Saturday night, D and I zipped over to Indy to catch one of the few Midwest stops of the NINJA tour. Although we’ve see Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction many times before, we haven’t seen them together since the first Lollapalooza tour in ’91. This tour is huge in so many ways. It’s the first time the original Jane’s lineup has been together since 91. It’s also the first time we’re seeing Tom Morello’s new band, Street Sweeper Social Club. But most of all, it’s Trent Reznor’s goodbye tour. Not that there won’t be any new Nails music ever again. But he’s recently engaged and ready to invest in other parts of life…stuff you can’t do in a tour bus.
Street Sweeper and Jane’s put on amazing sets each propelled by their guitar legends and strong front men. Morello and Navarro shredded solos song after song. Tom takes top honors though with playing one solo with his face and another using only the guitar TRS plug and a wah-wah pedal. He was kindly rewarded with 20,000 people singing Happy Birthday to him. But both of these acts were bookends to the main event…the last NIN show I may ever see.
The first time I saw NIN was in ’91 in Columbus. I went alone, got right up to the stage, and moshed to survive while Trent hovered over us. Over 18 years later I was on the other end of the spectrum – out in the lawn, with a bunch of friends – for this final show. In many ways it wasn’t the best Nails show I’ve seen, but in more ways it was the perfect one.
True, a lot of my favorites didn’t make it into the set list. I would have loved to see “Burn” or “Perfect Drug” once more. In fact, the only song from PHM was “Head Like a Hole”. But I have seen those performed before and it gave time for songs I haven’t seen. With six songs in the set list, the Indy show seemed centered on The Downward Spiral. But every album was touched (three each from Broken, Year Zero, and The Slip and one from Fragile and With Teeth). Metal and The Fragile were definitely down tempo highlights for me – I really gained a new love for both of those songs. And there were so many great manic moments (March, Gave Up, Hand that Feeds, Wish, and of course HLAH).
The weather was mild and sunny all day. As concert time approached, heavy clouds rolled in. Just as the sun began to slip away, the rain began to fall and tornado sirens could faintly be heard during Metal – as if some kind of feedback. The rain subsided for a bit then came back during The Fragile. The rain’s intensity built with the song as Trent screamed “I won’t let you fall apart”. Everyone in the lawn got soaked while they kept a watchful eye on the clouds, but I didn’t see anyone leave. Swirling clouds, rain, lightning in darkening skies continued into The Downward Spiral…it was perfect.
Into the final stretch of Mr Self Destruct, Physical, and HLAH the storm had past. Reportedly, Trent had planned to finish their set with HLAH, but the energy tonight was unique, which he commented on, and finished with Hurt. Lighters and cell phones blazed as the masses swayed. Sure it’s a rock concert clique, but it’ll be a goodbye I won’t forget.
NIN concerts:
- Sin Tour 1991/01/28 Columbus, OH
- Lollapalooza 1991/08/03 Chicago, IL
- Further Down The Spiral Tour 1994/11/13 Columbus, OH
- With Teeth Summer Tour 2006/07/03 Noblesville (Indy), IN
- Wave Goodbye Tour 2009/05/30 Noblesville (Indy), IN
Tags: concerts
