Perry Farrell's Kind Heaven Orchestra at City Winery

Born in Queens, New York, Peretz Bernstein spent his childhood in Woodmere, Long Island, and as a teenager moved with his family to North Miami Beach, Florida. Following graduation from high school in the early 1980s, he moved to Los Angeles, California. From 1981 to 1985, he was the vocalist for the post-punk band Psi Com, then co-founded Jane's Addiction in 1985, adopting the pseudonym Perry Farrell as a play on the word "peripheral." Jane's Addiction achieved success, split in 1991, and then reunited and split several more times. Following the first break-up of Jane's Addiction, Farrell formed Porno for Pyros in 1992 and recorded two successful albums. After Jane's Addiction second breakup, Farrell released his debut solo album in 1999. After Jane's Addiction's third split, Farrell led the Satellite Party from 2004 to 2008. Farrell released his first solo album in 18 years, Kind Heaven, on June 7, 2019.

Billed as Perry Farrell's Kind Heaven Orchestra, Farrell's nine-piece band was more than a vehicle for his new album. At City Winery tonight, the stage setting and musical arrangements supposedly are a preview of a $90 million Southeast Asia-themed immersive experience Farrell is launching in Las Vegas, Nevada. Where the connections will be made remained to be seen, because the club performance was simply a 90-minute concert, with Farrell singing all nine tracks of his new albums plus a few songs from Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros. The small stage was crowded with singers, dancers, musicians, musical equipment, and white sage-grass silhouettes as stage props, as videos projected on off-stage screens. Farrell used every space afforded him to camp, sway and jive with his band members and the audience. Between songs, the personable and somewhat daffy Farrell improvised song introductions and told meandering tales while swigging house-made wine straight from a bottle. For the most part, the set seemed free-wheeling, as the uneven new music became a backdrop for Farrell's theatrics. The biggest disappointments were that his older songs -- "Pets", "I Would for You", "Tahitian Moon," and "Mountain Song" -- were given a significantly lighter treatment than if they had been performed by his former bands. The show was lively and entertaining, but Farrell, please return to your harder rocking roots.