The five greatest songs to ever open a live show
As a fan whose enjoyment of the medium is at its peak in a live music setting, nothing, and I truly mean nothing, annoys me more than when an artist absolutely butchers their set opener. It is the quintessential moment we mere mortals envy, the one facet of being a music god that we want to be bottled up and sold to us. The feeling of being on stage, to a fever pitch crowd and inciting near chaos with the strike of an opening chord.
Sure, the closing song has its moment, and the mid-set number-one hit will always go off. But I vehemently disagree with anyone who tells me the moment your favourite artist walks on stage and gets ready to snap, the growing tension isn’t the best part of the show.
Such an art form warrants three approaches. The most common is the up-tempo riot inciter that kicks off proceedings without a shred of modesty in order to get the blood pumping. Secondly is the slow and tender; a rarer form of attack and one that will get the vocal chords of the crowd suitably loosened. And last but by no means least, it’s the dark and suspenseful. The song in an artist’s arsenal, with, more often than not, a long drawn-out synthesiser and a brooding kick drum. It introduces the band as mere silhouettes who set the scene for a dramatic upcoming set.
So, who has done it best? Fontaines DC have undoubtedly had a crack of late with ‘Romance’, and divisive as they may be, The 1975 captured the hearts of their fans with what is, of course, a self-titled track. But they haven’t earned themselves a spot in my canon just yet because there are five more that I think are bulletproof curtain raisers.
The five best opening songs:
‘Colossus’ – Idles
OK, given the fact I omitted ‘Romance’ and chose ‘Colossus’, it may warrant the side eye you’re giving me now, but allow me to qualify. Say what you like about Idles, but they are fearsome live performers. Ever since their 2017 debut album Brutalism, they’ve rarely had rest from touring, and during that time, they’ve stomped on stage with the intensity of the first-time mosher who stands in front of them.
Joe Talbot is a suitable leader for the sonic riot that he incites, but the drummer Jon Beavis is the unsung hero. Playing the drums like a steroid-induced octopus, he delivers powerful fills from all angles that get the wheels of the Idles machine turning at speed. And it all starts with ‘Colossus’. A track that prowls across the surface before leaping at its prey, it brings two of the aforementioned qualities of a great live opener. It rouses and suspends in equal measure, leaving you ready to fight any man with a perm for the following 90 minutes.
‘I Spy’ – Pulp
If there was a guidebook on delivering a killer opening track, the first rule would state ‘include a strings section’. Since the dawn of theatre and the early artistic days of ballet and opera, strings have been used to introduce drama, and despite our rapid modernisation, nothing has changed. So, if that’s the first rule, what would be the second? I imagine something like ‘if available, pair the string section with a slim-built pasty Englishman with eyes that look to the depths of your very soul’. Luckily for Pulp, they had one of them on standby.
Jarvis Cocker’s beautifully haunting vocal take flutters into proceedings, introducing a heavy-hitting atmosphere of suspense before four-count of the drumsticks kicks off the indie groove of Pulp that says, yes, it’s okay to start dancing. It’s the sort of track that reminds you how a great live show can make you feel so alive, so distracted from the mundanity of modern world and gives meaning to everything outside of that sweaty room you’re so happy to be in.
‘Do I Wanna Know?’ – Arctic Monkeys
For the first eight years of their career, Arctic Monkeys wanted to do everything to show they didn’t care. I imagine it was largely down to the unfathomable hysteria that surrounded them from day 1, but they actively shirked any opportunity to do anything theatric. It was charming, really. They were the likely lads who just so happened to headline Glastonbury after two albums.
However, when AM hit shelves in 2013, something grander was required. The boys had graduated from the broken British streets to the Pacific coast highways of LA, and to celebrate, Alex Turner bought himself a 12-string vox. Fulfilling the brooding rock god persona he’d crafted, Turner pulled out one of the band’s most iconic and stirring riffs in ‘Do I Wanna Know’. The power of it reverberated over crowds all over the globe and set out a stall for a show that would seamlessly bounce between hits and genres.
‘Thunderstruck’ – AC/DC
While I may have convinced you in my opening lines that a killer live opener balances drama and energy with tender care, to strike the right chord of reactive emotion. Well, for this next one, forget all of that. Because all you want from an AC/DC live show is bonafide action and raucous rock and roll. The next two hours of your life is going to be action-packed with high-end riffs and snarling vocal hooks, so why not start with the most iconic of them all?
It’s a riff that will stand the test of time and be heralded by future generations of rock fans as a siren call to lose yourself to the sounds of the good old days. It’s a riff so meaty that you forget that a solid kick drum is biding its time for a whole two minutes before it’s let off the leash. But when it is, there is absolutely no mistake as to what that means – it’s time to lose it. You don’t even have to be an AC/DC megafan to argue this point; in fact, watch the evidence below and tell me that live music isn’t designed by higher powers.
‘The Chain’ – Fleetwood Mac
Given the narrative poignancy with which ‘The Chain’ deals with—somewhat of a rousing call for the band to overcome their personal issues and rise up as the unstoppable musical force they are—it would perhaps feel more fitting for it to close the show. But with a drum beat that stirs your heart and a guitar line that lifts you up off the ground, it simply cannot do anything but open the show.
From a Fleetwood Mac show, you want drama, emotion, vocal harmonies and a pumping rhythm. So by opening with ‘The Chain, ’ you know full well that you are getting it from minute one. It’s a don’t scratch your eyes a moment; to see these five fabled legends play the song that iconises their life is a sobering reminder that, yes, you are here, and yes, you are about to spend the next two hours of your life watching them reel off their greatest hits.
