Of the half-dozen acts that played during Monday night's mega event at Staples Center, perhaps any one of them alone could have filled the arena. But together, those genre-spanning superstars produced a fantastic and unforgettable stage show for the fairly intimate crowd.

Also, there might have been something about a video game.

The invite-only event was put on by Activision Blizzard, the Santa Monica outfit that makes such hit games as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft. Among the first nighttime events for the kickoff of this year's E3 video game expo in Los Angeles, Activision somehow managed to top Microsoft's Project Natal spectacle from the night before, which called upon the ever-mystifying Cirque du Soleil.

How a video game publisher managed to book Staples Center on the eve of the Lakers' crucial Game 6 in the NBA finals was a mystery soon forgotten after things got rolling. Eminem was the apparent headliner of the night, nabbing the longest playtime and the last punch and kick onstage, but it wouldn't be at all fair to call those who preceded him opening acts.

 “This song is called ‘Facebook’,” Wavves frontman Nathan Williams said before tossing off another volley of scrim-soaked surf punk at Origami Vinyl last night. Like most things concerning Wavves, it was tough to tell if Williams was just having a lark.

But on Cinco de Mayo, Wavves’ endearingly bratty turn was one of two different, goofy and ostensibly secret sets across town, the other being a low-capacity turn at Bardot from Jane’s Addiction, who have become L.A.’s house band for these sorts of things.

At 7 p.m., word had thoroughly spread that Wavves, SoCal’s best test case for making compelling rock music by barely deigning to try in the slightest, was up to something. Having recently commandeered the late Jay Reatard’s rhythm section, Williams is making a noble go at taking his band more seriously than he has in recent months. But his Origami set had a welcome faint hint of that old sense that the whole thing might go off the rails. Microphones shorted, songs half-started, many jokes were made at the expense of drummer Billy Hayes’ bleached emo haircut.

To say Wavves’ debut album “Wavvves” sounds like it was recorded in a trash can wouldn’t do justice to the structural integrity of trash cans, but the strong new tunes he unveiled at Origami peeled off the scuzz in favor of a bit more rhythmic swagger and directness. “King of the Beach,” the title track from his forthcoming record, showed an affection for classic California skate-punk, as run through Williams' typical filter of hooky smarm.  Working with producer Dennis Herring seems to have affected his goals even for his live sets – the new tunes have a clarity that “Wavvves” so self-consciously shunned. Whatever you make of Williams giddily abrasive stage presence, it’s getting harder and harder to say his success was an accident.

Onstage at the Avalon during Sunday night's benefit for the Los Angeles Youth Network, comedian George Lopez assured the audience that donations to the homeless-services organization worked promptly. "If you donate tonight, you can save Paula Abdul," Lopez said, to general snickering. "She was sleeping under the 101 last night."

The ex-"American Idol" host might be looking for work these days, but the real goal of the benefit -- a round-robin concert hosted by Slash with a bevy of classic-alt guests including Dave Navarro, Tom Morello, Chester Bennington and Billy Idol -- was to keep the organization's doors open in light of both tough financial straits and a big uptick in the need for its services.

The mix of a purposefully rowdy rock crowd (and open bar) with charitable impulses made for some unexpected moments of earnestness. At a rock-memorabilia auction in the adjoining Bardot nightclub, a young graduate of the program relayed how her life could have been derailed by drugs, prostitution or suicide, but that LAYN helped her pull though. A very blond woman in a clingy white ensemble adjacent to the stage offered encouragement- "But you did not commit suicide, and you are here tonight!"

A man donating $15,000 to fix the organization's roof earned respectful cheers, before he felt a need to clarify his bid to the crowd. "I'll fix the roof. I mean, not personally with a hammer," he said. "But I will pay for someone else to fix it."

Backstage, Slash held court among his assembled band mates, including former Guns N Roses players Duff McKagan and Steven Adler. Together, they know from the trials of youth homelessness -- Slash's self-titled biography offers plenty of firsthand detail on early GNR's world of squats, the temptations of drugs and alcohol, and the band befriending strippers to get cash for meals.

"When I was a kid, no adults knew how bad life was on the streets of Hollywood. Since I've gotten involved with LAYN, I've really related to the kids," Slash said. "They want to write and make music and be trapeze artists. Who else is going to give them a chance to do that?"

Slash came into the program through his wife, Perla, who is on LAYN's board. Introducing the show at the Avalon with her son Cash, she was far afield of a typically austere non-profit director, peppering her pleas for donations with endearingly salty language. She didn't so much as blush when her son chastised the audience -- "If you took a picture of my mom tonight, frickin' delete it!" 

The show opened with an appropriate cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song," with Slash backed by, among others, Navarro and Travis Barker. Throughout the cover-centric night, singers and instrumentalists rotated on and off stage -- one minute, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother was plowing through "Woman," then Idol would earn an unexpectedly rapturous response to "Rebel Yell." Bennington served as the de facto Axl for a take on "Paradise City," and by the time Ozzy Osbourne came out for the set's close, the show had become a perpetually giddy tour through the classic rock heyday by artists who, in the eyes many of the kids they were helping that night, might have to soon claim that genre for themselves. 

-- August Brown

Photo of Slash and host George Lopez, albeit at a recent Lakers game, by Lori Shepler / Associated Press

Los Angeles quartet Jane's Addiction has canceled its upcoming reunion tour in Australia after drummer Stephen Perkins was admitted to Cedar's-Sinai Hospital's Infectious Disease Ward for treatment of an infected elbow.  While the extent of Perkins' ailment is unclear, the band's publicist released this statement:

Jane’s Addiction’s management has confirmed that percussionist Stephen Perkins has been admitted to the Infectious Disease Ward at Cedar’s-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for treatment of an infection in his elbow. Doctors expect to keep him there for the next few days for further diagnosis and observation while anti-biotic treatment continues.

Fans are being asked not to worry as a full recovery is expected over the next few weeks.

The Australian tour was set to kick off on July 25, culminating in a final performance on Aug. 1 in Perth. 

The band's announcement comes soon after the Beastie Boys called off their summer tour and pulled out of its performance at Lollapalooza. Bassist Adam "MCA" Yauch was diagnosed with cancer.

A spokesperson for Jane's Addiction said that the band has no plans to cancel its performance at Lollapalooza in Chicago, which is scheduled Aug. 7-9. A statement from the band quotes Perry Farrell as saying the group will return to Australia "as soon as we can."

-- Brendan Bigelow

Photo credit: Tony Pierce / Los Angeles Times

Jane's Addiction sounded like classic rock that had lost its edge; Nine Inch Nails were as sharp and relevant as ever.

While tens of millions of television viewers watched Kris Allen and Adam Lambert battle for the title of American Idol on Wednesday night, a different kind of showdown was taking place at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, where Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction -- two veterans of the late-'80s/early-'90s alternative-rock boom -- played to a packed house nostalgic for an era when guyliner wasn't quite ready for prime time.

Both acts on the so-called NIN/JA 2009 tour won huge cheers from the audience Wednesday -- not surprising, given Jane's Addiction's Los Angeles home base and the fact that Nine Inch Nails maestro Trent Reznor has said that this will be the band's final run of shows for the foreseeable future.

As on "American Idol," though, only one had anything interesting to say, and it wasn't the group with the headlining slot.

There are a lot of odd places to rock here in Austin, Texas. Last night, Grizzly Bear played in a church, many have been playing on rooftops or in alleyways, but Jane's Addiction may have found the most unique venue: a gutted former Safeway off Interstate 35 as headliners for the Playboy/C3 party.

The 10th annual Late Night Party lived up to its name -- the original members of Jane's Addiction didn't hit the stage (what would have been aisles 6-13) until 1:45 a.m., but once they did it was a trippy, hard rockin' excursion through the quartet's greatest hits.

The pairing of Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction will hit the Los Angeles area May 20 with a date at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. The itinerary was released late Tuesday night on the Nine Inch Nails website, and a "here's what we can tell you" note up top hints that more dates are to come.

An on-sale date has not you been announced, and the dates don't yet appear to be in either the Ticketmaster or Live Nation databases. Thus far, 22 dates have been revealed. The concert, which Trent Reznor threatens will be his last before he "makes NIN disappear for a while," will open May 8 in West Palm Beach, Fla.

There's a May 18 date in Las Vegas for road-trippers, as well as a Friday-night performance tabled for May 22 in Mountain View.

Friends of Pop & Hiss who live in Chicago will see Nine Inch Nails sans Jane's, which will fuel suspicion that Jane's Addiction will appear at this year's edition of the Windy City fest Lollapalooza, which is set for Aug. 7-9.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Trent Reznor Credit: Peter Tym / For The Times

Tour itinerary after the jump.

A small consolation to those not seeing Jane's Addiction at the Echo tonight: It sounds like you'll get another shot to see the original lineup.

But here's the catch: It will probably be on a much bigger stage, and it may be the last time you see Trent Reznor -- at least for a while. Reznor posted today on the official Nine Inch Nails website that he's plotting a major world tour, with Jane's Addiction as a co-headliner.

After the outing, which will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Nine Inch Nails' debut, "Pretty Hate Machine," Reznor writes it will be "time to make NIN disappear for a while." While Reznor doesn't offer too many details as to why the time is ripe for a hiatus, he notes that 2008's "Lights in the Sky" tour was the "culmination of what I could pull off in terms of an elaborate production. It was also quite difficult to pull off technically and physically night after night and left us all a bit dazed."

A proposed tour with Jane's, he writes, would be "much more raw, spontaneous and less scripted." He promises further details soon, and credits Jane's Addiction for giving Nine Inch Nails one of the act's first big breaks.

However, nothing sounds too set in stone, although there have been some Trent/Jane's rumors circulating for a bit now. "I reached out to Jane's to see if they'd want to join us across the US and we all felt it could be a great thing," Reznor writes. Pop & Hiss has requested a comment from the Jane's Addiction camp.

Reznor's announcement to take a hiatus comes as Nine Inch Nails has seemingly been on a creative surge. Last year saw two Web-first releases, the  instrumental "Ghosts I-IV" and the more fierce "The Slip." Both albums saw Reznor not only experimenting in the studio, but also toying with new distribution models.

But expect it to be a while before the break comes -- Nine Inch Nails will be playing the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. Also, here's betting Reznor isn't completely silent during the hiatus. He's spoken in the not too distant past about developing a TV series inspired by 2007's "Year Zero."

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Peter Tym / For The Times

While Jane's Addiction had planned to play a last-minute secret show this past Monday, it appears the band has worked out the kinks and found the perfect-sized venue to once again tease fans this coming Monday. 

This time, however, more than 150 or so will be able to get in. The original lineup of the Los Angeles-bred foursome will play to the JA faithful who sign up at Jane's Addiction's recently re-launched website at the Echo Park club for just $10.  But, alas, there's a catch: They will only take the first 500 or so comers, so the window to get into the gig is basically today for those who sign up.

Eric Avery, the band's bassist, wrote on his blog Wednesday that the show is 18+, and that only the "first 500 folks" would be on some kind of guest list that will enable them to see the intimate gig.  Dave Navarro gave away tickets to the upcoming engagement on his radio show Wednesday evening on the "new" Indie 103.1.com.

Further, Jane's Addiction fan website xiola.org hints that the band, or at least certain members, might be in the studio with Trent Reznor working on new material. Pop & Hiss can't yet confirm this, but it's likely Jane's Addiction is working on writing at least a few new songs. The recent spate of shows in small venues goes beyond nostalgia, leading some to believe the band is perhaps working toward something bigger (a tour, at the very least?).

The band's manager, Peter Katsis, would only confirm today the band is "in the studio" and wouldn't comment on a tour or on the Reznor rumors.  He did confirm Monday's gig and that the forthcoming box set "Cabinet of Curiosities" is on track for a spring debut, although the release date has been pushed back once again, this time to April 28.

UPDATE 02/13: The confirmation email is going out to those who signed up to the website tonight, the band's management said late Friday afternoon. If you don't receive an email by Saturday, chances are you have not been selected as one of the chosen 500 or so to see the band Monday.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo by Kevin Casey / Los Angeles Times

The original lineup of Jane's Addiction is set to play another tiny venue in Los Angeles. Following on the heels of last month's near-impossible to get into engagement at downtown’s La Cita, the band will perform at Silverlake's El Cid this Thursday evening. 

Details are still being worked out, but Dave Navarro wrote on his blog yesterday that “the venue is a bit larger. … Hopefully we can all avoid another fire masrshal [sic] fiasco."   

El Cid is indeed bigger than La Cita, but not by much. Don’t even think about showing up after 8 p.m. and expect to see the band in such an intimate setting. Jane’s Addiction will surely do everything in its power this time around to make sure as many fans as possible get inside. (El Cid, a Spanish restaurant that books mostly local indie rock acts, is not exactly the type of venue impressed by name-droppers at the door). 

The Jane’s Addiction guitarist apologized to fans at 6767.com after the packed La Cita gig, writing "Many of our own friends and family members were unable to attend and it looks as though we are simply going to have to make it up to everybody somehow!"

Looks like the makeup begins Thursday. We're hearing tickets will go for $9 at the door, and that it will be first come, first served, but we have yet to officially confirm that price. Pop & Hiss will update this page with more details as we get them. 

We are also hearing the band is getting along so well, a full tour might be in the works for 2009.

UPDATE: We strongly advise anyone who is planning on going Thursday to listen to Dave Navarro's new radio show, "Dark Matter," for additional information, ticket news or any last minute venue changes. "Dark Matter" airs tonight (Wednesday) at midnight on Indie 103.1.

UPDATE #2: Just drove by El Cid on my way to work, and there are already a few people in line.  But it looks like under 10 so far.   They will certainly be getting inside tonight.

UPDATE #3: See our latest post/mini-review of the Jane's show last night here.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo credit: Edward A. Ornelas / Associated Press

I ran into Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell Monday at Les Deux (it was a scene worthy of "Entourage" -- porn stars "actresses" aplenty were at the packed bar to support alt-porn queen Joanna Angel's newest DVD, "XOXO Joanna Angel"), and had the chance to talk a bit about the Jane's Addiction reformation earlier this year at the NME Awards USA.

To my surprise, Farrell said that Jane's is actually looking to play again locally, and soon. 

Pop & Hiss has confirmed this week that the band is in talks to play a very small bar in Los Angeles sometime this fall.  We won't ruin the surprise of where the show will likely take place, but let's just say that those who get to see the show, if it indeed happens, will be very lucky indeed. 

Here is a hint: The concert will likely be held on a Thursday night. Still unknown at this point is if original Jane's Addiction bass player Eric Avery will perform with the band, as he did in April in a short set for the NME Awards gig, but I'm operating under the assumption that he might.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo by Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times