levitation and Dark Star.
Radiohead were an interesting guitar band but this was pretty early on for them.

I saw Pulp opening for PJ Harvey in 95

Radiohead were pretty much unavoidable if you went to a lot of gigs in London around 1992, they must have had the busiest agent in town.

Saw Nirvana playing first on a three band bill in London with Mudhoney and Tad, they had a bit more about them than Mudhoney's bouncy castle take on the Stooges for sure. Tad have erased themselves from my memory completely.

Went to see Pulp at some special gig at the ULU (I think) in the early 90s but by the time I got there Jarvis was already leaving. I stayed to watch the rest of the show: Kingmaker (I think) and Therapy.

I later saw Pulp at the Camden Underworld with pre-fame Suede supporting.