It may sound sort of cheezy, but Lollapalooza is kind of a dream come true. Inspired by European weekend festival events like Reading and Glastonbury, Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction envisioned a similar touring show that would bring together a variety of bands from a wide range of genres and styles in a space that would also encourage audience members to engage with community and social interest groups. It was a pretty lofty plan filled with idealism and optimism, but against all odds he made it happen and the resulting Lollapalooza Festival would became a recurring touring phenomenon that would go on to play a major part in defining the nineties' musical terrain.
With a lineup that included Ice-T, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails, Henry Rollins, Living Colour, and the Butthole Surfers, 1991's first Lollapalooza was also designed as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction who had decided to pack it in after the release of their ground-breaking "Ritual de Los Habitual" album. It was an odd grouping of artists, who on the surface had little in common in terms of sound, but were all being packaged and marketed under the umbrella term "Alternative" by a record industry that were having trouble keeping up with the wide range of musical styles that were expanding and growing in the early nineties. In addition, while all of the artists individually had a solid following, none of them at the time were capable of filling the large 15,000+ seat venues that the tour was being booked at on their own, but together the tour was able to draw an audience for each of them, simultaneously filling up seats and hopefully inspiring audience members to leave the show with a new appreciation for some of the artists that they may not have been as familiar with before. Maybe an Ice-T fan would be inspired to check out Siouxsie and the Banshees after seeing them live, or maybe a Nine Inch Nails fan would end up being really impressed by Living Colour. Farrell anticipated a synergy between artists, reasoning that the quality of the performers would translate into shared interests. And his reasoning proved quite sound.
It was a pretty amazing idea, and it turned out to be a pretty amazing show too. Butthole Surfers were raucous and over the top, a chaotic revelry. Henry Rollins was intense and brooding and really heavy in a good way. Ice-T played an awesome set of his solo work, and then he introduced his new heavy rock project Body Count and proceeded to tear everybody's shit up with a perfect synthesis of Rap and Metal, definitely one of if not THE best performance of the day.
Admittedly Nine Inch Nails may not have been that well suited for a sunny middle of the afternoon set, nor was the space that conducive to dry ice, but they tried damnit, and that's what's important. If nothing else their road crew deserves special notice for keeping the set going amid all the chaos and destruction that Trent Reznor was leading throughout their performance. Living Colour were great, tight, dynamic, and really fun, and I remember being really impressed with Corey Glover's voice that day, strong, clear, and amazing. Siouxsie and the Banshees were the band that I was most excited about seeing, and they played a great set that drew heavily from the just released "Superstition" album along with a trio of tracks from "Peepshow" and a handful of fan favorites. In my mind the Banshees could do no wrong in a live setting, and this show was no exception.
And then Jane's Addiction closed out the show, a veritable supernova that burned with a staggering immensity, a behemoth, a titanic performance that few could match. Seeing Three Days live was pretty monumental for me, and though I've seen it performed a handful of times since, it was this time at Lollapalooza that really stands out as the definitive, trippiest, best version for me, the most awesome that I've ever heard it played.
The inaugural Lollapalooza event was an amazing show, an incredible day of music from a fantastic line up of artists, the full realization of Perry Farrell's dream of a touring festival. I won't deny, it was physically challenging, almost twelve hours of music outside in the sun during a heatwave in August is a bit much to take, but it was all worth it. Soooooooo worth it...
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