I decided to take advantage of the the fact that I could get into Lollapalooza for free yesterday morning. But getting to the Charles Town Race Track in WV was going to be a problem. At around 2p, Laura decided she'd go and off we went. It was a beautiful day, and appropriately enough, the traffic was backed up 12 miles before the race track and we got there around 5p, just before the Breeders went on stage.
They were excellent! They were my favourite of the bands I got to see. A long time ago, I heard Cannonball and immediately fell in love with it. I like the thrashy music and quirky singing that characterises them and I wasn't disappointed when I followed up with other tunes off of Last Splash (and from Pod (which incidentally is the name of Ween's second album)). I had, however, heard that they sucked live and I was a bit apprehensive as to what they'd sound like; my worries were unfounded. They didn't sound as polished as they do on the studio albums and this made it all the more better: the raw nature of their music, the simple elegance of the melodies, the vocals that cut through the noise, the novel guitar playing, and the restrained-yet-aggressive performance all dampened the effect of the sun which was shining when they were playing.
George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars came on next and didn't do much for me; I ended up getting (of all things) a burrito and managed to catch some of the wares that were being offered.
The Beastie Boys were next: they were good and they probably put on a better show than the Breeders, but rap gets monotonous after a while (at least for me). Still, the variations that they performed once in a while were interesting the first minute or so.
Smashing Pumpkins: I do not like their studio work (what I've heard on the radio). And after seeing them live, I've decided they are simply a mediocre band. To give them credit, however: Billy Corgan announced that they do not use machines---they're just rock. And it's true; it is solid and very tight rock with perhaps a repressed desire for thrash and speed metal. But it is also nothing that stands out (say the way the Breeders' mellow-punk-thrash does).
I do think Corgan's comments were dumb. Apparently it is the "in" thing to bash on Woodstock. $135/pop, Corgan, the person who probably rakes it in by the thousands, complains. And how different is Lollapalooza? Compare 8 bands for $30 to 45 bands for $135. I bet the food prices will be comparable also. I think it's a case of sour grapes---I hardly think they would complain if they were being paid more than $100,000 for an hour or so.
And then there's the self-effacing angst-ridden crap he spouted: "I am nothing". Yeh, you and every other Generation Xer. Whose bright idea was it to throw evian (spelt backwards: naive) bottles around anyway? And the same "I am shit" morons don't realise that it would be a good idea to empty the bottles at least before they throw them? And then the very same people blame Woodstock promoters for having too much security.