Photo: WENN
Making an eager crowd wait an hour after the support isn’t a big deal when most of them had been waiting more than twenty years to see their favourite album played in full. We're all here for Nothing's Shocking.
There was a palpable sense that this was a special occasion, and Jane’s Addiction was revelling in it, visible waiting in the shadows of the side stage, seemingly waiting for the bay of the crowd to be loud enough. They opened with ‘Up the Beach’ and ‘Ocean Size’, the two songs culminating into a suitably epic start.
Farrell slithered and smoothed his way, and met his adoring fans with a mischievous if slightly unhinged excitement in his eyes. From then on it was the Perry Show; the spotlight was firmly planted on him throughout (sometimes a little frustrating, when Navarro’s guitar and tattoos are left in the dark).
This hardly contained Navarro however, his near psychedelic, mesmerising playing provided the lapping undercurrent to the entire set. Perkins pounded out familiar beats with power and charm, the later especially showcased when he emerged to front of stage during ‘Jane Says’. Farrell, as ever, commands the stage, never missing a beat during his expertly frenetic performance. As well as the entirety of Nothing’s Shocking, they played some favourites: ‘Been Caught Stealing’, ‘Stop’, ‘Three Days’, and ‘Chip Away’ for an encore, during which Perkins, Navarro and Chaney joined Farrell, sharing the limelight for a triumphant tribal percussion-heavy close.
The performance had everything you could expect – maybe a little more, given the sexy suspension artists hanging from the rafters by their flesh. All the staples were there: the exulted swigging of alcohol, the hint of hashish in the air, shirtless eccentric gyrating from Farrell.
The album was performed with energy enough to transport the band and its followers back in time a little. Brixton Academy was indeed, as Farrell declared, “the temple of Jane’s Addiction” last night.
