Lollapaloser
Jonesy Worrall
disappointing. Here's what happened:
The concert took place at a large venue called Compton Terrace, a huge outdoor
amphitheater (sp?) The portion closest to the stage was fenced off for a reserved
seating section (I was lucky enough to have reserved seats). But even close
there was a notable "distance" between the audience and performers and I think this
affected the chemistry between the audience and bands.
I missed the Rollins Band, stuck in traffic, but heard that he did a great show-
lots of ranting raving and stomping. The Butthole Surfers had already started by
time I got there and they sort of went through the motions-psycho psychedaelica,
all-in-all harmless and fun.
Next was the Syndicate: Ice-T and Body Count. I haven't heard too much of his
material, but this "motherfucker" knows how to work an audience. Except for the
"what's a good looking women good for if she doesn't fuck" BULLSHIT, he did a
rippy job of rapping. The Coolest part of his act was when he tossed the
turntables and brought out his guitarists and bassist to perform as Body Count.
"Thrash metal from African Americans, wait a minute who taught those people how
to play those guitars?" Great stuff from the T man. Anybody who has inhibitions
about seeing a rap artist at a show of this type will be pleasently suprised, I
have a hefty amount of respect for this guy, he knows what the fuck is going on.
The only problem with Ice T/Body Count is that people were so pumped for the Nails
that they probably didn't get the response they deserved. It was still full daylight
when the nails came on and considering they had a light show and maybe even some
fog/smoke devices (which I think might have led to the PROBLEM - read on) they
weren't able to provide the desired effect. There were four musicians, Trent Renzor
on Vox, a skinny skinhead on guitar, a medium build guy with long hait on synth and
a big dude (we're talking football player) with glasses and a braided mohawk on
drums. The stage crew had covered the monitors with plastic because there were
either misters (it was about 105 degrees) or some sort of fog/smoke device right
under the monitors (plastic intende to keep stuff dry) if they were foggers they
were totally ineffective. ANYWAY...NIN started out the set with a new song called
_Now I'm Nothing_ (which also appeared on all the road crews T-shirts: "Los Angeles,
Now I'm Nothing 1991" is this a tour shirt for something they had planned before
joining Lalapaluza?) The song was pretty cool, very typical of Pretty Hate Machine
material. After the song Trent threw his mike stand up in the air, let it fall and
walked off stage real. He acted like he was really pissed. I thought he was mad at the
audience for not being more responsive. He came back and they did _Terrible Lie_, the
audience was mixed, but you could pick out the NIN fans they were going nuts - dancing,
screaming etc... Still looking and acting discouraged, they hopped into _Sin_ which
was cool, but after the song was over Trent threw his mike stand about 30 feet in the
air and let it slam. He then ran over to the guitar speakers and pushed them over, the
guitarist flung his guitar across the stage the keyboardist threw his keyboard off the
stand and they all marched off the stage while the crowd howled in dispair. I still
thought Trent was pissed at the crowd for being a bunch of apathetic yobs. A few
minutes later someone came out with a mike and anounced that the nails had technical
difficulties ("surging" or something) and would make it up to the Phoenix audience
at a later date. Well I was/am totally bummed, it fucked up my day. I won't be
in Phoenix much longer and will miss any follow up. It's a bummer for all the other
out of staters who came in for the show (California, Nevada, New Mexico etc...)
I've heard a lot of good shit about Trent through rmi (Who, what, why is Trent...?)
and would like a little feedback from those who know him (Mr. Winer, Mr. L.A Clubowner?)
I'll post more as I find out from local news, but the consensus is that he took out
on an eager audience what he should have taken out on technicians ("We'll be right
back after our FUCKING techs fix this goddamned equipment!") I think that the misters/
fogger they were using may have caused some shorts and maybe shocked the band members.
(to clarify, in a dry hot climate "misters" provide a fine mist spray to cool an
outdoor area, I don't know if that's what these were, but they could have caused
shorts in the electronics and subsequently shocks.)
Living Colour came on next and did a great show, the mix was a little loud and
grungy, but once again, here was a band that is accustomed to large audiences
and kept things lively and their audience captive. Excellent musicians and
incredible vocals. A nice compliment to Ice T who is a bit more into the nasty
and street level politcal diatribe. Living Colour provides a higher level
political message (Ice T tells you to fuck and kill bad cops, Living Colour
reminds you to wear condoms and vote.) Good music combined with great stage
presence.
Siouxsie and the Banshees were the slickest outfit of the evening. They had a
huge backdrop of two Bhuddas having at it. The performers wore snazzy outfits
and Siouxsie looked pretty nifty in black leather shorts over tights and a leather
boustierre (sp?). They had an excellent light/effects show. The music was good,
not great, they had a different stage presence, like seasoned performers (which they
are!) their flavor was more towards a set performance than doing things sort of
freestyle. They did an encore which included _Cities_in_Dust_ which was great, but
I felt dated - a lot of people didn't recognize this classic while I jumped up and
down and danced.
As the evening progressed it seemed as if it took longer and longer between bands
Jane took an eternity to set up. I was a bit wary of J'sA, I love their recorded
music, but had not heard good things about their live performances. Well they
showed up pretty taosted, Perry still had a bottle of something in his hand. The
music was better than I expected. The stage was set with a bunch of plants, flowers,
palm trees and a couple of Roman statues. A screen was lowered periodically behind
the stage for video art. Perry said quite a bit, like "you probably paid too much
for those fucking tickets..." Well at that point that's exactly how I felt. I would
have rated the concert a 6 out of 10, just barely. Jane's did a good job when Perry
wasn't talking. I had to leave early, my ride was and will now alway's be a Jane's
hater. Apparently after we left there was an incident where the guitarist flung his
instrument into the audience after it had broken and stomped off the stage (sound
familiar?) The guitar was retrieved and J'sA played part of another song before
they left for good.
All in all I would call it an interesting show. The crowd provided lot's of inter-
esting visuals: mohawks, tattoos, jocks and betties. The sound system was marginal
and led to the delivery of a "blunt" music mix. The thing that was most disturbing
was the lack of chemistry. Unlike the Sister of Mercy concert described by Mr. Salisbury
Buffalo (rmi posting) there was no surrounding energy, the audience was lose and
unconnected. No chanting (like "NINE INCH NAILS" when they split, or requests from the
bands to shout something out or sing along), sporadic and sparce dancing, no mosh pit.
O.k., granted, I was in reserved, but even when I walked around I didn't see the familiar
throng of bodies in motion in the general admission areas. There were probably 35 to 45
thousand people there and no cohesion, no rythm, no ENERGY.
The political and artistic promotion booths were pretty cool, they passed out a lot
of literature and had petitions for people to sign. Booths were set up by animal rights
activists, Greenpeace, abortion rights, politcial activist's organizations and a few
others. The local artwork was photographic and "media" compositions by local artists.
Not bad, but a little thin in content.
The two most radicle booths were the AMOK publications catalog, and body manipulation booths.
I'm open minded to some sub/counter culture, but the Body manipulation shit was radical.
Major league tattoos and body piercing. Nipple piecing ain't shit compared to the crap
these guys photographed of genital piercing. They had a T-shirt with 12 or 16 charicatures
of penis piercing configurations. I've heard of penis guords in New Guinea, but I have
a feeling that most of this stuff is from S&M sub culture. The AMOK catalog of alter-
native publications was pretty intense as well. Lot's of excerpted photographs from the
publications offered through the catalog. I'm not particularly sensitive, maybe I'm
just getting old, but this shit takes some of the human out of humanity. "That's
why it's there Jonesy, to expose you to this stuff, that's part of LollaPalooza. You
didn't have to look." O.k. take the good with the bad, see the Maplethorpe exhibit, pick
up a copy of _Screw_, buy the soundtrack to _The_Sound_of_Music_, go fuck yourself or
better yet go fuck your neighbor's cat (don't worry I'm just a crappy hamper at the
moment).
The beer, food, and water lines were enormous. The T-shirt lines weren't because the
cheapest thing available was a white tank top with a 6" diameter LLPLZA logo printed
front and center for $18. For $2 more you could get a LLPLZA tour shirt or (when I
bought it) a Nine Inch Nails T with an embroidered NIN on the front and a nine inch
nails print over the _Sin_ ep logo on the back. Plan on blowing $20 on any garments,
$25 on specialty garments.
I hope the tour improves as it moves along, I hope some of the artists accustomed to
playing small venues take lessons from those used to playing large crowds. Like
Living Colour said: "We don't do this because we're getting paid, we do this because
we like to, we are not a commodity." I'm looking forward to future reviews. I hope
future Lollapalooza shows improve and I read good reviews. As for now the local
alternative radio station is speculating whether or not the bands will stick
together throughout the tour. If anyone drops I would recommend replacing them with
Primus, a great and fun show band, let's sail the seas of cheese folks.
Aloha
Paul Stephen Sears
I still want to see Lollapalooza even after this thorough review. My
question is does anyone have the date that the tour will be in Dallas?
Is is August 4th? How can I get tickets in Houston?
--
* Paul Sears * Technology *** |"The greater an individual's power
* The University of Houston *** | over others, the greater the evil that
* RCT...@Jetson.uh.edu * * * | might possibly originate with him."
* RCT...@menudo.uh.edu * * * | - PROPAGANDA, from A Secret Wish (CD)
Joe Bennett
Went to see the Lollapalooza at the Shoreline near San Fran, and wow, what a show!
I was expecting to have a slightly decent time, as I only really knew Living Colour and
Jane's Addiction, and I was very pleasently surprised with the show. The sound for all
the bands was great (i guess the mishap NIN suffered was remedied) and the schedule
was maintained. I was expecting about half an hour in between groups for set up and
what not, and with only 10 - 15 minutes allotted, I thought they would be falling way
behind. But they made it and there was only one problem, a cracking of the mike when
Jane's came out.
Anyway, the review:
Rollins Band: Unfortunately, I could only hear them, as we were late in our drive
from Sacramento. They sounded good, I guess, but I can't give a review here.
Butthole Surfers: High energy show. They were parading around on stage, and a mosh
pit started on the lawn. As I don't really know their songs, again I can't give a fair
review. But they turned me around into thinking about getting one of their albums, so
I guess they get a thumbs up.
Ice-T: Very, very surprising. I don't think many people were prepared for rap, but Ice
gave an incredible show. The sound was superb and the crowd quickly got into it. He said
a lot of political things, and things that many women might not like, but if you took it
at face value, it was entertaining. At the end he brought a band out which was awesome!
He jammed hard and head-banged and got the crowd in a frenzy with a HUGE mosh pit on the
lawn. Great show.
Nine Inch Nails: This band doesn't grab me as a 'fun' band, so I kind of mellowed to their
show. They didn't seem to have much of a stage presence, but that could just be because
Ice-T was all over the place. They sounded very strong, though, and I enjoyed the music.
Living Colour: As this is my favorite band, it's hard to give an unbiased review. I, of
course thought they were awesome. I had seen them a few months before, and they sounded
even better now. Corey's voice was strong, and the band was tight. They played about half
the new album, and the James Brown cover that's on the EP. They closed with 'Cult of
Personality' and the crowd was jumping. All throughout their show I heard "oohs" and "damn!"
from people who didn't know them coming around. Of course, I am biased.
Souxie and the Banshees: Very Cure-like show, except Sousxie jumps around. She has a
wonderful voice and all the sounds you would hear on the album came through, meaning to me
that they don't do a whole lot of touching up in the studio. "Peekaboo" live was as good
if not better than on the album. Again, I don't know a lot of their stuff, but they still
got me into it. The people who did not their stuff were really into it, so I judge from
that that they played fan favorites.
Jane's Addiction: Having only heard them on album, I was really shocked that they sound
as good live. They were really solid and Perry sounded great. They mixed their slower
stuff in with the high energy stuff, sort of taking you on a roller coaster ride. The
videos playing in the background were interesting, to say the least. There were also
performances on stage during the show to really keep your interest while you listened.
Their last two songs were "Ocean Size" and "Jane Says" -- my two faves'. Again, a great
show.
Phew!
All in all, it was a very good afternoon. The only thing I regret is not walking around
and looking at the art exhibits and checking out the causes, but I liked the show so much
that I didn't want to miss anything.
If you like a couple of the bands, I suggest you go. I think you will be pleasently surprised
by some of the music :)
Joe