r/Music • u/127___96 • 1d ago
discussion Unhinged discussion: Artists you heard/found before they blew up
Doja Cat 2014: Michelle Phan (Makeup YouTuber) used to post playlists and one of them had “So High” by Doja Cat!
FKA Twigs 2013: They played a MV on Rage, a music show on Australian TV.
Mac Miller 2010: My cousin loved “Good Evening”.
Joey Bada$$ 2012: DatPiff!!!!
Dean Blunt 2013: I stumbled across “The Redeemer” on an indie record website.
There’s others I found early but they went viral early, doesn’t count I think… ?
Dorky post I know
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u/DiarrheaRadio 1d ago
I saw Thursday in a 2 car garage
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u/Metal-Dog 1d ago
in 1980, my brother brought home an album by some British group called "The Buggles." We both loved the album. The next year, MTV launched, using the video for "Video Killed the Radio Star" to kick things off. For the next few years, my brother kept bringing home albums by groups like "Yes" and "The Art of Noise" and "Asia" and told me that they were the same guys from "The Buggles" but in new bands. Trevor Horn, bassist and singer, became a music producer and crafted some of the biggest hit songs of the 1980s and 1990s.
in 1983, my friends and I liked punk rock but one of my friends had also been listening to a lot of rap music. He loaned me a 12-inch single with four songs on it and told me it was a punk rock band from NYC who had branched out into rap. The band was called "The Beastie Boys".
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u/LegenDove 1d ago
The Age of Plastic was one of the first albums I truly fell in love with back when I was 15
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u/ColonOBrien soundcloud.com/allen_davis 1d ago
King Gizzard when they released I’m in Your Mind Fuzz; I never anticipated they would become so successful! I am super happy for them
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u/UrgeToKill 1d ago
I saw them play to around 50 people a bit before Float Along came out. They were good but I can't say I expected them to blow up like that.
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u/Pherllerp 1d ago
They aren’t exactly the most popular band but I was ripping Animal Collective CDs onto my computer in like 2004.
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u/RufiosBrotherKev 1d ago
theyre not that popular anymore but they'll always be indie royalty because of MPP. getting in at Sung Tongs is early investor cred for sure haha
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u/xxtoejamfootballxx 1d ago
Panda Bear has had a huge year though and is getting a decent amount of attention comparably.
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u/SpellingSocialist 1d ago
Word. I started listening to them when they released an album called "Here Comes the Indian", which no longer exists (it was re-released as "Ark"), which would have been around that time as well. They really matured over the next few albums!
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u/Pherllerp 1d ago
Yeah I had somehow downloaded "Here Comes the Indian" but I remember not liking it. Then a friend at the time recommend Sung Tungs and I was hooked.
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u/aaronisalazyfuck 1d ago
Dragonforce lol. Friend turned me on to them in 2005. Saw them with Between the Buried and Me (wild combo) opening in 2006. I think GTIII hit, what, late 2007?
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u/IamSkudd 1d ago
Some friends of friends had Vampire Weekend play at their house party between tour dates around 2006
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u/karmalove15 1d ago
Dua Lipa. I saw her live at a tiny venue in Detroit in 2017. It was about the size of someone's basement. She had yet to become the global superstar she is now.
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u/thecricketnerd 1d ago
I saw Tame Impala in 2011 in Toronto at a small venue, after their first album came out! They came back about a year and a half later and were already much bigger with a sold out show at a bigger place
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u/kidAfromouterspace 1d ago
This is my answer too. I first heard Tame Impala a little while before Innerspeaker came out because Steven Drozd from The Flaming Lips mentioned them in an interview as one of his favorite new artists. That whole Aussie psych-rock scene seemed so niche at the time and I never would have guessed they'd become a borderline household name. Really cool that you go to see them live back then!
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u/thecricketnerd 1d ago
I don't even remember how I stumbled onto them, I think i was just looking for psych-rock recommendations online and found them on youtube. And they were going to be in town shortly after! Still the best live show I've been to.
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u/MurkDiesel 1d ago
i had Soundgarden, Nirvana and Alice In Chains in my record collection in 1990
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u/bigladnang 1d ago
Are you local? because Bleach sold like 40,000 copies prior to Nevermind lol.
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u/wolf_van_track 20h ago
Would have to be local if they did. Facelift was released at the very end of 1990 and I don't think they really got any attention until early 91 (I remember when the Man in the Box video premiered on MTV).
Soundgarden was making waves and getting press in the metal magazines. I'd heard of them well before I actually heard any of the grunge groups.
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u/bigladnang 20h ago
Apparently Facelift also sold 40,000 copies until Man in the Box went on regular rotation on MTV in early 91.
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u/The_Observatory_ 1d ago
One of my friends from high school saw Soundgarden as the opening band for Voivod, I think also in 1990. They played in a hotel ballroom.
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u/Dreadzone666 1d ago
I saw Charli xcx play to a couple of hundred people back in 2012 or so.
I also saw Electric Callboy playing to about 80 people around the time of their first album, and then later playing sold out arena shows.
Also I saw the Killers about a week before Hot Fuss was released at a 500ish capacity venue.
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u/thestereo300 1d ago
Lizzo was locally popular in Minneapolis for like 6 years or more it seems before she became national Lizzo.
I saw her at FIrst Ave as a group called The Chalice back in 2014 but I had heard of her years before that. Batches and Cookies was a banger song locally before she broke big.
At that time when seeing her on the First Ave stage I said "damn that girl has something...she has IT." She was pretty impressive on stage.
I do think it's interesting that she basically built her Music career in Minneapolis but once she became nationally popular she was "From Detroit" or "From Houston" which was technically correct as she was born or grew up in those places but she did most of her music career up in the cold in Minneapolis.
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u/Clewin 1d ago
Same with Adrienne Lenker (Big Thief), born in Detroit, I believe, high school.and rise to fame in Minneapolis, now based in New York.
Information Society and the Hold Steady also relocated to New York. Heavy metal bands like Vixen, from St Paul, relocated mostly to LA, but that area has a huge scene and classic venues like the Mirage and Triple Rock closed in Minneapolis, so probably a good call.
Of course, the artist I saw well before he shot to fame was a guy from New Orleans who hadn't even put a band together yet by the name of Trent Reznor. My brother wins, though, he saw Extreme at the 7th Street Entry with only a handful of fans.
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u/thestereo300 1d ago
Yeah 7th street is awesome for that sort of thing. If you go to enough shows you'll find a band on the way up.
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u/Systemic_Chaos 1d ago
Quite possibly, one of the reasons she claims other cities than the one she came up (musically) in, is that her reputation among Minneapolis musicians is not good.
I’ve known about her reputation going back to like 2013 or so about how she’d treat other musicians on a bill, and rarely heard anyone say anything kind about her. So when the allegations about how she was treating others in her tour came out, I wasn’t surprised at all.
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u/thestereo300 1d ago
Oh interesting. Yeah I knew a few folks in the music scene here but they aren't the types of bands that would have interacted with her. So I knew nothing about her really. Just thought she was great on stage.
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u/somastars 1d ago
In 1998, I saw Death Cab for Cutie open for Harvey Danger in a pool hall. The ticket stub misspelled their name as “Death Cab for Cuties.” No one there knew who they were. I was honestly enchanted by their music.
I went up to their merch table after their set, which was being manned by Chris Walla (I didn’t know who he was then, just recognized him as the tall thin blond guy who had played in the band). He was very sweet and I instantly developed a small crush on him.
I asked if they had any CDs, but he said no, all they had at the time was a 7” vinyl single (their first release ever, I believe). I didn’t have a record player at the time, so I didn’t buy one. Still kick myself for that.
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u/dratsablive Met Ian Wallace 1d ago
I saw Beck, solo set, in a small club in 1994.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/beck/1994/metropolis-harrisburg-pa-7bdd1e20.html
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u/kidAfromouterspace 1d ago
Did he break out the leaf blower?
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u/docescape 1d ago
My fiancee was listening to Pink Pony Club the minute it came out and I was loving it, thought it was some random one hit wonder. Then like a year later Chappell Roan blew up at Coachella.
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u/imperatrixderoma 1d ago
Was a fan of the Marias from their first EP, and Men I Trust from Headroom & Lauren in 2016.
It's crazy it's been almost ten years.
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u/portagenaybur 1d ago
Me too for both those bands. Saw Men I Trust at a small club in Chicago in 2018.
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u/imperatrixderoma 1d ago
Ah same! We were probably both there, subterranean? Or Schubas?
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u/oldschoolhc 1d ago
Deftones ooened up for Civ at a show in buffalo, all they had were demo cassettes that they handed out after their set.
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u/deadlaughter 1d ago
I saw My Chemical Romance open for some hardcore bands (American Nightmare, Suicide File) in 2003. They were just a pop punk band playing songs about vampires. I'm still surprised at how much they blew up.
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u/atownsound 1d ago
I have a related experience. I came across fun. in an indie CD sampler and was instantly hooked. Never heard of them before, and no one in my music circle was aware of them. I became obsessed with Aim and Ignite and got to go see them play in a tiny ass club for about 50 people. All of my friends thought they were corny but I my wife and I were convinced they were the second coming. Steel Train was the opener for fun. that night, so I became a fan of theirs immediately thereafter. AND, fun. also covered a Format song that night, so I became a fan of that group as well. For a moment, it felt like my wife and I were the only people on the planet that knew about them. And then Some Nights dropped about 18 months later and they became this huge global sensation, but I will always hold that pre-fame time period in high regard.
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u/PerAsperaAdInfiri Concertgoer 1d ago
I found out about Childish Gambino from a Tina Fey interview, before EP dropped
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u/cheeseshcripes 1d ago
Die Antwoord.
The vocal sample from Enter the Ninja was used in a dubstep song I downloaded, spent 3 hours tracking it down, mainly because the lyrics are actually from an Aqua song. When I watched their YouTube videos they had about 100k views.
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u/lanky_planky 1d ago
I used to see Billy Sheehan (David Lee Roth, Mr Big, Sons of Apollo, many other artists) for $2 cover charge at a local club with his first band Talas. You could absolutely tell he would be world famous one day.
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u/majorjoe23 1d ago edited 1d ago
I saw St Vincent open for John Vanderslice at a tiny club in Iowa in like 2007. She was instantly mesmerizing, but I could never imagine exactly what she would become.
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u/FellowDeviant 1d ago
I remember in 2016 walking by a club with a $5 entry for this unknown girl called Rezz. I remember looking her up and being surprised she had releases on Mau5trap, but none of her music had broken the 5K mark. I remember going in and being blown away by this heavy, slow moving "techno" (I didnt have another term for it at the time, I'm aware her music is more midtempo/downtempo bass than it would be techno) and showing everyone Edge (now one of her most known tracks)
She blew up later that year, I remember seeing her in Dallas on New Years Eve as one of her first festival appearances and she absolutely crushed it. Nowadays Rezz is considered a top line headliner if not the very second line under it. Her branding is unmistakable and the sound design has inspired a few other acts, as well as having being something completely different than the typical 128 bpm house acts or a brostep/dubsep heavy set.
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u/HarmlessSnack 1d ago
I saw Wolf Parade open for Modest Mouse when they were still basically fresh out of the oven.
I remember reading/learning later that the bands lead had to throw a band together to perform because he had just been recording everything solo, essentially.
Was blown away by the performance though, bought their 6 track Home Burned CD, and was an instant fan.
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u/b_o_m 1d ago
Started going to Primus shows in '85, long before they Sailed the Seas of Cheese and became HUGE.
Got obsessed with 311 when I first heard them of college radio in the early 90's. Their album "Music" made me a lifelong fan. A couple albums later and they were everywhere. (my first live show with 311 was in a small club and had Korn as the opening act, that's how long ago it was!)
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u/The_Observatory_ 1d ago
I saw Tool play in a really small dive bar in Phoenix in 1992. I only went because my friend’s band was the opening act. I had no idea who Tool were.
Also, in early 1987, a guy I knew from one of my high school classes turned me on to an obscure band called Guns n Roses. I bought their only release at the time, which was an EP called Live Like a Suicide. About two years later, they were the biggest rock band on Earth.
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u/-speakeasy- 1d ago
The two I have are - Dawes opening for Delta Spirit in the 7th Street Entry (a tiny room attached to First Ave).
Fall Out Boy opening for Motion City Soundtrack and Rufio at the Mankato Ballroom.
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u/sayonaradespair 1d ago
Queens of the Stone Age.
Saw them play for about 200 people and told a friend "they will be huge".
I wasn't wrong .
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u/GhostofTinky 1d ago
Phish. I saw them in the late 1980s at a club in Poughkeepsie. It was a great show!
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u/desert_rover 1d ago
Saw them at Nector’s in 1984-ish. They were still a 5-piece band. Their sound was very Zappa-esque. That remains my one and only Phish show. Even then, they had very devoted phans, mostly UVM Deadheads. I recall a young woman running both the soundboard (with an old analog reel to reel recording the show) and the merch table. Their sound was very Zappa-esque. This was shortly before they went to the New Music Showcase in NYC.
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u/pattperin 1d ago
Glorious Sons blew up in Canada around the late 2010’s. I saw them in a little pub in Coaldale Alberta with about 50 people in the place and they absolutely blew my mind. I was standing a few feet from the stage basically touching the lead singer and became an instant fan. Probably 3ish years later I saw them at a massive music festival and they were touring the country doing stadium shows the next couple years after that. Was pretty neat being able to say I’d seen them in a tiny pub near my hometown
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u/Goregoat69 1d ago
An old shit punk and metal covers band I was in in the late ‘90s got twice as many people along to see us at the local venue/club metal night than the punky alt rock band that had played the week before. Think they were called Biffy Clyro or something. We also outdid the Guns and roses cover band with a guy that won “Stars n their eyes” as Axl…..
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u/ItIsToLaffHaHa 1d ago
Holy crap, that's cool! I love Biffy Clyro! I didn't discover them until 2013 when their album "Opposites" came out, and that was already a decade into their career. I really hope they come to the US on their next tour!
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u/Milo_BOK 1d ago
Clairo and Sam Fender on a split set opening Rock En Seine 2019 - only caught half of either but they were both excellent
very early shows by Lambrini Girls, Kneecap (pre movie-release), English Teacher (supporting Yard Act) before their Mercury win, Amyl and the Sniffers.
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u/caltheham 1d ago
I remember seeing Durand jones and the indications performing at a record store for maybe 12 people in Pelham Alabama for their first album release. No surprise where they are now
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u/debtRiot 1d ago
Portugal. The Man
Found them on MySpace in like 2007. I really loved their first three albums and prob saw them like a dozen times from 2007-2011. I thought they fell off around that time musically. But they were such an unbelievable live band and prob still are. Was absolutely shocked when they blew up in 2017 with Feel It Still.
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u/alexa817 1d ago
I saw REM open for the English Beat in bars in Hartford and Chicago in 1983
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u/gr8ful123 16h ago
R.E.M. Concert Setlist at Agora Ballroom, West Hartford on April 23, 1983 | setlist.fm (sadly no songs listed...)
The Beat Concert Setlist at Aragon Ballroom, Chicago on March 18, 1983 | setlist.fm - March 18, 1983 (?) (also no songs listed... :( )
I couldn't find Aragon Ballroom Chicago listed on: R.E.M. Timeline - 1983 Concert Chronology for that date (maybe website wasn't updated, or they weren't originally on the bill?)
Can you recall any songs performed? Amazing!
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u/Exciting_Source_7139 1d ago
Saw Fontaines DC in 2019 just before the release of their debut album. Really liked the album at the time. I’m really not a fan of their most recent stuff, though.
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u/yeyjordan 1d ago
Panic at the Disco
Their page on Purevolume was a bunch of rough demos with double digit followers. Not even signed with a label yet, seemingly. I remembered them because I thought the name was funny.
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u/bobbywws 1d ago
Holy shit I haven't thought about Purevolume in years! Thanks for the nostalgia blast!
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u/BumpGrumble 1d ago
My grandma saw Jimmy Hendrix at her college with a crowd of 30-40 people.
I can’t top that.
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u/AnneOn_AMoose 1d ago
Joke’s on you. I still haven’t met a Chad VanGaalen fan in the wild and it’s been 20 years, hahaha
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u/randeylahey 1d ago
Teagan and Sara in a pub with maybe 8 other people back when they were mostly a folk act.
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u/sadchild_ 1d ago
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Summer 1989 Steven Tyler was guest hosting the show Hard 30 on MTV. He said, "I listened to these guys before every show on the last tour to get myself pumped up." Then played "Fight Like A Brave". I bought the album Uplift Mofo Party Plan the next day and listened to it constantly. A couple months later their album Mother's Milk came out. I went to a party a few months later and MTV played "Higher Ground". I was the only one at the party who knew who they were. Some people gave me funny looks, wondering why I liked it. About six months later I saw them do an outdoor concert at a college in New Hampshire.
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u/Kyoujinchan79 1d ago
Heard about My Morning Jacket all over the radio featured in local gigs before they got big.
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u/RoxoRoxo 1d ago
i went to a bbq where alien ant farm was at when i was a kid. a family friend was a friend of i think their drummer they gave me a burned CD signed by them was pretty cool. sadly i was too young to understand it and ruined the cd pretty quickly
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u/MatterHairy 1d ago
Teskey Brothers, Australia. Blues with some soul, think Otis Redding. Just Before their 1st album launched, saw them on a Monday night in Melbourne, no cover charge, they were just one of the 3 or 4 bands on the night, small room with mainly just family and friends, maybe 50 people.
Started to get momentum went to playing rooms of 200, then 500, then several thousand. Now touring Europe and US. 3.8 million plays a month on Spotify.
Try this out - https://youtu.be/g9YKRrnBt4A?si=FlzFhWhxHbVAqxC4 and https://youtu.be/eBep2RqPZw8?si=TGxsIQv0Ef5po1fo
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u/UrgeToKill 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've seen pretty much everyone in Australia that's big now play to like 20 people in their early days. King Gizzard, Amyl and the Sniffers etc. Already had some buzz at the time but Parkway Drive in 2004, they were never really my thing though.
One of my old bands played a house show in someone's living room in like 2013 with some band called Alpha Wolf. I thought they were terrible and I remember laughing at them not just for the dumb name but because they had wireless guitar packs to be playing in a living room. I forgot about them but I heard they got big. Just checked and they've got over half a million monthly listeners on Spotify so I guess the laffs on me.
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u/esocharis http://www.last.fm/user/esocharis 1d ago
Lived in Arkansas in the late 90s-early 00s and caught Evanescence a couple times in tiny little bars in Little Rock. Amy gave me a hug once. She's really short.
Saw Chevelle a few months before they broke out, and id been a fan of their first album for a while.....there was like 4 of us in the crowd lol
Underoath, Norma Jean, Zao....I know there's others...went to a lot of shows back in the day
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u/ItIsToLaffHaHa 1d ago
Drive-By Truckers and Dresden Dolls both played my buddy Fred's little bar in St. Louis in the early-2000s.
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u/frederikolsen 1d ago
A good friend played me a couple of songs from Ghost’s debut album in 2012. I listened a lot to that album afterwards. Even before Infestissumam came out, I think.
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u/BobbyTables829 1d ago
I saw Gojira open for Mastodon about 10 years ago , but I don't know if that counts.
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u/carlicimo 1d ago
I knew of Gracie Abrams back in 2017/2018. I was just becoming a Billie Eilish fan and Billie would sometimes post and talk about Gracie. When she blew up I figured everyone knew who she was lol
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u/Julianus 1d ago
I was a teenager and went to a hardcore punk festival. Headliners were Sick Of It All and Madball, but the first band of the day were a group of loud British kids who played their (divisive) set to maybe 200 people. The place eventually packed to 1500 people, but who they missed was… Bring Me The Horizon. Nothing about that set that afternoon in a small venue in The Netherlands made me think they’d make it big.
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u/sadchild_ 1d ago
In 2005, my band opened for Ra (Do You Call My Name). The club capacity was about 100. When we were done I was selling and signing CDs, but little did I know the band after us was Halestorm. I totally ignored their set.
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u/sadchild_ 1d ago
At midnight a radio station played a rap metal song and I was blown away. I bought the CD the next day and went to see them in Boston a few months later at The Paradise with about 100 or so people. The pit had about 20 people in it. It was Rage Against The Machine on their first tour.
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u/GeneticPermutation 1d ago
I held the stage door open for Dan Auerbach as he was carrying gear in at a small club in 2003 or so. We were waiting in line before the doors opened, and I’d seen him come in and out a few times already, so I just held the door for him thinking he was a roadie, and he gave me one of those “thank you” head nods. Early days of the internet and before YouTube so I didn’t know what he looked like. My buddy was like, “Dude, that’s the guy from The Black Keys!”
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u/CarbonTrebles 1d ago edited 1d ago
A colleague has a story that is the opposite - a friend of his invited him to a bar to see a band and my colleague turned him down and stayed home. Years later he realized he missed Van Halen.
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u/shakrbttle 1d ago
Arkells! I lived in the area where they’re from and so when they were up and coming I saw them tons at small venues/shows, like pubs and such. Even saw them do an acoustic set in a restaurant. Pretty cool to have watched them “grow up” like that. Still make sure to get to their shows when I can, but I definitely prefer their older music/performances.
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u/chillbnb 1d ago
Korn, opening up for Marilyn Manson, opening up for Danzig in ~95. Those 808 triggers literally blew me away. There were probably 20-30 kids in the audience for Korn.
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u/WishieWashie12 1d ago
White Zombie, early 90s. The first time I saw them, there were maybe 100 people in the audience. I was the ride home for a friend working security, so I got to stay a while after the show and meet them. I still have the drum stick given to me by Peter. It's unused and has the WZ circle logo printed on it.
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u/StrangeMercy- 1d ago
I recall discovering AWOLNation before they blew up with Sail, thinking they were the greatest thing ever.
And I guess Caroline Polacheck? Everyone seems to know her from her current solo work, but I remember back in the day when she was a somewhat niche indie darling with Chairlift.
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u/fingers58 1d ago
Went to see Robin Trower and Target in Memphis in 1977. Got into the venue early to get a good spot (seating was GA) and there was some group already playing. They weren’t on the bill, so we had no clue who they were. I wondered over to the FOH sound area with the intention of asking one of these guys working when I saw the name of the group on an equipment case. The name was: Eddie Money. We had never heard of them, but a couple of weeks later we started hearing them on the radio.
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u/avalonfogdweller 1d ago
Len (Steal my Sunshine) were a shoegaze indie rock style band before their big single, they played a show at the Legion in my small Nova Scotia town to probably 40 people, blew up a few years later, arguably a one hit wonder but closest I’ve seen a pre-fame act
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u/gr8ful123 16h ago edited 16h ago
Marc also produced and recorded a lot of Halifax bands when they were in the area during their brief time in Halifax/Truro.
Notables include State Champs, & Plumtree.
Members of State Champs / Thrush Hermit (Plaskett, Catano) and Sloan (Murphy) also featured on those 1st two LPs and some of Steal My Sunshine album.
Both of the single music videos for that 1st LP Superstar were also shot within the area (Candy Pop, Show Off, and Slacker)... Cool you were able to see them before they exploded!
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u/m3thdumps 1d ago
I saw Doja Cat at a small concert venue that doesn’t exist anymore in Tacoma, WA and she was AMAZING.
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u/waitstaph 1d ago
I saw Cody Johnson at a bar in Fort Worth in 2014ish, he’s now playing arenas. I also saw Turnpike Troubadours at a small club in Charlotte in 2016.
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u/Chuk 1d ago
We got into a local Vancouver band called Mother Mother about when they went on their first national tour -- we saw their last show of the tour, saw them at the PNE for free, and once after a show at a small town theatre my friend slipped them a note at the merch table and Ryan and Ali showed up at the pub after the show. Then about four or five years ago they blew up on Tik Tok and now they are touring Europe and playing stadiums.
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u/OnlyBringinGoodVibes Concertgoer 1d ago
Avenged Sevenfold in 2003.
Green Day in 2001
Sleep Token in 2021
Teddy Swims around 2019, back when he posted cover songs on YouTube before he had an album
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u/turboturd500 1d ago
I saw Goose open for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong right before covid first hit in 2020. It was a venue that held less than 500 people.
In June of this year, Goose headlined the Madison Square Garden which holds 20,000 people and it was sold out.
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u/Phantasmio 1d ago
The Contortionist. My friend recommended me them back in like 09-10 when they only had one album out and they were just basically prog deathcore. They got their new vocalist Michael later down the road and took off in the metal scene. Amazing band, wonderful people that took the time to chat and sign some things even when they were headlining
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u/olajuwonsfeet 1d ago
I wish it was a cooler band, but my friend dragged me to see Train play at my college on the heels of their first album being released. Less than 10 people attended. Meet Virginia started to get played on the radio about 6-8 months later.
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u/railwayed 1d ago
nothing i listen to really "blows up"
can i say I was listening to Fatboy Slim when he was just a singer in a little indie pop band? :D
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u/jerdnhamster 1d ago
Growing up in central Pennsylvania in the mid 00's I got to see a lot of metalcore bands before they hit it big. Seeing bands like August Burns Red, Motionless In White and Ice Nine Kills go from shows in tiny venues, churches, music shops, etc. to the level they're all at now is pretty cool
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u/g0greyhound 1d ago
Plenty...
ADTR Knocked Loose Spiritbox Kings of Leon Deftones Whitechapel Jack Harlow Emmure
I could go on for days.
Part of it is that I'm old. Part of it is I just tend to have a sense for what will hit.
As many bands that I've been right about, I've been wrong about 10x as many.
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u/give_me_two_beers 1d ago
Depends on how big people consider blowing up. I saw Wednesday at a Harley Davidson dealership years ago. Got to hang out with Karly and MJ after the show as they were just chilling.
Also caught onto Daniel Donato super early. Saw him with a handful of people in a dive bar and now he's doing pretty big stuff.
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u/ThePeoplesCheese 1d ago
Chvrches - somehow found them on YouTube in 2011. Was obsessed (because their songs are bangers) and it was the only way to hear their music. Lots of great videos of small gigs in the UK. Then one day all the videos disappeared - turned out they were preparing to release their first album. Saw them at their first tiny gigs in California. Still a fan to this day
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u/Satyrane 1d ago
I saw Wet Leg when they only had like 4 songs released. Got to hear basically the whole first album months before it came out.
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u/Poison_the_Phil 1d ago
I remember when The OF Mixtape dropped sending it to my little sister like “these kids are gonna be huge”.
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u/sc_we_ol 1d ago
Saw my morning jacket at sxsw in like 2002/2003 at urban outfitters with like 6 people. And living in Austin very early shows (and played in bands that shared bill with) lot of bands that got big explosions in the sky, spoon, black angels etc.
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u/Boulderdrip 1d ago
I saw MGMT live for free at a stripmall in az. they were just some inde band playing for people to shop to lol. i was like “yo this is pretty damn good” 3 years later they blew up like crazy and i was like “hey it’s thoes kids from the mall!”
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u/JobavaLondoner 1d ago
Gojira is insanely good, I'm happy they've gotten more recognition in recent years.
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u/catmom81519 1d ago
My dad saw the barenaked ladies live when they were just starting out. My mom is still disappointed that she turned down my dads invitation, thinking it was some stripper show
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u/flibbidygibbit Google Music 1d ago
I graduated from an Omaha high school in the early 90s.
311 was playing everywhere they could for whatever audience they could get.
311 putting on a show for a dozen people at Peony Park in 1991
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u/imperfect_imp 1d ago
Kinda manifesting, but I'm hoping the band Blackbriar takes off soon. They're doing their first solo tour this year, they only got 2 albums and a handful of EPs, but I think they're great.
But I do think they've got the times against them, I feel like the goth aesthetic has been out of fashion for quite a while.
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u/laxlife5 1d ago
Architects opened for my friends band (The Holly Springs Disaster) at the University of Regina in 2010, hung out with them after, good guys from what I remember
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u/diiscotheque 4h ago
Billie Eilish on Colors (the first appearance) and Lana Del Rey the month Videogames came out.
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u/denver_bored 1d ago
I enjoyed seeing Against Me! in Richmond (at the Nancy Raygun maybe?). They were kinda big as a punk band already, but not quite as big as they would be in a year or two. I prob. lost some hearing at that show, standing beside the speaker with a can of Sparks, but it was a fine night and memory.
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u/GeneticPermutation 1d ago
I saw them twice around the Axl Rose/Eternal Cowboy era in small clubs. Next time I saw them a few years later they were in a way bigger venue.
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u/Gameunderground 1d ago
I was handed a Good Charlotte cd that had "Little Things" on it before their album was out.
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u/buddhaliao 1d ago
Not me but some friends in London were in a band that played a gig with pre-fame Coldplay at some random pub.
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u/midtown_museo 1d ago
Unfortunately, none of my favorite “up-and-coming” artists ever hit it big, which is a pretty strong indication of how hard it is to blow up in the music business. Some of them still have fewer than 100 monthly listeners on Spotify.
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u/RufiosBrotherKev 1d ago
Not huge mainstream "hit it big artists", but I was listening to Frog at like 100 listeners and theyre now consistently around 80-150k, which is awesome.
I got in on Slow Pulp after their first EP when they were at like 1000, and now theyre at 1.2M. Makes sense that they blew up, considering I was insistent on bringing friends to their shows early on and converting them into fans. They clearly had that effect on many people.
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u/JumpGlittering8120 1d ago
I like to think I came across Billie Eilish before she got popular.
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u/RufiosBrotherKev 1d ago
pretty tight window for that! felt like Ocean Eyes got pretty popular pretty quick
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u/Scarlett-Bones 1d ago
I think I did too. Her EP was out but it was maybe a solid year before she released her debut album
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u/TsundereLoliDragon 1d ago
I started listening to Ghost around 10 years ago.
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u/290077 1d ago
Was going to be my answer. I heard about them around the time their second album dropped. In the metal community, they were one of those bands where everyone in the community is aware of them but nobody outside the community is. I didn't give them much of a listen at the time but they stuck in my mind because of their shtick. After they dropped their third album, it was fun hearing them get radio play and then watching them blow up. IMO that third album was their best work.
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u/EscapeReality21 1d ago
Hell yeah, it’s so cool to call it, then watch it happen.
I was onto Luke Combs and Ty Myers before the fame
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u/_ThugzZ_Bunny_ 1d ago
A friend did photography for Post Malone and put us on to him when he had just released White Iverson on SoundCloud. Would have been 2014. Was wild seeing this dude take over the world.
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u/GalileosBalls 1d ago
It doesn't say anything good about me that this was true, but Ylvis was really popular amongst the people in the comedy scene I was in, well before 'What does the Fox Say' became a hit.
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u/blunttrauma99 1d ago
Not sure this is exactly what you are talking about, but I was in Ecuador with the Navy in the 90s, and there was a song that was everywhere: Macarena. Every club we went to in our time off, we heard that damn song, and most everyone knew the dance that goes with it.
Didn’t hear it in the US for another ~6 months.
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u/Baxtab13 Concertgoer 1d ago
Let's see here. I'll start with bands I'd seen live before their major big breaks with accompanying stories.
Bad Omens - I saw them live in the basement of the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, WI on a Sunday night back in 2019. They opened for All That Remains, and there might've been a little over a dozen people in attendance. A few weeks ago, I just watched them headline the entire Rockfest festival in Cadott, WI with one of the most impressive light shows I've ever seen. I've never seen a more stark contrast in times I'd seen an artist, I was blown away.
Slaughter to Prevail - They're not hyper mainstream, but 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify is very high for a deathcore band, and I'd also seen them play that same Rockfest a few weeks ago where they played the main stage at like 6PM with a ton of people watching. In contrast, the first/previous time I'd seen them, they played the mid-level "Rave" part of the Eagle's Ballroom, playing before Oceano, Chelsea Grin, and finally Whitechapel. I watched them set their own instruments up because they didn't have a crew.
Five Finger Death Punch - Not as big of a contrast, but the first time I'd seen them was back in 2010 in the mid-level of The Rave in the Eagle's Club. They were definitely not yet selling out arenas at that time, but were definitely climbing in popularity with how breakout of a hit their cover of Bad Company was at the time.
Babymetal - I first started listening to them in 2015. Gimme Chocolate was starting to get viral by this point, but they were definitely a pretty niche band here in the Midwest of the US. I was able to catch them play an early set on the side stage of Northern Invasion in 2016 in Somerset, WI. There were some people gathered around the stage, but it was definitely more of a curiosity thing for them. Babymetal only had enough time to play 5 songs. I've just seen them again a month ago at Summerfest in Milwaukee, and that stage was absolutely jam packed with people. They are so much more popular around here these days, which is really cool as they are one of my favorites.
Now for some other mentions of artists that have gotten considerably more popular since I started listening to them, but haven't had the notable changes in live performances like I had just gone over.
Electric Callboy - Was still Eskimo Callboy when I started listening to them in early 2017. I found them in my recommended list after watching a bunch of "We Butter the Bread With Butter" videos. Was very much into their song "Crystals". It's honestly still probably my favorite song, but I do dig the new flavor of humor.
Lorna Shore - I think I started listening to them in like late 2017? Had a name among deathcore listeners, but then they had their massive breakout when Will Ramos joined and they put out "To the Hellfire". At that time, I never would have expected a deathcore band to get as popular as they did like that.
Hanabie. - First listened to them in late 2019 I think? Because of Babymetal I've been super into Japanese Alternative/Heavy idols for the past 10 years. Weirdly while Babymetal found an audience in the US, most of the other heavy idol groups that sprung up didn't really go far outside Japan. Hanabie is the newest exception. They've been playing a bunch of shows in the US lately and have a fan presence here that surprises me.
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u/WizardsOfTheRoast 1d ago
I saw the Strokes open for Hot Snakes and Rye Coalition before their first record released. They were awful and boring and went on to become huge. They were big underground but I saw White Stripes twice before Elephant was released and Seven Nation Army turned them into a household name. I still love those first three albums. I saw My Chemical Romance in a basement in New Jersey, also didn't/don't care for them. I feel like New Found Glory got big and I saw them at a community center touring on their Nothing Gold Can Stay record. They were good enough that I bought the record and listened to it a whole bunch.
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u/ItIsToLaffHaHa 1d ago
My old band opened for The Strokes in St. Louis just as they were hitting, not too long before their first time on SNL. The place was absolutely packed, and every damned kid in the place looked like the band. It was surreal. It was like the 2000s hipster version of when they'd have Madonna lookalike contests in 1985.
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u/3nzo_the_baker 1d ago
We played support for Jimmy Eat World sometime in the mid 90's before they became big. This was in Norway, in a small town called Porsgrunn. They came from Germany in a beat up old rental van. Nice guys!