Gnarls Barkley @ The Fillmore (7/18/06)

Last night Gnarls Barkley kicked off the first night of their official U.S. tour playing the first of two sold out, back-to-back shows at the famed Fillmore in San Francisco. With the #2 single (Crazy) on the U.S. Billboard charts right now, the crowd was starting to get a bit rowdy by the time the band came onstage at close to 10:30pm.

The duo of DJ Danger Mouse and soul singer Cee-Lo was backed by an 11-piece band that included a four-part string section, 3 background vocalists, a keyboardist, bassist and lastly, two musicians who you may have heard me talk about in the past -- Chris Vrenna (drums) & Clint Walsh (gtr) -- aka Tweaker!

Opening the show with Duran Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf" and dressed as short-order cooks, the band played through their only album, the recently released "St. Elsewhere". And considering the album clocks in just under 40 minutes long, the band struggled to play for 60 minutes. But in the end, the crowd walked away happy with not a single complaint heard as everyone filed out of the venue.

Although the audio in this clip below isn't great, you can definitely how much both the band and the crowd were having during the show!



And I had to include their recent performance from the 2006 MTV Video Awards when they had the chance to wear the original costumes from Star Wars!

nine inch nails @ the Shoreline Amphitheater (7/8/06)

The end of the road... July 8th marked the last show for Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails in what's been a non-stop concert tour since March 2005 and that's supported the 2005 CD release of "With Teeth."


Luckily for me, the band came through Northern California a number of times over the past year and a half, in which I was able to catch the following shows:

2005_03_23 - Fresno, CA (opening night)
2005_03_25 - UC Davis, CA
2005_04_27 - San Francisco, CA
2005_04_28 - San Francisco, CA
2005_09_20 - Fresno, CA
2005_12_06 - Santa Cruz, CA
2006_03_31 - Cabazon, CA (private club show)
2006_07_08 - Mountain View, CA (closing show)

Saturday night's show at Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheater proved to be one of the best -- although a true comparison would be almost impossible due to the sheer differences in venue size and setlists performed over the course of the tour. Overall, I'd say the private club show in Cabazon was probably my favorite due to the small size of the venue and the intensity of the crowd.

As for the Mt. View show, Peaches and Peter Murphy's Bauhaus were the opening acts and I was surprised by the energy that emanated from the crowd, especially considering the outdoor setting of the 15,000 capacity venue and the fact that it wasn't a sold-out show. Wish, Hurt and Head Like a Hole stood out the most as the crowd was almost louder than Trent. The light-show during this leg of the tour was the most impressive too, with a 'light-curtain' that fell in-front of the band while they performed onstage through several songs.

Overall, the setlist looked like this:

Somewhat Damaged
You Know What You Are?
Terrible Lie
March of the Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
Closer
Burn
Gave Up
Help Me I am in Hell
Non-Entity
Only
Wish
La Mer
Into the Void
The Big Come Down
Suck
Down in It
Hurt
Dead Souls (w/ Peter Murphy)
Final Solution (w/ Peter Murphy)
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole



Trent was probably the most talkative throughout this show compared to others in the past. He mentioned a few times that this was the best band he's put together yet and was sad that this was the last show... The biggest nugget of news was that he was going back into the studio to finish up a new album and mentioned that he'd be back on the road at the start of the new year -- although historically, Trent's been known to delay album releases, etc. So we'll see if this holds true.

For those of you unfamiliar with Nine Inch Nails -- the "band" is actually just one guy, Trent Reznor; but the live version of Nine Inch Nails this time consisted of:

Jeordie White (bassist from A Perfect Circle and also known as Twiggy Ramirez, Marilyn Manson's former bassist)
Aaron North (guitarist from the Icarus Line)
Alessandro Cortini (keyboardist from ModWheelMood)
Josh Freese (drummer from A Perfect Circle)

I'll write more as I find time, but that's it for now...

Keane @ the Great American Music Hall (6/20/06)

More to come...