FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL 99/REPORT 16

FRF '99 Green Stage
Rocket Scientists [1999.7.30 12:45]
Rocket from the Crypt launched the 1999 Fuji Rock Festival, taking off from the Green Stage in fine form at 11:00 am. Looking something like a cross between a Western swing band and a Bronx bolwing club, John Speedo and his manic mates played an extremely tight, high-powered 45-minute set that provided the perfect opening for a festival that is predicated rather narrowly on "rock." RFTC's songs channel heavy metal, rockabilly, thrash, blues boogie, whatever, and Speedo's vocal style approximates, as he told the crowd "a coyote in heat." For sure, the main thing that characterized their sound was the "heys," "hos," and Indian whoops that punctuated the whiplash changes.

"It's kinda hot up here with all this professional stage lighting," Speedo commented halfway throught the set in his exaggereated Midwestern drawl. "Are you hot?"

Obviously, the crowd was, what with crytal clear skies and an unfettered noonday sun beating down from above. Still, the crowd, which stretched all the way back to the treeline at the foot of the mountain that faces the Green Stage like a reflecting wall, was totally in sync with the band, moshing deliriously near the front and bouncing around a watermelon-like beach ball that always made its way to the front of the stage. By the time the band ripped into its last number, "a mellow party song," the crowd had turned into a mass of seething humanity, screaming at the top of its lungs along with lyrics they didn't seem to understand. "Is anybody here from Florida?" Speedo asked and got no reply. "Good, cause I hate Florida."

Limp Bizkit, one of the premiere acts of the weekend are, of course, From Florida, but we'll assume Speedo wasn't referring to them. In any case, this is about as far from Florida as you can get, physcially and spiritually.

1999.7.30 Reported by Phil
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