This was an awesome event, despite a lame crowd. Hey, I never said this stuff was popular. I have a terrible eye for crowd estimates, but I’m figuring somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people. Weak. I say, if you reconstitute the Dolls & put ‘em on a bill with Iggy & The Stooges, add Bo Diddley, Nancy Sinatra, Big Star, the Raveonettes, and 35 other bands, there should be at least 50,000 there for the curiosity alone. I guess not.

I was there early early, before 10:30 in the morning. The show was supposed to start at 11, but it actually started 20 minutes early. There was a revolving stage, which broke an hour or two in. The idea, apparently (according to a letter I saw posted on the VR), was for each act (up until the more well-known acts) to have a 10-minute set, three or four songs. At the end of ten minutes, the stage would automatically turn, even if the band was still playing. And the band on the side turning to face the crowd would already be started, so there could’ve been some clashing there. But this was sort of by design, if this letter is genuine.

Unfortunately, once the stage broke, they had to do manual changeovers, which limited the sets of at least 25 bands to two songs. In a perfect world, they would’ve trimmed the lineup of some of the fat, as there was horrible dross, especially early on. But this was a $20 ticket, for 40+ bands, so who can complain? With bad weather approaching, they also moved their firm deadline of 11 pm cutoff up an hour. Even so, you’re talking about nearly 11 ½ hours of music. It really was an unbelievable undertaking.

Contributing to the ‘Hullabaloo/T.A.M.I. Show’ vibe were go-go dancers gyrating energetically throughout many sets. Not where it wasn’t appropriate, mind you, but it contributed something, especially during some of the more ‘groovy’ bands’ sets. I think there’s some good evidence of this in the many pictures I’m going to post.

My digital camera is not suited to be taking outdoor pictures, period, let alone from a distance like this, but I can get off a good shot every now & then. I tried to photograph every band I thought either nameworthy, or good enough to warrant some kind of documentation on my part. There’s one or two where the quality’s not really good enough for me to bother posting here. If anyone has any desire to see any of the ones I’m not bothering to post, PM or email me, I’ll be happy to send ‘em over. But I’m going to try to hit all the highlights here.