Porno For Pyros - August 14, 1993 - Civic Center, Raleigh, NC

Date: August 14, 1993
Location: Civic Center, Raleigh, NC
Recorded: Audio
Status: Confirmed
Type: Concert
Lineup: Perry Farrell
Stephen Perkins
Martyn Lenoble
Peter DiStefano
Artwork:
 

Setlist:

Orgasm
Sadness
Meija
Bad Shit
Tonight
Cursed Female
Cursed Male
Pets

Show Information:

Mercury Rev opened.

The News & Observer
August 16, 1993
Edition: FINAL
Section: DAY
Page: C10

Perry Farrell's newest addiction
Porno for Pyros fail to ignite
Author: DAVID MENCONI; STAFF WRITER

Perry Farrell might be as smart as he thinks he is. Someday, he might even prove it. But I doubt he will with his current band, Porno for Pyros, which played the Civic Center on Saturday night.

At the moment, Farrell is battling a nasty case of solo singer syndrome. He's a vocalist with a style so distinctive that his solo work can't help but sound a lot like his former group, and his solo flights suffer by comparison.

Farrell's albatross is his old band, the groundbreaking Jane's Addiction, which broke up after headlining the 1991 Lollapalooza tour because, Farrell says, they weren't getting along. But Farrell seems like an artist who thrives on the stress of working with people he can't stand.

Judging by the new "Porno for Pyros" album (Warner Bros. Records), he could use a strong shot of discomfort. "Porno for Pyros" sounds like a tinny demo version of a Jane's Addiction record -- the songs are there, but not the sonics -- and it's almost devoid of any redeeming tension.

The band's Saturday performance wasn't anything to make old fans forget Jane's Addiction, either. An extension of the album, the show was presented as an erotic circus, with a tent covering the stage. The touring troupe included a couple of skimpily clad dancers, one of whom twirled torches and breathed fire during the encore version of the song "Porno for Pyros."

Farrell and the dancers did several between-song skits that apparently had something to do with blurring the lines between pornography, art and entertainment. While amusing and quite self-consciously confrontational, the skits weren't any great leap beyond what Farrell was doing years ago with Jane's Addiction. And one interlude involving a fake penis squirting the crowd was about as clever as a typical "Beavis & Butt-Head" skit.

Musically, the songs from "Porno for Pyros" did come off better live than on record, especially "Pets" (a rumination on the possible fate of mankind that concludes, "We'll make great pets") and "Sadness." But the show underscored the fact that Pyros guitarist Peter DiStefano is nowhere near as captivating a musical presence as Jane's Addiction's David Navarro.

It would have been interesting to hear DiStefano take a shot at some old Jane's Addiction songs. Unfortunately, the set only consisted of new songs from "Porno for Pyros," which made for a short show of barely an hour -- inexcusable, given the $18.50 ticket price. It wouldn't have hurt for Farrell to indulge the crowd with at least a couple of Jane's Addiction songs during the encore.

Instead, he launched into a bizarrely incoherent monologue about America's place in the world that concluded, "Well, here we are, the greatest country in the world again; and here we are, the greatest band in the world again."

The most worrisome thing is that he may actually have believed what he was saying.

Alternative rock darlings Mercury Rev opened the show with a 45-minute set that suffered from the Civic Center's lousy acoustics. But their updated psychedelic droning still went over pretty well, thanks to Suzanne Thorpe's warbling flute (an interesting addition to the usual guitar-bass-drums setup) and vocalist David Baker's histrionic flailing.