Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 doc

[bigpern23]

Just started watching this and it looks interesting, but it already strikes me as weird the way they are ignoring Woodstock ’94 as if it didn’t happen.

I say that because the original creator of Woodstock is interviewed and he talks about how he wanted to do ‘99 because gun violence (Columbine) was affecting his teenagers and he wanted to show them about Flower Power, Peace, Love, etc.

I was a teenager then and even I remember it being just a blatant cash grab after ’94.

Makes me suspect of the rest of this doc.

 

[bigpern23]

OK, nevermind, they’re now onto talking about ’94.

 

[Machine Head]

I have no memory of either of these but I am going down the google wormhole hold a good thought for me if you will

 

[spikechiquet]

Just finished it.
Wow those two guys behind were just total spin doctors ... or Pollyanna's at best. My roommate's BF went to '99 and I remember her being mad at him because she was convinced he ****ed around behind her back while there. After watching all 3 episodes, she was probably right.
Some interesting stories in there, for sure. And having it come from so many angles (fans, staff, medical, security (or lack thereof), artists, media, MTV people).

 

[Roscablo]

Didn't HBO or something do one last year or sometime recently? How much is different? Ah, whatever, I'll watch it.

Funny thing, I was going into my senior year of college in 1999. I barely remember this. I should have in a way been the target, and it obviously fell flat on me. Seeing some of the main acts there, I didn't really care for them too much so I suppose that is some of it.

In the first documentary, they had a good deal on how there were few women acts and then all these new metal groups and that it was a recipe for disaster combined with the logistics and everything else. What in the world were they thinking? Or it is exactly what they wanted.

 

[Machine Head]

The '99 theme seems to be fire and human waste upon first google

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Bigger trainwreck: 99 or 69?

 

[Machine Head]

Bigger trainwreck: 99 or 69?

Fire would seem to have the upper hand, but ymmv

 

[tapintoamerica]

"Woodstock '94, brought to you by Pepsi Cola? Man, hell's gonna freeze over."
-- Mojo Nixon in "Bring Me the Head of David Geffen," one of the greatest songs ever.

 

[Huggy]

I am planning on watching this on the weekend. I remember Rolling Stone’s report was headlined Rage Against the Latrines

 

[micropolitan guy]

Bigger trainwreck: 99 or 69?

1969 was not a trainwreck. None of the violence, destruction, assaults, ripping off the attendees, etc., that I saw in the 1999 documentary. In 1969, nothing worked as planned obviously. But somehow people pulled together, stayed cool, and it all seemed to work out.

 

[Batman]

1969 was not a trainwreck. None of the violence, destruction, assaults, ripping off the attendees, etc., that I saw in the 1999 documentary. In 1969, nothing worked as planned obviously. But somehow people pulled together, stayed cool, and it all seemed to work out.

I think '94 went pretty smoothly as well. Apparently 1999 was just a toxic mix of ****-poor organization leading into it, a different and uglier crowd than the previous two editions, and no comprehension of what to do when things got out of hand.
On Chris Jericho's podcast a while back, he had a couple of people who were involved behind the scenes of it in a couple of different capacities. They had a pretty good ground-level view of the entire thing and the multiple levels of cluster****s that all of it was from the time they were setting up all the way through when it devolved into anarchy. It's a good hour to listen to.

 

[garrow]

Solid doc

 

[Spartan Squad]

Where can you find it?

What I remember of 99 was the gigantic cluster **** it became and MTV doing a doc on it that basically made their VJs out to be poor innocent boobs.

 

[Roscablo]

Just watched it. Holy crap. I would have to go back and watch the HBO one again, but this one was better. Good and interesting few hours.

The organizers 23 years later still hold no accountability. Just dumb kids. My goodness.

Some interesting differences between the two, this one completely ignored a few of the acts that added to the pent-up emotions, not that it was their fault either (Metallica, DMX). The Saturday night finale of Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, and Metallica. No overflowing energy there or anything!

It ignored that there were more mellow acts of the time that were there and how that went over (Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows). I also think the HBO one mentioning there really weren't any women acts is important and while this one talked about Sherryl Crow and interviewed Jewel, it didn't really address it. I just went and looked, three women that would jump out at you when you add Alanis Morrissette. The Netflix one did have some from actual people in charge that the lineup was questioned.

Obviously, it was much more than the lineup. If the infrastructure was there the lineup probably wouldn't have mattered.

This one didn't mention the several deaths, which is weird. I like that this one went more in-depth with people who actually worked behind the scenes. Again, no freaking accountability.

 

[Huggy]

I watched it last night (I haven't seen the HBO one), man, what a complete ****show. Amazing the promoters were still in full on deflect, deflect, deflect mode and not all all surpising it was the people on the ground who knew what was really going on while these guys fiddled and Rome (NY) burned

And after two-plus days of carnage somebody still thought handing out candles was a good idea????

Here is Rob Sheffield's report from the show in Rolling Stone (cached in case it's paywalled): Woodstock '99: Rage Against the Latrine

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

This one completely glossed over the rampant sexual assault that occurred where the other one didn’t.

 

[Roscablo]

This one completely glossed over the rampant sexual assault that occurred where the other one didn’t.

That would be an interesting comparison. There was an element at the end where it was, holy crap, a bunch of sexual assaults happened. Yet they showed clips of women getting groped throughout. They touched on it here and there. I feel the HBO one did more on the young girl they talked about. That Rolling Stone story talked in depth about it on Saturday morning.

The Netflix one didn't say much about race, either. I don't really know how much it played into anything, but it was another element that was present. The HBO one did a whole thing on DMX's set. The Rolling Stone story posted talked about Ice Cube and the only black people there were in the Peace Patrol.

 

[Huggy]

That would be an interesting comparison. There was an element at the end where it was, holy crap, a bunch of sexual assaults happened. Yet they showed clips of women getting groped throughout. They touched on it here and there. I feel the HBO one did more on the young girl they talked about. That Rolling Stone story talked in depth about it on Saturday morning.

The Netflix one didn't say much about race, either. I don't really know how much it played into anything, but it was another element that was present. The HBO one did a whole thing on DMX's set. The Rolling Stone story posted talked about Ice Cube and the only black people there were in the Peace Patrol.

Other than James Brown being shown as the first act and Wyclef Jean's awful Hendrix impression were there any other black people shown in the Netflix one?

 

[Roscablo]

Other than James Brown being shown as the first act and Wyclef Jean's awful Hendrix impression were there any other black people shown in the Netflix one?

No, not one mention of race that I recall. I still see the bigger failure is not addressing the lack of a women's presence, but it is interesting some of the stuff they left out for sure.