8/29/07 - Varsity Theater, Baton Rouge, LA

Archived Perry & Satellite Party tour dates, reviews, and info
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8/29/07 - Varsity Theater, Baton Rouge, LA

Post by Mike »

Farrell headed into orbit with Satellite Party

By JOHN WIRT
Music critic
Published: Aug 24, 2007

A 40-city tour is taking Satellite Party, the new musical adventure from Jane’s Addiction and Porno For Pyros front man Perry Farrell, across the continent.

Farrell’s Satellite Party trek began last week in Cleveland. Continuing through Oct. 10, the tour is playing such relatively intimate venues as The NorVa in Norfolk, Va., The Republic in New Orleans and Baton Rouge’s Varsity Theatre.

“Honestly, it’s the way of the modern-music industry,” Farrell said Tuesday from Pittsburgh. “It’s really back to the ancient way of going city to city, like they did back in the ’50s. But it’s cool, because we do it live and we do it well. It’s time to get on the road and play to the people.”

Farrell sees Satellite Party and Ultra Payloaded, the band’s elaborate post-modern-rock neo-hippie opus, as the evolution of his work with Jane’s Addiction, one of the ’80s and ’90s’ premier modern-rock bands, and the succeeding Porno For Pyros.

“I do, because I love the history that I’ve been a part of and I don’t want to turn my back on it,” he said. “We do Jane’s Addiction and Porno For Pyros and my solo stuff on stage and covers, too, because it’s a party and people love to hear those songs.

“And I love where we are with Satellite Party even though I have to start with a lot of humility. We’re back in small clubs, but at the same time I feel really good. It feels like the Wild West and that’s kind of exciting for me. Things are not laid out for you on a silver tray. I don’t know that I’d have it any other way.”

Ultra Payloaded, the album that begat the tour, was three years in the making. Farrell began its construction with beats and electronic programming and then moved to lyrics.

“As the lyrics started to tell the story, I took it away from being house music and house beats and started to create more of a rock structure in the songs. I put live players on top of that and then we ended up with a 30-piece orchestra on top of all of it.”

Belabored as the album’s creation may sound, the music is definitely not ponderous.

“It’s all positive stuff,” Farrell said. “Everybody’s always in a good mood and it’s good for shaking and dancing.”

Sounds like an excellent soundtrack for the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love.

“The youth of the ’60s, they had, in a way, the same intentions that the kids today have,” Farrell said. “They don’t believe in the government, they want to change things. But, obviously, the youth in the ’60s didn’t succeed and here we are again. The ’60s proved that change is gonna take a lot more than protests. We have to be even more coordinated. I think the Internet is gonna be that hardware that helps us to coordinate a catalyst, along with music.

“I’m still very positive about the future. In the next 10 years the changes the world is going to see are going to be the best changes the world’s ever had. And the story (in Ultra Payloaded) is really written for that occasion, when the time comes for human beings to rise and do the right things for the Earth and for each other.”

One of the storylines in Ultra Payloaded is about a group of performers and musicians called the Solutionists.

“The strength of their artistry brings attention to issues that they have solutions to,” Farrell said. “But rather than negative protest, they’re similar to Jon Stewart (TV’s The Daily Show). His humor gains people’s attention and, in a similar fashion, the Solutionists go out there with music, making merry, and shed light on what’s happening and, hopefully, by bringing people together, they can change it.”

Ultra Payloaded further confirms its Summer of Love vibe with “Woman In The Window,” a seamless meld of a spoken-word performance by the Doors’ Jim Morrison and newly composed Satellite Party music.

“We were very fortunate when we got a chance to hear the material,” Farrell said of the previously unreleased Morrison track. “You wouldn’t believe it, but there’s only so many tracks left of Jim Morrison that the world hasn’t heard yet.

“That track, which speaks about the world from the vantage point of space, is perfectly suited for our story and our music. The first time I heard the track, it was like hearing someone I loved and lost 30-some years ago speaking to me from beyond. It was a happy little miracle that it occurred. I kick myself every time I think about it.”

Farrell and the surviving members of the Doors, a band he’s loved for as long as he can remember, are friends.

“When you hear the Doors’ music, immediately there’s something in their sound and interpretation that separates them from 99.9 percent of the other groups. Rather than use the stage to act, they used it to come alive. Jim Morrison, he was living on the stage. It was compelling because, this fellow, he had a lot of courage and a lot of insight and wasn’t afraid to speak the truth. The Doors and Jim Morrison were very forthright. That made them dangerous, but it’s also what made them exciting.”
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