1995.08.XX Enit Festival - Porno For Pyros

[Mike]

What a clusterfuck of a festival!

I still don't have all the details but it looks like the Enit Festival which was created as an after party for the Lollapalooza Festival didn't get off to a very good start at least as far as Porno For Pyros is concerned.

From what I've been able to gather this first incarnation of the festival was scheduled to take place in 4 cities.
What happened after the festival was planned is a little unclear and I'm working on figuring it out.

Here's what we have figured out at this at this point.
As I said the festival was to take place in four cities and they were:

August 10, 1995 - Bomb Factory, Dallas, TX
http://janesaddiction.org/tour/show/por ... 08-10/462/

August 12, 1995 - Icehouse, Phoenix, AZ
http://janesaddiction.org/tour/show/por ... 08-12/463/

August 14, 1995 - Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA
http://janesaddiction.org/tour/show/por ... 8-14/2231/

August 18, 1995 - The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
http://janesaddiction.org/tour/show/por ... 8-18/2232/

Those four dates are backed up by a handbill I found on myspace and a t-shirt that's for sale on ebay.









Now here's where things begin to get interesting.
When I first heard about there being an Enit Festival in 1995 three and a half years ago I did some digging.
At that time I found the t-shirt pictured above but more importantly I found the following email:

Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 00:01:27 -0400
From: AWerks@aol.com
To: idm@hyperreal.com, mjbrown@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Astralwerks/ENIT News

FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON and FREAKY CHAKRA invited to join Lollapalooza
companion ENIT Festival

Astralwerks recording artists Future Sound Of London and Freaky Chakra have
been invited to join the lineup of the ENIT Festival. ENIT is an all-night
electronic dance music event being held August 10-18 in four cities during
the Lollapalooza tour - Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in
conjunction with Lollapalooza '95. Located in a venue away from the
Lollapalooza Main Stage, ENIT begins once main stage headliner Sonic Youth
ends. The brainchild of Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell, ENIT is a
proverbial 'gathering of the tribes,' combining live music, DJ's, dancing,
and avant-garde film into a full-on multimedia extravaganza.
Multimedia masterminds, Future Sound Of London will be screening Teachings
>From The Electronic Brain, a 20-minute film created by the band in
collaboration with graphic artist Buggy G. Riphead to accompany their
recently re-released ISDN album. Culled from Future Sound of London's live
broadcasts last year via the Integrated Services Digital Network, the initial
limited edition pressing of ISDN sold out within three days of release
(20,000 copies worldwide).
San Francisco-based producer/remixer Freaky Chakra has quickly risen through
the ranks as one of the best up-and-coming American talents in underground
dance music. Freaky Chakra's debut full-length album, Lowdown Motivator,
released this spring on Astralwerks, was met with overwhelming worldwide
acclaim from dance music press, DJ's, and partygoers alike for his unique
flavor that stands apart from his West Coast counterparts. Live, Freaky
Chakra will be joined by fellow Bay Area cohort Single Cell Orchestra (billed
as Freaky Chakra vs. Single Cell Orchestra) in a soundclash of analog
electronics, funky beats, and soundtrack soundscapes.
Accompanying Future Sound Of London and Freaky Chakra on the festival dates
are Moby, ex-porno-star-turned-techno-diva-DJ Traci Lords, DJ Keoki,
Farrell's band Porno For Pyros (Dallas and Phoenix only), U.K. ethno-techno
experimentalist Banco de Gaia, and German wunder DJ Sven Vath (Los Angeles
and San Francisco only).

-ENIT FESTIVAL DATES & VENUES-
Thursday, August 10 - Bomb Factory/Dallas, TX
Saturday, August 12 - Icehouse/Phoenix, AZ
Monday, August 14 - Shrine Auditorium/Los Angeles, CA
Friday, August 18 - Warfield Theatre/San Francisco,CA

For more information, contact:
Amy Welch (212.886.7525) or Peter Wohelski (212.886.7506) @ Astralwerks,
Julie Arkenstone @ Lollapalooza Tour Media (310.859.4200) or Heidi Robinson @
Lollapalooza National Media (818.953.7910).

When reading that email a couple of important things jump out at me.
First off it's dated July 28, 1995 which is less than two weeks before the August 10th show was to happen.
Secondly if you read the portion I've marked in bold you can see that as of July 28th Porno For Pyros were only scheduled to appear at the August 10th and August 12th shows.

What happened as far as Porno For Pyros playing the August 14th and August 18th festival dates?

Well if you look at the preview of the following article dated August 10th it should clear things up a little.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram - August 10, 1995 - 14 NEWS

PEOPLE WATCH
SNUFFED OUT Porno for Pyros, the art-rock band led by Lollapalooza organizer Perry Farrell, has dropped out of tonight's after-'palooza "Enit" show at the Bomb Factory, local promoters 462 Inc. said yesterday. Actually, Porno has dropped off all the Enit dates, which include stops in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Fransisco. "He's a total flake," said one Lollapalooza rep. "This...

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Arc ... l=GooglePM

Based on the info above I've changed the status of these four shows to Questionable / Canceled.
helicine has told me he's going to attempt to retrieve the above Star-Telegram article in full and I believe we'll have everything we need to confirm these four shows as canceled Porno For Pyros appearances once he has.

[Mike]

What a clusterfuck of a festival!

August 14, 1995 - Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA
http://janesaddiction.org/tour/show/por ... 8-14/2231/

OK so I found a review of this show and it didn't happen at the Shrine Auditorium.
It was moved to The Palace in Hollywood due to ticket sales.
There's no mention of Porno For Pyros playing in the review either.

Here's the review:

POP MUSIC REVIEW : Enit Festival a Successful Mix of Traditional, Progressive
August 16, 1995|DENNIS ROMERO | TIMES STAFF WRITER

Whether or not kids still break into warehouses and throw all-night get-downs (they do), and whether or not the word rave is passe (it is), rave culture has been inextricably woven into our popular fabric. The Enit Festival--Lollapalooza's separate, after-hours rave--sanctified this evolution in popular entertainment on Monday at the Palace.

But, Enit--which ran from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.--also proved that a postmodern world of late-night entertainment doesn't have to be stereotypically anonymous. Deejays don't have to be in the shadows, computer-programming performers don't have to have their backs to the crowd, ravers don't have to be dancing in their own Warholian circles of fame. Despite theorizing about how rave represents an earth-shattering break with rock 'n' roll's formula of idolatry, Elvis' pelvis and encores, there still is, and probably always will be, a place for good showmanship.

The Enit Festival, therefore, successfully mixed the traditional with the progressive. Techno artist Moby schooled the new schoolers in punk by grabbing his guitar and covering Jimi Hendrix ("Purple Haze"), Led Zeppelin ("Rock & Roll") and Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Sweet Home Alabama"), all in thrasher style. German deejay Sven Vath programmed jackhammer jams (shall vee dance?), New York deejay Keoki tranced the house with bullet-train beats and L.A.'s Jason Bentley tweaked the funk. Traci Lords (yes, that Traci Lords) deejayed too.

*

Though the turnout was no doubt a disappointment for organizers (the event was moved from the 4,500-capacity Shrine Expo Hall to the 1,200-capacity Palace), perhaps no greater endorsement exists that rave culture's tenets should be on tour than the four-city festival (San Francisco wraps up the tour on Friday).

Moby, playing Hendrix and his own techno breakthrough "Go" back-to-back, seemed to be as much as the stage could handle. The skinny, bald New Yorker started his set with a four-piece band and ended it alone, nude, with his synthesizer, arms out like Jesus, awash in a machine-gun barrage of white light. "I know this is supposed to be a rave setting," he had explained to the capacity crowd, "but why don't we, for a second, be as open-minded as we possibly can?"

Wasn't that the idea all along?

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-16/ ... t-festival

I also found a ticket for the show on ebay.



August 14, 1995 - The Palace, Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA
http://janesaddiction.org/tour/show/por ... 8-14/2231/

[helicine]

Lollapalooza Fans Can Dance Till Dawn at Post-Concert Rave
August 12, 1995 | CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER | TIMES STAFF WRITER

As if 15 bands and 10 or so hours in the heat won't make Monday a full day for young rock fans at Lollapalooza, festival founder Perry Farrell is also inviting them to join an all-night rave at the Shrine Expo Hall afterward. It's one more step toward his goal of making Lollapalooza a 24-hour event.

Farrell and Lollapalooza organizers are sponsoring the dance party, enigmatically dubbed "ENIT," following the first of the two daylong Lollapalooza concerts at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. The elaborate affair will feature video collages, dance music and live performances by techno artists Moby and Traci Lords as well as deejays Sven Vath and Keoki.

"ENIT is more about how people are going to be entertained in the future, and it's more about what I want Lollapalooza to be--an all-night affair with a cabaret, party sort of atmosphere," Farrell said in an interview this week. "I wouldn't say I want to re-create a rave, but I just sort of want to ride the rave wave and the rave vibe. And I want to restructure the way a party goes down."

Farrell's band Porno for Pyros is included in ads for the ENIT show, but he says the group probably won't perform because he doesn't believe its music is "sophisticated enough" for the rave atmosphere of the event.

Though ENIT is part of Lollapalooza, organizers predict that the audience at the Shrine will include both alternative rock fans and dance music fans.

"I think we'll have a lot of people that don't go to [Lollapalooza]," said Philip Blaine, a Los Angeles concert and rave promoter who was asked by Farrell to help organize ENIT. "It's really going to be a whole different crowd and a whole different scene."

Monday's dance party is one of four scheduled on this summer's Lollapalooza run, but a Lollapalooza spokeswoman says it will probably become a regular feature of the annual tour in the future.

The idea for ENIT apparently came from a festival in South America that Farrell read about. It was a celebration held by tribesmen honoring their friendship with extraterrestrials. Word is, the aliens always made it to the party.

"If I can be the first person to start these festivals and bring in another race and introduce them to humans, do you realize what that might mean for the human race?" Farrell says. "The future of [ENIT] goes way beyond Lollapalooza."

* ENIT featuring Moby, Traci Lords, Sven Vath, Keoki, and Freaky Chakra vs. Single Cell Orchestra, Monday at the Shrine Expo Hall, 665 W. Jefferson Blvd. Dancing starts at 9 p.m., live music starts around midnight. $20. (213) 960-5077.

source: http://articles.latimes.com/print/1995- ... looza-fans

[helicine]

Based on that article I just posted, I changed the venue of the 8/14 gig back to Shrine Auditorium (added a note about "The Palace") and updated it to confirmed/canceled.

I changed the other 3 dates to unconfirmed/canceled (from questionable/canceled) - although we may now have enough to go for confirmed/canceled

[squid53]

Interesting. I was at the Big Bear Lake Show and had no idea that they also played the Palace later. It's funny that you mention the tour being a clusterfuck, because the show was a private clusterfuck for me: soon after I arrived at the show, I discovered that I couldn't find my ticket. I had to buy another one just to get in, even though I had scored the ticket well in advance.

The Palace is one great sounding venue, IMO, or at least it was in the late 90's early 00's. I would have been jumping at the chance to go see Porno for Pyros there. I'm guessing they didn't promote this one as well as they could have?

[tvrec]

Based on that article I just posted, I changed the venue of the 8/14 gig back to Shrine Auditorium (added a note about "The Palace") and updated it to confirmed/canceled.

Shouldn't this be reversed, with the Palace--where the event was actually held and, apparently, ticketed--rather than the initially scheduled venue, with the original venue noted as changed from...?

[helicine]

Based on that article I just posted, I changed the venue of the 8/14 gig back to Shrine Auditorium (added a note about "The Palace") and updated it to confirmed/canceled.

Shouldn't this be reversed, with the Palace--where the event was actually held and, apparently, ticketed--rather than the initially scheduled venue, with the original venue noted as changed from...?

in re-reading things, yeah, that looks right

thanks for catching that

[sugarhigh]

The Enit Festival at Snow Valley ski resort on August 24th 1996 was pretty fucking good. Not an enormous turnout, but the bands, DJ's and dinner from the Hare Krishnas were all on point. Joined a drum circle with Perkins & Lady Miss Keir from Deee Lite. Porno for Pyros, The Flying Neutrinos, Love & Rockets and The Orb were so good. I think Kid Frost also performed early in the day.
1 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
2 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
3 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
4 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
5 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
6 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
7 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
8 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
10 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
11 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
12 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
13 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
14 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
15 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
16 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
17 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
18 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr
Enit1996 by sugarhigh619, on Flickr

[intertwoven]

Thanks for sharing the pix! I was there. Great show. Those photos brought back some nice memories.

[Hidefumi]

This one broadbast on MTV pro shot

PORNO FOR PYROS SONICNET CYBERCAST THURSDAY!
MTV NEWS STAFF
01/07/1998
footage from Porno For Pyros’ 1996 Enit festival! Cybercast

begins at 8:00 and runs until 10:00 p.m. (EST) on Thursday, Jan. 8.
http://www.mtv.com/news/2426/porno-for- ... -thursday/