Our Noise by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan & Laura Ballance

Author:Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan & Laura Ballance
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2008-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Trying to stay cool with an icy towel on the head, Lollapalooza, 1995.

Lollapalooza stage schedule.

The third slot on the main stage was practically cursed. It was initially Sinéad O’Connor, who backed out one week into the tour because she was pregnant; the promoters called in Elastica to replace her. When Elastica dropped out two weeks later after their bass player quit, the tour’s promoters asked Superchunk to take over the newly vacated opening slot on the main stage. To a lot of bands, this would have been the equivalent of being called up to the majors. To Superchunk, it threatened to screw up the nice little thing they had going on the side stage each night, and they turned it down. When an offer came back for an even better slot later in the day, they agreed.

Superchunk took the stage after Beck. They played “Slack Motherfucker,” and Mac told the crowd that it was a relief to play it for an audience, he could safely assume, that had never heard it before. He signed off with, “Thank you, we were Sinéad O’Connor, and we really like the big stage.”

They liked the side stage better. The next show was Raleigh, Superchunk’s last date on the tour, and the band was back on the Mind Field. They played to a welcoming hometown crowd at dusk, and it’s that show, on the kiddie stage, that Jon Wurster cites as among his favorites of all time. They felt like they were where they belonged.

Mac and Laura bristled at the misperception that Superchunk, and Merge for that matter, didn’t really want to sell a lot of records; that they relished presiding over an exclusive and willfully obscure club. The truth was that they wanted to sell as many records as they could without wasting a lot of money, dealing with people they didn’t want to deal with, or ceding control of the band or label. They did want to be on the main stage, but they didn’t want to give up a great slot on the side stage in order to get there. And after the success of Foolish, they occasionally found themselves caught between what they wanted to do and what they needed to do in order to succeed.

In April 1995, Belly asked Superchunk to join them as opening act for a U.S. tour. Belly was fronted by Tanya Donelly, formerly of the Throwing Muses. They were on Sire Records at the time, and touring in support of King, the follow-up to their debut record Star, which went gold with the success of the single “Feed the Tree.” King was highly anticipated, and Belly was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone in April. Superchunk was skeptical of joining a “buzz band” tour, but they decided it was a way to expand their audience.

Bob Lawton The long support tour. Labels always say, “Get on a big support tour! It’s a big platform, it’s all good.” No, it could be the biggest waste of time in your life.

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