Six Degrees of Jane's Addiction
Six Degrees of Jane's Addiction
A family tree of one of the most successful alternative rock bands, who completely fell apart onstage last week
A few weeks ago I started writing a post about Jane’s Addiction, the Los Angeles alternative rock band that reunited this Summer and Fall with its four original members. I’m a big fan of the band — Gen X alert — and was excited about the possibility of seeing them in San Francisco next month.
I was done writing and about to publish last week, when their entire tour fell apart after lead singer Perry Farrell had a meltdown onstage in Boston last week, body-checked guitarist Dave Navarro, and got dragged offstage. The band canceled the rest of the tour, citing Farrell’s “behavior” and “mental health.” Farrell has since apologized on social media.
It’s disappointing on many levels. But Farrell’s voice is now a shell of what it once was — a surgery in 2020 allegedly affected his vocal chords — and since general admission tickets to their upcoming October San Francisco show were selling for about $230 or more, I had pretty much decided to skip the show anyway.
Farrell’s wife said on social media that the noise onstage was so loud for several nights in a row on the tour that Farrell could not hear himself singing, so he overcompensated by yelling, thus destroying his voice. If that’s true, it’s completely plausible. Anyone who has performed music onstage knows how challenging it is to play your instrument — or sing — when you can’t properly hear yourself or your bandmates. But as a friend texted me this week: you don’t punch your guitar player because you can’t hear yourself, you talk to the sound engineer.
I never saw Jane’s Addiction in concert, which has always been a major disappointment for me. I became aware of them in 1990, but was late to the game: they had already released their third album, “Ritual de lo Habitual,” and had already toured the world and were well-known. I missed them on tour in 1990 and missed the 1991 inaugural Lollapalooza festival they headlined because I was stuck at summer marching band camp without a ride (this newsletter is called MUSIC NERD, after all).
I’m hardly alone in saying that Jane’s Addiction was hugely influential in 90s rock music. In contrast to the Sunset Strip rock of the mid-80s, they combined elements of punk and metal with psychedelic rock in ways that sounded new and exciting at the time. Combined with Perry Farrell’s vocals, often described as that of a “wild banshee,” Jane’s Addiction offered up something left-of-center from Bon Jovi, Guns ‘N’ Roses, ACDC, and other mid- to late-80s rock radio mainstays. Members of the band were fans of Joy Division and The Velvet Underground, which helps explain where parts of their sound come from.
Like countless other successful bands, they argued and had royalty disputes. They embarked on a farewell tour in 1991, just four years after they released their first album. The band reunited roughly five or six times since, with various lineups, and released two subsequent albums and a compilation album.
“If my band didn’t have issues, if they didn’t throw tantrums, I would think I was with a bunch of suckers. As long as they can handle it, I can handle it. After all we’re just delivering music that people love, so how bad can it be? It could be worse. We could be drafted,” singer Perry Farrell told Billboard in 2009. “I don’t care that we butt heads as long as when we hit the stage we blast on people.”
All the buzz around their tour reminded me how much their music impacted me, and how they turned me on to so much other great music that, at the time, seemed different and exciting.
Here’s my attempt at a Jane’s Addiction family tree; a snapshot of offshoot projects, side players, and bands they’ve toured with.
Perry Farrell’s first band, an industrial post-punk outfit that lasted just a few years. Farrell’s early singing style has similar inflections to singer Siouxsie Sioux of The Creatures and Siouxsie and the Banshees, a highly influential post-punk band who joined Jane’s Addiction on the first Lollapalooza tour.
Moody mid-90s side project from Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro and bassist Eric Avery. They released one album that is not available on Spotify but is on YouTube.
Formed after Jane’s Addiction’s breakup, featuring Farrell and drummer Stephen Perkins. Similar mix of art rock, punk, metal, and psychedelic rock.
Watt is the iconic punk bass player from The Minutemen and fIREHOSE, who recorded and toured with Porno For Pyros in the 90s and joined the band’s reunion tour earlier this year. Watt’s catalog of solo projects and side projects is master class on how the bass guitar can be a lead instrument and musical focal point in rock music.
Funky, jazzy, spaced-out side project featuring Stephen Perkins, Mike Watt, and a rotating lineup that included Beastie Boys keyboardist Money Mark, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, and trumpeter Willy Waldman (Snoop Dogg’s trumpet player). Live performances were loud experiments in free-form jazz-rock, and Los Angeles artist Norton Wisdom would paint strange figures on a wet-erase board while the band played.
Side project featuring Stephen Perkins and Porno For Pyros guitarist Peter DiStefano and bassist Mike Watt. They played spaced-out punk-jazz versions of Stooges songs. I saw them play many times at a small dive bar in Santa Monica in the early 2000s and it was electric.
The Stooges singer helped jumpstart their career in the late-80s. “I took [Jane’s Addiction] on their first tour and they absolutely destroyed me every night,” he told Classic Rock magazine last year.
Toured with Jane’s Addiction in 1991. Thrash band from Venice, California that found mainstream success, and then formed Infectious Grooves, a funk metal supergroup side project that featured members of Suicidal Tendencies, Metallica, Faith No More, and Jane’s Addiction.
Jane’s Addiction toured in support of English rock band Love and Rockets — an offshoot of Bauhaus — early in their career, and then brought Love and Rockets along for this most recent tour. Arguably, you can hear subtle influences of their music on some Jane’s Addiction songs.
In the comments section, feel free to add anything I left out, I’m sure there’s plenty more to discuss.
A Jane’s Addiction Vibes playlist is up on Spotify.
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