Jane’s Addiction’s 1988 album Nothing’s Shocking crashed into the waning days of the Reagan era like the sturm und drang intro to opening track “Up the Beach.” Music scenes had been highly factionalized throughout the ’80s, but the initial club and small venue tour in support of Nothing’s Shocking brought together goths, punks, metal heads, college rockers and other musical misfits into a mélange that would grow massive and morph into the alternative rock audience.
Now the album is part of music history, which the band is celebrating with three 25th anniversary shows at Brooklyn Bowl. It’s “a final celebration” of the album’s 25th anniversary, which almost never happened in the first place due to lead singer Perry Farrell’s publishing-deal demands on the rest of the band, according to biographer Brendan Mullen. Luckily the band’s label, Warner Bros., intervened, and songs such as “Ocean Size,” “Summertime Rolls” and “Ted, Just Admit It” were injected into the musical landscape. “Jane Says,” a portrait of a lost-soul junkie scenester, defied compositional conventions of the time with its sing-song lyrics, single acoustic riff and marimba-flavored ambience.
While the controversies behind Nothing’s Shocking—the album cover features a nude sculpture of Farrell’s girlfriend at the time—are largely forgotten, appreciation for the songs remains the same.
Brooklyn Bowl at The Linq, 9 p.m. May 8-10, starting at $65 plus tax and fee. 702.862.2695
