Jane's Addiction ****

It was August 2002, and I found myself standing on a smelly and muddy festival ground. It was cold, I had lost all my friends, but I was witnessing one of the most captivating concerts I had ever seen. On stage was Jane's Addiction, a band of whom I only knew Jane Says because I accidentally downloaded it on Kazaa a few weeks earlier.

It just hit. The theatrics of singer Perry Farell and the roaring guitar play of Dave Navarro were something I had never heared before and made me a big fan of the band. Over the next few years I turned into a very big fan, even collecting bootlegs of nearly every gig they ever played and burning them onto CD-R's.

It took them 22 years to come back to Belgium. My initial expectations were low, because the two records they've released between then and now are mediocre at best — and it's often not the best idea to have high expectations for nostalgic reunion shows. But boy, they did kill it.

The band created a massive wall of sound that engulfed the audience, and they delivered all of their classics with the same raw energy and passion that made me fall in love with them in the first place.

Watching the band perform, I felt a sense of déjà vu wash over me. The wide-eyed, 18-year-old version of myself who had stood in awe at that muddy festival ground all those years ago seemed to nod in approval, his spirit still very much alive inside the 40-year-old I am today.