And this is why we support the supporting acts!!

Special Issue #2

Last weekend, I went to see Angie McMahon play at Thunderbird Cafe in Lawrenceville and it was genuinely one of the best times at a show I’ve ever had. McMahon is an Australian singer-songwriter and has been described as having a “deeply emotive and slow-burning indie-rock” vibe. I first discovered her music through a tiny bit of internet stalking. While I didn’t see her live when she opened for Hozier on his Wasteland, Baby! tour in 2019, I did see a YouTube video of her singing “Work Song” with him in New York. Of all the guests that have sung that song with Hozier, she is by far my favorite. I just think her deep voice fits that particular song so well. After I watched that video a few dozen times, I decided to check out her music and found the song “Slow Mover.” Then a few months later, I added “Soon” to my monthly playlist. Then a few months after that I discovered her cover of Tom Waits’ “Take It With Me.” From there, I was hooked. I always said I was going to give her music a really deep listen and even added the first single of her second album to my June 2023 playlist when it came out, but when her full second album was released in November, I could only give it a listen through once or twice before my musical attention was pulled away elsewhere. Still, what I heard I had liked and when I saw she was coming to play in Pittsburgh, I really wanted to try to see her. One because I liked her music enough that I would want to see her play live anywhere, but two, I especially wanted to see her because it feels like artists skip over Pittsburgh, choosing instead to play in Philadelphia and Columbus in Ohio. And especially for an international artist of McMahon’s current career size, it felt like a rare chance to see her play, one that I didn’t know if I would get again. Plus I’ve never been to see a show at a small club venue like Thunderbird so it was a chance to check out a new space. Mimi Gilbert was opening for McMahon and I actually didn’t look up their music before going to the show, which is unlike me, but I was impressed. Like McMahon, songwriting is clearly a foundational element of Gilbert’s music. For those who are used to going to small shows, this won’t surprise you, but I was surprised at the back and forth banter between the crowd and the artists. Gilbert was able to chat with us and tell us about their grandma and growing up in California and audience members were able to ask questions which would prompt stories from Gilbert.

When it was time for Angie McMahon to take the stage, I stood frozen for a few seconds, just in awe. It still gets me every time when these artists we mostly see on our phone screens are suddenly right in front of us. I didn’t know every song, but I was happy to just sway and listen. The band that McMahon had with her was also amazing so I spent a lot of time watching them and how they all interacted with each other. Like during Gilbert’s set, the intimate nature of the venue allowed for McMahon to interact with the audience, including reading signs and introducing us to Sleven, the band’s dinosaur figurine they picked up at a thrift store and decorated with a fan-made crocheted cowboy hat and some friendship bracelets. There were also fans who had traveled from other places to be at the show in Pittsburgh, which was so heartwarming to watch them throughout the show as they jumped, danced, and sang their hearts out. As much as I don’t like crowds, shows like this one affirm why it is I love music—to be surrounded by other people all experiencing the same songs that have meant something to you and that obviously have meant something to them. It’s a little bit of that stranger-to-stranger connection I think we’ve all been looking for in the past few years.

On the drive home, I was reflecting on how I discovered Angie McMahon. I became a fan of hers first from being a fan of Hozier, and I listened to her music because she opened his show. Then I went to her show and left a new fan of Mimi Gilbert. I’ve often thought how underrated it is to discover new music from the openers of artists you already know and love, even if you didn’t see them open live. Victoria Canal is an artist I only first learned of when she opened for Hozier when I saw him in Glasgow in June 2023. Since then, I’ve watched her go on to release her own music, perform with Coldplay at Glastonbury and soon she’ll be opening for Sammy Rae and the Friends on their fall tour. One of my favorite artists I’ve discovered in this six-degrees-of-separation way is Allison Russell. I first discovered her while watching a livestream of her singing with Hozier (noticing a theme) at 2022’s Love Rocks in New York. From there, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with her music, seen her live twice opening for Hozier, and watched on my TV as she performed with Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell on the Grammys. But I promise I don’t only discover artists through their connections to Hozier, although it does seem like that.

I’ve discovered bands like Irontom and Beatenberg from when they opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers and George Ezra, respectively. I’ve also apparently seen The Japanese House live when they were an opener for The 1975 in October 2016, but I have no memory of that whatsoever. Still, it’s cool to think I’ve been in the same room as Amber Bain before I even knew much of her music and now I love her music.

And of course, my greatest opening act story of all, the time I decided to pursue writing about music because of Bastille’s opener in 2014. It was decided on a whim for us to see Bastille, despite none of us in my family really knowing much of their music. As we were standing around chatting before the gig, we hear the opening act start and stopped mid-sentence to turn towards the stage. There, right before our eyes, was our soon-to-be new favorite band. They were called Wolf Gang and when they came back to Pittsburgh a few months later on their own tour, I got to interview them as my first interview ever. They’re no longer together as a band, but I owe a lot to whoever put them on that tour with Bastille.

Sadly Wolf Gang never became big, but openers can be a way to get in on the ground floor of artists who become big hits later. When audiences first saw Chappell Roan as an opener for Olivia Rodrigo, they couldn’t have predicted the major summer takeover she’s now having. Or like when fans were able to see 5 Seconds of Summer open for One Direction and still talk about that experience.

The logic of deciding who’s going to be an opening act is not quite an exact science. Most often openers are acts who are smaller in terms of career size than the headliner and the idea is that the opener’s music is similar to the headliners’ so fans of main act would also be likely fans of the opener once they’ve heard them play. This is very likely the case for a few of the openers for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. For artists like Gayle, Beabadoobee, Owenn, girl in red, and Benson Boone, just to name a few of the nearly twenty openers Swift has included on her tour, this very well may have been audiences’ first time hearing these names and their music, which of course can be a monumental boost for these artists’ careers.

But openers can also be added to a headliner’s bill because the two acts are on the same label and it’s a marketing move, which was the case for when Wolf Gang shared a bill with bands Secret Someones and Sir Sly, all of whom were on the same imprint label. And openers can be a way of introducing like-sized artists to new audiences, like when Kacey Musgraves opened for Harry Styles on his first solo tour. At that time, Harry Styles was on his first solo tour supporting his first solo album, so he was essentially a new artist and Musgraves was releasing her third album Golden Hour so they were more or less on equal footing. But Musgraves was a country artist and Styles was striking out on his own after coming from a huge boyband pop background, so they were able to cross-introduce their respective audiences to each other.

Just as Kacey Musgraves already had an audience of her own before she ever toured with Harry Styles, other openers for Taylor Swift already had followings, but after performing on the Eras Tour stage, they were introduced to an even wider audience than they had before. Acts like Gracie Abrams and Sabrina Carpenter have had huge successes following their stints on the Eras Tour, so huge in fact the idea has been tossed around of an “Eras Tour effect” that has possibly contributed to their major years so far. For the most recent Eras Tour openers, Holly Humberstone, Suki Waterhouse, Maisie Peters, and Raye, who all had sizable followings and successes before opening for Swift, we wait to see how the Eras Tour effect will impact their next year of releases.

Swift is also a major proponent of another example of how openers get chosen—as a sign of the headliners’ respect, admiration, and even friendship. Bands like Haim and Paramore did not need to open for Taylor Swift for any kind of career-boosting ulterior motive. No, they opened for Swift because of their personal friendships with her, as was the case for Haim, as well as Swift’s open admiration for and influence the band has had on her life, like with Paramore.

For as important as it is to support the supporting acts, likewise can and should be said for the musicians who play backing up the main acts. So many great solo artists started out backing up and touring with bigger performers. Sheryl Crow sung back up for Michael Jackson and Cher was as a backing vocalist for some Phil Spector-produced records. In more recent times, artists like Madi Diaz, Pauli Lovejoy, Charlotte Clark, Ny Oh, and of course Mitch Rowland were noticed and became beloved by fans playing in Harry Styles’ band during his recent Love on Tour. They have all since gone on to release their own music, open for other artists, like Madi Diaz opening for Kacey Musgraves, and go on their own tours, like Mitch Rowland’s Come June tour.

Not only does following the backing musicians lead you to become invested in them as artists in their own right, but it can also lead you to discovering the next artist they’re touring with. Rachel Beauregard sung back up for Hozier on the Wasteland, Baby! tour and now sings on tour with Maren Morris as well as releasing music of her own. Kristen Rogers who also has toured with Hozier also sung for Jake Wesley Rogers and is how I discovered his music and now Kristen is singing for Post Malone. Emily Kohavi toured with Hozier on the second half of the Wasteland, Baby! tour and although I only saw her in YouTube videos from that leg of the tour, I recognized her when I saw her playing with Niall Horan’s band at TRNSMT in Glasgow.

It’s also fun to see band members reunite with their past bands, like when Hozier joined Maren Morris on stage at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2022 to perform their song “The Bones.” Photos were posted later of Hozier and his former band member Rachel Beauregard reuniting backstage. Larissa Maestro, who is now currently touring with Hozier on his Unreal Unearth tour, was previously playing in Allison Russell’s band while Caoimhe Barry who is currently drumming on tour with Allison Russell is part of the band Wyvern Lingo, who have played with Hozier in the past. You may recognize the name of another member of Wyvern Lingo, Karen Cowley, who is singing on “In a Week” from Hozier’s first album. Also playing with Allison Russell from time to time, as well as her friend and collaborator Brandi Carlile, are SistaStrings, the band name of Chauntee and Monique Ross who have played at Newport Folk Festival and also the Grammy Awards performance with Russell, Carlile, and the great Joni Mitchell.

There are so many examples of important or exciting openers and backing musicians I could have named, and these are just ones close to the top of my head, but there are truly so many more. Once I started making it a point to learn the names and faces of all these immensely talented musicians playing around the artists I was going to see in concert, I started to see familiar names and faces everywhere I looked. It just goes to show how small and tight-knit the musical community really is. And just like we applaud the incredible, under-recognized artists that are swings within the theatre community, I think the same respect and praise should be focused on the opening acts and backing musicians within live music. You never know when one of them will become your new favorite artist and you’ll be going to their headlining shows one day. But as always, be sure to get there early and support the opening act.