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TAMPA The last time Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails shared a bill was the inaugural Lollapalooza festival in 1991. The bands were at very different points in their careers. Jane’s was at its commercial peak but also about to split later that year. Nine Inch Nails, however, was finally breaking through to the mainstream thanks to two years of hard touring behind its debut, 1989’s “Pretty Hate Machine.”
Saturday was the second night of the tour reuniting the bands and again, they’re at different places. Jane’s original lineup is finally back together, with long-time holdout bassist Eric Avery back in the fold. Meanwhile, Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor is calling this the band’s “farewell tour.”
Reznor, though, showed no sings of burnout before a Ford Amphitheatre crowd of about 12,500, offering a set that was as tight and focused as a fist. He performed 20-year-old numbers such as set opener ”Terrible Lie” as well as a “Head Down” from last year’s “The Slip” with equal vitriol.
In fact, Reznor and guitarist Robin Finck seemed intent on taking out their frustrations on their equipment, hurling guitars, knocking over speaker columns and kicking microphone stands.
Besides the lights and plenty of dry ice, NIN’s show was stripped-down and focused on mostly familiar numbers such as “March of the Pigs” and the set-closing pairing of “Head Like a Hole” and “Hurt,” with a pulverizing take on Adam Ant’s “Physical” tossed in for good measure.
Jane’s opened with “Three Days,” a 10-minute epic that celebrates a ménage a trois as the ultimate psychedelic experience. It wasn’t only a powerful kick-off, it was practically a statement of intent. Rock ‘n’ roll has no shortage of band’s signing the praises of sex and drugs, but Jane’s front man Perry Ferrell embraces them as keys to breaking on through to the other side.
Of not. Jane’s revels in the earthy and the transcendent, higher and lower consciousness, the ridiculous and the sublime – Ferrell’s outfit, a sliver lame jumpsuit, feather boa, top hat and boots covered both.
The quartet sounded well-rehearsed and confident, although there was a sense of them playing it safe, perhaps inevitable this early in the tour.
Still, they were powerful especially on “Ted, Just Admit It,” which Stephen Perkins drove into a frenzy with his pagan-ritual drumming. “Mountain Song” and “Ocean Size” closed out the set before an encore of “Stop” and “Jane Says.”
Posted by Sean Flannery, St. Pete on 05/10 at 07:17 PM
Show was GREAT! Very often bands that haven’t played together in 20 years sound bad and look even worst. The Band looked great and sounded even better. I was shocked that they played nothing off of the album “Strays”, I guess they wanted to go back to what works. I just wish they didn’t play at the Tampa Amphitheatre. When you see Jane’s Addiction it is an experience and it is hard to feel close to the band when your sitting in the lawn a 1/2 mile away.
Posted by j matthew, St. Pete on 05/10 at 09:45 AM
It was a great performance under a full moon. I thought Jane’s looked and sounded like the 1991 group- very tight.
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Posted by Will Crabtree, S. Tampa on 05/11 at 01:41 PM
I was extremely excited for this show only to come out totally disappointed. I can only assume that NIN opened for Jane’s as a co-headline tour and they are switching off who opens. Really though? Jane’s Addiction is a has been band that has a less than stellar live performance. I had expected to mull around, grab drinks and hang out during J. A.‘s set and get settled for NIN. When I arrived NIN was taking the stage so by the time I got settled their set was half over. 3 song’s in to Jane’s I was over Perry’s goofy antics and terrible live (inaudible) voice. All in all I would have enjoyed my self a lot more if NIN was headlining as they should have been.