When it was first announced in March that Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction would be touring together, I found myself simultaneously excited and confused. On the one hand, here were two bands that helped pioneer the alternative music craze of the ’90s who hadn’t toured together since the inaugural Lollapalooza in 1991. On the other hand, the pairing seemed similar to one of those that ’80s hair metal and new wave bands do every spring and summer, where a group of once popular acts that would otherwise be forced to play small clubs is packaged together in hopes of attracting larger crowds.

Considering that Trent Reznor has put out some of the best music of his career in the past few years, and just recently finished the Lights in the Sky tour, which was not only financially successful but also one of the most amazing visual and aural spectacles to ever hit the road, it’s clear that Nine Inch Nails wouldn’t be resorting to club tours anytime soon. And with the original lineup of Jane’s Addiction reuniting for the first time since that same Lollapalooza tour, the NIN/JA tour, as it has been dubbed, would clearly be less about ’90s nostalgia and more about making rock history.

After performing its first two dates in West Palm Beach and Tampa, the tour came to Atlanta on May 10, with a solid crowd filling the seats and lawn of Lakewood Amphitheatre. Helping rekindle the Lollapalooza spirit was the Street Sweeper Social Club, a new project spearheaded by Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Boots Riley of The Coup. Though I heard most of the band’s set while waiting in the brilliantly unorganized will call line for tickets, I was able to catch the last song of the set, which sounded awesome.

Surprisingly, keyboards and electronic equipment were then brought to the front of the stage, indicating that NIN, not Jane’s Addiction, was up next (apparently the two bands are switching slots each night of the tour). Though many commented on how odd it would be to see NIN perform in the daylight, once the band launched into “999,999″ and “1,000,000″ from last year’s “The Slip” no one really seemed to be paying attention to anything else.

This version of NIN was more stripped down, both in stage production and personnel, than we’ve seen on recent tours. With drummer Josh Freese and keyboardist Alessandro Cortini leaving the band late last year, the current lineup is a streamlined four-piece with longtime guitarist/keyboardist Robin Finck, bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen and new drummer Ilan Rubin (formerly of lostprophets). And with retina scarring strobes and white lights replacing the last tour’s over-the-top production, NIN relied more on performance energy than anything else for this show.

The band’s career-spanning set included well-known songs such as “Wish,” “Mr. Self Destruct” and “The Hand That Feeds” as well as some obscurities, such as the band’s covers of Gary Numan’s “Metal” and Adam Ant’s “Physical.” During one of his few pauses to address the audience, Reznor talked about how happy he is to have reached a point where he can play “whatever we want” rather than please record labels and radio stations with hits (the band didn’t even play “Closer”). He also said that hopefully in the future bands can play without having to deal with “shitty promoters,” but refrained from naming names.

Other highlights of the band’s hour-and-a-half set included an audience member flashing her boobs (though I still don’t know why she decided to do it at the end of a melancholy ballad like “Something I Can Never Have” instead of during a sexed-up track like “Reptile”) and the emergence of underground hip-hop hero Saul Williams during the band’s performance of “Survivalism”. Williams remained onstage to perform “Banged and Blown Through” from his Reznor-produced “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation Of Niggy Tardust” before joining Janelle Monae, Andre 3000 and other Atlanta hip-hoppers in a VIP box to watch the rest of the show.

While following NIN, who closed with the obligatory “Head Like A Hole,” is always difficult to follow, Jane’s Addiction is one of the few bands that can do it. Despite the contrast in styles, with NIN being more aggressive and melancholy while Jane’s has a much trippier free-love kind of vibe, the two bands meshed well.

With bassist Eric Avery, who has sat out previous reunion tours, back in the fold, the band seemed reinvigorated during its performance. Perry Farrell, in a burgundy catsuit-like outfit, hit the stage with such ferocity that he apparently tore a calf muscle during the first song, though it wasn’t apparent and the band played a full set. I’ve never really understood why people love Jane’s so much, though the only other time I’ve seen the band live was at Lollapalooza 2003. The androgynous chemistry between Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro however, as well as the impressive musicianship of Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins, proved to be just the right combination to show me why people have loved Jane’s Addiction since the onset of the alternative revolution.

From the funk of “Whores” to the celebratory sadness of “Then She Did…”, the band took the audience on an emotionally charged adventure for the next hour or so. And though he probably needs little stimulation to make him as endearingly loopy as he was between songs, Farrell bantered about how he loves coming to “the Dirty South” and used his love of shopping in “the Five Points” (I think he meant Little Five Points) to segue into “Been Caught Stealing.”

A curtain lowered before the band played “Ted, Just Admit It…” and footage from Natural Born Killers was projected across it alongside other film snippets. This would probably have been the perfect time for the titty flasher from NIN’s set to do her thing, but she was nowhere to be seen at this point.

For its encore, Jane’s played “Summertime Rolls” and “Stop!”, with Farrell again bantering, this time about how he likes to eat watermelon for some reason. And with Navarro exiting the stage, the band finished as a trio with “Jane Says.”

The tour continues through June 12, with NIN going on to perform at Bonnaroo that weekend. The last time these two bands crossed paths, it launched NIN into the mainstream while causing Jane’s to disband. But with Reznor rumored to be producing a new Jane’s album, and claiming that this will be the last NIN tour for the foreseeable future, the irony of this tour is all the more apparent.

All photos courtesy of Maryelle St. Clare, meowhousemedia.com