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SXSW review: Jane’s Addiction at Playboy and C3’s Rock the Rabbit
Shows at SXSW always feature people standing around, trying to talk or text their way in and trying to get a peek inside to see what they were missing. But no amount of jockeying or calling in of favors was going to get you into C3 and Playboy’s “Rock the Rabbit” show at the old Safeway last night on the I-35 feeder road. This party is invite only, and many who got in were not even allowed a +1.
While the lineup was somewhat secretive, most everyone knew that they were descending on the venue to see the long-awaited reunion of Jane’s Addiction. And what better place for a gathering of rock’s burlesque bacchanalians than a seedy abandoned grocery store (eerily reminiscent of the set of “Been Caught Stealing”), but with cooler lighting.
After a 17-year hiatus, the band’s original lineup got back together last year at the U.S. NME awards, after bassist Eric Avery decided to sign back on. They’ve played a few shows this year in preparation for a run of shows with Nine Inch Nails, but Thursday night at the Rabbit was the band’s official jumping off point, and from the first sinister notes of “Three Days,” it was obvious the band was razor sharp, those 17 years of rust falling off like so many Dave Navarro shirts over the years.
The crowd, which had been building in anticipation, lingering to the side of the concrete dance floor made slick by spilled booze and seemingly hesitant to pop the cork on the party, finally burst at the seems when the alt sex rock icons who oozed more sensuality than the Bunnies walking the room began attacking a set that featured one big, ballsy hit after another.
Farrell was in his usual form. Donned in white undershirt and neckerchief, he looked like an absinthe-soaked Parisian poet hell-bent on setting the world aflame with his fierce singing and overtly sexual charisma.
Despite his long absence from the band Avery did not miss a beat, synching up with drummer Stephen Perkins to lay down a thunderous groove, the rhythm section mates exchanging smiles and looking thrilled to be back on stage with Navarro and Farrell. As Farrell preened, Navarro shredded his guitar, blazing through one legendary solo after another in a 45-minute set list that felt like a fever dream and included “Standing in the Shower … Thinking,” a rendition of “Ocean Size” that felt like it could be heard atop the UT Tower before, and a high-speed L.A. car chase “Stop!” that ended the set.
Farrell romanced the crowd at one point before “Mountain Song,” saying, “Austin, we’ve been waiting for you. We’ve been dreaming about you.” Indeed they had. They were ready and came out with all guns blazing, and for an hour, a dingy old supermarket was transported back to 1991.
Photos: C3’s Rock the Rabbit party
Image from James Trevenen
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