The Big Men on Campus

Given the creative emergence of rock in the ‘60s with the songwriting genius of Bob Dylan and the artistic flowering of the Beatles, universities and other high culture institutions have been shamefully slow to recognize the music as an art form.

There may be an occasional university class on Dylan’s lyrics or the sociology of Deadheads, but there is little of the examination or celebration routinely awarded classical music and jazz.

So the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, which brought more than 50 artists and more than 10,000 fans to the UCLA campus over the weekend, was a landmark pop moment that raises enormous hopes for future programs on the Westwood campus.

Regarding the slowness of institutions to embrace modern pop, David Sefton, director of UCLA Performing Arts and the guiding force behind the weekend event, said before the start of Friday’s program: “It seems like it’s only with a great deal of age that anything gets picked up on. Rock ‘n’ roll, or as I call it, modern music, reflects all sorts of sophisticated cross-cultural reference points, all of which lends itself to serious artistic consideration. But very few people will tangle with that world. I think it’s a mixture of ignorance and fear.”

Featuring artists chosen by the New York art-rock band Sonic Youth, the festival demonstrated there was nothing to fear and much to learn by exploring modern music--though there were some birth pains. The programs, which ran from Thursday through Sunday, offered more than 30 hours, and it was a learning experience for organizers and fans.

The first question is whether pop audiences here are as adventurous as assumed by the organizers, including Barry Hogan, who founded All Tomorrow’s Parties two years ago in England.

On the positive side of that question, fans turned out for a program that offered performances by dozens of musicians, many of them little known and linked only because they are admired by Sonic Youth. The curators’ tastes run from the visceral punk energy of the Stooges to experimental sonic exercises that seek to find emotional insights and truths in feedback and distortion rather than traditional song/vocal structures.

But the fans Friday showed little interest in many of the festival’s more experimental features. For the most part, they just wanted to see the “stars,” including a rare solo appearance by Pearl Jam singer-songwriter Eddie Vedder, and a reunion of the seminal ‘70s guitar band Television.

The festival organizers apparently assumed that the fans, whose tickets allowed them to move freely among the different venues, would divide naturally. Half, they figured, would go to 1,800-seat Royce Hall, where Vedder and Television performed and where seats were unreserved, and the rest to the slightly larger Ackerman Grand Ballroom, which was home to less familiar and more experimental acts such as Bardo Pond and U.S. Maple.

But the fans almost all headed for Royce, causing the human equivalent of a freeway SigAlert outside the hall. With the room packed, 1,000 or so fans at one point simply listened to Vedder’s set on speakers outside.

By the time Television was ready to begin an hour later, there were still 500 fans in line, and Sefton took the bold step of asking the audience to make room for those outside by leaving their seats and crowding into the area in front of the stage.

The same imbalance occurred Saturday, only in reverse. This time the crowd flocked to Ackerman, where the lineup, including techno star Aphex Twin and heralded rockers Sleater-Kinney, was the prize. Royce Hall, meanwhile, was less than one-third full early in the evening, when the stage was turned over for long stretches to musicians reflecting Sonic Youth’s experimental tastes.

Even Big Star, the wonderful ‘70s band whose music combines the sweet innocence and harmonies of the Beach Boys and the sharpness of the Kinks, and Wilco, one of the most respected of today’s alt-country outfits, couldn’t lure fans away from Ackerman on Saturday. There were hundreds of empty seats for both bands’ sets.

Still, All Tomorrow’s Parties got a promising start, with some memorable moments. Unfortunately for those who couldn’t get in, one of those involved Vedder.

In contrast to the emphasis on avant-garde electronic instrumentation shown by so many of the acts, Vedder walked on stage carrying only a ukulele, which he used (alternating occasionally with guitar) to accompany himself on a couple of Pearl Jam tunes, including the lively “Soon Forget” and a generous selection of mostly tender and affecting new numbers.

It was a warm and involving performance that also went against the sort of “anti-personality” ethic of so many of the musicians who appeared at the festival. Besides obliging when a fan asked him to sing “Happy Birthday” to a friend, Vedder also closed his set with a good-natured salute to one of his rock ‘n’ roll heroes, the Who.

After placing his ukulele on the stage floor, he leaped into the air, a la Pete Townshend, and then came down on top of the instrument. He then handed the crushed ukulele to a fan in the front row.

Television later demonstrated why it is among the most respected and inventive guitar-driven bands, with Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd displaying a smart, fluid interaction that has influenced hundreds of musicians, including U2’s Edge. The set’s momentum was broken by constant guitar tuning, but the underlying brilliance of the band was apparent.

But Friday’s most captivating moment may have been over at Ackerman, where L.A.’s punk veteran Mike Watt, Dinosaur Jr. guitarist J Mascis and former Stooges Ron and Scott Asheton put on a grand tribute to the Stooges that included guest vocals by Vedder and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon on such songs as “No Fun” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

If more fans had seen that liberating blast of energy and emotion (the room was only about half full), they might have been more willing to sample Sonic Youth’s more esoteric tastes by moving between the more sedate Royce Hall setting and the more lively Ackerman. Still, it’s likely that fans were intrigued enough by some artists to check them out in the future.

Among likely candidates for more examination among the Royce crowd: Cat Power, a singer whose almost painfully introverted manner on stage added to the hauntingly personal nature of her music Friday, and David Pajo, who performs under the name Papa M and mixed sweet and melancholy elements in a richly moving and distinctive manner Saturday.

While Sonic Youth’s past ties to All Tomorrow’s Parties made it a natural choice to serve as guide the first time out, Sefton would most likely have an easier job of getting fans to look below the “star” level by asking some classic Southern California bands--such as X, Los Lobos or the Blasters--to select the talent. Because of their long-standing bonds with these bands, fans here might be more willing to check out their recommendations. The opportunities are immense.

Best of all, it looks like we finally have, in Sefton, a patron for rock ‘n’ roll in academia.