the setlist...
Ocean Size
Ain't No Right
Then She Did...
Stop!
Three Days
Mountain Song
Summertime Rolls
Jane Says
Classic Girl
Chip Away
Ted, Just Admit It...
I Would For You



From Kevin DeMattia--
Last night was the Enit festival, and you can be sure that I was there with bells on. I arrived early and went around to the back of the building (Bill Graham Civic) to find the loading/unloading area with hopes of seeing Perry or the rest of the band and maybe getting a photo taken. There was a guard by the backdoor,so there was no chance of me getting in. The door was open, and sure enough, five minutes later, Perry walked by and glanced out as he did so. I don't know if he saw me or not, but it was a thrill just to see him that close. I waited patiently for another 2 hrs, the highlights being Stephen stepping outside and talking to an acquaintace briefly. Anthony Kiedis also strolled out the door and down the steps past me, and Goldie and some of his entourage.
I then proceeded inside for the show ( I managed to sneak in 3 airline bottles of whiskey and a disposable camera.) Amazingly, the main floor was still relatively sparse and I managed to get a spot front and center in front of Perry's mike. Goldie came on first at around 11, and boy did he suck! I don't mean to dismiss him as an artist, but his music was much better suited for a small club environment. There was nothing remotely visually interesting about the band and the music was interminably droning and repetitive. Next up to torture our respective ears and psyches were Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. These guys (who gobbled acid like it was candy back in the 60's) came out on stage wearing garbage bags and neon porkpie hats, and proceeded to shriek, babble, and ramble for 30 or so insufferable minutes.
Finally, they thankfully exited stage left and the show was ready to begin. At around 12:20 the opening strains of Ocean Size filtered thru the speakers and the entire crowd surged forward. Perry stood on top of the drum riser dressed in one of his more outrageous outfits. He looked like a Mayan shaman, wearing a deep blue velvety robe with white trim that hung down to his ankles, and a feathery mask that obscured the upper half of his face. The band was bombastically, sonically pure. They tore thru Ocean Size, Ain't No Right, Then She Did, and Stop. Perry kept the poetry to a minimum, but his body language was as beautiful and energetic and expressive as ever. During Three Days he was doing one of his characteristic spins and he toppled over,but he saved face by making it look like it was part of the dance. He then danced/crawled over to Dave who was in mid-solo, and began french-kissing him! That was a wild, unforgettable sight: Dave and Perry lip-locked and eyes-closed while Dave played an unbelievable solo! The rest of the show was awesome, the highlights being Perry singing Summertime Rolls perched atop a tower in the middle of the crowd and the acoustic Jane Says/Classic Girl/Chip Away. Perry was in a great mood and everyone in the band seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.


From Matt Rosoff--
There was so much happening, on so many different levels, that the entire experience would take about 10,000 words to describe accurately. Here's a brief version. The beginning: the entryway was lit with enormous, extremely bright red lights, and everybody entering the show got a pamphlet with a map, the times each group was supposed to appear on stage, and the 7 laws of something called "cosmophilosophy." There were about a dozen rooms all around the main auditorium--the Bill Graham is sort of like a convention center--and each had a totally different trip in it. Huge chill-out room with pillows and music and wall-sized movie screens showing documentaries and videos; a room with lots of eastern-style red and gold and green decoration and drummers and an Indian band on stage; a room with day-glo sculptures and fluorescent lights where Ken Kesey and his buds did odd word games and made "music" on a wide variety of instruments; a massage room; giant glowing Elvis murals; fog machines in the hallways; colored lights in every room and in the elevators; you get the idea. Lots of beautiful, dressed up, interesting people there, not a "duh, let's rush the stage" crowd at all.
The middle: Jane's was scheduled to hit the stage at midnight. Instead, Ken Kesey and gang came on wearing raincoats and did a very strange, echo-laden trip-conversation about the 60s and the Kennedy assassination, complete with black and white photos of death and mayhem on the huge screens. There was a definite emphasis on why the 60s sucked, and why psychedelia had to come along, but nobody seemed to give a shit--today's young SF people are proudly indifferent to that segment of history. Finally, the band took the stage. They were fucking incredible from the first note Perry sang. He was on fire, a little woozy (tripping his face off, I'm sure of it), but he hasn't lost a note in the high registers. The pits on the floor were crazy and crowded, but not violent, it was a quite friendly atmosphere. The sound was muddy for the first couple songs, but cleared up when Dave did his mini-solos. The jams went on a surprisingly long time--I don't remember them being so loose in 88 or 90--they blew my mind with Stop, Then She Did, and Three Days. A couple times they went WAY out there. Summertime Rolls was also a major highlight. Quite slow, mellow, but very intense. Perry was more kinetic than verbal, he really worked the echo machine, and didn't have too much to say between songs. After "Jane Says" (a beautiful version), somebody called out for "Whores" and he said "They're all up here already." When they finished the encore (Perry seemed like he was making Dave nervous during it for some reason), Perry said "stick around, the house is open all night."
The end: Everybody DID stay all night. The intensity of all the side rooms picked way up after the show. The main room was heavy techno, with fantastic video provided courtesy of Funky Tekno Tribe (their logo kept coming up at least) and lots of strobe, there was a major drum circle in the hallway, the music in the chill room stepped way up, and everybody was dancing their asses off and milling in the hallways. At one point, the drum circle became a parade, complete with guys on stilts and erotic dancers, and Dave Navarro was right in the middle of it beating on a drum, with a helmet and gold outfit that kind of disguised him. Nobody freaked, they just joined the parade, which went through all the hallways and into most of the different rooms. Ran into Flea coming from stairs to the 4th floor (the 3rd floor was off limits, all dressing rooms and private parties), just walking in to enjoy the show with a friend. It was that kind of scene, everybody was just hanging out, having a good time. Finally, things started wearing off around 4:30, most everyone had seen all the different rooms, and that was it. It was really the best concert I've ever been to (I've seen 100+, including Jane's 3 times). You shouldn't miss the next ENIT, if there is one.


From Dave--
As promised Enit was something to remember. Bill Grahm Civic Auditorium was divided into three rooms, The concert hall had the two stages with flowers, and the big stage had two video screens on both sides. Off to the right was a smaller room where two movie screens were showing various films. On the other side of the building was another small room where bands were playing. I guess some tickets were reserved to go on sale before the show because everyone had tickets for sale, it was fitting, all those people who bought up extra tickets to scalp at outragous prices ended up loosing money. The band went on around midnight and played the usual set. Perry didn't talk as much inbetween songs as the night before and it seemed throw the rest of the band off a little. Befor "Stop" Perry said, don't you wish it would never stop, and then there was a pause and Perry and Dave gave eachother confused looks and Perry went back and said STOP! The acustic set was incredable, we were front row and made eye contanct with every member of the band. After "Ted, just admit it..." we started to go check out the rest of Enit but right as we were about to leave the band came back for a short encore. At 2:00 everyone under 21 was asked to leave, however, with the help of second hand wrist bands held on with black nail polish and whiteout my friends and I (all 18 and under) were able to stay until six. The rest of the night was uneventfull, the ruomor was that the band was going to return at 4:20, but that never happend. I was hopeing that at least Perry would come out a six and thank the crowd but that never happened either, infact the ending was extreamly anti-climatic, at six they just turned the lights on and everyone left. My friend swears that he saw Perry jammin on the little stage with another band but he was extreemly under the influence of various subsatnces so it was probabally someone else.


From Ryan--
We arrived at about 8:30pm, to find no line and we entered after being handed a really cool ENIT handbook and a half-frisk (my disposable camera was taped to my underwear, just in case). After just flying down from Seattle, it was very strange, being in a brand new city, disoriented, but it felt GOOD. So we entered, and were welcomed into the venue by extremely bright red lights pointing right in our eyes. (partially annoying, yes. trippy yes. cool, yes.) As we walked into the main arena area where Janes was set to play, it was so exciting! Two gigantic hanging video screens were set up on either side of the stage, cranking out trippy images and movies. The stage had a big tower on it, where at 9:00pm dj's started spinning records. So that was rad. And the room was the perfect size, with no seating on the main floor, just a big cement dance floor. To the right was the "Res Fest," a large room with ambient music blasting, a juice and tea stand, and some bed type things with pillows, and a big floor to lay on. Very relaxing. To the left was the "Raktavasa," a room the same size as the Res Fest with different bands/dj's performing on a stage at one end throughout the night. The opposite end had a floor area with many scantily clad women giving body art to people, which cost you mucho dinero. Aside from the light booth, there was also a nature stage thing with topless women dancing/doing performance art, and one of them was pregnant (although she wasn't actually topless). That brought a big crowd for the time it was going on. I met some kids and some Merry Pranksters, who gave me one of about 12 or 14 gigantic flags (mine had a spider web on it) to go on a parade in the main rave room where dj's were performing and the rave had started. It was awesome, I just walked around the room carrying this gigantic flag and swinging it around. A girl was like, "where'd you get that, can I have it? Can you give me your flag?" She was trying to use her womanly temptations to let me give her my flag, and I was about to, for good karma, but then I thought, "hell no, I ain't givin this flag up for nothing!!!!" So after about 15 minutes that parade ended, and we gave our flags back. Then we went to the second floor, which was food, and the third floor, which was beer. Being 17 years old, I couldn't go in the beer garden. Signs were posted everywhere saying, "minors will not be allowed after 2:00 am, San Francisco city ordinance. Anyone without a wrist band will not be admitted in the venue after 2:00." We were like, "uh oh," but would worry about that later. So we went to the 4th floor.
THE FOURTH FLOOR:
One end was the Ken Kesey room, which was completely decked out in complete psychadelia, from slide shows, light shows, paintings, etc. covering all the walls. It was so cool. A very small floor stage was set up in the middle of the room, where Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters were just hanging out and talking about a bunch of weird stuff. It was very cool in there, everybody was smoking tons of weed, and I saw a lot of great pipes and bongs. The security didn't give a shit, and I think it was the closest I'll ever get to the 60's/ Woodstock. Ken Kesey was trying to answer some questions, but it was fucked up so he didn't get to answer very many. He said the best thing he's ever done is made his "Further" school bus, which was parked outside. It is the raddest thing, for those who've never seen it. There were a few old-school hippies, deadheads, etc. This one deadhead in his 40's was totally on acid, and he had one of those 39 cent plastic microphones with springs in it where you talk and it echoes back to you. Anyways, this guy was trippin so hard he thought everyone could hear him, and he wouldn't leave the stage and let Ken tell his story, so Ken just left and went back stage and said he come out later. It was a very intimate environment, with about a foot-tall stage unseparated from the audience. On the other side of the 4th floor, there were three rooms. The Genie Room: This was a two-part room, one half was a foggy space with plants, belly dancers getting their groove on, and a dj. The other half was a massage parlor, and some stand was selling something else but I don't know what. It felt a lot like some arabian place. The Beach Room: This room was rad!! It was just a plain old room filled with about a hundred beach balls of all sizes, and everyone was throwing them like wild. I thought this was an ingenious concept, because anybody who stepped into this room automatically got a huge grin on their face and couldn't help but crack up hysterically while throwing giant beach balls. Great conception, Perry!! The Jam Room: I was in and out of this room (like the others) all night. It had two complete drum sets along with a bunch of various other drums and percussion instruments. Basically, it was a drum circle. Someone would start a beat, and everyone would rock out on it for a while. On my second visit to the Jam room, STEPHEN PERKINS came in, grabbed a drum set, and started busting a jam!! It was so great, everyone was totally into it. I was playing the small bongo drums directly to Stephen's right, and across from him when he was playing the larger conga's. It was so great, he was just grinning from ear to ear, and looked at me a few times, and I felt good to be recognized, because I was rockin out so hard! There was the documentary crew filming all of us, and I got embarrassed whenever it went on me. They were filming all night. For anyone there, I had a red t-shirt on with a vw bus on it, and long brown hair, and I'm a guy. I was about to go give Stephen a big hug after the jam (everyone let up a big cheer), but then got distracted and took off, but noticed a guy go shake his and, and a couple people hug him, and he was so down to earth, friendly, and receptive to everyone.
Midnight:
Jane's took the stage after a trippy intro by the Merry Pranksters and a video of JFK's assasination. When the opening chords to Ocean Size sounded faintly before the curtains even opened, the place went TOTALLY WILD! It was so much fuckin energy, it was awesome!!! They played a very slow version of the song, Perry exploding onto the stage with a tall mask that covered the top half of his face. He looked, and sounded great. So did the whole band! Summertime Rolls on the tower was good, with Perry twisting and turning throughout the whole song. At the smaller tropical stage in back I was against the barrier, and they danced, and played drums, and were happy. Classic Girl was beautiful, and Chip Away was almost scary. "I Would For You" was the final encore, and the group, after giving a big group hug, mirrored how they had been all night: happy, happy, happy. !!! As a dreadlocked girl in the elevator put it: "Smokin' show, huh.."
Yes, it smoked. And afterwards we didn't get kicked out, travelled around the venue, raving, drumming, and tripping the night away.. Many millions of thank you's to Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction, for doing such an excellent job in putting this event together, it was extremely well-done. A million thank you's to all you great fans in San Francisco, who were all so great, and so conducive to the environment of the show. Many thanks to all the beautiful girls at the show, I've never seen so many pretty girls all in one place!!!
I know it was long, but so was the night, and at 6:30 am, driving away from ENIT, Ken Kesey's FURTHER magic school bus pulled up beside us at a stop light, the driver ringing his bell.


From Michele Rowe-Burita--
The Enit Festival couldn't have been more perfect . . . well, except for Goldie - he sucked! The crowd was full of "freaks" just as it should be, and EVERYBODY seemed to have a good attitude. We experienced the Genie Room, the Beach Room, the Jam Room and another room where you can get a massage, your fingernails painted or your face painted. One unique thing was the shrine that was there for "all of our friends that couldn't be with us tonight". Before Jane's came out, Ken Kesey was up on stage with a bunch of people doing . . . umm . . . can anyone help me out here?? What WAS that? Anyway, Jane's came out a little after midnight and just fuckin' rocked the place! The floor was a huge swirling sea of people and everybody in the upper balcony was standing up either in, on, and/or out of their seats, or breaking every fire code and crowding the walkways and stairways. The "STAFF" finally gave up ushering them back into their seats and let them do what they wanted. Perry, Dave, Stephen and Flea were in synch during the whole set and seemed to honestly be enjoying themselves. I have seen Jane's at least 5 times before, every time they kicked ass, and this was definitely no exception! NOBODY could come away from this thing disappointed . . . unless you were one of the losers who were passed out against the wall before Jane's even came out!!


From Dave--
Here is a copy of the disclaimer that was up at Enit...
ATTENTION: We are currentally filming a music video that will be in a feature film. People entering this facility may appear in this music video. By entering this area, you grant ?UC is ?UGET/Warner Brothers/ Worm Gear the right to film and photograph you and record your voice and likness in connection with the music video and distribution and exploitation thereof. You release ?UC is ?UGET/ Warner Brothers/ Worm Gear, their agents, employees and volunteers from all liability and connection therein, and you agree and understand that ?UC is ?UGET/ Warner Brothers/ Worm Gear will proceed in reliance with such grant and release. Jane's Addiction does not assume responsibility for the content of the edited segment, or any wrong to you person in connection with the airing of this film.


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