TORONTO - It might have been the concert of the summer, even if summer's not for another 18 days.
Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction - two of the granddaddies of alternative music - delivered different but equally stellar sets Tuesday night at a near capacity Molson Amphitheatre.
The tour, dubbed NINJA, sees Jane's Addiction reuniting with its original lineup for the first time since 1991. Meanwhile, Nine Inch Nails' singer/guitarist/keyboardist/gear smasher Trent Reznor has dubbed this trek the Wave Goodbye tour as the band won't be on the road again for quite a while.
Regardless, it was a show both groups were up for, with Jane's Addiction closing the evening with a winding, heady, rhythm-revolving 80-minute set. Led by the enigmatic Perry Farrell, the quartet opened with the lengthy and meandering Three Days which set the tone thanks to guitarist Dave Navarro's solo work and drummer Stephen Perkins' primal, tribal fills.
While the band was nowhere near as frantic or manic in their performance as Nine Inch Nails would prove to be, the hypnotic, groove-rooted nature to most of the material made tracks like the beefy Whores and Ain't No Right soar. Farrell, prancing at times when not using his shakers, appeared strong vocally early on but seemed to fade slightly near the homestretch.
But while the singer reached down deep and stretched for the closing notes to the crowd-pleasing Ocean Size and the relentless Mountain Song, the musicianship was never in question as bassist Eric Avery definitely shone during the gear-changing Pigs In Zen and Been Caught Stealing.
Speaking of stealing, Nine Inch Nails did their best to arguably steal the show with an incredibly exhausting and demanding 95-minute slab of industrial rock at its finest with several highlights, the first being Heresy. Looking like he had an axe to grind the entire night, Reznor at times upended microphone stands, keyboards, lighting fixtures and even himself during Survivalism.
Yet this anger resulted in a gig that rarely let off the gas pedal. From the early nuggets like Terrible Lie and the punishing Mr. Self-Destruct to the dance-rock groove of Hand That Feeds and 1,000,000, the band refused to slow down for themselves or the boisterous fans. This was realized early on when March Of The Pigs from The Downward Spiral had Reznor hopping and jumping around as if it 1994 all over again.
In fact, it almost felt like Reznor needed 20 years in order to craft such a well-rounded set list. Whether it was the rockabilly-meets-industrial feel of Wish which was a maniacal chore for new drummer Ilan Rubin to conquer or the frenetic guitar work of Robin Finck during I Do Not Want This, the band brought the same passion into each number and it clearly showed.
Other highlights included an interesting cover of Gary Numan's Metal, I'm Afraid Of Americans and Head Like A Hole which rounded out the main set. And while one of the band signatures in Closer was nowhere to be found, Reznor and crew returned for Hurt as hundreds of cigarette lighters (yes, not cell phones) flickered in the crowd.
Kicking the night off was Street Sweeper Social Club featuring Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Morello and his funky, hard rock group ran through a few songs from their upcoming album as well as a fine cover of M.I.A.'s Paper Planes.
