Phoenix Concert Review: Nine Inch Nails Owns the Cricket Pavilion Stage May 15 2009

by Cassie Roberts, www.FromTheCrowd.com Contributor

Some shows, have a lot of hype, from fans, from the media and well from just a lot of great PR, however, after the show begins, you realize its all just hype. Occasionally, this is due in no part to the actual band performing, but in some cases, the crowd itself, or some other outside factor like the weather. In some cases the bar, has simply been set too high.

Here in Arizona, we already have two things going against us, the weather (anytime after March) and the crowds (which aren’t exactly known for being the most supportive, in the I’m going to stand the entire show type of way). Even the most seasoned performer can fail to deliver with these two roadblocks, you just never know until the set has begun.

There was a lot of hype with the NIN|JA tour, after all it is the first tour in 9 years with them sharing a stage… so I have to admit I was concerned, but with my ticket in hand, with faith in Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction, I had a good feeling about tonight and I was right!

I do have to give props to Street Sweeper Social Club. I had read and heard some great things and they provided a set that was unlike anything I was expecting. I feel privilege to be there on the ground floor with them on this tour. Sure, I’m talking about Tom Morello and Boots Riley, two legendary performers in their own genre, but would they mix? The answer to that is an overwhelming YES!

Jane’s Addiction also delivered a strong set and was able to get the crowd motivated and on their feet, however, the night belonged to Nine Inch Nails.

All of the elements were in place for one of those once in a life time performances. Sure it was hot, but there was an amazing energy in the crowd, that was matched by NIN on stage. The sounds, the lighting, the crowd and the music all collided to create the perfect enviorment for NIN as to deliver, perhaps the one of the best performances I have ever witnessed. The set was moving, the stage and lighting were unprecedented and the crowd was eating out of the palm of their hands.

To steal a tweet from Tom Morello (http://twitter.com/tmorello) @tmorello shared: “It is near impossible to make a musical moment in a 15,000 seat venue “haunting” but NIN “Hurt” is that and more. Just stunning. Unreal.” Keep in mind who this statement is coming from.

If you missed this show, you may never forgive yourself, however, you still have time to catch them on tour for the rest of the summer near by. It’s time for a road trip!

Pick of the Week: Street Sweeper Social Club

Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction with Street Sweeper Social Club
Friday, May 15
Cricket Wireless Pavilion
Phoenix, AZ

Street Sweeper Social Club May 09 AotM

Photo Credit: Romy Suskin

Taking the music scene by storm once again, Tom Morello and Boots Riley seem to have another iconic band on their hands. Street Sweeper Social Club, the new band unifying Tom Morello and Boots Riley, first album does not even debut until June 16th, but they’ve already packed houses in NYC and have had the groups first single “100 Little Curses” added to KROQ.

Their debut self-titled album is out June 16th through Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group. The 11-song set was produced by Tom Morello and features Boots Riley on vocals, Morello on guitar and bass, and Stanton Moore (Galactic) on drums.

As if all of the buzz the band has been getting is not enough, Street Sweeper Social Club’s debut tour will be opening all dates in North America on the Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction May-June Tour (confirmed dates below).  The tour will find Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction sharing a stage for the first time since the debut of the Lollapalooza festival in 1991 (as well as the first tour by the original lineup of Jane’s Addiction in seventeen years).

Phoenix, why would you miss this? SSSC’s debut tour with Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction will be here on Friday May 15 at the Cricket Wireless Pavilion.

Tom Morello of SSSC performs at the Tempe Music Festival Photo Credit: Stephanie Baldwin

Tom Morello is a founding member and guitarist of the rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. The two bands are responsible for multiple Grammy Awards and a combined 30 million albums sold worldwide. Morello has also received critical acclaim as a solo artist known as The Nightwatchman. Widely celebrated for his unique voice as a master electric guitarist, he is recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the “100 Greatest Guitar Players of All-Time (#26).” He is also one of only two guitarists featured as a playable animated character in the overwhelmingly popular Activision video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Tom Morello graduated from Harvard University with honors as a Political Science major and has been a widely recognized political activist throughout his career. With System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Morello formed Axis of Justice, an organization whose purpose is to bring together musicians, music fans, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice.

Boots Riley is best known as the leader of The Coup, the seminal Hip-Hop group from Oakland, CA. As a producer and lyricist, Riley has crafted critically acclaimed albums for The Coup that have graced the year-end Top 10 lists of Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and more. They have also received “Album of the Year” honors from The Washington Post, Time Out New York, while Billboard Magazine declared the group “the best hip-hop act of the past decade.” Born in Chicago and raised in East Oakland’s Funktown neighborhood, Boots became a teenage community organizer. From his history of student organizing in Oakland’s public schools, serving on the central committee for the Progressive Labor Party, being the President of Youth InCar (Youth International Committee Against Racism), organizing to build California’s Anti-Racist Farm Workers’ Union, to developing “guerrilla hip hop concerts” (mobile concerts on flatbed trucks), Boots Riley has been an integral part of the progressive struggle for radical change through culture.

Street Sweeper Social Club with Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction

May 14 – Albuquerque, NM Journal Pavilion
May 15 – Phoenix, AZ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
May 16 – Chula Vista, CA Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
May 20 – Irvine, CA Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
May 21 — Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Bowl
May 22 -Mountain View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View
May 24 – The Gorge, WA Sasquatch Festival
May 26 – Englewood, CO Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre
May 27 – Kansas City, MO Starlight Theatre
May 29 – Chicago, IL Charter One Pavilion at Northern Island (NIN/SSSC ONLY)
May 30 – Noblesville, IN Verizon Wireless Music Center Indianapolis
May 31 – Clarkston, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
June 02 – Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre
June 03 – Mansfield, MA Comcast Center
June 05 – Camden, NJ Susquehanna Bank Center
June 06 – Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center
June 07 – Wantagh, NY Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
June 09 – Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
June 10 – Burgettstown, PA Post-Gazette Pavilion
June 12 – Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte

Myspace:
www.myspace.com/streetsweepersocialclub
The songs “Fight! Smash! Win!,” “Clap For The Killers,” and “The Oath” by Street Sweeper Social Club can be heard now at: www.myspace.com/streetsweepersocialclub and www.streetsweepermusic.com

Street Sweeper Social Club Track Listing: 

1. Fight! Smash! Win!
2. 100 Little Curses
3. The Oath
4. The Squeeze
5. Clap For The Killers
6. Somewhere In the World It’s Midnight
7. Shock You Again
8. Good Morning, Mrs. Smith
9. Megablast
10. Promenade
11. Nobody Moves (Til We Say Go)

NINE INCH NAILS & JANE’S ADDICTION May 15th!

Nine Inch Nails and the original Jane’s Addiction lineup will embark on a co-headlining tour that will see these seminal artists sharing a stage for the first time since the historic debut of the Lollapalooza festival in 1991. The genesis of the upcoming tour came about in late 2008 after NIN’s Trent Reznor was tapped to produce Jane’s first recordings since reforming. The upcoming tour will make a stop in Phoenix at Cricket Wireless Pavilion on Friday, May 15. The show will begin at 7:30pm with Street Sweeper, a collaboration between Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine/The Nightwatchman and Boots Riley of The Coup. Tickets will go on sale Saturday, March 21 at 10am.

The NIN/JA tour will feature a streamlined NIN with Reznor on vocals, guitars, keys, Robin Finck on guitars and keys, Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass and keys, and newest NIN member IIan Rubin on drums and keys. NIN’s stripped down configuration for the upcoming dates was inspired by a pair of club shows toward the end of last year’s wildly ambitious Lights In The Sky tour. Leaving the massive production in the trucks for those two nights freed up the band for spontaneous performances including several seldom-aired NIN classics and inspired NIN to take a similarly unencumbered and unpredictable approach to the May/June dates, which include previously announced NIN appearances at the Sasquatch and Bonnaroo festivals.

For the first time in seventeen years, the original lineup of Jane’s Addiction will tour – vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins. The possibility of reforming first took shape in April 2008 when the musicians performed and accepted the Godlike Genius Award bestowed on them by N.M.E. Magazine at their US Awards ceremony. The band then tested the waters with small, secret shows around the Los Angeles area and the tremendous excitement from the shows lead to their decision to tour again.

TICKETS ON-SALE SATURDAY, MARCH 21 AT 10AM

The “full circle” nature of the co-headlining tour has not been lost on the artists, with Reznor recently blogging…

“Towards the beginning of my career in Nine Inch Nails, our biggest break came in the form of an invitation to perform a series of shows with Jane’s Addiction. These performances essentially created and defined the term “alternative” rock in the US, created an ongoing festival franchise that is still thriving (Lollapalooza), set the stage for Nirvana to shift popular taste a few months later, and were really fucking FUN to play and attend – truly the best times I’ve had. The shows were epic. So epic, they propelled NIN to the “next level” (whatever that means), but caused Jane’s to implode. The band broke up at the end of that tour.”

Jane’s guitarist Dave Navarro responded in kind, paying homage to the recent collaboration with the Nine Inch Nails frontman and revealing enthusiasm for the upcoming shows.

“Since our reformation, we have been spending a lot of time with Trent in the rehearsal studio and in the recording studio, working on new stuff, addressing some old stuff and more importantly, creating a friendship and working relationship,” Navarro explains. “It’s rare that touring partners have an opportunity to spend so much time together creatively before a tour. Regardless of the collaborative outcome, our time with Trent has brought forth a new focus and sense of purpose that we plan to share with you on a nightly basis.”