Porno For Pyros - June 18, 1996 - Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

Date: June 18, 1996
Location: Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
Recorded: Audio
Status: Confirmed
Type: Concert
Lineup: Perry Farrell
Stephen Perkins
Peter DiStefano
Martina Topley-Bird
Mike Watt
Artwork:
 

Setlist:

Porpoise Head
Wishing Well
Meija
Good God's Urge
Porno For Pyros
Cursed Female
Dogs Rule The Night
Black Girlfriend
Bad Shit
Thick Of It All
Mountain Song
Kimberly Austin
Tahitian Moon

Show Information:

Cornershop opened

Thanks go to Crater for the first ticket photo.

Porno for Pyros
June 18, 1996 at the Fillmore
San Francisco Bay Guardian
By Julene Snyder

The circus came to town last week, a homey little spectacle that would play better in the back fields of Dorothy's Kansas than in the big lights of the Emerald City. While Lollapalooza's frenetic three-ring whirl of acts still tumble over one another in a mad attempt to bring the whole alternative nation together, that festival is showing unmistakable signs of tiredness and torpor. In contrast, Porno for Pyro's show at the Fillmore was an incendiary, if decidedly more intimate affair.

This year, Lolla's vision has become so diluted that it signifies precisely nothing beyond heaps of cash and a line-up that's drenched in testosterone. Even Farrell's thrown up his hands and bowed out of the whole bloody mess -- his one-time brainchild -- while cannily keeping control of a few royalties for coming up with the concept, of course.

Who can blame him? With the weakest line-up yet -- headliners Metallica, the ever-on-the-brink-of-retiring Ramones, neo-punks Rancid and ear-shattering droners Soundgarden on the main stage -- Lollapalooza has become a tired one-trick pony grimly jumping through ever-lowered hoops. If it's not much fun for the pony, who's just doing what he must to get the feedbag at day's end, it's even less entertaining for anyone sitting on the sidelines feeling sorry for the poor little beastie.

But ringmaster Farrell still has a few tricks up his sleeve, not least of which is drawing an adoring, post-Janes Addiction crowd to a string of smaller venues this time out of the gate. At the sold-out Fillmore last week, the rafters shook when the lights dimmed and Porno for Pyros took the stage, and the waves of adulation didn't lessen for the whole of the 70-minute set. Sure, there were enough white faces in the crowd to resemble a young Republican fundraiser, but the sense of giddiness was so thick that a cotton-candy vendor wouldn't have been out of place.

To an extent, that tingling anticipatory buzz was calculated: 45 long minutes passed from when opening band Cornershop packed up their sitars and walked off stage and the moment when a gust of dry ice fog heralded the entrance of Farrell and company. But judging by the sheer roar of adulation when the lights went down, few resented the wait. Decked out in garb that would do a sideshow barker proud, Perry waved his lanky, ostrich feathered arms about, and bid the spectacle begin.

And quite a pageant of tattered pomp it was: With eight players in various states of faux-hippie duds on the crowded stage, there was plenty of eye-candy to devour. Bouquets of flowers were attached to the monitors while a light show that would do the Family Dog proud flickered and swirled. Even bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, etc.) left his usual rumpled flannel at home for this stint, instead looking cool and yes, stylish, in a linen Nehru-jacket and matching trousers.

But all eyes were fixed on Farrell, who leapt and crouched, posed and preened, undulated and stretched while growl/whining in that unmistakeable way of his. Not surprisingly, the songs were mostly garnered from Porno for Pyros' just released sophomore effort, "Good God's Urge" (Warner Bros.), which the audience seemed to have memorized since it hit the stores. The album's first single, "Tahitian Moon," starts off with a bang, all driving guitar and Janes-era freneticism, before easing into a more sedate, tra-la groovy insouciance. This is the kind of hard/soft/hard song structure that Farrell does best, and the audience, which was bobbing like corks on a choppy sea, leapt as one at the opening chords.

In between songs, Perry held up a bottle of red wine, petted his skinny beaded torso and prattled about whatever came into his head. "You guys heard of Terence McKenna? Well, I'm here to report it's pretty creative up there." Huh? But whatever his level of intoxication, it didn't stop Farrell and company from keeping the crowd-surfers who roiled in front of the stage satiated.

The group's namesake song, "Porno for Pyros," cranked up the temperature another 10 degrees or so, goaded on by ringmaster Perry, whacking a tamborine, doing the snaky dance, flinging himself about like a manic dervish and yelping out "Everybody bump and grind!". The debut album's "Black Girlfriend," with its odd opening line, "ever since the riots/ all I really wanted / was a black girlfriend" was greeted with further frenzy from the mosh pit, but at that point, the core group up front didn't need an excuse to happily careen into one another.

It was a side-show worthy of heel-kicking,, what with Mike Watt spanking his bass like a naughty child (he never did get introduced to the crowd, not that he seemed to care), guitarist Peter Di Stephano wailing along competently enough to put the ghost of Dave Navarro to rest, and Perry up front and center, doing the cha-cha like the King of the Freaks.

When he mused, "I can't understand why I don't understand anything, but it's so exciting, I just feel thrilled to be alive," it may not have made a whole lot of sense, but everyone watching knew exactly what he meant.