We want to hear from you — share your best Lolla story below!
Share your story
Wow, it was my second concert ever, my first being motherfucking bad ass Aerosmith a few weeks before, and learned the ways of living life hiiiiggggh as a kite for the first time that summer. So, I jammed out to Irwindale at the age of 17, with a few of my friends ready for a surreal event that I knew could never be topped, and could never be told unless you too were there... ...it took a while for the shitty band opener to get on stage on time at 1pm, and when I say shitty, that was what I expected them to be, you know, by being the "opener". Well, funny thing is that Rage Against the Machine was the damn opener, those guys blew me away and they were the highlight of my experience that day, alongside having some dumb bitch with long nails clawing at my sun burnt back while Alice and Chains with the great late Layne Staley closing the night. But the painful state I was in was completely overshadowed by the entire day. Rage, Tool (which was awesome overall but weird and awesome that the drummer played front and center back to the crowd and he had side view mirrors to see the crowd. lol), PRIMUS SUCKS!, and Alice and Chains was soooo icing on the cake. I wish I could re-live that day over and over and over again...Thanks Perry!!!
Morning started early that day. We being from a Detroit suburb called Roseville had a long drive to get to Milan. We loaded in a friends car, my friend Cheryl and her friend in the front and me and my friend John in the back, with the cooler between us on the seat. We stopped at the local McDonalds to get some breakfast and then after eating, we decided to "pre-drink" the show. I can't remember EVERYTHING that was in the cooler but I do remember downing a bottle of Boone's Farm right away. Already starting on my second bottle, we arrived at Lollapalooza. We ended up parking in a cornfield and paying Ellie May and her family to do so. Me being 18 and a light-weight, I grabbed the blanket and we walked towards the entrance, albeit drunkenly. We got in the gates and we decided to look around a bit on the way in. I ended up buying this crazy necklace...it was a black leather rope with The Cat in the Hat's head on it. Then, I began to not feel so good. It was hot and I had drank a lot of alcohol in a short time. My friend John and I decided to get these giant burritos - they were a mess, but so damn good! The grease was running down our arms, it was insane. Then we headed over to find a place to lay our blanket in front of the main stage. I remember Rage Against the Machine and Arrested Development - I remember a band named Tool was playing the second stage. As the day wore on, it got hotter and hotter and water was a hot commodity (and expensive!!) The sky started to darken and lo and behold, we had a severe thunderstorm warning....This happened right in the middle of Dinosaur Jr's set, and forced them off stage because of the lightening. So here we are, in the middle of a frigging open field, with thunder and lightening all around us. It poured rain and we held the blanket over our heads for safety. There was even talk of a tornado warning. After the storm passed, Alice in Chains came on stage. They were amazing....Layne sounded like a God. As nighttime grew closer, and the sun had set, a band called Primus took the stage. I had never heard of them and fell in love with them that night. They were fantastic. Everyone started bonfires and were pulling peoples blankets into the fires. It was pure insanity. After the show, we trudged back to the car. Because of the rain, the corn field we were parked in was muddy. We got the car stuck in a ditch trying to back out. It was a nightmare. Two concert goers helped push the car out and we were on our way home. I will never forget that day!
So hyped up to go watch Alice in Chains and the weather hit. There were huge gusts of wind everywhere and some of the tents that were over the sales tables went flying. I remember being confused and running with my friends and a man with a long ZZ Top beard ran up in front of me and screamed "OH MY GOD IT'S THE APOCALYPSE!!" I cracked up so hard I fell down. Some people left and we didn't have any problem getting a great veiw of the stage. Good times. Good times.
I was at Lolla 93' at the Airport in RI - it was a wild day and a memorable one! I somehow made my way to the front row for Alice in Chains feature set...the sun was setting and the sky was red...the entire crowd was pushing and many in the front had to be pulled over the rails so they would not be crushed. Alice in Chains rocked!! Razor blade mosh pit was a memory as well - most likely during Rage - what a show!
I traveled with 3 friends from Louisville up to Deer Creek. We camped out the night before...the Dead had been through a few weeks before so there were some left overs still camping and it was a crazy night...barely slept and then spent a scorching day listening to amazing music. When Dinosaur Jr. went on the sun was starting to go down and the wind had picked up and it was awesome. Carefree days you don't appreciate until they are gone. I saw a few Lollapaloozas in later years but that one was the best. Where I was in my life at that time probably had as much if not more to do with it than the bands but I won't ever forget getting to see Layne Staley live.
Three years old and already a full-blown musical phenomenon, Lollapalooza ’93 was the festival’s first year to feature two co-headliners: Alice in Chains and Primus. Festival founder Perry Farrell’s promotion of Primus to the festival’s closing slot was widely regarded as an unorthodox decision, but he stuck to his guns and stood by the oddball prog-funkers, who didn’t fail to deliver the goods when they hit the stage. Tool – which would go on to become one of the biggest alternative acts of the late 90s – began as a second stage draw, but was moved to the main stage, a place they’d be seeing again in the coming years.
With the term “alternative” expanding to include a growing range of music, including hip-hop and roots rock, Lollapalooza kept pace, recruiting the festival’s most diverse stable of artists up to that point, including the multi-talented hip-hoppers Arrested Development, indie-folk darlings Sebadoh, and Sonic Youth’s legendary lead man, Thurston Moore.
Main stage opener Rage Against The Machine stole the show as the festival’s “breakout" act, both for their energetic, politically charged performances and some full frontal controversy. Faced with criticism by the Parents Music Resource Center over what the group deemed “objectionable” content, the band took the stage in their birthday suits at Lolla’s Philly date to protest. Tipper Gore was not amused.