Perry Farrell Reminds Us Why He's The Ringleader Of Lollapalooza
By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 6, 2012 9:00PM
After a long day of Lollapalooza-ing, we took our sore feet north to the Aragon Ballroom for the Jane's Addiction afterparty with Franz Ferdinand, and Ume Saturday night. Unfortunately due to the schedule changes from the evacuation, we missed Ume, but we got to our spots just in time for Franz Ferdinand to take the stage.
It's been years since we've thought about Franz Ferdinand and now we regret that. Wow. They knocked our socks off. They kicked off their set with "Jacqueline," and we could tell already this was going to be solid. Then they took it up a notch with "Michael," which was an old favorite we'll be resurrecting. Alex Kapranos is a hypnotizing frontman. He even does that thing where he jiggles one leg while the other stays still. I love that. He got some decent air jumping during "Take Me Out," too.
The highpoint of the set came toward the end during "Ulysses," when the band launched into a... well, can you call it a "drum solo" when four people are all pounding on the same drum kit? They powered forward into "This Fire" to close the set, and we just sat there in awe.
As my companion pointed out, it has to take a lot of energy to do two sets, just hours apart. The band's Lollapalooza set was pushed back to 7:30 p.m. due to the rain. I stopped by that set for the first two songs, and they were really good, but I wanted to save the show for the afterparty—I regret that now because I could watch that show twice a day for a week and never get bored with it.
Jane's Addiction took the stage to Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine," and Perry Farrell reminded us why he's the ringleader of Lollapalooza. The Aragon was littered with performance artists and decorated with fun house mirrors for a bit of a circus theme. The stage had an elaborate set-up, including girls on swings with long flowing skirts, and they kicked it off with "Underground."
Farrell pulled out all the stops, as he shimmied and sashayed and moved his hips in ways that would make Elvis blush. He elaborately introduced nearly every song, like kicking off "Just Because," by saying, "You know why we came here? We came here just because!"
I was really into the set at first, but then during "Ted, just admit it," a series of bondage torture porn videos played on the video screens. It was distracting, unnecessary shock value. Sure, the screens had featured plenty of disturbing images, including a man stabbing dolls, but I don't enjoy seeing half-naked women writhing in pain. Sure, the song is about serial killer Ted Bundy, and the chorus is "Sex is violent," but it threw me off, and I don't see the reason for it. Farrell is entertaining enough without trying to one-up himself on shock value.
The powerful set only slowed once for a nice, relaxing singalong of "Jane Says" on a corner of the stage. They brought out Porno for Pyros guitarist Peter DiStefano for "Cursed Female," as a little bonus surprise near the end of the set. They closed out with "Summertime Rolls," a proper end to end a long, exhausting August day.