As a member of Less Than Jake, I start my day by taking an hour or two to walk around and check out the people that spend their hard-earned money on a ticket. The people who take the day off work to hang around for over-priced beer and sun-stroked bikers in shirts that say, “Moustache Rides for Free.” It’s truly an amazing collection of people: teenage “Hot Topic” goths, frat boys and girls, old metal-heads in hair-metal shirts and guys in mullets that aren’t a joke to them.
Backstage starts as a ghost town, consisting of workers, roadies and amphitheater employees during the day. As day falls into night, it progressively fills up with friends, guests, girls in short skirts, guys with fake tans, press people and others in search of the VIP tent that dispenses free beer. Through the dust and heat, I recognize a few familiar faces and make my way over to the stage to play my 30 minutes in Less Than Jake.
I could ramble on about each band, but Snoop Dogg is the guy that most people ask about. Snoop Dogg is the one true star on this whole tour – hell, he’s a movie star, a rap star and a household name. His buses lumber in – security guards in tow – and when he shows up, it truly becomes a three-ring circus. Venue staff and employees run around, give quick looks and generally act like teenagers when it comes to Snoop. He rolls out as quickly as he rolls in – job done, people satisfied.
Snoop is the complete opposite of Less than Jake, The Used and Korn, who you’ll see early in the morning looking for a clean bathroom and staggering around looking for cold beer at 2 a.m. For such a diverse musical lineup – nü metal, rock, screamo, rap, pop punk and ska – the bands aren’t that diverse, personally. Life on the road makes most bands similar. We’re all looking for clean bathrooms, missing our families and our dog, and trying to keep sane in such an insane environment.
To the credit of Linkin Park, they do know how to write a catchy song and put on one hell of a stage show. I mean, when I’m sitting around eating cold Taco Bell late at night, and their song “Breaking the Habit” bounces around in my head, I can’t help but think that they are doing something right. And when I go into the amphitheatre’s lawn area, surrounded by shirtless guys slugging warm beer with their trucker cap-wearing girlfriends in tow, singing the words to every single song, I know for sure that they are doing something right.
Linkin Park is the headlining band for obvious reasons, especially when you hear the crowd and see their reaction. Korn is such a close second in fan reaction that, at certain points in their set, they wear the crowns for that brief moment.
Some people have said that a tour like Projekt Revolution would never work. Thinking that it’s just too diverse, with too many genres to keep the masses from rioting in their seats. I’m here to say that Projekt has worked. While its diverse lineup twists and turns its way throughout the U.S., Projekt Revolution proves that diversity is the glue that binds music to its colorful mix of fans, all in support of good rock music.
Comment
