Posted on 06/22/2004 7:48:37 AM PDT by ICX
They don't "tour" as festivals but then that was a goofy concept anyway. Much easier to draw some quality names to one performance (and a dedicated crowd to see them there) than to try to sell the same "phenomenon" in 22 cities.
Even among the younger crowd, there are touring festivals (like the Warp tour) that are better targeted to that demographic.
Lollapalooza's core crowd got old and mainstreamed. The underground went street level. This lineup is an oldies show (with a lot of never chart topping 80s bands).
I only went because it was the Ramones farewell tour. Some people went specifically to see Metallica. Some went specifically to see the Ramones. Reportedly Soundgarden got the short stick by being between those two bands since some of the crowd would file out while others were filing in (and few watching).
The Shaolin Monks demonstration was interesting (and cheaper than paying to see them on their own).
I vaguely recall watching the Offspring (or was it Rancid?).
Other than that, I didn't see much for "me" at that Lollapalooza.
With George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars, you don't need other bands on the bill. The 30 members take turns trading off on the stage and they play for 3-4 hours non-stop (but they are real songs, not just jams).
I went to Lollapalooza in '91. I was already through my "punk" phase (never dressed or acted the part, just liked the music).
I think they've been replaced by the likes of the bands at the "Warped" tours.
I LOVE Christine's and Margaret's outfits!
Of course, not every punk rocker used Reagan as a foil. The very existence of any form of human civilization was sufficient to raise the Nietzschean ire of L.A.'s Black Flag, the greatest of all American hardcore bands. Others, deploring the de rigeur anti-Reagan politics of the punk scene, embraced the president. Beloved New York hardcore band Murphy's Law enthused, "Ronnie Reagan, he's our man/If he can't do it, no one can!" The singer of Chicago's Effigies, John Kazdy, ended up a prosecutor and member of the conservative Federalist Society. (He explained, "There is nothing punk rock about voting for a party that wants to put more government in your life.") Still, without Reagan to use as shorthand for everything undesirable about America, punk's intensity lost a certain focus. As punk rock lurched through the Clinton years, California's NOFX released a 1996 EP of retro hardcore, justifying the project by warbling, "Guess what, nostalgia sucks/But I miss the days of Reagan punk."The band's front man, Fat Mike, is actively trying to bring those days back. In April, he released the Rock Against Bush compilation, which brought together 26 contemporary punk bands to rail against Reagan's self-proclaimed ideological successor. He wasn't the only one. Tobi Vail, who drummed for groundbreaking punk band Bikini Kill, wrote a widely circulated essay celebrating the Rock Against Reagan phenomenon before declaring, "[T]he time is ripe for Bands Against Bush."
And the Pixies already done played it this year (May 1st and 2nd).
Last year's Loozer festival aped the band list from last year's Coachella festival as well.
Radiohead
Pixies
Sparta
the (International) Noise Conspiracy
Heiroglyphics
Kinky
the Sounds
Section Quartet
The Cure
Flaming Lips
AIR
Belle & Sebastian
Thursday
Muse
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra
Saul Williams
Thelonious Monster
MF Doom
Kool Keith
Living Legends
Eyedea & Ablilities
the Rapture
Desert Sessions
Death Cab for Cutie
Trail of the Dead
the Stills
Howie Day
DIOS
Le Tigre
Basement Jaxx
BRMC
Bright Eyes
Cursive
Atmosphere
Broken Social Scene
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Kraftwerk
Mark Farina
Laurent Garnier
Sander Kleinenberg
Danny Howells
Seb Fontaine
Peretz
DJ Icon
Paul Van Dyke
Ferry Corsten
Crystal Method
Adam Freeland
2 many DJ's
Donald Glaude
Peretz
Hybrid
Electric Six
Mindless Self Indulgence
Stereolab
Moving Units
Black Keys
Junior Senior
Stellastar*
Sahara Hotnights
Erase Errata
Ash
Mogwai
Sleepy Jackson
Dizzee Rascal
Cooper Temple Clause
the Thrills
Elefant
Home Town Hero
Whitestarr
Phantom Planet
Da Lata
Boozoo Bajou
LCD Soundsystem
Savath & Savalas
Beck
Q and not U
the Evens
Juana Molina
Sidestepper
Danger Mouse
Prefuse 73
Sage Francis
the Killers
Saul Williams
Section Quartet
Supernatural
Big Flaming Lips fan here...well, their last two LPs (The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi). Their earlier stuff was a bit hard to take. Old-time Pink Floyd and Moody Blues fans would really dig The Soft Bulletin... it's like a prog classic.
I was at the Lollapalooza around '91, up in Saratoga NY.... Living Color (sucked), Ice-T's Body Count (awful), NIN (pretty good; wild performance, they were still fairly unknown), Siouxsie & the Banshees (don't remember), Jane's Addiction (just wanted to go home at that point).
They should have combined it with Clinton's Poontangpalooza Book Promotion tour.
I saw the first Lollapalooza in 1991. The lineup included the B***hole Surfers, the Violent Femmes, Siouxsie and the Banshees and other of my teenage favorites.
Times move on. I'm now in my late 30s with two kids, a husband, and a house. I was a liberal in 1991. I'm not anymore.
Lollapalooza, from the dated sounds of it (Morrissey? P.J. Harvey? The FLAMING LIPS?) hasn't grown or changed at all. I admit I'd rather hear the Lips than Britney Spears, but still...talk about an old-folks festival. And the old folks aren't paying $100 for tickets to outdoor rock fests anymore, either, unless it's the Stones.
I think it was on the basis of their appearance at Lollapalooza that they got booked at Woodstock '92 and from their the fame grew.
The mixing of young filmmakers, musicians, and artists that came up in the early 1990s (pre-Clinton) was a genuine youth culture.
Musically they played rock and roll. Original songs, and covers ranging from Danny's earlier band the Gories, Velvet Underground's "Heroin", all the way to "Amazing Grace" and Richard & The Young Lions' "Open Up Your Door" (also covered by Detroit's The Romantics).
Thanks for the article link! I've been on a college radio station in Mass. since '81 (not kidding! graduated in '84 and playing blues these days) and am familiar with some of this stuff. there was one band made of up "angry 9 year old boys" called Old Skull, if I recall correctly (their dads played guitar, etc.) and one song, "Homeless", finished up with one of the pre-pubescents shouting,
"I hate you Ronald Reagan!"
I think the Dead Kennedys had a compliation called Let Them Eat Jellybeans, with a drawing of Reagan on the front.
Members of the Talking Heads made the record "5 Minutes",
playing off the "we begin bombing in 5 minutes" 'outtake'.
Ramones: "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg", while the Damned had
"Bad Time For Bonzo". A live version of this had lead
singer Dave Vanian shouting, "This one's called Bad Time For Me, Bad Time For you, Bad Time For Bonzo, too. Bonzo's
really f---ing (expletive)..."
Brings to mind a little hole-in-the-wall blues joint called Joe's Generic Bar. That door to the restrooms was set behind the stage, you had to cross it to get there. Kinda weird to do that when the band was playing though...
Joe's was on 6th St in Austin, btw.
I think that the early CBGB stage setup required similar manuvers to go to the restroom. Again I was never there but I did read a book about the club as well as "Please Kill Me" which is an oral account of the NYC punk scene from 1967-1979.
Yeah, it's a neat little dive. Ancient dented metal folding chairs--- the bar was a counter with a cooler behind it (beer and soda only) --- and occasionally during the set the band would "pass the hat."
Some good blues though, good enough to make you forget about your sore bum at least. :-)
Who? (seriously)
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