Jane’s Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins and Mudhoney tours usher in 90s altrock revival
The 90s alternative rock gods who fuelled the Big Day Out moshpit are reigniting their fandom with Australian tours.
It was chasing waves all day and rock star highs all night when Perry Farrell toured Australia in the halcyon alternative rock era of the Big Day Out.
The Jane’s Addiction frontman and co-creator of the equally legendary Lollapalooza festival, first joined Australia’s annual travelling musical circus back in 1996 with his other band Porno For Pyros, alongside rock gods Rage Against The Machine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
“My fondest memory that tour that we did with Rage was I took (frontman) Zack (de la Rocha) surfing at Margaret River and that was a heavy wave, it was that steep. And then going back and performing the shows and Nick Cave was running around backstage with a camera,” Farrell says.
“Me and Peter DiStefano from Pornos were pulling pranks on each other the whole time.”
He would return with Jane’s Addiction to play the Big Day Out in 2003 and the Soundwave festival in 2010 and then Splendour In The Grass the following year.
They return to Australia this week with another 90s rock giant Smashing Pumpkins for their The World Is A Vampire mini-festival tour.
The heroes of the alternative rock scene which transformed the charts and took rock back to the great outdoors as festivals became a rite-of-passage for the grunge generation are back in vogue.
Their profound musical influence is undeniable if you listen to the alternative airwaves and playlists as contemporary rock bands “borrow” the grunge aesthetic of the soft/loud guitar dynamic and a distinctive vocal which pivoted between a screamed growl and a melodic chorus.
The generational refresh of altrock extends to the make-up of the front rows of their concerts. Gen Z commands the mosh upfront while their mums and dads are bending their necks and pumping their fists in the air from a safer distance up the back.
The kids are raiding their parents’ vinyl collections for original pressings of seminal 90s albums from Jane Addiction’s Ritual de lo Habitual, the Pumpkins’ debut Gish, Pearl Jam’s Alive and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger.
And the record which opened the floodgates for grunge’s global takeover remains one of the best selling records of the 2020s. Nirvana’s Nevermind has bounced around the ARIA top 20 vinyl charts for a gobsmacking 215 weeks.
The warm glow of nostalgia for those crazy and dangerous days of explosive moshpits and stage diving, of wailing guitars and deafening feedback, is not only fuelling the back catalogues of its protagonists on streaming and in vinyl stores but a demand to see them play again, often after years of inactivity or disinterest from promoters.
Alongside the joint Smashing Pumpkins and Jane’s Addiction tour, influential Seattle rock stalwarts and another Big Day Out alumnus Mudhoney are also kicking off their first shows here in almost a decade.
Like the Pumpkins, their arrival also coincides with the release of new music with Mudhoney’s 11th studio record, Plastic Eternity.
“At this point, I’m not surprised that we’re still around,” frontman Mark Arm told themusic.com.au
“We’ve all been in bands before, and I think the average lifespan of those bands had been about three years or something … but I don’t think we had expectations to become a commercially lucrative thing that we would dedicate our lives to.
“And we’re still not a commercially lucrative thing, but we’ve dedicated our lives to it anyway!”
The vivid memories of the ferocious on-stage energy which fuelled the moshpits back in the day creates high expectations of these alt rock veterans as they tour into their 50s and 60s.
Farrell, who has survived addiction and injury over the decades, said getting matchfit ahead of hitting the road is mandatory.
“I’m now 64, and in order to be in shape for the stage, you have to work twice as hard as you did when you were 28. I don’t mind because I just want to look great for you all,” he said.
“The physicality of performing on stage is like boxing. It’s almost like you’re a boxer for 15 rounds; each song is basically three minutes so that’s about what a round is.
“And there’s so much energy being pushed around the room and it takes a lot of strength to withstand that and feed it back to the audience.
“I want to be able to perform until the day I die.”
While long hair, crew cuts and dreads may have been the look of 90s altrock, the flamboyant Farrell hints he may debut a very Australian look soon as inspired by his punk rocker son.
“He’s got this super mullet and he’s walking around on stage wearing a pair of kitty panties that he got from his mother on the outside of his pants and cowboy boots. I told him ‘Yeah, man, I like your look,’” the proud father said.
“I think I’m going for a super mullet myself.”
One 90s rock icon tour Australian fans are holding out for is the return of Pearl Jam, who haven’t performed here since 2014 when they headlined the final Big Day Out.
The band’s upcoming Record Store Day release may hint they are ready to renew their acquaintance with their Australian fans when they finished recording their next studio album.
Pearl Jam has unearthed Give Way, the live recording of their concert at Melbourne Park on March 5, 1998 at the start of their Yield world tour, and will share it on April 22, 25 years after they shelved its planned release.
The World Is A Vampire tour opens in Brisbane on April 15 with all show and ticket details via https://www.oneworldentertainment.com.au/the-smashing-pumpkins-twiav
For all Mudhoney tickets, https://pressplaypresents.com/artists/mudhoney/
Originally published as Jane’s Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins and Mudhoney tours usher in 90s altrock revival
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