They Liked Korn; Now for a Bizkit

If you think of the Lilith Fair concert tour as an earnest young woman, then Family Values would be her bratty little brother--locked into video games, skateboarding down the hall, rattling her walls with his hard-rock and rap albums.

Not exactly the obvious makings of a winner. And when Family Values launched its second annual tour last month, it faced uncertain prospects.

The ugly scene at July’s Woodstock 99 tainted the image of hard-rock bands and their audience. From the fan standpoint, Family Values’ valuable street credibility was being tested by new sponsorship deals. Then, as the tour headed into a highly competitive market, rapper DMX dropped out of the lineup.

But this in-your-face upstart on the national concert scene--which arrives Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim with a lineup headed by Limp Bizkit--is defying the odds.

In early returns, average ticket sales are up, from around 8,900 to 11,500 per show, compared to last year’s inaugural tour, which was headlined by the red-hot Korn. The average gross has increased from approximately $245,000 to about $385,000.

“It’s actually something of a surprise,” says Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of the concert trade publication Pollstar. “You’d think that Korn would have been such a huge headliner last year that they wouldn’t be doing comparable numbers [this year], even though Limp Bizkit is hot at the moment. . . .

“Maybe they did a good job of building the brand name its first year with Korn and the kids really enjoyed it, because I think a lot of the markets are repeats from last year.”

That’s music to the ears of Jeff Kwatinetz, who manages Korn and came up with the Family Values concept and name--a tongue-in-cheek dig at the conservative fringe--in conjunction with the band and the concert promotion company Metropolitan Entertainment.

“The concept was to put these bands together, give the kids an unbelievable concert experience . . . sound-wise, production-wise,” says Kwatinetz, 34.

“We built great sets, we made it a real event from the minute people walked in until the last note. . . . Ninety percent of the seats are filled before the first band, which is very unusual. It means that people are buying into the concept. They want to see the whole show.

“Korn and I wanted to do something that would help get rock back into arenas, get rock more of a platform,” adds Kwatinetz, whose Los Angeles-based company, the Firm, also manages Limp Bizkit and Ice Cube, among others. “If you remember, there was all this hype about ‘rock is dead.’ . . . We thought that was absurd. Rock isn’t dead, it’s just taking a new form, and when there’s great bands, rock will be back.”

But the 1999 lineup is deliberately diverse. Rap-informed rockers Limp Bizkit are joined on the current leg by “proto-metal” band Filter, hard-core rap duo Method Man and Redman, the techno-leaning Crystal Method, progressive-tinged eccentrics Primus and Korn/Bizkit-style rockers Staind, another client of the Firm.

Kwatinetz likes to emphasize the integration of rock and hip-hop, which began last year with the mixing of Ice Cube with Korn and company. In addition to Method Man & Redman, the rap slot on the 1999 tour has been occupied on some dates by Mobb Deep.

“It’s not really a hard rock tour,” notes the manager. “It’s more about the new youth culture and the new youth music.”

What does this music offer to the new youth?

“I think there’s a lot of hopelessness in this generation,” says Kwatinetz. “Kids don’t have a lot to believe in. They don’t think things are real anymore. They have trouble believing in our leaders, and I think kids are lashing out. . . .

“Korn gets tens of thousands of letters from kids saying they didn’t think they could go on, and reading Korn’s lyrics and listening to their music they realized they weren’t alone. . . .

“Limp Bizkit and Filter, some of what they do is reflect some of the rage out there. But I think these bands aren’t doing things for effect. It’s not about shock value. There are some bands out there, whether it’s Courtney Love or [Marilyn] Manson, who want shock value. Kids want something they can believe. Shock value isn’t something to believe in.”

BE THERE

Family Values Tour with Limp Bizkit, Filter, Method Man & Redman, Primus, and Staind, Saturday at Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 7 p.m. $35. (714) 704-2500.