The term opening act is kind. Often it is almost the verbal equivalent of a consolation prize simply being awarded in place of an emotionally harsher term: warm up band.

With a staggering frequency, opening acts are the proof that all bands are not created equal once the headliners take the stage they can easily slip out of sight and out of mind, destined to be a footnote at best among the concert’s highlights.

Enter the “Keyboards Save Lives” tour, which opened at a Denver venue, the Marquis Theatre.

The theater is essentially a glorified bar, and then only glorified by the use of “theatre” in its name and a slight terrace on the main floor. What the Marquis lacks in size it makes up for in offering a unique experience in terms of getting fans to truly know the bands.

This is due to the intimate proximity the venue’s size imposes on the band for the fans, and by the fact that there is nowhere better for the bands to stand when they are not on stage except, well, in the audience.

“The Autobiography” did not sound like an opening band, let alone a Denver- based band standing in for the opening feature of a national tour.

They sounded professional and catchy with a quality sound.

Featuring three guitars, the local quintet brought the power in powerpop with more complete sound than many of their signed contemporaries.

They spent much of the rest of the night complimenting fans on their fashion: Autobiography band shirts. They took hold in the usually infertile ground of an unfamiliar crowd and sprouted seeds in the form of a growing fan base. Following was Minnesota’s Quietdrive.

The band has a certain brilliance written all over every hook, every gesture and every fan’s lips mouthing lyrics drowned out by the excessive force of the speakers.

Likeable enough to have built a national reputation without yet releasing an album, Quietdrive’s songs consistently meld the best elements of lineups from such record companies as Fueled by Ramen and Drive-Thru, while often sidestepping 2006’s pseudo-punk flare for pure, excellent rock.

Highlights include surprise violin work on “Handsome Devil’s Benediction” that puts Yellowcard’s recent efforts to shame and a single “Rise from the Ashes” that rocks harder than even Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco manage.

However, like these chart toppers this time in 2005, they are destined for extreme popularity in the very near future.

It was Waking Ashland that most of the house seemed to have come for.

Ashland is powered by the pure, rich voice and the expressive keyboarding of charismatic front man Jonathan Jones.

Having already established themselves nationally, their experience at performance and song writing set them in a class of their own in terms of connecting with the audience.

The first song to pay homage to the tour’s usually inaccurate name, “All hands on Deck” was completely and utterly spellbinding.

Though they can easily outclass sentimental fluff of greater renown like Coldplay, Ashland’s greatest strength is their ability to demonstrate that piano rock does not mean sappy emo, it means rock.

Remarkably, the only low note heard in the Marquis that night came from the headlining act.

With an identical slow-fast-slow pattern in each song, coupled with lazy performance and interchangeable two-chord trundling, “Daphne Loves Derby’s” set saw the audience degenerate into a roaring conversation and deflate to about half its original size.

However, it was not enough to tarnish an otherwise sterling night of music.