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Rock band Jane’s Addiction have released a statement after their show in Boston ended abruptly halfway through, due to a fight between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro.
At the Leader Bank Pavilion on Friday (13 September), Farrell reportedly shouted at Navarro during the ninth track of the set, “Mountain Song”, with tensions building further as the gig continued.
Then, as the band were performing their 1988 song “Ocean Size”, video footage showed Perry appearing to bark at Navarro before walking over to him and aggressively shoving him with his shoulder.
As Navarro spoke to him and put his hand on Perry’s chest to try and keep him away, the singer then appeared to take a swing at him with his fist before being tackled by crew members and pushed off the stage.
The gig was cancelled not long after.
A statement shared to the band’s Instagram Stories said: “We want to extend a heartfelt apology to our fans for the events that unfolded last night.
“As a result we will be cancelling tomorrow night’s [Sunday 15 September] show in Bridgeport. Refunds will be issued at your point of purchase, or if you purchased via a third-party reseller (StubHub, SeatGeek etc) reach out to them directly.”
On Saturday (14 September), Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell, claimed that the altercation between him and Navarro occurred after mounting tension during the tour over issues with sound.
“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,” she wrote on Instagram.
Etty Farrell claimed that Farrell “lost it” after the audience in the first row began complaining to him that the band was too loud and they couldn’t hear him, at which point he turned on Navarro.
She claimed that, after Farrell took a swing at Navarro, bassist Eric Avery put her husband in a “headlock and punched him in the stomach three times”.
“Eric, well he either didn’t understand what descalation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry,” she wrote.
“Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour... he finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried.”
A review of the band’s earlier show in Tampa, Florida, hinted at brewing tensions between Farrell and Navarro.
“Farrell launched into many nonsensical rants about cow pastures, mushrooms, surfing, living in Florida, and arguing with his brother about politics,” while “chugging from a full bottle of wine throughout the performance,” Creative Loafing reported.
“At one point, during one of his ramblings, Navarro deliberately cranked out a loud, piercing chord on his guitar, as almost to silence Farrell and get the show back on track.”
Perry had also expressed frustration over apparent vocal issues at the first of the band’s two New York shows, confessing: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have to be honest with you. Something’s wrong with my voice. I just can’t get the notes out all of a sudden.”
Jane’s Addiction’s representatives did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
