The co-headline gig is something we rarely see in Australia from international artists. But in America, it’s fairly common place, with tours like NINJA (Nine Inch Nails and Janes Addiction) becoming something of legend. Finally, Australia gets its turn, with NIN – returning for the first time since Soundwave in 2009 – joined by Queens of the Stone Age in shows around the country, and a toss of a coin approach deciding who closes each night. In fact, it wasn’t until Nine Inch Nails took the stage first that we knew who would kick things off. But before that could take place, the night’s opening act, Brody Dalle got the night started.
The opening slot from Brody couldn’t have been a more natural fit. The Australian-born talent is married to Queens frontman Josh Homme, which gives the pair some quality time on the road. But even more importantly, it gives Brody and her three piece band a chance to reunite with Sydney crowds in something that has become a rare opportunity. I may be corrected here but I do believe this is her first tour under her own name; last here as Spinerette and of course making a name for herself in The Distillers. Man, I have some great memories of seeing that band back in the day…
It’s a pity we see her in this setting though; her music would be best enjoyed in a grungy, smoke filled basement as the sweat drips off the ceiling. But we take what we can get. And what we got was half an hour of no-holds-barred rock, as a blonde haired Brody screamed into the mic and showed off her unsurprising tenacity of being a ballin’ rock n’ roll babe. Songs from the set were loud, unforgiving and intense in their energy, even if the crowd didn’t offer the same in reply. Though, she did hype things up by calling the night like “razor blades in your eyeballs. Sounds good to me”. Strangely, it did to me too. Before she left the stage, she pumped out a track which had some insanely impressive bass work in it, as the guitar screamed with distortion. I didn’t catch its name as I’m assuming it was a track from her upcoming debut album Diploid Love, out late April, but I do know this: it’s about now I wished I had brought ear plugs.
After less than 20 minutes of set up time, the music started building in anticipation for the next band. The testing of the epic lights suggested it would be Nine Inch Nails first, and indeed, as the music grew in all its ambient splendour, and the smoke filled the room, it was clear it would be Trent and his troupe (a three piece) who emerged first, kicking things off as house lights still illuminated the room, with the track “Somewhat Damaged” followed by “1,000,000” and “Letting You”. The lights were epic and it wasn’t long before they went back into their back catalogue with “Terrible Lie” and “March of the Pigs”, which whipped the crowd into a frenzy, ahead of a wonderful cacophony of noise leading into, appropriately, “Piggy”, during which Trent had his face illuminated by a man with a light in a world of blue and purple light, and Trent moved into the crowd before jumping back and smashing away on the keys. It was a beautiful thing.
The rest of the set (the setlist of which will be posted soon), kept working in this fashion, working in chunks of best known material and more recent additions to the repertoire. There was “Came Back Haunted” and the brilliant “Copy of A” off Hesitation Marks, an album which translates brilliantly live. You had “Survivalism” and “Only” come side by side, moving into the classic “Wish” (a highlight of the night), with “Gave Up” all the way to “Head Like a Hole” and “Hurt”, which closed out the set. Needless to say, there was something to keep all the fans happy.
Though the light show was nothing short of outstanding – certainly the best I’ve seen in recent memory – it wasn’t the sort of production we’d seen in recent US shows, which was disappointing. Given these were the biggest non-festival shows they’ve ever done in Australia, it’s surprising we were once again given the stripped back performance. In fact, these were the most stripped back shows I’ve ever seen in the country from the band. In the circumstances, even in the co-headlining scenario, that’s a surprising outcome.
All the same, it’s hard to argue one can be ultimately disappointed by a NIN show. They play some of your favourite songs, entice you with some newer material (and perhaps some stuff you missed) and all in all, remind us what makes Nine Inch Nails the musical masters they are: there is rarely a chord misspoken, a riff not considered or a moment without expert precision. This is a band who deliver one hell of a show and make some incredible music to boot. Though they very much kept it to the music, with room for only a quick thank you from Trent. Normally I’d expect more, but we do want them to fit in is much as they can.
Hard to believe the night wasn’t even close to being over yet. Tonight it was Queens of the Stone Age‘s turn to take us home. With a massive screen behind them, and an impressive light show in its own right, it seemed the production value was here – indeed the five piece had the same set up here as when I saw them at Austin City Limits Festival. They wasted no time jumping into proceedings with with “Millionare” and knocking out “No One Knows” before rocking into the new stuff with “God Is the Sun” and then straight back in time with “Burn The Witch”, ensuring this would be a night travelling smoothly through the group’s discography. And indeed it was. As they expertly pushed out songs new and old, albeit with a reasonable slant to their latest LP …Like Clockwork, it was hard to choose any particular favourites. It, like their albums, was a night of consistent quality. Josh and the boys added in jams where they could, changed things up in the older tracks and made sure we were always getting exactly what we’d come to see: a stellar live band.
New tracks like “Smooth Sailing”, “I Sat By The Ocean” and “If I Had a Tail” (a song “about telling a man to go fuck himself”) went down a treat, though others like “Fairweather Friends” (great on record) got a bit lost in the mix. And one can’t get enough of the standards, the cowbell drenched “Little Sister” was phenomenal, while the desert sessions classic “I Wanna Make It Wit Chu” was a highlight of the night and the jam during “Better living Through Chemistry” was something of legend, while the visual show behind them helped add that extra oomph we like to see in these arena sets. The only disappointment being there were no surprises, no collaborations and nothing really to make us say “hey, this whole co-headline experience was something special”. At the end of the day, we just had three bands play some great music. And I guess there’s nothing wrong with that.
Overall, the night belonged to Queens of the Stone Age. I imagine a switching of roles, which will no doubt happen tomorrow night (in their second Sydney show), will shift the dynamic, and it will be interesting to see how that changes from night to night. But for their first Australian night of the tour, they came, they rocked – and while they didn’t quite rock our socks off, they certainly gave us a night to remember.
Remaining Tour Dates and Details are here: http://www.frontiertouring.com/ninqotsa
