support acts can be really deceiving. I've seen Low a whole bunch of times, and once there was this band called Dark Dark Dark as their support. But I was soo anxious to see Low that I didn't really pay attention to what that support band was playing, all I noticed was this strange mix of instruments (including banjo, cello, accordion, piano, horn or trumpet) and the singers had a bit of unusual voices. So I sort of let it all come over me and waited for Low to come on stage, and they played
a great set with an especially stunning version of Canada.
But I did record the support act, and while listening to it, I found out that they were quite good, and I listened to it again, and again and then I couldn't stop listening to them any more and wanted to buy all their albums and whenever I listen to those albums I am again amazed of how wonderful their music is. Check out their albums (esp. Wild Go and Who Needs Who) on their
bandcamp. Their albums are produced by Low's sound guy btw, who has never produced any Low album as far as I know, but he really should.
Support acts for big bands such as PJ Harvey can be even more deceiving. I hate going to big halls for that reason alone. When I went to see Nick Cave a year or two ago, there was this girl as a support act, who was actually quite good (her name slipped my mind right now). But there was no chance at all that I could get a good listen to her music because the people around me were yelling to her to shut up and booing all throughout her set.
oh and there was also this guy who calls himself Death Vessel, he supported Low during their Great Destroyer tour. He was quite good, but in Amsterdam I couldn't hear anything of what he was playing (acoustic folksongs), because all the people in the nearly sold out hall were chattering all over it.