2009.05.20 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA

[Mike]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgJZiu-jcaQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHg99cClV3c

Great vids MFMMT!
Thanks for posting them.

[MutherFuckinMakesMeTry]

Mike if you get a chance, remind the band that the fans LOVE this taping policy, and should continue it in the future! Makes the concert experience way better, thanks!

[Warped]

So many beautiful pics, i love them. And i envy you .............vikkivale
Thanks !

[Mudget]

Looked like Perry would have liked to have done a little X cover before "Had a Dad"! Dave was caught a little off-guard with that one! Ha!

[Mike]

Mike if you get a chance, remind the band that the fans LOVE this taping policy, and should continue it in the future! Makes the concert experience way better, thanks!

I'm hoping I get a chance to chat with them next weekend.
If I do I will definitely thank them and beg them to continue the open taping policy.

In the meantime I'm getting myself geared up to record audio and video.
I'm going shopping tomorrow for a video camera and a friend loaned me his D6.

If my video looks half as good as yours I'll be very happy.

[Mike]

Looked like Perry would have liked to have done a little X cover before "Had a Dad"! Dave was caught a little off-guard with that one! Ha!

I was trying to figure out what X song that was and found the answer in this blog.

Last Night: Jane's Addiction + Nine Inch Nails at Verizon Amphitheatre

Thursday, May. 21 2009 @ 4:21PMBy Siran Babayan

View more photos in the "Nine Inch Nails & Jane's Addiction" slideshow.

Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails and Street Sweeper Social Club at Verizon Amphitheater, May 20

After playing a few small, local shows late last year, photos of Jane's Addiction in the studio with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor surfaced online. If only, us fans thought. An album collaboration seemed unclear, but plans for a joint North American tour soon came to fruition, marking the first time these bands would share the stage since the inaugural Lollapalooza in 1991. Aside from songs about swine, musically, the two don't have much in common; Jane's Addiction were punk and prog rock's hippy offspring, while NIN put industrial on the map. But Jane's Addiction's beach-bumming metal laid out the blueprint for much of alt-rock, making NIN a '90s giant and Reznor an accidental sex symbol.

The NIN/JA tour -- the end of NIN as a touring entity and the return of a reunited Jane's, both after a near 20-year span -- was Reznor's idea, following an announcement on his website about wanting to make the band "disappear for a while." It's a shame, though. Whether modern radio or music television are no longer viable outlets, or whether Reznor wants to score for film, play with his iPhone apps all day or make babies with his soon-to-be wife, NIN will always be a powerhouse live.

After an opening set by the Street Sweeper Social Club, guitarist Tom Morello's latest incarnation with rapper Boots Riley, NIN charged the stage, Reznor's body looking like it would explode in a fit of 'roid rage if there were any technical difficulties. But it was very much bare bones. Whereas previous NIN tours were visual feasts of special effects -- all the work of a lighting director who was clearly neglected as a child -- Reznor had these performances stripped down, save for the stage smoke. The ear-shredding that ensued, however, was anything but. Reznor sang with all the subtlety of drill sergeant on "Survivalism," barking at the audience as if were were soldiers marching through Red Square, while "Mr. Self Destruct" did just what the title says.

And no two-legged being can resist dancing to the twin-drum tracks of "March of the Pigs" and "Wish." The rest of the set was culled from nearly all of NIN's eight albums, beginning and ending with "Terrible Lie" and "Head Like a Hole," two early hits that went back to, well, the beginning (1989's Pretty Hate Machine); Reznor reneged on his promise about not playing any hits. On "The Hand That Feeds," NIN's comeback single off of 2005's With Teeth, however, Reznor really did sound like this was his final kiss-off after years of bowing down to record labels.

When Reznor grabbed the guitar and joined in a small circle his two axmen, longtime member Robin Finck and Justin Meldal-Johnsen (formerly of Beck), the band, along with drummer Ilan Rubin, truly looked like a brotherhood. NIN's always had a revolving door, but credit the main man for keeping his crew happy. Reznor's still hanging off the mike stand as if both the stand and his boots were bolted to the ground, but he's not kicking his instruments around anymore. He held off until the end, throwing his guitar across the stage and walking off, never to return. No encore, no air-kiss goodbye. Reznor might've been too choked up with emotions, but that's not much of a farewell for fans who've sat through countless tours, not to mention hours of traffic, to share in the send-off.

If Reznor is a man of few words, Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell -- still skin and bones and pointy nose -- is all silly, chatty nonsense. (Somewhere out there, a traveling Renaissance Faire is missing its fool.) Wearing sequined pants, a feathered hat and psychedelic blouse, Farrell strutted around the stage like a funky rooster alongside the perennially shirtless Dave Navarro, stoic-looking original bassist Eric Avery and mohawked drummer Stephen Perkins. They're not a touchey-feeley bunch, and whether their reunion lasts beyond June remains to be seen; while Perkins called out the members' names during the band's exit, Avery had already walked off. But whatever ugly history exists between these four, it didn't translate during the performance, which kicked off with the epic, menage a trois story of "Three Days."

The rest of the night included the best from Jane's Addiction's self-titled debut, Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual (2003's Strays? Never heard of it). "Mountain Song" is a written-in-stone classic and "Ain't No Right" is just a vicious little ditty. On "Stop!," we sang back "Goddamn radio," while the serial killer-inspired "Ted, Just Admit It" sounded even more epic live, even if Farrell himself called it "sloppy." Say what you will about Navarro; Hollywood fame whore, amateur pornographer. The guy has mastered his craft and he's definitely up there in the pantheon of guitar gods.

Jane's was never everyone's cup of tea, but listening to Farrell and his hippy-dippy, cosmic jive is always a hoot. "This place is like my favorite drink, filled to the top," he greeted the crowd like a kid easily amused by shiny objects. If he wasn't shaking his hips or doing pelvic thrusts while lying on his back, he was regaling us with stories about taking his kids to the Lion Country Safari in Irvine and how America is like a basketball game and Obama is our point guard.

At one point, someone threw a shoe on stage, a reference to the 1990 live Palladium recording of "Ain't No Right," where Farrell chastises an audience member for throwing a Birkenstock. "He doesn't even understand fashion!" Farrell did concentrate long enough to remember the first time the band played Verizon opening for Social Distortion and X, which prompted Navarro to break into the intro to X's "The Hungry Wolf." But, hey, you too would be asking "What day is it?" if you were drinking a lot of wine.

"Jane Says," the band's ode to their friend and one-time roommate who inspired their namesake, was an obvious closer. But if we had to pick another track that epitomized a band birthed in a Hollywood house, it would have to be "Summertime Rolls," a song that'll continue to ooze L.A. through its pores whether Jane's is around in its original glory or not.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsoun ... ction-nin/

There are some really nice pics at the link near the top of the review.

Also be sure to checkout the comments on the story's page at the above link.
Someone very special commented.

[MutherFuckinMakesMeTry]

X - Hungry Wolf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhN8uo7B2Ag

[Mike]

Live Review: Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, May 20, 2009

Posted by B.C. in Listings, Performance, Reviews

If you live in Los Angeles and wanted to see the start of Nine Inch Nails’ set at 7:45 PM Wednesday night in Irvine, you would have had to start driving south around 3:30 PM – and not simply to avoid the legendary SoCal traffic on the 405 freeway.

By 7:00 PM, traffic was backed up for over two miles on the 405 at the off-ramp for Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. Though the concert was effectively sold out in advance, telegraphing the fact that over 16,000 people would be in attendance, no traffic control personnel or devices were utilized to maintain vehicle flow from the highway to the venue. Instead, it was literally every driver for himself, jockeying for position to get off the highway into the single turn lane that leads to the amphitheater, which was regulated by a normal traffic signal.

Parking attendant after parking attendant waved cars toward dead ends where no parking spaces existed, causing further casualties as drivers had to u-turn against traffic and go back the way they came. When it eventually dawned on parking personnel that no more spots were available, they simply told drivers with a shrug to “fill in wherever [they could], along the sides if [they had] to.”

Getting into Verizon’s parking lot was only half the battle, however. For those who needed to claim their tickets from the box office, another 20-30 minutes of lines awaited. While there were three lines available for general will-call and only one line for Jane’s Addiction dot com presale purchases, not a single member of venue staff was on hand to help patrons find the right line, nor were their any barricades or stanchions to help separate them.

The result was a teaming mass of humanity shuffling against each other, hopping lines and waiting only to find out they were in the wrong place. Muttered threats of violence and revenge dominated the mob as they realized they paid good money to stand outside the venue while half of NIN’s set disappeared on the cool evening air.

That in itself was a problem, as advertising for the event clearly listed NIN first, then Jane’s Addiction, which by logic suggested that Jane’s Addiction would play first and NIN would close the show, in the tradition of every concert bill in the history of time (hence the phrase “headliner”). To that end, panicked Nails fans scurried to the venue gates only to be confronted by yet more long lines, this time in the form of security, before they were allowed to begin the long trek from the gates to the amphitheater proper.

Was the ordeal worth it?

It’s hard to find fault with any NIN show as Trent Reznor has historically made a habit out of delivering the goods whenever he performs. On this occasion, he teased the audience by letting them know his set would not be hit-filled, and then delved into his other habit, which is self-indulgence. No foul there for any but the most casual NIN fans, as Reznor has made a career out of being difficult to like.

If there were any fault to be found, it would be that as energetic and tight as NIN was on this night (or any other) the affair smacked of being premeditated, from stage moves and knocking over of gear right down to Reznor’s hurling his guitar at set’s end (which, thankfully for late-comers, very much included hits in the form of “The Day The World Went Away” and “Head Like A Hole”).

Jane’s Addiction’s set, on the other hand, started with technical difficulties and rarely got any better. After a film clip mis-fired at the start of their show, they proceeded to limp through a thoroughly undynamic “Three Days.” What should have been an epic return to the big stage for all four original band members after playing a series of secret shows in clubs around L.A. in recent months was instead marred by hoarse and off-key vocals from singer Perry Farrell and an absence of frenetic fire in general.

Though Farrell in a live setting has always been more of a master of ceremonies than a vocalist, on this night, he seemed particularly off. And though one of the most formidable rhythm sections in alternative rock history (drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery) was on stage, the show never really gained steam. While glib songs such as “Had A Dad” and “Been Caught Stealing” provided some momentum, sweeping numbers like “Then She Did,” “Nothing’s Shocking” and the aforementioned “Three Days” were particularly lacking. For his part, media personality/guitarist Dave Navarro delivered guitar licks which frequently came across as dated; more startling was the uncanny resemblance his face has come to bear to that of the mask from the film V For Vendetta.

Overall, a once dangerous and inspiring band did little to secure contemporary relevance for themselves. When Farrell commented during the set that a little technical difficulty couldn’t contain them, he was right – the band did a fine job of containing themselves.

http://musiczeitgeist.com/live-review-n ... -wireless/

[innerturmoil]

That's rough.
It wasn't that bad.
I do think the JA set was a bit lackluster though.

[Mike]

That's rough.
It wasn't that bad.
I do think the JA set was a bit lackluster though.

Most likely B.C. wasn't to happy about who opened for who, the drive to the venue, and / or the parking situation.

I think that the reviewers unhappiness shows in the review.

Personally I've listened to your recording and I think the band sound great.

I dunno I post the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to reviews.
It doesn't mean I agree with them especially when the reviewer can't be bothered to get the song titles right.