janesaddiction.org

THE SEATTLE TIMES
April 14, 1989
AN OUTLAW BAND WITH ITS EYE RIVETED ON THE BOTTOM LINE
Author: PATRICK MACDONALD

Jane's Addiction is poised to leap into the mainstream, a la fellow Los Angeles band Guns N' Roses.

Like GN'R, Jane's Addiction, playing Sunday and Monday at the Moore, has an outlaw reputation and a hard-rock sound that owes much to Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith.

But while GN'R is wildly aggressive, Jane's Addiction is garishly wacky in a Day-Glo, dirty-cartoonish way that is both oddly fascinating and blatantly self-serving. The band tries to paint itself as a threat to the established order, as scary to the record industry and radio.

Actually, the buzz about the band is almost entirely positive - major record companies fought to sign the group (Warner Bros. won with a hefty advance) and hard-rock stations like KISW and KXRX are playing its more accessible tunes, such as the grungy "Mountain Song," the driving "Had a Dad" and the rocking ballad "Jane Says," all raw neo-Zeppelin numbers.

The group has cultivated its image mostly through nudity. The cover of its first album on Warner Bros., "Nothing's Shocking," features lifelike nude Siamese twins with their heads on fire.

Actually, it's a wax sculpture made by lead singer Perry Farrell, with his buxom girlfriend as the model. Seven major record distributors refused at first to handle it, but the band and Warner Bros. stood firm and five of them quickly capitulated, probably because they recognize the commercial potential of Jane's Addiction.

Tall, thin Perry Farrell (he pronounces it fair-ELL, so his stage name is a pun on "peripheral") is the most starkly painted, wildly coiffed and oddly dressed rock figure since Boy George. His deep-set, piercing eyes are caked with black mascara, his thin, even lips are bright red, and his fingernails blue. His long braided hair is either hennaed dark red or dyed bright green. Offstage, he favors black bicycle shorts, high-laced boxing shoes and outlandish ladies' hats, with flowers and bows.

That's how the band attracts attention, but what about its music? Well, it's not earthshaking, but it's not bad. Drummer Stephen Perkins is outstanding and guitarist David Navarro builds on the strong, rolling drum riffs. Farrell is an intense, explosive singer in the Jim Morrison tradition. Some songs are too calculated, such as "Ted, Just Admit It . . . ," which includes a sound bite of Ted Bundy, and "Idiot's Rule," which is supposed to be political commentary. But others update Zeppelin with punkish power and compelling lyrics.

Opening is the Buck Pets, a young hard-rock quartet from Dallas with a generic debut album on Island Records.

THE SEATTLE TIMES
April 17, 1989
MORE FURY THAN TALENT IN WILD JANE'S ADDICTION
Author: PATRICK MACDONALD

Jane's Addiction, rock, last night and at 8 p.m. tonight at the Moore Theater ($10; 628-0888).

If fury were talent, Jane's Addiction would rule the rock world.

The Los Angeles shock-rock band, playing the first of two shows last night at the Moore (the second is tonight), was full of furious energy and calculated outrageousness, but behind all the crashing noise and wild action there was precious little originality.

The band played a couple of good songs - the closing ballad, "Jane Says," with a haunting lyric about heroin addiction, and the hard-rocking "Mountain Song" - but both owed a heavy debt to Led Zeppelin and to punk rock.

Lead singer Perry Farrell's attempts to shock were juvenile.

"Who's gonna be the first to shoot President Bush?" he asked early in the set. "I guess I'll have to do it." How daring! How shocking! Now that showed real intelligence and guts!

Some of his songs were just as lame, such as "Idiot's Rule," about as superficial a comment on politics as you're ever going to hear, and "Ted, Just Admit It . . .," inspired by Ted Bundy, the chorus of which repeated "sex is violent" over and over. Hey, kid, not if you're doing it right!

Farrell kept his pants on - he's famous for pulling them down on stage, another brilliant stroke of originality (ever hear of AC/DC?) - but he did throw off his shirt and cowboy hat and stomped around like a madman, with his bright red, braided hair flying all over the place.

Unfortunately (or, maybe, fortunately) the lighting was so bad and the stage smoke so thick you could hardly see

him most of the time. But his antics were enough to inspire a steady stream of crashers who climbed on stage, had their moment of glory and then dive-bombed back into the audience before security got to them.

Someone forget to tell those dumb lemmings that that stuff went out with spiked hair and safety pins through cheeks.

A couple of musicians in the band did show some talent. Drummer Stephen Perkins is the best thing Jane's Addiction has got going. He's a strong, versatile player who has his chops down. He was hot on every song, and his steel drumming during "Jane Says" was icing on the cake.

Guitarist David Navarro was impressive, too, with good technique and lots of variety. He's obviously steeped in the classic bands, because his playing showed the influence of the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix and - Jane's Addiction's main influence - Led Zeppelin. He also shined in "Jane Says," playing some pleasant acoustic guitar.