Jane's Addiction, Garbage, and The Cult Relive Lollapalooza's Early Days at Jack FM Show

Nostalgia is a strange thing, especially if you’re dealing with a youth-based phenomenon that may have lost its cutting-edge appeal over the years. Such was the dilemma facing the acts on the bill Friday at Southern California’s Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre for Jack FM’s 11th Show — which also served as an unofficial 25th anniversary of Lollapalooza, the traveling alternative rock festival founded by Jane’s Addiction’s frontman Perry Farrell.

Like Lollapalooza, this radio festival featured a number of artists — Jane’s Addiction, the Cult, Garbage, Everlast and House of Pain, Violent Femmes, and Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins’s cover band, Chevy Metal.

Unlike Lolla, the lineup wasn’t that diverse, which was kind of strange for a radio station — albeit a commercial one — that prides itself in its eclecticism. Whereas the original Lollapalooza featured punk-ska act Fishbone, rapper Ice-T’s Body Count, and acclaimed black rock band Living Colour, this show was devoid of musicians of color (#BlackMusicMatters), featured only one woman performer (not including the scantily clad dancers employed by Jane’s), and an all-white hip-hop trio. While black artists aren’t the core of Jack’s playlist, the station does play Prince, Michael Jackson, Outkast, and others. Interestingly enough, Jane’s Addiction is touring to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their second album, Ritual de lo Habitual, with Living Colour, whose 1988 hit “Cult of Personality” is certainly in the station’s wheelhouse, but apparently their invites were lost in the mail.

Aside from that issue, Jack’s 11th Show was a great evening of music, offering fans a chance to revisit some old friends whose appeal they may have forgotten about over the years. The six-hour-plus concert mostly worked like clockwork, with a rotating stage that left so little time between acts, fans barely had time to make a food run or use the restroom. (As headliner, Jane’s was given more time and allowed to utilize a full stage setup, which led to the band starting 15 minutes after its announced start time and a few minutes over the venue’s 11 p.m. curfew.)

Although Farrell made reference to Lollapalooza, the show actually seemed more like a wake for Irvine Meadows than a celebration of his traveling tour (which has been a one-weekend annual event in Chicago since 2005). During their sets, both Farrell and Garbage’s Shirley Manson made reference to the demise of the beloved, 35-year-old venue, whose lease expires in 2017. (The grounds will then become the site of a new apartment complex.) Over the years, Irvine Meadows not only played host to the early editions of the touring version of Lollapalooza – including three of the first five Lolla shows in 1991 — but it was also home of Jack FM sister station KROQ’s annual Summer Weenie Roast.

Farrell and company kicked of their set with dancing girls and guns — or at least pyrotechnics — blazing, ripping into “Stop!,” the band’s 1990 modern rock hit. Dressed in a slim-fit, three-piece suit and sparking shoes, Farrell prowled the stage with his hat in his hand, like a ringmaster welcoming the crowd to the circus.

Just before “Ain’t No Right,” the third song on the setlist, Farrell bemoaned the fate of the venue. “Are they really gonna shut this place down?” he asked. “Bummer. I’ve had so many good times here.” The band then launched into the Ritual de Lo Habitual song, anchored by drummer Stephen Perkins’s tribal throb.

Farrell also reminisced about the venue as a lead-in to “Been Caught Stealing,” the band’s biggest hit. “It’s fair to say when I first came here I was a completely different person,” he said. He teased the fans with a “really gross story” that never materialized, but he did confess, “We used to come down here and steal s—.”

Augmented by a keyboardist, the quartet was strong instrumentally, with guitarist Dave Navarro occasionally ripping into flashy leads and bassist Chris Chaney admirably filling the void left by original bassist Eric Avery. In the middle of the set, during “Three Days,” the band stretched out, with Foo Fighter Hawkins joining Avery on his drum kit, Navarro taking the spotlight for a solo, and Farrell getting up-close and personal with his dancer/wife Etty, who sunk to her knees in front of him.

However, a string of meandering, midtempo songs threatened to turn Jane’s set into a Lollapa-snooza, before the band reignited with a blistering version of “Mountain Song.” The band kept the momentum going with “Just Because,” and for “Ted, Just Admit It…,” during which Farrell intoned the words “nothing’s shocking” as two dancers were suspended by the skin of their backs above the stage, writhing and twisting as the band played on.

Set-closer “Jane Says” served as the band’s bittersweet sendoff to the venue, with Navarro switching to acoustic guitar and Avery playing the song’s trademark steel drum.

In a sense, Jane’s had the misfortune of following the Cult, whose frontman Ian Astbury has a much stronger voice than Farrell, and showcased it during the Cult’s hour-long set. Their hair may be shorter, but Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy remain rock stars of the highest order, commanding the stage with charisma and classic guitar poses. In songs like “Lil’ Devil” and “Love Removal Machine,” Duffy threw down the catchiest riffs this side of AC/DC. The band also brought Doors-like drama in “Sweet Soul Sister,” a song that preceded Train’s similarly titled “Hey, Soul Sister” by two decades and carries considerably more weight.

Garbage brought some much-needed girl power to the proceedings, with Shirley Manson once again proving she remains one of rock’s most badass frontwomen. “It’s an honor to be on this bill with all the testosterone-driven manimals,” she noted during the set, in which she upstaged her male counterparts. Sporting pink hair and a black mini-dress, Manson spent much of “#1 Crush” on the floor, singing, “I would die for you” so convincingly, everyone believed it. During Strange Little Birds’ “Even Though Our Love Is Doomed,” which Manson described as a “really depressing new song,” she channeled Beyoncé, shouting repeatedly at the song’s close, “Better call Becky with the good hair.” By the time the band closed its set with “Push It” — not the similarly named Salt-N-Pepa hit, but a Garbage original that lifts the Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby” line — it was clear that Manson owned the stage.

Everlast and House of Pain gave the crowd what it wanted, ending their short set with Everlast’s 1998 solo acoustic smash “What It’s Like,” a cover of the Johnny Cash classic “Folsom Prison Blues” and House of Pain’s monster 1992 hit “Jump Around.” The latter got the crowd out of their seats, but the performance didn’t erupt in the full-scale chaos one might expect, even with the singer/rapper imploring the audience to “get off your Irvine ass.”

Perhaps no other ’80s album captured that decade’s brand of teen angst better than the Violent Femmes’ self-titled 1983 debut. Songs from the album, including the classic opener “Blister in the Sun,” were the highlight of the Milwaukee trio’s set. Although he’s now 53, singer/guitarist Gordon Gano showed he can still conjure up those feelings from his awkward teen years in songs such as “Kiss Off,” which featured co-founder Brian Ritchie manhandling his acoustic bass. Later in the set, Ritchie switched to xylophone for “Gone Daddy Gone,” another cut from the band’s classic debut, which was given new life in 2006 when it was covered by Gnarls Barkley.

In all, Jack FM put on an enjoyable, nostalgic show. When it returns for a 12th, at a new venue, let’s hope it’s a bit more inclusive.