This past Saturday I had pleasure of attending the NIN/JA (Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction) show at the PNC Bank Arts Center (Garden State Arts Center to those of use who know better) in Holmdel, NJ. It was a big day for me as I had been looking forward to this day ever since I purchased the tickets a couple of months ago. This tour has also been billed as the final Nine Inch Nails tour.

Some background… Midway through the tour Trent Reznor posted a special VIP opportunity on the NIN website. He began seeking donations for Eric De La Cruz. Someone in desperate need of a heart transplant but stuck in the red tape of the healthcare system. In return for your donation, Trent offered VIP opportunities to his fans. For a $300 donation, you and guest would be able to meet the band, get autographs, pics, handshakes, hugs, etc, and be able to attend the bands soundcheck. For $1000 you and a quest received all of the above, plus backstage access where you could have dinner with the band and even watch the show from the side of the stage. Seeing this as a once in a lifetime opportunity for me (and at the insistence of my wife) I donated $300. I got to try and help someone in dire need and gained an opportunity to meet one of my idols. This on top of the already great seats I purchased for the show via the NIN presale. I was excited that my wife was finally going to be attending a NIN show with me (she’s a Jane’s fan) plus be with me when I got to meet Trent and attend the soundcheck. We joked this would be our official 9th wedding anniversary outing. She was excited. I was excited. Then tragedy struck.

Two days before the concert my wife broke her ankle. Since she had yet to see a specialist (thanks healthcare system!) and was in a lot of pain, she would be unable to attend the show. Which of course made us both upset as we’d been looking forward to this for months. She insisted that I still go, but not wanting the ticket to go to waste, I dialed up my future brother in-law who I knew would enjoy the show and the VIP opportunity. He jumped at the offer and we were off to the show.

I knew it was going to be a long day since we needed to be at the venue by 2:15 for the meet and greet. The outpouring of donations for the VIP opportunity far exceeded the bands expectations, so due to the large volume of donors they blocked out 2 hours of time for the meet and greet to accommodate everyone. There were about 130-150 donors at this show, but others have had between 200-400.

When it came time to meet the band, donors were broken up into groups of 20 and were escorted to the meet and greet area. The band were sat behind a table and you had the opportunity for handshakes, a quick chat and to get one item signed. I brought my copy of The Slip since it was the latest album, limited edition and had most of the band members who were going to be signing it on the disc. I had a handshake and brief chit-chat with each of the band members as they signed my CD, but of course I was the most nervous meeting Trent. I splurged the usual “honor to meet you, been a fan for years” banter, then explained that my wife was supposed to be hear with me but that she had broken her ankle two days previously and was unable to come. I also mentioned that this was something she was extremely upset about. He mentioned it was a pleasure to be doing this and that he appreciated the help with the donation. He also mentioned it was too bad about my wife with a “that really sucks” kind of smirk. It was all very surreal and went very fast, but was at the same time awesome. After everyone had their opportunity with the band, our group gathered around for a group picture with the band.

After the meet and greet it was time for the soundcheck. We were treated to 4 songs the band wouldn’t be playing that night. It was like our own private concert for the donors and I was in the third row. A truly awesome experience. The songs played were Home, I’m Afraid of Americans, Lights in the Sky, and In This Twilight. As Trent said in the soundcheck “We’ll get the quiet pussy shit out of the way now and rock out tonight”. And indeed they did.

The performances started off with Street Sweeper Social Club, Tom Morello’s new band. I had heard a couple tracks before the show and thought they were good, but their performance far exceeded my expectations. Their energy was infectious and performance was top notch. I’ll definitely be picking up their album when it comes out on June 16th and I highly recommend checking it out.

Next up, as the sun was setting, was Nine Inch Nails. I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as setlist goes since the setlists for this tour have been so varied from venue to venue. I had a good idea of what could be played, but I stayed away from checking the setlists of the previous couple shows to keep some sense of surprise. The show kicked off with Pinion, Wish and than Last. From there I knew we were in for something special. I honestly couldn’t have hoped for a better set. Were there other songs I was hoping to hear besides what was played? Sure. But the cohesiveness of the set and unrelenting energy of the band really made this a special night. Highlights for me were Wish, Last, Reptile, Meet Your Master, Non-Entity, Mr. Self Destruct and 1,000,000. Also, thanks to their relaxed camera policy I was able to capture some nice video and photos.

To close the show was Jane’s Addiction. Fan bias aside, I wasn’t sure how anything could follow the performance NIN just gave. And I think I was right. While I like Jane’s Addiction and thought they put on a great performance I had a hard time getting into it. While both performances were loud volume wise, I felt the NIN sound mix was better as it was easier to make out lyrics and individual instruments while Jane’s was more of a wall of sound that made it hard to make out certain songs. For example I didn’t realize one song was Been Caught Stealing until about a quarter of the way into it. But overall they were entertaining.

It’s four days later and I’m still on a high from the show. From the meet & greet to the soundcheck to the phenomenal performance, it’s a day I will never forget. Thanks Trent and Company.

NIN Setlist

Soundcheck:
Home
I’m Afraid of Americans
Lights in the Sky
In This Twilight

Show:
Pinion
Wish
Last
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Reptile
Meet Your Master
Gave Up
La Mer
Non-Entity
The Way Out Is Through
Mr. Self Destruct
1,000,000
Echoplex
Survivalism
The Good Soldier
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
Hurt

Today marks the release of Pronto - All is Golden. Pronto is the side project of Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen. Don’t let the Wilco association give you preconceived notions of the sound of the record. It’s less of the Wilco alt-country sound and more of a grass roots Americana sound. I’ve heard some refer to it as AM Radio rock. I’m not exactly sure what that is (I hear the older folks used to listen to it), but what I do know is that it sounds damn good and you should pick yourself up a copy at the the Contraphonic web store, iTunes or Amazon.

In addition to the new album, today also marks the launch of the new Pronto site. I assisted in the XHTML/CSS development and Wordpress implementation. Visit today to find out the latest band news, tour dates and sign up for their newsletter. They’re also on that hip new thing called Twitter, so you can follow them there as well.

Full Disclosure: The exceptional drummer of Pronto, Mr. Greg O’Keeffe, is not only a friend of mine, but also my employer. While that may insinuate some bias in my opinion of the album, it doesn’t. I’d just as openly let him know that it sucks if I thought it did… right after my yearly review.

Last night the wife and I went to see David Byrne perform at the newly renovated Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ. Mr. Byrne is touring in support of his latest collaboration with Brian Eno, “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today”.

The tour entitled, “The Songs of Davd Byrne and Brian Eno” is just that. The setlist consisted of an even mix of songs off their latest collaboration as well as earlier Talking Heads songs in which Brian Eno was a producer and collaborator. Songs such as “Once in a Lifetime”, “Houses in Motion”, “Heaven”, and “Life During Wartime”.

The performance consisted of not only David and his band, but also dance numbers during certain songs. The dancers added a visual element to the songs that was welcoming and not overly distracting. If they were present throughout all the songs, it would have probably been too much. But a nice balance was achieved in how the dancers were utilized in select songs and not in others.

Musically David and the band were top notch. I’ve seen him perform solo twice previously and this was the best I’ve seen him. He appeared to be having a great time and the crowd was giving off an overwhelming positive energy. The first standing ovation came after the fifth song, “Houses in Motion”, and were frequent after that.

A strong line of thunderstorms moved through the area today which consisted of some impressive cloud formations. What really struck me was the rate at which the clouds were traveling. So a whipped out my point and shoot and captured some footage.

With the release of the Ghosts I-IV album a few months ago, Nine Inch Nails has been holding a film festival on YouTube. The idea being to take the tracks from Ghosts and apply imagery you feel fits the tracks best. And since the album was released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, this is a legit use of the music.

I thought my cloud footage fit nicely with one of the Ghosts tracks, so this is my submission.