Which was the best (pre-revival) Lollapalooza lineup?

Yeah, 1993 was the second stage 'indie' year by far, and it varied from city to city. For the LA area show (in Irwindale!) saw Dos, Thurston solo, heard Sebadoh at one point. Also a great Ethyl Meatplow set, second of the three times I saw them.

1991, because people hadn't quite figured it out yet. Where I saw the show (Stanhope, NJ) the whole area by the stage was taken up by hippies on blankets because, dude, outdoor concert. Out comes Henry Rollins, bows to the crowd, the band explodes, and the booted masses come roaring in to start the pit. Amid the gigantic cloud of dust, you could see baskets and blankets literally flying through the air as hippie idiots ran screaming. It was a new day in outdoor-concert-land. That single moment was the only time I ever believed in the whole "Alternative Nation" hype. Plus, the day I was there Siouxsie wasn't feeling well, so we got extra-long Rollins Band and Butthole Surfers sets to compensate.

Waterloo Village -- I was at that one as well (Stanhope). Cried aloud when they announced that Sioux wasn't performing (but saw her the next day).

1993, though '91 comes close. Any year where Alternative and EBM/Industrial acts were playing the same stage.

Best Lollapalooza Lineup

'94 at an old army airfield in rhode island was pretty awesome. i always felt sorry for the kid who passed out just outside the gate - before even getting in. an ambulance was taking him away just as we arrived.

i missed '91 in flagstaff AZ by a day or two. i was in town to get packed up for 3 weeks of geology field camp, and i remember seeing the posters as i was buying TAPES to listen to out in the field (de la soul is dead, among other things) and i had no way to stick around for the show. always felt sort of sad about that, especially since i never became a geologist....

The Flaming Lips, The Verve

Yeah, I was looking for this one.. if I could go back in time and see one of them I'd choose 94.

"Cried aloud when they announced that Sioux wasn't performing (but saw her the next day)."

okay, that settles it. you are not a goth. a true goth would have cried on the inside.

I went to 94 and 95 and while I enjoyed the latter (esp. Sonic Youth and Jesus Lizard sets) '94 had the best second stage acts of any year and a pretty good mainstage line up (except for the Pumpkins--and I think the version I saw had Green Day not the Boredoms bah).

1994 easy.
I went 92-94 (mom wouldn't let me go to '91), so I'm judging based solely on experience - but the lineup really was unstoppable that year, compounded by the convenient happenstance that many of the bands were promoting their best albums. Caught The Flaming Lips, Verve, GBV, & some Tibetan monks with ten-foot long mountain horns in addition to most of the main-stage acts. What I'll truly never forget about that day was seeing The Boredoms & Nick Cave give tremendous performaces to a practically empty pavilion at 3:00 in the afternoon

I went to the first five of these - I lived in the middle of nowhere so driving to see a bunch of bands in one day was kind of fun. The first Lollapalooza was actually the first live concert featuring "real" bands that I ever saw. We were like ten rows from the front, no earplugs, and the Rollins Band just destroyed us all with loudness.

They were all fun to varying degrees - unexpectedly catching Tool and Cypress Hill on the second stages, making a big banner to get Soundgaren to play "Fopp" by the Ohio Players only to have the RHCP play it later, almost dying in a huge Pearl Jam melee, hanging out with the drummer for Alice In Chains' mom, lots of sneaking people up front from the lawn, wearing my first ironic t-shirt to a show, etc.

Sadly I never saw the Smashing Pumpkins in 94 as I got arrested right after the Beastie Boys started and spent two days in jail. Stupid Milwaukee.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Cried aloud when they announced that Sioux wasn't performing (but saw her the next day).

omg there were so many crying goths @ greatwoods when they announced siuox wouldnt play - soooooo hilarious to 14 y/o tripping self - i had forgotten abt that

still pretty funny

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

If you'd told me "just one year will get 0 votes" I would have predicted both 97 and 93 before 96.

Orbital and Primus have more ILX fans that Load-era Metallica, though I assume the 0 means Chuck Eddy didn't vote.

94 won for the boredoms, right?

I'm not surprised at all that '96 got a goose egg, that year had the biggest backlash and was the beginning of the end. It was also the only year I attended, I was 14 and a huge Sonic Youth fan and was bummed about not going the year before. I had a blast seeing the Ramones and Soundgarden on their final tours, Ben Folds Five were great, enjoyed Screaming Trees and GVSB and You Am I so much that I don't know why I never got around to buying albums by any of them, and fucking WU TANG were special guests at the show I went to. Still would've loved to go in '95, though, especially for Superchunk and the Geraldine Fibbers the year they released my favorite albums by them.

I still don't entirely understand who 'Psychotica' was or why they were a main stage act, though. man they sucked, wtf.

1995 wins hands-down if my focus was on bands i like the most

but if i was to actually weigh up which festival i'd most like to attend and took into account a number of variables such as what a particular band was doing at the particular time, i could go with 1994 and even consider 1993

Thirty years ago tonight, the first ever Lollapalooza show. Featuring, among other things, this monstrosity:

So the notes going around today that it's the 30th anniversary of the first ever Lollapalooza date leave out one tiny detail. The official T-shirts sold on the tour SUCKED. Look at this terrible as hell but also incredibly of its time thing. pic.twitter.com/xwYccmVrr2

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) July 19, 2021

Meantime, enjoy this piece about The Date That Started It All

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/first-lollapalooza-concert-1991-phoenix-30th-anniversary-oral-history-perry-farrell-11591298

I picked up one of these at a Buffalo Exchange back in high school:

https://www.defunkd.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/trentimus_79061335225813.jpg

Has all the official band logos on the back.

I went in '94 and '95. I'm glad I did and I wish I could do it again...

Looking at the wiki, the lineup for the cancelled 2004 tour (a two-day per city affair felled by low ticket sales) was wild:

The Pixies, Morrissey, PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, The Killers, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, The Von Bondies, The String Cheese Incident, Modest Mouse, Le Tigre, Gomez, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Danger Mouse, The Polyphonic Spree, Broken Social Scene, Ross Golan, The Datsuns, Bumblebeez 81, The Secret Machines, Brayndead Freakshow, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Elbow, Wheat, The Coup, Wolf Eyes, The Dresden Dolls

Saw '94 and '97...got to see '97 in literally the front row as somehow the corp. comp tickets fell all the way down to the IT department (as the exec's backstabbed each other around the office trying to get the Jimmie Buffet tickets).

Beastie Boys in '94 was literally about the most pushed to lather I have had ever seen a band do to an audience. They had a circle pit going at the front of the stage where there was FIXED seating in concrete at the Deer Creek shed in Indy. There was just total bedlam going on in the grass up top. After a whole day in the sun, when the Beasties were done so was the crowd and they just vanished. I'd say it was maybe bit over 1/2 full when the Smashing Pumpkins started playing. I ended up booking myself a couple tunes in as I had to start a new job the next day.

Dude, we were at the same Lolla shows! Also saw '96 @ Deer Creek tho.

xp the climactic screams in "Sabotage" ... when they turned on the house lights ... holy shit, i still get chills thinking about it, and i wasn't even *that* much of a fan. (i was, however, 18 years old.)

Yeah the equivalent moment in LA was pretty damn great.