This past weekend I toughed it out at another Lollapalooza. Unlike last year I attempted to limit my time among the masses. I hung out most of Friday afternoon but I skipped Radiohead, Saturday I went down just to see Rage Against The Machine, and then on Sunday I attempted to get as close to the stage as possible for Nine Inch Nails.
Friday was by far the hottest day and I believe I paid the price the rest of the weekend for being there at noon. I managed to see Rogue Wave, Cat Power and a couple other bands from a distance before calling it a day.
On Saturday I didn’t head down until about 5pm where I I basically waited to see Rage Against the Machine. We took Barbone’s advice and stayed about halfway back in the massive crowd. About 10 minutes into the set Zack de la Rocha stopped playing and began asking the crowd to take 5-10 steps back. This happened two more times during the set which all the while people were walking past us to get closer to the stage.
Needless to say they were awesome and it was insane. The ground actually shook.
By Sunday I was nursing an infected/swollen knee from a Kickball injury so I decided to take my time getting down to the park, arriving at 1pm. When I got there I headed right for the NIN stage and got about 2 people back from the barrier. With the sun blaring I began to wait. Of course the other bands on this stage were nothing I cared to see and I was surrounded by 17-21 year girls who were ‘swooning’ over the John Butler and his trio. I made it through half of Iron and Wine when I came to the realization there was no way I was going to make it until 8pm with the amount of water I had on hand. Plus my knee was beginning to ooze.
I headed to the food stand to get the ever elusive lemonade and came up empty handed again. Taking my sweat tea, I headed to the First Aid tent to get a new set of bandages for my knee. After that I headed over to see Saul Williams for about 45 minutes. Saul Williams’ band was in costume, I think the keyboard was dressed as Blackula. After most of his set I worked my way back up to the NIN stage about 10 yards from where I was in the earlier. Love and Rockets came on and considering what I had already seen on that stage they were pretty good.
After they finished I followed the flow of humanity towards the stage. It was so packed you could hardly move. NIN came on at just after 8pm and the crowd rushed about 10 feet forward. I will believe until they day I die that at least 25 people spontaneously combusted. There is no other explanation for what happend. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to stay on my feet all the while I watched 17-22 year old girls with sheer horror in their eyes. They had neither the ability to push back nor to get out. They were at the mercy of the crowd. I began working my way to the back, via a steady but precise back pedaled. The whole time avoiding small mosh pits. The only thing I can compare it to is the scene at the train station in 28 Days Later where the rage virus breaks out in the crowd. Basically you could see it in peoples eyes.
This is what Nine Inch Nails felt like:
*Side Note:
The rest of my photographs from the shows are on flickr.
