Whispers leaking out from the Los Angeles underground have been growing. There is something happening there, a sense that things are about to explode. You can hear it in the media, in the hype, in the migration towards this sprawling celebrity of the West coast. New York has had it for so long, the cool, the attention, and the credibility. Sure, the Midwest has its burgeoning alternative scene driven by The Replacements and Hüsker Dü, the South still has its ‘southern rock’ and good ol’ boys (and no doubt always will). But not since the flower-power of the ‘60’s has California had a share of attention to match its audience (Black Flag, The Descendants, [tragically curtailed] Minutemen and the rest of the So-Cal punk scene are hardly chart-worriers). Even then it was rarely the City of Angels. New York  has always been where it's at. Yet now, something is fermenting, you can almost feel L.A. tensing in readiness. It has the aggression, the power, the lifestyle, it has the extravagance, the flamboyance, the fashion and the heat. Whether you’re a poser or an outlaw, L.A.’s got it going on, and hard rock is the soundtrack.

A wind of change is blowing, carrying snatches of sentences, descriptors like powerful, seductive, dangerous and corrupting used for this new sound. While relevant for the scene’s precursors in Ratt, Mötley Crüe and Van Halen, their glam wasn’t truly ‘hard’ when compared to the thrash of Slayer et al, and the adjectives more apt to their effect on groupies. Now, a new breed is stirring with an ‘alternative’ sound, and bands like Fishbone, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Faith No More and fIREHOSE are attracting critical, commercial and public attention – but don’t be surprised if Jane’s Addiction are soon leading this pack as they storm out of L.A. and into the mainstream. Existing at an incongruous apex, with snatches of hard rock battling an art-school aesthetic, Jane’s Addiction mix heavy metal, punk, psychedelic rock and a dash of Latin rhythm to create a mystifying whole. And finally it has been captured for the masses on Jane’s Addiction, a live album (and their debut), recorded at Sunset Strip’s seminal Roxy Theatre earlier this year. Made up of singer Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and percussionist Stephen Perkins, Jane's Addiction have been making a formidable name for themselves in the clubs of L.A. since their formation in ‘85.

Whether it says anything about a band willing to release a live album as their debut, with all the lack of production and studio sheen that that entails, it does take guts to do it. Especially when it is a full length LP, showcasing eight original tracks and two covers. Even those other hard-rock misfits, Guns ‘n’ Roses, only released an four-track EP (two covers), last year's nonetheless ominous Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide . In fact, a buzz band releasing a debut live album can mean only one of two things: that it is a purely cynical exercise designed to capitalise on the hype they are receiving before they have had a chance to record a full album’s worth of material in a studio (unlikely given the eight original tracks here), or; they have balls the size of grapefruit and confidence to match. That it is not even a compilation of live performances, but a one-night recording is mind-boggling.

Performing together now for almost two years, the band are a tight unit. Their competence and cohesion is extremely important to Jane’s Addiction, as Farrell’s voice is prone to wander, and is rarely strong enough to carry a song on its own; his vocals lack body and projection, which he hides with a clipped and strained high-pitch delivery. The band’s control over tempo and volume is excellent, allowing opening track ‘Trip Away’ to run free, then squirm and writhe as it is restrained before bursting again as Farrell’s rat-a-tat delivery camouflages his range deficiencies. ‘Whores’ and ‘Pigs In Zen’ explore darker, and more abstract material, along with heavier Led Zeppelin style riffs. The former in particular is a defiant stream of statements “Way down low where the streets are littered/I find my fun with the freaks and the niggers” and “I love them whores they never judge you/What can you say when you’re a whore?”. Although possible to construe as an attack, it is more an association, a shout-out to their neighbours. This is Sunset Strip, a seedy, dirty, graceless place, and Jane’s are at home. Again, Farrell is a highlight, strutting and enticing, he is a charismatic front man even from the speakers of a stereo. Softening things up a bit, ‘Jane Says’ features Navarro playing a Latin-influenced melodic backing riff supplemented with a bongo beat, although in essence all simply a stage for Farrell’s singing. A heartbreaking ode about the eponymous Jane’s attempts to kick her drug habit, Farrell’s pure charisma lifts the song to levels far beyond the range of his vocals, which for all their exhortation, suit the track’s frustration perfectly: “She takes a swing man/She can’t hit!/She don’t mean no harm/She just don’t know what else to do about it”. A brilliant piece of music, storytelling and restraint.

While the performance of covers is nothing new, the decision to include a couple on a debut album is certainly a considered decision. The bands selected to cover, and which songs, have not been chosen on a whim, Jane’s Addiction knowing prior that this performance would comprise their debut album. That the selection of ‘Rock and Roll’ and ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ feels entirely natural is a huge compliment to the band. In particular, The Velvet Underground’s 1970 pop-rock tune is completely inhabited by Jane’s, Farrell making the lyrics his own, to the extent of singing “One fine mornin’ she puts on an L.A. station”. The songs seems otherwise designed to showcase Navarro’s riffing skills, demonstrating classic guitar chops in the background, particularly recalling Clapton. The Stones’ classic leans closer to straight-out cover territory, although the song’s trademark bongos make it hard to sound like anything else. Again, Navarro has free reign over the classic solo and doesn’t miss a step. While focusing on the cover performances, in reality they prove Jane’s potential. A band can sound tight on their own tracks, or be let down by poor material. But to control, embody and even own such proven quality as this show a band entirely confident in their abilities.

While a live album is never going to be the perfect forum to judge a band’s material – making it such a confident decision – due to its inherent failings, lacking both a studio album’s production and a live show’s sum performance, Jane’s Addiction shows enough signs to suggest that their debut album could be electric. For now, this is a competent enough collection of interesting songs and interesting music, far from perfect, but portentous enough to be worth the purchase. They don’t sound like anyone else, but there could soon be plenty sounding like Jane’s Addiction.