fell into a sea of grass
August 23, 2013 8:19 AM   Subscribe

 
I actually would have guessed that it was older. Thanks for making me feel younger! Hooray!
posted by LionIndex at 8:30 AM on August 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


y fond memories of seeing them at Lollapalozza in Detroit... and the crowd tearing every last square inch of turf off the hill at the ampitheatre in a frenzied fest of throwing everything.
posted by GuyZero at 8:30 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I remember when this album came out; I was in grade 10 and my favourite band was Dire Straits. One of my best friends was starting to dip his toe into music that wasn't classic rock and when he played it for me my visceral reaction was OHMYGODWHATISTHISHORRIBLENOISETURNITOFF. The same thing happened a little while later with Doolittle. Now they're both Golden Oldies, as close to the present day as The Beatles' first album would have been from 1988. So it goes!

On preview: my brother was at that show, GuyZero, and I remember my mom being furious that everything he and his friends wore to the show was so filthy that the car seats got dirty.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:33 AM on August 23, 2013


One of my favourite albums.

Pigs in Zen!
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:34 AM on August 23, 2013


Over time, I have come to accept the version of Jane Says from this second Jane's Addiction album, but it's still nothing compared to the version on their first, XXX Records-released album. This one here.
(Nothing's Shocking is a good album though.)
posted by NoMich at 8:34 AM on August 23, 2013 [6 favorites]


Mark Richardson has a review of a best-of collection that provides a modest intro to the band's significance.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:35 AM on August 23, 2013


Funny how much of what we think of as 90's music is actually from the 80's.
posted by dersins at 8:40 AM on August 23, 2013 [5 favorites]


yeah, nothings shocking is not their first album, hdu sir
posted by elizardbits at 8:41 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


the late 80s were the early 70s of the 90s.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:43 AM on August 23, 2013 [10 favorites]


albums are recorded in studios live recordings are basically nonexistent ILL BE IN MY OFFICE SHOW YOURSELF OUT
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:44 AM on August 23, 2013


internets fisticuffs
posted by elizardbits at 8:45 AM on August 23, 2013


I also forgot to take out the trash this morning I am the worst living human.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:46 AM on August 23, 2013


Funny how much of what we think of as 90's music is actually from the 80's.

All decades work on a two-year-or-so lag. For instance, we're going to remember I've Got A Feeling as music from the tweens. (Or, uh, the 70s? Though I think that some bands are always associated with particular eras, so everything by the Beatles is from the 60s, because from when else could it date?)
posted by Going To Maine at 8:53 AM on August 23, 2013


I'll be out in the backyard practicing turning over in my grave…
posted by ob1quixote at 8:55 AM on August 23, 2013


I'm in the same boat as LionIndex. I had this album sorted somewhere in the 90s, but that would probably fit better with Porno for Pyros.
posted by Literaryhero at 8:57 AM on August 23, 2013


Good lord I'm old. Thanks for reminding me.
posted by saulgoodman at 8:57 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Damn those tags! I thought maybe seeing them at the Coach House back in '87 might gain me some hipster cred, but now I realize I just need a new hip.
posted by malocchio at 8:57 AM on August 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


Good times, good times.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 9:01 AM on August 23, 2013


Actually, let me revise that: it's a two way street. The border years get to go to either decade, on both sides of the line, because you've got new trends starting and old trends fading out.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:02 AM on August 23, 2013


For a band that put out three fiery, essential, trailblazing albums, they sure have spent the last twenty or so years working hard to make us forget they were ever any good, haven't they?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:03 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


are you saying celebrity poker somehow damages your artistic credibility get over yourself
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:04 AM on August 23, 2013


I remember seeing JA open for Love and Rockets in about '88 before their XXX release and wondering who the hell they were. Jane Says was floating around but really they were just some LA band no one knew about. I can remember the crowd being sort blasé about the opening act but after the first song the audience had an electric vibe like they were witnessing something special. Perry and Eric did that whole soul-kiss thing they used to do and that freaked some people out. They were super raw and Perry would shake around like a mad man. By about the fourth song the place exploded. There was a big crazy pit and people were losing their minds. By the end of their set the crowd loved them. I've never seen a band transform a crowd like that since. You may love or hate Perry Farrell but he's an incredible showman and there truly was a time in the late 80's early 90's that JA was easily the greatest band in the universe.
posted by photoslob at 9:05 AM on August 23, 2013 [10 favorites]


If Dr. Who was real I pray that he would rewrite history to make it seem like Carmen Electra broke up the band.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:05 AM on August 23, 2013


Potomac Avenue: "are you saying celebrity poker somehow damages your artistic credibility get over yourself"

I'm strictly referring to the bad records.

There's a whole 'nother conversation about some of Navarro's D-list celebrity antics, but I'm comfortable leaving that out because the records, post-Ritual are just so uniformly dull, no further evidence of their decline is really necessary.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:06 AM on August 23, 2013


One of my all time favorites, for reasons totally divorced from any other critical faculties I may or may not have. One of the saddest moments in my recent life was channel surfing and catching Perry Farrell on "Married to Rock," and seeing what a plebian and weirdly stunted existence he now seems to lead.

I remember seeing them around this time and Perry had more effects pedals for his vocals than I have ever seen a guitarist use for their guitar.
posted by OmieWise at 9:09 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


DirtyOldTown I was jest joking sorry if that wasn't clear, but I totally do think Navarro's overall yuckyness has damaged their legacy pretty irrevocably.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:11 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I just realised I'm going to be able to count off 25 year anniversaries of all the formative, contemporary albums of my life from here on out.
posted by opsin at 9:11 AM on August 23, 2013


I remember a friend of mine, a real Jane's Addiction fanatic, looking at a photo of Navarro and Carmen Elektra at some awards show red carpet function, and saying "Can you believe this guy used to be in Jane's Addiction? Because I can't."
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:12 AM on August 23, 2013


photoslob: there truly was a time in the late 80's early 90's that JA was easily the greatest band in the universe

No, no, you're (inexplicably) confusing them with Was (Not Was).
posted by Naberius at 9:12 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I knew you were kidding, Potomac Avenue. But garbage like Strays is no laughing matter.

At least they bother, I guess. COUGHPixiesCOUGHcashinCOUGHCOUGH
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:15 AM on August 23, 2013


I just realised I'm going to be able to count off 25 year anniversaries of all the formative, contemporary albums of my life from here on out.

It's when you can't do that anymore that you'll have to start worrying.
posted by Etrigan at 9:20 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'd never really thought about it till now, but Jane's Addiction and Guns N Roses would've been contemporaries in the LA club scene ca. 1987. And now that I think even more about it, Appetite for Destruction and Nothing's Shocking are actually not too far apart, sonically speaking. Funny how the one path led to the dead end for the other one.

Sorry I never saw Jane's live, but I did see a very good Porno for Pyros show once. And I do feel at least like I witnessed the exact moment where the GnR glam-metal path dead-ended against the retaining wall built to give the right of way to the widening trail Jane's et al blazed.

Guns N Roses endless Use Your Illusion tour, 1992, Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, Metallica opening (!). Axl Rose comes out in a Nirvana ballcap, badmouths Kurt Cobain (who'd teased him at some awards show earlier that year), throws down the cap in disgust, tries and mostly fails to light it on fire as Duff McKagan dances around it doing a weaving drunken jig to a parody of the Smells Like Teen Spirit bass line. You could tell they'd lost even most faithful of the GnR fans in the crowd with that stunt. The world had spun on and left them standing there looking like poor sports who couldn't even get a baseball cap to catch fire.
posted by gompa at 9:23 AM on August 23, 2013 [7 favorites]


Jane's Addiction is the sound of sin.

The sound of taking the drugs, having the sex, burning the home, and realizing God out in the Desert in a pop song. They can do no wrong.

Three Days is a masterpiece.

There has never been in a band in my lifetime that makes me want to do everything that is delicious and wrong like this one.

Perry Farrell sits on one of your shoulders, and Dave Navarro sits on the other and one's dressed in black and the other in red and they whisper to you about Oblivion during your orgasms.

I have spoken.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 9:27 AM on August 23, 2013 [15 favorites]


There's a fuckload of seminal silver anniversaries before we get to Ten - Daydream Nation turns 25 this October for one..
posted by anagrama at 9:36 AM on August 23, 2013


Lipstick Thespian: "They can do no wrong."

I'll see your point with counterpoint.

(That was a fantastic summation of why they were good. Well said.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:39 AM on August 23, 2013


Daydream Nation turns 25 this October for one..

Cause it's gettin kinda quiet in my neighbourhood with ample amenities and good schools
Takes a middle-aged riot to get me outta bed right now
posted by gompa at 9:39 AM on August 23, 2013


Daydream Nation turns 25 this October for one..

which is far more my choice for essential 1988 album than Nothing's Shocking. Which isn't to take anything away from Shocking now. I just didn't need it as much in 1988 as I needed Daydream, all that music and noise indivisible. Nothing's Shocking actually struck me as quite retro when I first heard it, albeit in the best possible way. A record store in Camden. My first response was, holy shit, Led Zeppelin got back together!?!? Because it had that blues-rock-soul power drive that was so utterly missing from all the hair metal bands, and a singer that wasn't afraid to really spill the sex.
posted by philip-random at 9:45 AM on August 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


This is a kinda under-the-radar band compared to Jane's and some of the others mentioned, but One Sock Missing by The Grifters is 20 years old this year and to celebrate, their label has commissioned new music videos for every single song. Bummer and Teenage Jesus are pretty great, actually.

I will evangelize The Grifters 'til the day I die. Many is the time I have given my version of Jack Black's speech from High Fidelity where he bullies a hapless guy into buying Jesus and Mary Chain records. Complaining about your precious GbV? Your precious Pavement? Where are your Grifters records, dumbass?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:46 AM on August 23, 2013 [4 favorites]


I made two copies of the same mixtape once so that a friend and I could listen to them simultaneously on headphones on our walkmans while we walked around on mushrooms. And I remember Summertime Rolls being the highlight of that night.

She loves me ... I mean, it's serious.

Anyway, I have the dumbest joke in the world in my head. I've been watching Deep Space Nine on Netflix (largely due to Cortex's LARPTrek), and the science officer Jadzia Dax is played by a woman named Terry Farrell. And whenever I see that in the opening, I imagine it reads "Perry Farrell as Jadzia Dax" and then I picture Perry in some sort of absurd-even-for-Star-Trek-standards uniform singing the ba-da-da-dap-da-da part of Been Caught Stealin in Ops on DS9 and Sisko turning to Kira and saying deadpan, "We have the worst science officer."

I should, uh, probably keep my Perry Farrell/Star Trek AU stories to myself, but there you go.
posted by neuromodulator at 9:47 AM on August 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


I just re-read my post above. God, I'm an asshole. I didn't mean for it to sound so snotty. Sorry.
posted by NoMich at 9:48 AM on August 23, 2013


DO NOT TALK SMACK ABOUT JESUS AND MARY CHAIN.
posted by Mister_A at 9:48 AM on August 23, 2013 [3 favorites]


I didn't. At all. Even a little. I was referencing the bit where Black gives a guy grief over liking Echo and the Bunnymen but not JAMC.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:49 AM on August 23, 2013


You didn't sound like an ass at all, NoMich.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:50 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Whew ok. I... I... have issues.
posted by Mister_A at 9:50 AM on August 23, 2013


Once upon a time, certain major chain record stores in the Midwest would actually refuse to sell albums to unaccompanied youngsters if they deemed them inappropriate. Fortunately, there was one indie store in my town that would sell me pretty much anything, and went out of their way to introduce eleven-year-old me to all sorts of stuff that made my parents recoil in horror. Nothing's Shocking was definitely on that list. They blasted it in-store pretty much from the day it came out, and there were so many tiny rebellious moments packed into that album that I simply had to have it. I stored the CD on my shelves with the booklet turned backwards so my mom would only see the picture of the band if she got curious enough to pull it out. (She eventually got wise, because few years later, she allowed me to attend their midnight Ritual De Lo Habitual release party, but wouldn't let me buy one.)
posted by mykescipark at 9:53 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Back in the day, I saw Jane's at San Jose State. It was right after Ritual... came out. The Pixies opened for them. They seemed bored during their whole set. Then came Jane's. The stage looked like a Santeria altar with audio controlled lights. Farrell was amazing as was the rest of the band. One of the best live shows I've seen.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:58 AM on August 23, 2013


Jane's Addiction is one of the only live shows I have ever liked aside from the Dead, although in my defense my first Dead show was when I was 6 years old.
posted by elizardbits at 10:07 AM on August 23, 2013


And somebody needs to remember to do an FPP when Pearl Jam's TEN turns 25 years old in 3 short years

I loved that album when I was 15 so much and never liked another Pearl Jam album and all the rock kids in my high school that got into Pearl Jam later all claim that Ten is the worst Pearl Jam album and I still think they're wrong even though I don't really like it anymore.
posted by Hoopo at 10:11 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Wait, what? Someone else loves the Grifters?

Oh, oh, oh ... I mean I ... um ... wow. God, that was such great depressed drunkening music. Made me really feel like I could spend my life in crappy apartments getting loaded on Tuesday.

I mean that in the best way.
posted by aramaic at 10:15 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Tuesday is booze day. I thought everyone knew that
posted by Hoopo at 10:18 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Daydream Nation? Feh. It's the second-best double album with the word "nation" in the title that Enigma released in 1987.

Rest in peace, Scott.
posted by pxe2000 at 10:21 AM on August 23, 2013


In 1988, Jane's Addiction really was shocking...compare 1988's Perry Farrell, from the back of the album cover, to the guy who currently appears in tequila ads on the inside cover of Rolling Stone, who bears a striking resemblance to Mitt Romney...
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 10:30 AM on August 23, 2013


I feel like I've told this story here before, but I can't find my comment, so:

Jane's Addiction opened for Love and Rockets at RISD in, I think, 1987 or 1988. I was a sophomore or junior at RISD, and I'd managed to end up getting a twelve hour shift helping the bands unload, set up, do sound check. etc. I was the only young woman on the crew, and at the time I was going through some heavy emotional upheaval (read: nervous breakdown) and was as skinny and vacant eyed as any heroin chic art school goth could be.

The first band to arrive early in the morning was Janes Addiction, who I'd never heard of. Being a Bauhaus fangirl I was only focussed on Love and Rockets and eagerly awaiting their arrival. Jane's Addiction pulled up next to the auditorium in a weathered van, and, being low wo(man) on the totem pole I was the one sent out to greet them and help unload their gear. The minute I approached the van's open sliding doors and reached for a guitar case I was pegged by Perry Farrell as some kind of groupie trying to get all up in his business, rather than an actual production member.

At one point Farrell actually blocked my passage in a corridor backstage and made lascivious lip-licking faces at me. I think he was less motivated by the belief I was interested in fucking him and more motivated by the extreme misconception that I probably knew where to score some really excellent drugs. This same incorrect categorization of my scoring interest/abilities later played out with three different members's of Love and Rockets touring crew, but by then I was leveraging my newfound status to be able to stick around to "help test the light board" during sound check for both bands.

Anyway- long story short, Jane's Addiction started their soundcheck and by the first half of the first song I was FUCKING BLOWN AWAY. I called every friend I had within a 2 hour driving distance from the pay phone in the auditorium lobby (remember those?) telling them to get their asses to Providence by 7:00 to see the most amazing performance ever by a band they'd never heard of.

Well.
Some time between sound check and taking the stage that evening, Farrell and Co. did manage to find some good shit. To be fair, it's likely they wouldn't have gotten the warmest of receptions as the opening band whose style was not industrial/goth playing to a crowd thick with eyeliner and black lipstick. However, they started out sloppy during that first song that was so great only hours earlier and went downhill from there. Lots of heckling, the band stopping beginnings of songs to insult the art school audience, etc. To say the crowd was unfriendly during their set would have been the understatement of the year. The whole set, as far as I could tell, was an utter disaster.

To their credit, the band (minus Farrell, who was last seen with a freshman heroin addict) stuck around later to help break down the stage and pack equipment. They were all extremely nice, and they hung out with our small crew long into the early hours of the next day. I remember thinking how young and gentle and *naive* Dave Navarro was that evening. The drummer Stephen Perkins was desperately trying to find a pen so that he could write postcards to friends. He later spent 30 minutes tracking down the person who lent him the pen before he left with the rest of the band.

I never owned any Jane's Addiction records (or CDs!) because it just felt too *weird* for some reason for me to buy them. It was a surreal experience during a very surreal year that I didn't feel like revisiting often. But they were a great band and that rehearsal was one of the most exhilarating live music experiences I've ever had.
posted by stagewhisper at 10:43 AM on August 23, 2013 [12 favorites]


I'm more of a Nothing's Shocking guy.

I will say this: JA helped transform my life. I spent the summer of '92 living in Whistler, having a miserable time. I had gone there in hopes of working construction, but the projects were shut down, so I had to find a job as a breakfast cook in a restaurant (Pete's Underground!)

I had a roommate who spent most of his time in Vancouver trying to win back his girlfriend. He had a large record collection, huge, that he had brought with him, including Jane's and the Pixies and all that stuff.

And so that transformed my life in a way, because I was really in a musical rut, listening to late-period (for the time) Rush or god knows what awful dreck.

So the music blew me away, and I even went to Lollapalooza in Vancouver in 92, and had an even better time discovering bands like Jesus and Mary Chain.

So this music has a place in my soul.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:02 AM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


aramaic: "Wait, what? Someone else loves the Grifters?"

OH YEAH. The Grifters are ESSENTIAL. Just as GbV took the Who and the Beatles and ran it through a jumbled lo-fi cuisinart for a world that had had Wire and Big Dipper and just as Pavement did the same trick for VU/CCR for a post-Swell Maps, post-REM world, so did the Grifters give us the Stones and Deep Purple for a world that came after Sonic Youth and the Mats. Just a criminally underrated, awesome, awesome band.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:04 AM on August 23, 2013


I had never seen the show 120 Minutes on MTV, but I turned it on one night and caught the world premiere for Mountain Song. It was like an awakening.
I went to the concert a few years later when I was 17 for the Ritual de lo Habitual tour at the Unicorn Theater (a converted grocery store) in Houston, and was crushed against the barricade in front of the stage (there was an aisle for bouncers, but small enough that I still touched Perry).
People were passing out all around me and bouncers would pull them over and lead them out the side, where they'd have to make their way to the rear. I watched wave after wave of people giving out, but I refused for as long as I could. The pressure was actually enough that I was able to lift my feet off the floor and stay in place.
After an hour or so I finally waved a bouncer over, who congratulated me on my stamina as he helped me to some much-needed air.
To this day my sternum is a little out of whack - the ribs on the left side are pushed forward. I'll let you feel it, just ask - and hey I'll even tell the whole story all over again. :)
posted by hypersloth at 11:20 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


The middle-aged revolution has begun! Where's my sweater!

RIGHT HERE, ROCKIN LIKE A SUMBITCH
posted by FatherDagon at 11:35 AM on August 23, 2013


Jane's Addiction was my first arena concert. My friend's brother drove us. Dec 1990. Pixies and Primus opened (here's the flyer). Now I'm listening to the record. Thanks for the reminder.
posted by safetyfork at 11:43 AM on August 23, 2013


AAGGHH! THERE IS SO MUCH MUSIC IN MY HEAD NOW!
posted by aramaic at 11:47 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


It seems like that really was a good time for music. Lots of different styles and influences floating around. At the same party you could hear The Replacements, Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, Front 242, Public Enemy, The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Fugazi, The Beastie Boys, and on and on...
posted by Mister_A at 11:57 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


And for whatever reason, in Philly in the early-to-mid 90s, the sonic appearance of The Cult (generally the Love album) meant the party was wrapping up.
posted by Mister_A at 11:58 AM on August 23, 2013


I'd like to add that immediately upon reading this FPP, the entire album started playing in my head, as if it were plugged in. Well, that's not entirely true, it keeps sticking on Summertime Rolls.

But that said, I'm with Lipstick Thespian: Three Days FTW. I'm hard-pressed to think of any occasion I wouldn't be late for if forced to choose between leaving-right-now or listening to that entire song.
posted by hypersloth at 12:20 PM on August 23, 2013


Before Nothing's Shocking came out I went to see Love and Rockets with Jane's Addiction opening, and I had never heard of them. They were amazing. Perry got in some trouble because his shorts ripped up the front and left him dangling, but he got out of it by claiming it was an accident, if I remember correctly. Between sets both bands came out and did some rhythmic stuff on giant logs or something, and then Love and Rockets came out and were a total letdown. I think we left early.

Good times.
posted by Huck500 at 12:22 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best arena concert I ever went to was Jane's on the "Ritual de lo habitual" tour with Suicidal Tendencies opening. A couple of buddies and I rented a hotel in town the day of the show and spent all morning/day before the concert, um, imbibing and trying to hypnotize each other to bring past-life experiences back to the surface (we were weird). I'd gone to the show half-expecting to be more into Suicidal Tendencies, and they rocked, sure, but man Jane's Addiction could play an arena in those days!
posted by saulgoodman at 12:31 PM on August 23, 2013


I never got to see Jane's Addiction, nor was I ever much of a fan. But I did remember reading about some of his work outside of music and thinking that he was still doing good things in the world...
posted by bastionofsanity at 12:48 PM on August 23, 2013


Maybe it's just me, but what I remember most about the music scene from the late '80s-early'90s was that there were some really, really good bands. You know, the kind with musicians. Now it seems to me that it's one person, their entourage, and a veritable sea of "producers" one of whom does the actual production.

Oh, to be young and be able to go to a decent concert/show/gig, and not what they're trying to pass off these days. Now get off of my lawn.

neuromodulator: "I should, uh, probably keep my Perry Farrell/Star Trek AU stories to myself, but there you go."

Be careful clicking on this then.
posted by Sphinx at 1:02 PM on August 23, 2013


I guess the fact that I even own the xxx album makes me something of a JA superfan. Only seen them live the once, but it was amazing.
posted by juv3nal at 1:44 PM on August 23, 2013


Also I remember picking up Perry's Psi Com album out of a bargain bin somewhere, but don't remember what it sounded like, but I'm guessing not good.
posted by juv3nal at 1:45 PM on August 23, 2013


"Jane's Addiction" was the first Jane's Addiction album (and quite possibly their best).
i only knew about them originally because i saw them play with Love and Rockets and could possibly have bought the first album at that show. once i saw them on 120 Minutes i realized they were that band and i really started listening to that first album a lot. i find them pretty tedious now but man did they sum up my California experience pre- and even post-rehab.

they were kind of the final flower of Hollywood and the logical extension of what happened to hardcore when it rubbed up against Death Rock, metal and L.A. glam.

in terms of druggy L.A. music what's more exciting to me is that Opal/Clay Allison's "Fell From the Sun" ep turns 30 (!) this year.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 2:32 PM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]


hmm, thought it was earlier but this must have been the first time I saw them, at a place called 'Tucson Gardens' of which I have zero other memories. Mostly it impressed me as a super-high-energy show, I don't think Perry ever stopped with the simian antics and whatnot, with the being mostly naked and jumping up and down thing, in front of maybe a few hundred people, it was a lot of fun!

At the time they reminded me of RHCP, who I'd seen in what the internet tells me was '88, in that it was all about some extremely excited guys basically pogoing to some funk-like bass. But I never got anybody to agree that there were similarities there, so I stopped saying so. Until now I guess!

Jane's at Lollapalooza was definitely more musically impressive, I mean they did Three Days and killed it. But I was also amazed that Perry had an entire *rack* of effects for his voice, onstage. Don't think I've seen anybody else do that.
posted by hap_hazard at 2:49 PM on August 23, 2013


They played the long-gone Cat Club, on 13th Street--I think it was 1990 or 1991--and that was easily one of the best shows I have ever seen. Definitely top five. So loud, so crowded, so committed! Prior to that, when I first got out of school, moved east, and was just starting to make my pilgrimages to NYC from South Jersey, I played the fuck out of the Nothing's Shocking cassette in my Tercel.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:08 PM on August 23, 2013


I just saw Jane's Addiction again several weeks ago in Saratoga, after first seeing them there 20 odd year's ago there at the first Lollapalooza tour. It was nothing short of amazing both times. I had pit tickets this time around and I spent the entire set THISCLOSE to Dave Navarro. The man, for all his Celebreality Brohemianism is a certifiable Rock God onstage but the real star of the show, the heart that pumps the blood of the band was Stephen Perkins.
posted by KingEdRa at 7:51 PM on August 23, 2013


I just came here to tell everyone I saw Perry Farrell fishing with Tom Colicchio on ESPN2 in a hotel bar.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:43 AM on August 24, 2013


First, Lipstick Thespian fucking NAILS IT above witih "Jane's Addiction is the sound of sin." SO MUCH THIS. I was introduced to the pleasures of weed on the evening I first heard the XXX record -- at a grad student's house near the university in my hometown. I was in high school, and I'm still not entirely sure how my friend P. and I ended up there. It was all very adult, and then the record went on (a record!) and the pipe got lit, and there I was.

Second, I really do prefer the XXX version of "Jane Says." Why? Two words: steel drums. They are the sound of overproduction. Within the context of the record, it's a minor sin, of course.
posted by uberchet at 12:43 PM on August 25, 2013


Oh, so this why I had the impulse to start listening to this again for the first time in years about a week ago. That's just unconscious knowledge.
posted by homunculus at 8:49 PM on August 28, 2013


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