Jane's Addiction - A Cabinet of Curiosities

Rating:

* * *

Despite their freakish tendencies, Jane's Addiction were one of the most powerful and inventive bands during the heyday of alternative music in the late 80s and early 90s. Although, to be fair to guitarist Dave Navarro, bass player Eric Avery, and powerhouse metranome Stephen Perkins, the eccentric side of this parochial Los Angeles band was almost single-handedly upheld by flighty yet formidable frontman Perry Farrell.

This box set - made up of demos, live, and unreleased tracks on three CDs, a DVD, and a booklet - comes out at a time when the band have reunited for the third time since first splitting up in 1991 after just two, albeit classic albums -

Nothing's Shocking

(1988) and

Ritual de lo Habitual

(1990). They are currently on tour with Nine Inch Nails and play Australia's Splendour In the Grass in July so fingers crossed they come here.

The first disc of demos is interesting, but the half-baked versions of what would become some of alternative music's most potent anthems don't cut it. The second, of even more curious curiosities, like the wigged-out cover of Sly Stone's

Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey

with rapper Ice T, is novel. So it's best to head straight for the live disc, a trip through the band's best songs recorded live in LA in 1990, and the DVD with live footage, music videos (including the fruity shoplifting spree of

Been Caught Stealing

), and the short film Soul Kiss (with a great scene where Farrell and girlfriend let off a skyrocket in his bedroom).

Besides all the hits (the lovely

Jane Says

and

Been Caught Stealing

being the biggest), and raucous live favourites like the spiralling thrash of

Stop!

, the two songs that stand out most 20 years on are the momumental avalanche of

Mountain Song

and the towering 12-minute live version of

Three Days

. While these sorts of releases are for avid fans - more like a souvenir than something you play regularly - it captures the raging and adventurous power of the band's live show and how unique their brand of rock'n'roll was.

Still, it has to be said, while Jane's Addiction were innovative and wild their main downfall was a lack of output which is the thing that keeps them from being one of the true great bands.

Cabinet

is a must for fans and worth getting for the live album alone. But for the more casual Jane's Addiction addict you can't really go past the band's two classics: go get

Nothing's Shocking

and

Ritual De Lo Habitual

today.

Scott Kara