It’s unclear what Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro will do in the longterm after being sworn at and slugged onstage in Boston by vocalist Perry Farrell, but he’s clearly not happy about it. And the situation appears dire.
In a cryptic Instagram message, Navarro posted a black and white image of him sitting on a chair holding an acoustic guitar to his stomach, the back of which features a sticker with the band’s name. Accompanying the image is a single word: “Goodnight.” In all likelihood, the post is a farewell message to fans. Following the September 13 incident, Jane’s Addiction canceled their next concert. “We want to extend a heartfelt apology to our fans for the events that unfolded last night,” said the band in a statement. “As a result, we will be cancelling tomorrow night’s [Sunday 15 September] show in Bridgeport, Connecticut.”
They didn’t stop there. Since the statement, the band’s official website has been updated to indicate the rest of the band’s North American tour has been canceled. “Unfortunately, the Event Organizer has had to cancel your event,” reads a message from Ticketmaster. “You don’t need to do a thing. We’ll issue a refund to the original method of payment used at time of purchase, as soon as funds are received from the Event Organizer. It should appear on your account within 14-21 days. Please Note: If the tickets were transferred to you, the refund will go to the fan who originally purchased the tickets from Ticketmaster. Please see our Purchase Policy for more information.”
Farrell has remained mum about the state of the band and the brief stage scuffle that might mean the final blow for Jane’s Addiction. But his wife Etty Lau Farrell took to Instagram to stand by her man. At the same time, she praised Navarro for the way he dealt with the blow. “Dave still looked handsome and cool in the middle of a fight. Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour — he finally did not calm down, but did break down and cried and cried.”
She added that bassist Eric Avery was far less interested in diffusing the situation, and after one of the band’s crew members held Farrell away from Navarro, Avery took several shots at Farrell. “Dan rushed over to de-escalate as well by holding Perry back,” she wrote. “Dave walked away to take his guitar off. Eric walked up to Perry, upstage, in the dark, behind Dan, put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times. Kevin, crew member with long hair, pulled Eric away. Then Eric nonchalant walked off to the front of the stage to apologize to audience for the show end(ing) early.”
Fan-filmed video footage depicts Farrell grunting into the mic while Navarro solos, in what appears to be an innocuous call-and-response. Without warning, Farrell screams in Navarro’s face and shouts, “Fuck you!” Then, he bodychecks the guitarist. Navarro extends an arm to keep Farrell from getting closer, but the vocalist steps in and punches Navarro, who appears uninjured. The two band members were then separated.
In her post Etty Lau describes events that led up to Farrell losing his temper. She blames the rest of the band for playing too loudly for husband to sing properly and says their refusal to turn down had caused Farrell tinnitus and sore thorat.
“Perry’s frustration had been mounting, night after night; he felt that the stage volume had been extremely loud and his voice was being drowned out by the band. Perry had been suffering from tinnitus and a sore throat every night. But when the audience in the first row started complaining up to Perry, cussing at him that the band was planning too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it… Clearly, there had been a lot of tension and animosity between the members… the magic that made the band so dynamic. Well, the dynamite was lit.”
Lau Farrell offered one more tidbit that’s not visible on the video clips. “The band started the song ‘Ocean’ before Perry was ready and did the count-off,” she wrote. “The stage volume was so loud at that point that Perry couldn’t hear pas(t) the boom and the vibration of the instruments and by the end of the song, he wasn’t singing, he was screaming just be to be heard.”
