Jane's Addiction - February 12, 1991 - Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS

Date: February 12, 1991
Location: Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS
Recorded: Audio
Status: Confirmed
Type: Concert
Lineup: Perry Farrell
Dave Navarro
Stephen Perkins
Eric Avery
Artwork:
 

Setlist:

Up The Beach
Whores
Standing In The Shower... Thinking
No One's Leaving
Ain't No Right
Three Days
Been Caught Stealing
Pigs In Zen
Then She Did...
Mountain Song
Stop!
Chip Away

Show Information:

Soul Asylum was originally scheduled to open, but had to pull out due to Dave Pirner being sick. They were replaced by Mary's Danish.

Thanks go out to 'The Madcircle' for the ticket scan

The Kansas City Star
February 8, 1991
Edition: METROPOLITAN
Section: PREVIEW
Page: G13

 

Front man Perry Farrell has a penchant for agitprop and a pugnacious attitude.
Author: BRUCE BRITT; Los Angeles Daily News

The concert Jane's Addiction performs Tuesday at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan. Soul Asylum opens at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $15 plus service charge in advance, $17.50 day of show; call 931-3330 to charge.

Sometimes, says Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell, the band just doesn't feel the vibe.

That happened at a mid-November concert in suburban Philadelphia. Instead of subjecting the audience of 3,000 to a protracted, uninspired set, the postmodernist rock quartet concentrated its energies in an intense 40-minute performance.

To say some were displeased with the experiment would be an understatement. Police were summoned after brawls began; 22 were arrested, and two people required medical attention.

During a recent phone interview, Farrell expressed regret over the injuries but stopped short of apologizing. Farrell said he felt justified after later discovering that bouncers had discouraged fans from dancing at the show.

"That old adage 'The show must go on' might be fine for Basil Rathbone or Sarah Bernhardt, but you've got to remember entertainers were slaves back then," Farrell said. "Who am I trying to please, anyway? I think I did the right thing. " This sort of candor has earned Farrell a reputation as one of rock's most forthright characters. Some might say too forthright.

The singer admits he enjoys drugs like heroin and peyote, and he dabbles in unconventional religion. Farrell reportedly insisted Warner Bros. Records finance a trip to Mexico so he could marry longtime girlfriend Casey Nicoli in a Santaria ceremony.

"Nothing's Shocking," the band's critically acclaimed debut album, featured a sculpture of partly nude Siamese twins on the cover. A sculpture depicting a racy menage a trois graces the cover of "Ritual de lo Habitual," which has sold more than 500,000 copies.

Both covers caused minor flaps. Major retail chains refused to carry the first, while a Michigan record retailer was ticketed for displaying a "Ritual de lo Habitual" poster. The charges were promptly dropped.

Curiously, considering Farrell's outrageous eccentricities, the cover flaps are the closest the band has come to controversy.

Warner Bros. Records executives hoped to dissuade Farrell from using the sexy sculpture on the "Ritual de lo Habitual" cover, but the singer refused. After much deliberation, Farrell designed an alternative album cover featuring nothing but a reprint of the First Amendment. Although both versions are available to the public, Farrell said the more explicit album cover outsells the First Amendment version 5-1.

"What people can handle is not my concern," Farrell said, explaining his penchant for agitprop. "That would be like taking orders at a hamburger stand - you know, 'Make that one with mustard and relish. ' If you don't like it, don't buy it. " Farrell and his comrades - guitarist David Navarro, bassist Eric Avery, drummer Stephen Perkins - thrive on agitation, so it is no surprise that the band is the focus of a dispute among pop-music enthusiasts. Fans claim Jane's Addiction is heir to the Velvet Underground's visionary throne.

But critics contend Jane's Addiction is too artsy to have any lasting influence. The Trouser Press Record Guide, a highly regarded postmodernist rock text, describes the band as "obnoxious Los Angeles glam-punk poseurs. " Farrell, of course, relishes the controversy.

"I talk about the people I love about two minutes a day," he said, "I talk about the people I hate for two hours. So being hated isn't the end of the world, especially if you're trying to get your name around. " Nowadays, it also doesn't hurt to proffer controversial opinions about drugs when trying to win publicity. Farrell believes drugs are beneficial, and to illustrate his point he cites the example of the Huichol (pronounced WE-choal) Indian tribe. The Huichol reside in the mountains of Nayarit, Mexico, and have structured their society around the powerful stimulant peyote.

"The children are weaned on peyote, because it's in the mother's milk," the singer explained. "It's a very functioning society, with a very low rate of alcoholism and suicide.

"The funny thing about drugs - most of the opiates, amphetamines and all - is that they possess chemicals like endorphins that are produced naturally in the human body. So I see nothing wrong in trying to enhance what is already essentially supplied by nature. " Farrell was raised in New York City's Flushing district. He started his singing career in a short-lived band named PSI-COM.

Legend has it that religious differences led to the band's demise (Farrell turned to black magic after the rest of the band became Hare Krishnas). Jane's Addiction was formed after Farrell met Avery through a mutual friend.

Drawn by the band's manic performances - not to mention Farrell's clever, stream-of-consciousness tirades - Jane's Addiction built a loyal following in Los Angeles. Soon several major record companies were embroiled in a bidding war, with the prize going to Warner Bros. Records in 1987.

Farrell is currently editing a film titled "Gift," which he hopes to persuade Warner Bros. into releasing as a feature film.

The singer is confident he'll get his wish.

"We'll sway them," he said. "We know what we're doing. "

The Kansas City Star
February 14, 1991
Edition: METROPOLITAN
Section: STYLE
Page: E8
Column: NIGHTHAWK

Band shows a one-note obsession Jane's Addiction sounds great at first but grows tiresome.
Author: BRIAN McTAVISH

Attitude. Some bands have it, others never will.

Jane's Addiction, a caustic rock quartet that could be the darkly offbeat heir of Led Zeppelin in the '90s, was made of the rebel stuff Tuesday night at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan.

"Start taking chances," weirdly chanting lead singer Perry Farrell paused to tell the sold-out house of 3,000-plus young people. "Because remember one thing: You could die - and you're young. Ha-ha-ha-ha! " Scheduled opening band Soul Asylum did not appear. The band canceled because of illness, according to a spokesman for A&M Records in Los Angeles.

Instead, the evening's opening band was the rousing Mary's Danish. The two exuberant female singers ordered up a meal of groovy pop-rock smothered in sometimes bluesy but usually just wild disco-funk with hard and heavy side dishes of electric guitar.

The singers' dinner mint selection included "Oh, Bay-bay! " and, my favorite, "Do-do-do, do-do-do, doo-doo. " The band's set-ending version of Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" was virtually unrecognizable in the verses, but that seemed to contribute to its integrity.

Like many obsessions, Jane's Addiction was at first exciting and then grew tiresome. Farrell's perpetually rising whine, a punkish echo of Robert Plant in mid freak-out, careened over the bare-chested bravado of guitarist Dave Navarro and bassist Eric A while fog belched from a machine.

Despite all the energy being expended, it was basically a one-note performance, every song sounding about the same. Actually, there was greater variety in the false-idol statues, Christmas lights and other exotic trinkets that covered the band's ampilifers and the stage like a giant carnival shroud.

As cutting as the rock was, it was more mental than metal in such songs as "No One's Leaving," "Ain't No Right" and "Been Caught Stealing," the swarming general-admission crowd's obvious favorite, which made a case for shoplifting for the fun of it.

But the instinct to pander won out over the band's desire to shock, when Farrell appeared to comment on Iraq's recent dumping of oil in the Persian Gulf.

"Anybody who drops a bunch of oil in the water is a jerk in my book! " he said to cheers. Keep it up and Farrell might have a best seller on his hands.