Jane's Addiction Close Lollapalooza With Help From Joe Perry

Posted on Aug 10th 2009 10:00AM by John D. Luerssen
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Beginning their set with a helicopter flyover, Jane's Addiction returned to Lollapalooza at Chicago's Grant Park on Sunday night with frontman and Lolla co-founder Perry Farrell closing out this year's festival on an emotional high. Headlining the fest for the first time since 1991, Jane's rocked through a set of classics, making drummer Stephen Perkins' staph infection, which threatened to cancel their set, seem like a non-issue.

The highlight of the set was the finale. After jokingly threatening to end their set early, the band returned for a second encore with Aerosmith's Joe Perry and their families joining them on stage. Perry, in town after his band's tour was put on hold after Steven Tyler fell off a stage and broke his shoulder, performed 'Jane Says' with the band, which Farrell ended by screaming "We did it!" to the crowd and telling them "Don't go to bed. Stay out late. Live to tell about it. Have children and a raise them the way you lived."

Of course, Farrell did his damnedest to make it an unforgettable weekend, beginning on Friday afternoon, when he unexpectedly teamed with country star LeAnn Rimes to perform duets of the Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks classic 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around' and the Beatles' 'Here Comes the Sun' on the Kidzapalooza stage.
The latter song was wishful thinking during that first day, which was marred by downpours that ultimately led to mud before Saturday's humidity and overcast skies and Sunday's brutal heat dried things out. Proven headliners like Kings of Leon, Depeche Mode, Tool and the Killers helped attract 225,000 visitors to the event over three days, but it was a stellar set by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- pinch-hitting for the Beastie Boys -- that had the biggest impact. ""We're not even supposed to be here," frontwoman Karen O told the crowd. "We'd never expected to fill the shoes of the f---ing Beastie Boys." Just as Jay-Z did at All Points West, the YYYs paid tribute to the Beasties by throwing in a few lines of 'So What'cha Want' during the tail end of 'Phenomena.'

Acts like the Decemberists -- who played their recent rock opera 'The Hazards of Love' in its entirety and covered Heart's 'Crazy on You' -- and Band of Horses bookended the weekend by rolling more than they rocked, but rising stars the Gaslight Anthem roared through an ill-placed mid-afternoon set on Friday, while the Kaiser Chiefs and the Airborne Toxic Event tore it up in the blistering Sunday sun. Many fans had to be frustrated by the dueling stages at different ends of the park, giving them the tough decision of whether to stick around for Lou Reed's set of classic songs and deep cuts or to head over to Snoop Dogg's party.

Early risers with three-day passes were treated to some of Lollapalooza's best kept secrets, including UK buzz band Glasvegas and Norway's Ida Maria, who could be seen writhing around on the stage, showing off her undergarments. If memorable afternoon sets by Vampire Weeked and Coheed and Cambria asserted the diversity of the acts in tow, a politically charged set by Rise Against likely probed the most thought. Unfortunately the most talked about performance of Lollapalooza 2009, by Them Crooked Vultures, didn't even happen inside the park.

That gig, by the supergroup that counts Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin's bassist John Paul Jones, occurred before just 1,100 attendees early Monday morning at the Metro. Them Crooked Vultures took the stage at midnight, plowing through new songs like 'Dead End Friends' and 'Daffodils' from their forthcoming debut album, 'Never Deserved the Future', putting the cap on one of Chicago's most extraordinary musical weekends ever.