in the year 2000 we opened for Stereolab who were touring after the release of their album 'Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night'. I'm one of the biggest Stereolab fans in the word so this was a big deal for me. The venue was 328 Performance Hall in Nashville, the place where we played our first ever gig. But this was different- our first gig was part of a festival, but this show brought out many diehard Stereolab fans from in and around Nashville. There was some overlap with our local fans, but there were also hundreds in the audience who had no idea who we were.
I tried to suppress my mega-fan nervesess and didn't bother Stereolab with too many geeky questions about their studio process, songwriting ,etc. Our good friend and sound-man for the night (Marc Chevalier) was equally cool, until after the gig (and a few drinks!) he finally said screw it- and we both launched a full nerd attack. Tim and Laetitia (Stereolab's primary members) where so sweet that they indulged us.
The gig went great. We had gained a decent local following in Nashville at this point, but it was good to have to win over such a big audience of newbies. The highlight of the night was when Stereolab took the stage and the first words Laetitia said 'Well, there's some tough competition here tonight.' Nice!
This was an important gig for us, also, because there were some record company folks in to see us play. Most notably A&R man, David Field had flown in from LA. David would later move back to his native UK and eventually sign us to BMG.
-Tony