Bowie and Nine Inch Nails

[kevins_concerts]

Milwaukee is a big city. Not big like NYC, Atlanta, Seattle, whatever, but big enough to host the biggest of the big bands. Bands like The Stones and U2 don't play here every tour, but often enough. But Milwaukee has a problem in being situated too close to Chicago. Many bands will skip Milwaukee, and just do Chicago and Minneapolis. They figure that Milwaukeeans can see them in Chicago. That's true, since it's less than a two hour drive away, but the problem is that they don't advertise up here for Chicago shows, because they'll sell out anyway. You really have to be on top of things to find out about the shows. It was tough in the mid nineties. You had to be following the news on your favorite bands, or have some line on what's going on down there.

I was reminded of this problem, when I was reading about a David Bowie tour tonight. A conversation from the time: "Did you hear David Bowie's on tour?" *Not extremely interested* "Yeah?" "He's touring with Nine Inch Nails." *freaks out* "OMG! No way! Where? When? How much are tickets?" "Chicago. They're sold out." *ack*

I'm a casual fan of David Bowie. I've never followed him very closely, and my favorite record of his is a compilation (or maybe Tin Machine), but hearing that he was touring with NIN just seemed right for him, and of course I was a big NIN fan.

Here's an account of the time:

In September of 1995, Bowie began the Outside Tour, with Reeves Gabrels joining him as his live band's guitarist. In a move that was equally lauded and ridiculed by Bowie fans and critics, Bowie chose Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails as his US tour partner. NIN & Bowie (as well as Kevin McMahon's Prick, Trent's fellow Nothing Records industrial artist and friend) toured as a co-headlining act: NIN appeared on stage first, always playing an equal amount of stage time as Bowie. As the crew changed sets behind a large backdrop, NIN would play several Bowie compositions ("Subterraneans", "Hallo Spaceboy", and "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)"), followed by two NIN songs with Bowie ("Reptile" and "Hurt"). This arrangement was an effort to keep young concert goers interested in staying for Bowie, though in each city few of the younger crowd stayed for the Bowie set.

That sounds like an amazing show. I would love to have heard the two artists performing each other's songs together. That in itself is extremely cool. And Prick was there too. One of the few shows that I'm perpetually disappointed to have missed.