All photos by Sachyn Mital
Trent Reznor began his set with “Copy of A” bracing the microphone alone on stage with the full house lights going before finally giving into the darkness of his soul (or at least his music) and turning off the lights. His act was nearly without pause save for one “thank you” bolstering his tough guy persona. While the band’s set did veer into heavy electronica segments, Nine Inch Nails did give the audience a formidable musically set with an outstanding light show. A particularly trippy visual highlight came during “The Hand that Feeds” when I realized that Reznor and his guitar were not casting the shadow on the wall behind him, it was pre-recorded and purposefully not synced to his actions.
Their co-headliners on this current amphitheater tour was another ’90s staple, Soundgarden (minus Matt Cameron who has prior commitments with his other band Pearl Jam). Chris Cornell and the band are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Superunknown this year but their set didn’t necessarily favor that album. In between howling, Cornell did take some time to appreciate the ocean-side theater and the crowd who came, tailgated (many playing “can jam”) and thrashed to the grunge hits, including the rarer “Gun”. Pictures of the two acts, and the opener Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never doing a DJ set as the crowd slowly came in are below.
Oneohtrix Point Never:
Soundgarden:
Soungarden setlist:
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Been Away Too Long
The Day I Tried to Live
Gun
Black Hole Sun
Outshined
Jesus Christ Pose
Blow Up the Outside World
Fell on Black Days
Superunknown
A Thousand Days Before
Rusty Cage
Beyond the Wheel
Nine Inch Nails:
NiN setlist:
Copy of A
Sanctified
Came Back Haunted
1,000,000
March of the Pigs
Piggy
Terrible Lie
Closer
Gave Up
Disappointed
Find My Way
The Great Destroyer
Eraser
Wish
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Hurt
