Live Review: Nine Inch Nails, Queens Of The Stone Age, Brody Dalle

Fans were quick to filter into the Perth Arena at the early start time of 6.30pm for what was to be a killer rock show featuring a double headliner of industrial rock gods in Nine Inch Nails and swaggery desert rockers Queens Of The Stone Age.

Opening the show was ex-Distillers and now solo artist (and wife to QOTSA frontman Josh Homme) Brody Dalle, who got the crowd energised with a great set of originals including older Distillers track Dismantle Me as well as high-energy versions of Meet The Foetus/Oh The Joy and Rat Race from her upcoming debut solo album Diploid Love.

Queens Of The Stone Age lost the coin toss with NIN and were up first, with the stage decorated in dark red lighting and filled with walls of vintage amplifiers and synthesizers. Frontman Josh Homme and band were greeted by a huge applause as they arrived on stage, whipping the crowd into a frenzy with electrifying takes of live staples You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire, No One Knows and My God Is The Sun from their latest album …Like Clockwork.

A hilarious moment came in the set when Homme dedicated Go With The Flow to an audience member from Ireland named Gary who had drunkenly stowed himself away in their tour van while they were over in the UK. Homme delivered a few choice digs at Gary's expense before graciously extending an invitation to him to come backstage after the show to prove he didn't hold a grudge. The set was capped off with supercharged versions of The Vampyre Of Time & Memory and A Song For The Dead before Homme dropped and dragged his guitar around behind him and knocked over equipment to a final applause from the audience.

With the stage lit dim and smoke machines billowing out a dense fog across the stage, Nine Inch Nails came out and frontman Trent Reznor got the crowd moving with Copy Of A, spitting out the lyrics out with power and focused intensity while his arms stretched out in an almost Christ-like pose. Survivalism and March Of The Pigs had the standing area moshing away with audience members crowd surfing at the front of the stage. After a few more songs, Reznor moved to the piano for short while to play The Wretched before looping it with a synthesizer for All Time Low. “We're honoured to be here tonight, honoured to be here with our friends,” said Reznor before briefly reminiscing about playing the old entertainment centre almost 20 years ago. Towards the end of the show, vocalist Mariqueen Maandig came out to sing On The Wing and Parasite with Reznor from his electronic side project How To Destroy Angels. The band then finished off with a beefed up version of Head Like A Hole before sending the audience home with a show-stopping rendition of Hurt that was the perfect conclusion to an amazing show from these two rock heavyweights.