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But no Jerry Cantrell. Alas, he said right up until Thursday that he was still coming and still going to play almost nothing but Alice in Chains songs in Layne's memory, then they went and scheduled Layne's funeral on the day Jerry was supposed to perform. Though I was disappointed, I think all 50,000 of us understood.
And that turned out to be the theme of this rock music festival: Layne Staley. Nearly every artist made mention of it, some asked for a moment of silence, and Kevin Martin of Candlebox even changed the words of "Far Behind" around in dedication to Mr. Staley. I especially liked the rant from Neurotica's lead singer, who said exactly what I had just said in angry letter to the editor of the local newspaper: why is it that Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes' death gets front page news and a whole weekend of MTV coverage, while most (including MTV) ignored Layne's death just a week earlier? What the hell? Sure, they don't ever play AIC's videos anymore, but, sheez, they acted like he never existed! No real disrespect meant for Ms. Lopes. I'm no TLC fan (think they stole a lot of thunder from far better all female R&B groups like En Vogue, Jade and SWV), but she was important enough to get the media attention she got. And so was Layne Staley. AIC songs will still be being played on "classic rock" twenty years from now. Will "No Scrubs" and "Unpretty" (damn, that last song is annoying!)?
Anyway, back to the happier moments of the concert itself: as soon as I heard that Stone Temple Pilots and Jerry Cantrell were going to be part of this festival, I made plans to be there -- we're talking a chance to see 2 of my 3 favorite acts of the 90s (or their remnants) here (the other being Tool). And as sacrilegious as this is to say in Crankyland, Candlebox would also be in my top 10, so Kevin Martin's participation had me rather excited as well.
Well, 1 out of 3 ain't bad. Jerry, of course, didn't make it, as I just said; Kevin showed up, but perhaps he shouldn't have. Only STP did not disappoint. More on them later -- starting from the first act I saw...
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