Why Woodstock ’94 Was The Best Woodstock
Thirty years ago this week, concert promoters tried to recapture lightning in a bottle. Or maybe they were just trying to repackage and market that lightning. Woodstock ’94 was surely an attempt by Michael Lang, the promoter of the original 1969 Woodstock festival, to cash in on nostalgia and to give another generation a defining moment.
In 1994 in America, the term festivals generally referred to traveling package tours. Perry Farrell’s Lollapalooza in the summer of 1991 demonstrated that Americans would go to day-long shows that included bands from different generations and genres (notably, hip-hop was always included on the bill and in subsequent years, electronic dance music was as well). The more jam-band-based H.O.R.D.E. tour followed. This was before Coachella, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, and the like changed the summer concert landscape. The idea of traveling somewhere fairly remote, camping out, and spending three full days watching music, was still pretty novel.
The festival took a bit of flak for being too commercial, which was to be expected. But the concert industry was a different beast by the ’90s. It was big business at this point, and we all accepted that. Also, this Woodstock didn’t take place at the location of the original: this time, the show was at a farm about 70 miles away from the original location in Bethel. The fans were clearly OK with the new spot, and they were OK with spending the money to go to the festival. The ticket prices actually sound comically low by today’s standards: it was $135 for a pass to the three-day event. The lineup included Aerosmith, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, Peter Gabriel, Melissa Etheridge and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. You’d be lucky to see any one of those artists for that amount in 2024.
I was fortunate enough to be there for all three days, through the heat and yes, the rain. Despite some of the very aggressive bands who were on the bill, it was mostly a laid-back vibe. I had a blast: Friday’s lineup featured one of my favorite bands, King’s X. I also saw Sheryl Crow and day one’s unofficial headliner: alternative rock icons the Violent Femmes. That night, as I went to sleep, I heard the sounds in the distance of “Ravestock” featuring acts like Aphex Twin, DJ Spooky, the Orb and Orbital. The festival did a good job of honoring its past – with Woodstock O.G.s like Santana and Joe Cocker on the bill – but also the future of music.
On Saturday, I hung at the North stage in the morning for Blind Melon, Cypress Hill and the Rollins Band before leaving for the South stage for a wild and muddy set by Primus. During “My Name Is Mud,” the audience started throwing mud at the band, foreshadowing what would happen the next day with Green Day. Frontman Les Claypool wasn’t amused, informing the crowd that “When you throw things on stage, it’s a sign of small and insignificant genitalia.”
Unfortunately, I missed Melissa Etheridge’s set which was, by all accounts, incredible. But I got back to the North stage to catch an incredible triple shot of heavy rock. Nine Inch Nails’ mud-covered set is the stuff of legend, rightfully. And while Trent Renzor admitted that he agreed to play the festival to offset the costs of Nine Inch Nails’ summer tour, he also acquiesced that it was a pretty cool event. And even if the performance was imperfect, no one cared: the energy was explosive. My wife was at the show too (we hadn’t yet met). I imagine that ex-hippies in the 1970s may have had conversations when they met: “You were at Woodstock? Me too!” We had a similar bond: we were both at Woodstock ’94. My wife’s experience, however, was considerably more hardcore than mine.
Early that morning, she found a spot right in front of the stage and did not move until the end of Nine Inch Nails’ performance: she did not leave to eat, and she didn’t go to the bathroom either. She was an actual member of the Nine Inch Nails fan club and this was to be her first time seeing them in concert. I asked her for her recollection of that performance: “Mind-blowing.” We’ve seen them about 20 times since then, and they’re always amazing, but what can compare to that? (Similarly, could any Santana performance match this one from the original Woodstock?)
Metallica’s set wasn’t quite as historic, but they were still fantastic, as always. It’s worth mentioning that in the late ’80s and early ’90s, if you were at a show with a mosh pit, there was a code of conduct: if someone got hurt, you helped pick them up. You didn’t try to hurt anyone. And men didn’t harass women in the pit. In some ways, Woodstock ’94 might have marked the end of that. People at home watching on TV saw concert-goers moshing to artists who had nothing to do with the metal or punk scene. It became something that meatheads started to do at any show with a general admission area. But on that muddy night, lots of people got knocked down and were helped back up, and everyone had a blast.
Aerosmith played the last set of the night, going on in the wee hours of the morning. As an Aerosmith fan, I was worried how they would go over. They were an “old” band — hey, they were about 20 at that point! But my concern was unfounded: after the aggressive darkness and gloom of Nine Inch Nails and Metallica, I (and much of the crowd) were ready for a good time, and Boston’s finest delivered.
By Sunday, I was beat. And that’s why I spent the day at the North stage, and decided not to go back and forth (it was a long walk). And that’s why I missed Green Day’s historic set. But I was in the mood for hip-hop that morning, and I saw the laid-back vibes of Arrested Development, followed by two of my favorite classic rock jam bands: the Allman Brothers Band and Traffic. I think actually napped during the next set (the Spin Doctors) and got up for Perry Farrell’s Porno For Pyros.
My friend and I took a bus to the festival, but some of her friends drove there and offered us a ride home that night. I convinced them (much to their chagrin) to stay through Bob Dylan’s set (he ain’t for everyone). But sadly, we left before the Red Hot Chili Peppers hit the stage in their wild lightbulb outfits, for their first show with then-new guitarist Dave Navarro. Even without that and Peter Gabriel’s festival-ending set, I still had an incredible time.
I guess there’s a good reason why Woodstock ’94 isn’t often discussed — other than in the context of Nine Inch Nails and Green Day’s sets — because there was not any serious controversy around it. Sure, people griped about money but everyone I spoke to there had fun.
Five years later, I attended Woodstock ’99, which has been discussed much more and even has its own documentary, rightfully titled Trainwreck. Some of the same artists played both: Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sheryl Crow and Live. But the events, even though organized by the same people, could not have been more different. Maybe the promoters got even more greedy, and maybe the world got somehow meaner. Woodstock ’99 just felt cruel. I saw some great performances at ’99, but the vibe was just different. It felt like a prison camp with music, the greed was more obnoxious, and the makeup of the audience was just not cool. I remember seeing a bunch of people sliding around in what they thought was the mud, trying to reproduce the images of ’94. I was surprised that it didn’t occur to them that they were a bit close to the portajohns. They were sliding around in literal poop. And that’s what I think of when I think of Woodstock ’99.
And just as Woodstock ’99 couldn’t seem to recapture the fun of Woodstock ’94, I realize that no music festival could take on the cultural significance of the original from 1969. Kind of like how a guy playing the National Anthem on an electric guitar could never be as radical as it was in 1969. The conditions that led to Woodstock couldn’t really be repeated, even if you own the rights and trademark to use the name. But for those of us who trucked up to Saugerties, New York, for that weekend thirty summers ago, we had an amazing time full of peace, love, music, a hint of capitalism and more mud than any of us expected.
