Re: DMB @ Woodstock '99
I was there and I have a mixed bag of memories of both the weekend and DMB's set.
First the weekend: it was hot as fuck. The place was not the right venue for this style of event. Food and beverage were overpriced as FUCK! Funny story: this weekend is when I started drinking beer. I was 19 and I used to hate the flavor, but the beer that the people I was with brought was far more economical than water. The overflowing portable toilets looked like something from a post apocalyptic world. The line-up was sort of all over the place and looking back, the aggressive bands of the day (who I liked) made an event of super high testosterone which is what lead to the fires on Sunday. I think the poor conditions, dehydration and make up of the crowd made it inevitable.
Not to mention that I wore a pair of shoes that were a size too small and broke up with my girlfriend (who I went with) on the ride up from Jersey (talk about uncomfortable).
But Korn was a sight to see. The crowd flowed up and down as they played and it really looked like the ocean from my vantage point. Really cool shit.
But there were some really great performances that weekend: the best in my opinion being: DMB, RATM, Bush (believe it or not), Metalica, Willie, Everlast and even Creed. I didn't make it to the other stage much so I don't remember the smaller bands all too well.
On to the band: Simply amazing. I had been a fan of the band for a few years, but my uber fandom was a year or two old. I had been to some shows and owned some bootlegs, and they were the reason why I went (with Rage being a close second). Their ability to make their sound fill such a large area was far superior than the other bands. The sounds that came from Offspring was not music, plain and simple, and that was a problem all weekend even with milder acts like Alanis.
I went with 4 people and none were fans of the band. Yes the (recently ex) gf heard a lot of it around me and loved the poetry in songs like Nancies and Two Step, but was not a fan. But after the show they all respected them. I remember some dude that we went with was blown away by Roi playing multiple instruments on #41 and Carter on basically everything. And for the most part I think the majority of the crowd was that way. The majority of people there were there for hard rock but it was pretty hard not to leave impressed as fuck by the band on songs like Two Step and DDTW. Everyone had the band that they were there for and I was proud knowing that my band's live show kicked their band's asses,
Dave's nervous energy was on full display this night (Evidenced by the Johnson and titties comments). I think there's something very endearing about that. They were huge in '99 and he still acted like a child on the first day of school.
The weekend on a whole was a shit show. An overpriced, hot as fuck, blistered feet shit show. But there were great memories and moments of brilliance, none more than DMB's show.
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Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
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