I’ve been going through the basement boxes lately and there’s a fair few good memories stored down there. Was chatting with @HolyMountainPrinting over on Instagram this morning about our shared love of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Let Love In album. It jogged my memory that I had recently rediscovered this cache of photos I had taken from back in my music press days.
They toured Lollapalooza just before that album dropped. That year’s line-up was super hip-hop centered (Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, George Clinton and the P-Funk all stars, and The Last Poets were all there and it was AWESOME). For that reason (I think), there was very low turnout for the Bad Seeds’ set. Boredoms and L7 had just played and destroyed, so I would have to expect some crossover appeal, for some reason, the front of the stage was practically empty.
Now, where normally bands restrict photography to the first three songs, the Bad Seeds let photographers shoot their whole set, so I just watched the whole thing at the foot of the stage with virtually no one anywhere near me. Nick locked onto me and basically sang straight down my lens the whole set. It was my first time ever hearing “Loverman” and “Red Right Hand.” They opened with “From Her to Eternity” and “Papa Won’t Leave you Henry” and I was literally tearing up and trying to shoot. I still get chills thinking about that set.
An interesting footnote to that day is that the show was a Monday and I had had an appendectomy on the Friday evening before. I knew I had been credentialed for the show and I knew I had a very good shot at getting to meet George Clinton, so I basically willed myself out of the hospital. If you don’t know, the qualifier for getting out of the hospital was that you had to demonstrate that you had a functioning digestive system, so I focused and freed myself with a regimen of Cracklin’ Oat Bran and Bran Muffins. I was out of the hospital Sunday afternoon and onto the show on Monday. I still had the stitches and basically walked the Lollapalooza concourse all day somewhat doubled over. It was totally worth it when I got to sit next to and interview George.
I have several great memories of that day. These are just a few.
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