Megan Stielstra's Blog

Somewhere on the list of Supercool Stuff I’ve Done is that I was at Lollapalooza ’91 at Pine Knob, the very first Lollapalooza featuring Jane’s Addiction, Violent Femmes, Siouxsie and the Banshees, NIN, Henry Rollins, Living Color, Fishbone, Ice-T and The Butthole Surfers.

*note: all the literature’ll tell you that Lollapalooza ’92 at Pine Knob—featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers—was the infamous one, where concert goers ripped up all the grass and threw it at each other, leaving all the dirt exposed, and then it started pouring rain so the dirt became mud and then they threw THAT at each other, and then the rain stopped so they started all these bonfires to dry off, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in damage to Pine Knob. But that happened in ’01! I was THERE! I was a sophomore in high school and didn’t know what the hell was going on half the time, but I remember the flying mud, and slimy muddy half-naked bodies, a wide-shot of hundreds of bonfires stretching through the crowd during Up the Beach (my favorite song like EVER in ’91, so I was all OHMIGOD OHMIGOD THAT’S MY SONG! when it started, right near the end of the show). I also remember realizing my purse was stolen at the beginning of Peek-A-Boo by Siouxsie and The Banshees and deciding to wait til the song was over to freak out. Also: Fishbone’s set was the first time I ever heard Ska. Also: Rollins did his entire set with his back to the audience, bent forward at the waist and looking at the crowd upside down between his legs. He wore black spandex bike shorts and nothing else, and every inch of his body was covered in tattoos. And he had a VERY nice butt, insofar as a fifteen-year-old girl is capable of appreciating nice butts, which, frankly, I can’t recall. I think I was more into the lalalala love/white horse/bluebirds sort of a thing, which Rollins was most assuredly NOT. But it WAS impressive, nevertheless, that the man pulled off that great of a show UPSIDE DOWN. AND AND AND ALSO: the Violent Femmes were like my favorite band, and hearing thousands of people sing along, simultaneously, to the part in Kiss Off that goes—

I take one one one cause you left me and
Two two two for my family and
Three three three for my heartache and
Four four four for my headaches and
Five five five for my lonely and
Six six six for my sorrow and
Seven seven for no no no no tomorrow and
Eight eight I forget what eight was for and
Nine nine nine for a lost God and
Ten ten ten ten for EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

—it was just. awesome. Like, a defining moment of my youth.

Which is why I’m so excited to someday take Caleb to Kidzapalooza. LIVE KIDS BANDS! BREAKDANCING CLASSES! TEMPORARY BLUE HAIR!

This August is too soon, right? Is six months too young for breakdancing?