Porno For Pyros - May 28, 1993 - Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Date: May 28, 1993
Location: Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Recorded: No known recording
Status: Confirmed
Type: Concert
Lineup: Perry Farrell
Stephen Perkins
Martyn Lenoble
Peter DiStefano
Artwork:
 

Show Information:

Thanks go out to David Michael Brandt for the first ticket scan, Crater for this second ticket picture.

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
May 28, 1993
Edition: FINAL
Section: DAILY NOTEBOOK
Page: C2

Porno for Pyros Cancels Sunday Concert in S.F.

Due to a death in the family of one of its members, the alternative rock band Porno for Pyros yesterday canceled its Sunday night performance scheduled for the Warfield Theater.

The band, founded by Jane's Addiction leader Perry Farrell, will play the Warfield tonight and tomorrow as scheduled.

The band would say only that the cancellation was due to the death of drummer Stephen Perkins' brother. No other details were given by the Southern California-based quartet that is making its San Francisco debut on the first dates of a national tour.

The Warfield said that although performances for Porno for Pyros are sold out for tonight and tomorrow, it will make a ``limited number of tickets available'' for fans interested in attending the shows, which opens with the Oklahoma-based rockers Flaming Lips. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the shows start each night at 9. Tickets for the canceled Sunday show are refundable at place of purchase. That show was about two-thirds sold out, said a spokesman. Porno for Pyros gained a devoted local following during performances on a side stage at last year's Lollapalooza festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View.

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
May 31, 1993 Edition: FINAL Section: DAILY NOTEBOOK Page: E1
Perry Farrell's Circus of Fire
Former Jane's Addiction singer brings Porno For Pyros to the Warfield
Author: Michael Snyder, Chronicle Staff Writer

"Por-no! Por-no!" went the chant. Even though the house lights were on and a tape of cool lounge jazz was cranked up, the audience at the Warfield didn't want to budge. They just couldn't get enough Porno For Pyros -- the band with the inflammatory name.

Porno For Pyros is the year-old quartet fronted by Perry Farrell, the willfully perverse singer and songwriter who formerly led the hallucinogenic Los Angeles thrash-funk band Jane's Addiction and masterminded the annual Lollapalooza tour of alternative rock acts. He's a wise guy who has fashioned sexually provocative album cover art and cheerfully endorsed drug use to tease the easily scandalized. He busted up Jane's Addiction while the band's last album, "Ritual De Lo Habitual," was soar ing beyond the million mark in sales.

So no one should have been surprised or disturbed when Porno For Pyros made its official San Francisco debut at the Warfield on Friday by playing a flamboyant, entertaining 55-minute set with a carnival motif that included strippers, clowns, a bit of acrobatics and a supposed hermaphrodite on stilts. (Porno For Pyros first played Northern California as an unannounced surprise attraction on the midway stage at the Shoreline Amphitheater during last year's Lollapalooza tour.)

WARFIELD SELLOUTS

It was the first of two sold-out Warfield concerts by the ensemble: Farrell, guitarist Peter DiStefano, ex-Thelonious Monster bassist Martyn Le Noble, and former Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins. (The second show was on Saturday night.)

The brevity of the set made sense, because the band concentrated on songs from its one and only album, the recently released "Porno For Pyros." Apparently, Farrell wants to make a clean break from his earlier work. Of course, half of this band was in Jane's Addiction. Furthermore, Farrell's yelping, whining voice sounds like no other in rock. If you remove a little flamenco flair from this first barrage of songs by Porno For Pyros, it sounds like musical methadone for fans who went cold turkey after the dissolution of Jane's Addiction.

On a visual level, the choreography and blocking of the Porno show were more elaborate and theatrical than any Jane's Addiction show in memory. There were the four dancers who enacted various roles throughout the 12-song set. The decor was meant to evoke a tawdry circus atmosphere: two strings of plastic triangular flags above the stage, a raised platform for the dancers, two panels depicting fireworks, a pair of gadgets that looked like tetherball poles, and a thick rope for climbing.

TWISTED SIDESHOW

Grinning madly at the center of it all, Farrell -- a lithe, tacky vision with closely-cropped Day-Glo orange hair, a green skin-tight rubber shirt and black leather pants -- was the ringmaster of this twisted sideshow. He sang of sex, street violence, interracial love and his seamy Southern California milieu. DiStefano ladled on the effects, particularly in his delirious use of the wah-wah pedal. Le Noble and Perkins stoked the fire with odd tempos and Third World rhythms, as well as a helpi ng of free-booting funk.

"Orgasm," the last track on the Pyros album, was the opening number, establishing the theatrical and unconventional nature of the performance. Basically, it's a carnal piece about the singer's way with women. A ballerina in a tutu danced on stage to a bongo groove and shimmering guitar chords. Farrell circled her and caressed her. Eventually, she undid her top and revealed a pair of sparkling pasties. That was as high class as it got.

DRONING GUITAR

"Sadness" had a Latin inflection amid the churn. It was like some kind of hard-rock tarantella, but Farrell's petulant bleat was unmistakable. Despite lyrics that recall a familiar sci-fi theme straight out of a 1950s EC comic, "Pets" was a tidy little tune with droning, enticing guitar.

The song "Porno for Pyros" was almost martial in its funk-rock beat. As the two woman dancers fondled one another on the platform, the band played the syncopated blast of "Cursed Female." The blond-wigged "hermaphrodite" came out of the wings for "Cursed Male" and pulled out a fake penis, spraying the audience in an abusive gesture that recalled similar splatter from performance artist Johanna Went, watermelon- smashing comedian Gallagher, and the vulgar rock slobs in the heavy-metal band GWAR.

SPEED-CORE

"Blood Rag" devolved into a thrasher, "Black Girlfriend" sounded like a Hendrix ballad, and "Bad S - - - " was hysterical, explosive speed-core.

There was no encore, just the hue and cry of those who craved more. It took a final curtain call and admonishment from Farrell to settle everyone down and send them home.