Like Whatever
All things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever
Lolla Past My Bedtime-Alooza
Are you ready to dive into the unforgettable world of Gen X nostalgia? In this episode, we explore the beautiful chaos of growing up through personal stories, memories of childhood arcades, and the wild days of musical festivals. Join us for a rollercoaster ride as we reflect on the laughter and confusion that made our youth so unique. What's more, we take an unexpected turn into the darkly fascinating world of the Zizians cult—an elusive group that blends technology, veganism, and radical beliefs in a way that will leave you both amused and puzzled.
Throughout our conversation, we shine a spotlight on the legendary Lollapalooza festival. With its roots deeply entrenched in the alternative music scene of the '90s, this festival not only showcased iconic bands but also represented the broader cultural shifts of our generation. We recount our own experiences at this eclectic celebration of music and art, filling the airwaves with nostalgia and knowing laughter.
As we navigate these themes, we encourage you, our listeners, to tune into the wild memories that reflect our shared Gen X experiences. Expect heartfelt stories, some serious discussions, and plenty of laughs along the way. You won't want to miss this nostalgic journey filled with themes ranging from music and friendship to bizarre cultural phenomena.
So, don’t just listen! We invite you to engage with us—share your own memories, thoughts, and stories as we foster a community that values our quirky and unforgettable past. Tune in, subscribe, share, and don’t forget to leave a review on your favorite podcast platforms! #genx #90s #lollapalooza #grunge
Two best friends. We're talking the past, from mistakes to arcades. We're having a blast.
Speaker 2:Teenage dreams, neon screens, it was all rad and no one knew me Like you know. It's like whatever. Together forever, we're never gonna sever Laughing and sharing our stories forever. We'll take you back. It's like whatever.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Like Whatever a podcast for, by and about Gen X. I'm Nicole and this is my BFF, heather. Hello, so I have something that I heard on the news today that I want to talk about. Okay, but I am dying to hear about the Americas. Oh my gosh, it was so good and.
Speaker 1:I'm so mad because I have been looking forward to it for weeks and I forgot about it. And you text me at like 812. And I was like, well, I don't want to put it on now, like I'll just catch it in a rerun somewhere.
Speaker 2:But it was awesome, I'll just catch it and earn a rerun somewhere, but it was awesome. Do you have Peacock? Yeah, it's on Peacock now. Okay, it is. I watched the first two. I missed the third one and I haven't watched them yet, but the first one, the one I mean first of all, it's Tom Hanks. Yeah, so yeah. Second of all, I guess it's the same people that did planet earth.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, um, it's the one I did watch all the way through, was in the chesapeake oh, very cool yeah so it was, and it was a bald eagle, and this bald eagle mean the ospreys came back and, like I, lived here my whole life. I know I've lived at the beach, I know the ospreys come and go and I know what I know everything about. I don't know everything about them, but I know about the ospreys. I didn't think about the fact that eagles and ospreys were not compatible, because when I grew up we didn't have any bald eagles at the beach. I don't think we still have them there, right they're inland yeah, and we?
Speaker 1:I don't think we had any around here at all.
Speaker 2:Now they're everywhere, yeah, so I don't know. It was just really cool, it was very well done. The shots a lot of the shots are just fucking amazing. They're just beautiful and I cannot wait to watch. The only thing I don't like about it and I don't like about all those nature shows I understand it's the circle of life. I know what is prey and I know what are predators and I know how it's going to go, but I don't want to see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I know where my burger comes from. I just don't want to watch it happen. Yeah, I just want to pet a cow and then eat a hamburger. I don't want those two worlds to collide. So that's the one thing I hate about watching those shows.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I highly recommend it. It was stunning Good.
Speaker 1:That's good to know. I will watch it. So my thing this week I was listening to the news and there is a new cult story in the news. Have you heard of them?
Speaker 2:I have the Zizians. I've heard of them for a couple of weeks now. They did it on last podcast on the left, oh, okay. We've been talking about it for a couple weeks now.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep. So I pulled this information from the Associated Press so I'll read to you real quick, in case you haven't heard of it. The apparent leader of a cult-like group known as the Zizians was arrested in Maryland, along with another member of the group. Am I saying it right, zizians? Yes, okay, jack Lasoda, 34 years old, was arrested Sunday along with Michelle Zizieko, 33, of Media Pennsylvania, which is another thing that's cool about this, because Maryland and Pennsylvania are our neighbors, so kind of close.
Speaker 1:They face multiple charges, including trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and possession of a handgun in the vehicle. The Zizians have been tied to the killing of US Border Patrol agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January I remember very vividly when that happened and five other homicides in Vermont, pennsylvania and California. Mayland, 44, was killed in a January 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, vermont, a small town about 20 miles from the Canadian border. Officials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation which broke open after the January 20th shooting death of Maland.
Speaker 1:Associated press interviews and a review of the court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, met online, shared anarchist beliefs and became increasingly violent. You gotta watch out for the smart ones. Their goals aren't clear, but online writing spanned topics from radical veganism and gender identity to artificial intelligence. But the thing that caught my ear when I was listening to it on the news was they called them tech-savvy vegans, and I don't know why, but it made me belly roll for like 15 minutes Like I would forget, and then I'd remember again and bust out laughing like tech savvy vegans, just you know, sorry, I can never.
Speaker 2:There's no way I could be a vegan because I don't eat vegetables, so that would be I would die. I don't think you, so that would be, I would die. I don't think you can just live on carrots and broccoli, I just, oh, you know vegans. Having had restaurant experience for the past 40 years has really made me hate vegans a lot. Give it to them, they are just.
Speaker 1:Sorry, Continuing on. At the middle of it all is Ziz, who appears to be the leader of the strange group members who call themselves Zizians. She has been seen near multiple crime scenes and has connections to various suspects. Lasoda published a dark and sometimes violent blog under the name Ziz and in one section described her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and often desire to kill each other.
Speaker 1:Mind you Mine do Losota, who used she her pronouns and in her writing says she is a transgender woman, railed against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups which operate mostly online and seek to understand human cognition through reason and knowledge. Some are concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and knowledge.
Speaker 2:Some are concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. So, okay, I love a good cult, I do. Yeah, absolutely, I just love a good cult. Although I still cannot wrap my head around how someone I don't either, but whatever, mostly because I am so anti things that like if everybody likes it, then I'm gonna be like I've never seen harry potter because everybody likes it and I refuse to watch it because I don't care yeah, you don't like being told what to do.
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't, so straight out the gate.
Speaker 2:I I would not be good in a cult Because I would be like I'm just not doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:No, that's dumb.
Speaker 2:So and then you add on to it that they're vegan. Like, I am way out at that point.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I mean, I get the artificial. Look, I don't want artificial intelligence either.
Speaker 1:I'm not. Yeah, I know I sound very old when I say this, but it kind of creeps me out a little bit. It's yeah. Like, some of the little things you've been doing with the podcast are kind of neat and fun, yeah, but whew, some of the stuff yeah, even I am dipping my toe further in the AI than I really would like to.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's for the sake of the podcast for you people.
Speaker 2:You're such a trooper. Yeah, I just I don't, I don't know. And then I think the other problem is, you know, current with the way the world not the world the United States is currently you, you have to think to yourself that poor transgender community is just like oh fuck, are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 1:right now. Yeah, we've just finally started making a little headway.
Speaker 2:Now you want to do this, like now is what you want to do. That's the part I have the biggest problem with. I just feel bad. The transgender community gets so much shit anyway, and then you got to throw this on top of it.
Speaker 1:And now everybody's going be like see, yeah, we told you, they were dangerous, even though.
Speaker 2:People are dangerous, like it's just exactly. Anybody can be dangerous anywhere in the world, any color of skin and anyone. Anybody you worship, I mean you're all dangerous like it's.
Speaker 1:There are small children that are dangerous. Okay, it happens Fuck yeah, so I don't know, yeah, yeah, so yeah, it just kind of caught my eye and I just kind of wanted to share, because you know cults are fun and I knew you'd have opinions, so I wanted to know what you had to say too.
Speaker 2:I have strong opinions on pretty much everything. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So anything else you would like to share?
Speaker 2:No, that would be it, oh wait, I did One more thing about the Americas because I looked on my phone and I remember I wrote down what I wanted to talk about. Just one more thing they had the cactus with arms. Oh yes, when Nicole and I went to Sedona, the one thing on the whole world that I wanted to do was touch a cactus with arms. Sbarro cactus, I don't know what that is Cactus with arms.
Speaker 2:You all know what a cactus with arms is. We did find some on our trip from Phoenix to Sedona, and they're literally everywhere, like just on the side of the road and stuff, just like a tree, so we pull over. And then that do you remember, when we got followed by that person, because I guess we were probably on somebody's property.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I just wanted you to remember that we probably could have gotten killed. Yeah, yeah, well, it wasn't the only time. Remember that we probably could have gotten killed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, it wasn't the only time that triplet could have gotten killed. No, like driving on the edge of a mountain in the pitch black and around the curve and there's elk just standing there in the middle of the road and we were in a Prius. That elk could have stepped on us and we arrived there late at night so we it's not like we had seen what anything looked like during the day, which it was far more terrifying when we saw the next day what we were actually driving on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah, obviously we survived, yeah and I touched a cactus with arms and that's all I really give a shit about yes yes, cactus with arms are fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, that's all okay. Um, so this week let's fuck around and find out about Lollapalooza. We'll talk about 1991, when it started, but the real reason for me doing this is 1992, because that's the year I went. Which, learning all of this, I picked the right year. When Lollapalooza began in 1991, it was supposed to signify an ending. Founder Perry Farrell started the festival, which traveled over 20 spots across North America in its first year as a means for Jane's addiction to celebrate their career and say goodbye to their fans on a high, which I just think is such a cool idea. Like I don't even know if I I'm sure I've heard that somewhere along the way, but I still think it's cool. Farrell claimed that he chose the festival's name, an archaic word meaning extraordinarily impressive, after he heard the word used in a Three Stooges film Interesting, that sounds very Perry Farrell-ish. Its first edition all those years ago was much smaller than the festival is now, with only seven acts on the bill versus over 100 today, but it represented the artists like Suzy and the Banshees.
Speaker 2:Oh damn.
Speaker 1:Nine Inch Nails I've seen them twice. Body Count, who existed outside of the status quo. Lollapalooza didn't just bring music with it, though, with the lineup bolstered by art, alternative freak shows, Shaolin monks and political and environmental rallying rounding it out as a cultural spectacular, not just a music festival. As the then two-day event continued through the mid-90s, it coincided with alternative rock achieving mainstream status, pushed to the front by a rising wave of grunge artists. Nirvana was in talks to headline in 1994, but pulled out in April of that year, a day before Kurt Cobain was founded. I remember that day before Kurt Cobain was founded.
Speaker 2:I remember that day that Kurt Cobain Mm-hmm, do you?
Speaker 1:remember it? Yes, so I was living in Dover with my ex-husband. It was our first place. It was a tiny little efficiency apartment in the basement of apartments I remember. I don't even think it was really supposed to be an apartment. But yeah, we were watching MTV and it came across and I cried oh man. Yeah, I was far more emotional back then. I don't cry anymore now.
Speaker 2:I think it was two months after. I lost a friend to suicide two months before that.
Speaker 1:So yep, yep, and that's right, because it was winter time it was february, yeah february 22nd.
Speaker 1:Rest in peace. Um, by the time 1997 came around, farrell was no longer involved in the running of the festival and rock was back on a decline. The festival went on hiatus after the 1997 edition. Six years later, jane's Addiction reunited and returned to the road, reviving Lollapalooza, as they did so In 2003,. It still took the format of a touring festival but would hit the road for the last year. After the festival was canceled in 2004 for poor ticket sales, farrell and his team revamped the event, turning it into the Destination Festival and taking up residence in Chicago's Grant Park. In Lollapalooza's time away, the music industry had changed. The so-called major markets in the US were big. Audiences were practically guaranteed. Major markets in the us were big, audiences were practically guaranteed. Uh were dwindling. Making a touring festival less and less financial sense.
Speaker 2:make less and less financial sense I guess that's when all the fireflies and all that yeah, um, I didn't I don't think.
Speaker 1:I put it in here because I didn't want to get too much into current Lollapalooza, because nobody cares about current. Lollapalooza, but it did mention, like, the rise of Coachella and things like that had an effect on it.
Speaker 2:Because Ocean's Calling just put theirs out. Oh, I want to go Friday. So bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really not a bad lineup. It's bands I would like to see.
Speaker 2:Friday I would 100% want to see all the bands like Cake. I mean, come on For real. And Saturday? I wouldn't mind. Sunday didn't appeal to me at all. Is Dave Matthews on there again?
Speaker 1:I don't remember, I don't think so, I don't know, I don't remember, I don't like Dave Matthews. No. No, any particular reason. No, any particular reason. No, okay.
Speaker 2:I just don't like him.
Speaker 1:Well, my husband really likes him and has seen him numerous times. He used to be that hippie guy that I mean he didn't follow him around, but he saw him a lot and I would like to see him with him, just because he likes him so much. I think that might be fun. But yeah, I could give or take his music.
Speaker 2:I don't think he was on the lineup this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't think so either.
Speaker 1:All right, so the first Lollapalooza lineup in 1991, the year I graduated high school. The lineup for the original Lollapalooza included some Pretty Choice X. True to its alternative roots, the original 1991 Lollapalooza included Jane's Addiction, nine Inch Nails, susie and the Banshees, butthole Surfers Ugh, I know, living Color, ice-t, henry Rollins and Henry Rollins Band.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I know when was I in 91?. I would Band oh my God, I know when was I in 91?.
Speaker 1:I would have not 11th grade. I would not have gone.
Speaker 2:Just put that right out there. It wouldn't have mattered if they were giving money away, I wouldn't have gone.
Speaker 1:It was revolutionary, as the genre wasn't known for mainstream events, even with its rising popularity. The original poster for the 1991 festival tour included the following quote the quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven. Yeah, sounds like something he thought up on an acid trip, but it sounded kind of cool. Definitely sounds like drugs were involved.
Speaker 1:But it sounded kind of cool. Definitely sounds like drugs were involved. A couple little fun facts about that. First year Jane's Addiction missed their real farewell the Reading Festival, after Farrell got too sick to perform. Oh, here, I did put it. I do this all the time and I swear I read this one like three times. This time I had a time because I'm like I am not giving quality material here. I need to really like know what I'm doing. Oh Jesus, all right. Like Coachella, lollapalooza was inspired by British music festivals like the Reading Festival. Gibby Haynes, frontman for the Butthole Surfers, fired blanks from a shotgun over the crowd during their set at the 1991 Festival. That's smart.
Speaker 1:If that isn't a Butthole Surfers 1991 music festival thing. Oh my gosh, If somebody did that now they'd get gunned down in a second.
Speaker 2:Now I have that damn song stuck in my head.
Speaker 1:God, god, sorry. Nine Inch Nails was performing with humble duct-taped gear in 1991, and their chords actually melted in the 100-degree Arizona sun.
Speaker 2:Now I did see Nine Inch Nails in 91. I do know that. Did I see them in 91? I saw them twice Before you graduated high school. You saw them. I want to say yes, because I saw the cure before I graduated high school.
Speaker 1:I didn't see the cure until I was like 19 or 20.
Speaker 2:I went to like my mom bought me tickets to the same night as my senior prom. I remember that and I thought she was going to have a meltdown about it.
Speaker 1:You were like yes, and I thought she was going to have a meltdown about it. You were like, yes, she was like you have to go to your prom.
Speaker 2:And I was like nobody there likes me, I don't want to go. We argued and argued and then she was like oh, heather, I got you a present Tickets to the cure and I looked at it and I was like ha-ha, night of the prom.
Speaker 1:So I spent my prom night with Robert Smith and the boys Poor Patty, I know. All right, so now we're going to get to 1992, the one I really want to talk about. So once he got out in front of the people, Farrell saw that, even if his band wouldn't continue, there was a future in Lollapalooza. That being said, he also realized that if he went out again with the exact same sort of setup, the counterculture would rise up to denounce the whole thing as an empty cash grab. If he really wanted Lollapalooza to succeed, he would have to top the original in every way, shape and form, and that meant going bigger, much bigger. That's why I say I picked the right year to go, Because you know the first year was small and that would have been awesome to say you were there Right.
Speaker 2:And I feel like I mean I would have loved to see Susie, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But I'm looking ahead and I can already see who I'm going to be upset that I didn't go see Okay.
Speaker 1:To begin with, farrell decided that, rather than limiting Lollapalooza to a single main stage, he would also bring out a second side stage on the road, allowing more bands to join the tour. The art display would become even more elaborate, including something called the Rhythm Beast, a sort of interactive sound sculpture. Boos were set up to sell everything from artists' merch and fried foods to temporary tattoos and books. You could even bungee jump on site for a mere $79 a ride no, thank you which was more than twice the price of the ticket.
Speaker 2:Well, it's hella dangerous.
Speaker 1:And I do remember, you know, I think that was really my first exposure to like merchandise booze and I was just like wide eyed, like so much cool stuff I had never seen before, like you saw it on TV, and you're like where do people get that stuff? Because we're from the country, all the stage dressing and activities wouldn't have meant a damn thing, of course, if Farrell couldn't assemble a compelling lineup, and in that regard he came through in spades, I'll say Pearl Jam, sound Garden, heather hates Pearl Jam.
Speaker 2:Look Okay, unpopular opinion, I know, and looking at me and knowing me, you would think you're nuts. I do not like Pearl Jam.
Speaker 1:I think I have a lot to do with that you 100%. It's have a lot to do with that, you 100%.
Speaker 2:It's not a lot, it's all. So she played 10 over and over and over and over. I do like one Pearl.
Speaker 1:On a cassette tape.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I can sing every Pearl Jam song ever done, because radio at the time played it anyway. So I know the words and I just, I, still, I still can't get down with them. Soundgarden Kind of feel the same way about Soundgarden because it sounds exactly like Pearl Jam to me. The Chili Peppers I never was a fan of the Chili.
Speaker 1:Peppers. I love the Chili Peppers.
Speaker 2:I just think I wasn't a grunge fan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is true, you were a more alternative. Yeah, and heavier.
Speaker 2:I either went like way lighter, like the cure of the smiths lionel richie, but the cure of the smiths depeche mode I went yeah, I went that way. Or, ministry, nine inch nails like I? There was no, I don't think I like the in between, yeah, but I mean I do like rage and I don't know, yep, so, yeah, so after ministry yeah, he is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ice cube, uh, the jesus and mary chain lush, which I love. I like lush. They were, like some of the first, like electronic kind of. It was like fantasy electronic?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:Her voice was just beautiful. Cypress Hill, house of Pain, ice-t Porno for Pyros, luscious Jackson and the Stone Temple Pilots were among the bands who rocked Lake Fairfax Park that day, because that's where I saw it. Some of the lineups did vary by city but I only included the ones that I wanted to see, so let's go through the lineup.
Speaker 2:Fuck everything else, screw you if you didn't go and don't know who was on there.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I went in August of 92, which would have been weeks before I met you. Yes, because I probably actually wasn't even a week before I met you, because it was August 14. And we would have moved into UD.
Speaker 2:I moved in Memorial Day or Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 1:Oh, because I'm not till September.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was a freshman, so we moved in earlier than oh yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:I. It was my first time living on campus but I did my first year remote, so I was a sophomore. Um, yeah, so pearl jam. So that's probably why I was just like head over heels for them, because I had seen them and I have always had a big crush on eddie vetter. She has sound garden, I can honestly say it makes me kind of sad because he's passed away, but I don't remember a lot about His voice is fucking amazing.
Speaker 2:It is I will give you that I just I don't care for Temple of the Dog. I just don't think I care for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, I can sing it All right. So I, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, closed out the day. Ministry played before them. The place was muddy as fuck. I think I had long lost my shoes because I just wore sandals. That sounds awful. Oh my gosh In the heat of the summer.
Speaker 1:Literally felt like you were walking in squishy clay. It was really weird walking in disgusting squishy clay. Like it was really weird, yeah, so. So, ministry, we are literally in the mosh pit, like on the outer edge. Like on the outer edge where you're still getting hit but you're not in it. Because I wanted to be up front for the chili peppers. And in my head I'm thinking if I can survive, ministry, this close, I'll be, fine for the chili peppers.
Speaker 1:So ministry ends, we live, survive, get through that. And I'm just with my friend Sammy and she is just. I mean, I was tiny back then, she was tinier. So we are right up front for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They come out out, they opened with uh, breaking the girl, which is my favorite chili pepper song.
Speaker 1:Um, and we instantly got crushed like I have never been so scared in my life, like, and people were trying to pick like my friend up because she was little and everybody rode the crowd back then. Yeah, and she's like grabbing a hold of me to try to avoid getting hoisted up and lost in the crowd, right, so we end up in the middle of the very first song. We grab each other's hand, we put our heads down and we just started walking backwards and it probably took us 45 minutes to an hour to get out of that. I mean we're just hearing song after song. We finally get, because the crowd was huge. We finally get to the back of it. People are getting pissed at us because we're trying to push through, even though we're clearly having panic attacks. We make it all the way to the back and there were trash dumpsters back there. So we climbed up on top of a trash dumpster, way far away from the crowd, all the way back by the fence, and we sat there and we watched the rest of the show from there and we were never so happy to be alive.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, it was terrifying, I, yeah, I, because we had been going to accelerate. So ministry to me was as violent as it got. You know, like the kids in there would all go crazy, I. I got my kneecaps busted. That's probably what's wrong with my knees today. So I was like you know they're not going to be violent. Oh Lord, it was so scary. Anyway, next on the list turned out to be my surprise favorite of the day Ice Cube. I didn't know what to expect. Yeah, I was a young little white girl.
Speaker 1:I didn't know anything about this kind of music and it was the best fucking show maybe I've seen to this day, like amazing. So, yeah, that's where my love of hip hop started. Jesus and Mary Chain that's another one of those right in the middle there for you. I like some of their stuff, but I'm sure you're meh. Yeah, lush, I love you're meh. Um, cypress hill and house of pain I don't remember a lot about, but I wish I would have remembered house of pain since that was our-, that's our song.
Speaker 1:That's our theme song when we were in college and we'd go to the frat parties, the fake frat parties. Yeah, we would just go wander around and go into a basement and find a red cup and a keg, and when they ran out of beer we'd leave and go find a red cup.
Speaker 2:Okay, first of all, the one we went to. The beer was downstairs in the basement that they had done up like a dance.
Speaker 1:They had black lights and stuff.
Speaker 2:So that was the beer, and Nicole and one of her friends, because there was four of us that did everything together. So two of them went for the beer and two of us went upstairs where the grain lived Ugh, grain, yeah, and we had a lot of fruit punch, we did, and grain alcohol.
Speaker 1:And then we went in the basement and jumped to jump around.
Speaker 2:To jump around and had a good old time until the wee hours of the morning.
Speaker 1:Speaking of those two, when we were talking about Pearl Jam, it reminded me Remember when we would go to my friend's place in Pencator to get high Mm-hmm and he and one of our friends every time we'd go first. When he would hit the blunt he would cough every single time yes, he did Like aggressively. And then he would start every single time yes, he did Aggressively. And then he would start singing Evenflow, but he only knew the words Evenflow, so he would just keep going Evenflow, evenflow, every time. God.
Speaker 2:Those were the days.
Speaker 1:They were All right. Ice-t I remember him being good too, but didn't have the impression on me that Ice-Q did.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing about Ice-T that just cracks me the fuck up. No, is it Ice-T To have fucked the police? Mm-hmm yeah, and then he becomes a police officer on. Law and Order SVU.
Speaker 1:Weird and he's on car repair insurance. Well, you know, I love him. I love Coco. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Don't get me wrong, I love him.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, I know you do.
Speaker 2:I wonder how you go from fuck the police to playing one on TV. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I follow Coco on all the socials. She cracks me up and their kid is so cute. That kid is cute, looks just like him. Just like him but has the sass of Coco. Oh my gosh, it's hilarious Porno for Pyros, obviously.
Speaker 2:Did you like them? I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say I have to say yes because my husband has a Porn Over Byros tattoo on his back so yes, I loved Porn Over Byros.
Speaker 1:How about Luscious Jackson?
Speaker 2:I'd have to think about that.
Speaker 1:I like them. I have to think about what songs they had. It's not going to come. I can't get the words, though.
Speaker 2:And STP, again one I wish I had more memories about, since Again, I have to like them because my husband is huge and has told me I don't know 563,000 times that he saw STP and was up front and Scott looked at him in his eyes and they had a moment it's like me and Donnie Wahlberg and then he was dead, like three weeks later or something, I don't know. Oh my gosh, I've heard that story. I want to say once a month in the six years we have been together.
Speaker 2:Excuse me, Seven years we have been together. I have had to hear it the other day. He was like stp came on the, the serious satellite radio and he was like man and I was like, oh my god, no, no, I know, right up front he looked you in the eyes, oh, anyway, Tickets for the all-day show were $32.50.
Speaker 1:And I know that for sure because I still have my ticket stub, which is what prompted this.
Speaker 2:I want to see what that is in today's money. Okay, continue on while I work with that.
Speaker 1:And an estimated 25,000 fans showed up. That's a lot for back then. Pearl Jam, who were barely a year removed from their breakthrough record 10, were added to the tour. So were their Seattle cohorts. Soundgarden, ice Cube and Cypress Hill held it down for the hip-hop contingent. But Lollapalooza in 1992 was mostly about the alt-rock groups and bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers who were riding high on their fifth album Blood Sugar, sex Magic, what $350.
Speaker 2:God damn.
Speaker 1:Whew, that's crazy. I know that can't be right. I was rich back then Google lied to me, you. I was rich. Back then, google lied to me, I was so rich back then I did have disposable income. Let me look maybe it's a lie, but yeah, blood sugar sex magic is probably my favorite album of theirs, except under the bridge. I hate under the bridge so much. Probably the radio's fault.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I lied, it's $80. Oh okay, that's much more reasonable. Yeah, although Ocean's Calling is $175 a day, that's nuts, yeah.
Speaker 1:Lollapalooza 1992 kicked off with back-to-back blowout shows at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, about an hour south of San Francisco, on July 18th and 19th. For the next two months the festival wound its way across the entire country and some parts of Canada, hitting the Midwest, snaking over to New England, New York, then diving down south and shooting back over for three consecutive extravaganzas at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater just outside of LA. So I would have been right at the end of that tour, because they would have hit New York and went south. And man, something else I remember about that day. It was a car full of us and my friend's mom had the old style station wagon and that's what we all I mean. You were hippies no, and I have pictures from there too.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna have to dig them out. I was going through and looking for some old pictures and I found some good ones, some ones that gave me some uh ideas.
Speaker 2:But oh god yeah, some ideas, but oh, God, yeah, I don't have any pictures of my youth. I got rid of all of them. They're all gone, ay-yi-yi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't want to know. Along the way, pearl Jam burnished a reputation as one of the can't-miss high-flying live bands of their entire generation. Playing to people that you'd never played to before, it was like you know what we're going to play. We're going to take this to some level that people aren't going to forget. Lead singer Eddie Vedder said in the band's biography Pearl Jam 20. If that means risking your life to do something that they won't forget in some kind of adolescent evil Knievel way, we're going to do it. Vedder wasn't joking. The lead, the singer, regularly took his life into his own hands during their set, jumping into the crowd, climbing up tall sculptures and dangling precariously while watching the audience cheer him on from down below. It was utter madness, but it definitely left a big impression and I can definitely picture like 10 different times seeing eddie vetter I've never seen eddie vetter in concert, but I I know that he did that yeah yeah, hanging off the scaffolding was like the crazy ones, I mean it really.
Speaker 2:You can't understand a goddamn word. He says so yeah, so you can. You can mumble into a microphone from anywhere um.
Speaker 1:On the musical front, lead guitarist mike mccready regularly brought the house down soloing, soloing like a madman on his Fender Stratocaster, tossing in bits of classics like Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child into the middle of their own songs like Porch. Even though 10 was currently sitting in the top 10 on the Billboard album charts, pearl Jam were given a spot near the bottom of the bill, regularly hitting the stage sometime around 2 pm. A couple of weeks before the tour there was an opportunity for us to renegotiate not just the money but the time slot basis, jeff Ament recalled. But we were like nah, we don't want any added pressure to the situation Adding. We still have an absolute blast playing shows, but I don't know that we've ever had more fun on a tour. We were playing intense shows but within an hour I'd be playing basketball with Flea and Ice Cube, though there was good feelings between all of the acts on Lollapalooza that year. The key to this tour working is groups coexisting. Ice-t said If you take one group on this tour and they're assholes, they won't make it.
Speaker 1:There was an especially solid bond between Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. I think it was one of my favorite tours of my career because we shared a lot of camaraderie. Singer Chris Cornell recalled of Pearl Jam 20. Chris Cornell recalled of Pearl Jam 20. It's like your buddies you grew up with that. You played in front of 10 people with for years and now you're on tour together playing for 25,000 people, and it seems to mean something culturally. Soundgarden held it down in the afternoons as well, playing some of the hardest material of any band on the bill. Cornell was probably the best pure vocalist on the tour, as you said, uh, and regularly blew people away with his four octave instrument have you ever heard his version of billy jean?
Speaker 2:I don't know it's. It's beautiful. Okay, it's amazing. He slows it way down, like way it's really. I'll have to listen to it. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Nothing can quite prepare you for the utter savagery of songs like Outshined Jesus Christ Pose, Rusty Cage and Slaves and Bulldozers. In a nod to Ice-T, they also busted out a cover of his controversial song Cop Killer, Fuck the Pose. They also busted out a cover of his controversial song cop killer, just to show how tight they were. When vetter missed the bus from one gig to another in virginia, which could have been the one that I was like, that you could have picked up. Oh, can you imagine? Oh, my gosh. Uh cornell volunteered to fill in for him in pearl jam. While he was on stage just about to start singing, the Soundgarden frontman was interrupted by a vetter who managed to make it to the venue by hitchhiking out on the open highway. I love that story so much. With wide smiles on their faces, they launched into their Temple of the Dogs supergroup hit Hunger Strike. That song would get aired out live once again during Soundgarden's set at the show near their hometown in Bremerton, Washington, as well as during a few stints together acoustically, on the smaller side stage. As the headliners charged with closing the festival out, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were really up against it. At that exact moment they were still in the process of breaking in new guitarist Eric Marshall, who had the unenviable task of filling in for John Fouchiant, who had quit the band just a month or so before the tour started. It's a cosmically confusing, fucked up situation to lose a family member like that. Anthony Kiedis told Rolling Stone we didn't want it to happen. Emotionally it's very sad and disheartening, but that's what happened and we had to carry on. Despite the obstacles, the Chili Peppers held it together and put together incredible displays of funk rock wizardry for 90 minutes at a time on a nightly basis.
Speaker 2:That's too much Chili.
Speaker 1:Peppers yeah, especially when people are dying, getting crushed to death 90 minutes is just too much. It was nuts.
Speaker 2:They were good, though Once I got to the back I could actually I don't even think I could name off 90 minutes worth of red hot chili peppers. Oh, especially at that time. Because what blood sugar sex magic was that out? That was just out, that was just yeah.
Speaker 1:Mm, hmm. According to most accounts, the breakout star was ice cube, who made an incredible impression, backed by his group lunch mob, the suburban white kids that made up most of the crowds.
Speaker 2:Me.
Speaker 1:We're incredibly receptive to hearing the former NWA member burn the place down each night airing out materials from his three solo albums America's most wanted death certificate and theificate and the Predator. I didn't know what to expect, cube said, but when I did the first two or three songs and saw everybody was into it, I had to jump out into the crowd. The energy translated, even if the message of the song like the wrong end to fuck wit and how to Survive in South Central.
Speaker 2:While drinking your juice in the hood, went over their heads Fucking. Love that movie.
Speaker 1:It cracked me up when I first read the White Suburban Kids after I was just like, oh my God, I loved Ice Cube, but it sounds like he was into it so it's all good. Well, it's a whole new audience. Everybody had fun. Chris Cornell summed up what Lollapalooza was in those early days, probably better than anyone else, in an interview he gave to the metal magazine Kerrang that same year. I think it was the alternative culture coming together for a non-alternative audience to check out the great, unwashed mass of young kids raised on MTV, showing up by the thousands to praise their heroes and bang their heads, which is pretty much what it's remained ever since. The only thing that's really changed in the last 25 years really are the mediums which those kids consume pop culture and the bands who make up the bill, except the Chili Peppers, who have performed Lollapalooza three times since, including as recent as last year. They were pretty great then too. I don't know about that. So I just found like I went through and corrected all these because throughout a lot of what I read they're like the kids call it Lola, and I was so fucking annoyed with it and so I went into I went into my
Speaker 1:script and I corrected every lola and put in lalapalooza, but I missed one and I just found it. I was gonna say that says it right there and I'm very sad, but whatever, what lalapalooza 2 has proven is that there is a serious market for youth counterculture Counterculture. See, I was looking ahead that I had to say feral next, so it was counterculture, feral and I was like whew, that's a lot. Feral told Rolling Stones in 1992, the good news is that these people will sooner or later be in positions of prominence and we have taken them to school. Looking out at the landscape of festival culture as it exists in 2017, which is when this article was from, it's amazing how true that predictions turned out to be. See you all at Grant Park.
Speaker 2:So I did not. I don't even remember I'm going to be honest at Grant Park, so I did not. I don't even remember. I'm going to be honest. I remember vaguely Lollapalooza. I don't remember wanting to go. I know I wouldn't have gone. A it was the summer, so I couldn't have gotten off work. B it was summer, so I couldn't have gotten off work.
Speaker 2:Um, C the summer of 92 it was summer, so I couldn't have gotten off work. See, the summer of 92 was pretty shitty for me. So yeah, then I went to UD. That was a really bad time of my life prior to getting to UD, so that was also a reason why I probably didn't want to go especially by august it was.
Speaker 2:I was ready to go somewhere that wasn't here. So I don't really. I vaguely remember where, where was it? Where did you see fairfax? You went all the way to fairfax. That was that, that was. Was that as close as it came?
Speaker 1:you know what? To be perfectly honest, I don't even know remember how I ended up going. I mean, I was with a station wagon full of my friends. So, fairfax is pretty far. One of us was like I don't know who got the tickets. I I mean, I would guess somebody's parents would have to order all our tickets and we all paid them back. I don't know who got the tickets. I mean, I would guess somebody's parents would have to order all our tickets and we all paid them back.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I guess that would have been a DC show, fairfax.
Speaker 1:Would have been close enough to DC that it would have been a DC show.
Speaker 2:I'm surprised there wasn't a Philadelphia show, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, I have no idea, or at least like Hershey. I just idea, or at least, like hershey, I just remember the ride down. I know we stopped at a grocery store when we got down there to get something to drink and a snack.
Speaker 2:I remember dancing a lot so did you just go for the day and then you just came back?
Speaker 2:yep, oh, to be young and dumb again oh yeah, oh yeah, I can't even imagine that now like the thought, oh yeah, oh yeah, I can't even imagine that now Like the thought every time I see a concert and it's like, okay, so like the Cure came around and I was like, oh, I really want to go see the Cure and Depeche Mode Both came around this summer. I was like, oh, I really would like to see Depeche Mode again, I would really like to see the Cure again. And then I was like, oh, it's so far and I'd have to get a hotel room because I can't stay up that late and then drive all the way home and tickets are expensive and there's gas money and you gotta take off work and you gotta drive and you gotta get a hotel room.
Speaker 2:So much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's where we were, like, let's go.
Speaker 2:And that's just it Like shit in the 90s. Yeah, that's where we were, like, let's go. And that's just it Like shit in the 90s. Yeah, that's what you did, we would get in it for quite Okay. So after we lost my friend, we just jumped in the car because my friend was engaged to this person and so she kind of took it hard, weirdly enough. So we jumped in the car and went to Florida for like a month.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't come back till like May, April, something like that. That was a horrible time too.
Speaker 1:Because you had like your aunt had a place. Her aunt, Her aunt.
Speaker 2:Her aunt and uncle had a place in Florida and we stayed in the pool house, yeah, so you did shit like that, like you just jumped in a car and drove to Florida for no fucking reason and then just drove back like three days later. I mean we did stay down there for a month, but I don't think I could do that now. I mean I can't do that now. I got to put PTO in, get that approved.
Speaker 1:I mean, you just find somebody to watch the dog, the bird, somebody who will feed the cats.
Speaker 2:It's just a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just a lot Gas is expensive.
Speaker 2:It is. And then you know what I did? I just watched the Kira concert on the YouTube and the Depeche Mode.
Speaker 1:It was perfectly lovely I was like you know what?
Speaker 2:This is good enough, I don't need to be, I'll turn it up loud, and that's another thing. It's so fucking loud, oh yeah, it hurts your ears and I don't even know what. The last concert I saw was like that I wasn't actually working or in a city, I don't know. It's been a long time since I went to like Philadelphia DC for a, for a show.
Speaker 1:I think mine's Firefly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's right here. That doesn't count, right, like I don't count the Freeman stuff, but I I don't have any. I must it might've been Madonna.
Speaker 1:Ooh, that was a long time ago.
Speaker 2:I know Well, I saw Madonna twice.
Speaker 1:Well, we saw Depeche Mode.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh yeah, in DC. That might have been the last that was in Virginia.
Speaker 1:Didn't you drive? You accidentally drove through DC? Yeah, I did. And didn't they have everything closed off?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the president was coming through. Yep. Yeah, I'm really bad at driving in cities. At that point, we won tickets to that. That's what that's.
Speaker 1:Oh, I won tickets to that.
Speaker 2:That might have been the last concert that I went to. That was like far.
Speaker 1:It's just actually, I think, my last one besides um wait, because I went to concerts with lydia um yeah, so my youngest um.
Speaker 1:So I saw um one direction that was in her younger days, oh boy. But I also got to go see Tyler the creator, which was excellent. He's great, I love him. We went and saw Frank Ocean. I don't know, she has really good taste in music, so sometimes I would take her and drop her off with her friends, just sit out in the car. But if it was somebody I was interested in, I'd buy a ticket and go in too.
Speaker 2:It's just such a, and then they don't start till like seven. What is that? Okay, let me just say this I know there's a comedian that talks about this too. Why on God's green earth do these old bands who are playing to old people, us Gen Xers why Do they not have like a Sunday afternoon concert, like at 2 o'clock?
Speaker 1:I think Jamie Lee Curtis was actually really pushing for that for a while, like a 2 o'clock concert. What is wrong? It's still dark inside.
Speaker 2:It's not like you can drink at 2 o'clock just as much as you can drink at 7.30. Yes, it doesn't make any sense. I'm 2.
Speaker 1:I just can't stay up, yeah, and then they would leave the concert and go out to dinner. It would be great for the local economy, exactly.
Speaker 2:It would be great, you know what? Let's just that's it, new rule. If the band appeals to a then you have to have it at two o'clock matinees concert matinees, I mean, it's not even just that, the damn concert doesn't even start till seven. And then you gotta sit through the opening act, which I mean okay, back then I didn't mind them because I saw. Poe one year and Marilyn Manson open for Nine Inch N because I saw Poe one year and Marilyn Manson open for.
Speaker 1:Nine Inch.
Speaker 2:Nails I saw Garbage. I forget who else Open for the Cure. Mazzy Star I saw Mazzy.
Speaker 1:Star.
Speaker 2:I saw Mazzy Star once. It was Depeche Mode that she opened for, so it was probably the same show, yeah. So then you got to sit through that and that's like 45 minutes. Yeah, it was Depeche Mode that she opened for, so it was probably the same show, yeah. So then you got to sit through that and that's like 45 minutes and you're like, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, now it's already nine o'clock. I did also see Troye Sivan, but who opened for him was Dua Lipa. Oh, I love Dua Lipa and I remember when she played she had a song that was popular. It must have been her first popular song because I was like oh my gosh, I actually know this song. I was so excited, and now I just love her.
Speaker 2:Hey, I know that song, yeah, I just I don't the Freeman Stage 2, their shit doesn't start till seven and it's just like.
Speaker 1:I mean that's all old people, yeah, I have been there.
Speaker 2:I mean, it is only like most of them do live there. So I mean they're just walking back and everything has to be done by 10 o'clock, so they can't be in there past 10, although George Thurgood did. They get fined if they go past 10 o'clock. And George Thurgood didn't come out until I want to say it was like 9 o'clock, Dang yeah, People were getting pissed.
Speaker 1:I saw George Thorogood about maybe six or seven years ago at the Delaware State Fair. He was excellent.
Speaker 2:Of course I've always loved him. Once he actually did come on stage. Yeah, he was very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I did see. I think my favorite show there was the Violent Femmes.
Speaker 1:I can't believe I didn't go to that.
Speaker 2:The only part about it was they only played for like 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then Ben Folds Five played probably 45 minutes, because now that I work there I know how the shows work.
Speaker 1:They all work.
Speaker 2:One plays for 45 minutes, the other one plays for 45 minutes. So I don't know, I think that might have been the last one I actually paid to go see.
Speaker 1:I saw Boys to Men there, that was fun.
Speaker 2:They've had some good stuff there. The lineup was released this year.
Speaker 1:I've been there a couple of times I can't think oh, I saw Huey Lewis there before his voice went. Yes, blondie, and I saw the Mary Poppins show they put on. Oh dear God, Of course.
Speaker 2:No, nope, this year the lineup is not. They released part of it.
Speaker 1:No, but my husband did look and he's really gotten into like blues and there's somebody or two somebodies that are playing there that he mentioned he might like to see, and he doesn't like to do things very often so I was kind of like he's like oh, I've never been there.
Speaker 2:I am waiting for the second lineup to come out to make my decision. It's three that they do three oh, I didn't know that, yeah they do three okay um, sometimes even four um, but usually it's three.
Speaker 1:So so these are all supposed to be bands, necessarily, that we don't care about?
Speaker 2:yeah, usually the first one is just like that's kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:But it's like thursday at a four-day music festival. Okay, then they'll put the like.
Speaker 2:Then they'll put, like whoever's the biggest probably be in the next lineup to get you more excited about the third lineup. But last year it was nothing but a bunch of cover bands. And look, there's this one band that I will pay to see every single time although I didn't have to pay because I worked there but abba cover really I've seen them on there that it is.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen them. I've seen them on the best night the absolute most fun.
Speaker 2:Everybody dresses up, oh wow they give out um when you, when you come in the gates, they give out, like disco ball, necklaces and I bet that's how sells out fast it actually doesn't sell out. Oh um, because it's general admission, so they can pack as many people as they want oh okay, that and the Yacht Rock.
Speaker 1:I would like to do that one.
Speaker 2:That one's fun too. I shouldn't say I don't care for it, because then I knew every damn song of it.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I said when we watched the Yacht Rock documentary. I was like eh, it's not my music, but I guess I'll watch it. And then I sang through the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everybody wears captain hats. Nice, and when you work there, you guess how many people were actually wearing captain hats. And then you win a prize when you work there. I've never come close, but those two nights especially are a lot, a lot, lot, a lot of fun. And you, the cover bands usually are decent cover bands, like it's not, like they're yeah, but it's a cover band.
Speaker 2:It's a cover band, yeah although the prince one was horrible, awful, um, but abba, I mean hands down I and I think the guitarist was in abba anyway. So it's kind of like, not I mean it's a cover band, but and they just every Abba song they change clothes, I mean it's just, it's a really good show, very entertaining, and it's not just saying that because I like Abba, they sound just like them. It's a good show, nice, yeah. So I can't decide if I'm going to work there or not. I don't think you should.
Speaker 1:But anyway, then there's no free shows, true. So that was that. That was really fun for me. Yeah, I bet To remember that, and I hope somebody out there listening also was there in 92. At that particular show. No, it doesn't have to be at mine.
Speaker 2:I'm sure a lot of people I mean obviously a lot of people went, yeah, Because we wanted to. I wanted to go, I don't know why I had a wild hair and I was like we should go to the Woodstock, Woodstock 93, right, and my friend was like no.
Speaker 1:And I was like okay, you're probably right, because that's what happens.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, I am like I'm going to do this and then I have absolutely zero intention of ever doing that. Yeah, and I hate myself for signing up for that. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, but that's how I battle my anxiety. Samesies by making myself do shit Samesies. So if you did go to Lollapalooza in 1992 or 91, but not this year, email us and let us know how you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you went this year, you can email us too. Fuck, no.
Speaker 2:Only if you heard Perry Farrell. You can email us at likewhateverpod at gmailcom. You can find us on all the socials I did want to say now, nobody's listening. I should have put this up front. Apparently, I don't know, because I still have yet to test it, but some people were having trouble finding us on YouTube, and I think it's because it's like whatever pod, but the L and the W are both capitalized and I didn't realize that it had to be that goddamn specific, for real, I mean, but that might be why I have didn't realize that it had to be that goddamn specific, for real, I mean, but that might be why I have to check into that a little bit further, but anyway. So if you're looking for us on YouTube, try capitalizing the L and the W. Socials like rate share, rate review, all of those things. Send the email, check us out on YouTube or don't Like whatever, whatever. Bye, bye.
