TIME: Almanac 1995

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ TIME: Almanac 1995 / TIME Almanac 1995.iso / time / 080392 / 0803440.000 next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-02-26 | 8.5 KB | 170 lines

<text id=92TT1702> <title> Aug. 03, 1992: The Bands of Summer </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992 Aug. 03, 1992 AIDS: Losing the Battle </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> MUSIC, Page 66 THE BANDS OF SUMMER </hdr><body> BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN--GENESIS--GRATEFUL DEAD--BONO OF U2--ERIC CLAPTON & ELTON JOHN--METALLICA & AXL ROSE OF GUNS N' ROSES--HAMMER & HIS ENTOURAGE--LOLLAPALOOZA '92 WITH RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS--ICE CUBE--THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN--PEARL JAM & MORE Touring shows are booming again, as superstars hit the road with performances in which the sounds are enhanced--and sometimes swamped--by high-tech, multimillion-dollar special effects and gimmicks, from flooating autos to body piercing. By Janice C. Simpson The event lasts all day. It is part love-in, part crafts festival and part political rally. On the midway, vendors hawk everything from T-shirts and tattoos to voter-registration cards and safe-sex instructions. There are demonstrations of body piercing and Caribbean cooking. Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the National Rifle Association are there. And--oh, yes--there's also a concert. In fact, quite a concert, with a nine-hour lineup of alternative bands including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam and Lush. The whole thing is such a lollapalooza that that's what they call it--the Lollapalooza '92 tour. The show, which began on July 18 and will play 30 cities through Sept. 13, has already sold out in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and New York City, where it took just 30 minutes for fans to snap up all 36,000 tickets. Lollapalooza, now in its second season, is the cutting edge of summer concert action, and it is pioneering the new byword of touring: value-added. Superstars aplenty are plying the circuit this summer--Phil Collins, Hammer, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, among others--but almost all of them, like Lollapalooza, are burnishing their marquee appeal with a little something extra. Like high-tech, multimillion-dollar special effects. The Irish band U2, which used to pride itself on its spartan, no-glitz performance style, has invested $2.5 million in an extravaganza it calls the Zoo TV Outside Broadcast, to be unveiled when the group begins a 15-city U.S. swing that will run from Aug. 11 into November. Dates are still being added, but the tour will also hit Toronto and Montreal. The show employs nine screens, with the two largest measuring 20 ft. by 30 ft., three dozen 27-in. television monitors and a satellite dish. During the concert, the screens will carry a random, computer-triggered mix of prerecorded material, live feeds from the satellite and shots of the onstage performance. Lead singer Bono will make impromptu phone calls that will be broadcast over the speaker system. (Hello? David Letterman?) The recipients could range from the White House to a local pizza parlor. And check out the show's lighting, some of which comes from the headlights on six German Trabant automobiles suspended by giant cranes at heights of up to 40 ft. above the stage. Phil Collins and his band Genesis, which played to crowded stadiums in 22 U.S. cities before heading to Europe at the end of June, spent an estimated $6 million to put together its eye-popping spectacle. At the center of the production, literally and figuratively, are three giant mobile video screens, called Jumbotrons, that together span 60 ft. Filmed images and computer-animated visuals flash on the screens to illustrate some of the songs. They alternate with live close-up shots of the band that make it possible for people in the very last row of a 60,000-seat stadium to see as much as those in the VIP section up front. "Audiences are sophisticated visually today with the special effects they see on TV and in movies," says Marc Brickman, production designer for the Genesis tour. "You've got to find a way to keep them involved with live performances." Involved is one thing, overwhelmed is another. Hammer originally stocked his show--which began April 9 and is scheduled to appear in an incredible 137 cities before it ends Sept. 7--with 130 speakers, 124 computerized lights, two video screens and 48 musicians, dancers and backup singers. The result was too many moments when finding Hammer amid all the hubbub was like searching for the children's book character Waldo in convoluted drawings. Where's Hammer? "Without the screens you could lose track of him," concedes his agent, Phil Casey, "but that's the way the man likes to do it." Even so, Hammer has trimmed some of the excess, cutting back to 94 speakers and 70 computerized lights. Whether all the pizazz amounts to creativity or clutter, promoters insist that it is economically essential. After a record season in 1990--when fans shelled out $1.1 billion to see rock legends like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and the Grateful Dead, current and old favorites like Depeche Mode, Billy Joel and David Bowie, and upcoming sensations like New Kids on the Block--the summer touring business went down the tubes last year. The recession zapped the middle class, which constitutes the bulk of concert audiences. People were forced to cut back on luxuries like $25 tickets to rock shows. Furthermore, few major performers had new albums to promote; hence the big names had little commercial motivation to hit the road. The one large exception was Lollapalooza, the surprise hit of the summer and Rolling Stone's choice for the best tour of the year. The show was the brainchild of Perry Farrell, the lead singer of Jane's Addiction, the headline act of last year's tour. (The other six acts on board spanned the range of youth music from the rapper Ice-T to the industrial dance band Nine Inch Nails.) The counter- and multi-cultural vibes were evident from the start. "The pro-choice people were on one side, the pro-life people were on the other," says producer Ted Gardner of the 1991 midway, "and we had kids in the middle of them giving out condoms." This year a select few megastars are still relying on their personal drawing power. Springsteen last week opened a sold out, 11-night run at the Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey, the first of at least nine stops on a U.S. tour. His show offers no giant TV screens, no light show, no special effects. Furthermore, it is in a 20,000-seat indoor arena rather than the usual summer venue of an outdoor stadium. Yet his followers hardly seem to mind. After all, Springsteen has not toured since 1988. "People are always going to find the money to see the spectacular superstar artists," says New York promoter Mitch Slater. Second- and third-tier acts, however, are still having trouble. Linda Ronstadt reportedly canceled her summer outing, Kiss has postponed its tour, and Ringo Starr is having a hard time filling the house. Other performers are opting for a high-concept strategy instead of the high-tech approach. Elton John and Eric Clapton have teamed up for a joint tour that will play stadiums in New York and Los Angeles this month. Heavy-metal masters Guns N' Roses and Metallica, who recently completed separate arena tours, have joined for a circuit of stadium concerts in 22 cities across the country, through Sept. 4. The combined show, with an opening act by Faith No More and full sets from Metallica and Guns N' Roses, lasts 5 1/2 hours, at the end of which Guns N' Roses vocalist and lead delinquent Axl Rose is still hopping and gyrating tirelessly. "It was considered by both bands that this would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put on this kind of spectacular show," explains Cliff Burnstein, who, with his partner Peter Mensch, manages Metallica. And yet, after all the hype and hoopla, what is the most popular act on tour so far this year? It is--yes--the Grateful Dead, who have been touring virtually nonstop since the 1960s and whose legions of devoted fans (known as Dead Heads) continue to turn out year after year. The group takes a decidedly low-tech, no-fuss approach to performing, and maybe there's a lesson here. In any case, it certainly seems to exemplify a novel concept: just play good music. </body></article> </text>