Greetings from Laurel Canyon!
As I recall, it was a hot summer’s day in 1990 that I got a call from Perry Farrell. He and Casey, his longtime girlfriend and creative partner were in an editing room working on their film “The Gift.” Perry sounded completely stoned. I remember thinking “and I thought I was strung out … this guy is wacked!”
What I thought was so wacked was Perry's description of a “utopian” rock festival he called Lollapalooza. Right off the bat I loved the name. He wanted to work together creating a tent, a psychedelic circus of sorts, that would go hand in hand with a stage featuring our generation of bands. I loved his dream and sarcastically suggested he take a few more “hits” and keep this “Lolla-whatever” nod going.
I’ll be dammed, but a year later I drove up to the Lollapalooza stage in my Chevy Impala convertible and dumped Gibby Haynes right into a Buthole Surfers set. Perry’s dream turned into a grungy explosion and launched a bunch of our friends into stardom.
Many of those band’s moments have come and gone but it seems Perry and MWA have done a cool job revitalizing Lollapalooza. What became a bit of an over-commercialized bummer now feels like a well thought out rock festival whose festival grounds and diverse line up competes with any world-wide. Welcome back Soundgarden and The Strokes! Arcade Fire playing their brilliant new album, MGMT and tons more.
Perry, you keep dreaming brother!
xosidealer
idelicsounds.com | @sidelic
The Idelic Hit of the Week:
Young Blood - The Naked & Famous
