A lot has happened in the 25 years since Jane’s Addiction last released their fantastic, one-time swan song Ritual De Lo Habitual: The band split up and got back together several times; Front man Perry Farrell invented the modern-day touring rock festival with Lollapalooza (an unfortunate side effect, we also had decades of marketing folks tacking the suffix -palooza onto any event in an attempt to make it hip) and guitarist Dave Navarro managed to join and quit a slew of different bands.
To celebrate the album’s silver anniversary, the group toured the globe in 2015 and 2016 to play the album in its entirety. Their show at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in Irvine, CA is captured brilliantly here in the concert film (on Blu Ray, DVD and CD). The set features all the groundbreaking album tracks in their original order, plus a handful of other fan favorites like “Mountain Girl,” “Just Because,” “Ted, Just Admit It…” and “Jane Says.”
Jane’s Addiction, a great band with a not always reliable track record live, was in top form on this tour and at this show in particular with all band members presumably cleaned up. The songs have aged phenomenally well, Farrell’s voice is stronger than ever and Navarro’s guitar playing, always pretty impressive, is at its peak. The song, “Been Caught Stealing” is a perfect example. More than two and a half decades later and it still sounds better than just about any contemporary rock song you can think of.
The banter is funny, if a bit odd, but that’s kind of what we’ve come accustomed from the quirky singer. “Hey, is it fair to say that before you came here you were a completely different person? I can tell you some really gross stories. Want to hear a gross story?” asks Farrell bizarrely early on into the set. “Why would you want to hear a gross story?”
The band keeps up the momentum throughout ending at a high point on “Jane Says.” It rare that a band improves this much with age, but 25 years later, Jane’s Addiction shows they are more relevant now than ever before.
Jane’s Addiction – Alive at Twenty-Five/DVD, Blu Ray and CD/Cleopatra & MVD Visual/2017 / https://twitter.com/janesaddiction / https://twitter.com/mvdentgroup