The plight of the support band

Duke Garwood

Years ago, when I first started going to gigs, it seemed every show I went to had this three-piece band called Drugstore in support. Drugstore were a London band led by a feisty, bass-playing Brazilian singer called Isabel Monteiro and, fair play to them, through persistence or good management or good connections or just pure luck, I don't know, managed to get themselves on some pretty big tours (including one with Radiohead) and, for a time, it seemed at least, nearly every show I had tickets for.
But, unfortunately for me, I couldn't get into them at all, in fact the only song of theirs I could ever remember, even now, was their cover of The Flaming Lips' big hit She Don't Use Jelly. As I always had to be right at the front in the early days I had to stick out all the support acts, good or bad, and so saw Drugstore every single time. And being the snot-nosed little punk kid I was, I didn't respectfully just let them play out their cheerful 20-minute slot and politely clap at the end of it, I rolled my eyes, chatted and laughed with my friends throughout their performance and basically made it clear that I, gasp!, didn't like their band! In retrospect Drugstore weren't that bad, just not to my taste, which made them boring to me, and they never played long, and really, how often is the support act that great anyway?

I was reminded of this the other week when I went to see Mark Lanegan play. Lanegan appears to have made friends with a blues singer from London called Duke Garwood and gets him to support pretty much all his shows in London. When you hear his music you might not like it, but you can understand why Lanegan feels a kinship: Garwood definitely from the same gloomy school of blues and country that Lanegan comes from. It's kind of drony, random and more Lift To Experience though and understandably not everyone's cup of tea, in fact I've seen comments about him range from "most boring support act ever" to "what an amazing guitarist". And really, like Janis once said, anything is better than being mediocre. But while he played I noticed two women in the front row, who were later grinning like besotted groupies when Lanegan came on, who appeared to be making a point that, oh my god!, they didn't like Garwood. At all. One spent the whole of his 20-minute performance sleeping on her boyfriend's shoulder while the other spent the whole time writing and reading messages on her phone and not once clapped and only looked up at Garwood to roll her eyes. It kind of made me sorry for Garwood that they were making such a display of their dislike for him. Afterall, it wasn't his fault that Lanegan wanted him as a support once again, what struggling artist in their right mind would turn down gigs with such an acclaimed and established artist? And his set was short and inoffensive and yet some were unwilling to even give him the chance, appearing angry that he even try and support their favourite artist.
It made me regret how I had treated some support acts such as Drugstore in the past. Being the warm up act must be a tough challenge at the best of times, a good deal of the audience don't want them there since they are just another hurdle to get through to the main act, while others are ready to judge and dismiss and plenty just see the support act as something to talk and drink through. Only a few are going to be open-minded about discovering some new music and give them a chance. That's a pretty daunting prospect for anybody and one that probably the main act, who everyone is there to see, once went through too. Whether they are good or bad, rise to something better or fade into obscurity, you have to admire their ambition, faith in their music and courage to face such hostile or indifferent audiences. And of course, every once in a while you do happen upon a support act who goes on to become an important artist in their own right (I first saw The Flaming Lips, Florence + The Machine, Wilco, Laura Marling and Elliott Smith in support slots, among others), so you never know, it might not hurt to give the support band a chance for once, they could be the rock stars of tomorrow.