Tuesday 30/08/11 Jane's Addiction @ KOKO, London

Jane's Addiction and Koko seem made for each other. The venue's seedy and endearing theatricality is a perfect setting for this band. Eight years after their last album, and following their non-appearance at Reading due to singer Perry Farrell having a throat infection, there's an atmosphere of nervous anticipation inside the venue tonight.It's not often that these stadium fillers play a venue this small, and Camden High Street is littered with touts doing brisk business.

It is absolutely heaving - the nearest I can get to the front is the back, and it's insanely hot in here as well. The stage is covered with a huge black curtain, and as silhouettes move behind it, the PA plays 'Shine on you Crazy' Diamond by Pink Floyd, name-checked by Farrell as a major influence on their forthcoming album The Great Escape Artist, unbelievably only their fourth studio album in almost 25 years. The audience is a mix of people in faded T-shirts from previous Jane's gigs from back in the day, through to kids who wouldn't even have been born when the dogs started barking on Been Caught Stealing. There's one guy who is the spit of Gareth from the American Office - straight from work and ready to rock.

Pink Floyd and the lights fade out, the crowd surges forward, howling, the curtain drops and the band tear into a blistering version of Whores, all swagger, groove and presence. Perry Farrell's dressed in a grey striped suit, frock coat, with scarf, crucifix and bouffant Little Richard hair, like a southern gothic pimp undertaker, looking twenty years younger than his fifty two years. His delighted crazy grin and wave up to the balcony throughout the "motherf*cker" refrain in the chorus brings a roar from the crowd. This is not a man short of self-confidence.

There's no doubt that his voice isn't quite right, but the rest of the band more than compensate. By the second song, 'Ain't no Right', guitarist Dave Navarro's got his shirt off and is taking centre stage, chopping and weaving through guitar lines that would leave 99% of indie bands running home to cry. The boy can play. I can't believe there's just the four of them up there - the sound is immense. The crowd are going nuts to this, and just as we're at fever pitch, Navarro cranks up the opening riff of 'Just Because', and one thousand four hundred and ten people try and turn Koko upside down.  There's crowd surfers, beer going everywhere, and at the eye of the storm Perry Farrell looking like a man possessed, twisting and turning around the stage, leading the band.

He's got a nice line in stage banter too, fixing one would-be stage invader with ****-you eyes and telling him "get back son, you ain't family". He asks if Camden Market is still going, getting a cheer from the crowd, and then if Kensington Market is still open, getting a long drawn out "noooooo". That's a shame, he says, as they used to go there early in the morning to see what they could steal…..he let's it hang, and then, inevitably, the groove rock of 'Been Caught Stealing' throws the crowd into the air again. He can barely sing at all by this point but it doesn't really matter, as you can't hear him over the crowd anyhow.

There are a few down points. The gaps between the songs are pretty drawn-out, which kills the gigs momentum a bit, though there's clearly problems with the on-stage sound, as well as the problems with his voice. Personally I could have done without the drawn out "Ted, just admit it" as well, in favour of 'True Nature' or 'Pigs in Zen'.

After another pause so long that people are straining their eyes to see if the band are still on stage, Dave Navarro begins the staccato riff of Stop, the band go nuts, glitter cannons go off, Farrell's whirling round on stage, swigging from a bottle of red wine, and all you can see are strobes and golden glitter. Gareth from The Office is going f*cking mental. This is amazing.

Then before you know it, they're off again, waiting through five minutes of cheers and stamping of feet, to return to a different stage set up of bongos, steel drum and acoustic guitars. It can only mean one thing, and as Farrell, shirt off, skin and bone, pointy nose, starts a mass singalong of 'Jane Says', a triumphant smile on his face and red wine in his hand, I'm tempted to think he's had almost as much fun as me. Almost.