Aussie rockers INXS move on, sans Hutchence

Kirk Baird

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

What: INXS.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

Admission: $35, $45, $55.

Information: 632-7600.

It was a year ago that INXS was scheduled to perform at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, along with fellow Australian bands Midnight Oil and Men at Work.

In what easily could have been called "The Forgotten Bands from the Land Down Under" tour, considering the groups' best years reside in the '80s, the trio of artists had a lengthy set of U.S. dates scheduled.

Then the tour was abruptly canceled. The word was INXS shelved the concert dates because it was not ready to perform with a new lead singer.

The notion certainly seemed reasonable. How does a band replace such a charismatic frontman as Michael Hutchence, who hanged himself nearly five years ago in a hotel room in Australia?

Performing Saturday at House of Blues, INXS is back on U.S. soil to perform for the first time in more than five years. And the group's guitarist, Tim Farriss, was happy to set the record straight on last year's aborted tour.

"(Another) band we were to tour with pulled out," Farriss said in a recent interview from Sydney, Australia. "When I heard the news, I was (furious), to put it mildly. I was near Boulder, Colo., and had just gotten home from a day on the slopes when I heard Midnight Oil pulled out. I thought, 'How dare they?' I think they were a little nervous about performing with us."

Or, maybe it was surprised. After Hutchence's death, it was assumed (perhaps justifiably) that INXS was through.

Not Farriss, though.

"I, myself, never felt that way. I thought it would be a sad thing for everyone concerned, and in many respects, Michael as well," he said. "Now is the time to go out. We should play together when we feel like it ... to go out and just remind the world of what a great singer, songwriter and person he was. The tour is about a lot of things, but that's one of them."

To Farriss, this round of U.S. concert dates, which concludes in early July in Atlantic City, is both an ending and a beginning.

He said the tour is a means for the surviving members of INXS -- Farriss, and his two brothers, Andrew (keyboards) and Jon (drums); Garry Beers (bass); and Kirk Pengilly (guitar/saxophone) -- to celebrate the legacy the band created with Hutchence.

But it is also a way for the group to prove itself capable without him.

For its first few post- Hutchence performances, INXS relied on a rotation of guest vocalists, such as Terence Trent D'Arby, who performed with the band in 1999 for the opening of Olympic Stadium in Sydney.

Then, when the members of INXS got serious about touring again, they searched for a permanent replacement. After performing with Jon Stevens, frontman of the Australian group Noiseworks and a longtime friend of the band, they realized they had found their lead singer.

"The guy has an amazing voice and is an amazing singer," Farriss said. "We've known Jon for years. Instead of a stranger ... we have a friend, which is important."

Plus, he added, unlike Hutchence, Stevens remembers the lyrics onstage.

"How does the guy who wrote the songs forget the lyrics? (Hutchence) forgot them all the time. It was weird. So what's the big difference between Michael and Jon? I know (Stevens) is singing the right lyrics."

Despite the band's happiness in finding a suitable Hutchence replacement to tour with, Farriss said Stevens' tenure with the band is by no means permanent.

For a future INXS album, which is still in the writing stage, the group may continue to rely on various guest vocalists, the same technique Carlos Santana adopted for his multi-platinum, Grammy-winning success, 1999's "Supernatural."

"We've got so many options, it's both good and bad," he said.

Regardless of the band's next career move and where it takes them, Farriss said he and the other members of INXS will always miss Hutchence. And the persistent rumors of Hutchence's death -- autoerotic asphyxiation, also known as sexual hanging -- does not affect him.

"Fact of the matter is, he is gone. It was a painful period for us to get over it and we're still not over it," he said. "As to how and why he died does not concern me. I would rather let everyone else hypothesize, it's not really my trip. I just miss the (guy)."