You know how it goes, you show up early, figure you'll shoot the shit with some friends, maybe see what some of these local / semi-local bands starting the bill are all about. Then you wind up being blown away by some band you never heard of before that night.

For me, it was this band:

http://www.myspace.com/theirmajestiesband

From Halifax, they were on a bill here with In Flight Safety, Sproll & Two Hours Traffic (A simple generalization would be to say that these aforementioned bands are all very much on the Coldplay / Death Cab train). I really don't even remember why I wound up going to this show at all. But i'm glad I did because their majesties were fantastic. I don't think the recordings available on myspace really do them justice; a huge part of their appeal to me was their stage presence. This isn't exactly right, but it's as close as I can come to describing it: they had kind of a Traveling Wilburys / Bob Dylan / gentlemen / worn and classy thing going on. All thier songs and performance had a great swagger to them. And best of all, it was all very honest and real. They weren't "dressed up" and going through the motions in the act of being a rock band trying to appear a certain way. They are the real deal. One of the main singer / guitarists totally has this look like a young, enemic bob dylan or something. They were a pleasure to watch and really made my night.

Keep an eye out for them.

Ain't seen no shows in the last year.
True.

Those guys are pretty good. Nice, easy pop.

I can't say I've been overwhelmed by any openers this year.

Sam Champion Band - opened for Longwave
Your Highness Electric (I think that's their name - Z can correct me if I'm wrong) - opened for Pearls n Brass
Cloud Room - opened for the National

edit: oh, you said unknown. um, i'd never heard of the top two before those shows, so they were unknown to me at the time.

i don't have much for this thread:

glenn kotche opening for jeff tweedy - great, but not really unknown

amina openeing for sigur ros - see above

and i didn't even make it for the opener for mogwai.

Whispertown 2000 are one of the only openers in years that I didn't know anything about going in and really enjoyed.

I don't have much for this thread either

Juliette Lewis & the Kicks (Foos, QotSA, Motorhead) - not unkown but better than expected, girl has pipes and charisma
The Favours (Wrens) - RIYL: YYYs, hottness
Amina (Sigur Ros) - see elephantstone

i rarely make it to a show for the opener band(s) (mainly due to the fact my friends i go to shows with are lame and are always late to everything) unless i make a huge fuss that we have to be there early... so the best openers i've seen so far this year:

-cold war kids opening for tapes 'n tapes @ spaceland: i've seen cwk's name around on la blogs and what not but didn't know who they were and a lot of people were actually at the show for them and not tapes 'n tapes. i really like them. somewhat remind me of the walkmen but higher-pitched vocals.

-jimmy edgar opening for jamie lidell @ the troubadour: unfortunately only caught the latter half of his set, but it was enough for me to buy his cd. another minimal techno/experimental artist off warp - beats right up my alley.

but the best opener was the french kicks for the futureheads this past monday night... but i'm already a big fan and thought they were better then the futureheads.

Recently went to see Residual Echoes. Thought they were headlining, but they played second. Headlining was this band Mammatus that totally blew shit up.

http://www.myspace.com/mammatus

Ok, so these guys weren't the opening act but they played at a tiny venue here (I made a thread about them before which went unnoticed)...

Snowden

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... did=411057

http://snowden.info/

They are fantastic live...I mean really great. They are coming back through town here in August.

that band that opened for the Spinto Band was really interesting.

I SO was just gonna post "my dick", but then everyone would be thinking that was some hot new band. which it should be.

I only saw the last song and was pissed I didn't show up earlier.

how was the spinto band live? apparently they opened for the arctic monkeys when i went to that show but of course, i missed them due to my friend LAGGING.

Shortfilm. They opened for This Moment In Black History in Austin. I didn't know they had just moved there from Boston until I talked to the singer after the show.

Bales Of Hey. solo acoustic dude who played first on a bill that Built To Spill headlined. great stuff. like the Mountain Goats but with a pronounced roots'n'blues influence.

I caught a couple of their songs and liked them. I need to check out their stuff.

Amina - Sigur Ros

Mazarin - Walkmen

Hard-Fi opening up for The Cribs at the Mercury Lounge.

I 2nd this, and I add The Robocop Kraus opening for Art Brut.

Snowman opening for Interpol in August last year - though they're from Perth so not really local.

Was surprised that an international band playing a big venue chose a band that I and I assume most of the rest of the audience hadn't ever heard of, but they were awesome. Completely blew Interpol off the stage for me.

Saw them play a small show last weekend when they were back across for Come Together festival and they were good then too, though it unfortunately seems like they've cut a lot of the songs from their EP from their live set. Their debut - due in a couple of months - is one of my most anticipated albums for this year

http://www.thesnowmanempire.com/news/

your highness electric opened for wolfmother. plastic crimewave sound opened for pearls and brass. both were really good openers that i'd never before heard.

so i finally got the name of the band right, i just got the main act wrong. great.

Mazarin kicked ass. Their latest album We're Already There is fantastic.

they were good. Nothing earth-shattering, but they played them songs and played them well. I think most of the crowd was distracted because Bam Margera kept popping his head out of this stairwell next to me and everyone would start taking pictures. it was annoying as fuck.