Going back to those Gold Soundz and Never Quarantining the Past: Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour

 Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival 

by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour

Lollapalooza book cover

Authors Tom Beaujour (left) and Richard Bienstock (right)

Ice-T and Body Count joined by Henry Rollins in the first Lollapalooza tour (1991)

Pavement performing on the second stage in 1995's Lollapalooza

Beck performing in 1995, post "Loser" pre-Odelay

Sonic Youth headlined the 1995 Lollapalooza tour

Major thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for providing me with an advanced copy of Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour. I’ve been looking forward to reading this book since it was first made available since I remember when Lollapalooza first started, and although I never attended any of them, I also watched it grow as many of the bands I discovered and rabidly listened to were a part of this innovative and ground-breaking festival of the 1990s that continues on today.

I really like these kinds of music books that document periods in music history through interviews with those who were involved in it. I think the first book that I read that was like this was Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, which is an oral history of Punk, specifically focused on New York punk in the 70s. Lollapalooza follows a similar style where its sections are divided up into the different years that Lollapalooza toured, 1991-1997, ending with an epilogue focusing on 2003, when Lollapalooza returned. Each year begins with a narrative overview of the tour, discussing which bands performed, how they were recruited for the tour, like their personal connection with Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction, and other details. Then there are chapters in each year that focus either on a particular artist or band or some other element of the tour. However, these chapters are taken directly from interviews with the artists, managers, and crew involved with making Lollapalooza happen. I found it really easy and enjoyable to read. I kept reading, wanting to know what more would happen each year on these tours. I also loved hearing from artists like Ice-T, members of Sonic Youth, Pavement, and Sen Dog from Cypress Hill. It’s also a little sad since there are some artists who are no longer alive to share their stories yet were an important parts of the touring years of the 90s. Artists like Coolio, Mark Lanegan, from Screaming Trees, Layne Staley, from Alice in Chains, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden and Audioslave, and Sinead O’Connor, who I didn’t even realize was a part of the 1995 tour before dropping off. Even though there weren’t any quotes from these artists, other participants shared stories, fond, funny, and sometimes sad, about their experiences touring with them. What I found compelling about this book was also that it contained the perspectives of those who organized and worked on the tour, helping to manage the stages, prep the artists and gear for each act, and break down the equipment and prepare to move the show to another city or location. It was fascinating to learn more about how Lollapalooza operated since there really weren’t too many touring shows like this that had toured around at the time. Some of the interviewees cited the Grateful Dead as a touring model that they looked at and how Bill Graham Productions helped with ironing out the finer details to make the show run more efficiently after they stopped in the Bay Area in either the first or second year. However, Lollapalooza served as the model for other touring shows that sprouted up in its wake in the mid to late 90s (Lillith Fair, HORDE Fest, Ozz Fest, etc). I enjoyed learning about how the different production managers and the contact people for the crowd engagement coordinated to make Lollapalooza so unique and innovative. As the book notes, part of Farrell’s vision for this festival was to bring together disparate perspectives that were kind of encompassing the 90s (and have further drifted apart today). I think there was a quote about having the NRA in attendance along with gun right activists, or pro-life and pro-choice people attend to debate, and I guess learn from one another. It is a kind of cool and idealistic way of thinking how music and art could bring together opposing perspectives on political and social issues, and possibly allow for some learning and understanding. And while I think that may have also been some of the initial thinking about the early world wide web community, it’s kind of devolved into echo chambers and reinforcing biases. However, I think that Perry Farrell had good intentions and, despite his own personal flaws, he had really good taste and a unique vision for the function of music and art in the 90s. Nevertheless, this kind of disparate approach in issues was also reflected in the music lineups, especially in the early years of Lollapalooza. It was fascinating to see the first lineup consisted of Jane’s Addiction, in what was supposed to be their farewell tour, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails (in their first tour), Ice-T (rapping and performing with Body Count), Butthole Surfers, the Rollins Band, and Fishbone. The interviews with the artists also shared their surprise at this amalgamation of different styles that didn’t share much. However, I think any book that features stories about the Butthole Surfers is really enjoyable. I think their chapter in Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life was by far the funniest chapter in the book. Similarly, the stories about the bands stage show and hi-jinks during downtime on the tour were pretty funny. The 1992 tour featured Ice Cube, Soundgarden (in their first appearance at Lollapalooza), Ministry, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, but also had a 2^nd stage featuring the Jim Rose Circus. The stories with those performers were also really entertaining, and it kind of shows the theatrics and performative sideshow nature that made both Lollapalooza and the 1990s “alternative”.

In addition to the artists and crew, Bienstock and Beaujour also interview music journalists (including Azerrad), who offer some great insights into how music changed in the 90s, as well as the kind of artists/acts that Lollapalooza had to recruit to not only drive ticket sales and crowds, but also seem fresh and cutting edge in the 90s to really appeal as an “alternative” to more of the hair rock that was dying from the 80s and the gradual dormancy of pop music that was to emerge around the late 90s. These journalists and the tour planners offered some interesting insight into the musical choices for the different years, including that Lollapalooza seemed to have sought out Nirvana for the 1994 tour. It sounded like there were some financial concerns, that Nirvana’s price might have been too high, but also that Kurt Cobain’s life was in a spiral due to his hospitalization during the planning months (and shortly before his death). However, the 1994 lineup was equally eclectic and electric, featuring The Breeders, Beastie Boys, George Clinton and P-Funk, A Tribe Called Quest, Green Day, The Flaming Lips, and Guided by Voices. I loved learning that Robert Pollard and his brother beath the Beastie Boys at basketball, and there was lots of differing opinions on Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins headlined that year). I think 1995, one of the lower grossing years, was probably the year I really would have wanted to go. I remember watching 120 Minutes during this time and seeing a live performance of Beck with Sonic Youth doing the “Diamond Sea”, one of my favorite songs that I first got to hear live at a concert shortly after the Lollapalooza tour. Maybe I imagined it, but this wouldn’t have been a video available online since that technology wasn’t really available in 95. However, that was another really cool fact to learn from this book—how many of the artists would end up playing with other bands and jamming together as the tour went on. Other musicians talked about the challenges of being on the road, finding things to keep them engaged and active, especially when many of the festivals were far away from cities. Other artists talked about the challenges of staying sober and not getting too into drugs or alcohol while on tour. The last two years of touring, 96 and 97, were strange lineups that similarly reflected some of the unfortunate directions that music in the 90s were taking. It’s also interesting because as I read in another recent book, Pretend We’re Dead: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Women in Rock in the ‘90s by Tanya Pearson, late 1990s music took a very masculine, somewhat misogynistic turn, and this is reflected in some of the festivals like Woodstock 99 (along with the documentary) as well as Lollapalooza’s booking. While the festival was primarily a music festival, there’s also a need to make money, and the promoters and organizers needed to balance the art and commerce. That’s probably how Metallica, who was getting ready to release their Load album, which was not really a metal album, was invited to headline the tour. Although this would bring a lot of fans, some of the other artists (and news reports included in the book) detailed the challenges from performing to audiences that either were not familiar or not interested in their work. It seemed like audiences became lest curious or welcoming. This was even more apparent when a band like James played in 1997 and were confronted by Korn fans, who seemed really hostile to other acts. Despite these challenges, Lollapalooza did bring many different fans and musical styles together. This book especially highlights many of those differences while also sharing some interesting and entertaining stories about what happened behind the scenes, and dishing on what it is like to tour for the summer. I absolutely loved this book, and I can’t wait to read the other book about 80’s hair bands by Bienstock and Beaujour (Nothin’ But a Good Time). Highly recommended book!