Love Conquers All
by Mike Ross, July 12, 1999

Courtney’s the toast of Edgefest.

EDMONTON — So many bands, so little time.

Rock bands, rap bands, good bands, bad bands, bands whose drummers had gongs, bands not old enough to drink, bands that drank too much, bands whose singers used to be married to Kurt Cobain – where do they all come from? Is there any end in sight? The answers are “no one knows” and “no.”

If it seemed like band overload yesterday, you may have been one of more than 20,000 sweaty young fans who packed Commonwealth Stadium for Edgefest ’99. From 1 p.m. onward, it was wall-to-wall rock with a sprinkle of hip-hop thrown in. It soon became a blur.

The one we all came to see – Hole – was a surprisingly mellow (and rainy) end to the day. But what they may have lacked in “edge,” the band more than made up for in the personality of singer Courtney Love.

We expected antics and we got them. She swore like a sailor, stripped down to a black bikini, brought fans on stage, roamed the crowd, jumped into the mosh pit, threatened to play Shania Twain “if you aren’t good” and playfully led the band through a dramatic, if sloppy, set of music. It focused mainly on the new album, Celebrity Skin, with a few wacky covers thrown in, like a mangled version of Summer of ’69 and Slade’s Cum On, Feel the Noize. Love was high on love, shouting, “We’re one of the best rock bands in the world – and we ovulate!”

Now that was “girl power,” a fitting end to a largely male-dominated festival.

Earlier, Moist warmed the crowd up with its funky brand of granola rock (crunchy, filling, good for you). With a hit-laden set and the entertaining histrionics of singer David Usher, the band had many powerful moments, including a version of Back In Black spliced to the end of Push. As Usher said of the event, “It’s not supposed to be hard, it’s supposed to be fun.”

Big Wreck was one of the few bands that dared to get mellow. With singer-guitarist Ian Thornley coaxing a variety of beautiful sounds from his guitars (including some two-necked contraption), the band got That Song out of the way early, before getting into an art rock mood. It was a thankful lull in an otherwise frenzied day.

Speaking of frenzy, Silverchair staged a sequel of its intense 1997 Edgefest performance. The band performed more obscure material, however, saving just two hits, Freak and Anthem for the Year 2000, till the end. The crowd was pumped anyway. Singer Daniel Johns – who’s shaping up to be the big, tortured rock genius of the ’90s – was a walking bipolar disorder on stage. He went from quiet and polite to downright enraged with little warning. At one point, he shouted himself hoarse in a bid to get the crowd to be completely silent for 10 seconds. “Let’s hear it for silence!,” he screamed. The crowd roared. Has the “new Nirvana” tag been used on this band yet? It has? Oh, well. Whatever. Nevermind.

Edwin proved his mettle as a live performer as the hot afternoon wore on. The former singer of I Mother Earth displayed much more aggression than he does on record. Often spraying the crowd with water as he sang, Edwin led his band through his big single, Trippin’, plus I Feel Amazing and other tunes from his solo debut album, Another Spin Around the Sun. Based on his energetic charisma and strong material that made more sense on stage, it won’t be long until Edwin gets over the David Lee Roth syndrome. As for I Mother Earth, we’ll see. Whether they admit it or not, they lost one of their strongest links.

Rounding out the day, the Matthew Good Band and Wide Mouth Mason earned a strong response for sets that could’ve been longer. And Vancouver rap flag-wavers the Rascalz kicked off the mainstage with an aerobic workout and pep rally in one.

Throughout the show,the crowd was assailed by a non-stop artillery barrage of promotional water bottles, CDs, flyers, video tapes and God knows what else. Packets of temporary tattoos looked enough like condoms to add weight to the rappers’ question: “When you have sex, do you use a rubber?” The crowd roared the affirmative (I think … I hope).

Addressing notions that rap groups shouldn’t play a rock festival (unfounded, as it turns out), Red-1 laid it on the line: “It’s all music, you know what I’m saying?” That went over big.

Encountered in the crowd later on, DJ Kemo said the Rascalz had fears about joining the bill, “but it was cool. When we put on a show, we put on a show.”

Yeah, so did 12 other bands. To use a frequent sportscaster cliche, they came to play yesterday.

And now, let’s hear it for silence!