Tuesday, Nov. 25, 1997 | 10:47 a.m.
Ethan Miller was lucky to make it out of the pit alive.
The SUN photographer has seen a lot of action, from four-alarm fires to armed skirmishes, but none of that stuff prepared him for the frenzied mob that greeted Jane's Addiction last night at the Aladdin. Over the course of the band's first two songs - killer renditions of "Ocean Size" and "Ain't No Right" - he was hit with a flying chair, nearly crushed to death by the bodies spilling over the barricade ("stacked ten feet tall," he said later) and hit by a shower of stale beer that drenched two of his cameras.
Yet Ethan wasn't upset when I caught up with him. I don't presume to know what's going on inside Miller's head, but he was probably equally impressed with the full-power return of one of the best rock outfits of the 90's. Jane's Addiction is back, and absolutely brilliant.
The band - drummer Stephen Perkins, guitarist Dave Navarro, iconoclastic vocalist Perry Farrell and bassist Flea, moonlighting from the Red Hot Chili Peppers -- played with such a fury and exponential passion that it seemed unthinkable that they ever went away. Say what you will about their records, but on the stage, Jane's Addiction presents the makings of modern folklore. It's up to the ten-foot wall of fans to mix those ingredients into something grand, and mix they do.
Of course, it didn't hurt that the band was tighter than even I expected them to be, firing off their classic songs - "Jane Says," "Summertime Rolls" "Stop!" - with a contagious vigor. They were just as excited to be there as the fans were to have them.
The staging was no less impressive. Dancers climbed all over a series of scaffolds draped with Polynesian knickknacks and giant silk flowers, gyrating to the heavy beats or performing acrobatics that drew delighted gasps from the three-deep sellout crowd. The band matched the dancers' breathtaking show with an unremitting energy of their own - jumping, kic king, even planting impromptu kisses on each other.
An amazing version of "Ted, Just Admit It" ended the set, too soon. It will be interesting to see if this reunion holds - if the notoriously eccentric Farrell is content to remain in a territory he's already conquered. If he is, there's no telling how high Jane's Addiction will fall.
And there's no telling what they'll do to Miller next time out.
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