2009.06.03 Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 4:21 pm

Jane's Addiction: Back together, for now

By Alan Sculley
Correspondent

Jane's Addiction's highly anticipated reunion tour got off to a rough start for frontman Perry Farrell when he tore a calf muscle during the first song of the group's set May 10 at Atlanta's Lakewood Amphitheatre.

But considering he had waited 18 years to tour with the original lineup of his band, Farrell wasn't about to let a little pain get in the way of the group's return.

He didn't miss a show, and in a mid-May phone interview, said he was coping just fine — thanks to the miracle of modern pharmaceuticals.

"They (doctors) actually told me to kind of work through it so the muscles don't knot up," Farrell said. "They told me moving around isn't such a bad thing — and they gave me some great meds."

Jane's Addiction's current tour (with Nine Inch Nails, no less) is not the first time fans have seen a version of the influential band come back to life. But it's never been the original lineup until now.

Following the band's split in 1991, Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins reunited for a reunion tour in 1997, with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers filling the bass slot that had been held by Eric Avery.

The group then went its separate ways once again until 2001, when a more extensive reunion came together, this time with Martyn Lenoble (who had been in Farrell's first post-Jane's Addiction band, Porno For Pyros) and later Chris Chaney filling in for Avery. The Chaney lineup lasted long enough to make a 2003 studio CD, "Strays," before coming apart in 2004.

Farrell went on to form a new group, Satellite Party, but always held out hope that the original Jane's Addiction would one day get together again.

Finally, an occasion presented itself when word came that Jane's Addiction would be honored with the "Godlike Genius Award" at the first-ever United States NME Awards in April 2008.

The wheels started turning about the possibility of reuniting for that awards show, and this time, Avery agreed to participate.

For several months, it appeared that would be the extent of the reunion. But then the group played an after-hours show during the South By Southwest Music Conference in March, and then came word of the tour with Nine Inch Nails.

But life in the resurrected Jane's Addiction has not been all smiles and giggles.

Recently, the group entered the studio to record a pair of new songs, with Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and producer Alan Moulder producing. Farrell said the sessions were marred by the re-emergence of long-standing tensions, and the band didn't finish the two new songs, "Embrace The Darkness" and I'll Protect You."

Exactly what is responsible for the tensions that exist in Jane's Addiction was something Farrell said he couldn't really explain.

"I wish I could express myself exactly what it was," he said. "But unfortunately, a lot of it, I'm not really sure what it is because it's not been expressed to me."

But Farrell does have ideas about one source of the problems, and he also knows why he walked away from the band in 1991, after two albums, 1988's "Nothing's Shocking" and 1990's Ritual de lo Habitual" had made Jane's Addiction a leading force in alternative music circles.

"I think a lot of it has to do, let's face it, we're all people that love attention and some of us maybe would love to get more attention," he said. "It could be that, you know what I'm saying... But again, this is all conjecture.

"You know, I was the guy who originally in 1991 left the group," he added. "Let me tell you my reasons. I felt that the group wasn't united. We were not friends. We didn't care about each other. We were working against each other behind each other's backs. That was why I decided (to leave). To make music, as far as I'm concerned, you have to be united and you have to be — it's like a marriage — you have to be in love with each other. (In order) for the other person to make music with you, you have to trust them and everything else, and I felt there was no trust."

Despite the struggles the reunited band had in recording "Embrace The Darkness" and "I'll Protect You," Farrell said he hopes the group will be able to return to the studio and finish those songs before its Lollapalooza show in August. He said the band is getting along well on tour, playing a show that concentrates on the music made by the original lineup.

"Those are the albums that we recorded with Eric Avery," Farrell said. "So out of respect, I suppose, to Eric, we felt it would make him the most comfortable playing those songs."

Still, Farrell is making no promises about Jane's Addiction's future beyond the current tour. He knows the band could come apart at any point.

"Jane's Addiction is together again, so catch it while it's hot," he said. "Catch it while it's here."

Jane's Addiction, with Nine Inch Nails and Street Sweeper Social Club

When: Wednesday, June 3, at 7 p.m.

Where: Comcast Center, 885 S. Main St., Mansfield

Tickets: $58, $38, $18

Info: 508-339-2331 or http://www.livenation.com/venue/comcast-center-tickets

http://www.eagletribune.com/pulife/loca ... ndarystory

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:51 pm

Great interview with Tom Morello here.

Tom called in to discuss his show tonight at Comcast Center and talked some music with the guys

http://audio.weei.com/m/22417988/tom-mo ... tarist.htm

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:12 pm

http://twitpic.com/6knwh

Thanks Etty! :Brabo:

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:34 pm

http://twitpic.com/6kq4o

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 4:44 am

Nine Inch Nails: Old favorites, new revelations

BY MATT IANNOTTI FOR THE SUN CHRONICLE

MANSFIELD - "We're not in a band," the group proclaimed, "we're in a social club. You wanna join the club? First you've got to take the oath." So started the opening band, Street Sweeper Social Club at the Nin/Ja (Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction) tour concert at the Comcast Center.

The group, billing itself as a social movement aiming at reducing poverty and homelessness combined aggressive rock with sweet interludes. Clad in black military coats, resplendent with gold buttons, the group recalls Sgt. Pepper - if he were to drop out of the Aarmy and wear his officer's finery in a post apocalyptic world. The lead singer, Boots Riley, seemed to be channeling Jimi Hendrix with his style of speak-singing over the music.

The group has an album coming out June 16 titled "Street Sweeper Social Club." Riley claimed that "we're gonna be the biggest band in the world with the wort sounding name ever." Despite what he may think of the name, the group was tight and had the audience on their feet. They closed proclaiming that the audience is "now a member of Street Sweeper Social Club."

Humbly letting Jane's Addiction headline, Nine Inch Nails brought back many of their old songs this time around. In a long set of 19 tracks, Trent Reznor focused, with mixed results, on his old standbys, leaving the lighting very pared down.

While the audience seemed to prefer his earlier work, such as "March of the Pigs" and "Metal," the emotional tone of the performance was not as high as it had been on previous tours. It wasn't until halfway through his set that Reznor finally found his stride.

The lights had dimmed as the opening of La Mer began when Reznor began a very heart wrenching admission. "I locked myself away in a house by the ocean. I said it was to write music. I was really trying to kill myself. I only wrote one song. ... When I play it, it makes me feel weird and takes me back to a very dark place. I'm still alive," he reassured us. "I haven't died yet. I'm afraid to go back to that place, because it feels very haunting. But I'm going to go back. I may get married there." This startling confession begs the question: If there are upcoming nuptials, then who is the lucky bride to be? After this moment, his performance improved as he brought a more authentic level of emotion to his singing. He ended his performance with the signature Hurt. In the semidarkness and relative quiet, lips all around formed the familiar words to his haunting tune: "I will let you down. I will make you hurt." In the end, you didn't let us down this time, Mr. Reznor.

Wrapping up the night was Jane's Addiction. They were a somewhat questionable choice for a headliner after such an extensive and, ultimately, emotional performance by Nine Inch Nails. The two bands have different fan bases and there was something of an exodus at the end of NIN's set.

Jane's Addiction played their 80s influenced songs with energy, especially the drummer on his massive set, while singer Perry Farell strutted across the stage like a matador in gold lame, letting his vocals, like primeval cries, carry through the audience.

It seemed that the light show, with beautifully saturated colors and piercing white rays was fitting of a headliner spot, but perhaps, for NIN's crowd, the band wasn't.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles ... 070498.txt

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 4:47 am

Double bill gives crowd what it deserves

By Sarah Rodman
Globe Staff / June 4, 2009

JANE'S ADDICTION AND NINE INCH NAILS
WITH THE STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB
At the Comcast Center last night

MANSFIELD - It was an odd pairing from the outset, and last night at the Comcast Center in Mansfield the double bill of Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails didn't really make any more sense. But it was certainly entertaining.

Aside from a brief moment as peers in the alt-rock revolution - and costars of the first Lollapalooza tour - the trippy, recently reunited Cali rockers and Trent Reznor's more consistent and consistently engrossing rage machine don't share much musical ground. They clearly have some fan overlap, however, as the three-quarters-capacity crowd cheered enthusiastically for strong sets by both bands.

Reznor made it more difficult for casual fans, bypassing many of his group's biggest hits. But this was no nostalgia tour for Nine Inch Nails, and Reznor remains, 20 years in, a front man who is so present in his performances, so deep inside his lyrics, that his shows tend to be compelling whether he's singing your favorite song or not.

Last night was no exception as he burrowed under the big beats of songs like "Discipline" and "1,000,000" and came up screaming for salvation and relief as banks of lights flickered behind his coiled figure.

A man of few words onstage, he instead let his emotions bleed through his yelps and croons and the vehemence with which he attacked his keyboards. His deft three-piece band conjured up a hypnotic blend of stuttering beats, slashing guitars, and sculpted noise on "March of the Pigs" and "Head Like a Hole." A spare take on the aching, hushed "Hurt" brought the set to a close.

Given how quick the set change was, the contrast between groups was startling. After the sharp angles and laser-directed rage of NIN, the freewheeling, psychedelic metal stew of Jane's Addiction's felt oddly sluggish at first.

The quartet worked their way toward a peak, however, appropriately enough, during a brawny "Mountain Song" and never looked back, steamrolling into the fuzzy funk of "Been Caught Stealing," the epic "Ocean Size," and a nutty, calamitous "Ted, Just Admit It."

Guitarist Dave Navarro, shirtless by the third song, offered punishing grooves and flights of solo fancy. Drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery locked into a heavy-yet-tasteful bottom end. And leader Perry Farrell was his usual outsize self, coming off like a space alien version of Elvis, gyrating in a tight green-gold lamé jumpsuit.

The band bid the crowd goodnight with a jubilant, steel-drum driven version of "Jane Says."

Former Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello's latest musical outfit/political mission Street Sweeper Social Club kickstarted the night with his guitar pyrotechnics.

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

boston.com

Mudget · Post by **Mudget** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:23 am

"After the sharp angles and laser-directed rage of NIN, the freewheeling, psychedelic metal stew of Jane's Addiction's felt oddly sluggish at first."

I still contend that Three Days is a peculiar opener for this particular tour.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 12:19 pm

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:12 pm

Trent Reznor, Perry Farrell nail down sets, but the thrill is gone

By Jed Gottlieb / Music review
Thursday, June 4, 2009

So, this is the legacy of Lollapalooza almost two decades later. Jane’s Addiction, founders of the tour, Nine Inch Nails, one of the bands on the first Lolla jaunt, and up-and-comers Street Sweeper Social Club crash the Comcast Center and the bands’ “Margaritavilles” take center stage.

You can’t take anything away from the music - all three sets had the vitality of anything out there today. But the vibe of the event was long gone as the not-quite-sellout crowd has gone from teens to 30-somethings.

Dressed in a gold (or green in the right light) lame suit, WWF-esque belt and dandy scarf, Perry Farrell was the consummate bizarro frontman, even at 50. Stalking the stage like a cat, he led his band through a throwback set of songs older than Nirvana’s “Nevermind.”

After opening with the slightly dreamy, slightly nightmarish “Three Days,” Jane’s cranked up the rock - “Whores,” “Ain’t No Right” and the mischievous “Pigs in Zen.” The quartet nicely inverted its big hit, “Been Caught Stealing,” covering the hook in sludge, with Farrell rushing the melody. The highlights were the rock ‘n’ roll avalanche “Mountain Song” - and alt-rock nation anthem “Stop!”

As transcendent as “Jane Says” is, busting it out as the final tune was a bit too Buffett. But still, a great set, even if it hasn’t changed much during the entire tour.

Nine Inch Nails? Well, first things first, NIN shouldn’t play while it’s light out. It’s just weird. Of course, Trent Reznor has his own way of bring the darkness during daylight. Not the optimum band to open for headliners Jane’s, Reznor’s Jim Jones-cult charisma is undeniable. And the emotional and sonic force of the great-but-obvious “The Hand That Feeds,” “Head Like A Hole” and “Hurt” were what half the fans showed up for.

Street Sweeper Social Club - Tom Morello’s new band with the Coup’s Boots Riley - is a Rage Against the Machine 3.0 that works. Riley doing his Gil Scott-Heron thing over Morello’s freakish guitar absolutely slays anything Audioslave (Rage 2.0) ever did.

Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails, at the Comcast Center, Mansfield, Wednesday night.

bostonherald.com

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:01 pm

The long good-byes

Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction, live at the Comcast Center, June 3, 2009

By RYAN STEWART | June 4, 2009

Some time in the late 90s, Trent Reznor holed himself up in a house near the ocean. Ostensibly, he was there to write some music. And while he did use that time to begin piecing together some of the songs that would become Nine Inch Nails's 1999 double-album The Fragile, Reznor - struggling with various addictions and personal problems - really retreated to that house because he wanted to kill himself.

At least, that’s the story Reznor told from the stage at the Comcast Center on Wednesday night. And it has a happy ending, of course: Reznor is still alive, healthy, clean, and has even found love. He mentioned that he is planning to wed his fiance, West Indian Girl singer Mariqueen Maandig, at that very house, to exorcise the demons – perhaps once and for all. After telling us this, he proceeded to play "La Mer," an instrumental composition he wrote during this dark period, as his way of demonstrating that he has overcome his demons, and he's out on the other side of it all now.

Same stage, an hour later: Jane's Addiction is playing, consecutively, a song about Jesus Christ participating in a threesome with two debauched "Marys," and one about the benefits of finding comfort in the arms of prostitutes. The contrast was noticeable: a one-man army laying out his troubles for all to see; a band who celebrate the state of being completely untroubled by anything. Even though it's reasonably well-known that Farrell and company have battled addiction and other such troubles in their past as well, it still feels like they're incapable of much emotion beyond "Hey man, relax, we're all just trying to have a good time here," although Farrell did ask a guy who threw a projectile at him to leave. (For the record, the projectile appeared to be . . . a piece of paper.)

Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction seem frozen in time, veterans of an era when anyone who played guitar and wasn't hair-metal could get lumped into the "alternative" bin, there to fight for airplay against bands they had absolutely nothing in common with – say, R.E.M. and the Pixies. Take a look at their respective landmarks: Pretty Hate Machine (on the verge of its 20th anniversary) and Nothing's Shocking (already passed that milestone last year). They're both great albums, yet Reznor's body of work is more relevant in 2009 than that made by the JA to his NIN. And sure, part of that is the simple fact that Reznor has continued making quality albums into this decade, something many bands with shorter careers than Nine Inch Nails have been unable to do. (As regards both bands: It helps if you put out records no oftener than once every five years.)

But it isn't only that - Reznor makes over-the-top angst work in a way that few others can pull off, and a lot of that is his ability to connect with his audience and present himself as one of them. His songs are intensely personal, of course, but he manages to find a universal fragility in his own feelings, whether he's directing his hatred externally - as he does in "Burn," "Wish," "Head Like a Hole," "March of the Pigs," and "The Hand That Feeds," all heard last night - or internally - last night's examples include "The Fragile," "Hurt," "The Way Out Is Through," and "Echoplex." This could also help to explain why he's reportedly "retiring" Nine Inch Nails; he's at peace now and doesn't relate to all the self-loathing.

Then there’s Perry Farrell, who’s like the guy that corners you at a party and won't shut up. Maybe some of the stories he tells are mildly entertaining and kind of titilating, but after a while it gets a little tiresome. Chris Dahlen once compared him to a homeless guy ranting on a street corner while panhandling in a Pitchfork review, and that feels about right. It’s fine, banterish smalltalk to praise Boston for its role in the American Revolution– but maybe not in the middle of "Then She Did," the band's most haunting, beautiful song, and one of very few introspective moments in the band’s repertoire.

Farrell's onstage antics were not terribly distracting otherwise. He'd dance, strut, walk across the stage with his arms held away from his sides like somebody doing a bad John Wayne imitation. He struck poses where he'd jerk the microphone away from his face and freeze in position. He didn't appear to be showing any ill effects from his recent calf injury. His voice, always thin, sounded tentative and restrained - maybe he simply can't hit some of those notes nowadays – but the rest of the band sounded great. Say what you will about Dave Navarro, but the guy can play, as can Stephen Perkins. This was billed as a "proper" Jane's Addiction reunion (as opposed to their previous reunions) because of the presence of original bassist Eric Avery, but I'll be honest and say I'm not sure I would’ve been able to tell the difference.

At the end of their set, Nine Inch Nails retreated offstage for two minutes, tops, then came back to play "Hurt." Reznor's voice cracked with emotion while singing. It was tough not to feel moved by the sight of an older, wiser Reznor looking back on his dark times and feeling good about how he's able to walk away from it all on his own terms. It was classy and understated. In another even more telling contrast, the members of Jane's Addiction stayed on stage long after they finished playing their final encore ("Jane Says," a song I both like and wouldn't be upset if I never heard again), soaking in the adulation from the crowd. Or at least they would have been soaking in adulation had a good 80 percent of the crowd not already beaten a path to the exits while the band was still out there and well before the house lights came on. So maybe "clinging to whatever attention they could find" would be a more apt description.

http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Music/8458 ... good-byes/