Bawley (Hearts) 2009: Top 5 Concerts of the Year: Hummer

5. ATP – The Breeders, Minehead, 15-17/5/2009

The combination of The Bronx’s head smashing punk, CSS’s Brazilian carnival, Bon Iver’s emotional retelling of For Emma, Holy Fuck’s free beers, Mariarchi el Bronx’s guitarrón, Deerhunter’s daydream pop, The Breeders’ classic headline set and luxury indoor camping made for a perfect weekend on the Somerset coast. (photos, knitting)

4. Phoenix, O2 Academy, Birmingham, 24/10/2009

Still largely under the radar in the UK, Phoenix brought their delicious pop songs to an ever appreciative crowd. (review)

3. Datarock, Thekla, Bristol, 23/11/2009

The Boat That Rocked: When I think of bands on boats I get images of tired old crooners wobbling away to greys in Hawaiian shirts. Datarock on the Thekla was anything but tired, though they did play a cover of (I’ve Had The) Time Of My Life that would do Jack Jones proud (review).

2. Massive Attack, O2 Academy, Birmingham, 22/09/2009

Debuting new tracks alongside classics, Massive Attack proved they are still as angry and essential as ever. (review)

1. Nine Inch Nails and Janes Addiction, O2 Arena, London, 15/07/2009

These two behemoths of 90s alternative rock came together for a mind blowing stadium rock show.

The freshly reformed Jane’s Addiction pulled off a performance so good you could be forgiven for thinking they had never been away, before Nine Inch Nails played their rawest, rockest set in years with the urgency of a band trying to get noticed, not say goodbye. (review)

Holy Crap! Soundwave 2010

Since its 2004 inception the Soundwave festival has grown from a single stage at Perth’s Gravity Games in to a (nearly) national touring festival committed to presenting the best Australian and International (mostly American) hard rock, metal, punk and hardcore bands available.

The Nine Inch Nails headlines in 2009 were the festivals best attended and most successful yet and if the 2010 line up is anything to go by 2010 might just go one better.

One of alternative rock’s legendary bands Faith No More will headline with more than adequate support from emo-opera stars My Chemical Romance the inform and hopefully fully fit Jane’s Addiction, goth punks A.F.I., and the Heart On inducing Eagles of Death Metal.

Further down the bill Isis, Mesuggah, Trivium and Clutch should please the metal heads, while the punk kids can look forward to pogoing to Taking Back Sunday, Alexisonfire, The Get Up Kids and Paramore.

Soundwave 2010 will be held in Brisbane on Febuary 20th, Sydney the 21st, Melbourne 26th, Adelaide 27th and Perth on the 1st March 2010.

Here is the line up so far:

Faith No More
My Chemical Romance
Jane's Addiction
Afi
Paramore
HIM
Alexisonfire
Taking Back Sunday
Trivium
Sunny Day Real Estate
Eagles Of Death Metal
The Get Up Kids
Anti Flag
Reel Big Fish
Meshuggah
All Time Low
A Day To Remember
It Dies Today
Escape The Fate
Clutch
Isis
Gallows
A Wilhelm Scream
The Weakerthans
Emarosa
Anvil
The Devil Wears Prada
Comeback Kid
The Almost
Dance Gavin Dance
Four Year Strong
You Me At Six
Whitechapel
The Aquabats
Rolo Tomassi
Baroness
Rx Bandits
Maximum The Hormone
The Creepshow

Head to http://www.soundwavefestival.com for more Soundwave news.

Live Review: Nine Inch Nails & Jane’s Addiction, O2 Arena, London, 15/07/2009

Arriving at the O2 late I find my seat just as a stage sized Kevin Bacon introduces Jane’s Addiction. (like this)

With no new material the reformed Jane’s Addiction are all about the hits and the characters.

The hits, they are all there, starting with the epic Three Days, before the dirty Whores and mind expanding Ocean Size. The real highlight comes mid-set when the huge Mountain Song is followed by the radio friendly Been Caught Stealing and the violent Ted, Just Admit It....

The characters are lively as ever: Perry Farrell prances around shaking his ‘maracas’ over every inch of the stage. Dave Navarro shirtless (of course) and posing (of course) as he shreds away on the guitar, Eric Avery rumbles out some massive baselines and drummer Stephen Perkins was at his thumping best in one of his last shows before succumbing to the arm infection that caused the cancellation of the band’s Australian tour.

Jane’s Addiction close out their set with Stop! before returning for the acoustic guitar, steel drum laden Jane Says.

I have just enough time to get an over-priced beer and bad hotdog before Nine Inch Nails wander onto the stage - with the house lights still on and stage fully lit up, what looks like a last minute sound check quickly becomes the opening song Now I’m Nothing. It is not until the starting crash of Terrible Lie that the lights go off, plunging the band into their more familiar darkness.

This is the bands Wave Goodbye tour, and tonight their last ever UK headline show. Predictably the set list focuses more on the band’s 20 year legacy than promoting their latest releases. That said, 1,000,000 from last year’s free download album The Slip proves as powerful as anything else in the amped up first half of the set.

Hersey, March of The Pigs, The Becoming, I’m Afraid Of Americans - the hard rock tracks kept coming for well over an hour of rock, punk, metal and industrial noise, until a welcome break is provided in the form of the more delicate La Mer and The Fragile.

The volume is turned back up and second half of the show kicks off again, Non-Entity, The Big Come Down, Wish and Survivalism prove popular but the biggest cheer of the night comes when the band is joined on stage by Gary Numan.

Numan, an early Nine Inch Nails influence and more recently guest star on The Might Boosh, sings Metal (which was covered by NIN on the Things Falling Apart EP) before a roof raising version of Cars.

The Hand That Feeds and Head Like A Hole close the main set before the band return to the stage to play Hurt for the last time on UK soil, with everyone in the 20,000 seat stadium singing along and waving goodbye.

Metal (w/ Gary Numan):

The Fragile:

Splendour is Back and the line up is bigger than ever.

Starting with the reformed Jane’s Addiction who should be fresh of their NINJA shows with Nine Inch Nails will bring their OTT stage antics to Byron as will The Flaming Lips back in the country for the first time in ‘who knows?’.

Bawley favourites The Gutter Twins, Bloc Party and MGMT for Bloc Party and MGMT the Splendour shows will be their only Australian performances for 2009.

Of course there is also a great list of up and coming and established Aussie bands excitingly this includes the stars of the last two Bawley sponsored Friday Freebie stars The Middle East, and Bob Evans, along with Midnight Juggernauts, Decoder Ring, Josh Pyke, Birds of Tokyo, and Lost Valentinos.

Line up so far:

Bloc Party
The Flaming Lips
Jane’s Addiction
MGMT
Hilltop Hoods
Grinspoon
Midnight Juggernauts
The Specials
Sarah Blasko
Augie March
Josh Pyke
Friendly Fires,
Little Birdy
Birds Of Tokyo
The Gutter Twins
Manchester Orchestra
Yuksek
Bob Evans
White Lies
Kram
Yves Klein Blue
Decoder Ring
Lost Valentinos
Leader Cheetah
Jack Ladder
The Middle East
Polaroid Fame
Glass Towers

The event takes place on the Saturday July 25th and Sunday July 26th 2009, Belongil Fields, Byron Bay.

Tickets will go on sale and no doubt sell out on 14th May.

NIN|JA make it 3 for Friday

Last month we told you Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction were teaming up for a series of farewell|welcome back shows. It seems there is more to the NIN|JA relationship than we were led to believe, Jane’s Addiction have been re-recording some old tracks and working on a few new ones with Trent Reznor acting as producer.

You can get a free taste of these tracks plus previously unreleased Nine Inch Nails and Street Sweeper tracks on Seed 5 the NIN|JA tour EP. Download from http://ninja2009.com

NIN|JA EP track listing:

1. Jane's Addiction - Chip Away
2. Nine Inch Nails - Not So Pretty Now
3. Street Sweeper - Clap For The Killers
4. Jane's Addiction - Whores
5. Nine Inch Nails - Non-Entity
6. Street Sweeper - The Oath

With 3 Friday Freebies from 5 Artists giving you 107 mp3s there is no excuse for you not to enjoy the weekend.

A Wave Goodbye

Twenty years after their first releases it is time for Nine Inch Nails to disappear for a while is the key message from Trent Reznor’s latest post on nin.com.

Before they wave goodbye Nine Inch Nails will be doing a string of less choreographed shows with support from Jane's Addiction.

Read the full text for yourself here.