2009 Wrap Up Part II: My Favourite Gigs

In the second part of my look back at 2009, here's the best gigs I saw all year.

The Melvins – Ding Dong Lounge
What a way to start the year!!!! It was a big call back in January to say that I’d just been to the gig of the year, but even then I could tell nothing was going to top this. The Melvins celebrating 25+ years of being a band, performing their classic album Houdini in its entirety, to a PACKED OUT Ding Dong Lounge. With Trevor Dunn on bass. And support from Umluat, with a guest appearance by Mike Patton.

I went to many shows with huge stage productions this year, but the power of three of rock’s best playing such a classic album just couldn’t be beaten. Then to top it all off they played Honey Bucket (the heaviest song ever written) AGAIN for the encore. Nothing could beat this.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Palace
This was my first time seeing Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and I’m so glad I made it along. Not only was Dig!!! Lazurus Dig!!! the most rock n roll album they’ve done recently, this tour also proved to be Mick Harvey’s last with the band. A shame to see him go given the awesome performance from the whole band on this night. New and old hits played with a dirty rock sound. What more could you want?

Propagandhi – The Corner
Propagandhi brought a mix of teenage skater punk nostalgia and the progressive hardcore of newer releases to the Corner stage. All delivered with the passion that can only come from people who truly believe in what they’re singing. Rock For Sustainable Capitalism was a true highlight about the power of music to change the world, not be a commodity.

Nine Inch Nails – Festival Hall
Nine Inch Nails kicked off the first leg of their Wave Goodbye tour down under. I’ve already written a long post about how sad I was to see them go, but I was very happy to get to see Trent’s live manifestation two final times. Stripped back and raw, these performances proved the power of Nine Inch Nails hadn’t gone anywhere.

Golden Plains
After the mudbath that was 2008's Meredith, the Supernatural Amphitheatre redeemed itself with perfect weather for the 3rd Golden Plains. Voted best festival in the country for a reason this proved to be the best weekend of the year. Highlights included Brant Bjork & The Bros, Black Mountain, Mogwai, The Drones and Gary Numan (even if he did seem to be doing his best NIN impersonation).

Ouch My Face / Assassination Collective – The Tote
Two of my favourite local bands team up for an awesome night. One of whom I’ve loved for ages (Ass Co.) and one who I’d never seen before, but won me over instantly (OMF). Ouch My Face’s cover of The Beautiful People was as hilarious as it was awesome.

The Flaming Lips – Festival Hall
At the other end of the spectrum from The Melvins was The Flaming Lips, one of the biggest stage shows I’ve ever seen. I already reviewed this so I won’t go on about it too much. But to summarise, this is one of the best parties you could ever go to.

Nick Oliveri – Northcote Social Club
Nick Oliveri showed exactly why Queens of the Stone Age haven’t been able to kick ass since he left. Armed with only an acoustic guitar this man rocked out harder than most people could with a full band behind them. There were Kyuss, QotSA, Dwarves, Ramones and Turbo Negro songs, originals and more. Highlights included You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire and Outlaw Scumfuc, both of which saw Nick scream bloody murder.

word cloud

Wordle is a pretty awesome site that lets you make word clouds like this from any text you want, or any blog with an rss feed (like say, this one!) Obviously the post about NIN below pretty heavily influenced what you see. I wish it would go back through all the archives of this entire blog and do it though, it'd be interesting to see how that would come up.

On the music front, I'm loving the new Every Time I Die album at the moment, and am back on Cursive's latest album Mama, I'm Swollen because it is brilliant (like every Cursive album). And I just picked up Babes Say the Hottest Things by Mustache!, an old school sleazy rock 'n' roll band similar to Eagles of Death Metal featuring Adam from Murder By Death's "cousin". And finally also listening to the Saul Williams/Thomas Kessler/Arditti String Quartet collaboration NGH WHT, a combination of hip hop and strings which places one of Williams' poems from The Dead Emcee Scrolls over an experimental composition by Kessler.

All of the above are awesome and should be checked out.

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Now playing: Saul Williams - Chapter 18

Wave Goodbye - a tribute to Nine Inch Nails 1988-2009

Today, 10/09/2009 marks the end of Nine Inch Nails. In fact the final live performance of NIN is taking place at The Wiltern in Los Angeles AS I TYPE THIS.

Like many other people, I first discovered NIN with 1994's The Downward Spiral. This masterpiece and 1999's The Fragile are still two of my favourite albums ever. And 14 years later Nine Inch Nails are still one of my favourite bands, and one of the biggest influence on me as a musician.

The liner notes to debut album Pretty Hate Machine (1989) contain the famous line "nine inch nails is trent reznor". A simple statement that sums the situation up entirely. In the studio, NIN has always been Trent Reznor. With very few exceptions every note, noise, texture or sound on every single NIN album has been made by Trent.

Reznor has stated that he will continue making music in the future, and some would say that as long as he is alive and keeps recording, NIN can never truly end. However tonight's show marks the end of NIN as a live act, a very different entity altogether, and that's what this article is a tribute to.

While always full of passion, NIN's studio recordings are meticulous and exact. Live and fleshed out to a full band, the power of the music takes over. Check out this footage from their appearance at 1994's Woodstock.




Nine Inch Nails - Happiness in Slavery


This version of the band consisted of Robin Finck on Guitar, Danny Lohner on Guitar/Bass, Charlie Clouser on Keyboards and Chris Vrenna on drums and was the first to really take Trent's ideas and bring them to a new place altogether. So good was the band that when shoots for a video clip for March of The Pigs didn't work out, Reznor decided to just shoot the band on a soundstage playing the song live and release that.

Nine Inch Nails: March Of The Pigs (1994) from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

While we're on the topic of live video clips, check out this clip for Gave Up from 1992. It features Trent and friends (including Marilyn Manson on guitar) in a studio which they later found out was also the Sharon Tate house, home of the Manson Family murders. This was also the place where The Downward Spiral and Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar were recorded.

Nine Inch Nails: Gave Up (1992) from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

I first saw NIN live at the Big Day Out in 2000. Although they did make it out here during the Self Destruct tour as part of Alternative Nation, I was too young at the time and missed out. In the years between albums, some lineup changes had taken place. Vrenna left to form his own project Tweaker, and Finck had left to join the new lineup of Guns 'n' Roses. With the release of The Fragile in 1999 Jerome Dillon joined the band and Robin Finck quite GNR to come back to NIN. Needless to say my excitement at being able to see NIN was almost as incredible as the show. I haven't been able to track down any clips from the BDO, but I have found some great live footage from that time.

First off, Somewhat Damaged. The opening track off The Fragile, and one of my favourite NIN songs.




Nine Inch Nails - Somewhat Damaged


Secondly, The Way Out is Through, which shows not just the power of the band, but also some of the awesome stage effects for which NIN has become known. Starting with the Self Destruct tour these effects have continued and only gotten better throughout the years (just wait til we get to 2007's Lights in the Sky Tour).




Nine Inch Nails - The Way Out is Through


There was also some amazing footage released on the And All That Could Have Been DVD, including this take of La Mer and The Great Below.




Nine Inch Nails - La Mer & The Great Below


Five years later, NIN released With Teeth and came down here on tour again. This time playing in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena, which I reviewed for FasterLouder. The band at this stage consisted of Jerome Dillion returning on drums, Allessandro Cortini on keyboards, Jeordie White (AKA Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson) on Bass/Guitar and Aaron North (formerly of The Icarus Line) on guitar. Trent said of Aaron at the time

He shows up, he looks shitty, he’s got junk equipment, he looks like he’s just got up and I want to punch him. And then Aaron starts playing and on the first note it’s like, ‘You’re the guy’. He wasn’t trying to be me, and play like I play. He played and chaos came out. It immediately made the band turn into something else.

The juxtaposition of Trent's perfectionism and Aaron's punk background (often relying on noise and feedback) was perfect. Remember, North is the guy who did this:




Aaron North - Stevie Ray Vaughn Guitar


Since it was looking like a pattern of five years between albums at this stage (1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004), and I didn't want to have to wait so long to see them again, I flew up to Brisbane for this tour and saw the band twice. At the end of that show, North toppled one of the massive PA speaker stacks from the side of the stage onto his guitar rig. Again I don't have any footage from the shows I went to on this tour, but here's a performance of Closer from the Beside You in Time DVD (2007).




Nine Inch Nails - Closer/The Only Time


But it turns out I was wrong (YAY!) Having battled a serious heroin addiction since 1995, Reznor was now clean and replaced his drug consumption with a work ethic. Since 2004 there have been 4 full length NIN albums (including a double album) and almost constant touring. After the With Teeth tour finished, Year Zero was promptly released. With Josh Freese (who had previously played in A Perfect Circle with both Jeordie White and Danny Lohner) taking over drums from Jerome Dillon, the band hit Australia again in 2007. This time they replaced the huge arena tour with multiple small club shows. I was able to see this amazing band for two intense shows at the Metro, a relatively tiny venue for such a massive band. This time I reviewed the tour for JMag. By this stage North's influence on the rest of the band was clear and this became my personal favourite NIN lineup. You can see them in this performance of You Know What You Are? (also off Beside You In Time) and I've saved a video of them playing Head Like A Hole for the end of this article, because I want to save the best for last.




Nine Inch Nails - You Know What You Are?


The stage show became a bit more advanced on the following European tour, with some nice visuals used in this performance of The Great Destroyer.

Nine Inch Nails: The Great Destroyer live in Europe, August 2007 from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Next up came Ghosts I-IV, a double instrumental album and The Slip, released on nin.com as a free download. This was followed by the Lights In The Sky tour. By this stage Jeordie White had re-joined Marilyn Manson (who Chris Vrenna is now playing keyboards with) so Justin Meldal-Johnsen (formerly of Beck's band) took up bass and, after quiting GNR again, Robin Finck returned on guitar.

The Lights in The Sky over North America tour was NIN's most extravagant, ambitious and technical stage production. Three levels of video screens were used (utilising LED technology to create screens which could go in front of the band, but still allow you to see them play), along with cameras which recorded the band's movements, allowing them to interact with the visuals. Some of the footage from these shows is amazing, like this video of 19 Ghosts III, which also demonstrates the varied musicianship on display from the band.



Nine Inch Nails - 19 Ghosts III


Also, check out this video of Echoplex, in which Josh Freese controls the drum machine via the backdrop.




Nine Inch Nails - Echoplex


At the end of the LITS tour, Freese and Cortini both announced they were leaving the band. Rather than replace both of them, Reznor decided it was time to bring NIN to an end, and would do one final stripped back tour as a four piece. Ilan Rubin was brought in on drums and previous keyboard/sampling parts were to be shared among the band members, or dispensed with. This would be a really raw version of the band. Kicking off in Australia, I got to see NIN two final times, once at Festival Hall and once at Soundwave. Again, these shows were both excellent.

NIN: Burn Live from on stage, Melbourne 2.25.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

By the time it hit North America, then Europe, and one final run in the US this tour had been dubbed the Wave Goodbye tour, named after a line from a song that was only played live by NIN and never recorded. But such is the dedication of NIN fans on the internet that most in the community (dubbed the NINternet) recognised it instantly.

The Wave Goodbye tour has seen the reappearance of many old rarities and fan favourites in the setlist. Including Now I'm Nothing, the song after which it was named which hadn't been played since 1991.




Nine Inch Nails - Now I'm Nothing/Terrible Lie


There have also been some amazing guest stars. Including The whole of The Dillinger Escape Plan, who covered Wish on their Plagiarism EP.

NIN: Wish live with The Dillinger Escape Plan - Perth, 3.02.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Saul Williams, who Trent worked with on his album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust.

NIN: "Banged and Blown Through" with Saul Williams, live from on stage, Atlanta 5.10.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Gary Numan, who performed Cars and Metal with the band in London (NIN having covered Metal on the Things Falling Apart EP)




Nine Inch Nails/Gary Numan - Cars/Metal

The club shows in New York, Chicago and LA that have taken place over the last two weeks have seen appearances from Peter Murphy, Greg Puciato, Danny Lohner, Eric Avery and Mike Garson. Two of the crowds in New York were treated to a performance of The Downward Spiral in it's entirety, followed by a second set of NIN classics. The second of these shows was filmed, and hopefully we'll see these videos soon.

The final NIN show is probably almost over by now. And I have to say I'm sad to see them go. Even though I got to see them twice this year, knowing it would be the last time, I still feel like we're losing something today. To Trent and everyone who has ever been part of the Nine Inch Nails live lineup, I thank you. For seven awesome shows, for brilliant live DVDS, for the countless bootlegs I own, and for making such exciting music.

I'll leave you with what I've already said is my favourite captured NIN live performance. Head Like a Hole was the second ever NIN single from back in 1989. It's heavily synth based and shows off much more of NIN's Prince and Public Enemy influece than it does their rock side. At least until the live band got it and turned it into a guitar heavy rock tour-de-force (especially in the hands of one Aaron North).

Bow down before the one('s) you serve. Enjoy.




Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole

(I wish there was a clearer video of this available, but I guess you use what You(Tube) get).

Nine Inch Nails @ The Metro, 14/05/07

(Originally published in Jmag)



Unfortunately, this isn't what I originally wrote. It got changed quite a bit. Here's the review I submitted:

I’m watching the smoke build on stage and as it grows, so does my excitement. A marching chant starts up, joined by a throbbing bass distortion. Then the guitar and drums pound in, and we’re thrown into the world of Nine Inch Nails without warning. The excitement continues from there. Having previously toured only in arenas and festivals, watching NIN play such a small venue is something else entirely. “The bass goes bomb”, Trent sings. And it sure as hell does. Like the venue, the set list seems chosen just for the fans. New tracks mix with classics and rarities for nearly two hours of lights, noise and destruction that feels like 20 minutes. And I can’t believe it’s over.

Nine Inch Nails @ Rod Laver Arena, 17/08/05

When Nine Inch Nails last played Melbourne, it was part of the Big Day Out in 2000. At the end of that set, Trent Reznor promised the crowd they would return in fall, their own headline tour of the country. I suppose late winter in Australia is almost fall time in America. I guess Trent just forget to mention that it would be fall FIVE YEARS LATER!

So was the wait worth it? After Wednesday night’s performance, the answer would be a resounding YES. The resulting years between the Fragility tour and the new Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth have been well documented since the release of that album earlier this year. Reznor’s struggles with alcohol, drugs, overdoses and the need to rediscover oneself in a new sober state of mind have all contributed to many changes between the band of the 90s, and now in 2005. Perhaps the biggest change has been where Reznor’s focus now lies. In recent interviews he has spoken of how the show used to be something you endured to get to the after party, but now the whole day is about waiting for the show, and after the show, you get excited for the next one.

This new focus was certainly evident when Reznor and his new band, now consisting of Jerome Dillon on drums, Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson) on bass, Alessandro Cortini on keyboards and synths and Aaron North (formerly of The Icarus Line) on guitar, hit Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. Hardly a place that could be deemed to have any sense of inbuilt atmosphere, the NIN stage-show still managed to fill the entire space with sound and light.

The set was long, and focused. Almost two hours long, the band played 23 songs overall. Including the expected hits like March of The Pigs, The Hand That Feeds and Terrible Lie. But the real highlights were the extents to which Reznor was willing to go through his back catalogue and pull out and rework so many old and obscure songs. Sin is one song which has benefited greatly from being reworked for a live version, but the first real surprise came from the introspective Something I Can Never Have. An early quiet moment in the set, it certainly had many people feeling chills.

Elsewhere Burn, Reptile and Suck were all unexpected examples of some of the band’s best work, while the cover of Joy Division’s Dead Souls kept the integrity of the original while offering a distinct edge to it. Another treat for long term fans was the teaser of Kinda I Want To dropped into the breakdown of Closer, the song which broke Nine Inch Nails to the world.

The main criticism that has been placed on the band’s Australian shows is the lack of violent destruction which was such a part of the mid 90s tours. While this element was missing, it seems to have been sacrificed for the renewed focus on making the performance better and longer. As one of my companions said, Reznor no longer seems as tragic as he once did, but his music still seems so vital. Not many bands in this day and age could play a two hour set in which tracks off their newest album such as Love Is Not Enough, You Know What You Are? and With Teeth can sit next to, and hold their own with tracks from fifteen years ago like Terrible Lie, and everything in between.

Oddly enough the other criticism I’ve heard is that North is perhaps too energetic and destructive in his stage antics. Personally I found that his antics did add the more dangerous and unpredictable edge to the music that a lot of people thought was lacking. His enthusiasm for the music also seemed to rub off on other band members, resulting in broken lights due to thrown mic stands, guitars flying all over the place and Reznor tackling him mid-song. It’s a tribute to the versatile musicianship of the current line-up that none of this seemed to be at the detriment of the music. The versatility was also evident in the instrument changes, with Cortini playing acoustic guitar during Home, White switching regularly between bass, guitar and keyboards, and Reznor himself often playing keyboard or guitar. Equally impressive was the ability to go from crushing loud noise, to moments of intense intimacy, and back again. The devastating Gave Up with all its strobe lighting and flashing red & blue screens was followed by a timid Hurt, long considered the penultimate NIN song, reworked so that most of the song was just Trent and a keyboard. This was then followed by the double whammy of Starfuckers Inc. and Head like a Hole (which saw North jump off Cortini’s keyboard) to close the set in a mess of noise and fury.

The only thing I can say at the end is that I hope it’s not another five years before we get a chance to witness it again.

random thoughts from watching rage

i'm just gonna put any random thoughts that come into my head in here, since nobody's reading it yet anyway.

so watching rage last night, i came to the conclusion that still remains are what happens when the people from the oc form a metal band. the song was pretty average (although i only came in halfway through), but boy are they perty:

i also came to these conclusions:
the following bands and songs suck:
Minion - BLEED THE SKY Riot
Loyalty - AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE Shock
Stabbing The Drama - SOILWORK Riot
Rewind It All - DISBELIEF Riot
We Wait 4 No-one - LUMP Independent

especially lump.... oh boy do they suck. it was cheap amatuer dodgy video work, with five older guys doing their best to look TUFF METAL with leather vests and no shirts and tight pants etc. but the funniest part was, the song just wasn't tuff... AT ALL. if you're gonna be a metal band, at least put some bite into your guitars so you don't just sound like an average rock band with a dying cat for a singer.

the following songs and bands are AWESOME:
The Hand That Feeds - NINE INCH NAILS Universal
Panasonic Youth - DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Riot
My Enemy - COG Independent

surprise, surprise, they're already bands i like.
it's hard to impress me these days. (i'm such a jaded little rock kid).

poor

Mudvayne
+ 2 x NIN
+ Billy Corgan
+ Team Sleep
+ theredsunband
+ Blood Brothers (which I may not even be able to go to)

---

= OMG... where the POOP am i gonna get this money from?

(or perhaps more importantly, once i spend this money, where am i gonna get more from so i can still do other things?)

anyone wanna come to team sleep or billy corgan with me?

also, if anyone in melbourne knows a drummer who can commit to rehearsing to make a band which draws pretty strongly from all those above artists (and respective other bands they all might be involved in), can they let me know? ta. ;)

we are the six nightmares of the masquarade.

seriously, could today get any better?

nine inch nails tickets on special presale. second row? no problems. AND i'm gonna go see them in brisbane too with much thanks to jo for helping me decide it was a good idea. i'm looking forward to spending some time with you guys.

and then i walked out to check my mail. oh what's this? why, i believe it's the 5.1 surround version of with teeth i ordered.

and just to stop the day from getting completely NIN-ed out, the blood brothers tour has been announced. i'm bouncing around to blood brothers (too exciting to put on nin yet, haha).

you'll never see, your wife and children
again, so tell us what was going through your head
when you looked into their eyes
and said "no thanks,
i'll take the hooker again".

(oh yeah, it's the first day of my holidays too. i'm so gonna
enter all the competitions i see today, i'll win everything).

what you believe you'll wish to recieve

so i thought i should write a new blog. but there's really nothing that exciting to write about at
the moment. it's my last week of uni classes for the semester, so there'll be a bit of drinking (which is really just the same as every other week). that's about it. i have a lot of homework that i should be doing but am avoiding. even though it's a reasonably fun assignment. i'm just lazy.

so nin tickets are giving me the pooops. trynna figure out exactly when they go on sale so i can figure out exactly how much i'll have in my account so i can figure out how many people i can buy
tickets for... sometimes the internet making things "easier" makes life difficult. i remember camping outside the newsagent all night for pumpkins tickets. those were the days. and it was more fun. hobo jackets, battery powered tape recorders, candles and pumpkin soup. a good night was had by all. AND we were first in line. i think we ended up with tickets 5 - 8 or
something.

also trynna decide if i have money for various interstate trips to see bands... would be fun... i probably can't *really* afford it, but can i afford not to for the music? who knows. argh.

empathic stomach

over the last few months i've come to think that i may have an empathic stomach. not in the sense that seeing people eat sickening things or being sick makes me feel sick as well. but in the sense that if i'm nervous, worried, or just have to do something that i don't want to, my stomach gets in on the action too, deciding to feel all queasy and sick it also happens when i'm excited about something (like a concert or on my way to a festival). strange.
but the worst stomach feelings are when you wake me up too early in the morning. then i'll take hours to adjust to feeling normal.

listening to hatebeak at the moment (a grindcore band fronted by a parrot - no shit). but my
favourite band i've just discovered for this week are denali (shame they already broke up, they were great). i wish my nin cd would hurry up and arrive. you couldn't kill me to keep me away from that show.

goodnight.