Fuck Nirvana. They've had their time in the spotlight, but now it's time to give credit where credit is due: Jane's Addiction is the band that gave us the alternative rock explosion of the early '90s.
If I didn't believe that before, I definitely did after seeing this group live at the First Union Spectrum earlier this month. Maybe that's because when Jane's Addiction performs, it's not just a concert--it's a show, an experience. That shouldn't be surprising, considering that the lead singer and idea man is Perry Farrell, the man whose awesomely warped mind also came up with the Lollapalooza tour.
Jane's first blew onto the scene in Los Angeles in 1986, attracting attention because it didn't just have concerts--it had parties. Not a lot has changed. The stage was lavishly decorated, everything done down to the very last detail. Toward the right, next to Martyn Lenoble (who is filling in for original bassist Eric Avery) was something that first appeared to be a tree. Later on, its true purpose was revealed; it was a swing. For the strippers. Yes, that's right, five strippers--whose clothes, although apparently there, left very little to the imagination--danced around the band members. And for one song, they brought out a seesaw. Two strippers bouncing up and down on a seesaw as the band played. That's definitely an experience.
Don't get me wrong, though--the concert wasn't spectacular only because of the wild party going on around it. The music propels it all. It's amazing that a band that hasn't put out an album in 10 years and hasn't toured in four can be tight musically, but Jane's Addiction manages to pull it off. Every song is still note-perfect.
More than simple-yet-precise album note-regurgitation, Jane's live versatility is astounding. The band flowed seamlessly from the 13-minute long rocker "Three Days," where guitarist Dave Navarro played a seemingly endless yet continuously engaging guitar solo, into the subdued piece "Jane Says," perhaps the band's most well-known song, in which drummer Stephen Perkins breaks out bongos and steel drums. Both kept the audience moving, even though they couldn't be more different musically.
In the end, the secret to the magic of Jane's Addiction is personality. Most of it comes from Farrell, Jane's' enigmatic leader. His "Perryisms" have become almost as famous as he. Perry didn't hesitate to drop some at the concert, declaring that it would be very "bad-ass" of us to send back all the opium to the Taliban that it apparently has been sending us. He may not always be right, but he's always entertaining.
But Jane's isn't just the quippings of one man. It's a culmination of musicians creating a sound that created the alterna-indie genre and an atmosphere that is the essence of party. Despite its extended hiatus from the musical world, Jane's hasn't skipped a beat, picking up right where the party left off.
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