Monday, July 18, 2011
While there were some technical difficulties at Phoenix's not-at-all lamented concert venue Compton Terrace that day (including Nine Inch Nails storming off the stage as the heat melted their electronics), today marks the twentieth anniversary of the first stop of the 1991 Lollapalooza tour, with headliners Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, among others. MTV's 120 Minutes was there to speak to some of the bands, but they didn't really capture the absurd heat, cognitive dissonance of seeing some of these bands perform in the middle of the afternoon, and the eventual overwhelming wave of body odor. While the festival transitioned to a multi-day event held only in Chicago, there isn't much left from the early heyday of alternative music and the current incarnation is impeccably run, so it's nice that the brand still has some value.
Tags: lollapalooza , compton terrace , nine inch nails , first lollapalooza , rollins band , 120 minutes , Video