[kj] A Different Sort of "Gathering" (OT)

[TB]

"Christof hamille" wrote:

>I saw Jane's Addiction a handful of times up until their first break-up. 
>First time was opening for Iggy Pop and it made me go out the next day and 
>buy the album.  Second time was Nothing Shocking and they were out right 
>brilliant.  Maybe it was the drugs, desperation to make it..I don't know.
> Ritual tour was so so.  Everybody was trying to clean up and it was their 
> first time at having a big stage all to themselves
> By the time they got to calling it a day at Lollapallooza (sp?) they 
> figured out how to work to gether and to work a big stage and they weree 
> good.  It was a nice swan song.
>
> The reunion stuff I could smelll from day one was going to suck.  They are 
> one of those bands that had a brief moment and burned really hot and 
> bright.
>
> I can't vouch what made them suck on the reunion.  Maybe Eric Avery had a 
> clue and that is why he vows not to be in it.

Avery certainly played a significant part in the bands' unique sound and his 
contributions in the original lineup can't be underestimated even though he 
was "just" the bass player. Avery and Farrell had bad blood between them 
going back to '91 during the final tour when supposedly Avery tried to pick 
up on Farrell's (now ex) girlfriend which is behind a lot of Farrell's nasty 
onstage comments about "would you steal your best friend's woman" before the 
band would play "Been Caught Stealing" during that tour. Farrell supposedly 
tried to reconcile with Avery when the rest of the band decided to record 
what would be the "Strays" album but he turned the offer to rejoin the band.

IMO, "Strays" isn't a terrible album by any means, but it certainly lacks 
the rough edges, the sense of daring experimentation and youthful 
exuberating Jane's previous work had. It's just too polished and 
overproduced. When I saw them debut a few songs that would eventually show 
up on Strays on New Years Eve in '02 (a couple of those performances are on 
the dvd that came with that album), I thought the band and new music showed 
a lot of promise (even though the new bass player could have been a 
cardboard display figure for all the personality he showed onstage) but I 
understand as the tour wore on and they let themselves be involved in 
another lame incarnation of Lollapalooza that tour, things fell apart and 
the band wound up disintegrating before even finishing the tour.

If as a former Jane's Addiction fan you wanna be really let down, swipe a 
couple tunes from The Panic Channel's debut album which is basically the 
Strays lineup minus Perry Farrell which imo is probably the worst thing any 
of the various members of JA has been involved with.

T.B.