excerpted from a Jane's article in Rip magazine, May 1991...


November 9, 1990: The crowd packed into the cozy confines of the New Orleans Music Hall- barnlike venue whose homey, allwood architecture seems more suited to a square dance than to the ensuing melee- sweats with anticipation and zeal as the lights go down. Ripping billows of dry-ice fog herald the arrival of America's most intriguing- hell, outright best- rock n' roll band. The enthralling bass throb and sublime guitar textures of "Up The Beach" waft over the wall-to-wall throng as Perry Farrell's customary toast reaffirms the obvious: El Lay's strangest bastard sons, Jane's Addiction, are back.. in style. What follows is an hour plus set drawn from Jane's Addiction's self titled 1987 Triple X Records debut and their two Warner Bros. releases, 1988's Grammy nominated Nothing's Shocking and 1990's staggering, pseudo conceptual, gold-certified masterwork, Ritual de lo Habitual. The balance, timing, confidence and sheer energy maintained through the show are a far cry from the last leg of 1988's crash 'n' burn Nothing's Shocking tour. (Of which Farrell later admitted that his primary incentive to perform was the chance for "a great aerobic workout." "I didn't feel like getting right back out there after we had done the last tour," he explains. "It was hectic the first time through. Psychologically, I wasn't ready to go back out there.") The first album's rough-hewn standards, "Whores" and "1%", flow seamlessly into the complementary groove heavy grind of Nothing's Shocking's "Idiots Rule" and Ritual's relentless "Ain't No Right." The spectacle of 1,500 Cajun country Jane's fans chanting, "I am skin and bones/I am pointy nose," in PA overpowering unison is itself worth the trip to the bayou.
This tour finds Farrell, guitarist David Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins rebounding from a hiatus hazed in rumor and controversy. But they haven't let rehab clinic stints, management sackings (the latest, Farrell explains backstage, necessitated by attempts to present Jane's as a typical metal band) and continual tale of the band's impending dissolution put a damper on things. Indeed, as the band modulates downward into the sloping rhythms of "Ted, Just Admit It...," this miasma of hearsay and negativity evaporates in the face of the here and now. After all, to learn the answer to even one of the questions that constitute the Jane's Addiction mythos would be tantamount to watching news footage of a UFO landing in Times Square. In other words, it would ultimately mean flushing their mystique down the toilet.
Gossip aside, the band is at peak performance tonight, exuding a confidence particular to the self taught. Farrell is, as ever, the center of attention, drawing on a seemingly inexhaustible arsenal of unsettling body kinetics and snappy banter. The subject of the ever changing "Pigs In Zen" monologue on this particular evening is Farrell's orgasmic capacity. Alternating between pseudo-vogueing, quasi-epileptic flurries of unrestrained energy and even the donning of a second guitar for the ten minute plus tour de force of "Three Days", Farrell keeps his emulators on their toes and firmly in thrall. A triple encore of "Summertime Rolls", "Been Caught Stealing" and "Stop!" sees Eric A. dragged offstage by overzealous fans. A vigorous tug-of-war ensues between crew and audience, leaving the sombre bassist somewhat worse for wear. Farrell's mood upon quitting the stage, however, is absolutely exuberant. Peter Fluid, burly frontman of support act 24-7 Spyz, offers a high five and winds up roped in a mock tango, dip and all. All smiles as he settles down in the lavish accommodations of the Music Hall's spacious backstage-the band couldn't ask for more fitting surroundings than these high ceilings with their suspended gold-plated angel- Farrell flexes, relaxes and speaks of better yet to come.


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