Great triple bills you've seen

[Lopez]

This past Friday night I saw (in order) the Fleshtones, Southern Culture on the Skids, and Los Straitjackets. What a great show and one of the best triple bills I've ever been to. This got me thinking of other great triple bills I've seen:

King Crimson (the opener!!), J. Geils Band, and Humble Pie (Dec. 1971)
Fleetwood Mac, Spirit, and West, Bruce & Laing (April 1972)
Commander Cody, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and the Byrds (Dec. 1972)
PFM, Frampton's Camel, and J. Geils Band (summer 1974)
The Taxi Boys, the Real Kids, and Joe "King" Carrasco (1980 or so)
Tymon Dogg, the Gun Club, and the Cramps (fall 1982 or so)

Except for tons of local punk shows in the late 70s and early 80s and prog festivals with more than three bands on the bill, I haven't been to too many triple-bill shows lately. What are some of your great triple bills?

[Dave the Brave]

Audience
Cactus
Rod Stewart
Dec 9 1971 Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens.

I actually went strictly to see Cactus.

Rod Had recently released Every Picture Tells a Story.

DtB

[No Pride]

In the late '60s/early '70s, there was a place in Chicago called "The Kinetic Playground" and since they had no liquor license, all shows were "all age." I saw several triple bill shows there when I was a teen. The first couple to come to mind were:

Jethro Tull/Vanilla Fudge/Led Zeppelin
BB King Band/Albert King Band/Santana

I'll have to scour my memory banks for some others, that was a long time ago!

And these triple bills were $7 USD. Those were the days!

[progeezer]

Iirc we've had this conversation, LB!

Led Zep (opener), Iron Butterfly, Traffic
Albert King, Chuck Berry, Ten Years After
Nazz (unscheduled & unbilled), The Doors, The Who (Best triple I ever saw)
Blodwyn Pig, Renaissance (w/Relf, Cennamo etc.), Santana
Cat Mother & The All Night Newsboys, The Paupers, Cream
Allen Ginsberg (reading), Lothar & The Hand People, The Byrds (original 5)

A few others, but those stand out

[bill g]

Gentle Giant, Strawbs, and Betty White (not the actress) in Seattle 1975.

The High Llamas, Joanna Newsom, and Jen Wood in Seattle (must have been around 2005?)-Jen Wood was fantastic, surprised she's not more well known.

[JKL2000]

The only triple bills I can think of that I've seen each have one weak link but two great bands:

David Johanson Band, The Clash, The Who (Rich Stadium Buffalo - Johanson sucked)
24 Carat Soul, Violent Femmes, John Cale (24 Carat Soul or whatever they were called were boring, Violent Femmes were brand new and very interesting to watch, Cale was of course excellent.)

Oh, this one was good:

Like Spires that in the Sunset Rise, The Spacious Mind, No-Neck Blues Band (in a crazy studio in Harlem)

[spellbound]

Only a few triple bills, but some strange combinations, all from the mid-1970s, tickets priced $4.50 to $6.50 US:

Status Quo, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush, Aerosmith

Little Feat, Dave Mason, Allman Brothers Band

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, Peter Frampton

Carmen, Canned Heat, Electric Light Orchestra

Black Oak Arkansas, REO Speedwagon, Foghat

[Gravedigger]

Summer of 1998(?):

Deep Purple (headliner) - The band *killed* onstage; the fire was there!
ELP- They played one new piece, and did a full version of "Tarkus" with Lake playing the electric leads.
Dream Theater- Sherinian on keys in support of their 3rd album. They only got to play six songs, but you
could tell they were genuinely thrilled to be opening for some of their heroes.

[Digital_Man]

Andrew Jackson
Ulysses Grant
Benjamin Franklin

[PeterG]

Levitation - Radiohead - Cardiacs - London 92
Miranda Sex Garden - Poisoned Electrick Head - Cardiacs - London 94 (these were the 3 headliners, this was a six band afternoon/evening festival organised by The Organ)
The Blockheads - The Pogues - Madness - London 09 (these were the 3 headliners at Madstock 09, there were several other bands)
The Stranglers (acoustic in the morning) - 999 (evening) - The Stranglers (electric in the evening), mid-90s-ish
Senser - Eat Static - Ozric Tentacles - London 92

[Dana5140]

MC5, Soft Machine, and Jimi Hendrix- 1969, Masonic Auditorium, Detroit, MI

The Stooges, MC5, Blue Cheer- same year, Grande Ballroom, Detroit

Progeezer, I cannot believe you got to see Lothar and the Hand People- that is the coolest thing ever! I do not know anyone who ever saw the, but I love that first record.

[GuitarGeek]

Back in 2002, I saw Dio, Deep Purple, and Scorpions together. That was a really good show, especially Scorpions and Deep Purple. And someone spotted my Remember The Future t-shirt (first of many!).

[Garyhead]

Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span & Renaissance - Philly. mid 80's?

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

I'm gonna get mine in before Mogrooves shows up:

Edgar Winter w/Rick Derringer- Humble Pie - ELP
Mahogany Rush - Be Bop Deluxe - Golden Earring
PFM - Frampton's Camel - J. Geils
Gentle Giant - Gary Wright - Peter Frampton - Yes
NIN - Stereolab - Lush - Beastie Boys - Smashing Pumpkins
Sheila Chandra- Beastie Boys - Crowded House - Peter Gabriel
Death Of Glitter at the Hollywood Palladium: Zolar X - Hollywood Stars - GTO's - Iggy Pop w/ James Williamson - New York Dolls
Blues Image - Leon Russell - John Sebastian - The Who
Harvey Mandel - ELO - Deep Purple
Avengers - The Nuns - Sex Pistols
Television - Robert Fripp - Peter Gabriel
Blues Project - Fairport Convention - King Crimson
Any BRIDGE CONCERT experience - BEST ONE: Grizzley Bear - Elvis Costello - Leon Russell - BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD!! - I saw both days!!!

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

Trapeze - Spirit - Moody Blues
Chambers Brothers - Captain Beyond - Alice Cooper
Steve Hillage - Firefall - ELO

[Joe F.]

I didn't start going to shows until I was 12 in '77, so I missed out on a lot of great stuff.

A couple of triple bills that I enjoyed were:

Summer of '78
Ted Nugent
Cheap Trick
AC/DC (with Bon Scott)

Summer of '79
BOC
Pat Travers Band
Roadmaster

Summer of '80
BOC
Black Sabbath
Molly Hatchet
Riot (ok quadruple bill)

[luvyesmusic]

I would have to go with a couple of metal shows I went to.

The first that blew me away as a youngster was Krocus, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. What a show

Then I got my wife who never seems to play along, let alone go to too many shows, to dress up like a metal-babe and we saw Motorhead, Dio, and Iron Maiden. She thought Dio looked scary when the put the orange spotlight on his face. LOL

[Supersonic Scientist]

The only one I can recall:

July 17th 1975
The Brecker Bros (Opener)
Peter Frampton (Just before Frampton Comes Alive came out)
Joe Walsh (Headliner)

[Ten Thumbs]

1971- Grease Band / Humble Pie / Three Dog Night / Bl;ack Sabbath
1973- Vinegar Joe / Gentle Giant/ Wishbone Ash
1974- Jesse Colin Young / The Band / CSNY
1991- Drivin n Cryin/Sonic Youth / Neil Young & Crazy Horse
1993- Blind Melon / Pearl Jam / Neil Young w Booker T & MGs

[presdoug]

The Rods
Def Leppard
Ozzy Osbourne (with Randy Rhoads)

Utica, NY (July 1981)

[nosebone]

Summer of 1998(?):

Deep Purple (headliner) - The band *killed* onstage; the fire was there!
ELP- They played one new piece, and did a full version of "Tarkus" with Lake playing the electric leads.
Dream Theater- Sherinian on keys in support of their 3rd album. They only got to play six songs, but you
could tell they were genuinely thrilled to be opening for some of their heroes.

Saw that show at Jones Beach 97 or 98.

Thin Lizzy, Joe Satriani, Deep Purple , early 2000s
Ted Nugent, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple early 2000s
Judas Priest, Starz, REO Speedwagon 77'
Cheap Trick, UFO, Rush 78'

[Yanks2014]

I think I've only been to two of these, but both were great.

Deep Purple, ELP and Dream Theater, 1998

Only time ever seeing Purple, and it was cool that Jon Lord was still in the band. Great interplay between him and Steve Morse. I'm not that big a DP fan, but I really liked their performance. ELP was good at this show, even if it was little over an hour set. And it was the only time I'd ever see the complete ELP with Palmer. DT, well I had only seen them at clubs up to this point, so it was cool seeing them in such a big place (PNC Bank Arts Center in NJ). Never saw them in front of so many people. For the first few songs, the place was still filling up, and they played some of their more mainstream fair supporting Falling Into Infinity. But most of the crowd was there in time to hear them close out the set with the very proggy "Metropolis", and they got a great crowd reaction. The other thing that made this triple bill great, I had 4th row seats!

Dream Theater, Joe Satriani, King's X, 2002

King's X had way too short a set, maybe 35 minutes. A shame since they sounded great as usual. Stirring rendition of "Cigarettes", a song I only sort of like on the album, but live it takes on a whole new life. Closed with their proggiest song, "We Were Born to Be Loved". Satch came on and he never disappoints, and it was a full set, a good 90 minutes or so. He was touring for one of my favorite albums of his, "Strange Beautiful Music". DT had a similar length set, and were also touring for one of my favorite albums of theirs, "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". Got to hear them play the insane "Instrumedly", just sick that they would tackle so many of their toughest instrumental sections all in one continuous 12 minute piece. Strange at the time seeing them play a shorter set, as I had seen them the prior February do 3 hour plus show in New York. But it was understood for a tour like this. And besides, I caught this triple bill 2 nights in a row, at PNC in New Jersey and again the next night at Jones Beach on Long Island. I almost forgot, the Jones beach show ended with a jam with Joe Satriani joining DT on stage, and they played a Rush tune too. Very cool couple of nights.

[gryphs also]

Aerosmith, Foghat, Ted Nugent----I think 1975
Jethro Tull, Robin Trower, Rick Derringer---1976

and a lot of dinosaur bands on the festival circuit in recent years.

[Obscured]

Hmmm...think I saw 2-
Martha & The Muffins, Howard Jones (Amazing) and The Eurythmics
The Godz, Judas Priest (Amazing) and Angel

[rushfan]

1980 - The Scorpions (opener)/Pat Travers/Ted Nugent (headliner)
1981- Motorhead (opener)/Firefall/Blue Oyster Cult/Heart (headliner)