NIN/JA Tour featuring Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails and Street Sweeper Social Club Entertainment Art Verizon Wireless Music Center Noblesville, IN May 30, 2009

Opening with the ten minute plus epic track of “Three Days,” Jane’s Addiction quickly set the tone for a night of mesmerizing musical operatic beauty, proving the band was back and tighter than ever. Plowing through a fifteen song set that did not touch on the 2003 Strays album, Perry Farrell and the boys proved worthy of their headliner status. The band was so confident they even broke away from the set to take a request from the crowd, the track 1% from their self-titled 1987 debut.

It’s been a long time coming for fans to finally get a chance to see the original line-up back together and something many thought would never happen. In 1991 Perry Farrell introduced the world to a touring festival called Lollapalooza. It was a huge success but it also became the goodbye tour of Jane’s Addiction with the original line-up. In fact the band almost never made it through the first Lollapalooza show when both Perry and Dave Navarro got into a fight onstage. Since then the band has gotten back together touring and recording but with a variety of bass players through the years. Last year after receiving the Godlike Genius Award at the first NME awards in LA, original bassist Eric Avery finally walked back onto the stage with his band mates for a one-off show. From there became two more surprised shows in LA and now here they are fifteen shows into their tour at the Verizon Wireless Music Center playing to an almost sold-out crowd.

The night was full of classic Jane’s tracks from “Pigs in Zen,” “Mountain Song,” “Ted Just Admit It…” they were all here. During “Summertime Rolls,” as Perry is singing the final lyrics, his eyes catches a familiar face that of his beautiful wife Etty in the crowd, smiling he continues singing “Me and my girlfriend…” creating a special moment that was most likely missed by most of the stadium. As with almost all Jane’s shows, their set concluded with an acoustic rendition of the classic “Jane Says” with Stephen Perkins up front on steel drums. A perfect end to a great set by a band that ended way too soon back in the 90’s. Now that the original line-up is back and have even dabbled in the studio, let’s hope these guys can keep it together to see if they can find the spark for one more album.

Speaking of the original debut tour of Lollapalooza, another one of the bands on that line-up was none other than Nine Inch Nails. NIN had gone through several incarnations through the years but one thing remains the same –founder, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Trent Reznor. The only official member of the band has created a unique sound through the years and has recently suggested this will be his last tour. If that turns out to be true, in the last few years Trent hasn’t been wasting any time releasing three albums of material, a remix album and a tour documentary. The man’s been busy who seems like he has been on an endless tour that started back in 2005.

As the sun was setting, NIN’s opened with the unusual choice “Home” a b-side from the With Teeth album. Unlike most bands, NIN’s has mixed up their set list from city to city and tonight was no exception. From playing popular favorites like “March of the Pigs,” “Wish,” to even attempting covers like Gary Newman’s “Metal” and Adam and the Ant’s “Physical (You’re So).” The tour has proven a nice mix-bag of tunes.

Unlike previous NIN’s tours, this one appears to be quite scaled down with a much smaller stage and light show. However that didn’t seem to affect Trent’s live commitment or the power of his songs. The twenty track set list closed perfectly with “The Hand That Feeds,” “Head Like a Hole” and the classic “Hurt.”

Opening the show earlier in the evening at around 7:30, guitarist’s Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave hit the stage with his new band, Street Sweeper Social Club. Featuring vocalist/emcee Boots Riley formerly of The Coup, the band came out dressed in military regalia playing political-tinged tunes with Morello's signature guitar sound. The band sounds promising from the catchy “100 Little Curses,” “Fight! Smash! Win!” and even successfully covered M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes.” The album is now available on iTunes.

The NIN/JA tour may prove to be the last we see of two of alternative music’s greatest bands for sometime So when they come to your town, do yourself a favor and check out these seminal bands. NIN’s and Jane’s Addiction are delivering some of the most electrifying live shows out on tour today.

Write Comment
Name:	Guest
Title:
Comment:
Code:*

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!