Seeing support acts that are outside of the genre of the headliner can be an immensely rewarding experience for the audience. Yet for the band playing to crowd with certain expectations of what they want to be hearing, it can be incredibly hard to make your material fit and get the crowd onside. In a recent interview with Kerrang Magazine as part of their In Conversation With series Coheed and Cambria vocalist Claudio Sanchez explains what it was like to open for Slipknot in comparison to opening for bands of a similar sound.
Sparked by an audience member asking if they had ever opened for a tougher crowd than Iron Maiden in 2012, Sanchez replied that the hardest band to open for in their experience was Slipknot. explaining his position, Sanchez remarked that, We do pretty well as a support act. With Iron Maiden there was a lot of similarities, so I don’t think it was as tough… But Slipknot … in select cities, it was a little rough’.
Continuing, ‘When audience members are really verbal about how much they don’t like you, that can be kind of discouraging. But for the most part you just close your eyes. That’s why I have the hair. Most of the times I don’t see it, I hear about it afterwards’.
Yet Sanchez also notes the importance of playing those types of shows because of the possibility of picking up fans that you may not have reached otherwise. ‘That’s why I wish we could get more support gigs,’ he explains. ‘I think it is important to the growth of the band. But… we’re a strange band’.
In positing about what band they would most like to open for in the future, Sanchez said that although nothing is in the works, the band that Coheed and Cambria wishes to open for is the Foo Fighters.
See below for the full interview with Kerrang Magazine below.