From Meghan--

I remembered that I kept a journal that year of the first Lollapolooza and decided to dig it up, just to see what I had written. I'm now going to share this with you. What the hell. Please bear in mind that back then I was a goofy little 20 year old. I went all three days...

LOLLAPOLOOZA IRVINE MEADOWS, DAY ONE...(exactly as it appears in my journal)
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It was REALLY hot, which was hard to endure at times, but started cooling off by the time Ice-T got on stage. Here's the rundown:

Rollins Band--pretty good if you like punk, adolescent angst. The one lyric I really liked was , "Believe me when I tell you, life won't break your heart, it'll CRUSH it"

Butthole Surfers--totally lackluster

Ice-T & Body Count--Liked the music, but his message sucked.

NIN--Great! Can't wait to see them again

Siouxsie--She sounded great. Cool lights.

Jane's Addiction--AWESOME. Probably the best concert I've ever seen. Total power, pure energy. Great set, excellent lights, awesome dancers, just incredible. Everyone sang along. Great sense of worship and community. They did: Three Days (made me cry!), Stop! (excellent!), Been Caught Stealing (not as pop-y live), Summertime Rolls (encore, fabulous), Mountain Song(INCREDIBLE), opened with Whores, Trip Away, Ocean Size (powerful!), Had a Dad (great), Standing..., Ted, Ain't No Right, and Of Course (lovely!). Hoping to hear Jane Says, Classic Girl, Then She Did, and I Would For You. It was just totally incredible. There were 5 bonfires and 3 big slam pits. Perry looked great. And a naked man running around.

TUESDAY July 23 ( I think) I can't believe we get to go again! And have SEATS!

...Tonight was one of the most profound nights of my life. Watching Jane's Addiction tonight, I realized that I was witnessing history...Everyone loved Siousxsie, but Jane's just pulled out the stops and BURNED. It's hard to gush over the show when it was really the encore that killed me. It was "Classic Girl"--getting tears in my eyes right now--They played the video in the background...The one lyric, my favorite lyric, "They may say...those were the days...but in a way, you know, for us these are the days...yeah, for us these are the days..." just floored me. I was crying and sobbing.
It was moving and beautiful and touching and SAD. Sad that the band I have MOST CLOSELY identified with is over. Sad that the only person from my generation I deemed "my hero" is quitting. Sad that the most visionary, prophetic, and honest band out of LA is breaking up. It's all so depressing and heavy and distressing.
Jane's Addiction really went unnoticed in the music community. They weren't talked about enough. They were truly breaking new ground & only a handful of people recognized it Which is really a shame because they have a point and a vision. It's too bad that their contribution and importance will only be discovered AFTER it's all over.

NEXT DAY

YAE!!! We scored ORCHESTRA TICKETS!!

...It was fabulous. Of course Jane's was AWESOME. They encored with Jane Says --cried my eyes out. Realized that it was a year and a half ago that I really got in to them & they were still relatively unknown, and here they were, a year and a half later, major and famous. Chip Away--KILLER-Dave, Eric, and Stephen on percussion, Perry singing--INTENSE! It was all totally great. 14th row! There's so much that I want to say about it, their last LA show, but I just don't how to do it.

* What has stayed with me most over the years is something I failed to write about.
It was during and just after the line, "All now...with wings". The soul of the whole audience lifted up and floated away. I swear to you. You could actually feel spirits rising and going out of bodies. Every single person there was on the exact same wavelength, 100% in to the song. I've never experienced anything like it before or since. A genuinely transcendental moment. Powerful like I can't even describe.

God, I miss this band.

--Meghan


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