Nine Inch Nails concert review
Published in The Calgary Herald on November 17, 2005
Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age and Death From Above 1979 at the
Saddledome Thursday night. Attendance: 10,200.
Rating: HHHHH out of five
The Nine Inch Nails live experience can grow your hair, increase your bust size
and reduce your debt. It can lower your mortgage payments, get you better
insurance rates and allow you to last longer in bed.
In fact, concerts like this are why people join bands in the first place.
Because on their first Calgary visit, Trent Reznor and his latest assortment of
touring musicians were jaw-droppingly good.
Opening with Love Is Not Enough, the stage was draped on all sides by a sheer
white mosquito net, casting gloomy shadows and containing swirling smoke. As
the net fell away, NIN ripped into You Know What You Are and then a muscular,
fist-pumping version of Terrible Lie.
Brilliant.
It’s been a good year for Reznor. His latest album, With Teeth, was critically
acclaimed, spawned two hit singles and went platinum in Canada. Two tours sold
to capacity, and his band went on to headline both Coachella and New Orleans’
Voodoo Fest, in relief of Katrina victims.
The 40-year-old Reznor leaped around the stage with wild abandon at March of
the Pigs, and then balanced the fury of that track by following it with the
fragile Something I Can Never Have.
The whole show straddled that bipolar line between frail and ferocious,
showcasing the Pennsylvanian rocker’s rare ability to paint the colour of his
emotions with thick or thin brushes.
Though the usual Nine Inch Nails Live members were absent (Robin Finck, Danny
Lohner, Chris Vrenna, Charlie Clouser), replacements Aaron North (guitar),
Jeordie White (bass), Alessandro Cortinti (synthesizer) and Alex Carapetis
(drums) were nothing short of amazing.
The arena stained a blood red with spotlights during Closer, and thousands were
soon chanting the “I want to (expletive) you like an animal” chorus. Burn
perculated well, The Wretched was frenetic, Wish was brilliant, and during a
pensive Right Where It Belongs, Reznor was barely visible behind a screen
playing images of evolution.
“Who would have thought, Canada? Great audiences everywhere,” Reznor said in a
rare moment to the audience. “(Expletive) the U.S.”
Queens of the Stone Age came out and dedicated their set to Death From Above
1979, and the first smell of weed hit the air as the act raced through an
assortment of stoner rock tunes. Frontman Josh Homme was a prescence on stage,
swinging his hips and swaying his guitar to highlights such as First It Giveth
Then It Taketh Away, Burn The Witch, Little Sister, and closer No One Knows.
The quartet had great stop-on-a-dime dynamics throughout the show and wavered
off into a few rock jams that were noisy, loud and generally fantastic.
Toronto duo Death From Above 1979 opened the show with an explosive version of
Going Steady, filling the still empty hockey stadium with so much more noise
than you’d expect from two diminuitive guys. Sebestien Grainger and Jesse
Keelor were tight, playing a half hour set that included a headbanging version
of Romantic Rights, a great Blood on our Hands, and a killer Go Home Get Down.
Both QOTSA and DFA had performed in Calgary earlier this year in smaller venues
(MacEwan Hall and the Warehouse, respectively), and while neither were as good
this time around, both were about as good as you could ask an opening act to
be.
