Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

Peter Schwartz rounded out the lineup for the
rehearsals in New York, and the tour opened in mid-
September on the East Coast. NIN, despite being
the bigger act at the time, opened, with a
characteristically riotous set.
“There was no intermission at all,” then NIN
drummer Chris Vrenna says. “We designed a foursong
band segue that would slowly introduce Bowie
and his band as NIN and Trent exited. The first song
of this segue was ‘Scary Monsters.’ Bowie came out
and performed with NIN. Then we did ‘Reptile’ from
The Downward Spiral, where Trent and Bowie
shared the vocals. Then our backdrop curtain went
up and Bowie’s entire band and the entire NIN band
performed ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ off Bowie’s record.
Lastly, the NIN band all left the stage and Trent and
Bowie sang ‘Hurt’ with his band. Trent would wave
good-bye afterward and then Bowie’s show
continued on from there. It was fairly complicated to
pull off, with both bands on moving risers and
changing backdrops and scenery throughout the
whole segue.”
It was conceived as a seamless shift, and it was,
when Bowie’s arrival didn’t trigger a mass exodus
from the venue. It didn’t help that Bowie’s set only
featured a handful of older hits. The bulk of the
material was from Outside, and no amount of rubber
T-shirts or black eyeliner was going to make a
depressed fifteen-year-old kid sit through that.
Bowie, to his credit, fully acknowledged this and
seemed to relish the challenge of having to win them