«At the beginning Lollapalooza was supposed to be Jane's Addiction's farewell», explains Perry Farrell in the trailer for Lolla: The Story of Lollapaloozathe three-episode docuseries that tells the story of the most famous traveling festival in rock history and which will be on Paramount+ from May 21st.
Designed by Farrell as farewell tour for the band of Nothing's Shockingthe Lolla has become the symbol of a true cultural movement, the peak of a season, the celebration of the so-called Alternative Nation which precisely in those years – the first edition was held in the summer of 1991, on the eve of the boom of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, etc – was coming out of the underground and into the mainstream,
In the three episodes, Farrell explores the cultural weight of the festival with Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Ice-T, Chance the Rapper and many others. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails describes Lolla as “a revolution”, for Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine it was “the alternative nation's declaration of independence”.
The documentary also promises to tell what happened afterwards: the great success, the arrival of bands that have nothing to do with alternative rock including Metallica who were seen as far from the original spirit of Lolla, the transformation into a festival like many, the last edition in 1997 and the revival in the 2000s.
