Live Review

NIN/JA – O2 Arena, london

• 22nd Jul 2009

The last few times Nine Inch nails have been in town was to play mid size venues such as the Brixton Academy and the Astoria. Here he is at last playing on a larger scale, with Jane’s Addiction in tow now less and the surprise appearance near the climax of Gary Numan.

This event is of course to mark the possible end of Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor has other things on his mind so a much needed break is what he feels may be the cure. And what better way to send this off than to tour with the band he first hit the road with when both bands were back at their beginnings.

The set up may be pretty, but there is one thing that threatens to kill a lot of people’s mood right from the get go. It’s called Ticket Collection. Now organisers and bands alike may be trying to clamp down on touts, but this increases the time that people have to queue on the day with their photo ID’s to pick up- their tickets and sadly a lot of people (out in the rain) don’t get to see Jane’s Addiction come on stage. This of course applies to those people who are coming to the show after work. The idea of making sure a wider range of fans get access to buying tickets is a sound idea; but in practise it costs a lot of people show time.

Jane’s Addiction play a fairly sombre set. A lot of the songs go on for a long time and both Perry and Dave are on fine performing form. It becomes very clear quite soon just why Navarro has such a reputation. He can both play and move on the stage and address the crowd with respect and love. They finish on favourite “Jane Says” which leaves a now warmed up crowd excited for the eventual appearance of the main act.

Trent doesn’t waste any time on stage and gets right into popular opener “Terrible Lie.” Quite often NIN don’t mess around too much with the songs they play. Here though almost every song selected for the bill is tweaked, extended, and sometimes even only referenced. Almost everything is tried out except playing them they way you hear on the albums. With his back catalogue to hand there is an almost insurmountable track list that can easily be distorted and messed around with. “Terrible Lie” is taken to almost euphoric levels that you’d half expect him to throw an arm in the air and exit the stage upon its climax. Instead he continues on through each song like it literally was the last time he would ever have a chance to play them.

Reznor powers on through, and even becomes a backing musician when he announces the appearance of Gary Numan on stage for a couple of songs including “Cars.” Oddly enough there isn’t any say as far as fan favourites “Closer” and “Sin” go, but then for avid fans it makes a nice break from the norm. Reznor doesn’t really seem to play encores here, so he powers right through to the end, and as much as he likes to open with “Terrible Lie” he opts, as ever, to close with “Hurt.”

It is a startling performance, and his band – including the return of guitarist Robin Finck – put in a powerful show. If it is the end then it’s a show to remember as one of his best. With his track record it must seem near impossible each time to beat himself, but he continues to do it in style.