"Los Angeles is still a bad-ass place to live"

The following is a review I wrote shortly after 9/11. I heard a rumor that Julian Casablancas from the Strokes was in the audience. The Strokes were the hottest band in the world at the time.

Jane’s Addiction/Courtney Love
Hollywood Bowl
October 27, 2001

People do not really change; they just grow older. Courtney Love still seeks attention through controversy and negativity. And Perry Farrell still celebrates the wonder of life through art and music…

“This is one Jewish broad versus another Jewish broad,” Love announced at the Hollywood Bowl, trying her best to upstage host Farrell and headliners Jane’s Addiction. Poor Courtney Love; it is not like she already does not have enough turmoil whirling through her stalled career without biting Farrell’s gracious hand. Besides volunteering for the top of Farrell’s shit list, Love is also currently involved in two separate lawsuits -- one with her present record company, Geffen, and another with her late husband Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana bandmates, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. However, it seems like almost nothing can or will keep Courtney Love from saying and doing whatever she pleases, as she proved during her group’s performance at the Bowl.

Love, fronting a new five-piece band featuring Hole drummer Patty Schemel, at least looked like the movie star/rock goddess she has always aspired to be. Shoeless and sporting painfully short bangs, Love wore a torn, flowing shirt that showed-off her well-toned abdomen and low-riding, hip-hugging blue denim pants. Love and her hard-rocking new band (rumored to be named Bastard) kicked off their set with a not-at-all ironically titled new song called “All the Drugs in the World,” and then followed with an old Hole favorite, 1994’s “Asking for It.” Next came another new song about a woman’s affair with a married man named “Baby, I Know Where You Live,” and then another Hole favorite, 1998’s “Malibu.” Meanwhile, Love amused herself by throwing water and set decorations at fans, knocking over microphones, and mocking those she saw as being members of the Bowl’s usual, upscale audience: “Hey! Don’t eat while I’m singing! Take your wine and cheese and stick them up your fucking ass!”

Love’s performance came to an abrupt end, however, when she threatened to stay onstage for “another four or five songs” and cut into Farrell and Jane’s set time. Halfway through a new song bizarrely dedicated to Yoko Ono, the Bowl’s houselights came on and Love’s power was promptly cut off. Realizing that her band’s set was now over, a disgusted Love left the stage and disappeared into the same audience she had been abusing only moments earlier.

In contrast to Love, Farrell and Jane’s Addiction took the stage in turn-of-the-millennium, “Jubilee” party-mode. Farrell -- along with Sean Lennon, Bob Geldof, and Bono -- is a supporter of the Jubilee charitable organization, which encourages leading economic powers to forgive vast debts owed by Third World nations. Farrell’s interest in Jubilee strongly influenced both the singer’s new solo album, Song Yet to be Sung, and Jane’s exotically decorated, Third World-themed stage set.

Farrell arrived onstage at the Bowl wearing an outlandishly crafted, twenty-foot wide white skirt that also had at least six serpentine-like female dancers hidden underneath it. And those female dancers played an important part of Jane’s stage set as they performed on swings, teeter-totters, and grooved on separate, freestanding platforms. Since Jane’s Addiction has released only two albums of all-original material, 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking and 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual, Farrell and the rest of the band -- shirtless guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Martyn Le Noble, and drummer Steve Perkins -- must have felt that they had to rely heavily on added visual effects like female dancers and laser lights to surprise the audience. But, the crowd at the Bowl seemed almost overjoyed just to hear old songs like “Ocean Size,” “Three Days,” and “Summertime Rolls” performed live one more time.

Near the end of the show, the band moved to a specially built smaller stage that was located in the middle of the Bowl. Here, Farrell, Navarro, Le Noble, and Perkins played a stripped-down, acoustic set of the band’s more intimate songs. And not only did Farrell and company perform old Jane’s tunes such as “Classic Girl” and the band’s signature song, “Jane Says,” but they were also joined by guitarist Pete DiStefano on the Porno for Pyros hit, “Pets.” Navarro then sang “Hungry,” a song off his recent solo album Trust No One, and Farrell followed by performing Song Yet to be Sung’s “Happy Birthday Jubilee.”

Following a parade led by jump-roping clowns and dancers with spiral-spinning parasols, the members of Jane’s Addiction made their way back to the main stage to conclude the concert. After performing two more old favorites -- “Mountain Song” and “Ted, Just Admit It” -- a very sincere and appreciative Farrell uniquely expressed his love for the fans and also for his adopted hometown, Los Angeles. “Turn a ‘down’ year like 2001 into an ‘up’ year,” Farrell told the crowd at the Bowl. “Because every year that you’re alive is an ‘up’ year. And Los Angeles is still a bad-ass place to live.”