Worst Band To Play Woodstock 99

ha i def identified as a sensitive nu-metal kid at the time. i did not watch woodstock 99 on ppv, had no interest, not sure why

At the time I pretty much thought that anyone my age (19) who liked this stuff was a total dumbass, and it's pretty funny that it would be the lil Brads of the world who were best absorbing its emotional layers. I'm sure there were a lot of Jane's Addiction fans who were throwing Birkenstocks and whatever when I was too young to see em

I went to Woodstock '94. I was reviewing it for a magazine of some sort so we managed to get a hotel nearby and I went up with a photographer friend of mine.

I went up very cynical - I remember asking every band in the interview tent how much they were being paid to play or why they didn't play Bethel '94, the competing fest that was supposed to be the more organic, One of the guys in Aerosmith answered me by smashing his thumb and forefinger together and smiling so I was not entirely off bas, but maybe I didn't need to be so boorish about it all.

My attitude kind of changed when I saw King's X play. Here was a band I had followed since I read about them when their debut album came out and loved. I enjoyed watching them attain whatever successes they had, contributing to it somewhat in my own way by writing about them, and seeing them play to so many people was just amazing to me. I really felt the band's spiritual approach connect with hundreds of thousands of people and it was beautiful and changed my whole mind about things.

I wound up borrowing my photographer's camera one night and when he went back into the hotel, I stayed behind to roam the grounds and take pictures. I love those shots - people at tents, people caked in mud, all kinds of faces, girls lifting their shirts for my pictures was a trip! Walking around all night I had numerous people offering me drinks that they snuck in. Or maybe they were allowed, but that doesn't seem right. Regardless I got nice and toasted and had no place to sleep it off.

I wound up befriending a girl who let me crash with her. We had sex while Metallica played, I can still recall the sound of the band in the distance and the low chatter from people walking around her tent. It was really surreal for me, a metal geek getting laid at Woodstock. And I never saw her again and do not even recall her name.

I didn't go in 1999. I don't think I could have topped the event five years earlier so even without the anarchy, it was for the best.

It's not these bands' fault that some people just liked the anger and the nihilism, but the bookers should have been able to figure it out

that's what I meant about it being a bro-fest and the organizers should have figured this out and planned for it better. Idk, I was a college alt-rock DJ in 1994, and I thought the line-up was a bit underwhelming, mostly stuff that I had to play because BRU was a commercial station and we had to follow the playlist. I went to Lollapalooza that year (the year it was at some old air force base with shitty freeway access, as opposed to the typical stadium-type venue, so we sat in traffic for like 5 hours and I missed Nick Cave, but I did get to see the Breeders, who were cool, though I really wanted to see Nick Cave. Anyway, the Woodstock 94 line-up was even less exciting to me. ...

By 1999 I was no longer working in radio, I was 24 years old and living on the other side of the country, and the Woodstock 99 bands/aesthetic were so divorced from anything I liked ... except for maybe like, Willie Nelson (lol) and maaaayyyybee Metallica because that was like imprinted in my brain from high school.

I was hanging out with a friend who is my age the other night and mentioned I was watching this documentary, and he had basically the same aesthetic disregard as I did, though, James Brown he had to say was legit cool because he's the dude that put on the last show James Chance played in SF lol.

my friend put on the James Chance show, not James Brown ... but repping James Chance and not liking James Brown's music is like ... very suspect (total side note; my friend is down for James Brown).

I felt a very buried sense of embarrassment and sadness awaken watching both of these docs. I was 15-16 in ‘99 and seeing those clothes, those bands, and the general “aura” of the kids from that era just brought back so many memories of feeling entirely out of place.

All respect to people who dug the music and found a way to fit in, but that cultural moment was the absolute worst for kids of a certain sensitive bent in a small town.

I mean adolescence sucks in general, not unique, but the specifics totally reignited some kinda PTSD.

my friend put on the James Chance show, not James Brown ... but repping James Chance and not liking James Brown's music is like ... very suspect (total side note; my friend is down for James Brown).