Jane’s Addiction Show Ends When Perry Farrell Punches Dave Navarro

A Jane's Addiction concert in Boston last night ended abruptly when singer Perry Farrell shoved and then punched guitarist Dave Navarro onstage during a performance of the band's classic "Ocean Size." The band's crew, along with bass player Eric Avery, subdued Farrell. JamBase shared video of the incident on Twitter. https://twitter.com/JamBase/status/1834797887873532367 In the video, Farrell seems very aggressive, while Navarro appears to stay relatively calm. "Ocean Size" was the 11th song of the night; that's a bit shorter than most of their shows have been on this tour. The tour marks the first time the original lineup has played together in fourteen years. Founding bassist Eric Avery, who hasn't participated in most of the band's albums and tours since their initial breakup in 1991, rejoined the band in 2008, but left in 2010. He rejoined in 2022, but Navarro sat that tour out; at the time, he was dealing with the effects of long COVID. Jane's Addiction: A Tumultuous Week This incident comes at the end of a roller-coaster week for the band. They played two shows at New York City's Pier 17 rooftop club on Tuesday, September 10, and Wednesday, September 11. The shows were wildly different. I attended the show on September 11; during the September 10 show, I started receiving texts and seeing social posts from friends who were at that concert. Every post expressed anger and/or disappointment at the band's performance. Or, more specifically, Perry Farrell's. One friend texted me a video, saying, "Voice not great and he seems completely trashed." Another, who brought his son to the show, said, "I am trying to explain to my son that I've never seen anything like this. So many shows, never." Friends also reported that the other band members looked visibly annoyed with Farrell throughout the performance. Farrell told the audience that he was having vocal problems and the show ended abruptly. I went to Pier 17 on Wednesday with some hesitancy, as Jane's Addiction is one of my favorite bands. In my opinion, they are one of the most important bands of the past four decades. I've written [inlink id="janes-addiction-should-be-in-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame" text="op-eds about why they should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame"]. I didn't see them before their initial breakup in 1991, but I've seen them frequently since they got back together in 1997, and they've never let me down. And there's always a sense of danger: you feel like you never know what Perry is going to do next. Dave and drummer Stephen Perkins are always incredible and they sound powerful with whoever is on bass (I've seen them with Avery, Flea, and most frequently with Chris Chaney). I didn't want to see a show that would let me down. Shockingly, Wednesday night's show was amazing. Navarro/Avery/Perkins are as powerful as any instrumentalists I've ever seen. Perry has never been a great singer in the classic sense, but he's one of the best frontmen that I've ever experienced. At least, that's true on a good night (I've seen some subpar Farrell performances in his non-Jane's concerts). Wednesday was a pretty good night. He pulled it together enough so that he didn't ruin the show. His stories between songs rambled a bit, but they always do. He drank from a wine bottle throughout the night and seemed drunk but was relatively coherent. He even broke up a fight in the audience during "Stop!" Jane's Addiction recently released a new song, "Imminent Redemption." It's their first new song with the founding lineup since 1991. Hopefully, the song's title will prove prescient and there will be some redemption for Farrell, with both the fans and with his bandmates. https://youtu.be/wLI3vuD5bOc?si=uJC7KJJy51JODaZD