Everything goes in waves and it definitely took awhile for my next set to come in with regards to concerts. Eight months had passed since I had been to a proper concert (Street Scene) so this finally broke my dry spell. That is not all that broke as I had broken it off with Donna some months earlier and had starting dating a gal named Nikki. She had good taste in music so I made the drive to Irvine with her and two of her friends to see the cleverly named NINJA tour.

I had only seen Jane’s Addiction’s one other time back at Lollapalloza 2003 when they were newly reunited promoting their new album Strays, which was the only other album in their catalog besides the classic/excellent albums Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual de lo habitual. They seemed like an odd pairing with Nine Inch Nails but they were in their element and put on a good show.

SETLIST: Three Days, Whores, Ain’t No Right, Pigs in Zen, Then She Did…, Mountain Song, Had a Dad, Been Caught Stealing, Ted, Just Admit It…, Ocean Size, Summertime Rolls, Stop!, Jane Says

I had not seen since Nine Inch Nails since they were promoting With Teeth back in November of 2005. The Slip that was released a year before this was still their newest album. Following Radiohead’s lead the album was released digitally on the Nine Inch Nails official website for free under a Creative Commons license with a message from Trent that read “this one’s on me.” NIN is a live force to be reckoned with but I peaked too early by seeing them at the Gorge for my very first time. It was nice to see them outdoors again but Irvine’s amphitheater is just a cookie cutter amphitheater with nothing special about it. I quite enjoyed seeing “Echoplex” live but was most happy to see Robin Finck aka “Lizard Man” back in the lineup.

SETLIST: Now I’m Nothing, Terrible Lie, 1,000,000, Heresy, March of the Pigs, Metal, Reptile, The Becoming, Survivalism, Mr. Self Destruct, The Fragile, Gone, Still, The Way Out is Through, Wish, Echoplex, The Day the World Went Away, The Hand That Feeds, Head Like a Hole