REVIEW: HBO's Brutal Takedown of Woodstock 99

In the summer of 1999, I bought myself a ticket to go see the most talked about event of the year. And what a way to end the millennium it was going to be. Rage Against the Machine? Limp Bizkit? Sevendust? Metallica? Korn? Tragically Hip? The Offspring? All on one weekend? Yes, please! Off to Woodstock 99 I went.

The rest, as they say is history...both personal history, and modern music history. And that history is analyzed in a new HBO Documentary Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage.

Now, if you are going to do a documentary about an event like Woodstock 99, you might want to get a variety of views on the event. This documentary does not do that. It gives one perspective...the woke perspective. They talked to the likes of Moby, music journalist Maureen Callahan, film critic Wesley Morris, and others who happily outlined all of the problematic aspects of Woodstock 99 through the prism of wokeness.

No one in this documentary, other than John Sher, the slimy co-producer of the event, had much good to say about Woodstock 99. Not one. Nothing. They seemed to see nothing redeeming in any of it. They seemed to hate everything about anything related to this event. They were not fans of Woodstock 99.

They railed against white kids, against old men putting on a concert, about how there weren't enough women performing, about white dudes appropriating black music, about how white people were singing along to DMX and saying the N-word (as he seemed to encourage). All of the woke buzz points were in full display in this documentary. And, the number of times it was pointed out how white the majority of the audience was cannot be ignored. We get it, there were a lot of white people there. Maybe they should have said it a few more times, because we didn't catch in the first ten.

Now, I'm not going to come out and say that Woodstock was a massive, roaring success and there weren't extreme problems. I was there. There were aspects that were brutal. It was messy and there was a lot to be learned from some of the failures.

For example, I would NOT have wanted to be a female at this event. No way. Too many men were acting terribly aggressive towards women. Horrible dudes were demanding girls to take of their shirts, groping girls in the mosh pit, and there were significant number of rapes and sexual assaults. We will probably not ever know exactly how many women were assaulted or attacked. This is the darkest part of the whole weekend, in my view. This makes the riots and fires of the last night pale in comparison. The sexual harassment and abuse was wrong, it needs to be called out, and it can never be allowed to repeat to that level. On this matter, Woodstock 99 was a failure.

Yes, the critics in this documentary make a number of good points and there were plenty of concerning aspects of that infamous weekend. A bunch of white kids singing along to DMX saying the N-word in a song as HE seemed to be coaxing them to do should not be seen as one of them, but seems to be seen as a problem in this documentary. When the artist on stage is saying the N-word and holding up the microphone and inviting people to sing along with the lyrics, the idea that all the kids should not say it is kind of ridiculous. So, I felt that criticism was just pointless. But, it's one of those good, woke talking points. "How dare these kids sing along to a song!"

Was there anything good about Woodstock 99? Heck yes. And it would have been nice to hear some people talk about them in a bit more depth. Just talk to even one person who left with a positive feeling from that weekend. I mean, the line-up was great, it was a cool event to be at. It was, obviously, quite historical. I've never experienced anything quite like that, I have to say. I haven't experienced anything quite like it since.

I've never seen stages that big. Not only were they big, they were giant artworks in themselves, painted by Peter Max, that loomed over all. Very impressive. I've also never seen crowds that big in my life. Everywhere you looked, there were people. People, people, people. So many people. And, for the most part, I didn't really have any issue with anyone. Everyone seemed pretty cool. But, like I said, if I was a woman, I probably would not have felt the same way.

I've never felt energy from a crowd like that, especially when Limp Bizkit played. That was the set I was most looking forward to seeing. At that point, I was a pretty big Limp Bizkit fan. And, I would say a lot of those in attendance were as well. Man, I've never seen that many people go absolutely bonkers at a concert before. The power of that music and how it got people going was something insane to see. I don't think that particular set could ever be duplicated. That was a once in a lifetime thing to witness. Of course that set is highlighted in the documentary. People did go bonkers. Yes, some went a little too bonkers. They started tearing down whatever they could, began crowdsurfing on top of giant pieces of plywood. The promoters had to stop the set to get things settled down. Mosh pits were violent and intense. It was truly insane. Some may see what happened as a big negative. Whether negative or positive, it was just plain wild. Memorable for sure.

When I watch this, wow, that was an intense show. We were so...YOUNG! I'm around the same age as Fred Durst. These dudes look like kids. As time goes, we all slow down. This was at their prime in terms of energy and made it that much more of an impressive set. I was pretty far back. I wasn't right up front deep in the madness, but it was crazy enough back where I was regardless. The fact that one band can get a crowd to act like this, wow. It still gives me chills. To experience that was worth every single penny I paid to get there. Once in a lifetime show. And this was just ONE of the incredible sets I saw that weekend.

Say what you want about the event, the scale of it was impressive. The fact that they were able to get the event off the ground was a feat. They had people coming from all over the world to this event. For that weekend, the sight of Woodstock 99 was the third most populated area in the state of New York. People wanted to experience Woodstock 99 for themselves. And they did. They built it, and they came.

It was definitely hot, dirty, smelly, gross. Yes, the sanitation facilities were less than sanitary. Mud was full of human waste. I've never seen so many pizza boxes in my life, scattered everywhere on the ground. I just remember these busted up white pizza boxes as far as the eye could see. Garbage pails were piled high with, well, garbage. Oh, and did I mention hot? It was bloody, brutally hot. Up to that point I don't think I have ever felt heat like that. It was draining and dangerous, and just made the place smell that much worse.

There has been a lot of talk about 4 dollar bottles of water. I cannot for the life of me remember how I stayed hydrated all weekend, but I know I did. It's one of the parts of the experience that I honestly can't recall. Did I buy a lot of 4 dollar bottles of water? How much did I actually spend on water?? I can't remember. In the documentary, promoter John Sher states that he felt 4 dollar bottles of water was reasonable at a festival. No. No it wasn't John. It most certainly wasn't. It was completely unreasonable, especially given the heat.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I couldn't take anymore. I left. I was exhausted and burned out. Before going to Woodstock 99, I spent a day at Vans Warped Tour in Buffalo, New York. So, by Sunday, I had a full three days of music and heat behind me. I had a long way to go to get back home. My Woodstock 99 weekend had come to a close. It wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to stick it out to the bitter end. But, I just couldn't physically and mentally do it.

Fortunately and unfortunately, I missed the craziness of Sunday when at the end of the day, some of the remaining concert goers decide to light everything not bolted down on fire and loot what they could. I say unfortunately because that would have been something to witness without a doubt. It would cap off a crazy weekend with maximum craziness, watching people go nuts and just start destroying everything. It's not that I condone it. I wouldn't have taken part. But, based on the images and video, some highlighted in this documentary, it would be been something to see those giant fires and people going insane.

Am I glad that I went to Woodstock 99? Darn right I was. I would do it again as well. In the documentary, music journalist Maureen Callahan was very negative in saying that it was an event we didn't even need and it was just old guys trying to relive the past and telling us we needed to do that as well, or something to the nature.

Woodstock 99 was it's own event, independent of the original Woodstock and Woodstock 94. But there is still that thread that runs through all three of the Woodstock events that is kind of cool. Woodstock 99's legacy is very different to the legacy of the original, and yet somewhat the same. Based on images from the original Woodstock, it was a gross, muddy, ugly, crazy event all it's own. I'm sure the original didn't smell pretty. I'm glad that the promoters decided to run the event, even if in the end it became the poster child of festivals going wrong. I think we did need it.

There were over 250,000 of us there. We went because we wanted to. We went because the lineup was exciting. It reflected the music of the time. We went there because we knew it would be an experience. And it was. No matter whether you look back at it with fondness or scorn, it was still something to experience. All of us who were there saw something unique before the new millennium came about. It was worth putting on, and it's most unfortunate that Woodstock died that weekend, with us probably never seeing that event again.

It was a time before cellphones and none of us really had cameras on us. I tried to find the few pictures I took with a disposable film camera, but can't figure out where they ended up. I would have liked to have shared some pictures from Woodstock 99. But, alas, I do not have any to share with you. Heck, even finding pictures online that I could use for this review was difficult. In the end, I used a picture that isn't even from the event. I apologize. All I have are the memories in my head, videos on YouTube, and documentaries like this.