Lollapalooza retaced the wild and revolutionary roots of the festival

In 1990, Jane's dependence released “Ritual de Lo Habural”, the album acclaimed by the criticism of the alternative group of Los Angeles. The group, assaulted by drug addiction, power struggles and dissensions, has decided to break at the top of its popularity.

Singer Perry Farrell came with the idea of ​​Lollapalooza, a “Woodstock for the lost generation”, according to the New York Times, as a farewell tour for the implosion group. But it would become much more.

Between 1991 and 1997, the itinerant circus of a festival aroused, entertained and autonomized of young unhappy Americans, in particular in its first years. “If Lollapaloza did not alone know what was known as” alternative nation “, he greatly contributed to codifying his ideals for a generation of adolescents and twenty years, a diversified mixture of musical acts and external optimization, and political activism and direct beding”, Richard Bestock and Tom Beaujour Non censored in the most crazy festival Alternative rock. »»

As the authors support it convincingly, the impact of Lollapalooza cannot be underestimated. He inspired the success of Ozzfest, Lilith Fair, Horde and The Warped Tour; brought combat boots, a flannel, piercings, tattoos and other young accessories when marginalized in the dominant current; And helped have nine -inch nails and superstars pearl jam. The grip of Lollapalooza is so powerful on popular culture that Farrell rekindled it in 2003. The festival continues to date, attracting more than 100,000 fans to the Grant Park in Chicago each summer.

At the creation of Lollapalooza, the festivals had become, with the American festival, the summer jam in Watkins Glen and the Monterey Pop Festival a little more than misty memories. The eclectic inaugural range of Lollapalooza, ranging from Jane's dependence to Punk Fusion Loud Fusion from Rollins Band to rapper Ice-T to Pioneers Post-Punk Siouxsie and Banshees, hardly seemed like a bill to put the whole world and sell amphitheniers across the country.

In fact, Lollapalooza almost derailed during his first show on July 18, 1991, on the sweltering terrace of Compton in Chandler, Arizona. With three -digit temperatures, the equipment of nine inches nail worked badly, leading to Trent Reznor to lower the scene. Dave Navarro very wasted, Jane's talented guitarist, and Farrell started to push himself next to the scene after the group's set. “The tour could have erased it,” said Kevin Lyman, stage director of Lollapaloza in 1991 and 1992.

But this is not the case. The mixture of the festival of artists on the left, defense groups such as Handgun Control Inc. and the National Abortion Rights Action League, and Funky Food and Drinks captured the Zeitgeist. During one of the worst seasons of summer concerts for more than a decade, Lollapalooza shone strongly.

Things would only improve.

With an alternative nation on the ascendant – the classic “Nevermind” by Nirvana and the Smash “Red Hot Chili Peppers” Blood Sugar Sex Magik “released after the first festival – Lollapalooza 1992 was ready to explode. Farrell and the company have reserved future superstars such as Pearl Jam, whose album” Ten “turned the charts; Compatriots of Seattle Grunge Rockers Soundgarden; the ministry of industrial metal mastodon;

Lollapaloza 1992 presented the second step for artists, probably the first of its kind, which presented new hot acts: Rage Against the Machine and Stone Temple Pilots gave some of their first performances. The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, a monster show that presented Slug the Sword Hnutor, the torture King and a guy who drank vomiting, has become a favorite of the crowd, which makes the world safe for the television show “The Jim Rose Twisted Tour”.

Lollapalooza coverage: the non -censored story of the Alternative Rock Alternative Festival

(Press St. Martin)

Property and Beaujour, thanks to their engaging and perceptive interviews, capture liberating ethics, everything that was Lollapalloza 1992. I should know; I attended the opening show at the Shoreline amphitheater in the Bay region.

Playing the second niche behind Lush in the midday sun, Pearl Jam burned his set with new songs like “Alive” and “Jeremy”. Eddie Vedder, Eddie Vedder the most charismatic and talented rock, has often climbed the scaffolding and imposing speakers and plunged into the crowd, doing everything you needed to draw the attention of the public.

The ministry also made an indelible impression, exploding everyone's eardrums in pieces. The singer al Jourgensen, relying against a statue of animal bone which served as a microphone support, and her group comrades have struck the public in the submission with their hypnotic heaviness, regularly paying fines to exceed the noise limits of place. Pearl Jam's guitarist, Stone Gossard, described the spectacle of “sound cerebral concussion”.

Lollapalooza 1992 was the highest point of the festival. He would never have the same cultural and artistic resonance again. The 1993 edition had a less impressive range led by Primus and Alice in the channels. In 1994, the organizers got closer to Nirvana as a headliner this year before Kurt Cobain was overdose in Rome and committed suicide a month later in April. As strong as the artists of 1994 breaking Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars and the breeders were, they could not compare themselves to Nirvana.

The disappointing programming of 1995 presented young sonics, but the fans remained away. The so-called “artypalooza” gave way to Lollapaloza 1996, derisory nicknamed “Dude-Apalooza” for its aggressive white range surmounted by metallica resolutely non-alternative; Farrell temporarily left the protest festival.

Lollapalooza 1997, his swans before the renewal, argued with ambitious electronic sounds of artists like Prodigy, The Orb and Orbital, an laudable but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to invigorate the Festival formerly Golden.

Reflecting the fall of Lollapalooza of the rare -up summits of its peak in the early 1990s, the 1997 version made just over half of Lilith Fair money, attracting an average attendance of 67% of the place of place, against 93% for this festival dominated by women. “Lolla had his race and we knew that the model breaks. He became too generic. He burned too brilliant,” said the co-founder of the Marc Geiger festival. “He needed a break.”

Ken Bethea, on the left, and Rhett Miller of the Old 97s occurred on the second stage in Lollapaloza in 1997.

(Sarah P. Weiss)

Fortunately, “Lollapaloza” the book, unlike the Homonym Festival itself, rarely points out. Property and Beaujour, also authors of the successful sale, “Nöthin”, but a good time: the unconnected history of the Hard Rock explosion of the 80s, “interviewed hundreds of artists, founders of the tour and organizers of Lollapalooza, among others. Theirs is a fun, unpleasant and surprisingly moving reading.

They infuse their sex, drug and rock and roll book. Joe Klein, then guitarist for Siouxsie and Banshees, for example, remembers “the most visible orgies”: the tourist bus of Ice-T, probably filled with groupies, bouncing from top to bottom. The heroine and other hard drugs were a pillar of the tour. The delay Mark LaneganMain singer of the howling trees, often sent a Gofer to find heroin, crack and methamphetamine throughout the 96 tour. Or he was looking for drugs himself. “We hit a city, and he headed directly to the ghetto and was almost killed,” said the guitarist of trees Gary Lee Conner.

And what could be more rock and roll than the members of Rage Against the Machine, the Breakout stars of Lollapalooza '93, becoming naked in a philadelphia show to protest against the parents' musical resources center, the controversial group of Tipper Gore which has pressure for parental advisory stickers on certain albums. With black adhesive tape on the mouth and letters p, m, r, c written in large letters on their chest, rabies guys were motionless for 15 minutes, the feedback of the guitar used as support music. Angry fans finally struck potential revolutionaries with beer, cups and even bottles of urine.

The fact that Lollapaloza has become such an important chapter in the annals of rock history cannot surprise any more than Farrell. “I am often asked, I thought Lollapalooza was going to be what it has become?” He said. “I mean, it's ridiculous. Of course not! How could I? I was just inside for the kicks, end point. ”

Ballon, an old Times, Forbes and Inc. Magazine Reporter, teaches an advanced writing course at the USC. He lives in Fullerton.