Woodstock '99 Concert Report

 

 

  Early Sunday morning concertgoers could take part in a nude photo.  This gentleman is known for having large grouping of nude people gathered for his photographs. Of course Yours Truly feels the human body is a beautiful thing so i, too, posed with the many others (naked of course).

 

West Stage where Rusted Root, Sevendust, and Godsmack Performed

 

While this is the last day of the concert, it seems to be better known for the rioting and fires than all the great music that has been enjoyed during the previous days. Today i hung around the West Stage and enjoyed bands like Rusted Root, Sevendust (great stuff here), and Godsmack (a great local band for me). Sevendust and Godsmack were rage-o-riffic!!!

 

Sevendust

Sevendust

 

 

 

 

During Sunday i started thinking about all the great times, all the wonderful stories i have heard, etc. While enjoying Willie Nelson i wrote this article (click here to read it). The joys of all this great music as the crowd screamed for more brought, literally, tears to my eyes. Ya see, i love music and it brings me much joy to see others enjoy it too. In fact i hard many storied of people hitchhiking to the show! While i was sitting on a flat stage i saw this writing (seen above). Obviously Mirta, Jamie, and Rob hitched to Woodstock '99 all the way from Montreal Quebec!

 

 

Later that day i went to the same spot to enjoy more music and actually saw these three! Pictured right are these three who hitched all the way to Woodstock '99 with only $50 between all three of them! So with $50 and a hope they made it not only to, but into the concert! They told me how they were barely able to pass through the boarder into America. How the Canadian boarder patrol (who i hate too) harassed them even after being about 20 miles into America. In the end they made it and told me they were having the time of their lives. To quote an old Metallica song ...and justice for all.

 

 

Early Sunday morning the true damage to the wall surrounding Woodstock '99 began. People were tearing down the wall and taking both large and small pieces as memorabilia.

 

 

 

 

So on this last day of Woodstock '99 there was a wide variety of musical choices from performances by Willie Nelson, big band dude Brian Setzer, Elvis Costello, Sevendust, Godsmack and even old-time heavy metalers Megadeath! The whole show wrapped up with the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing a great set.

 

 

 

Flea was wearing only his bass guitar while Anthony belted out the great lyrics. In fact Anthony looked into the crowd at all the fires that were burning and proclaimed how it looked like Apocalypse Now out in the audience! Indeed it did and was also confirmed by one of the sound engineers who has written to me privately about the rioting. For those who want to see my full riot report, please click here to see it.

i'd like to end this report on an upbeat feeling. Sure there were some not so good things that happened at Woodstock '99, yet i can't help but feel that the majority of people had a great time as we all survived some type of quest to see many of the bands we love. The mainstream press seems to have skewed the rioting to say it was the price of water and dirty fairgrounds condition, yet i asked the rioters while they were destroying the place why they were doing it. Most answered that it was "fun" or that "others are doing it so..."

All those i spoke with personally had a great time. No rapes, no deaths, though some heat exhaustion. Maybe i was hanging around with a group of people who were a bit wiser than others perhaps? As a 33 year old myself, maybe i gravitated more towards the more mature crowd than the under 18'ers which i saw doing some truly irresponsible acts. Ah, rebellious youth! Still, society and the younger generation of today will do as they please. This is what America has been built upon. From demonstrations against the Vietnam war to the rioting at Woodstock '99, there is always something to be said and learnt about each generation. For only we, as a committee of one who join other like-minded individuals, can group together to make this world a better place.

 

 

Live
Love
Music
Dance

 

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin

 

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