Lollapalooza’s New Alternative : Metallica Loudly Makes the Case for a Heavy Headliner

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —  Maybe they should rename this summer’s Lollapalooza tour the Why-apalooza tour.

“Why” is certainly the word that organizers of the rock extravaganza heard repeatedly leading up to Thursday’s start of the 25-city tour on 65 acres of the normally tranquil park grounds along Longview Lake, about a half-hour’s drive south of here.

For the first five years of Lollapalooza, the competition was between the bands. As the sixth annual tour began before an estimated 20,000 fans in punishing, 90-degree heat, the issue wasn’t so much how the bands were doing, but the credibility of Lollapalooza itself.

Many fans have asked why tour organizers--who in the past have focused primarily on alternative rock acts--selected Metallica, which came out of the rival heavy-metal genre, to headline this year’s shows.

And why set up concerts on isolated fields rather than simply use conventional venues? Why not more diversity on the bill--more women, more hip-hop acts?

And why aren’t tickets selling better on some stops on the tour, whose only Southern California date will be Aug. 3 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre? (Capacity for Thursday’s show was between 35,000 and 40,000.)

“The idea of Lollapalooza was never to be a showcase for the alternative rock radio format,” Marc Geiger, a tour co-founder, said backstage Thursday. “We wanted to defy formats and present great bands that challenged mainstream sensibilities.”

In the past, he said, Lollapalooza presented mostly alternative rock artists because they were the ones who most lived up to the festival goals. But the vitality of that scene, he believes, has waned.

“The alternative scene has been stagnant the last couple of years--imitation acts just feeding off the energy and imagination of Nirvana and others,” Geiger said.

“That’s not the case with Metallica. This is a great band with immense credibility, and if that shakes some people up, then all the better, because it’s good to be a little controversial.”

Geiger also had answers for most of the other questions: Artists prefer the greater fan energy of outdoor, general-admission shows. . . . Organizers tried to book some women, including PJ Harvey, for the tour, and had hoped the rap group the Wu-Tang Clan could have been on more than a few dates.

But he could not explain the spotty ticket sales for the tour, whose main-stage lineup also includes Soundgarden, the Ramones, Rancid, the Screaming Trees, the Shaolin Monks (a martial arts troupe that was unable to appear here because of immigration problems), Psychotica and, the inaugural show’s special guest, the arty, ethereal Cocteau Twins.

“I just don’t know, and it’s doubly puzzling because we are doing fabulous business in some cities . . . 32,000 in Rockford, Ill., in 35 or 40 minutes . . . 25,000 in New York, where we’ve added a second show,” he said. “The only thing we can figure out is that we [angered] alternative people by putting Metallica on the bill. But, I have no regrets. I am proud of the way Lollapalooza has evolved.”

Some musicians backstage agreed.

“To me, the idea of Metallica headlining makes perfect sense,” said Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden and one of the most respected figures in alternative rock. “For one thing, they are a great band, but they’ll also bring in a lot of new people [to Lollapalooza], and you can turn on that audience to interesting new things they might otherwise never hear . . . like the Cocteau Twins.”

Moments later on stage, Cornell had fun with the Metallica controversy.

At the end of his band’s set, he stared out at the crowd and spoke sarcastically about how bummed everybody must be, having to look forward to Metallica closing the show.

The crowd, most of which had been standing in the scorching sun for more than seven hours, let out a huge roar--both, it seemed, for Soundgarden’s radiant set and for the pending arrival of Metallica, whose new “Load” album had been the nation’s No. 1 seller for three weeks.

The afternoon’s earlier bands had all played solidly, but none came close to the electrifying, career-launching punch of key supporting Lollapalooza sets over the years by such acts as Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine.

But Soundgarden brought the audience alive with a bold, self-assured performance that ended with “Blow Up the Outside World.” It’s a Beatles-esque tale of anxious self-affirmation on the new “Down on the Upside” album--a song that demonstrates Cornell’s increasing maturity as a writer.

Returning to live shows after a three-year break, Metallica seemed inspired by the debate over whether it belongs on the tour. Midway during the group’s 90-minute assault, complete with enough fireworks and other flashy effects to make KISS envious, lead singer James Hetfield couldn’t resist poking more fun at the hoopla caused by his band’s booking.

“Everybody out there OK?” he asked the crowd with mock concern. “Not scared, are you?”

He was apparently referring to concerns raised in some quarters before the tour about hordes of Metallica’s aggressive fans roughing up the supposedly more mild-mannered alternative rock crowd.

As it turned out, the fans coexisted nicely as they listened to the music from the main stage, sampled nearly a dozen other bands on secondary stages (including Ruby, Ben Folds Five and Girls Against Boys) and browsed arts and crafts booths. This year, too, Lollapalooza features a fun zone complete with Ferris wheel, carnival games and such sideshow attractions as--we are promised, in the great P.T. Barnum tradition--a woman who lives despite having lost her head in a car accident.

But it was, as always, the music that defined the marathon event, and Metallica, images and marketing labels aside, played with a power and passion that forged a kinship with the metal or industrial sides of such previous Lollapalooza standouts as Ministry and Rage Against the Machine.

Afterward, there was, ironically, only one question left for tour organizers.

Why haven’t all Lollapalooza tour headliners been this good?

* Lollapalooza on Aug. 3 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine, 3 p.m. $35, on sale today. (714) 855-4515.