Lollapalooza Goes Down – Again

By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted June 29, 2004.

"Our plight is a true indication of the general health of the touring industry and it is across musical genres...We are taking Lollapalooza back and plan on rebuilding and recreating the festival in surroundings more conducive to the cultural experience we've become known for." – Perry Farrell

In 1997, Lollapalooza – Perry Farrell's alternative music and lifestyle road show – shut down after a strong seven-year run. The traveling festival ended on a dissonant note, squeezing underwhelming bands like Prodigy, Korn, The Orb, and Orbital onto the stage that once housed giants like Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, Wu Tang Clan, Ice Cube and the Beastie Boys.

The tour was revived in 2003 with a lackluster lineup – with Farrell's Jane's Addiction, supergroup Audioslave, Jurassic 5 and the Donnas headlining. The reduced starpower contributed to weak ticket sales, but Farrell still carried the torch: Fast forward to 2004, and Lollapalooza seemed to be burning bright.

Farrell and company believed, some would argue rightly so, that a line-up consisting of the Pixies, Morrissey, PJ Harvey, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth (again) and Wilco would be enough to get iPod Nation up off its recliners this summer. Apparently, they guessed wrong. Lollapalooza 2004, citing million dollar losses and anemic sales, had to pull up stakes on the two-month, cross-country sonic spree.

Whether or not this is a massive bummer depends on whom you're talking to. If you're talking to the MTV-addled bubble-poppers who've made tired Gs like 50 Cent and Us Weekly-selling starlets like J.Lo into platinum superstars, well, they'll get over it. And if you're talking post-slackers that helped explode alternative music through the Lollapalooza aorta since the festival took its first breath in 1991, it seems that they might not have the economic clout they had in the '90s.

But whomever you're talking to, either they're not interested, not aware, or not in possession of the ample funds it takes to gain access to a festival concert these days. As Perry notes above, the health of the touring industry is bordering on convalescent, and it's not just Lollapalooza that has breathed its last gasp. Last year, the diverse indie rock festival All Tomorrow's Parties – curated by Matt Groening (you may remember him from such hit TV shows as The Simpsons or Futurama) and featuring compelling acts like Patti Smith, The Breeders, Nick Cave and a host of innovative bands – had to cancel its Los Angeles date due to sluggish ticket sales.

Not all is lost when it comes to blockbuster package tours. Vans Warped is still going comparatively strong, and it's landing in just as many cities as Lollapalooza. But Vans Warped, as the name implies, is heavily sponsored; everyone from big guns like Vans, Hurley, MTV and Dodge to small fries like Slim Jim, Ernie Ball and Hot Topic are lending their weight and support to the skateboarding phenomenon. Plus, with what looks like – according to the event's official site – around 200 bands along for the ride, most of them skewed to a much younger demographic, they're arguably giving more bang for your buck.

But demographics don't tell the whole story. Consider OzzFest, which is still going strong – though Ozzy Osbourne himself has been running on empty for years and his TV show is a shadow of its former self. If critics of Lolla think Sonic Youth and The Pixies are too old, then how to explain the attraction of OzzFest's 2004 headliner, a reunited Black Sabbath? They've got the Pixies beat by two decades in the age category. True, OzzFest remains relevant by lumping in younger acts like Slipknot, Hatebreed and others, but their main stage acts in 2004 – Sabbath, Judas Priest and Slayer – reads like a headbanger's history book.

Scott Thill, a media fanatic who finds the time to write on everything that does not include the words boy band, is a gainfully employed dot.com editor currently looking for some lunatic to publish his first novel, 'The Dangerous Perhaps'.

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