Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 doc

Solid doc

 

Where can you find it?

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

 

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.

 

I watched it last night (I haven't seen the HBO one), man, what a complete shitshow. 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

 

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.

 

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.

 

On a side note, I saw Wyclef Jean once, 2001 or 2002, can't remember exactly, and thought he was pretty good!

 

Like dumping a lot of shit on Fred Dirst who certainly deserves some but Limp Bizkit was followed by Rage and Metallica, two bands who can certainly get a crowd - or keep a crowd - revved up but who weren’t mentioned at all.

 

They only had three hours on this, I guess? Only so much you can squeeze in, and everything they put in was fantastic.

It's like when you write an article, talk to an expert and they give you all sorts of fascinating insights. But you can only include like a quote or two. Back when I was a semi-working journalist, so many of my pieces could have been titled "Well, I Learned A Lot"

 

Just finished the first episode. They briefly touch on it with Cheryl Crowe having frat bros demanding to see her tits. Wish they went deeper.