Just a kid. At Woodstock.

Woodstock ’99. What memories come to mind when I think about it- and I was just 11 years old! Man, was I a rock star kid or what?

Actually I wasn’t! I was your typical Backstreet Boys, ‘Nsync loving, bubblegum chewing kid. Quite the fizz pop if you ask me. But after days of watching Woodstock ’99 performances, something in me changed..

I knew rock & roll existed because my parents had mixtapes upon mixtapes of bands that they played excessively during our long drives. I just wasn’t aware that it was a culture of it’s own. With the amount of exposed flesh, cursing and drug induced vocalists taking to the stage, it really was something else. A massive gathering of a culture I had never seen before. To put it plainly, I was both shocked & amused. 

My parents (being the music obsessed people they are) set our VCR to record Woodstock for 4 nights. Now that I think about it, it’s surprising that it was actually televised, let alone broadcast here in South Africa!

So every morning after we recorded it, I’d wake up early, rewind the tape and see who had performed that day. From all the performances I saw, there was one that stuck clearly in my mind.. The first time I saw Korn.

Jonathan, no relation to Jim Davis

Their set was at night. Pretty fitting, considering the ominous tone of their music.

The stage was dimly lit, the guitarists stood as faint, tall shadowy figures, fixed to the floor like mannequins, strumming the intro power chords to Blind. Then suddenly, Jonathan Davis appeared, clad in a leather black kilt with unkempt tresses to match.

I had so many questions at the time after watching their performance. Why is he using a skirt? Why is he muttering gibberish? Why do these guys sound so discordant?

I clearly remember being scared, going into my parent’s bedroom and yelling,

“Mommy, mommy there is a weird witch man from last night’s recording!”

Ofcourse, she was just amused. I, however, repeatedly watched their performance after that. It was strange; I was scared, but captivated at the same time. All I knew was.. I liked the feeling. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers were another stand out act for me at Woodstock.

Back in ‘99, Ant was peroxide blonde, donned knickerbockers and was getting all up in that microphone like it was nobodies business. And Flea, well.. he was quite the fluorescent blue-haired attraction, rocking up in his birthday suit, and using his bass guitar to strategically block his crown jewels. A night for him to shine perhaps? Well that they did. And even as a kid, I thought, these guys are amazing; pity the crowd won’t remember it.

Flea slapping da bass at Woodstock '99

There were loads of other artists on the bill, Rage against the machine, The Offspring, Creed, Limp Bizkit- you name any alternative artist massive in the 90s, and they were there. To this day, as I type this up, I still have all the Woodstock performances recorded on VHS. 4 tapes in total. It’s something that I’ll never let go off.  It defined me. And if you’re wondering how I watch them, you guessed it! I have a VCR. A new age one. Yeah you heard me. They still exist!