Left Saturday morning about 6:30am. Got to Golden Gate Park a little after
10. Oh man....we did things SO much more efficiently than for PJ there last
year. This concert experience was so opposite from 6/24/95 it's funny.
Didn't even have to deal with much SF traffic because we came in from a
highway by the ocean, turned right on Fulton, got off at 36th ave and the
Polo Fields were less than 1/5 of a mile from there. And that put us next
the side entrance, not that hell one way in the back. niiiiiiiiiice! :) Damn
I wish I had a scanner so I could put some maps up on my page to better show
you guys where I was. oh well.
anyway! We got in pretty quickly... I went up with my sister's friend Leah,
and her friend Jeff (his older bro Mike was in my class in HS, so I sort of
know him) and Jeff's mom drove us. We met Leah's friend April at 36th and
Fulton both mornings. Those three stayed pretty close to the front most of
the time, while I parked to the right of the mixing/lighting desk (Mtv had
their set-up right on top of that) and stayed there against the wall the
whole time. They had two stages set up side-by-side and while one band was
playing, another was setting up, so there was hardly any wait between acts.
I was closer to the stage on the right, called the Blue Stage (BS), and I
was pretty close to the corner of the desk so I could see across to the Red
Stage (RS) unless one of the staff or medical people were standing on the
bars. grrr. They were pretty cool though...during the Fugees and the Chili
Peppers one guy was standing up taking short people's cameras and taking
pictures for them.
Saturday June 15
Started out cloudy but the sun broke through a. It got warmish sometimes
but was pleasantly cool and breezy. Again, much nicer than the weather for
PJ last year. The same announcer guy was there, I remember his voice from
when he was admonishing ppl for booing Jeff Ament. heh.
Okay, so first (around 12noon)a group of about 25 Tibetan monks and nuns
came out and did a prayer chant, and they were followed by Chaksam-Pa, a
group that does traditional Tibetan music.
(RS) Richie Havens: He's the guy who opened Woodtsock and had a very warm
response here.
(BS) Cibo Matto: Two girls from NYC via Japan I think...play kinda cheesy
bubblegum techno-ish rap like music. Please forgive my ability to describe
the music here. :) Did two songs just w/ a keyboard and then got a drummer
and Sean Lennon on bass and were a bit more groovy.
(RS) Pavement: uhhh....don't really have much to say about them..not into
their stuff at all. We had to listen to them in the car a lot because
they're Jeff's favorite band.
(BS) Biz Markie: he's this heavy-set rapper dude who was rather amusing.
I guess his hit song is something that goes like "youuuuuuuu, you got what I
neeeeeeeed, but you say he's just a friend, you say he's just a friend." He
sang this, as well as "you got a disease, but you say it's just a rash" as
well as "you got a hair weave, but you say it's your real hair." Then he did
this weird dance. Definitely amusing. Half the time though I was watching
them set up on the other stage...
(RS) Foo Fighters: at last, a band I really wanted to hear. The crowd
started to get packed and excited for them. Started with "This Is A Call"
and did about 4 others. Pat Smear just had his dark purple pj's on and
Leah said he was wearing a pearl necklace. They sounded okay...saw them on
the rerun of SNL last week...they mic the cymbals up too much, it's really
annoying!
(BS) John Lee Hooker: he was cool...don't know what to say really, not
familiar with any of his stuff but it all sounded good.
(RS) A Tribe Called Quest: nothing much to say here either, satisfied the
rap fans in the crowd...
(BS) Smashing Pumpkins: they were good, did Bullet w/Butterfly Wings, Zero,
Tonight Tonight, An ode to no one, and then played parts of Silverfuck and
went into an extended "period of music" with an additional drummer and that
was REALLY neat...I love those chaotic-drumming songs.
(RS) Beastie Boys: I wish I knew more about them to give a
better report. They were good, played about 40 minutes, ending with the
songs everyone knows. I liked them a lot more than I thought I would.
Then the nuns and monks came out again to give us a final blessing, which
was nice of them. :) It ended at about 6:20pm.
(June 1996)
