Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, Street Sweeper Social Club

NIN and Jane’s are co-headlining what may be NIN’s last tour ever (well, that’s what Trent says now; he’s been known to say he’s never touring again before and then he tours again… maybe there’s hope).  Support is by Street Sweeper Social Club, the smokin’ hot Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) / Boots Riley (The Coup) collaboration.

This photo set will cover the North American tour, starting May 8 in West Palm Beach and ending June 13 at Bonnaroo.  New pictures added all the time so check back.  Image heavy, not good for slow connections!  Slideshow links (large opens in Flickr; small opens here) down at the bottom.

I have put up second set in a separate post, as this first one was getting pretty big.

Justin at Holmdel. As I go through all the images I shoot, I trash the obviously bad ones, and keep track of the ones that are pretty good and are “maybes.” 95% of the total are never used, publicly at least. They’re usually good pictures but there’s no way or need to put them all up; I have to pick which ones are the best, or at least have that undefinable thing which makes me know that’s the one to put up. Sometimes that’s because of what the picture looks like, and sometimes it’s because of what was going on when it was taken. I don’t know if anyone else works this way but it’s how I do it. I go through them and stop at the ones that make me pause for a second. I have three of Justin walking toward me looking straight at the camera, taken one after another, and even though there’s a mic stand & cord in front of him in this shot, this one is the best. The others are sharp and clear and there’s no mic… but this is the one–the one that made me look.

Watching from backstage at Bonnaroo:

Chula Vista: Was not on the rail or anywhere near it for this show. After standing in line in 105 degree heat for 8 or 10 hours in Phoenix the day before, we decided to sleep in and go late to this one. So we weren’t in the front. This was taken with a 70-200mm lens at 200mm, f2.8, from at least a hundred feet away, holding the camera over my head to get a shot through the crowd. In the original size you can count the hairs on his arms even at that distance and aperture.

Holmdel, NJ: no words can describe. Amazing, incredible energy. My personal best show ever, thanks so much to everyone and especially Trent and Robin for that!

One from Camden; I have so many more good ones from here; was on the rail perhaps 2 feet from dead center: this picture is only very slightly cropped.

I got another shot of him flying through the air just after this one. Just haven’t gotten to it yet.

Dave usually goes and sits on an equipment case in the pit in front of the rail, slightly more to the center from his standing spot, for Jane Says.  He was facing forward (I was at his right) but he saw me with the camera and turned around so I could get some good pictures of him.  He and Perry were both really good about doing that.  Clarkston was one of my best shows for “Dave” pictures as I was front row directly in front of him.  (I also have some great ones of Eric Avery from Holmdel when I saw him looking over, pulled the camera away and said “Smile!” and he did, for a good 30 seconds, while I clicked-clicked-clicked.  If you’ve seen Jane’s, you know that Eric does not often have a big grin on his face on stage!) 

Mansfield, MA: last show “at home” for me. I could have ended it here and been happy.Trent often gives a short speech close to the end of the show, and what he talks about can be funny, angry, thankful … whatever his mood is that night.  At Mansfield he chose to play La Mer alone on the piano while talking about a very bad time in his life 10 years ago when he went away alone to a house on the ocean and wanted to kill himself, but he never carried out whatever intentions he had, and now he is at the opposite point in his life and he plans to go back to that same house for his wedding.  To watch him playing that song, which is my favorite of everything he has every written, and see his face radiant in the dark under a barely illuminated spotlight when he said paused and then said “I’m going to get married there,” is among the most beautiful things I have ever had the fortune to be a part of.

Robin Finck getting ready to play at the Chicago soundcheck.

Trent Reznor initiated a NIN-organized fundraising effort to get a heart transplant for Eric De La Cruz, a Nevada resident who desperately needed one but could not get on the transplant list because he was on Nevada Medicaid, and therefore would have to have the transplant in Nevada in order for them to pay for it, but the are no transplant centers in Nevada. Eric’s sister Veronica had been able to raise only about $6,000 out of the nearly one million dollars needed for a transplant until Trent, his band, Street Sweeper, and now Jane’s Addiction offered to help. Trent gave fans the chance to make a tax-deductible donation of which 100% would go to Eric’s medical costs and as a thank-you it was possible to attend a soundcheck and hang out backstage and meet the band. If you know NIN and Trent, you know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a fan, and it is for a good cause to boot. In less than a week Trent’s efforts had raised over $800,000 for Eric. What started with maybe 20 fans participating at the first concert to offer this (Santa Barbara) ballooned to hundreds at Chicago. The demand grew so great, and the time so incredibly long to organize it, that finally NIN had to put a cap on the backstage experience. Skateboard master Tony Hawk joined in at this point and then Jane’s Addiction formally created their own incredible experience of attending their rehearsal before a show and hanging out in the “legendary” Jane’s backstage & dressing room. You’d have to see it to believe it and would be the night of a lifetime for any Jane’s fan.

The response from fans who both want to meet the band AND who want to help a total stranger has been astonishing, and none of this could have been done without the cooperation and generosity of Trent, Robin, Justin, and Ilan; his amazing crew who have all worked many extra hours per day on this; and of course Street Sweeper Social Club and Jane’s Addiction. Many people have donated small amounts which got them nothing except knowing they were helping someone who needs it right now. You can see what these fantastic fundraiser opportunities are below and learn more about Eric and the fiasco he’s been through in trying to deal with the US healthcare system.

http://store.nin.com/helperic/
https://store.nin.com/donateja/
http://www.veronicadelacruzonline.com/
http://weloveeric.com/

Looking at this one above makes me want to cry a little because in a few weeks this will never be seen again. This is the first one to go up from Chicago and was a special concert on the tour–it was just Street Sweeper Social Club and NIN–no Jane’s Addiction, probably because they are playing Lollapalooza in August and don’t want to take away from that gig. All the pictures from Chicago show were taken from the sides or far back of the very large pit; soundcheck pictures (to be put up later) were taken from the rail.

By popular demand: Dave Navarro found this picture and tweeted it, saying “Perk and I have been friends since high school… Found this online,” which resulted in thousands of hits to both the picture and to this site from people googling my name in the watermark.  I thanked him for the promotion and mentioned that I had several nice ones of him kissing Stephen and that brought a flood of requests for those pictures.  Here are the two that are my favorites.  They’re from the very end of the Phoenix show, just before the band walked off stage.

This next image is one of the few I uploaded at nearly full size, to show what a picture taken from the 22nd row–beyond the photo pit, beyond the barrier, beyond the GA pit, beyond the divider, and all the way up to Row V–looks like. Click on the picture for the large version, and you’ll have to scroll unless you have a huge monitor.

Technical notes: this tour was arranged by Trent Reznor as having a “relaxed camera policy”; meaning, they are allowing DSLRs in even without a media pass. Still not many DSLRs that I saw though. Street Sweeper opens and plays in daylight so while there is no visually interesting lighting, it does make it easy to get good shots. NIN starts in daylight as the sun is going down and finishes in darkness. Their lighting this year is, for photography purposes, phenomenally better than last year’s Lights In The Sky tour. Although they have so much stuff on stage (mic stands, keyboards, synths, and light stands) that it’s hard to get clear shots without someone’s face being blocked. But overall, this is much more interesting to look at through a camera than last year.

Jane’s takes the Photographer’s Dream prize here: spectacular colors, absolutely gorgeous lighting design, and nothing blocking them on stage. Lead singer Perry Farrell uses a cordless mic and even has a riser box front-center stage that he stands on frequently. Both he and guitarist Dave Navarro are incredibly photogenic and make many trips right down to the front–all the better to catch Perry’s wild psychedelic outfits. He is not a man who dresses to please anyone but himself! And his clothes make for phenomenal images. I can’t count how many times they traveled over and stood right directly in front of me; Dave especially frequently steps down to shake hands with the audience, wave, and make eye contact with individual people, and during Jane Says he goes out into the photo pit in front of the barrier and sits on a case so close to the audience they can touch his guitar. It’s really nice to see and makes taking great pictures pretty damn easy. Even Eric Avery (bass) and Stephen Perkins (drums) were fairly easy to get from where I was, down on Dave’s end. I’m pretty sure Eric saw me shooting at one point and smiled and waited for me to get some of him, at a time when he was sitting back from his normal standing spot.

The lighting was really fantastic. I kept ISO at 640 most of the time, sometimes down to 400 even. For a few shots I had to up it to 1000 or 1600 but those were few and far between. So far I’ve used a 24-70 f2.8 and a 70-200 f2.8; might try an 85 f1.8 not for the aperture ability but for the bokeh. There’s no way I need a 1.8 at these shows! Just stunning set design; if you have a chance to shoot pictures do not pass this up. Even a P&S is going to work well because of the excellent lighting setup.

Click for large-image slideshow

Thumbnails: as new images are added, they will show up here.  I’ll be changing the pictures above too but they’ll all be showing somewhere and the set will grow bigger as time goes by. Click any thumbnail for the small-image slideshow.