‘Palooza’s Power Surge

If Lollapalooza’s organizers could have one wish for this summer’s tour as it nears completion, it would probably be that Prodigy would have been able to play the entire trek rather than only a few dates.

It’s not simply that surging interest in the English band’s often exhilarating combination of electronic beats and both punk and hip-hop energy boosted ticket sales. The crowd of 20,000 at the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion on Friday was among the tour’s biggest this summer, when attendance has generally been down from the rock fest’s first six years.

What counts more is that Prodigy’s presence (on a main-stage bill that also featured hard rock band Tool, rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg, English trip-hop wizard Tricky and the expansive Anglo-pop of the band James) pumped in a much-needed sense of urgency and currency. Lollapalooza, many feel, had lost its mission of pointing the way for new directions in pop music and culture.

“Every year it’s gotten worse,” said Albert Rivera, 22, a data entry worker from Fontana who attended Friday’s show. “But this year the bands at least [make it] feel like it could mean something--especially Prodigy.”

Indeed, as Prodigy mastermind Liam Howlett took his place at an elevated bank of keyboards and sequencers and, with strobe lights flashing, triggered the pulsating sounds from the new “The Fat of the Land” album, a palpable sense of excitement and curiosity coursed through the crowd. And when the frontmen, tightly wound rapper MC Maxim Reality and punk gremlin Keith Flint, came out with pugnacious fervor, the place pretty much exploded.

The boisterousness didn’t sustain the level it reached during Snoop’s earlier set. But then, it was a different vibe. Snoop’s set was a party, a chance to chant along with familiar material and play out the hip-hop rituals that are part of the pop culture mainstream.

And Tool, too, was met with a roar almost as big as the garish red wig (going nicely with his amply padded bikini top) worn by singer Maynard James Keenan. But again, though Tool may not have penetrated the mainstream, its monolithic hard rock--falling somewhere between Lollapalooza ’96 acts Soundgarden and Metallica--is within the bounds of the tried-and-true Big Rock Show tradition.

For most of the crowd, though, Prodigy was something new, known only from MTV and the media saturation accompanying the new album--an act with something to prove. And the band was more than up to the challenge.

In the tighter focus of the Mayan Theatre, where the group performed last May before the new album’s release, the elements of the act--some rave, some rap, some punk--seemed somewhat a calculated attempt to maximize trend demographics. In the great outdoors, though, it all blended together in an integrated, all-inclusive formula that’s perfect for the times.

For one thing, this is a band that was meant to play outside in front of a large crowd. Everything about it--from the pop world domination ambitions to the Grand Guignol theater of Reality and Flint and the everyman party spirit of amazingly limber dancer Leeroy Thornhill--is scaled big. The impressive showing of the new album--more than 600,000 copies sold since its July 1 release--only add weight to the breast-beating.

Yet, strangely, subtler aspects were more apparent when played out on this larger canvas. Of course, there’s nothing subtle about Flint’s puckish mugging or Reality’s steely glare. But Howlett’s musical manipulations created ebbs and flows that worked the crowd masterfully. And, as a whole, the presentation virtually summarized and entwined all the music that had preceded it Friday--from Tricky’s densely woven tapestries (which failed to engage the audience) to Snoop’s bravado to Tool’s massiveness.

That, though, underscored what was missing on the Lollapalooza stage: something to take the show beyond the now-formulaic multi-act rock show. How meaningful it could have been, for example, to see Snoop and Reality rap together during one or the other’s set or for Howlett to join Snoop’s DJ Jam at the turntables.

Even co-founder Perry Farrell’s re-involvement this year--his reformed Jane’s Addiction was rumored as a “surprise” act Friday, but was busy in the recording studio--failed to make Lollapalooza, as it once was, more than merely the sum of its parts. But maybe where this show left off--with Prodigy’s tying bind--will prove to be just a starting point for next year.