Commercial was the wrong word for me to reach for. Less open to observer tourists with minimal interest in the culture would probably be a better wording. If the Gathering has a fail state resembling another festival, I think Lollapalooza is a more likely outcome than Burning Man.
If that’s what it takes to develop empathy, then what separates a Juggalo from a common Republican?
Homophobia was pretty common back in the punk rock days. But I can still remember concerts in the early 80s where there was push back. I recall seeing FEAR in Eugene, Oregon, and the moment they started in with their totally expected gay-bashing rhetoric, the show nearly ground to a halt. There was actual FEAR on stage.
2 Likes
And yet, you can go anywhere, give the “secret handshake” and at the very least have a conversation with a stranger. That sounds like Deadhead gang strategy.
But seriously, if you varry something that identifies you as liking the Grateful Dead, someone is likely to do something. That time forty years ago in New York ciry, I don’t think I had a GD tshirt in, yet someone stopped me to ask if I wanted to trade tapes. The next summer two different people asked me if I’d been to the Alaska concert. I later saw a photo of someone on tour that summer who looked a lot like me, it’s in The Book of the Deadheads that came out in 1984.
So it’s useful to have a tshirt or patch just in case you run into some trouble.
Gilbert Gottfried has had stand-up gigs at The Gathering, twice.
Iago goes for the Juggalo.
3 Likes
It was one of those things where you think you’re having a weird drug-induced nightmare. I was out there — it was in Illinois, I think — and these guys picked me up from my hotel and they started driving me on a very long drive. Then all of a sudden, it goes off the main street and onto a dirt road. And then it’s total darkness and trees and unpaved roads, and then the next thing you know it looks like Woodstock, except it’s more like Woodstock out of a horror movie. And I went up and they said they had a trailer for me. I was like, OK. And I went and it was just an empty box. I said, ‘Where’s the bathroom?’ And they pointed outside and said, The grass is the bathroom.
NOT SAFE FOR WORK or for any other place or activity
Anyway I went on, and all the people in the crowd have weird makeup on, you know the deal. But shockingly I feel like I did very well. I’m still in shock about that. Other people have told me stories where those crowds fling stuff at you. But I felt OK about it. It was one of those gigs where if you weren’t killed in a satanic ritual then you did very well.
2 Likes
Great video! Thank you for your Google-Fu!
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
