A few years ago, if you were to compile a list of bands you were never likely to see on a stage again, Jane's Addiction would be jostling near The Beatles and The Clash. But in this era of reformation, how apt that the band who needed to do the most reforming, both in a musical and personal sense, are playing live - and on Halloween, of all nights.
The Academy is suitably decked out in blood red velvet, as the face-painted and leather-attired buzz around in anticipation. The lights go down and one by one the band walks on stage, beginning a slow instrumental. But when Perry Farrell, bedecked in devil's attire, skips impishly onto the stage, there is pandemonium.
It's immediately clear that the cleaned-up Jane's are also a cranked-up proposition live. As a bare-chested Dave Navarro, who looks suitably demonic without the aid of a costume, coaxes those beautifully-arrowed lines out of his guitar, blonde, tanned and unfeasibly (for a musician) healthy-looking bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Stephen Perkins keep the grooves ebbing and flowing.
As ever, though, the star of the show is Farrell. Whether shaking his booty, leaping around the stage in his own peculiar ballet or prodding at the buttons of his vocal effects box front of stage, he is nothing less than captivating.
The classics - 'Stop!', 'Been Caught Stealing', 'Three Days', 'Ocean Size' - are all rolled out to the delight of the majority of the crowd whose faces betray the fact that they were there back in the day. Although that's not to say the new material from comeback album proper 'Strays' goes down badly. In fact, the only damp squib is the band's insistence on playing the pulsing 'Just Because' acoustically. Admittedly, it's the chance for a hearty singalong, but it robs them of a chance to play one of their strongest new songs at maximum volume and definitely prove that this reunion does have creative legs.
All that's forgiven, though, as a titanic 'Mountain Song' finds Farrell atop the monitors, screaming and wriggling his wiry frame like an insect caught in a bottle. And for their final trick, they do a song that was always meant to be heard acoustically, 'Jane Says', complete with Perkins on steel drums and a troupe of lovely ladies in very little clothing that Farrell weaves in and out of like a 21st century Puck.
Though the music ends there, the night, as ever with Jane's, doesn't. The ladies later reappear on the merchandise stand, complete with police helmets and truncheons for some provocative dancing. And Perry does some 'flashmobbing' outside the venue, leading those in the know in a singalong of several Jane's classics. Long may their weird and wonderful world continue to circle the globe.
