The Super Duper Gen X Jukebox Question of the Week!
Week #4
Dear Gen Xer,
Last week I asked you a question that involved a life in prison. It wasn’t pretty, but you met the challenge.
34% of you chose to do your time with Vanilla Ice.
He’s the lesser of the four evils available, you said. Wait until you’re in Attica and he serenades you with the Humpty Dance.
Alright.
Let’s get to it.
Time for this week’s Super Duper Gen X Jukebox Question of the Week!
Holy crap! You just won a ticket to Lollapalooza!
Unfortunately, there’s a catch. You have to share it with six of your friends.
There are seven bands and seven of you. Each person can see one band.
Which band do you choose to see?
(PLEASE NOTE: The poll only lets me add five options. If you’d like to choose Living Colour or Ice-T, please leave your vote in the comments.)
This is getting weird. You’ve tapped into my itinerary. I didn’t work the whole Lalapalooza Tour but I did do that show. I lived in Phoenix at the time and was home between gigs. I knew the owner of the company who was going to be providing security at the Compton venue and he asked if I could coordinate it. At the risk of boring you I need to insert context.
Compton Terrace is a huge complex just south of Phoenix. It’s on a reservation. I’ll explain why that’s important shortly. It was owned at that time by Stevie Nicks’ father. Anyway there’s a lake for boat racing, a track for drag racing, a course for off road races and the concert venue. The concert venue itself is large. For European context think Wacken, Summer Breeze, Hellfest, Mera Luna. Not exactly but you get the picture. Because it’s on a reservation the security is complex. An event would be secured by a local company but since the complex itself is on a reservation everything outside the event is controlled by the reservation police. For example, if you create a problem I will escort you to the gate and turn you over to the rez police. I have many stories about that but will spare you those.
So that being the first show of the first year of Lalapalooza they set up a couple days early. My company was responsible for securing the area during the setup and for the actual show itself. I went down about lunch time to check things out. Everyone was eating so I went in to grab a bite myself. I got my tray and looked around. The tables were all full except for the table where Ice Tea and Bodycount were sitting. I walked over and sat down. They stared at me and I stared back, then started to eat. No one said a word. They didn’t know I had seen them a couple weeks before in LA when they had their “coming out” performance. I actually liked them.
On the day of the show Ice Tea did his rap set, then performed with Body Count. Backstage after their set I ran into them coming off. They remembered me and asked me what I thought. I told them how much I enjoyed them. They were interested in a comparison to other bands I had worked with. I replied favorably. That turned out to be important later down the road when they came to perform in what could have been a racially charged show on MLK Day and they requested me to run the security. But I digress.
As far as the show itself the bands were pretty much what one would expect from them with one exception. Nine Inch Nails had equipment issues. Reznor flipped out and terminated the set. So if one of your readers selected them …wrong answer. The only other issue was Jane’s Addiction. During one of their songs Navarro tossed his guitar into the audience. Their manager asked me to retrieve it which I did reluctantly. He threw it a second time and I told the manager to “fuck off”. As far as I know some kid got himself a guitar. Then Farrell and Navarro got into a fight over that after the show. That’s why I couldn’t understand the big deal about their fight in Boston last year. They were always fighting. They hated each other.
Anyway the answer is Ice Tea. Sorry to turn this into a historical dissertation.
I'd like to see Living Colour, please!