02/10/03 Lollapalooza Press Conference @ Amoeba in Hollywood

In a flurry of Rock Gods, daisies, and bikini chicks Lollapalooza returned in grand style.

I have tasted a small slice of summer, wrapped up in a package called Lollapalooza and delivered by Perry Farrell and the rest of the members of the band Jane's Addiction. This should prove to be a musical high point of 2003. All hail the return of the maverick of music festivals! A jam session and press conference was held in Hollywood at Amoeba Music in Hollywood. Jane's Addiction along with members of Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus, Audioslave, and Jurassic 5 will be the core of this year's returning festival.

The band played a couple of new tunes, "Suffer Some" and "Wrong Girl," both tracks should be on their upcoming release Hypersonic. On closing song of the short set, a rendition of "Jane Says," the band was joined by Brandon Boyd, Jose Pasillas, and Mike Einziger of Incubus. Jose took Stephen Perkins' spot at the drum kit, and Perkins switched to a huge steel drum. As they left the stage, Farrell announced the "Lolla's," and two daisy-adorned bikini dancers came out and did a "Go Go" number. They shook and gyrated to a kitchy rero-tune "I love Bikini Girls" After the bikini shake, the bands all came out for some Q&A on the tour.

Lollapalooza, the brainchild of Farrell, ruled the tour circuit for over a decade. There was an attempt to resurrect the defunct tour from the ashes in 2002 that didn't pan out. "We had a 5 year hiatus to rest. It's never a bad idea to rest, especially when you're exhausted. … Re-strategize, and wait for the perfect wave. You wait for the waves to com, and waves come in sets. At this time, with the music industry the way it is, and the bands that are out there, and our availability, it just seemed like this was the perfect wave, " Farrell explained. It seems the universe was setting planets into alignment at just the perfect time for this tour.

There will be plenty of booths and activities to join in between catching your favorite bands. Tom Morello will be bringing his collaborative effort with Serj Tankian "There will definitely be an Axis of Justice installation involved with this tour. It will be the biggest one to be on any tour so far" said Morello.

Perry added "We're gonna provide other things for us to be socially aware. One thing that we are for is alternative fuel, so without going too into detail, what we'd like to do is offer information at the very least about alternative fuel and see if we can have some fun with that. With all the things we are going to have throughout the grounds, I don't think it would be worth that much without all the great live music. That's got to be the staple. That's got to be the root! We will absolutely have more bands; this is the initial line up"

An enthused Tom Morello talked with passion and excitement about the upcoming tour. "When Lollapalooza first emerged, it completely changes the face of popular music. It took a lot of cutting edge bands and forced them into a musical community. That changed music in America. It was probably the most important tour to trek across the United States. In today's current musical climate, I think it's a really important time for Lollapalooza to reemerge." Morello exclaimed.

"I don't think we will feel any competition from any other tours this summer. It's the incredible music. It's the ideas contained in the concert. It's a community that's built among bands, among fans. It's really unlike anything that's been going on in the last five years. It's certainly unlike anything else that's going on this summer, and we're really proud to be a part of it."

Click here for my stolen moments .... a fast round of Q&A with Mark Lanegan

For current information on Lollapalooza visit http://www.lollapalooza.com/

Or check out the bands sites;

http://www.janesaddiction.com/ Check out footage of Incubus and Jane's playing "Jane Says"

http://audioslave.com/

http://qotsa.com/index_main.html

http://www.enjoyincubus.com/

http://jurassic5.com/

Recently added The Donnas

http://www.thedonnas.com