2009.06.06 PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ

Post by **Mike** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 4:42 pm

Street Sweeper Social Club opens for Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction at PNC Bank Arts Center

by Jay Lustig/The Star-Ledger

Friday May 29, 2009, 5:15 PM

Street Sweeper Social Club, opening for Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction. Where and when: 7:30 p.m. Friday at Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel. How much: $25-$99 for Camden, $19-$59 for Holmdel. Call (877) 598-8694 or visit livenation.com.

Tom Morello first opened for Jane's Addiction more than two decades ago, at a 1988 New Year's Eve concert at the Embassy Hotel Theater in Los Angeles.

"They asked my local Hollywood band at the time, Lock Up, to impersonate them," says the virtuoso rock guitarist, who has played in the bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and recently formed a new group, Street Sweeper Social Club, with rapper Boots Riley. "When Jane's Addiction came onstage, it was actually Lock Up, dressed as Jane's Addiction, playing a Jane's Addiction song, 'Pigs In Zen.' Then the lights went out, and Jane's Addiction came out and finished the song."

Their paths are crossing again this summer, under very different circumstances. Touring with its original lineup for the first time in 17 years, Jane's Addiction is co-headlining (with Nine Inch Nails) one of this summer's biggest rock tours. It comes to the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on Friday and the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Saturday. Street Sweeper Social Club will be the opening act.

The band's music is a politically charged rap-rock hybrid, distinguished by Morello's endlessly inventive riffs and Riley's lyrics, which display a rare combination of anger and wit. On the lead single, "100 Little Curses," for instance, Riley lashes out against the rich with withering contempt, but also some good one-liners: "May your champagne not bubble, may your pinot be sour/May that white stuff you snort be 96 percent flour/May the famous rapper you bring to your daughter's Sweet Sixteen/Get some pride and walk out, as if born with a spleen."

This project isn't a huge stretch for either artist. Sociopolitical commentary played a big role in both Rage Against the Machine and Morello's acoustic side project, the Nightwatchman, as well as in Riley's group, the Coup, whose music combines elements of hip-hop and funk.

"There's a very thin line between rock and funk," says Riley. "Funk is like a dirtier blues, and so is rock. They're close cousins."

The Coup, he says, has sometimes been criticized by hip-hop purists for rocking too hard. "It's somewhat less of a problem for Street Sweeper Social Club," Morello adds dryly.

Morello and Riley first met in 2003. Morello was a fan of the Coup, and invited Riley to perform on the Tell Us the Truth Tour, organized by singer-songwriter Billy Bragg to protest globalization and media consolidation. Morello was performing on the tour, solo, as the Nightwatchman.

Morello's day job, at the time, was playing with the Chris Cornell-fronted Audioslave. But Riley was more familiar with his Rage Against the Machine music.

"I wasn't in the rock world but I had seen their name all over the place," Riley says. "I think the first time I really started paying attention was, I saw (Morello) on the cover of some guitar magazine with a hat that said 'Commie.' And I said, 'Oh, maybe they're not just some rock group.' So I read the interview, and became interested in what was going on."

After the Tell Us the Truth Tour, Morello and Riley found themselves playing together often. They first talked about putting together their own band in 2006.

"Tom said, 'We're going to make a band. It's going to be called Street Sweeper. It's going to be anthems for the revolution,'â€…" says Riley. "He handed me a cassette tape and said to write some lyrics, and he didn't ask me whether I wanted to or not. He just said it was going to be.

"I told him very simply, 'Just do what you do, and we're going to be fine,'â€… " says Morello. "That was a real good division of labor."

A street sweeper is a type of machine gun. "The idea is that our music is the weapon," says Morello.

Originally, the band name was going to be just Street Sweeper. But the rights to that name had been taken, so Social Club was added, because when the two musicians had performed together -- even at a benefit concert with a serious cause -- it felt like a couple of friends getting together to have a good time.

On the album, due out June 16, Morello plays bass as well as guitar, and Stanton Moore of the band Galactic handles drums. On tour, the group will be a quintet, with Eric Gardner (who has played with Gnarls Barkley) on drums, Carl Restivo (whose credits include Wyclef Jean and Perry Farrell's Satellite Party) on second guitar and Dave Gibbs of the Gigolo Aunts on bass.

"They're all really good friends," says Morello. "The thing that they all have in common is that they've played countless concerts with Boots and myself in the past, often around charity issues."

Onstage, the musicians wear matching black-and-red jackets, adorned with SSSC logos.

"It symbolizes our unity onstage," says Riley.

"Whether it was the Clash or Kiss, I've always liked bands that cared about the big picture and the visual presentation," says Morello.

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor invited Morello and Riley to open the Nine Inch Nails/Jane's Addiction tour before they had presented any shows together as Street Sweeper Social Club or finished their album. Before the tour started, on May 8, they had played only a handful of gigs, including one at the maximum-security Sing Sing prison in Ossining, N.Y. One of the highlights of the show, according to Morello, was their cover of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" (also featuring Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains).

The day after the Sing Sing show, Morello performed at a Pete Seeger tribute concert -- also celebrating Seeger's 90th birthday -- at Madison Square Garden. He played a duet with Bruce Springsteen on "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and performed with many other artists as well.

"I told them when they first contacted me, 'I'd be happy just to shake a tambourine in the background,'â€…â€…" he says. "For people who combine activism with their music, Pete Seeger sits in seat 1A. But to be able to play with Tom Paxton and Taj Mahal and Ben Harper, and then to play 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' with Bruce Springsteen, it was kind of like it was my birthday."

While supporting musicians are involved in Street Sweeper Social Club, it's basically a duo. This way, says Morello, he gets to be in a bandlike situation without being subject to the "often-complicated dynamics" of a band.

"I really enjoyed the independence of the Nightwatchman -- touring and recording and writing whenever I wanted," he says. "One of the things that was clear to me from the beginning of this was that Street Sweeper Social Club was going to be a hellaciously rocking band live, and would have some of the elements of band chemistry, but that it would also have the pure elements of just two artists working together."

The Coup is still an active group. And while Audioslave is defunct, Rage Against the Machine continues to perform together occasionally.

Morello and Riley have no long-term master plan for Street Sweeper Social Club, but see no reason why the partnership shouldn't continue.

"It's super fun, so I wouldn't see any reason why we wouldn't make more records or do more touring," says Morello. "But the record hasn't come out yet, so .â€….â€…. we might want to hold off on planning the boxed set."

Jay Lustig may be reached at jlustig@starledger.com or (973) 392-5850.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/i ... b_ope.html

Post by **Mike** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 10:37 pm

http://twitpic.com/6sua4

Thank you Etty,

Post by **Mike** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:48 pm

http://yfrog.com/47ntfj

http://twitpic.com/6szgw

Post by **Mike** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:46 am

http://twitpic.com/6tc28

Post by **Mike** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:05 pm

scabdates · Post by **scabdates** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:25 pm

This show was phenomenal. Felt so much better than Friday night, though Camden was my first JA experience.

Perry's vocals were completely spot-on, whereas I felt he was struggling a bit the night before, and the songs felt less rushed, more banter, more intimate moments, more smiles/laughter, more Etty/kids... and OBVIOUS. It was indeed rusty, though a real treat to hear nonetheless.

I was third row, just off center on Eric's side. Perry was up in our face quite a lot, and a few times during the second half, Eric came right up front as well, talking to someone in the front, having a great time. This was a wonderful contrast to the pit in Camden, though my friend and I managed to get up to about fifth row of people in the center that night. It was just so nice to have seats and not worry about moshing.

Took my lovely lady friend Nakeeda last night, and she was enthralled and speechless. I managed some very nice shots which I'll post in a few days once I'm back home (staying in Philly tonight for PJ Harvey).

NIN was also at the top of their game last night as opposed to Friday. Fucking destroyed, and I'm not even a big fan. But they have their shit together. Reptile and Hurt was thrown into the mix, and it was glorious.

Hearing "Up the Beach" two nights in a row is pretty goddamn life-affirming. At some point, I'm guessing it was before the encore, Etty made her way from the left side of the stage to the right side of the front row with one of the kids, and after "Jane Says," Perkins took him out of Etty's arms and took him over to Perry... just a very real thing to witness. There's very much a sense of family among them all, Avery has been interacting with the kids as well.

Perkins during the SSSC set was the shit. Tom Morello is a fucking magician. Period.

Thank you, boys. Can't wait for Merriweather on Tuesday

bman · Post by **bman** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 3:29 pm

Up The Beach was GREAT last night. I have no idea why they don't open with that. It is THE PEFECT way to kick off a set.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:58 am

Nice set of photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartmcco ... 312432827/

Post by **Mike** » Mon Jun 07, 2010 5:55 pm

Concert Report: Nine Inch Nails/Jane's Addiction at PNC

Author: Lorraine Schwartz - June 9, 11:15 AM

When I tried to snag a ticket for the Jane's Addiction/Nine Inch Nails tour (cleverly nicknamed the "NIN/JA" tour) at PNC Bank Arts Center a few weeks back, I was not satisfied with the seats LiveNation offered to me so I nixed the idea. But due to constant tweets from Trent Reznor regarding the tour, I found myself wanting to go more and more as the day loomed closer. Obviously self promotion is at least one of the reasons he and other musicians are on Twitter. Well, mission accomplished Mr. Reznor!

I have had luck getting awesome seats on the day of a show before, so on Saturday afternoon I thought I'd give LiveNation's site one more chance to come up with a decent seat before I gave up. It spit back 12th row center. Awesome! I purchased it immediately.

Opening the show was Tom Morello's new band Street Sweeper Social Club. Due to the time it took to get through the insane traffic at exit 116, find a parking spot and catch the school bus parking shuttle to the front entrance, I was only able to see their last song. From what I did see though, the hip-hop/funk/rock band's leader Boots Riley showed a lot of charisma and it looked like they were having a great time playing for everyone. I'm sorry I missed them.

Playing second was Nine Inch Nails. Being that both Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction are equally legendary and capable of carrying a tour, they have set up a schedule where during the week NIN headlines and Jane's headlines on the weekend. So on Saturday, Reznor and company took the stage just as the sun was starting to set. It was a beautiful day (FINALLY) to be at an outdoors show. Even Trent commented that this kind of evening was perfection as far as what he had in mind when he pictured this summer tour.

The set never lost its intensity from the first note of the furious "Wish" to the last note of the heartwrenching "Hurt." Reznor and company attacked each song with the same physical aggression and ferocity NIN is known for lyrically. My favorite move is when Trent sings a verse then suddenly backs off the mic and throws both hands in the air as if to say to the audience "There! Deal with THAT awesomeness I just sang!" Besides the fantastic performance it should be noted that the light shows that accompany a typical NIN show are always impressive. The choreographed frenzy of colors and strobes was near-blinding. One time I had to look away for a moment just to give my eyes a break!

The highlights of the set for me were "Wish", "March of the Pigs", "Last" and "The Hand That Feeds." Also amazing was hearing thousands of people sing along to "Hurt." I have to say that the setlist is not for the casual fan. I'm going to be honest and admit that I didn't know the bulk of the material. But that didn't take away from enjoying the show at all. And as someone who gets bored easily if I don't know the music, that's saying something. It's saying, even if you don't know more than what you've heard from them on MTV or the radio, you should still give a Nine Inch Nails show a shot because they are one of the best live acts around.

By the time the fully reunited Jane's Addiction took the stage, it was completely dark out. A giant screen showing a vintage movie of some beehived topless dancers raised up as lead singer Perry Farrell sang the first verse of the opening song, the sultry "Three Days."An interesting choice as an opener. I've gotten used to bands coming out to high energy heavy songs, so when I heard the dark, slow, twisted bass intro to "Three Days" I was pleasantly surprised.

Perry looked fabulous, as per usual. He strutted about the stage with what I can only describe as a playful arrogance, while the stunning Dave Navarro wailed on guitar, mohawked Stephen Perkins pounded fiercely on drums and Eric Avery solidly did his duty on bass. The set was full of Jane's classics including the awesome "Oceansize", "Mountain Song", "Pigs in Zen", and the song that introduced me to the band via constant MTV airplay, "Stop." My favorite moments of the show were "Summertime Rolls" and the beautiful "Up the Beach." They both have a "Just relax and enjoy beauty for a minute" vibe about them. An unexpected favorite moment for me was "Been Caught Stealing." That song has never been anywhere near the top of my favorite Jane's Addiction songs list, but live it came off great live. Much more rumbling and intimidating than it sounds on the radio. For the show's finale, Perry roamed the stage pouring wine to fans down front, as the amphitheater shouted along "1, 2, 3, 4!" to help kick off the classic "Jane Says." I don't think I could ever get sick of that song. It's just so simple and pretty.

Overall this was a perfect night. You couldn't ask for better weather, all the bands delivered, and I had a great seat to boot. It made me feel like finally summer had arrived, and this was a great start to my season.

http://www.examiner.com/x-7025-NY-Conce ... ion-at-PNC