Chris Schulz: Get in on the opening act

Tinie Tempah will open for Macklemore tonight in Auckland.

There are plenty of reasons to turn up to concerts on time these days, writes Chris Schulz.

I know, I know - it's totally uncool to get to concerts early. Only gig-going noobs, superfans and security staff do that - and there are plenty of reasons why.

You end up standing around in ticket queues for ages. If you're seated, you have to keep standing up for latecomers, who reward you by spilling their super-expensive beer on you. And you wind up so bored you find yourself cheering every time one of the stage hands comes out to test a microphone. Woo.

Or - and this happened to me recently - you indulge too early and by the time the main act rolls around, you're ready to be rolled home.

But is it just me or is the quality of opening acts improving lately? It seems promoters have been putting in the effort to build better line-ups, because there are plenty of worthy reasons to turn up on time to concerts these days.

Take, for example, Macklemore's Thursday night show. You can get there at 9.45pm just in time for the main event, jump around to White Walls and Can't Hold Us - don't forget your fur jacket for Thrift Shop - and you'll probably have a great time.

Or you could get your skates on, show up at 8.30pm and check out Tinie Tempah, a well-established UK rapper who has two albums of grimy, future-pushing hip-hop - including his towering 2009 hit Pass Out - to his name.

Plus, you'll win bonus points if you can turn Tempah's middle name - he's Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu to his mum - into a rhyme that's chant-worthy.

The same goes for Bruno Mars' two-night stint at Vector Arena this weekend. Mars is guaranteed to put on a great pop spectacle with his canny choreography and canon of Jackson 5-influenced hits. I want to go just to see if he really can hit the high notes in his Locked Out of Heaven chorus.

But if you get dinner out of the way early and show up at 7.45pm, you can catch the antics of Mars' opening act, R&B crooner Miguel.

Yep, there's nothing beautiful about that horrible hit he made with Mariah Carey. But Miguel's been making up for it ever since, heading in a style that's more akin to The Weeknd's grubby grind than his previously cheesy antics.

Miguel's recent addition to the Girls soundtrack - the gorgeously haunting Simplethings - is his finest moment yet. It's worth YouTubing. Immediately.

Then, next Wednesday, the biggest opening act of them all rolls around when Queens of the Stone Age warms up Vector Arena for Nine Inch Nails. Well, they will if their coin toss to decide the night's running order goes the way I want it to.

But, if you're like me and spent too much time drooling over the headliners, you probably missed the bit on the poster that also lists Brody Dalle on the line-up. With stints fronting The Distillers and Spinnerette, Josh Homme's wife has a punk-rock pedigree to rival the night's big names.

Her set is bound to include the thrilling air guitar chug of Ghetto Love as well as tracks from an upcoming solo album that includes her killer latest single, Diploid Love.

Okay, it's still early days, but from now on I'm getting to concerts bang on time. The only exception is if the Rolling Stones repeat their sneaky 2006 trick and bring Nickelback with them. Then I'm staying home right until show time.

- TimeOut