2009.07.15 O2 Arena, London, England

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:20 am

Well how was the show?

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:57 pm

Review: Jane's Addiction/Nine Inch Nails, O2

By John Hill on July 16, 2009 7:05 PM | Tagged with:Jane's Addiction,Nine Inch Nails,Perry Farrell,The O2,Trent Reznor,reviews

ROCK
Jane's Addiction/NIN, The O2, July 15
4/5

IN A NUTSHELL
Jane's Addiction are still gloriously depraved, but Nine Inch Nails will grind up your brain to season their chili.

REVIEW
"We've been the house band in Los Angeles. We can be the house band in London, with people wearing rubber and getting f*cked up."

Perry Farrell is squawking into a swamp of bobbing black t-shirts, balanced on a stage monitor on a pair of pipe cleaners draped in spangled trousers.

It's an old-fashioned dollop of decadence from the crazed kitchen called Jane's Addiction. But it's only part of a two-course meal, a rich, creamy starter to a main course which might well have lead in it.

The '90s alternative rockers are welcoming back bassist Eric Avery for the first time since 1991, and the set is built heavily on the tunes that blasted out from stereos in the early days of that decade. Farrell flails through rabble-rousers such as Stop! and Been Caught Stealing, and the glittering gauntlet is thrown down for Nine Inch Nails, their road buddies on the mouth-watering NIN/JA tour.

Bulging out of a plain T-shirt, frontman Trent Reznor leans into the microphone and crushes that gauntlet to powder. While Farrell prefers to dance, Reznor's more of a fan of glowering. And throwing things, such as the guitar and the microphone stand which loop across the stage in the first ten minutes.

It's a much more driven, angry, military rally, as tracks such as Terrible Lie are spat across a surging crowd. NIN are still masters of melodies that can set you adrift and then run over you with a steamboat, such as Head Like A Hole. And squeezing two rock favourites onto a stage in one night clearly isn't enough, because Gary Numan turns up in the dying minutes to rasp through his classic Cars.

Reznor has already signalled that NIN will soon quit touring to concentrate on recordings and side projects. But the hordes savagely screaming under the flickering lights know that when you can feel those dark chords hum from the amps, it's not just plain old iPod-downloadable music. It's a goddamn movement, man, and it'll rip off your head.

http://www.wharf.co.uk/2009/07/review-j ... e-inc.html

Post by **Mike** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 4:08 pm

Post by **Mike** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 9:50 am

Nine Inch Nails
Jane's Addiction and Mew

by Philip Bloomfield 11:16 July 17th, 2009

Venue: The O2, London

It’s an odd match up, this line-up. Neck to neck with Trent Reznor’s brutishly empassioned masculinity place Perry Farrell’s swaggering campness and his band’s circus freakshow. If Nine Inch Nails is the sound of a meticulously polished boot stamping on the human ear for the rest of eternity, then Jane’s Addiction is the last party on judgement day, or, by the way the crowd reacts, 40 minutes in purgatory.

And given Perry and co’s ramshackle nature, it’s perhaps fitting that I’m running late and miss the start of their set. But considering that the morning before I had resigned myself to missing one of my favourite bands mining the reformation seam, I’m not complaining. Except, wait, I am. Because the bastards only went and opened with 'Three Days', followed by 'Whores' and then left me scrambling for my seat to catch the last echoes of 'Classic Girl'. So screw you Stephen Perkins, Eric Avery and Dave Navarro. And especially screw you, Perry Farrell.

Except he’d probably like that, the way he’s prancing and shimmying around like Bowie at his most androgynous, purring and preening at the crowd. Only they’re not having too much of it – vacant Reznorites nodding their heads appreciatively but not exactly getting into the swing of things. And all while I’m stuck in the rafters yelling along to ‘Oceansize’.

Musically, the band are as tight as ever. Eric Avery’s return to the fold means that his looping bass is added once more, his thick strings never sounding better than during 'Stop!', as the band appreciatively cut out and let him have his moment. Perkins seems to still remember why he was touted as the best rock drummer since Stewart Copeland, and there’s little to be said about Dave Navarro. I mean, the guy sleeps in a coffin and had his way with Carmen Elektra, so who really cares if his guitar work is as wilfully and brilliantly wayward as ever?

But there’s a certain sense of a band ‘warming up’ rather than firing on all cylinders: the reduced stage space and the lack of any supporting ‘firepower’, plus the rather cold crowd (probably deriding the band as hippies) gives the whole thing a stifled feel. Naturally, I don’t care. They play ‘Mountain Song’; Navarro pirouetting and sending solos screaming into nothingness, before the radio friendly scratch of 'Been Caught Stealing' finally gets the crowd going. Perry Farrell yells and hollers about people wanting to fuck each other in rubber suits, before launching into 'Ted, Just Admit It…', which brings me to my feet, screaming "SEX! IS! VIOLENT!" and mortally irritating the sourfaced square sat next to me.

Yet I can’t help feel sad to see Navarro come on stage before a heart warming 'Jane Says' encore and having to get the crowd riled up to cheer Farrell back on. But as the two sit shoulder to shoulder on the front of the stage, the dull despair evaporates, and I thank the kind soul who relinquished their ticket to me for free for giving me my 40 minutes in purgatory.

http://drownedinsound.com/gigs/42951/re ... 404?ticker

kc · Post by kc » Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:11 am

Since I really suck at giving reviews I'll just post my friends' pix!

However, it was beyond words to finally see Eric again w/ JA!
Even though the O2 was a terrible venue imo it was immense to see those 4 guys!

xoxo

Post by **hydro** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:31 pm

glad you had a great time and thanks for sharing your pics

czuczu · Post by **czuczu** » Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:39 am

I'd missed Janes everytime they'd played and had pretty much given up on ever seeing them but I thought they were fantastic - much better than NIN and well worth the wait. It's a shame no-one seems to have recorded the show, it might have been a song or two shorter than the US NINJA shows but they're one of the tightest bands I've seen and the youtube clips don't really captuire how good they were.

Incidentally, do you know you have the wrong date for the '93 Pyros Reading Festival show in the gigography? Should be 27th Aug

janesaddiction.org

2009.07.15 O2 Arena, London, England

2009.07.15 O2 Arena, London, England

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