Despite the strife between band members (primarily Eric Avery and Perry Farrell, it seems), Jane’s Addiction is a timeless concoction of artists and music, even if some of the songs are overplayed (Jane Says, Classic Girl).
I feel like a bad Jane’s fan, because I only heard of the release of Live Voodoo mere days before its release. In the hopes of redeeming myself, I quickly clicked away on Amazon.com to ensure its arrival on my doorstep.
Now that it’s arrived (after surviving a fall from my mailbox), Perry, Stephen, Dave and Eric haven’t disappointed, as expected. And even better, still, the band performed in New Orleans on Halloween at the Voodoo Fest.
Perry emerges last on stage dressed as a flamboyant superhero here to raise the dead of New Orleans, complete with a black bedazzled lace cape, oversized belt buckle and a shimmering purple one-piece outfit. Dave is sans shirt, no doubt intending to show off his chiseled physique and countless tattoos, Perkins briefly rocks a Jason Voorhees-style hockey mask (and later, a Freddy Krueger mask) and a black wife beater, while Eric Avery dons a simple black T-shirt and baggy pants as if he’s about to retreat for the night.
The band slides into “Up the Beach”, where during the intro Perry sucks down a large swallow of wine straight from the bottle in order to bring “peace to his mind in the summertime.”
The classics, “Mountain Song” and “Ain’t No Right” follow with superb energy, but don’t rival the gritty, chaotic performances of these songs from the band’s early days. But, hey, we all have to age, mature, and transform, right? What you have with Live Voodoo is slightly cabaret more than it is the anarchy of early nineties’ Jane’s Addiction.
During “Three Days,” two exotic Geisha girls appear in white, barely-there dresses with black leather corsets to further entice the audience, as well as Perry Farrell, demonstrated by his loose re-creation of the Ritual de lo Habitual album cover with them. They do keep their clothes on, however.
Article comments
1 - Steve
Too crisp and clean? You mean just like having actually been there in the front row? Thank God for Blu-ray and lossless high resolution surround sound. The reason why DVD concerts have never been big sellers is because surround sound for music on DVD pretty much sucks, lossy dts and Dolby don't hold a candle to PCM, dts-ma and TrueHD.
Thank you Blu-ray.
2 - Dr. Richard Kimble
you know Halloween isn't in the summertime right? your line doesn't really work