Jane’s Addiction accepts Sunset Strip Music Festival honors, surprises HOB crowd with two-song set

Kevin Bronson on
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Janes Addiction 13

You didn’t expect a ceremony honoring Jane’s Addiction to be prim and proper, did you?

Friday night’s lovefest for the iconic Los Angeles quartet at the House of Blues threatened to go off the rails early and often, but in the end this year’s Sunset Strip Music Festival honorees saved the day as they always have, by rocking out. Their two-song surprise set gripped a chatty crowd buzzed on free Jack-and-gingers and sent everybody into the night anticipating Jane’s Addiction’s headlining set at today’s SSMF, where they will perform their 1988 debut “Nothing’s Shocking” in its entirety.

So happy Jane’s Addiction Day.

That was the official proclamation presented by West Hollywood politicos Friday night after an enthusiastic introduction by KROQ DJ Ted Stryker. Shortly thereafter, the FM outlet’s institution Rodney Bingenheimer was busy recalling Jane’s first gig on Oct. 24, 1985, at the Roxy when Perry Farrell himself appeared onstage to steal the mic, and hence the show. “Tonight,” Farrell said of the accolades, “I feel like we earned it.”

“It” would be this year’s Elmer Valentine Award, named for the co-founder of the Whisky A Go-Go and the Roxy, which counts Slash, Motley Crue, the Doors and Joan Jett among past winners.

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk also gave testimony, saying he and his comrades bonded over Jane’s Addiction “at a time pop music was really shitty … Well, I guess it still is.” A video expounded the virtues of the band’s career. Whisky A Go Go and Rainbow Room Bar and Grill* owner Mario Maglieri appeared, ostensibly to introduce the band, except he blanked on their names. And finally, mercifully, Farrell asked the band whose gear was at the ready for the post-ceremony show for a favor: “Hey, Dead Sara, is it OK if we use your equipment for 10 minutes?”

Farrell told an anecdote about his waiting tables on the Strip in the early ’80s while guitarist Dave Navarro figured out the rig, and then the band did “Mountain Song” and “Ain’t No Right” to wild cheers.

Dead Sara had the unenviable task of following, and the quartet, one of precious few L.A. hard-rockers worthy of assuming what’s left of any Sunset Strip mantle, gamely covered “Jane Says.” And perhaps the most lucid and heartfelt moment of the night came when Will Love, frontman of criminally underrated rockers Sabrosa Purr, gave his own testimony and followed with a solo rendition of “I Would for You.”

Noticeably absent was any mention of Jane’s founding bassist Eric Avery.

* corrected, thank you