It’s interesting to find they had been working on songs from Ritual de lo Habitual at this time as well, four appear on this disc including the transcendent epic “Three Days,” which still baffles me it did not become my generation’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Rarities include an early version of “Suffer Some,” which would appear with a different sound and lyrics on the Avery-less Strays release from 2003 and a complete version of “City” that appeared in truncated form with a truncated band on the Soul Kiss video.
Disc 2 has 12 tunes and they are broken into demos, rarities, and live material. The arrangement on “Ted, Just Admit It…” resembles a Bauhaus tune. There’s an unreleased “My Time” recorded at a rehearsal. The band shows their musical diversity and range, moving from the sweet melodious cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” to the fierce and powerful presentation of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” where they were joined by Body Count’s Ice-T & Ernie C. More influences on Jane’s abound as we get live covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” The Stooges “1970,” and “Bobhaus” which found Farrell singing the chorus from Bob Dylan's “Like A Rolling Stone” while the band played the music from Bauhaus’ “Burning From The Inside.” They usually it played as an intro to “Pigs in Zen.”
Disc 3 is a complete live concert from 12/19/90, the second show from a three-night stand I was lucky enough to attend at the Hollywood Palladium. It was an impressive night as Primus and special guests The Pixies were on the same bill. A few of these performances have turned up as B-sides and on the 1997 compilation album Kettle Whistle.
The concert opens with a “Drum Intro” by I don’t know who to get the festivities started. They launch into “Up The Beach” and Farrell announces, “Here we go,” as he does on all their albums, because we are all about to take off on a journey for parts unknown together though final destinations will vary.
After a few songs from the band’s early days, “Whores” and “1%,” they start to deliver on Ritual, the album they are touring in support of. This performance of “Ain’t No Right” was used for the video and is a classic because this is the night some idiot would hit Farrell with his Birkenstock and get ripped on because “he doesn’t even know fashion.” He goes onto say that he “knows one of you is on acid in a bad way; I’m on acid, too.” For some in attendance that wouldn’t take place until the next night.
Article comments
1 - Josh Hathaway
Nice work here, Bicho. I agree this is not the way to introduce someone to Jane's Addiction, but it's a nice set for those who are already fans. That 3rd disc -- the live show you attended -- is really, really good.
2 - El Bicho
Thanks, Josh. The show was stellar and some of their videos are taken from the same night, or at least that run. There's something special about catching a band at their peak in a small club.
One of the nights, and I don't remember which, at the end of show some woman made it onto the stage and leaped into Dave's arms. He caught her, she wrapped her legs around him, and they made out as he carried her off. It was so rock 'n' roll.