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David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails- Hallo Spaceboy (live from 1995)
Pro-shot footage of the NIN/Bowie tour from 1995 has finally surfaced, and the duet performance of “Hurt” has been getting all the online hype. However, I find this performance to be much more interesting, because it sums up why the two acts together and Bowie’s diversion into industrial in the 90’s in general didn’t work. A lot of words can be used to describe Nine Inch Nails, but subtle isn’t one of them, and here the pounding beats intensify to create a wall of noise that would ultimately be cathartic if Trent were to scream over top of it. Bowie though is far too restrained and mannered in his performance style to deliver something like that, going for a more dramatic quiet intensity that usually serves him extremely well, (The man isn’t one of the most acclaimed live performers for no reason.) but doesn’t work here, because of the mismatch in tone. By the 90’s, Bowie was too mature in his musical approach to resonate with the kids and moshers in the NIN audience, even if he was performing great material (although let’s be honest, this song is faaaaaaaaaaaaaar from his best), and his audience had gotten old to the point that they didn’t want to thrash around.
Nine Inch Nails- Gave Up
Just so you all don’t think I’ve gone soft after those Katy Perry posts.
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Hole- Play With Fire/Courtney talking to crowd and me specifically/Boys On The Radio
Skip the Play With Fire cover, it’s been the low point of the 3 shows I’ve seen them play it at, at 2:05 she starts talking to the crowd and the guy who guesses the next song right and gets her lipstick is ME! (!!!) You can’t even imagine how excited I was in that moment. AND I got a thumbs up too! In case you’re curious or want to look like Courtney, she wears Make Up Forever Professional lipstick, it’s red and shade 207.
Setlist w/ video links:
Pretty On The Inside/Sympathy For The Devil
Skinny Little Bitch
Miss World
Violet
Letter To God
Pacific Coast Highway
Take This Longing
Plump
Malibu
Reasons To Be Beautiful
Closer/Man Who Got Away
Celebrity Skin
Samantha
Play With Fire
Boys On The Radio
Doll Parts/Pretty Your Whole Life
Northern Star
Thirteen
So obviously the highlight of the show was the moment above, but the rest of the show was pretty amazing as well. It was just as good overall as the NYC shows I saw earlier this year, and much better at some points. The opening 4 songs were less energetic than in NYC, but once they hit Letter To God the show took off into the stratosphere. Courtney’s voice was excellent and she gave it her all, to the point that she was losing her voice by the encore but she toughed through that to deliver great versions of all the encore songs as well.
Show highlights in brief because I’m too tired to write up a full review:
-PLUMP! This was the song I most wanted to hear her play at all of the shows I went to this year, and I had asked her for it in NYC, so it was great to finally hear it, especially since it was the first performance of the song in 6 years and the first with this band. The new band had it down and both Courtney and the crowd were very into it, with Courtney injecting this performance with just as much vigor and venom as the studio version
-Boys On The Radio- This was surprisingly intense, with Courtney visibly crying as she sang the ending.
-Doll Parts- The Doll Parts performance was great but standard, until she added a new half-improvised verse from Pretty Your Whole Life (a new unreleased song that’s only been performed a few times) to the end that was really good.
-Closer/The Man That Got Away- Courtney’s voice is surprisingly suited to Man That Got Away, she goes very low for it and it works so well I think she should probably sing a few more songs low and menacing like that. It gives the song a more sinister and hopeless vibe than Judy Garland’s original or the excellent Jeff Buckley cover. The slowed-down version of Closer she’s been playing worked a million times better than I thought it would from previous videos, letting the lyrics of the song beyond just the infamous chorus come into focus.
-Pacific Coast Highway- Courtney had the crowd sing the “your whole world is in my hands” part and seemed genuinely delighted when people knew the words and joined in.
-Take This Longing was a big improvement from the versions in NYC, it’s obvious she’s practiced this one a fair amount since then. Her performance of the song handily tops Leonard Cohen’s original and Courtney’s vocal proves her strength at delivering ballads, something people tend to overlook in favor of talking about how well she screams or delivers bon mots.
-Courtney was chatty with the audience tonight in a way she wasn’t at the earlier shows, and she seemed overall much looser and like she was enjoying herself. She talked about her Behind The Music for a few seconds, saying she liked the first hour but the second hour was ehh, that her half-sister looked fat, her entire family was fat and thus shouldn’t be on TV, and dedicated a song to Francis’ first nanny who apparently has cancer. She also said she was late to the show because she was obsessively texting some guy she has a crush on, and then asked the crowd who was an overtexter because sometimes she feels like she’s the only one.
- She had on a ridiculous pair of black boots, and played most of the show with nothing covering her panties, which were either jeweled or just VERY glittery and cost $800.
- Courtney actually played guitar on a few songs and you could tell it was her playing, not the “hidden” guitarist.
The only disappointments with the show were that they continue to use their underwhelming “Play With Fire” cover as the start of the encore, and that Honey and Dirty Girls weren’t played, which means I’ll probably never get to hear them live since it’s the last show I’m doing this tour and if they’re rarities now, I doubt they’ll be played on another tour (assuming there even is one!)
