Lollapalooza Nostalgia

In celebration of this era recently stirred up by the release of Montage of Heck, the Washington Post published an oral history of Lollapalooza’s most alternative of tours. In 1995, Lollapalooza’s founders took a break from booking platinum artists and experimented with featuring a lineup that matched the “indie” and “alternative” labels that are now so often thrown around indiscriminately. Sonic Youth headlined, Hole played through the height of mourning for Kurt Cobain and Kristen Pfaff, Cypress Hill played alongside the Jesus Lizard, Sinead O’Connor left mid-tour and was replaced by Elastica, Pavement struggled to figure out how to play in a festival setting while Beck struggled to figure out what a live performance would mean at all, and Patti Smith made a pivotal guest appearance.