by Gregory Martin

It was Friday morning. Day one of three was upon us. There was lots of buzz and anticipation in the air for the festival to finally officially begin. And coming out of the gate quickly was a legendary performer, none other than the aptly named “hardest working man in show business“, the one, the only,  Mr. James Brown. I was very eager to get the opportunity to see him. I was aware of some of his work, mostly from old-school hip-hop performers who would famously use his classic songs as samples in their work.

We finally got our act in gear and began the very long walk along the asphalt runway of the Air Force Base from the tents to the mainstage. It was still very early and already the sun was blazing down on us with the temperature in the high 80s. We stopped to get some water for $2.50 that was somehow only $2.00 the night before and continued on our long hike. The closer we got to the stage the more people were joining our march. Along the way we passed the Port-O-Johns with lines of hundreds of people deep and already, this early, people mobbed the water drinking stations in an attempt to cool off.

Eventually we arrived at the Mainstage area called the East stage. Though we were overwhelmed by how many people were already there, a feeling of satisfaction swept over me knowing I had made it, I was there, and this was indeed all real.  After a brief welcoming speech by the festival promoters including Woodstock 1969 organizer Michael Lang, it was time for the music to finally start. James Brown’s back up band and his singers started things off. They kept playing … and playing …and playing … for almost 10 minutes before James Brown himself finally came out of the wings. We would later find out the reason for the long delay was that James Brown was refusing to go on stage until he was paid more than what he was originally offered to perform.

Thunderous applause greeted James as he walked out of the wings starting off with “Living in America“ from the Rocky IV soundtrack. He then took a long break from singing to chat with the massive crowd but no one could really make out what he was saying. It was very similar to that Eddie Murphy stand up bit from the movie “Delirious”.  He then turned back to his band and kicked off into his next classic… Living in America! Every one of his songs for the next 30 mins sounded like Living in America and the lyrics he was spouting were totally indecipherable. Being older, James was not doing his usual trademark splits and pulling himself up by the mic stand bit that he used to do back in the day but as the set ended fans were treated to his trade mark slow exhausted walk off the stage while being draped in his cape with the band begging him not to leave, only for him to throw the cape off at the last second and proceed to scream real loud, turn around, run back out onto the stage to finish up the song … well in this case today, more like a light jog .

After the set was done it was getting hotter by the minute, so my friend and I decided to try and locate some shade, but we soon found out there was no shade to be found anywhere on this asphalt jungle of an air base. We decided to take a walk around the festival grounds to see what else was being offered. As we walked the grounds to see where the second stage was, we realized it was going to be about a 20–25-minute walk from the mainstage to the second stage so our plan to just jump between stages would now need to be seriously re-examined. We finally finished the rounds and made it back to the mainstage just as newcomer Jamaraquai was going on. My friend and I had spoken on the car ride up about what out-of-this-world insanely sized hat he would bring out for such an epic historical event but to our utter disappointment he walked out with nothing more than a headband with some white feathers in the front. Now an epic let down, I quickly lost interest in the Jamaraquai set.

After the disappointing headband incident came the band Live.  Although I’m not a fan of the band musically, I saw Woodstock 99 as an opportunity for them to redeem themselves. Prior to this weekend my only other experience with Live had been a few years earlier as openers for New York punk legends the Ramones and as anyone will tell you Ramones fans never. and I mean never … like the opening act. The night Live opened they were showered with booze and cups of beer, even apologizing at one point to the hostile crowd for just being there. They were having the last laugh now as they were performing in front of an audience of 400,000 plus and although the set was not a classic by any means it certainly achieved what I thought was redemption with the crowd singing along to I Alone and Lightning Crashes.

During the break between sets my friend went over to the second stage while I stayed, having a bit of interest in Sheryl Crow who was the next to perform. I soon noticed that on top of the hill MTV had set up a production trailer that people were sitting underneath as it cast some much needed shade. Wanting to escape the now mid 90s temperature beating down I went and sat there for Sheryl Crow. She was doing her best to try and win over the audience which mainly consisting of testosterone fueled males with her radio friendly hits All I Wanna Do – If It Makes You Happy, and a cover of Guns & Roses Sweet Child O Mine. Losing the battle with the crowd, she was met with chants of “Show us your tits!” after every song. Towards the end of her set I began to notice a river starting to form around us underneath the trailer as people were peeing on its giant wheels, sadly ending my all too short lived escape from the unforgiving sun.

Sheryl Crow was followed up by hip hop artist DMX.  I didn’t know much of his stuff as I’m not really a fan of the live hip hop experience, but I was absolutely amazed how good his set was.  I finally decided to move up closer to the stage where I could still find some personal space.  The crowd sang along to every single word and even barked loudly on command when DMX would ask “Where my mad dawgs at?”. Every song he had us with arms up high and hands pressing down the air. Afterwards I made my way through the 400,000-size crowd to get back to meet my friend as the first night’s big headliners were going to be coming on shortly to close out the day.

The Offspring was riding high with their new album “Americana“, riding the success of pop punk made famous five years earlier at Woodstock 94 by Green Day’s set. The crowd had been waiting all day in the hot sun for a reason to finally let loose and go off.  Large mosh pits opened, and thousands of crowd surfers rode atop people’s heads and hundreds of girls sat on the shoulders of various men removing their tops to show the band. Woodstock 99 was now officially a Woodstock. During the Offspring’s set people began throwing plastic bottles of  pop, water and what I hoped was yellow iced tea. Quickly what started off as a few dozen bottles became a few hundred and not long after that a few hundred became a few thousand, littering the stage completely .Woodstock’s fireball sun had finally set and it was now much cooler. At the time there had been much talk in the music press about Nu Metal which was now about to be introduced to the mainstream at Woodstock through Nu Metal leaders Korn who were coming to kick open the doors and show the world that Nu Metal  was here to stay for a while.

The crowd was electric, buzzing and ready to release all remaining pent-up energy as hundreds of thousands would be asked by Korn lead singer Johnathan Davis “ARE YOU READY !!!” as the opening song Blind kicked in and a wave of concert goers jumped in unison to the heavy riffs emanating from the speakers. Following Blind with heavy favorite Justin from Follow The Leader, Korn never took its foot off the gas for the next 60 minutes, showing the world what it was missing. I spent whatever energy I had left with Korn and during the process lost my friend in the sea of mosh pits.  Bush closed the mainstage that night, replacing the original closers Foo Fighters who had to cancel due to recent lineup changes, but I had no interest in seeing Bush and made the long walk to the second stage in hopes of finding my friend there.

As I made my way back the Insane Clown Posse were halfway through their set. I spent the years from 1993 to 1997 living near Detroit so I was well educated as to what Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J were all about as well as their the rabid Juggalo fanbase.  As they spewed out profanity laced lyrics, they sprayed the audience with 3 litre bottles of Detroit’s very own brand of Faygo soda and for added fun kicked beach balls greased with $100 bills attached to them inciting mobs of fans to proceed to beat each other senseless trying to get the money off the ball.

To close out opening night George Clinton and The P Funk All Stars came on again to do a second night closing out the second stage. Although it was a completely different set from the first night, my energy level was unable to match that of the funkmasters legendary marathon sets and sadly I departed after only two songs. I made the punishing hike back to the tent trying to remember, in a sea of half a million other similar looking tents, which was mine. No small feat, believe me. After what seemed like hours, with my legs hurt and feeling like two cement pillars, I was able to locate my tent.  I crawled in,  my friend was already asleep and snoring , but not nearly loud enough to drain out the all night rave that was going on in one of the airplane hangers on the base. Within a matter of mere minutes I too was out like a light, myself drifting off peacefully, not knowing that the next day was going to be the closest to a post apocalyptic anarchy society that I would ever experience in my life!!!!

…to be continued