Live-Metal.Net - Concert Reports - Nine Inch Nails & Jane's Addiction

Nine Inch Nails waves goodbye

JANE’S ADDICTION (live photos)
NINE INCH NAILS (live photos)
STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB (live photos)

The so-called “NIN/JA” tour, which featured co-headliners Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction and came to Merriweather Post Pavilion June 9, was special for more than its heaping dose of 1990s nostalgia. For Nine Inch Nails, the jaunt was dubbed the “Wave Goodbye” tour, and on June 14, head Nail Trent Reznor told the crowd at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee that his band was playing its “last show ever in the United States.”

The Merriweather performance and Reznor’s flurry of activity in recent years (four albums released since 2005) showed he is ending his 20-year run riding an artistic high.

In a show of respect, Reznor ceded the closing slot to Jane’s Addiction, the band that gave him one of his early breaks by taking Nine Inch Nails on the inaugural Lollapalooza tour in 1991 (and is touring now with its original lineup for the first time since breaking up later that same year).

Taking a smoke-filled stage at the early hour of 8 p.m. (with light still in the sky), Reznor led his band through a 90-minute set of songs spanning his entire career, from his 1989 debut Pretty Hate Machine to last year’s The Slip (still available as a free download at www.nin.com). Fan response was uniformly approving, whether it was for a hit single or a deep album track.

With an ever-changing cast of sidemen, Reznor, looking fit and healthy (he spent some time in rehab early this decade kicking a dependence on alcohol and other drugs), was the obvious main attraction. He’s in his mid-40s now, and maybe he’s mellowing with age. The old Trent—even the Trent of a few years ago—routinely spent much of his time onstage smashing keyboards, guitars and anything else in sight. On this night, his most reckless act was inadvertently knocking over a light at the front of the stage.

Though his presentation has changed, Reznor delivered classic anger-fueled songs like “March of the Pigs” and “Wish” with as much conviction as he did in 1994. The mellow side of Reznor the musician also played a prominent role in this show, the inclusion of softer numbers like “Something I Can Never Have,” the instrumental “La Mer” and “Right Where It Belongs” giving it a real ebb and flow.

Like any good showman, Reznor left the crowd begging for more. The finale could not have been better, the up-tempo crowd-pleasers “The Hand That Feeds” and “Head Like a Hole” giving way to the reflective “Hurt,” which Johnny Cash made famous but Reznor has never relinquished as his song. Reznor addressed the crowd with only the occasional “thank you” between songs, but during the extended ovations that preceded and followed “Hurt,” there was a feeling that everyone in the packed amphitheater knew that more than a concert was coming to an end.

Nine Inch Nails set list: “1,000,000,” “Letting You,” “Sin,” “March of the Pigs,” “Something I Can Never Have,” “Echoplex,” “The Becoming,” “Burn,” “Gave Up,” “La Mer,” “Right Where It Belongs,” “The Way Out Is Through,” “Wish,” “Survivalism,” “Dead Souls,” “The Hand That Feeds,” “Head Like a Hole,” “Hurt”

Some fans made for the exits after Nine Inch Nails finished, but more than I expected stuck around for Jane’s Addiction.

I have never been able to get into anything Perry Farrell has done. I respect him—he always seems sincere and has good intentions—but seeing him, at 50, prancing around the stage in an outfit that made him look like a cross between a cowboy and a bullfighter did not change my opinion of him as a performer. On the other hand, guitarist Dave Navarro, cigarette dangling from his lips, was every inch of rock star cool, and his playing was the best thing the band had going for it. The workmanlike approach of drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery served to balance the outsized stage presence of their higher-profile bandmates.

I didn't stay for all of Jane’s Addiction’s set. They seemed to be putting on a decent show (the only song I recognized, “Mountain Song,” sounded strong), and their fans were pleased by what they saw. For me, a NIN live show is such an overwhelming experience that anyone would have a hard time following it.

At the other end of the show was opener Street Sweeper Social Club, the new project featuring Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and rapper Boots Riley of The Coup. Riley called them “the best band with the worst name you’ve ever heard,” and Morello said they came to do three things: “Feed the poor, fight the power and rock the fuck out!” I don’t know about the first two, but they accomplished No. 3 with a mix of hard rock riffs, hip hop and a touch of funk. Sound familiar? The Rage similarities are obvious, but Morello seemed more relaxed, playing with a looser, groovier feel. And even though I’m not a fan of hip hop, I found myself drawn in by Riley’s flow from time to time.

This concert featured a new band on its first tour and the return of an influential alternative act’s original lineup, but it was all about Nine Inch Nails. They will continue on tour in Europe throughout the summer. What does the future hold after that? Trent Reznor might be the only one who knows. Hopefully, he will continue making music, whether it’s under Nine Inch Nails or some other name. If not, the music world will lose one of its few true artists.