Ritual De Lo Habitual Tour Nov 19, 1990 (33 years ago) Tower Theater Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, United States
Philadelphia Daily News (PA) November 21, 1990 JANE'S ADDICTION A BAD TRIP FOR FANS, PROMOTERS Author: Jonathan Takiff, Daily News Staff Writer
Concert-goers agitated over Jane's Addiction's unsatisfyingly short, and sometimes obnoxious, Tower Theater performance Monday night can take some revenge.
Electric Factory Concerts yesterday announced it would offer a partial, $5 refund from the $15.50 ticket price to attendees of the Jane's Addiction performance - with the monies presumably coming out of the group's hide. Ticket stubs should be sent with a self-addressed stamped envelope to Electric Factory Concerts, 1231 Vine St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106.
Show attendees were so ticked off at the psychedelic metal posers' curtailed 51-minute performance on Monday that they blocked traffic, then rocked the group's tour bus and pelted it with bottles and stones outside the Tower at 69th and Ludlow streets. Many epithets also were chanted, including the group's name minus the last syllable.
Before the ruckus was over, the rock (and roll) wary Upper Darby police - with reinforcments called in from other suburbs and Philadelphia - had arrested 22 adults and one minor on charges of creating a disturbance. Two people needed medical treatment, one a Philadelphia officer who had grappled with an irate concertgoer.
Most of the problems Monday night seemed to be in the addled brain of Jane's Addiction's front man Perry Farrell, a controversial figure who has patterned his life in the wretched-excess vein of The Doors' late singer, Jim Morrison. Farrell, who has been threatening to leave the group because the music is no longer "spontaneous," took a fast dislike to the makeup of the Tower audience and their unwillingness to storm the stage. Actually, Tower guards prevent fans from congregating in front of the stage.
After the first song, Farrell started baiting the crowd, declaring "This is bull - - - -." He was also heard to proclaim "I don't owe you anything," and "you're all white . . . you can't dance" and "I bet you think this is loud."
As ever, the group performed their intense, sludge-like music in the near- dark, bathed mostly in fog-like smoke. It took several minutes for the audience to even realize that the band had left the stage, only 51 minutes after they first appeared, and that they had no intention of returning - despite the fact they hadn't performed their most popular songs, "Jane Says," "Stop" and their current MTV breakout track, "Been Caught Stealing." The last song can be blamed for bringing out some of those well- scrubbed suburban youth that so ticked off Farrell - as well as the group's old original hardcore and speed-metal devotees.
Not everyone in the crowd felt shortchanged. "Almost every rock band does the obligatory encores; they're written into the set list," observed veteran showgoer Tom Sheehy. "Jane's Addiction was just being honest. They decided we sucked or they sucked or both. And we can blame Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead for conditioning people to expect marathon shows, to judge their music quantitatively instead of qualitatively. One of the best bands I've ever seen only played for 29 minutes - The Beatles. Another was Jane's Addiction. There were moments Monday when they were on fire."
Uploaded by Dominic Bucci
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You could tell something was going to happen that night. Crazy 🤪
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