In their first major UK appearance for ten years, the inclusion of Jane's
Addiction on the bill at Reading was a veritable treat for any alt-rock
connoisseurs old enough to remember life before Nirvana. Clearly
there were enough at Reading to justify the band's third from top placing on
the main stage, and the sight of the newly reformed line up must have evoked
a pang of late-80s nostalgia in the sternest of hearts.
The heavens opened just as a lean and trim Perry Farrell strutted,
Freddie Mercury-style, onstage, but nothing could dampen his performance.
Dressed in a white suit with matching jauntily feathered hat, Farrell has
lost none of the stadium showmanship which the band cultivated in their
Lollapallooza days; he leaped, pranced and posed his way through a set which
relied heavily on Jane's Addiction's breakthrough album Ritual de lo
Habitual. The band, including original member and Red Hot Chili Pepper
guitarist Dave Navarro (sporting the biggest nipple rings I've ever seen),
magnificently alternated the slower, introspective stuff (Three Days,
Summertime Rolls) with the funked up faster numbers (Stop, Ain't No
Right).
Just a couple of blips overshadowed what could have been a blinding
return to the fray. Like Lou Reed, Perry Farrell has a habit of
rendering his vocals to one note shouts rather than singing the proper tune.
A shame, since this Reading audience contained a whole new generation of
potential fans who didn't really hear the songs at their best. The band also,
inexplicably, decided to omit its only big hit and probably best track,
Been Caught Stealing. The crowd was cranked up with anticipation when it
came to the last song and Perry Farrell asked whether we wanted a fast or a
slow one, and after impatient cries of 'Fast!' they proceeded to play... a
different song. Bah!
That said, it's amazing how well the old stuff, now more than 12 years
old, stands up in these days of nu-metal and retro punk. Whether the band
will ever be able to rekindle the same kind of songwriting power again
remains to be seen, since Farrell broke the band up at the peak of its
success back in the early '90s. Had they kept going they may well have
achieved the same kind of world domination as the Red Hot Chili
Peppers. With Farrell now in his forties, I can't help wondering if
they've left it too late.
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