POP REVIEWS : Tour Looks Like a ‘Lollapalooza’

MOUNTAIN VIEW â€”  New and improved .

Those are words to be viewed with as much suspicion in rock as in product advertising.

Be it a festival or a concept album a la the Traveling Wilburys, it’s hard to capture the innocence and spirit the second time around.

“Lollapalooza ‘92,� however, defies the odds.

The alternative rock mini-festival kicked off a two-month national tour in generally spectacular style with nine-hour affair Saturday at the 20,000-capacity Shoreline Amphitheatre here.

If impact in rock were measured as in the stock market, the word would already be spreading to investors across the country.

Among the winners:

* The “Lollapalooza� tour itself--far more satisfying and ambitious than last summer’s inaugural event, which itself was hailed as a rewarding showcase for alternative rock acts.

Not only is the talent lineup stronger, but there is also a more engaging series of supplemental activities--from craft, ethnic food and social-political information booths to a second stage featuring regional talent.

Saturday’s lineup on the second stage included such name acts as rappers Cypress Hill and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell leading his new group. Two Southern California dates--Sept. 11 and 12 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre--are already sold out, but a third is expected to be added.

* Ministry, the Chicago industrial-rock band that may well tap deeper than any other contemporary group into the alienation and anger that are the governing emotions in ‘90s rock.

Howling into a microphone that was on a stand adorned with animal skins and bones, Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen led the six-piece band through extraordinary sonic excursions that were at once unsettling and cleansing.

There is such an intoxicating yet soulful and graceful design to Ministry’s music that Jourgensen stands as the Ennio Morricone of industrial rock--or maybe even the Hank Williams.

Though this was the group’s first live performance in nearly three years, and the twilight starting time prevented the band from using much of its lighting effects, Ministry still provided the long day’s most inspired moments.

* Ice Cube, the controversial Los Angeles rapper, gets his first chance on this tour to play before a predominantly white rock crowd and he’s making the most of it.

His 40-minute set had the audience on its feet from the start, dancing to his solid beats and waving their arms on command. The emphasis, however, was more on youthful party-time bravado than the hard-edged social commentary of his songs.

Ice Cube has clearly got a competitive streak, picking up quickly on such crowd-pleasing rock moves as a sprint through the audience and a false ending to his set. The guess here is that he’s going to sell a lot of albums off this tour.

In some ways, in fact, the most valuable element of “Lollapalooza� is the bringing together of rock and rap, even though the latter has been limited on the main stage to a single representative each year.

Rapper Ice-T, whose band Body Count was part of last year’s cast, returned Saturday to host the opening day performance and was welcomed by the crowd as a hero.

The irony is that the recent attacks by politicians and other authority figures against violent components in his song “Cop Killer� has done more to make him a star on the alternative rock circuit than either his album or his underwhelming performance on last year’s tour.

Another central benefit of “Lollapalooza� is that it invites the audience to think about what matters most about rock--acts that stretch boundaries or ones that operate within the accepted trends or currents of the day.

One reason this year’s lineup is so strong is that it starts, philosophically, with some bands that many mainstream fans think of as being at the center of the alternative rock pulse: the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

At Saturday’s show, many of these fans were probably surprised to see that these acts (particularly the Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam) represented the conservative side of the bill.

For all its recent popularity, Pearl Jam, which followed opening act Lush, doesn’t offer much musical vision, though it does have a tireless lead singer who must have seen a lot of Jim Morrison videos. His aggressive antics--including two trips into the audience--seemed awfully familiar, but they stirred the crowd.

Soundgarden, which came later in the day, is a more challenging and absorbing band, though it tends to be a bit plain live, despite lead singer Chris Cornell’s intensity.

The Chili Peppers closed the concert with a colorful, entertaining but also limited funk ‘n’ roll set. Flea, the group’s bassist, wore only jockey shorts, and singer Anthony Keidis opened up wearing a Joker-style checkered suit. For the encore, the whole band came back on stage wearing fire-breathing helmets.

Musically, though, the Peppers, for all the individuality expressed in their attitude, lacked the personal, liberating edge of a great band.

Like Ministry, the Jesus and Mary Chain is a great band, but the London group faces a severe test on this tour.

The Jesus and Mary Chain is one of the most influential bands of recent years, but it is used to headlining its own shows, where the audience is already behind it. On this tour the band will perform mostly to fans who don’t know anything about it, and the band needs to show more attitude on stage. The music is a glorious exploration of emotional extremes, but the performance itself does little to underscore that fact, leaving newcomers a little bit uncertain.

If the Jesus and Mary Chain can rise to the challenge, “Lollapalooza ‘92� may offer even a fourth winner.