Crib Notes

The nearly hour-long drive from in-town Atlanta to The Arena at Gwinnett in the thick of rush hour was probably the biggest obstacle facing Deerhunter as the group took the stage opening for Nine Inch Nails Wednesday night.

When Deerhunter started most folks were still navigating the parking lot and barking back at the God squad who guarded the driveway, screaming warnings about hellfire and eternal damnation to everyone making their way to the show.

But their cries for repentance fell on deaf ears. Even since the early ‘90s NIN has attracted an ironically meat head clientele, and hordes of rural Georgia rednecks guzzled Miller Lites from the backs of their trucks while they hooted, holler’d and gawked at herds of sour faced goth chics in spiked heels and short skirts.

Inside the arena this same culture clash was made apparent by the procession of middle fingers being thrown at Deerhunter.

The group wandered onto the stage at 7:30 sharp, playing to a crowd that grew exponentially with each passing minute. This was their first hometown show with new guitarist Whitney Petty, and her presence undeniably alters the group’s energy on-stage.

She appeared in a cheerleader’s outfit and did cartwheels and headstands, marking a huge departure from the group’s navel-gazing, and stiff-legged shows of the past. What’s more, now that she’s in Deerhutner Bradford isn’t the only one in the group with the option of appearing in a dress.

Strangely enough the noisy textures and wide open spaces between the notes in songs, like “Fluorescent Grey,” “Dr. Glass” and “Nothing Ever Happened” from Microcastle had plenty of room to expand and fill up the massive arena, creating an altogether different experience from seeing Deerhunter in a smaller room, like The Drunken Unicorn.

Deerhunter’s songs slur the senses in much more subtle ways than NIN, and their show of pleasantly damaged pop was a cool compliment to the aural assault that followed.

When the lights turned black for NIN’s show, the roar of the crowd was overpowered by the war drums of “1,000,000” from The Slip, and a rapid-fire flood of red, white and blue strobe lights. The show consisted mostly of songs spanning from With Teeth on up, but the group covered all of their bases. Everything from “March of the Pigs” and “Reptile” to “Head Like a Hole” and “Down In It” was blasted through an incredible show of various LCD and LED screens interacting with each other.

Waves of TV static melted away to reveal the band rotating through straight-up guitar, bass and drums, to manning various electronic consoles. Trent Reznor even played vibes and bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen strummed a stand-up bass through “Hey Pig.”

The lights and the sheer energy of the performance were overwhelming to say the least, and it’s refreshing to see such an awesome spectacle coming from an artist / band that’s been in the trenches for so long. Pushing the limits of what can be done in the arena of live rock and roll is deeply engrained in the genetics of NIN. Panning back over Reznor’s days as an industrial pop underdog to seeing him put on a show of sights and sounds that transcend the typical live music experience is both engaging and inspiring and well worth the drive into the wilds of Gwinnett County.

[Nine Inch Nails and Deerhunter photos at Sideshow Atlanta]

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Tags: Deerhunter, Nine Inch Nails, The Arena at Gwinnett.