I can't hardly stand it . . .

Saturday I am going to a concert with my brother. We are going to the NIN/JA tour. Street Sweeper Social Club which is Tom Morello's (Rage Against the Machine) new band is opening, followed by Nine Inch Nails and then Jane's Addiction closing. Holy crap, I cannot wait! Trent Reznor (NIN) has dubbed this the Wave Goodbye Tour.

I actually have a history with all three of these bands. Jane's Addiction is quite possibly my favorite band of all time. I think I have owned the Nothing Shocking album on vinyl, cassette and 2 CD's. The second was bought after my first roommate moved out and took it with her. For me it is one of the CD's I always return to. I chose it more often than not. It reminds me of summer, driving with my windows down and dancing around my first apartment. The remainder of their disks are good as well and definitely a stock in my CD collection, but I LOVE Nothing Shocking more than anything else!

I first saw Jane's Addiction at Deer Creek (Verizon Wireless Music Center) with Henry Rollins Band (of Black Flag fame - I have another story where I slept in the same room with Henry during a stop on the Spoken Word tour. . . a story for another day) in probably 1990. I was on crutches and spent almost the whole show in my chair. It was fabulous, but they didn't play "Pigs in Zen" much to my dismay (and the dismay of the boys next to me who traveled 6 hours to see them play Pigs in Zen). Later, I saw Janes in the first Lollapalooza tour in Cleveland at Blossom Music Center. That day rocked with Siouxsie and Banshees, Fishbone, the Violent Femmes and NIN among others. That was the first time I saw Trent Reznor and NIN. He came out on stage screamed "Hello Cleveland!", kicked down the fences to the pit and tore it up on stage. He was fabulous! I recall they had to stop the set 3 or 4 times to reset the fences and drag people off the stage who were stage diving. (I was also at the second Lollapalooza at Blossom where it rained through the entire Pearl Jam set and the Soundgarden set and the entire hill became on giant slip n' slide, but that's a post for another day.)

My brush with Tom Morello came with the third Lollapalooza back at Deer Creek in Indianapolis. We abandoned Cleveland after the wicked day we had at Lollapalooza 2 the previous year and decided to stay closer to home. We had great seats on the front row of the second section. I was thrilled with the lineup because it included Alice in Chains, Primus and Front 242. In the middle of the show was Rage Against the Machine. I remember it well because my friend Peggy and I were so into skater boys at the time (I know, I know I was 22! Mind your business!) and Rage fit that bill perfectly! We had walked the venue to head over to the second stage to see Tool and Luscious Jackson play. When we returned to our seats there were cute little skater boys sitting in our row next to us. (Most of the venue had cleared out to see Tool on the second stage) Peggy and I were thrilled to find these boys next to us and our friend Kate was not inhibited in any way to run right up and talk to them. Turns out it was Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello sitting there waiting for Primus perform. And now my son tries to beat Tom Morello in Guitar Hero and thinks I am cool when I told him Mommy met him long, long ago, am I getting old or what?

I suppose I will see how old I am Saturday when all these kids are at the concert that I cannot wait for! They have a very relaxed camera policy this tour so I will take my SLR and try to get some good pictures unless I an too busy dancing, and singing, and reliving my youth to remember to take pictures!