Concert review by Mark Peterson

January 17th, 2003, Auckland, BDO Festival

Last Friday afternoon Janes Addicition played the Big Day Out festival that travels through Australia and New Zealand. Once I heard that they would be playing the bill (along with the deftones who were mentioned in the same announcement) my mind was made up. After all, I didnt get into Janes until after they had split up and as far as I was concerned I would never actually get to see them play live, and had made do instead with porno for pyros coming down here to play the same festival many years earlier as well as catching dave play for the chilis back in 95.

So I was most happy to find myself standing at the front barrier with my younger brother and to have quite the happy buzz after watching the deftones slay and queens of the stone age battle sound problems to kick ass as well. 30 000 bodies lay behind us, and after a litle bit of waiting, 4 great men stood in front of us. Stephen Perkins came out first, soon followed by Dave and the new bass player (sorry cant remember his name, chris I think?) and not long after, Perry came out dressed in full on country and western gear, quite possibly the only man in the history of rock who can actually get away with it.

They all took their positions and then flew straight into their first song 'stop!' From here on it became less about the music and all about the show. The music itself was simply amazing, it was just like listening to the album, Perry changed his vocal timing a little, Dave added a touch or two to his guitar work, but the band were on fire. In no particular order they played:

stop!, aint no right, up the beach, ocean size, had a dad, ted just admit it (highlight for me... just amazing), summertime rolls (not far behind ted...), mountain song, two new ones, one of which was called (I'm guessing here) the price I play, and they finished with a wonderful little acoustic performance of jane says, the whole stadium drowning out the four of them up there as everyone sung along. But the best part for me was just to watch the whole band just feed off of each other. Dave Navarro was amazing, so much the rock star with his poses and dress, butt he man backs it up with amazing guitar work. Perry worked the crowd and spent time singing with the remaining band members, shaking and gyrating in front of them, the bass player did his stuff, it must be hard to fit into a group thats been around for nearly 20 years, but he did his bits just right. And Stephen Perkins was his usual powerhouse self behind the drums.

After they went off I couldnt move..I was just standing there in awe, most everyone else had rushed to the other stage to see the foo fighters close the night off, but my night was already over, nothing could top the performance I had just seen. Janes Addicition put on a show, and showed everyone how to do it, and they genuinely seemed happy throughout, they were loving it. And what was great for me was afterwards I managed to catch Perry making his way from the stage and due to some prior thinking on my behalf had my Nothing's Shocking CD booklet and a pen ready for him to sign, which he happily did so, then shook my hand. Truley a wonderful man, in a wonderful band, and the highlight of my concert going life.

- thanx for sharing this, Mark! -