Back to the SB Center. I love shooting at this place, a great venue, great venue personnel, and some great photogs who I have had the privilege of shooting with the last few years. This was the first night of a three night stand for myself with NIN/Jane’s Addiction, NKOTB & Phish.
        On a damp, dreary and raining night (sounds like the beach here) and a full moon over the Philadelphia skyline, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and his three-piece band took the stage. And judging from the T-shirts, tattoos and other markings, the majority of the concert-goers were in the house to see NIN. As the band hit the stage and the smoke machines cranked to 11 and the bright back and spotlights, Reznor led his company through a setlist that included "Wish", "March of Pigs", "Mr. Self Destruct", "Head Like a Hole", a song Reznor said they never played before, and "The Day The World Went Away."  When NIN didn’t even come back for one encore and the house lights came up, I noticed that quite a large number of the audience were heading for the doors.
        Then, the reunited Jane’s Addiction, with original members Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, drummer Steven Perkins and bass player Eric Avery, who hasn’t played with them since 1991, opened with "Three Days." Farrell pranced around the stage like a court jester, taking a couple of clumsy spills across the stage (maybe that was from his leg injury he suffered onstage earlier this month or maybe that bottle of wine that he was swigging). Anyway, drawing its set almost entirely from the ‘90s albums Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual, from the rowdy"Whores", to the bouncy "Been Caught Stealing", "Ted Just Admit It," these were just a few of the many songs performed from these albums. Still chugging from that bottle of wine, Farrell’s "Ocean Size" reached a crushing level, his voice sounding just as it did back in the late ‘80s. Then "Stop" trickled into the final acoustic song "Jane Says", with Navarro and Avery on acoustic guitars and Perkins on steel drums and the audience, of course, singing along (myself included) to this song. Actually, it’s my all-time favorite one by them and great to see them do it live. Interacting little during the previous 80 minutes, the players came together at the end, arms slung across shoulders for a final farewell of the night.
– Gary Crouthamel, concert photo journalist