[kj] Nine Inch Nails/Janes Addiction in Irvine, CA

[Darren A. Peace]

Thanks for that, TB. I enjoy your gig reports.

 

Darren

Hungerford, UK

 

From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net] On
Behalf Of The Mighty TB
Sent: 21 May 2009 21:20
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
Subject: [kj] Nine Inch Nails/Janes Addiction in Irvine, CA

 

Headed to Irvine around 5:30 from Huntington Beach, rush hour traffic really
log jammed around John Wayne airport making a simple 20 minute drive stretch
out to almost an hour. Irvine Verizon is notoriously shitty getting in and
out of because of the single road leading in and out and the non-existent
traffic control by Irvine's finest. So as always, I parked in the free main
lot on the isle near the $20 parking lot for what I figured should be an
easy exit after the show (more on that later). I had packed a backpack with
my old analog Hi8 camcorder, my digital camera, a bunch of batteries, tapes,
bottled water and a bunch of other shit. 

Getting my ticket at the Jane's will call window was a piece of cake
although it appeared they had all the GA Pit tickets in one pile in no
discernable order in a box so the chick had to sort through every ticket to
find mine with my name on it. Another benefit of buying the ticket through
Jane's (or NIN's) website was that I didn't have to wait in the huge, slow
moving line to get in the venue, those ticket holders got to get in right at
the front. The downside was despite all the shit I was carrying, they
wouldn't allow the backpack(!) itself. So I had to walk back to my car and
figure out what I wanted to carry in and what I wanted to leave in the car.
So I took the camcorder, batteries and tape in my pockets and left
everything else except my ID and money.

Got in and down to the sparsely filled pit about 5 minutes before Street
Sweeper Social Club came on for a 30 minute set. IMO, they come off as a
slightly watered down version of Rage Against The Machine - they have the
same vibe and themes but the anger and overt aggression isn't nearly as
intense. A lot more edgy than Audioslave though. Tom Morello is as always
pretty amazing on guitar and singer Boots Riley makes for a formidable
frontman. It kinda bugged me that one of their songs is basically The
Clash's "Straight To Hell" with new lyrics. Still, an enjoyable set and I
filmed their opening song which killed the first of 3 batteries I brought
with me which made me nervous that lugging all this shit was gonna be a
waste of time.

Nine Inch Nails came on just as it was getting dark and the venue was still
only 2/3rds full as many people were still rushing to their seats. Really no
warning, just the start of "Now I'm Nothing" as the band comes on stage. The
run of songs between 1,000,000 and Reptile made for probably the best half
hour of NIN I've caught in the 6 or 7 times I've seen them since '91. Of
course, finally seeing Heresy live was the peak of the set for me. Around a
really punkish version of March Of The Pigs, a small group started moshing
in the center of the pit but it never got out of hand although it was kinda
funny watching these knuckleheads try to keep things going during slow,
mellow songs like "The Way Out Is Through." 

As NIN have been playing drastically different sets every night this tour,
there is no way to predict what the next song will be and as Trent said
midway through the set, "we aren't playing the hits" which ultimately led to
no "Closer" or "Hurt" (which was on the setlist as the last song). The stage
is basically their gear cluttered in a rather confining space that almost
looks like a rehearsal studio with a really massive bank of strobing lights
on the back wall. The sets seem to be geared towards the hardcore NIN fan
and also appear to challenge the patience of the casual or fist timer who's
expecting either the hits and/or a non-stop agro-fest. Still plenty of great
deep cuts but a stretch of songs starting with "The Fragile" that seemed to
loss the general audience and killed the momentum of the first half of the
show that never really picked back up except for during "Wish" until the
last two songs of the set. Trent has assembled a really lean, no-frills band
and stage show for this tour and I have to hand it to the guy, he really
gives 110% and was soaked by the end of the set. Onstage, he's a real tough
character to read. I can't tell if he's enjoying his performance and the
crowds reaction (or lack of). He just goes through the set in a very focused
way with very little interaction with his audience beyond an occasional
"thank you."

After NIN ended their set, I tried getting a shirt and maybe a drink but the
lines were simply retardedly slow at every stand so I blew that off and went
back down in the pit with only minutes to spare before Jane's came on. The
opening video clip from "River's Edge with Kevin Bacon was all fucked up
which led to some booing in the audience which followed into the opening
bass lines of "Three Days." More than ever after seeing this shaky opening
and Perrys very weak, tentative vocals on the song, I am convinced that
while a noble experiment that perhaps under the most ideal of circumstances
would work as a atmospheric introduction to Jane's set, Three Days is *not*
the right opening song for a big crowd.

The band was tight and powerful throughout their set. I really can't fault
anyone's playing although Dave's solos/tone on some songs is a bit too
"rawk" these days, I really can't complain although I don't care for his wah
peddle shortcuts on Mountain Song's solo. Also, tuning *way* down really
affects the overall vibe and tempo of some songs like Whores and Had A Dad
in particular which had more plod than swing this tour. Which leads to
Perry......

There's a huge divide between the good and bad in Perry 2009. On one hand,
his overall stage persona and even goofy dress style works good as and maybe
better than any time since 1991. As a frontman, he's turned into Diamond
David Lee Roth circa 1983. However, like Roth in '83, his voice has also
really lost whatever edge and meager power it once had. He has to sing in a
lower key and his vocals on Three Days were so weak and tentative, I thought
he was suffering from a cold although he did improve sporadically throughout
the rest of the set. But then he'd barely murmur unintelligible vocals for
songs like "Ted~". He rarely used his little echo box to any noticeable
effect as he seemed more preoccupied being Toastmaster General of Irvine.
Still, weak singing aside, he held the crowd in his hand the entire show and
was physically running around the stage like his little leg injury was a
thing of the past.

Eric generally kept to his zone on stage left and sounded great. It was
pretty cool watching him play bass sitting casually on the PA cabinets on
the side of the stage with his feet kicking around like a little kid at the
beach for Summertime Rolls. Perkins was his usual monster on the kit, the
guy is just an incredible drummer. I can also hear some double bass drumming
on the tail end of Three Days so there is a reason for the double bass kit,
guys. 

Overall, while this is "Jane's" as far as purists are concerned, it is a
very different animal than 1987 - 1991. I hate to say it, but this tour at
least looks to be a cash grab on the back of nostalgia of what this band did
over 2 decades ago. They love playing in front of big audiences, they love
playing the old songs but there's a very strange dynamic within the band
right now that's tough to put a finger on. Make no mistake, there were
moments of near transcendence that equaled anything I recall from seeing
them on the Nothings Shocking and Ritual tours such as the very brief bit
inbetween songs where Perry mention Jane's first show at this venue in the
late 80's with Social Distortion and X and the band played a short sample of
X's "Hungry Wolf."  But there were also some major instances where I felt I
was watching a band stuck in cabaret. Perry's big rock star silliness and
Eric's odd disappearance before the band could take their final bows at the
end of their set only accentuates this. They *need* to start taking big
chances with the set beyond shuffling a couple songs in the running order.
And that doesn't even address new music.

The crowd was generally really well behaved, at least in the pit. Asshole
factor was almost non-existent - I was expecting a *lot* more moshing,
especially for NIN's set based on previous shows. It was never overly
crowded and I could move pretty freely anywhere I wanted to be as long as it
was about 10 feet back from the stage. The sound for all three bands was
near perfect. Getting out of the parking lot after the show was a major
ordeal. There's really no good way to get out in a reasonable amount of time
unless you skip a song or two and leave early at the end of the show. It
took a fucking hour to get out and 15 minutes to drive home.

Filming turned out to be a bit of a headache and was the only real negative
for me totally getting into and enjoying the show. Because my camcorder is
old standard def, bulky and had a built-in big LED screen and thus a bit
heavy coupled with the fact I had to hold it over heads in front of me to
get an unobstructed view, it became a marathon for my arms after a while.
Add to that I was constantly aware of declining battery power, switching the
tape and keeping a eye out for someone crashing into me, taping did take
away a bit from my enjoyment of the show. A long way from the old days of
'80 - '83 when I'd use my AIWA deck with the mics taped to my shoulders and
still enjoy the show without worrying overmuch about taping a concert. 

I wound up recording SSSC opening song, the first half of NIN's set and a
couple songs later in their set and all of Jane's set. After reviewing some
of the footage, I discovered that the sound badly clipped on the bass so
while visually most of the footage looks really good, it sounds pretty
rough. Once a really good sounding torrent of the show comes out, I'll
probably wed my footage to the better sounding audio. I'm in the process of
uploading a few raw multi-song clips to YouTube which I'll link later today.
All said and done, I salute tapers who sacrifice some measure of their
enjoyment of concerts for people like myself to listen and watch later. I
won't be doing this again.

Overall, even though I saw Jane's 2 of the 3 club shows they did before this
tour, rag a bit on Perry and I'm a bit burned out on NIN, I can say without
a doubt this was a overall great show and well worth catching for those
sitting on the fence about going or not. I also want to say the way both
bands treat there fans this tour as far as how smooth and generous the prime
tickets were made available as well as the unrestricted taping policy really
made this show a special event for me.

T.B.

Setlist:

Street Sweeper Social Club
01. Intro 
02. Fight! Smash! Win! 
03. Somewhere In The World Its Midnight 
04. Paper Planes 
05. The Oath 
06. 100 Little Curses 
07. Promenade 
08. Nobody Moves (Til We Say Go) 

NIN
01. Now Im Nothing 
02. Terrible Lie 
03. 1,000,000 
04. Heresy 
05. March of the Pigs 
06. Metal 
07. Reptile 
08. Survivalism 
09. The Becoming 
10. Mr. Self Destruct 
11. The Fragile 
12. Gone, Still 
13. The Way Out Is Through 
14. Wish 
15. Echoplex 
16. The Day The World Went Away 
17. The Hand That Feeds 
18. Head Like A Hole 

Janes
01. Three Days
02. Whores
03. Ain't No Right
04. Pigs in Zen
05. Mountain Song
06. Had a Dad
07. Been Caught Stealing
08. Ted, Just Admit It
09. Ocean Size
10. Summertime Rolls
11. Stop
12. Jane Says

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/gathering/attachments/20090521/00725035/attachment.htm>