From: meb6@po.CWRU.Edu (Mason E. Boor)
Newsgroups: alt.music.alternative
Subject: Lolla II in Cleveland
Date: 30 Jul 92 23:44:03 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)


Well, sort of in Cleveland (Cuyahoga Falls) on July 28.

Well we got there at about 1pm and it was quite hot for a while.
We camped out on the lawn, even though we had pavillion tix.
We all went down for Lush, and then I stayed for Pearl Jam.
Then the skies opened and it rained like hell for almost all of
Pearl Jam's set,  turning the lawn into mud.  There were many
mud slides (really, I mean ppl sliding down the hill on the mud!)
so there were many people soaked and covered with mud.  It kind
of made seeing the exhibits rough cuz there was 2 inches of mud
everywhere, even in the bathrooms!  So anyway, it didn't totally
ruin the day, cuz many ppl made the best of it.  Luckily my friend
got our blankets and stuff all gathered up in a bag, and he only
ended up getting wet.
Anyway, here's a band-by-band synopsis.
Oh first I must say (gloat:) that at least 2 ppl (Chris Cornell and
Alain) said something along the lines of "This is the best crowd
we've had so far yet!"  of course, it may have been that it's the
Biggest venue that they played so far, but I don't know, we were
pretty, ehem, high-spirited.
so:
Lush -  Awesome.  First time I've seen them and they were as tight
as a duck's behind.  The vocals held up well, and sometimes were
better than the records (esp. the songs from Spooky) Too bad the
ppl who were lucky enough to have pit tix were just standing there
looking stupid.  Man, talk about a band to get up and move around
to!  But they probably weren't drunk yet.  Oh well.  As my friend
put it, Lush was better than the opening slot deserved.
Pearl Jam -  The crowd really got crazy for them, but I didn't.
I mean, they put on a very good show, very energetic, and 
professional.  However, they were a bit too clean and antiseptic
for me.   I don't know their music well except for "Even Flow"
and the other hit.  They were having a good time, jumping around
and stuff.  Their seemed to be too many ppl on stage though. :)
Jesus and Mary Chain - I though they put on a pretty good show.
(A very LOUD one at that!)  My one friend is an older fan of theirs
and says they just don't seem to have the same impact as they used
to.  I thought it was fun, and that Pixies cover, Head On, was good
too. (hee hee just seeing if you were paying attn. :) (don't post, I 
WAS kidding).  So yea, a lot of smoke and a lot of noize.  I think
Mr. Reid went though about 4 or 5 microphones.  
Soundgarden - They came out like bats out of hell, and rocked the 
sox off of Pearl Jam.  Not much I can say about the set, whiched
actually verged on sounding bad, but somehow managed to remain
er retain it's punch.  I'm a fan of theirs of about 3 years, so 
it was nice to hear tunes like "Hands all over" and "Gun."
I don't know too much of their newer stuff.  A notable omission
was "Loud Love."  The crowd wasn't as into them quite as much
as Pearl Jam, but I guess Soundgardan hasn't been splattered on
MTV quite as much.  An awesome set.
Ice Cube -  Do they really need that many people jumping around up
there like a bunch of cheerleaders?  Flea came out and was hoppin'
around durring a few of his songs.  "Wave your hands in the air,
Wave em like you just don't care!"  come on!  yet, like somekind
of trained mass, the crowd did.  Yawn.  He does the rap think
fairly well, but there's SO many people that do it better.
Ministry -  I was expecting better things from these dudes. 
Their set was like some kind of circus in itself.  Dancers, props
and a band that could almost have been RevCo for the size of it.
(do they need 3 guitarists?)  So yea, Thieves and Stigmata were 
pretty good.  So What did not have to go on for 15 minutes.
The sound was muddy. (maybe cuz they had so many people).
Their encore was "Breathe" which went on forever it seemed,
with about 5 roadies yelling into one mic.  I dunno, as I said
I just expected more.  Well, it at least seemed like they were
having a lot of fun.
RHCPeps -  Well they ended the day with a bang! with a well played
tight set that included all their favorite tunes.  At one point
Anthony came down on his foot and said that he could hear it go
snap over the music!  wow, I hope it wasn't too bad, he was limping
around a bit.  I don't  know them too well, so the non-hit songs 
all tended to sound alike.  "Subway to Venus," my fave, was great,
though I missed the horns.  Flea did a bit of Neil Young's "The
Needle and the Damage Done" which was pretty cool.  They closed
the set by dawning these flame shooting helmets and doing Hendrix's
"Fire."  A good ending to a great day.
All in all, I'd say the music was better than last year, but I 
enjoyed Jane's Addiction more than RHCP.  Last year was kind of
Top heavy, but this year, the Peak for me was Soundgarden.
Oh well, I'd say it was 35 bucks well spent.
-- 
D = R x T     ------------------Pixies                Mason Jar
                                                      meb6

WRUW-FM 91.1  Thurs 11pm-2am for the best music in Cleveland! :)
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