Farrell has visions of Vegaspalooza

Perry Farrell takes his new band Satellite Party to the Red Rock pool on Saturday, and Farrell -- who created Lollapalooza in 1991 -- says the show could be a first step in eventually bringing a Lollapalooza-type music fest to Vegas.

"Honestly, I would love to do something out there (in Vegas), whether it would be Lollapalooza or a Satellite Party, and do it really well. This is kind of a little taste of what it can be, on Saturday night," he says.

On Saturday, his rock trio (including wife Etty Farrell) will be joined by guitarist Dave Navarro. So between Farrell and Navarro, half of Jane's Addiction will rock it.

Last weekend, Farrell showed up at Red Rock for the same type of event called "Bottle Rock-It," where Slash performed and was joined by drummer Jason Bonham, Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell and Spacehog's Royston Langdon. With Farrell onstage, they blasted Jane's "Mountain Song" and covered "Superstition" and "Whole Lotta Love."

While talking about Las Vegas' presumed-dead Vegoose music festival, Farrell says he never went. But he points out it was run by the organizers of the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, instead of his friends who organize Coachella into the best fest of the West, near Palm Springs.

"Notice it's not as good as Coachella, right?" he says.

"From what I hear about Vegoose, if I were to plan it, I wouldn't plan it that way. That's all I'm saying. But maybe one day, it'll be great if I got to go in there and do something great with an installation in Vegas."

What would he do differently than Vegoose did?

"If I told you, then I wouldn't be hired," he says and chuckles. "You know what? Let me just show you on Saturday what things might look like. It won't be polished up; it won't be finished by any means; but it's a little taste to get your appetite whet."

Farrell says a Vegas music festival would succeed if it did what Lollapalooza and Coachella do right: create a finely organized scene for "the youth, and the intelligentsia and the alternatives."

"What I want to do with the Satellite Party is to create a scene," he says. "It's gotta be a new scene, a new sound, a new look, and I think we're gettin' there. It will take some time. Jane's Addiction took five years. And then on the sixth year, we did Lollapalooza. So we're building a new concept now that will be in Las Vegas" on Saturday.

Satellite Party plays at 9 p.m. Saturday. It's $20 at the door (797-7777). Cabanas and chairs are first come, first serve. If you go at 7 p.m., you can pay $15 for a wine tasting. Which sounds odd. But Farrell suggests wine on ice with fruit, and he boasts that proceeds go to the Springs Preserve.

"So that's another cool thing."

Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Tip him at 702-383-0391 or delfman@reviewjournal.com. His VegasLand blog is at reviewjournal.com/elfman.