janesaddiction.org

Dayton Daily News (OH)
August 18, 1993
Edition: CITY
Section: ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
Page: 4C

PORNO FOR PYROS SHOW PROVOCATIVE
Author: Dave Larsen POP MUSIC CRITIC

The circus came to Hara Arena on Tuesday night - a bizarre big top straight out of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.

The demonic ringmaster of this decadent spectacle was Perry Farrell, former Jane's Addiction vocalist and Lollapalooza festival founder. Among the attractions were acrobats, clowns, a fetching fire eater, exotic dancers and Farrell's incendiary new band, Porno For Pyros.

Apart from the T-shirt vendors and moshing fans down front, this was clearly not the typical concert experience. As one might expect from the innovative, iconoclastic singer, Farrell transcended the staid conventions of a rock show with the band's brilliantly subversive one-hour set.

Scenes from the carnal carnival:

A ballerina glided onto the stage as Porno For Pyros opened with the hypnotic drone of Orgasm, dancing as guitarist Peter DiStefano bent and warped his notes by playing with a violin bow.

Two women dancers stripped down to the bare essentials and writhed suggestively with one another during Cursed Female, while Farrell sang perched on a monitor, poised like a cobra ready to strike.

A man introduced as "the tallest hermaphrodite in the world" danced on stilts to the previous song's counterpart, Cursed Male.

And "Eva the Fire Eater," wearing only pasties and a G-string, twirled flaming batons and breathed plumes of fire with each chorus of the band's encore, Porno For Pyros.

For all of the erotic circus' inflammatory nature, it rarely detracted from the band itself, which shares a dark sound similar to Jane's Addiction, but was clearly closer to Farrell's personal vision.

Drummer Stephen Perkins, the only other holdover from Farrell's former band, has dramatically sharpened his rhythmic skills, giving the group a more heavily percussive impact.

Musical highlights included DiStefano's wah-wah metal chording on Bloody Rag, Farrell's dramatic, keening delivery of Meija and a low-key rendition of the band's unlikely crossover hit, Pets.

"You give Porno For Pyros two more years," the singer told the audience of about 2,000. "We're going to set the world on fire."

The same can't be said of Mercury Rev, a sideshow attraction of a band that played an agonizingly long 45-minute opening set that favored discordant noise over occasional melody. Playing with their backs to the audience for maximum feedback, the band probably didn't notice the large number of concertgoers steadily streaming out of the arena to the surrounding hallway.

Mercury Rev has the dubious distinction of being the only band ever booted off the annual Lollapalooza tour. Small wonder. What's truly perplexing is how these monotonous noise-mongers were ever signed to a major label in the first place.