July 1993, Lakewood Amphitheater, Atlanta, Ga.
I’ll just come out and say it: I missed Rage Against the Machine. I was late leaving and when I got there, the band just left the stage. At the time I wasn’t too disappointed, I didn’t think Rage would be all that good in a live setting (yes, I’m an idiot), except people kept talking about what had just happened even as Tool took the stage. I have several musical regrets, and this is one of them.
If only Primus could be first, that’s a band I enthrall in missing.
I was working at a small paper in Georgia at the time, and somehow wrestled a press pass for the third installment of Perry Farrell’s great musical carnival. It was an eclectic mix of performers, some I’ve seen before (Arrested Development, Fishbone), some I was curious about (Front 242, Alice in Chains) and one I didn’t care about at all (Primus). Primus, made a headliner with Alice in Chains by Farrell for some ungodly reason, was the last band of the night.
Did I leave two songs into their show? Yes, yes I did.
My snippets of thoughts on the day:
- Tool was great, but still somehow overshadowed by the Rage performance I DID NOT GET TO SEE (yes, still bothers me). My only issue was the daytime setting — Tool is a band you must see when it’s dark, perhaps in a gloomy setting, where the music can capture the environment. It was July in Atlanta, somewhere around 2 p.m., and it was hot. Tool was proficient and lively, but I just didn’t feel it.
- Front 242, an electronic band from Belgium, wasn’t much to see on the stage, but the music rocked. The band released a pair of albums earlier in the year — 06:21:03:11 Up Evil (or Fuck Up Evil) and 05:22:09:12 Off (Evil Off) — and used their set for a rollicking run of hard-core electronic dance music. The bass was amazing, so much so I remember someone from Arrested Development making a note of it when they came on stage. I wasn’t sure what Front 242 would be like, but I can remember them clear as day 21 years later.
- It was a home show for Arrested Development, who were in all their glory on this day. The many band members flooded the stage, and had the crowd engaged and singing along. The band had only one album to its credit (1992’s 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of…), though an Unplugged album came out earlier in 1993, showing another rap group employing a full band onstage to showcase their music. Speech was one of the better rappers I’ve ever seen.
- Speaking of frontmen, Angelo Moore (aka Dr. Madd Vibe) of Fishbone is a non-stop, hilarious and frantic singer who makes the stage a play toy. Let me say this about Fishbone: If you’re having a party, it’s not really a party unless you play “Party at Ground Zero”. The band’s mixture of rock, ska, reggae and punk makes for one of the greatest sounds. This is not, as Angelo repeats, a swing.
- So I didn’t see Dinosaur Jr., either, making my way to the side stage to see Mutabaruka, an old-school reggae artist with deep roots and strong political leanings. I’ve been able to see many great reggae acts perform (some I will get to), and watching Mutabaruka with not more than 100 people was one of the best. The guy is a fucking poet.
- In the realm of grunge, Alice in Chains was not of my liking, but man were they good live. Layne Staley was a frontman for the ages, and the band produced a sound that simply went through you like a constant gush of hot wind. At this point of the show I managed to move not far from the stage, and when the band hit the chorus of Would?, my body actually braced itself. And yes, “Rooster” was AMAZING live. How the fuck does Primus follow this? Who thought that was a good idea?
- Sure people love Primus. Fuck Primus.
It was a full day, the drive back home to Milledgeville was tiring but there was plenty to talk about. And we beat the traffic out, which was the only thing Primus has ever been good for.
