Snoop Headlines a Lackluster Lollapalooza

“Didj’all come here to party?” a member of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s posse shouted into his microphone as Snoop held court on the main stage at Downing Stadium on the outskirts of Manhattan, where Lollapalooza ’97 arrived on Friday.

It was one of the few sentences uttered during the rapper’s hourlong set that didn’t contain a four-letter word.

Snoop’s swearing, swaggering performance--the first in the New York area for the veteran rap star--drew one of the most enthusiastic responses at this stop on the seventh annual Lollapalooza trek, which comes to the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion in Devore on Aug. 8.

Though arguably past his prime as a commercial presence in pop music, the Doggfather is the most universally famous of Lollapalooza ‘97’s main stage acts, which on Friday also included hard-rock bands Tool and Korn, the trip-hop artist Tricky, the techno duo Orbital, second-generation reggae minstrels Julian and Damian Marley & the Uprising Band, and the British pop group James.

In other cities, the rotating bill will also feature the fledgling techno group Prodigy, the ambient dance music of the Orb and the old-school New Wave of Devo. (Indeed, Prodigy is headlining the Blockbuster Pavilion show.)

Lollapalooza was conceived in 1991 by Porno for Pyros frontman Perry Farrell, then lead singer of the band Jane’s Addiction, as a summer festival combining appearances by an eclectic array of modern rock and hip-hop acts--and some of the pioneers who inspired them--with other exhibits ranging from booths distributing information on cultural and environmental issues to body piercing.

Musical participants have ranged from Pearl Jam to Queen Latifah, from heavy metal stalwarts Metallica to funk godfather George Clinton.

This summer, though, Lollapalooza is facing more competition from other multi-artist road shows than it ever has in the past, including a college rock-fueled H.O.R.D.E. tour headlined by Neil Young and the much-hyped, all-female Lilith Fair tour, which singer Sarah McLachlan conceived in part to provide an alternative to the sort of predominantly harder-edged, testosterone-heavy rosters that have defined Lollapalooza.

Indeed, ticket sales for Lollapalooza have been less than spectacular in most cities. Attendance at the New York show, for instance, was only about half the capacity of 20,000. Those fans who did show up, most of them college-aged and younger, seemed lured as much by the communal festival atmosphere as by the music--which was just as well, because intervals between sets were sometimes longer than the performances themselves.

While waiting for their favorite act, audience members could check out numerous attractions, among them the “Greenhouse,” a pavilion that played host to various organizations concerned with problems such as toxic waste and dioxin poisoning, and the “Brainforest,” an indoor space for thematic art and music where Porno for Pyros played a short acoustic set late in the afternoon.

There was also the second stage, where a number of lesser-known but promising artists played from about 1:30-8 p.m. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Jeremy Toback and guitar-pop bands Summercamp and the Eels gave especially engaging, energetic performances.

On the main stage, it was Tricky who proved the most compelling and musically astute entertainer, bringing an initially reluctant audience to its feet with his graceful mix of seductive rhythms and textures. Unfortunately, his set clocked in at less than 30 minutes, among the shortest of the main stage appearances, which began at 2 p.m. and concluded long after sunset.

In contrast, Snoop Doggy Dogg offered little of the smoothness and sly charm that have distinguished his albums. After making his entrance to the sounds of sirens and gunshots, he rapped in a tentative manner that revealed his lack of experience as a live performer. At times, his voice seemed almost buried under a fat beat and a thick, plodding bass line.

His fans seemed unperturbed, though, waving their hands in the air and giving a shout-out to Snoop’s late colleague Tupac Shakur when instructed to.

Tool was equally well-received, following the rapper with a set of thrashing, muscular rock that got the mosh pit up front operating in full force. (Snoop, no doubt less familiar with the aggressive rituals of performing in rock clubs, got a little upset when a few fans hurled plastic bottles at the stage. At one point, he issued a predictably unprintable ultimatum.)

Perhaps the best thing that could be said about Lollapalooza is that the concert continues to try to bring together audiences who are otherwise polarized by narrow radio formats and expose them to new sounds.

* Lollapalooza ‘97, with Prodigy, Tool, Korn, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tricky, James, Julian and Damian Marley & the Uprising Band and others, Aug. 8 at Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion, 2575 Glen Helen Parkway, Devore, 2 p.m., $27 and $17. (909) 886-8742.