Nine Inch Nails (NIN|JA) Verizon Wireless Amphitheater – Irvine Meadows, CA 05/20/2009 Tour Review

Nine Inch Nails - Wave Goodbye Tour 2009 (1989-2009)Nine Inch Nails ripped through amazing set at the Irvine Meadows (or as it is currently known as Verizon Wireless Amphitheater) on May 20, 2009. This is one of the last tours for them.  Nine Inch Nails have been playing extremely rare tracks and Trent Reznor stated on his site that this will be the last tour.  Whatever the case may be, this tour is one of the last of its kind.

Nine Inch Nails - Wave Goodbye - Tour 2009Trent Reznor announced that he was planning on disappearing Nine Inch Nails after this tour.  He has been touring and recording for the last couple of years non stop from the album “With Teeth” to his last “The Slip”.   Having seen him every time he came around since the “With Teeth” album, I can say that this night was both nostalgic and unique at the same time.   He dubbed this tour “Wave Goodbye” with the dates 1989 – 2009 on the concert merchandise (i.e. posters, shirts, hoodies, etc..), yet another sign that he’s ending the band for awhile after this year.  Stripping his light show down and his band

Nine Inch Nails | Wave Goodbye | Tour 2009 | Irvine Meadows | Verizon Wireless Amphitheater | May 05, 2009Trent decided to play rare songs as a treat for fans on this tour.  You can check out how unpredictable his sets are by going here.  This helped build an aura of mysteriousness as to what he was going to play next, since no two shows had the same setlist.  And how fitting that the first song they played this evening, “Now I’m Nothing” is where the name of this tour draws  from.  An ultra rare song that was written around Lollapalooza ’91 era and not played live since then. It was never officially released (although it can be found on the torrent dvd version of The Closure), the song ends with the words  “wave goodbye”.  It was always followed by the song “Terrible Lie” and true to his history that’s exactly what he did (Note: the drum pattern is similar to “Terrible Lie” as well).

They played songs off of The Downward Spiral that are rarely performed live such as “Heresy”, “Reptile”, “The Becoming”, and “Mr. Self Destruct”.  “Heresy” a song about how religion is used to manipulate people was slightly altered live.  Ending with the words

“Will you die for this? Will you kill for this?”

“The Becoming” with it’s unique guitar riff sounded monstrous live and one that I have always wanted to hear live.  “Mr. Self Destruct” began with a drum pattern that would flash in sync with the lights.  It began slowly and built into this masterpiece.  Music like this and songs like Jane’s Addictions “Three Days” paint a picture and draw you in, rather than hand it to you in a plate like 99% of music these days.

Top Tours Not to Miss 2009

Here are the top major name tours not to miss in 2009

  • Nine Inch Nails / Jane’s Addiction – This may be the last time either of these guys tour.  Nine Inch Nails will be going on hiatus after this tour.  ninja-300x300Seeing them at the Forum reassured me they have the greatest stage/lighting of any band I’ve ever seen (except for maybe the Flaming Lips).  Trent has acquired a history of great material and is one of the few artists who is inline with the current market  Jane’s Addiction on the other hand are already having issues just barely a few months on tour.  However, this is the first time since Lollapalooza ’91 that the original line-up have been on tour.  The key member missing was bassist Eric Avery.  They have tried every other bassist on the planet and noone has compared.  The chemistry with these four individuals is extremely unique.  So unique that if any member of the band is to be replaced the whole sound will not be compared to the classic Jane’s Addiction sound.  I’m just praying they play “Three Days” at least when I see them.  To find out more info click here.

James Intveld – Joe’s Great American Bar & Grill in Burbank

James Intveld - Live - Different Show but he used the same guitar at Joe'sJames Intveld is one of the lead musicians in Country / Rockabilly.  He’s got the voice that would put Elvis to shame and the looks to match. With 3 albums under his belt and an innumerable set of uncredited work, Intveld has got plenty of tunes to fill up his 4 hour set on Saturday (December 27, 2008).

Joe’s Great American Bar and Grill is not big enough to fill the number of people that wanted to dance, drink, listen to great tunes and hang out.  Bumping elbows in the first set is common and everyone is swing dancing away.  Plenty of friendly faces to dance wih even if you show up alone.  The further you are from the stage, the less rowdy you likely are.