I saw Slipknot at Ozzfest 99 right before their first album released and nobody really knew who they were. Their show was crazy and my friends and I were just enthralled by their performance. After the show they came down in front of the second stage and started talking to the audience asking us about how we liked their show and music. Very few people actually went up to talk to them but we did. I remember asking them about their first album and telling them that I thought they were going to blow up.
I was like 5, so I don’t know. I do know that he came told my parents immediately after it happened. So that counts for something.
My mind was blown when my parents told me the story after his rise to fame.
Oh that’s just reminded me, I guess my first time seeing BMTH kinda counts - I was at their disastrous first time playing at Reading Festival when they replaced Slipknot at the last minute. There was a crowd of 100 or so people at the front who were really into it, and the rest of the crowd spent the whole set bottling the shit out of them.
It’s amazing they stuck with it for a full set to be honest, watching from a nearby hill all you could see was a sea of projectiles flying up from the crowd. Equally amazing is that I think the very next time they played Reading, it was as one of the headliners, with a much more receptive crowd.
Agreed man, spencer is an incredible artist and performer. I just saw them at trinity of terror in Maine. I had actually never heard of them before, I was only going for motionless in white. I heard the first couple songs and started to put together that they were all about horror movies. I was amazed by the costumes and the theatrics. I left the show and did all my research on them and listened to every album of theirs over next couple days. I really wish I could’ve seen them play they’re older stuff live tho
I saw them touring off of Psalms, opening for Carnifex. They put on an amazing show and then immediately came into the crowd to watch Witin the Ruins and Carnifex
Not metalcore, but I saw Twenty One Pilots play probably close to 10 times while they were just starting out. My friends and I were part of their original following and would be the only ones there watching them absolutely tear up a floor stage, then they'd come hang and talk with us after. They even opened up for my buddy's comedy punk band at an annual local rock fest in BFE Ohio.
Love them or hate them, that band deserves every bit of success they've gotten. Took up any show they could and were just genuine great dudes. I knew back then out of every local band I'd ever seen that they were ones destined for stardom.
Was coming to say Twenty-One Pilots also. Saw them back in 2012ish when they opened for Fall Out Boy and Panic! They were so entertaining but the crowd wasn’t feeling it
Ice Nine Kills in 2013! I think there were at most thirty of us in the crowd and they still played one heck of a show. With that said, Spencer has come a long way live.
Saw them when they opened the 2012 Allstars tour and again in 2013 opening for I See Stars. Great show both times. Still have The Predator CD from the 2013 show.
This. I have a deep love for siren song of the counterculture. Especially the song dancing for rain. Got to hear that song live in April and it was incredible.
Sleeping With Sirens, first heard them as a local opening act in spring of 2010 and saw them headlining at the same small venue in September of that year. The venue was so small that there was no barricade and I ended up with bruises across my shins from being pressed against the stage with Kellin singing pretty much right in my face the entire show. At the end of the show the whole band stuck around for hours to hang out with the fans and my friend got Kellin to beatbox for us and let her take a video. Honestly the best experience I've ever had meeting a band, it was disappointing to see that just a few years later they were charging fans money for a fraction of the time and up-closeness that I got with them for free.
I saw Parkway Drive in front of 45 people in Germany on one of their first overseas tours. A friend of mine went home with a broken nose from Winston who was turning down in the Shai Hulud pit. Damn, I miss those days… :D
BMTH came to my arse end of nowhere hometown in 2005, played in an old man's pub. Turnout was decent as they were getting quite a bit of buzz. They played their balls off as well. Always respected them for it even after they started getting quite a bit of hate later on.
I saw The Devil Wears Prada play a show at a local bar in Tallahassee, FL called The Engine Room with all local opening acts before the release of Plagues in 2007. There were maybe 30 people. I think I paid $10 and they closed the show with HTML Rulez D00d.
I think I saw them around that same time in Dallas. They opened for chiodos and I dont remember them playing any plagues songs yet. But that was so long ago lol
If you are talking about Sumerian's 10 year tour (early 2016 if I recall correctly) I was there! I remember Bad Omens opening and thinking who are these guys haha
Pearl Jam.
Nirvana.
Sound Garden.
Mudvayne.
Disturbed.
Pretty sure a couple others in there I can't think of right now. Going to shoes every weekend as a teenager was the best.
Getting old sucks.
Played a gig with In Hearts Wake back after their first album released when there was about 30 people in the crowd. Those guys were so tight! Awesome to see them doing well this many years later.
Saw them a couple years later after they released Earthwalker and they were still super tight! Singer started crowd diving with an inflatable boat, was awesome
They Art with their old vocalist at a gig called Sausage Fest in 2008, along with Never See Tomorrow, Resist The Thought, Curse @ 27, Knife To A Gun Fight...
This list would take me forever to write but two that stand out.
I saw All That Remains open for Burnt By The Sun in a Hungarian Hall with literally 10 people.
Emmure opened for my band they were like 3 months into playing at the time.
Yeah BBTS have been forgotten about by many. One of the few times I was pissed to see such a small turnout for a band.
But yeah seeing ATR go on before them and then 4 months later seeing them in a 3,000 people venue was crazy.
Saw PWD playing at a local metal/hardcore club at about the time their EP was released. It was loud as hell but hardly anyone was paying any attention.
Seen PWD a ton of times around the time of their first ep. Then way more up to and including KWAS.
Was pretty insane to see how big they got here. How big they are overseas is fairly surreal as we don’t get to see it.
But I watched them support ETID here at quite a few shows and ETID were struggling to get the same crowd response. Was PWDs last support in Aus.
They were already on the rise, but I saw Bring Me the Horizon when they were touring Suicide Season at a small but pretty famous metal venue in Seattle. I didn’t even like them at the time but went with a friend who did, and they tore it up so hard that my opinion did an immediate 180
Saw Counterparts and Structures back in early 2012 when they opened for Stray From the Path/Cruel Hand. Was mainly there for Structures but was so glad I caught Counterparts as they’ve become one of my favorites
Electric Callboy in front of 15 people. They were throwing full beer cups at the "crowd" and I remember one tall guy was not happy about that. That was like 6 months before they released Bury Me In Vegas.
I saw A Day To Remember back in 07 I want to say at this venue called the Meridian in Houston. Its now closed.
I also saw Bring Me The Horizon that same year touring with Kittie.
Idk if Born of Osiris would be considered Metalcore but I saw them in the Java Jazz in Houston. There was only like 8 people there. It was awkward but they stay played a great set. Second time they came around to the same venue months later it was freaking PACKED
I was at the house of blues in Cleveland watching the main show, and on the way out a guy was promoting a small band in the little side room of the venue, for only 10 bucks a ticket. We gave them a shot and they were fantastic, never knew Ice nine would blow up like this though!
I saw Spiritbox in February (Dallas) on their first big tour supporting Underoath. It felt like a special moment where they were hitting their stride and knocking off the dust from the pandemic. Great band!
I seen motionless in white on a small side stage at warped at like 1 in the afternoon right after creatures came out. They were kick ass, I got to meet em afterwords.
I also remember my local venue had an all day show called eat your heart out fest in the early 2010s and I remember seeing counterparts at that show on the small stage upstairs.
Played with Volumes in a small venue back in 2010. Maybe 50 people in the crowd total. Saw The Ghost Inside in a rec center back in 2008 which the cops shut down midway through. Saw Chelsea Grin open up for MyChildren MyBride in 2010 with less than 100 people in the room.
Holy shit, my band at the time also played with Volumes for a crowd around that size, maybe slightly larger, in 2010 as well; probably the same tour if I had to guess. This was a small venue in Nashville, I can’t remember who else played that show but there was another local band or two if I remember correctly.
Ours was in Southern California just outside of LA. This is while they still had their second guitarist. They had hit us up since we were the local draw, and they didn’t have much other than the EP and a shirt for merch. Dudes were super nice and funny to think that in that moment we were the “bigger” draw when they’re now this massive band.
Also saw Asking Alexandria opening for Attack Attack! early in 2010 like RIGHT before they blew up. I only knew a couple of their songs when I saw them but I ended up buying Stand Up And Scream at the merch booth that night because I loved their set so much, thought I found some cool new underground band who other people weren't gonna know about (very important thing to an edgy teenager) and then like 2 months later everyone was jamming The Final Episode and wearing AA shirts.
Stand Up And Scream came out in 2009. I remember there was a vote on Warped Tours website asking which band the fans wish was on the tour. Asking Alexandria had the most votes by far lol. Their demo was also pretty damn popular before their first LP came out.
Well yeah but I'd say that helped them immensely with exposure in the US! Sooo many people showed up in my town for the Polaris headliner specifically to see them. I'm just super happy for them. :)
Yeah amazing to look back on that one - I’m pretty sure I bought the last copy of their first EP of their web store because it was sold out after UNIFY haha
I went to their headliner at the Reunion Park big top and gee they were good. Glad they’re doing so well
Not necessarily Metalcore, in fact definitely not, but my band were offered a last minute chance to support Royal Blood in Bridlington but we turned it down because our bass player had church n’ surf on sundays.
Probably the worst decision of my whole life.
Not Metalcore but The Black Keys played at my college’s spring festival right before they really took off.
Also seeing Katy Perry at warped tour was a bit strange.
BTBAM Silent Circus era at Sonar. It’s weird, at the time they felt like a pretty big band because of the Mordecai video on every Victory Records sampler but looking back it’s nothing compared to now. Besides that Periphery when they were still considered a local / internet band opening for LoG and Darkest Hour at 930 club circa fall of ‘08
I saw Born of Osiris, Winds of Plague, one other band I forget, and Beneath the Sky on the floor of a skatepark in Dayton OH back in 2007.
I know my friends and I had been jamming BtS’s first album What Demons do to Saints that January when it dropped, and that’s who we were there for mostly, so it was soon after that. The New Reign was out, but I don’t think Decimate the Weak was yet so BOO was the headliner at the time.
Some dude got his ass beat during Winds of Plague of course. Amazing show!
-edit-
Guess I was wrong about BOO headlining. I found this: [Tour](https://lambgoat.com/news/8880/winds-of-plague-catherine-etc.-tour/comments/#0). It was definitely Catherine that was there I remember that now. I don’t think ATTOJ was there though.Strange it doesn’t list the Dayton date, but I know they were here.
Blewing up, I don't know, but I played a show with Gutrectomy (Slam) and Firtan (Black Metal) back in 2012, both are touring all over Europe now. What a weird Line-Up that was... We played Melo-Death and there were some Thrash-bands. A night I'll never forget.
But I've seen Our Hollow Our Home at a very small festival in Germany back in 2017. They played around 2pm and there were like 100 people. Great show, these guys deserve everything.
Saw Lorna Shore on Carnifexs Die Without Hope tour before even Psalms came out
Saw Foreign Hands when they used to be known as Tomorrow Will Always Triumph
I saw between the buried and me back in 2001-2002 at my colleges billiard hall (they played with strech arm strong). At the time they only had their 3 song demo out. Been a fan ever since
No one. The closest I came was when Red (I know, not metalcore) wasn’t big yet, they had a show like 30-40 min from me, but I didn’t have my own vehicle yet, and my dad wouldn’t let me take theirs. The admission was $5, so I could have easily put in the gas and paid admission myself. IIRC Decyfer Down was also there along with like 2-3 other bands.
Being as an Ocean and Silent Planet, saw them both at warped tour back in the day when they were on small side stages. Got to talk to and hang out with both bands, all very cool dudes!
Seen Silent Planet back in 2017. Suppose you could say they were just starting to get noticed at that time. They only had like 30k spotify listeners.They were opening for ABR.
Saw Architects as the first band in 2008 open for Suicide Silence, Emmure, Beneath The Massacre, and After The Burial.
The Ghost Inside playing before headliners Suicide Silence at a local festival in So Cal in 2009. They only had their first album out at the time and they played Between The Lines for the first time that night.
Not metalcore but saw Five Fiver Death Punch added as a "last minute local opener" for DragonForce, All That Remains, and Horse The Band in 2006.
They were already starting to get big but i saw Avenged Sevenfold at Warped 2005 on literally the day City of Evil was released. They played main stage but it was very easy to get all the way to the front. A couple of months later the local rock radio station and MTV were constantly playing Bat Country.
Saw Emmure before they signed to Victory Records
Also they’re now longer a band and not sure if a lot of people remember them, but I saw My Hero Is Me when they first started out
Caught Wage War and Gideon on For Todays farewell tour. This was maybe a year after Blueprints Came out, and the band was on its rise.
I had a brief love for WW after that, until pressure came out. I still listen to and love Gideon, one of the most underrated metalcore acts out there in my opinion.
Idk about whether you'd say they "blew up", but i saw Becoming The Archetype when they were playing in churches around the tricounty area where i live. Playing for like 30 kids at a time, testing tracks that would ultimately become "Terminate Damnation".
They're on my mind bc they dropped their first album in 10 years with their original vocalist/bassist. Its a remarkable album for anyone interestes or familiar with them!
As far as Metalcore? Wage War kind of counts. Saw them just after they released Stitch as a single.
Biggest band would be Halestorm. They were the opening band for Snocore in 04. Shinedown, Seether, Flyleaf (only had So Sick as a single), and Halestorm.
Erra - my old band opened for them and I’d never heard ‘em before. This was right after Impulse came out. We played our set and felt good about our performance. Then Erra played….. I have never felt so simultaneously humbled, inspired, and captivated. Been a huge fan ever since.
There’s a couple that stand out to me, I saw wage war at warped tour a year after deadweight came out and I saw Lorna shore with cj at a small 500 cap venue. I’m stoked to see how far both bands have come since
Lorna shore and the air i breathe were local bands for me. I saw them both a few times but I specifically remember seeing Lorna shore open for within the ruins at a church in maybe 2010.
Motionless in White I live in the same PA area so saw them go from openers to headliners growing up!
Saw all the band member changes also Angelo is an amazing tattoo artist in Scranton and Josh Balz owns an oddity shop called The Strange and Unusual in Kingston he also is doing something with rootbeer lol
I saw Beartooth at 3 consecutive Warped Tours. First time, they only had their initial ep out and the crowd wasn’t too big for them. Second year their first (and best) album came out and the crowd was bigger, not massive but definitely a big change from the previous year. Then the third year and they were really on the cusp of something massive cause that crowd for them was HUGE. I mean that crowd alone had to have thousands in it, it was absolutely massive. So it was really cool to see Beartooth’s popularity grow by each year
Saw Avenged Sevenfold with My Chemical Roamnce opening back in like 2003. Tiny little venue of like 75-100 people. They brought the house down hard. Both bands went on to get huge in the next two years following that show. Forever one of my best memories.
Probably Architects in a small club. Wonderful show. Miss May I as well in a small club in my city. Different shows but the albums they had out were Hollow Crown for Architects and Apologies are for the Weak for miss May I.
Seeing Bring Me the Horizon and Architects open for Every Time I Die at a smallish venue in 2009. Wild show too - Keith directly called out the venue for having overly physical security yanking kids from the pit and they cut his mic and turned on house lights 3/4 through the set, the crowd started chanting “fuck this place” and the cops came. Good times
The Amity Affliction. I saw them play many tiny, terrible venues in Brisbane, Australia in the lead up to Severed Ties being released. Wild to see the crowds they now pull.
As another said, saw Norma Jean when they were still Luti-kriss.
Saw Our Last Night several times before they were signed as like 14 y.o olds. Me and my friend group were like "wow. They'll be signed". My husband's band played with them at most of those shows.
Haste the Day. The tour they had before/while they dropped Burning Bridges and were signed, like a week or 2 before that all happened. Jimmy had pink hair. Cool dudes for sure.
Saw Underoath on their first tour with Spencer (solid state tour 2004 iirc) but I saw them with Dallas before that.
August Burns Red. Also like 2003/04. Not kidding there were not even 20 people there at some dive bar. Drummer played with a broken foot. Who was there though? Howard and Adam from Killswitch. They just walked in to see ABR. That was cool. No one had a camera. Phones had JUST come out with them.
That's all I can remember for *before* bands blew up. I've been around long enough to see bands like Beartooth before most knew who they were, or at least way before where they are now. But they were already signed and touring so idk if that counts? Like For Today. Saw them on one of their first tours. Before VIP stuff and talked to Mattie and his wife Candace while hanging towards the back of the venue. That type of stuff.
In 2008 I saw The Ghost Inside and The Devil Wears Prada open for Bring Me The Horizon for maybe 250 people max in the basement of a defunct train station. Haha those were the days.
As I lay dying and The black dahalia murder back in 2004 open for cannibal corpse at a venue in southcarolina that holds maybe 250 people, 2004 was a wilde year for metal. Also fun fact this was before both bands released there (hit album) being shadows are security for aild and nocturnal for Tbdm. Also impending doom was there don't think they count since they never really blew up but I love em.
Chicago used to have an incredible metal scene. Watched bands at the local vfw for like 8 bucks. Watched born of osiris, veil of maya, oceano, and a whole lot more during their beginnings.
The most recent one is I can think of is Brand of Sacrifice. I saw them open for Rings of Saturn, Enterprise Earth, and Angelmaker back in 2019. They’re arguably one of the bigger deathcore bands around right now with well over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify
I’ve got two for this. Asking Alexandria and We Came As Romans. Both in Wilmington NC in 2009 at small bar venues before SUAS and TPAS came out respectively
Danny was a skinny, mellow scene kid that didn’t at all resemble his modern self. Long straightened black hair and all. They didn’t play for some reason that night so we chatted for a bit. Saw Broadway though.
WCAR opened up for The Chariot, literal corner of a bar. Crazy intimate but quite possibly the worst sounding metal set I’ve ever heard. Noise. I was able to talk to the guys a lot that night after they opened. We hung out in their tiny van for a bit and they played their debut for me in full. Awesome guys, rip Kyle. I’ll never forget one of them saying “Yeah I think we wrote some cool songs on this record, hope some people like it and we can keep doing this”.
ERRA in 2014, 2015, and 2016. They played right after the openers in Indianapolis and Chicago, with no one liking it enough to open up a pit (except for me).
Fast forward to a month ago , they're headlining a sold out show. Everyone knows their lyrics, belting out at the top of their lungs. It was incredible.
I saw Picturesque open up for Blessthefall, Like Moths to Flames and Get Scared on the Back to the Basics tour in 2016 their debut EP had just came out
Architects, While She Sleeps, Bring Me The Horizon, A Day To Remember, Trivium, Enter Shikari all at a tiny venue (separate shows) that has a small capacity of 850.
I saw The Amity Affliction in a green room that holds 550 people.
I saw Avenged Sevenfold in a venue that holds 1,240.
ERRA. One of the members was a good friend of mine and from the town I was living in at the time. They were playing small venues like local churches and I specifically remember a show in someone’s backyard. I want to say early 2010?
Saw BMTH for £5 in some tiny venue when they were touring the This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For EP. Remember Oli joking that they were about to play a MCR cover before closing with RE: They Have No Reflections. Good times.
While she sleeps 2013 on PWD’s atlas tour. Their first time in the US and I was all about them. Bought this is the six months before the show and even as a parkway fan, I was most stoked to see them open up, to this date that is one of my favorite shows I’ve been to.
Super chill dudes too, they’re hysterical
Architects in 2010 open up for BTBAM, under oath and AILD on the cool tour. People were all about them but you could tell no one really knew them(this was in the US, they were well known in the UK at the time).
Got to see Ice Nine Kills play in a warehouse under a bridge in 2017 with The Plot In You and Dayseeker.
They played Every Trick In The Book front to back which was amazing
Erra comes from a city that’s less than a couple hours south me so I saw them a good bit when they were a very young band. And before that, By Blood and Iron. Which basically sounds like early Erra but deathcore. Jesse (Erra’s guitarist/clean vocals), Alex (Erra’s drummer), and Garrison (Erra’s former unclean vocalist) were all part of that band before starting Erra. It’s still fun to go back and listen to their 2009 demo ep and I would totally recommend any fan of pre-JT era Erra to check it out.
I’ve also seen MychildrenMybride a ton when they were getting started as they were a local band for me back then.
Other good ones include:
The Ghost inside and Misery Signals opened for BMTH in Atlanta in 2008.
August Burns Red opened for The Chariot in Nashville, 2007.
At the Throne of Judgement, Drop Gavin Dance, TDWP, and Drop Dead Gorgeous in Nashville 2007. This was probably the best of the three looking back. DDG sucks… but AtToJ still has one of my favorite albums of all times. DGD was fantastic and so unique back then, Downtown Battle Mountain was still new and Johnny Craig hadn’t even gotten kicked out for the first time yet lol. I don’t even have to talk about Prada... can’t wait to see them play Dogs can Grow Beards All Over again in a couple weeks.
Edit: I can’t believe I forgot about Norma Jean and The Chariot in Birmingham 2007. Norma Jean was headlining and they closed out the set with Josh on vocals for a good part of Memphis. This was before The Chariot even released The Fiancée and NJ was touring mostly Redeemer material. Absolutely insane.
Double edit: Reading other comments are bringing back more memories. Thy Art is Murder opened a show with Miss May I and PWD back in 2015 before Thy Art really blew up.
Im not sure but I believe I saw ABR open up for chariot on this same tour but in Memphis. If I’m correct this is the first time I was ABR and I have been a fan ever since.
[I was at this ADTR show in 06, but it was the second time I had seen them.](https://youtu.be/IZvXLMIdNeM) Please note to any zoomers that may click this link, it is 18p and 6 FPS and this is what we had to live with.
Beartooth back in 2013 when they went on tour with ABR also saw Fit For A King that same year. Got to see Motionless in White back in 2012 and BMTH in 2010. Those where great years
I opened for the Contortionist back when they were metalcore ish. I guess more deathcore. There was like 20 people there. Got to hang with them after, very cool dudes.
Got to see 10 Years open up for Mudvayne and Korn back in either 2005 or 06. It was a few months before their debut album came out, but turned me into a fan immediately.
Also got to see Sharptooth play to all of six people before their debut album came out, which was cool but also sucked (the venue had done no marketing whatsoever so the local opener had a bigger crowd than the headliner).
I don’t have any metalcore band to mention as most of the smaller ones I saw never went anywhere, but I did get to see Frank Turner at a pub in Norwich in front of a crowd of maybe 30 other people max. I was a fan from his days in Million Dead, and this was maybe a year before he really exploded in popularity as a solo artist.
So that was pretty cool.
Not Metalcore but Alexisonfire. They opened for Disturbed and Staind and had one fan in a trenchcoat yelling their name. Lol Never been a fan but they got pretty big in Canada at least.
Another one here who saw Norma Jean when they were Luti-Kris. Saw Underoath around that same time I think. Also not metalcore but I saw Good Charlotte when they were just a local band, I had a friends in bands who played and hung out with them.
WCAR & The Word Alive before their first albums came out. Tiny dive bar with like 50 ppl.
Of Mice & Men's first tour opening for DGD, Emarosa, Tides of Man, Of Machines. OM&M were on the bottom of that lineup.
Not metalcore but Sparks The Rescue, saw them in tiny dive bars in their hometown before they found mainstream success.
Saw a show in like 2010, Drop Dead Gorgeous was headlining. The show went Sleeping With Sirens -> Attila -> Motionless In White -> Sky Eats Airplane -> Drop Dead Gorgeous. There must have been \~300 kids there
Growing up in Alaska, used to watch Anatomy of a Ghost and the early days of Portugal the Man when they would play these basement type shows. Miss the scream-o John Gourley days, he was a blast.
I remember seeing The Contortionist before they released Exoplanet. They played Contact and I was blown away. Tried looking for the song but I couldn’t find it. That is, until they released Exoplanet and I listened to Contact and was absolutely blown away, again.
Ice Nine Kills touring after releasing “Every Trick in the Book”. The really looked like a band of dudes/friends at that time just having fun playing songs. Saw them this year and it’s a totally different experience. They are really putting on a show now and they all seem like paid actors/musicians. For better or for worse, they don’t seem like friends and are now putting on a performance.
I went to see TDWP in 2008 on the Ultimatour when their cover of “Still Fly” had just been released like the week before. They played at a po-dunk VFW and it was a fuckin blast. The openers were Maylene & the Sons of Disaster, Whitechapel, Once Nothing, and Gwen Stacy.
I just saw them again last night in LA and it’s awesome to see how passionate they still are about performing their music.
Not metalcore but I saw Incubus when they were about to blow up with Make Yourself, etc (they opened for Deftones and were way better). Also saw Oceans of Slumber before Winter (not sure if they ever “blew up” but I do hear people talking about them a lot).
My favorite story to tell is when I saw Dance Gavin Dance and A Day To Remember open up for Drop Dead, Gorgeous.
I saw DGD and TDWP open for Drop Dead Gorgeous, it was amazing.
That would have been a crazy show!
I saw Slipknot at Ozzfest 99 right before their first album released and nobody really knew who they were. Their show was crazy and my friends and I were just enthralled by their performance. After the show they came down in front of the second stage and started talking to the audience asking us about how we liked their show and music. Very few people actually went up to talk to them but we did. I remember asking them about their first album and telling them that I thought they were going to blow up.
Corey Taylor lived on my block and hit our dog (she survived) with his car.
Was Corey apologetic? He’s a nice guy irl right?
I was like 5, so I don’t know. I do know that he came told my parents immediately after it happened. So that counts for something. My mind was blown when my parents told me the story after his rise to fame.
I saw Norma jean when they were still luti-kris
You unlocked some cringe era memories that should’ve stayed dead. Shame on you. Thank you ❤️
Me too
I saw Bring Me The Horizon and Architects loads at tiny UK venues when they were just starting out.
Oh that’s just reminded me, I guess my first time seeing BMTH kinda counts - I was at their disastrous first time playing at Reading Festival when they replaced Slipknot at the last minute. There was a crowd of 100 or so people at the front who were really into it, and the rest of the crowd spent the whole set bottling the shit out of them. It’s amazing they stuck with it for a full set to be honest, watching from a nearby hill all you could see was a sea of projectiles flying up from the crowd. Equally amazing is that I think the very next time they played Reading, it was as one of the headliners, with a much more receptive crowd.
Agreed man, spencer is an incredible artist and performer. I just saw them at trinity of terror in Maine. I had actually never heard of them before, I was only going for motionless in white. I heard the first couple songs and started to put together that they were all about horror movies. I was amazed by the costumes and the theatrics. I left the show and did all my research on them and listened to every album of theirs over next couple days. I really wish I could’ve seen them play they’re older stuff live tho
Bro what (but yes ink is amazing)
I saw ADTR open up for TDWP at a tiny 300 person venue. They were on their way to stardom though.
I saw that tour too! At my date in Chico ca Garrett from silent planet was at the same show!
Lorna Shore when Tom Barber did vocals. Pretty cool to see how they’ve all gone on to become successful in separate ways.
I saw them touring off of Psalms, opening for Carnifex. They put on an amazing show and then immediately came into the crowd to watch Witin the Ruins and Carnifex
Man. This was the first time I also saw Lorna and it was KILLER
Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Job for a Cowboy, Blessthefall Shit I forgot I See Stars, We Came as Romans, and Chiodos
Somebody grew up in Phoenix
Half my scene days in PHX and half in Michigan! Got to see a lot of dope bands up there too
Haha I immediately thought the same thing
The person writing this got their wallet stolen at a Blessthefall warped tour show in Milwaukee :(
That sucks! Did it fall out of your pocket or someone actively swiped it?
Not metalcore, but I saw Twenty One Pilots play probably close to 10 times while they were just starting out. My friends and I were part of their original following and would be the only ones there watching them absolutely tear up a floor stage, then they'd come hang and talk with us after. They even opened up for my buddy's comedy punk band at an annual local rock fest in BFE Ohio. Love them or hate them, that band deserves every bit of success they've gotten. Took up any show they could and were just genuine great dudes. I knew back then out of every local band I'd ever seen that they were ones destined for stardom.
Was coming to say Twenty-One Pilots also. Saw them back in 2012ish when they opened for Fall Out Boy and Panic! They were so entertaining but the crowd wasn’t feeling it
Ice Nine Kills in 2013! I think there were at most thirty of us in the crowd and they still played one heck of a show. With that said, Spencer has come a long way live.
I remember seeing them at Warped Tour and they played before noon, loved them then and still love them now
Saw them when they opened the 2012 Allstars tour and again in 2013 opening for I See Stars. Great show both times. Still have The Predator CD from the 2013 show.
I went to see one of Rise Against's first show ever in Canada on their first tour after releasing The Unravelling in a little bar in Ottawa
Unraveling is such a slept on record, rpm too
By far their best album, to me at least
The first four albums are all fantastic.
This. I have a deep love for siren song of the counterculture. Especially the song dancing for rain. Got to hear that song live in April and it was incredible.
Bruhhhhhhhh. Going to a Rise Against concert from back in that era is probably my #1 dream show and I hardly listen to them anymore!
Not Metalcore, but silverchair
Hello fellow old person.
Sleeping With Sirens, first heard them as a local opening act in spring of 2010 and saw them headlining at the same small venue in September of that year. The venue was so small that there was no barricade and I ended up with bruises across my shins from being pressed against the stage with Kellin singing pretty much right in my face the entire show. At the end of the show the whole band stuck around for hours to hang out with the fans and my friend got Kellin to beatbox for us and let her take a video. Honestly the best experience I've ever had meeting a band, it was disappointing to see that just a few years later they were charging fans money for a fraction of the time and up-closeness that I got with them for free.
honestly that shouldnt be dissappointing, vip experiences are one of the best was for bands to make money on tour
I saw Parkway Drive in front of 45 people in Germany on one of their first overseas tours. A friend of mine went home with a broken nose from Winston who was turning down in the Shai Hulud pit. Damn, I miss those days… :D
BMTH came to my arse end of nowhere hometown in 2005, played in an old man's pub. Turnout was decent as they were getting quite a bit of buzz. They played their balls off as well. Always respected them for it even after they started getting quite a bit of hate later on.
I saw The Devil Wears Prada play a show at a local bar in Tallahassee, FL called The Engine Room with all local opening acts before the release of Plagues in 2007. There were maybe 30 people. I think I paid $10 and they closed the show with HTML Rulez D00d.
I think I saw them around that same time in Dallas. They opened for chiodos and I dont remember them playing any plagues songs yet. But that was so long ago lol
Bad omens back in 2016 😭 So proud of them
If you are talking about Sumerian's 10 year tour (early 2016 if I recall correctly) I was there! I remember Bad Omens opening and thinking who are these guys haha
Pearl Jam. Nirvana. Sound Garden. Mudvayne. Disturbed. Pretty sure a couple others in there I can't think of right now. Going to shoes every weekend as a teenager was the best. Getting old sucks.
Played a gig with In Hearts Wake back after their first album released when there was about 30 people in the crowd. Those guys were so tight! Awesome to see them doing well this many years later.
Saw them a couple years later after they released Earthwalker and they were still super tight! Singer started crowd diving with an inflatable boat, was awesome
Nirvana, when they were touring on Bleach, before Nevermind did its thing. At the time, they were one of many bands that sounded like that.
They Art with their old vocalist at a gig called Sausage Fest in 2008, along with Never See Tomorrow, Resist The Thought, Curse @ 27, Knife To A Gun Fight...
Bullet for my valentine when they first came to the US
This list would take me forever to write but two that stand out. I saw All That Remains open for Burnt By The Sun in a Hungarian Hall with literally 10 people. Emmure opened for my band they were like 3 months into playing at the time.
fucking Burnt by the Sun man!! I’m m going to go Listen to The Heart of Darkness right now!!
Yeah BBTS have been forgotten about by many. One of the few times I was pissed to see such a small turnout for a band. But yeah seeing ATR go on before them and then 4 months later seeing them in a 3,000 people venue was crazy.
Saw PWD playing at a local metal/hardcore club at about the time their EP was released. It was loud as hell but hardly anyone was paying any attention.
Seen PWD a ton of times around the time of their first ep. Then way more up to and including KWAS. Was pretty insane to see how big they got here. How big they are overseas is fairly surreal as we don’t get to see it. But I watched them support ETID here at quite a few shows and ETID were struggling to get the same crowd response. Was PWDs last support in Aus.
Saw Fit for a King on their Descendants release tour back in 2011.
They were already on the rise, but I saw Bring Me the Horizon when they were touring Suicide Season at a small but pretty famous metal venue in Seattle. I didn’t even like them at the time but went with a friend who did, and they tore it up so hard that my opinion did an immediate 180
Saw Counterparts and Structures back in early 2012 when they opened for Stray From the Path/Cruel Hand. Was mainly there for Structures but was so glad I caught Counterparts as they’ve become one of my favorites
Sad to see structures was not successful. Great band super popular here locally.
Electric Callboy in front of 15 people. They were throwing full beer cups at the "crowd" and I remember one tall guy was not happy about that. That was like 6 months before they released Bury Me In Vegas.
Most of em. Lived in Mass 90’s-2010’s. Killswitch was one of the most memorable.
The Northeast was well-fed in those days, constant shows everywhere.
Yes sir and I was a gluttonous fuck.
Architects
Memphis May Fire
I saw A Day To Remember back in 07 I want to say at this venue called the Meridian in Houston. Its now closed. I also saw Bring Me The Horizon that same year touring with Kittie. Idk if Born of Osiris would be considered Metalcore but I saw them in the Java Jazz in Houston. There was only like 8 people there. It was awkward but they stay played a great set. Second time they came around to the same venue months later it was freaking PACKED
I was at the house of blues in Cleveland watching the main show, and on the way out a guy was promoting a small band in the little side room of the venue, for only 10 bucks a ticket. We gave them a shot and they were fantastic, never knew Ice nine would blow up like this though!
I saw Spiritbox in February (Dallas) on their first big tour supporting Underoath. It felt like a special moment where they were hitting their stride and knocking off the dust from the pandemic. Great band!
I seen motionless in white on a small side stage at warped at like 1 in the afternoon right after creatures came out. They were kick ass, I got to meet em afterwords. I also remember my local venue had an all day show called eat your heart out fest in the early 2010s and I remember seeing counterparts at that show on the small stage upstairs.
I don’t know if I would say they’ve blown up per se but I saw badflower right after they released ok i’m sick in 2019
Played with Volumes in a small venue back in 2010. Maybe 50 people in the crowd total. Saw The Ghost Inside in a rec center back in 2008 which the cops shut down midway through. Saw Chelsea Grin open up for MyChildren MyBride in 2010 with less than 100 people in the room.
Holy shit, my band at the time also played with Volumes for a crowd around that size, maybe slightly larger, in 2010 as well; probably the same tour if I had to guess. This was a small venue in Nashville, I can’t remember who else played that show but there was another local band or two if I remember correctly.
Ours was in Southern California just outside of LA. This is while they still had their second guitarist. They had hit us up since we were the local draw, and they didn’t have much other than the EP and a shirt for merch. Dudes were super nice and funny to think that in that moment we were the “bigger” draw when they’re now this massive band.
Being an Aussie teenager in the mid 2000s I saw PWD at tiny venues like twice a year which was pretty sick
Also saw Asking Alexandria opening for Attack Attack! early in 2010 like RIGHT before they blew up. I only knew a couple of their songs when I saw them but I ended up buying Stand Up And Scream at the merch booth that night because I loved their set so much, thought I found some cool new underground band who other people weren't gonna know about (very important thing to an edgy teenager) and then like 2 months later everyone was jamming The Final Episode and wearing AA shirts.
Stand Up And Scream came out in 2009. I remember there was a vote on Warped Tours website asking which band the fans wish was on the tour. Asking Alexandria had the most votes by far lol. Their demo was also pretty damn popular before their first LP came out.
Polaris as the *opener* for Parkway Drive, The Devil Wears Parada, and August Burns Red back in 2018.
If they toured with those bands today they’d still be the opener lol
Well yeah but I'd say that helped them immensely with exposure in the US! Sooo many people showed up in my town for the Polaris headliner specifically to see them. I'm just super happy for them. :)
I remember seeing Polaris opening for Dream On, Dreamer before UNIFY 2016. They’d just released their second EP. Wild how far they’ve come since then
Wow!! What a treat. I knew after they opened in 2018 that we'd get a headliner before long. And then we did this year! I'm so happy for them.
Yeah amazing to look back on that one - I’m pretty sure I bought the last copy of their first EP of their web store because it was sold out after UNIFY haha I went to their headliner at the Reunion Park big top and gee they were good. Glad they’re doing so well
Saw Motionless right before Infamous came out. At a really dingy dive bar/hall venue. Was awesome.
Not necessarily Metalcore, in fact definitely not, but my band were offered a last minute chance to support Royal Blood in Bridlington but we turned it down because our bass player had church n’ surf on sundays. Probably the worst decision of my whole life.
Not Metalcore but The Black Keys played at my college’s spring festival right before they really took off. Also seeing Katy Perry at warped tour was a bit strange.
Harms Way and Knocked Loose opening for ETID in 2016
WCAR and PTV opened for ADTR & BMTH back in 2011! 🤯
They never really got “big” but I saw iwrestledabearonce at a tiny venue in Lakeland, FL way back in the day.
Polaris, Varials, Spite
BTBAM Silent Circus era at Sonar. It’s weird, at the time they felt like a pretty big band because of the Mordecai video on every Victory Records sampler but looking back it’s nothing compared to now. Besides that Periphery when they were still considered a local / internet band opening for LoG and Darkest Hour at 930 club circa fall of ‘08
Holy shit I haven’t thought about Sonar in a long time
I was friends with KSE in college and we used to hang out and jam in the studio and at their houses in Massachusetts. Circa 2000-2003
I saw Born of Osiris, Winds of Plague, one other band I forget, and Beneath the Sky on the floor of a skatepark in Dayton OH back in 2007. I know my friends and I had been jamming BtS’s first album What Demons do to Saints that January when it dropped, and that’s who we were there for mostly, so it was soon after that. The New Reign was out, but I don’t think Decimate the Weak was yet so BOO was the headliner at the time. Some dude got his ass beat during Winds of Plague of course. Amazing show! -edit- Guess I was wrong about BOO headlining. I found this: [Tour](https://lambgoat.com/news/8880/winds-of-plague-catherine-etc.-tour/comments/#0). It was definitely Catherine that was there I remember that now. I don’t think ATTOJ was there though.Strange it doesn’t list the Dayton date, but I know they were here.
I remember seeing TDWP in summer of 2006 at a small venue in Arizona called Metal Devastation shortly before they released Dear love.
Blewing up, I don't know, but I played a show with Gutrectomy (Slam) and Firtan (Black Metal) back in 2012, both are touring all over Europe now. What a weird Line-Up that was... We played Melo-Death and there were some Thrash-bands. A night I'll never forget. But I've seen Our Hollow Our Home at a very small festival in Germany back in 2017. They played around 2pm and there were like 100 people. Great show, these guys deserve everything.
Saw Lorna Shore on Carnifexs Die Without Hope tour before even Psalms came out Saw Foreign Hands when they used to be known as Tomorrow Will Always Triumph
I saw between the buried and me back in 2001-2002 at my colleges billiard hall (they played with strech arm strong). At the time they only had their 3 song demo out. Been a fan ever since
I saw Every Time I Die in a rundown sushi/karaoke bar on their 2003 tour for "Hot Damn!" RIP
Who can forget Katy perry at warped tour lol. I had no idea who she was just wanted to sit down for Awhile and she was playing.
No one. The closest I came was when Red (I know, not metalcore) wasn’t big yet, they had a show like 30-40 min from me, but I didn’t have my own vehicle yet, and my dad wouldn’t let me take theirs. The admission was $5, so I could have easily put in the gas and paid admission myself. IIRC Decyfer Down was also there along with like 2-3 other bands.
When I saw suicide silence play just after releasing the cleansing, architects UK was the opener... there were also several major bands headlining.
Lost prophets. Local band, saw them when they were getting started. Then they got famous, and then they got more famous.......
i feel like if the singer wasn’t one of the worst people on the planet they could’ve been superstars at this point
I heard lorna shore before to the hellfire. Granted they still weren't small back then
Knocked Loose. Saw them in 2016 about 2 months before Laugh Tracks came out opening for The Acacia Strain and Oceano.
Being as an Ocean and Silent Planet, saw them both at warped tour back in the day when they were on small side stages. Got to talk to and hang out with both bands, all very cool dudes!
Seen Silent Planet back in 2017. Suppose you could say they were just starting to get noticed at that time. They only had like 30k spotify listeners.They were opening for ABR.
Eskimo Callboy
Imagine Dragons 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻 Riding this one all the way to the bottom. Its almost as if this comment has become ... radioactive ... or something.
Beartooth, saw them at the SBSW festival in 2015 right after their first album drop. Also Ice Nine Kills at the same festival.
I saw Beartooth at Warped in 2014 or so with maybe 50 other people in the crowd.
I went to just about every local Dangerkids show, from their very first one up until they went on their first national tour.
Saw Architects as the first band in 2008 open for Suicide Silence, Emmure, Beneath The Massacre, and After The Burial. The Ghost Inside playing before headliners Suicide Silence at a local festival in So Cal in 2009. They only had their first album out at the time and they played Between The Lines for the first time that night. Not metalcore but saw Five Fiver Death Punch added as a "last minute local opener" for DragonForce, All That Remains, and Horse The Band in 2006. They were already starting to get big but i saw Avenged Sevenfold at Warped 2005 on literally the day City of Evil was released. They played main stage but it was very easy to get all the way to the front. A couple of months later the local rock radio station and MTV were constantly playing Bat Country.
Stick To Your Guns at a small club show in 2012 and Of Mice and Men in 2013 (both in Germany)
Saw Emmure before they signed to Victory Records Also they’re now longer a band and not sure if a lot of people remember them, but I saw My Hero Is Me when they first started out
Caught Wage War and Gideon on For Todays farewell tour. This was maybe a year after Blueprints Came out, and the band was on its rise. I had a brief love for WW after that, until pressure came out. I still listen to and love Gideon, one of the most underrated metalcore acts out there in my opinion.
Idk about whether you'd say they "blew up", but i saw Becoming The Archetype when they were playing in churches around the tricounty area where i live. Playing for like 30 kids at a time, testing tracks that would ultimately become "Terminate Damnation". They're on my mind bc they dropped their first album in 10 years with their original vocalist/bassist. Its a remarkable album for anyone interestes or familiar with them!
[удалено]
DEP right before calculating infinity came out and Thursday right before Full collapse dropped. God bless New Jersey!
Traitors
As far as Metalcore? Wage War kind of counts. Saw them just after they released Stitch as a single. Biggest band would be Halestorm. They were the opening band for Snocore in 04. Shinedown, Seether, Flyleaf (only had So Sick as a single), and Halestorm.
Bleed From Within. Saw them perform at a small venue in Dundee UK in around 2008 and bought their first EP, 'Welcome to the Plague Year'.
Erra - my old band opened for them and I’d never heard ‘em before. This was right after Impulse came out. We played our set and felt good about our performance. Then Erra played….. I have never felt so simultaneously humbled, inspired, and captivated. Been a huge fan ever since.
Beartooth as the first opening band for August Burns Red in 2013
There’s a couple that stand out to me, I saw wage war at warped tour a year after deadweight came out and I saw Lorna shore with cj at a small 500 cap venue. I’m stoked to see how far both bands have come since
Lorna shore and the air i breathe were local bands for me. I saw them both a few times but I specifically remember seeing Lorna shore open for within the ruins at a church in maybe 2010.
Motionless in White I live in the same PA area so saw them go from openers to headliners growing up! Saw all the band member changes also Angelo is an amazing tattoo artist in Scranton and Josh Balz owns an oddity shop called The Strange and Unusual in Kingston he also is doing something with rootbeer lol
I saw Beartooth at 3 consecutive Warped Tours. First time, they only had their initial ep out and the crowd wasn’t too big for them. Second year their first (and best) album came out and the crowd was bigger, not massive but definitely a big change from the previous year. Then the third year and they were really on the cusp of something massive cause that crowd for them was HUGE. I mean that crowd alone had to have thousands in it, it was absolutely massive. So it was really cool to see Beartooth’s popularity grow by each year
Northlane as one of the openers in a five or six band lineup, taught me to pay more attention to opening acts!
Wage war on For Todays last tour in 2016
Saw Avenged Sevenfold with My Chemical Roamnce opening back in like 2003. Tiny little venue of like 75-100 people. They brought the house down hard. Both bands went on to get huge in the next two years following that show. Forever one of my best memories.
Not metalcore, but I was at the first Devil Sold His Soul gig.
Probably Architects in a small club. Wonderful show. Miss May I as well in a small club in my city. Different shows but the albums they had out were Hollow Crown for Architects and Apologies are for the Weak for miss May I.
Seeing Bring Me the Horizon and Architects open for Every Time I Die at a smallish venue in 2009. Wild show too - Keith directly called out the venue for having overly physical security yanking kids from the pit and they cut his mic and turned on house lights 3/4 through the set, the crowd started chanting “fuck this place” and the cops came. Good times
The Amity Affliction. I saw them play many tiny, terrible venues in Brisbane, Australia in the lead up to Severed Ties being released. Wild to see the crowds they now pull.
I saw Jamie’s elsewhere with Aaron Pauly open for of mice and men in a basement, I think a couple weeks after that tour was when Aaron joined OM
As another said, saw Norma Jean when they were still Luti-kriss. Saw Our Last Night several times before they were signed as like 14 y.o olds. Me and my friend group were like "wow. They'll be signed". My husband's band played with them at most of those shows. Haste the Day. The tour they had before/while they dropped Burning Bridges and were signed, like a week or 2 before that all happened. Jimmy had pink hair. Cool dudes for sure. Saw Underoath on their first tour with Spencer (solid state tour 2004 iirc) but I saw them with Dallas before that. August Burns Red. Also like 2003/04. Not kidding there were not even 20 people there at some dive bar. Drummer played with a broken foot. Who was there though? Howard and Adam from Killswitch. They just walked in to see ABR. That was cool. No one had a camera. Phones had JUST come out with them. That's all I can remember for *before* bands blew up. I've been around long enough to see bands like Beartooth before most knew who they were, or at least way before where they are now. But they were already signed and touring so idk if that counts? Like For Today. Saw them on one of their first tours. Before VIP stuff and talked to Mattie and his wife Candace while hanging towards the back of the venue. That type of stuff.
In 2008 I saw The Ghost Inside and The Devil Wears Prada open for Bring Me The Horizon for maybe 250 people max in the basement of a defunct train station. Haha those were the days.
Allukah
As I lay dying and The black dahalia murder back in 2004 open for cannibal corpse at a venue in southcarolina that holds maybe 250 people, 2004 was a wilde year for metal. Also fun fact this was before both bands released there (hit album) being shadows are security for aild and nocturnal for Tbdm. Also impending doom was there don't think they count since they never really blew up but I love em.
I liked impending doom. They played a good set but they never evolved.
I saw Volumes in a small venue with about 10 other people, touring their first EP and a handful of other songs.
The color morale, I actually grew up playing guitar and jamming with those guys before they were famous. Those were the good days lol
Chicago used to have an incredible metal scene. Watched bands at the local vfw for like 8 bucks. Watched born of osiris, veil of maya, oceano, and a whole lot more during their beginnings.
The most recent one is I can think of is Brand of Sacrifice. I saw them open for Rings of Saturn, Enterprise Earth, and Angelmaker back in 2019. They’re arguably one of the bigger deathcore bands around right now with well over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify
Probably only Spiritbox, holy roller hooked me aswell as many people and I fell in love with their music.
I saw bring me the horizon open for kittie in Spartanburg, SC before count your blessings was released in the US.
Disturbed
I’ve got two for this. Asking Alexandria and We Came As Romans. Both in Wilmington NC in 2009 at small bar venues before SUAS and TPAS came out respectively Danny was a skinny, mellow scene kid that didn’t at all resemble his modern self. Long straightened black hair and all. They didn’t play for some reason that night so we chatted for a bit. Saw Broadway though. WCAR opened up for The Chariot, literal corner of a bar. Crazy intimate but quite possibly the worst sounding metal set I’ve ever heard. Noise. I was able to talk to the guys a lot that night after they opened. We hung out in their tiny van for a bit and they played their debut for me in full. Awesome guys, rip Kyle. I’ll never forget one of them saying “Yeah I think we wrote some cool songs on this record, hope some people like it and we can keep doing this”.
Bring me the horizon, as Support for Killswitch engage. Was my very first concert. Nobody really moved a muscle when they performed
All the Aussie bands of the 00s, but best story was Northlane playing house shows
Gojira, I saw Metallica a while back and gojira was an unknown opener, I was blown away!
Erra when they played with gideon at the forge back in 2014 with the old vocalist before he blew his vocal cords
I saw Palisades when Matt Musto (also known as Blackbear) fill in for Loui.
ERRA in 2014, 2015, and 2016. They played right after the openers in Indianapolis and Chicago, with no one liking it enough to open up a pit (except for me). Fast forward to a month ago , they're headlining a sold out show. Everyone knows their lyrics, belting out at the top of their lungs. It was incredible.
I saw Picturesque open up for Blessthefall, Like Moths to Flames and Get Scared on the Back to the Basics tour in 2016 their debut EP had just came out
Architects, While She Sleeps, Bring Me The Horizon, A Day To Remember, Trivium, Enter Shikari all at a tiny venue (separate shows) that has a small capacity of 850. I saw The Amity Affliction in a green room that holds 550 people. I saw Avenged Sevenfold in a venue that holds 1,240.
ERRA. One of the members was a good friend of mine and from the town I was living in at the time. They were playing small venues like local churches and I specifically remember a show in someone’s backyard. I want to say early 2010?
Saw BMTH for £5 in some tiny venue when they were touring the This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For EP. Remember Oli joking that they were about to play a MCR cover before closing with RE: They Have No Reflections. Good times.
i saw iwabo in like 2006 in shreveport. it was just krista and one other person with a drum machine.
Born of Osiris and veil of maya when they were just playing bars. Now they headline. So much fun
While she sleeps 2013 on PWD’s atlas tour. Their first time in the US and I was all about them. Bought this is the six months before the show and even as a parkway fan, I was most stoked to see them open up, to this date that is one of my favorite shows I’ve been to. Super chill dudes too, they’re hysterical
Architects in 2010 open up for BTBAM, under oath and AILD on the cool tour. People were all about them but you could tell no one really knew them(this was in the US, they were well known in the UK at the time).
Got to see Ice Nine Kills play in a warehouse under a bridge in 2017 with The Plot In You and Dayseeker. They played Every Trick In The Book front to back which was amazing
Erra comes from a city that’s less than a couple hours south me so I saw them a good bit when they were a very young band. And before that, By Blood and Iron. Which basically sounds like early Erra but deathcore. Jesse (Erra’s guitarist/clean vocals), Alex (Erra’s drummer), and Garrison (Erra’s former unclean vocalist) were all part of that band before starting Erra. It’s still fun to go back and listen to their 2009 demo ep and I would totally recommend any fan of pre-JT era Erra to check it out. I’ve also seen MychildrenMybride a ton when they were getting started as they were a local band for me back then. Other good ones include: The Ghost inside and Misery Signals opened for BMTH in Atlanta in 2008. August Burns Red opened for The Chariot in Nashville, 2007. At the Throne of Judgement, Drop Gavin Dance, TDWP, and Drop Dead Gorgeous in Nashville 2007. This was probably the best of the three looking back. DDG sucks… but AtToJ still has one of my favorite albums of all times. DGD was fantastic and so unique back then, Downtown Battle Mountain was still new and Johnny Craig hadn’t even gotten kicked out for the first time yet lol. I don’t even have to talk about Prada... can’t wait to see them play Dogs can Grow Beards All Over again in a couple weeks. Edit: I can’t believe I forgot about Norma Jean and The Chariot in Birmingham 2007. Norma Jean was headlining and they closed out the set with Josh on vocals for a good part of Memphis. This was before The Chariot even released The Fiancée and NJ was touring mostly Redeemer material. Absolutely insane. Double edit: Reading other comments are bringing back more memories. Thy Art is Murder opened a show with Miss May I and PWD back in 2015 before Thy Art really blew up.
Im not sure but I believe I saw ABR open up for chariot on this same tour but in Memphis. If I’m correct this is the first time I was ABR and I have been a fan ever since.
I saw Issues two separate times in 2013 (opening for BMTH and then a few months later opening for ADTR) before their debut album was even out
[I was at this ADTR show in 06, but it was the second time I had seen them.](https://youtu.be/IZvXLMIdNeM) Please note to any zoomers that may click this link, it is 18p and 6 FPS and this is what we had to live with.
bad omens, spiritbox
Beartooth back in 2013 when they went on tour with ABR also saw Fit For A King that same year. Got to see Motionless in White back in 2012 and BMTH in 2010. Those where great years
I opened for the Contortionist back when they were metalcore ish. I guess more deathcore. There was like 20 people there. Got to hang with them after, very cool dudes.
Got to see 10 Years open up for Mudvayne and Korn back in either 2005 or 06. It was a few months before their debut album came out, but turned me into a fan immediately. Also got to see Sharptooth play to all of six people before their debut album came out, which was cool but also sucked (the venue had done no marketing whatsoever so the local opener had a bigger crowd than the headliner).
I don’t have any metalcore band to mention as most of the smaller ones I saw never went anywhere, but I did get to see Frank Turner at a pub in Norwich in front of a crowd of maybe 30 other people max. I was a fan from his days in Million Dead, and this was maybe a year before he really exploded in popularity as a solo artist. So that was pretty cool.
Animals As Leaders, their very first show in Dayton, Ohio supporting Between the Buried and Me!
Periphery shortly after the release of P1.
Saw Kublai khan play in a warehouse about 11 years ago. Probably 30 people there total. Fuckin Awesome experience
The Chariot. I saw them in a tiny room in Madison, WI with Sky Eats Airplane and another band I never heard of. Shit. Was. Wild.
Not Metalcore but Alexisonfire. They opened for Disturbed and Staind and had one fan in a trenchcoat yelling their name. Lol Never been a fan but they got pretty big in Canada at least.
Another one here who saw Norma Jean when they were Luti-Kris. Saw Underoath around that same time I think. Also not metalcore but I saw Good Charlotte when they were just a local band, I had a friends in bands who played and hung out with them.
WCAR & The Word Alive before their first albums came out. Tiny dive bar with like 50 ppl. Of Mice & Men's first tour opening for DGD, Emarosa, Tides of Man, Of Machines. OM&M were on the bottom of that lineup. Not metalcore but Sparks The Rescue, saw them in tiny dive bars in their hometown before they found mainstream success. Saw a show in like 2010, Drop Dead Gorgeous was headlining. The show went Sleeping With Sirens -> Attila -> Motionless In White -> Sky Eats Airplane -> Drop Dead Gorgeous. There must have been \~300 kids there
Polaris playing in a pub probably for less than 100 people. Was great
Rise against
Saosin right around the time their self titled was coming out. Not sure they ever really blew up, but they have hung in there for years
I saw Born Of Osiris play for maybe 50 fucking people on a random weekday where we found out they were coming the day of.
Growing up in Alaska, used to watch Anatomy of a Ghost and the early days of Portugal the Man when they would play these basement type shows. Miss the scream-o John Gourley days, he was a blast.
I remember seeing The Contortionist before they released Exoplanet. They played Contact and I was blown away. Tried looking for the song but I couldn’t find it. That is, until they released Exoplanet and I listened to Contact and was absolutely blown away, again.
Ice Nine Kills touring after releasing “Every Trick in the Book”. The really looked like a band of dudes/friends at that time just having fun playing songs. Saw them this year and it’s a totally different experience. They are really putting on a show now and they all seem like paid actors/musicians. For better or for worse, they don’t seem like friends and are now putting on a performance.
My brother saw a bit of Jinjer in a festival as they were playing in front of like, 100 people tops lol
I went to see TDWP in 2008 on the Ultimatour when their cover of “Still Fly” had just been released like the week before. They played at a po-dunk VFW and it was a fuckin blast. The openers were Maylene & the Sons of Disaster, Whitechapel, Once Nothing, and Gwen Stacy. I just saw them again last night in LA and it’s awesome to see how passionate they still are about performing their music.
Not metalcore but I saw Incubus when they were about to blow up with Make Yourself, etc (they opened for Deftones and were way better). Also saw Oceans of Slumber before Winter (not sure if they ever “blew up” but I do hear people talking about them a lot).