May 22, 2009
Shoreline Amphitheater
Review by Sam Prestianni
Photos by Christopher Victorio
Better Than:
Friday night, as I made my way into the Shoreline, I interviewed dozens of fellow concertgoers, asking who they were there to see: Jane's Addiction or Nine Inch Nails? Overwhelmingly, NIN got the thumbs up. So I figured Trent Reznor's industrial rock project, which enjoyed its heyday in the early '90s but has continued to sporadically crank out new albums, would be the headliner. I was wrong.
NIN hit the stage shortly before sunset and seemed silly in the sunlight. Wearing a pitch-black, tight T-shirt, jeans, and neatly coiffed dyed hair, Reznor looked like a suburban single dad trying to act cool for his kids. But without the added drama of darkness and disorienting spotlights, his tough-guy posture came across as little more than wannabe-angsty affectation.
