Wasn't it still Pine Street Theater at that time?

no it was still la luna...it closed not too long after this

Hmm, i did see The Killers support The Dirtbombs one evening at the Highbury Garage. Bloody awful.

I'm going to see the Len Price 3 play at the Falconer pub in Daventry on the 27th. Hey you never know.

Damn.

Primus, Faith No More, Living Colour and more to be added.

Yes, I'm old.

Edit: Red Hot Chili Peppers. Even saw them with a black guitarist whose name escapes me at the moment (DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight), believe this was just after Hillel died. He wore a diaper during his performance.

The best example for me is probably Okkervil River. I bought "Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See" based on an Amazon recommendation, then went to see them open for John Vanderslice at a mostly empty Schuba's. Now they're headlining (much better) sold out shows at 2000-capacity venues.

I guess that you can count Neutral Milk Hotel, since I was actually into them, and saw them twice while they were still in existence.
My favorite NMH memory is when I saw them at an in-store at Reckless Records on Broadway, just after Aeroplane came out. But I had already been listening to Avery Island for a few years and, when they asked if there were any requests, I shouted out for "Song Against Sex".
They didn't have a trombone with them, but Jeff turned to Scott Spillane and said,
"I think that Scott can probably play that part on the flugelhorn. Can you do it, Scott?"
He nodded yes and they tore it up.

Awesome!

There was a river-side concert / festival dealy once out in the boonies outside Athens one summer, and the star room boys were playing so I drove out and saw it. They all brought kegs and bbq, and everyone just stood around in the grass near the water getting drunk and watching 1 band at a time. NMH was there along with Elf Power, and I think it's the only time I saw either of them.

I'm not sure how many of these really count, since I don't think many are hugely popular.

M Ward
Bright Eyes
311
My Morning Jacket

I saw the Walkmen open for the Faint at the Middle East in Cambridge in 2001. I had heard one song, "The Crimps", off their self-titled EP. I bought their vinyl only release. Then the following year when their debut album came out and everyone was loving it, I wasn't as impressed because I had already heard most of the best songs. Of course it was a great album, but it just wasn't new for me.

Summer of 2006 I lived in Seattle and Fleet Foxes were getting buzz there. I saw them play a short show at the Capitol Hill Block Party and later bought their self-released debut EP. Two years later they turned into CSN and blew up.

White Stripes, MMJ and Decemberists are the current bands that come to mind.

I'm sure there are more examples from my youth but I can't think of many. It seems more common that indie/alt bands graduate to big venues than in the 80's. I think many bands I was really into that never played big venues would probably get huge offers from festivals to reform and headline now though. I guess the best older example I can think of is U2, but that's more going from 2000-5000 seat indoor arenas to mega stadiums than small to large.

they are smallish band but its weird to see matt and kim on mtv after seeing them play for 10 people at a bar a few years ago..

I saw dozens of bands here in very small venues on their first appereances in europe over the last years which play much bigger shows these days.
I remember being at a jack johnson show here, very small club, maybe 50 people, and almost everybody was american. I only went to because of my ex gf, and instead of a support act they showed a super 8 surf movie the band shot somewhere before. that was nice. maybe 2003. last year he played in the soccer stadium here, with about 60,000 people...

others were arcade fire, decemberists, justice, coldplay, maybe some more.

I forgot, saw Minutemen open up for REM during Reckoning Tour. I met D. Boon and Michael Mills that night. I forgot who opened for them during Fables tour but Stipe was clearly wasted and kinda sucked that time.

i saw Vampire Weekend twice close to 3 years ago, and I went to the show to see my friend's band. VW were the opening act. then they signed to a label, had music in commercials and movies, and got on magazine covers and stuff. the name of the band was Vampire Weekend.

Add TV on the Radio to the list, although I guess they aren't HUGE. Saw them in '03 in a student lounge at Sewanee: University of the South

Huge enough.

I keep hoping I can think of a better example, but so far all I've got is Deerhunter. Saw them in 2003 opening for Deerhoof.

was at the crocodile in seattle and saw the killers open for stellastarr* ...... and we all know how this story ends.

regine from the arcade fire recorded accordion on the first track i ever made, the day before their first EP was released.
and on the road with spank rock on their first tour.

i used to watch Josh Wink skateboard when he was in high school

i saw the hives open up for the (international) noise conspiracy when veni vidi vicious was first released on epitaph, before it blew up and got re-released on interscope. i don't even think i stayed for all of t(i)nc's because there was no way they could top that.

saw guns 'n roses open up for aerosmith right before appetite for destruction came out.

already established w/ a freakish derelict following the flaming lips used to blaze trails through the Big 8 college towns in the late 80s/early 90s opening shows for tons of local acts - roach factory, truckstoplove, paw, kill creek. i witnessed an unceremonious show around '90 in manhattan, ks where they managed to clear the room with terrible sound & violent feedback. i'm fairly certain it was intentional.

hum used to play the fuck out of lawrence & manhattan and i remember the jayhawks tour in support of hollywood town hall.

i always preferred jay to jeff during the uncle tupelo days. a close buddy convinced me to accompany him to jeff's new band, will-something, during the AM tour. coupled with poor acoustics in lawrence's bottleneck, i remember thinking the show was sloppy and they seemed disinterested playing to a crowd of maybe 50. i still bought the record at the show and grew to lurve it. although i don't ever need to hear casino queen again.

i got nuthin. fml

oh yeah. i saw them at lollapalooza on the 2nd stage. i mean they were headlining but there's no way they'd be on the 2nd stage now.

remember all the bubbles during that set? i nearly lost my shit. also, a tribe called quest practically played to my brother & me in the early afternoon. kansas city: unapologetically white. shonen knife killed too.

Spring 2002, saw White Stripes with a couple hundred people at the Michigan State Student Union. And would've seen them open for Sleater Kinney in 2000 had Tom Izzo not decided to entertain a contract from the Atlanta Hawks, forcing me into work at the student paper all weekend. Anyway, "White Blood Cells" was out and they were clearly headed somewhere, but even so the Friday before their publicist emailed writers she knew seeing if anyone wanted to go to the show because there were still plenty of tickets left.
A month later the "Fell In Love With A Girl" video came out and they were all over MTV. That summer I saw them play an open amphitheater on the Detroit River with The Strokes as the opening band. Good times.

wow, REM I guess, although they were already pretty popular in Georgia at the time (Fables of the Reconstruction tour ca. 1985; my sister can boast seeing them at some free concert in Piedmont Park in 1982ish). NIN at the Masquerade. Fugazi several times (last time was tour for Repeater album). Fishbone at Legion Field (UGA) around 1988 (but did they really get bigger beyond that?). I don't think they ever got huge, but Jason and the Scorchers around 1984-85.

But I did go see "Rock 'n' Roll High School" in a movie theater at the ripe old age of 9. Does that count for anything?