Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Tuesday, 25 Aug 1992 10:07:50 CDT
From: <U38956@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: Lollapalooza Sod War, Chicago '92

This is probably old hat by now, but I just got back online recently

did everyone hear about the Lollapalooza Sod War in Chicago on Aug 3?
It was a trip!

Following a great rainfall that turned the lawn into a mudslide with a
whole bunch of idiots climbing up then sliding down on their faces
while holding beers in their hands, a group at the top of the lawn
decided that while they were waiting for Ministry, they would find
all the paper cups/trash/etc. they could find and throw it as high as they
could straight up into the air.  Evryone else saw this, and though it was
a great idea.  It was pretty funny watching the entire lawn rain trash
from 35,000 people!  Eventually someone had the idea that, hey, the ground is
soft, and the sod rips right off!  Let's throw that instead.

Again, everyone had a good time catching on, ripping off sod and throwing
it into the air.  It was gunny for awhile, then it became irritating.
People were now slinging sod toward each other, hitting the video screens
with it, and getting it into the pavilion, where it was thrown around
and even thrown onstage.  Ministry started playing and after the third
song (Diety) Uncle Al did the wrist slapping deal:

"Hey, lemme ask you guys a question.  How much did you pay for these tickets?
$25, $30?  Well, did you pay to listen to music or did you pay to sling
grass at each other? That's stupid!  Hey, you can waste your money if you
want, I still get paid.  I can stop at anytime and they'll still pay
meand you can waste your fucking money throwing turf at each other.
I mean, you throw it around, you hit our equipment with it, we get out
of tune and we sound like shit.  That's fine, I can stop right here,
you can throw grass at me, I'll throw it back at you, we'll have fun
wasting your money.  And I don't mean THAT kind of grass, I'm talking
about the turf.  You all probably think, hey, that guys an asshole,
but I don't really care.  They stil pay me.  I guess we'll try it one more
time, this is a song called 'Supernaut', it's a 1000 Homo DJs project."

With that, they Cybersluts came out and the band played.  Evryone cheered
and no one threw sod (about 5 people did actually, but they stopped almost
immediately).  After the song, Al said, "All right, thanks for quittin'
throwing' the turf." and went on.

Here's Ministry's playlist for that show if anyone is interested:
N.W.O.
The Missing
Diety
(pause to gripe)
Supernaut
Just One Fix
Thieves ("We're gonna play something slow now.")
So What
Stigmata

Encore:
Breathe

BTW, does anyone who was at the show know who was singing Breathe at the end?
It looked as if it was Jello Biafra, but then again it looked as if someone
ust jumped up onstage and Al let him do the singing.  Hmmm.  Looked too
porky to be Jello.

X

PS some qquotes from the newspaper regarding Lollapalooza:

"The concert-goers were aged from teens to mid-twenties, were generally
calm, but dressed strangely" --A Tinley Park Police Sergeant(jerk)

"The concert-goers were engaged in a Bacchalarean-type dance known
 as 'mashing'"  (I wish they'd get the word right!)

"The lead singer of the group playing at the time--Ministry--politely
asked the sod-throwers to 'knock it off'"  (Don't you just love censorship
  in this country.  Oh, boy!!!!)
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial