From: bohren@asparagus.cis.ohio-state.edu (arthur william bohren)
Subject: PIL/BAD II in Dayton, OH
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 15:18:10 GMT


Last night the 120 Minutes tour was in Dayton and I caught the show, so I
thought I'd give a quick report of it for those who are intersted in it.

Blind Melon opened promptly at 7:30 and played for half an hour. They
had a lot of energy for playing to a mostly empty arena on a Monday night.
I was very impressed with their show since I was afraid that they were only
there because the lead singer grew up with Axl Rose and appeared in the
video for Don't Cry. A small but enthusiastic crowd was moshing at the
front of the stage from the beginning.

Live followed with an incredible set lasting about 45 minutes. I strongly 
suggest seeing Live if they come to your area. They really got the crowd 
going, and even the lead singer jumped into the crowd at one point. Once
he made it back to the stage he announced he had never done that before so
I guess he was enjoying it as much as the crowd. The guys in the band are
all about 20, and you could see the amazement they felt every time the 
crowd went wild.

PIL played third, and it was absolutely incredible!!! They played for
about an hour and a half(I'm guessing) and put on one of the best shows
I've ever seen. Johnny had fun teasing the crowd with psuedo-sexual antics
all night. He began by putting a Trojan condom on his wireless mike.(I was
close enough to see the brand) He wore a crotch pouch on his white shorts
which, amazingly enough, simulated the cover of his album. He had numerous
condoms stored in this little pouch which he occassionly threw out into
the crowd. He also gave out Stayfree sanitary napkins from a box on stage
and from various places within his shorts. At one point someone threw one
back at him and he opened it up and placed the tampon into his mouth
before thowing it back into the audience. As for the music, PIL played a wide
range of their best, about half from That What Is Not, and half older
material(i.e. Rules & Regulations, Disappointed, Rise). Whoever thinks
PIL is an old band past their prime is very, very wrong.

BAD II was the headlining act. This was definitely a management mistake.
They performed well, but they play more of a house/dance sound. After an
hour and a half of moshing to PIL the crowd wasn't as fired up for BAD II.
They also suffered from sound problems. While sound quality for Live and
PIL were great, the sound for BAD was fuzzy and crowded to the point that
most of the songs were unintelligible. It was like a Bob Dylan performance.
This might of been the fault of the DJ they had onstage who kept playing
a bunch of generic house tracks. The highlight of the show was Rush, which
fortunately didn't suffer from these sound problems, I think the DJ finally
shut up.

All in all it was a pretty good show. I was disappointed that the arena
we were in wasn't even half full, and a lot of people skipped the opening
act. If you are planning to see one of the remaining shows, definitely
get there in time to see the openers, it will be worth your time.

Stage diving was strictly prohibited, but I'm not sure if this was the 
arena's policy or the tour policy. The bouncers were being assholes
all night. They were even pulling people(including me, damn them!) off 
the crowd onto a concrete floor and trying to throw them out during PIL.
I managed to stay, I don't know about the others. At one point, one bouncer
was being so obnoxious that Johnny started screaming at the other bouncers,
and I quote, "Get that fucker out of here!!" The crowd appreciated his
attitude. I should note that one daring person made it onto the stage for a 
dive during BAD II. I was told that the bouncers chased him into the audience
to catch him, but I think he got away with it.

Arthur Bohren
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