BOSTON, Sun 15 — Concertgoers at the long-awaited reunion Jane’s Addiction tour stopover in Boston may have witnessed the band's last gig together.
During the show on Friday night, a visibly agitated Perry Farrell threw a punch at guitarist Dave Navarro midsong, before being restrained by crew members, and pulled offstage.
Videos of the incident shared online showed the band performing Ocean Size, the eleventh song of 14 to 15 tunes performed according to their usual setlist.
Fans said that the tension was obvious leading to Farrell's fist flying.
In videos circulated, Farrell fiercely grunts at the audience, before going up to Navarro who was engrossed in his solo.
Farrell then aggressively bumps into Navarro who stops playing and reaches out to hold Farrell off.
The singer punches Navarro as the lights are lowered and three men including bassist Eric Avery restrain Farrell, and forcibly take him offstage.
The band, including Navarro, then take to the front of the stage calmly hugging each other and acknowledging the audience who applauded.
The altercation immediately blew up on social media, with no shortage of jokes — including countless Oasis comparisons — along with more serious concerns expressed for the well-being of the band members involved reported Variety.
“Jane’s Addiction broke up before Oasis omg,” came a typical tweet, from the user @Tribecalledflex.
Press representatives for Jane’s Addiction and the tour promoter, Live Nation, could not immediately be reached for comment after the show.
Ironically, the singer himself had halted a beef at the band’s second New York show recently.
“Farrell actually stopped the latter tune after he spotted a fight in the audience,” JamBase reported. “Farrell had a fan named ‘Bobby’ make up with the crowd member he was feuding with.”
A review of the band’s Tampa show earlier this month in Creative Loafing may have offered a hint of where some tension between Farrell and Navarro lies.
“Farrell launched into many nonsensical rants about cow pastures, mushrooms, surfing, living in Florida, and arguing with his brother about politics, among other undecipherable comments” it said, adding he was also “chugging from a full bottle of wine throughout the performance. ... At one point, during one of his ramblings, Navarro deliberately cranked out a loud, piercing chord on his guitar, as almost to silence Farrell and get the show back on track.”
Jane’s Addiction’s first tour in 15 years is a co-headlining one, with another beloved Ninetiesgroup, Love & Rockets, sharing the bill.
Friday night’s fateful Boston marked about 20 dates into the groups’ dual tour itinerary, with 15 left to go.
Meanwhile, Farrell's wife, Etty Lau, took to Instagram to share her husband's side of the story and her account of what happened.
She said that there had been “tension and animosity between the bandmembers”, but felt that it was 'the magic that made the band so dynamic.”
Lau said her husband reached breaking point on Friday night after being heckled by fans who couldn't hear him.
“When the audience in the first row, started complaining up to Perry cussing at him that the band was planning too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it,' said Lau, a former original member of the Pussycat Dolls when it was a dance troupe.
“He wasn’t singing, he was screaming just be to be heard.”
Fans said tensions began rising during Mountain Song, and by the time they got to Ocean Size three song's later, Farrell was seething.
“The band started the song Ocean before Perry was ready and did the count off,” Lau said.
“The stage volume was so loud at that point, that Perry couldn’t hear pass the boom and the vibration of the instruments and by the end of the song, he wasn’t singing, he was screaming just be to be heard.”
She took a jab as bassist Eric Avery who was was the winner of the altercation.
“While Dave (Navarro) was keeping Perry at arm’s length to de-escalate the situation, Dan (Cleary, a band technician) rushed over to de-escalate as well by holding Perry back,” Lau wrote.
“Dave walked away to take his guitar off. Eric walked up to Perry, upstage, in the dark, behind Dan, put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times.”
Lau said Avery had to be “pulled away”, before the bassist “nonchalantly walked off to the front of the stage to apologize to audience for the show ended early”.
“He finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried,' she said, concluding that Avery “didn’t understand what de-escalation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry”.
