Best Surprise Opening Act

Opening acts at musical performances truly evoke a gamut of emotions when taking the stage. Sometimes it may be friends of the headliner.

Other times a national act will come through town and give a local band a chance to shine in front of a larger audience. Most of the time, it allows patrons to down free drinks at home while calculating the exact time to leave in order to make the main event.

Arriving early for the SOJA concert earlier this year, I walked through the doors of the Ogden Theater fully expecting an open path to the bar and plenty of time to find a good spot to catch the headliners. What I didn’t expect was to be blown away by a frenzied crowd throbbing along in unison to The Movement, the second of three opening acts that night.

Mixing songs from their latest One More Night album as well as showcasing the hip-hop infused Set Sail from a few years back, something within The Movement clicked to make the performance one to remember. Rocking the crowd with punkish guitars one minute and evoking soulful reggae the next, the 30-minute set inflated the hall like a Jiffy-Pop dome. The raucous energy totally sacrificed the set of Colorado’s own Dubskin, as the crowd needed time to catch their wind before SOJA.

Once in a while being early pays off. I’m not talking about waiting in line for tickets or a booksigning, just the pleasant feeling you get when the discomfort of fastidious timing melts away under a flood of surprising emotions. For one night at the Ogden, early movement led to healthy benefits.