Coachella, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Summerfest, Pitchfork Music, etc. They all owe an enormous debt to Lollapalooza, the groundbreaking music festival that helped change the touring and music industry just as alternative music peaked in the early 90s. Yes, Lollapalooza itself was inspired by enormous, already-existing U.K. music festivals like Glastonbury, Reading, and Leeds. Still, in 1991, a big rock festival in the United States was largely unheard of—at least since Woodstock—let alone a touring version of a large-scale music fest. Directed by six-time Emmy nominated writer, director, showrunner, and producer Michael John Warren—known for dynamic music docs on Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, and many more— his entertaining three-part episode doc, “Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza,” documents the origins of the iconic music ’90s music festival, putting it its proper musical historical context, while simultaneously exploring its cultural impact.
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Lollapalooza begins with Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction, the seminal late ‘80s/early ’90s alternative rock group that preceded Nirvana et al. and paved the way for the alt-rock/grunge explosion. “Jane’s Addiction should be credited with kicking down the door of the true alternative explosion,” former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield says effusively in the doc. “Perry was the greatest frontman I ever saw; lightning bolts [were] shooting through his body with the most energy I’ve ever seen from a human being,” recalled Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Having three episodes to work with, Warren puts them to good use and arguably even sneaks in a mini-Jane’s Addiction doc into his first episode, wise, given how essential they were to the ’90s alt-rock boon that spawned in their wake.
While Jane’s only released two studio albums (Nothing’s Shocking in 1988 and Ritual de lo Habitual, 1990), both albums were highly influential, dazzling everyone from mainstream rockers like Guns N’ Roses, studio execs that entered bidding wars to sign them to corporate labels (Warner Bros won), and younger kids who would go on to form bands like Rage Against The Machine. But Jane’s burned brightly and fast, and by 1990, the group was already sick of each other and planning exit strategies.
Eventually, spearheaded by the band’s theatrical frontman Farrell—co-founded by music industry vets like Ted Gardner, Don Muller, and Marc Geiger, and inspired by Reading, where the band was meant to play—Lollapalooza was initially conceived of as a one-off farewell party for Jane’s Addiction featuring all their favorite bands.
While everyone got a say about including their favorite bands in the line-up, making for an eclectic festival—Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T, and his punk rock group Body Count, The Butthole Surfers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and more—the doc reveals the Pixies, another seminal alt-rock group about as big as Jane’s at the time, turned down an offer to appear.
‘Lolla’ also explores the early ’90s rapid acceleration sea change in music and how the festival helped ride the zeitgeist wave for the alt-rock explosion. “It changed the touring industry and music history,” one music vet said. Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails credits the festival with eventually launching them into the stratosphere (“It was magical. I can’t believe this is happening to us,” he recalled about their ’91 appearances despite an opening day gig when their electronic equipment short-circuited).
In the pre-internet age of 1991, Farrell, Gardner and co. weren’t sure if audiences would turn up (a quaint thought now); the bands on the line-up were all underground cult groups at the time, none having achieved much mainstream success. But by 1992, in the second year, Grunge was exploding, and Pearl Jam, the second opening act of the day, was already taking off. Red Hot Chili Peppers, the headliners, had already blown up, and their Blood Sugar Sex Magik record was certified platinum by the summer of 92 when Lolla returned.
Told in three chapters, episode is one dedicated to the inaugural Lollapalooza 91, Jane’s importance, and the origins of what got them there; segment two centers on the ’92 sequel and the expansion years of ’93 and ’94, and chapter three (not given to press, but teed up at the end of chapter two) seems to focus on the waning years of the ’90s and the then-controversial decision to put Metallica on the 1996 line-up; soon after Farrell parted ways with the creative admins of the festival.
Apart from featuring obscure, little-seen, and great blast-from-the-past interviews and concert performances, including tons of excellent vintage MTV footage, ‘Lolla’ features engaging talking head interviews from RHCP’s Flea, NIN’s Trent Reznor, Perry Farrell, Living Color’s Vernon Reid, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, members of Babes In Toyland, L7 and many more industry heads who offer great color commentary and context.
One of the interesting revelations in the doc, confirming an old rumor, is Nirvana briefly considered an offer to perform on the 1994 stage with Smashing Pumpkins and the Beastie Boys. The Seattle rockers were offered a $6 million guarantee to appear at the festival but eventually turned it down.
“Kurt [Cobain] was terrified of selling out,” John Rubeli, one of the second stage Lolla bookers, said, “And Lolla was a sell-out moment, I think, for them.” L7’s Donita Sparks declared, “When Kurt died…[April 1994]  it was the end of an era,” foreshadowing what would come for the festival, ’94 seemingly the turning-point era where alt-rock was no longer an alternative to mainstream monoculture.
One interesting phenomenon was how every early year featured an opening band that would soon overshadow more prominent bands on the bill. NIN in ’91, Pearl Jam in ’92, Rage Against The Machine in ’93 and ’94 featured a then-up-and-coming Green Day for some dates (a group Farrell turned down at first, wary of record labels trying to foist new bands on him). Second stages were added, and third stages too, and this is nothing to say how wildly subversive something like the Jim Rose Circus Side Show was to kids at the time.
Mounted with terrific energy and chock full of compelling stories, ‘Lolla’ also deftly captures much of the era’s generational frustration and Gen-X disenfranchisement. The doc explores much of the festival’s counterculture art, plus the political and activist aims, which featured booths for PETA, environmentalism, conservationism, gun control, anti-censorship, and more, an essential form of youth activism in the pre-internet age. “Culturally, something was shifting,” Reznor said of the era, “it felt like a revolution.”
“Too much money destroys art,” Farrell says early on, an augur of how capitalism tends to choke the life out of most well-meaning creative endeavors. While part three undoubtedly charts the festival’s downfall, “Lolla: The Story Of Lollapalooza” is a terrifically watchable snapshot of an unpredictable, combustible, vibrant, and once-in-a-lifetime period in music culture we may never see repeated again. [B+]
Paramount+ will release “Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza” later this year.
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