Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival

Bestsellers Bienstock and Beaujour (coauthors of Nothin’ But a Good Time) team up for a rollicking oral history of the Lollapalooza musical festival and how it fueled the “alternative-rock revolution” of the 1990s. Founded by Jane’s Addiction front man Perry Farrell in 1991, the festival combined an eclectic lineup with a progressive social message and catapulted alt-rock bands like Nine Inch Nails and the Jesus Lizard into the spotlight. Yet such successes contributed to the festival’s decline, the authors note, as it struggled to grow while retaining the alternative sound it had helped popularize. The crisis peaked in 1996, when Metallica was picked to headline, a choice seen by some—including Farrell, who quit in protest of what he saw as a capitulation to “big money” and “macho” rock culture—as evidence that Lollapalooza had “lost the alternative plot.” The festival was postponed indefinitely in 1998 and restarted in 2003, when Farrell rejoined. Drawing from an impressive array of interviews with band members, music journalists, and festival organizers, the authors vividly capture the chaos of the festival’s early days (“Job number one on Lollapalooza was to be as punk as fuck.... I would throw beers at [bandmate Trent Reznor], I would throw beers at the audience,” recalls Nine Inch Nails’ Richard Patrick). The result is a colorful, captivating slice of music history. (Apr.)