Jane's Addiction's Boston, MA Show Cut Short After Violent Onstage Altercation Between Perry Farrell & Dave Navarro

The reunion of Jane’s Addiction‘s original lineup appears to be unraveling in real-time. Concerns of the mental state of vocalist Perry Farrell on the tour had already become an issue, as evidenced by the band’s September 10th set in New York City, NY. That concert saw Farrell worryingly struggle throughout the night, with fans in attendance left asking for refunds and publicly questioning whether or not Farrell was under the influence of something.

Farrell for his part addressed his condition during that show, stating that he was having issues with his voice. While the band were said to have found their footing during a second show at the same venue a day later, tonight’s (September 13th) show fully went off the rails.

That concert was held at the Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA, and ended abruptly with an extremely agitated Farrell angrily confronting his bandmate guitarist Dave Navarro onstage. Farrell attempted to initiate a physical altercation with Navarro, swinging at him, before being restrained and escorted off the stage by his bandmates, several crew members & security in attendance. That incident occurred roughly 11 songs into the set during “Ocean Size“, with the concert being cut short as a result.

According to fans in attendance, Farrell‘s timing appeared to be off on several songs through the night, something which seemingly led to his bandmates to confront him. It would appear that tensions over the criticisms regarding his performance ultimately boiled over. One concertgoer who attended the show said of the incident via Reddit:

“I was 13th row. Up close view. Show was cruising along nicely until Mountain Song. He [Perry Farrell] seemed with it and on point at the beginning of the show but as the night wore on he seemed to lose focus at times. Dave said something to Perry, I think because he didn’t come in with his vocals on time at the beginning of Mountain Song and it threw Dave off so right before he went to the side of the stage to rip his solo he muttered something to Perry and made a hand motion. Perry stared at him bewilderd and annoyed for a few minutes while Dave shredded.

Then they did Three Days and Perry again was off as far as timing with his vocal parts and Dave was actually talking to Eric at one point while they played and it seemed like it was about what was going on with Perry. Like Dave was trying to direct the band on how to work around what Perry was doing. It almost seemed like at that point Perry was doing it on purpose. Perry completely fucked up the Erotic Jesus part so Dave couldn’t do his power chords because he wasn’t ready and he thought they were building up to it so he came in on the All My Mary’s.

Then they seemed to rush through the jam. I had read that they were doing an extended section, going almost ambient and improvising each night. They didn’t stretch out because it felt like Dave wanted to get through the song. They limped to the finish and then Dave called an audible and pulled out Ocean Size, my guess is because they didn’t do the extended section in Three Days so that was to fill the extra time.

I think that’s what set Perry off finally. He started saying fuck yeah over and over and screamed it at Eric and he laughed and when he turned to Dave and did it Dave wasn’t amused. That’s when Perry kept saying it and got in Dave‘s face and chest bumped him. Then he threw an elbow into Dave‘s chest and then Dave pushed him back and a roadie and Eric and Stephen all wrestled with Perry for a few minutes while Dave just stood center stage stunned. Perry was pissed and it took them a minute to get him off stage and that’s when Dave started waving to the crowd and Eric and Stephen came back and did the same. House lights came on and in all likelihood Jane’s Addiction came to an inglorious end.”

Video footage of the altercation in question between the veteran alternative rockers has surfaced online below. The apparent downward trajectory of this reunion tour has proven to be particularly frustrating for longtime fans of the multi-platinum alternative rockers. This year marked the first time their classic lineup of Farrell, Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and returning bassist Eric Avery have toured together since 2010.

That reunion of that influential lineup was only able to be realized this past spring, as Navarro had been sidelined by a battle with long COVID.

This past July, the group also released their first new single with that classic lineup in 34 years, “Imminent Redemption“.

Given tonight’s incident, the fate of the rest of the tour seems up in the air, though no official announcement has been made. That run has been taking place with Love & Rockets and Crawlers, with the following dates remaining:

09/15 Bridgeport, CT – Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater
09/18 Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
09/20 Rochester Hills, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheater
09/22 Milwaukee, WI – BMO Pavilion
09/24 Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09/26 Indianapolis, IN – Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park
09/28 Huntsville, AL – South Star Music Festival
09/29 St. Louis, MO – Evolution Festival

10/02 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
10/04 Sandy, UT – Sandy Amphitheater
10/08 Seattle, WA – WaMu Theater
10/09 Portland, OR – Veterans Memorial Coliseum
10/11 Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort And Casino
10/13 San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
10/16 Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theater