Nine Inch Nails, Bauhaus, and Peaches
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
July 8, 2006

V and i secured tickets to the final show of the Nine Inch Nails/Bauhaus/Peaches tour from Naomi's new man Phil, who'd gotten an extra pair through his NIN fan club connections. In row H of section 101, no less ... a mere eight rows from the stage. After meeting up and grabbing a beer, we went with Phil and his friend Heather to our seats. They had chosen to stick with their seats in row T because they were in the center section 102, whereas ours were on the right. But as it turns out, ours were on the aisle at the border of sections 101 and 102, meaning they didn't have a limited angle view and were very, very close. As Heather is a huge Peaches fan and came bearing a sign reading "Take Me Peaches", i let her sit there with Veronica during the first act, hanging with Phil in row T. I like Peaches but don't gush over her, but she was fabulous. Despite the typically thin crowd (it was only 7pm, still light out, and the theater was maybe a third full), she turned things out. Wearing a leather sleeveless and pantless jumpsuit and painted in thick red makeup, she tore through songs like "Two Guys for Every Girl" and "Rock Show" with abandon, climbing on amps, dividers, and anything else she could get her hands on. The sound was fiercely energetic, and didn't suffer from the possible tape backup Phil suspected she was singing over. During the set closer "Fuck the Pain Away", she raced out into the first section, parading through the crowd singing and giving a lap dance to a lucky concertgoer only twenty feet from Phil and i.

I then joined V down in row H for Bauhaus. Peter Murphy emerged in a coat and ascot, while Daniel Ash was in black save for a white fur vest. David J and Kevin Haskins looked their usual selves, and launched into "Double Dare". The mood was much more playful than their last nonetheless brilliant show on Halloween at the Fillmore, and included "In the Flat Field", "She's in Parties", two songs i couldn't place (a faster, repetitive one and a more instrumental number), "Stigmata Martyr", "God in an Alcove", a wonderful instrumental rendition of "In Fear of Fear", "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores", and "Silent Hedges". Peter delighted in playing with a big bamboo walking stick, which he used to fling roses into the audience. To our surprise Peaches came out for "Dark Entries", and to our delight her presence resulted in a fantastic take on the song, with her playing Peter riding her back around the stage, and Peaches joining in for the chorus ("I came upon your room it stuck into my head, we leapt into the bed degrading even lice. You took delight in taking down my shielded pride, until exposed became my darker side. Puckering up and down those avenues of sin, too cheap to ride they're worth a try if only for the old times cold times. Don't go waving your pretentious love."), which i was amazed by considering this is one of my favorite Bauhaus songs and i could never figure out what the hell he was saying. The hour-long set ended with the standard "Bela Lugosi's Dead", concluding what was perhaps the best of the three Bauhaus shows i've seen since their reunion in 1999.

To be honest i could care less about NIN, and we traded seats with Phil and Heather to let them enjoy the headliner at close range. V and i weren't even planning on making it through the whole set ... she just wanted to see her favorites, and another possible duet with Peaches (we heard rumors she would come out for "Starfuckers, Inc."). However, Trent and co. put on quite a show, aided by a giant scaffold that raised and lowered at the front of the stage, providing an array of lights that displayed low-res images in front of the high-res screens at the back of the stage. This was used to great effect on "Closer", where a single strip showed water falling and filling a cylinder, with Trent standing in front of it. I like NIN but not overly so ... seventeen years after Pretty Hate Machine, you have to wonder why Reznor is still so angry. Could the reason perhaps be that teenagers pay top dollar to identify with his angst? Perhaps. But that said, the set was very enjoyable. Being the last night of their tour, the mood was a bit playful and laid back. NIN ran through "Terrible Lie", "Down In It", "Something I Can Never Have", "March of the Pigs", "Suck", and "The Hand that Feeds" and "Only" from their latest With Teeth. Instead of expected guest Peaches, Trent instead welcomed Peter Murphy to the stage, who sang during their cover of the Joy Division classic "Dead Souls" and then proceeded to perform a duet of his own "Final Solution" with Trent and NIN. Somehow V and i stuck around for the entire set, which ended with a f@$#ing LOUD rendition of "Head Like a Hole" that left my ears shattered. Close seats ... double edged sword.

The walk to the car and exit from the vast parking lot was relatively painless, and ended a show that exceeded expectations.

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