When David Bowie joined Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails onstage Friday night at Starplex, it was a summit of the existential-rock superpowers: the dark-visioned Thin White Duke meets the Pale White Nihilist.
The black-clad Nails opened the show with Mr. Reznor throwing mock temper tantrums and wailing, "I hate myself." Mr. Bowie and his icy seven-piece band closed it, singing "If only there was some kind of future" and "this chaos is killing me."
With all this anguish pouring from the stage, it's a good bet none of the 18,500 fans left the concert whistling Happy Trails. Yet despite the overload of angst, both acts also gave fans reason to rejoice.
Mr. Reznor and the Nails connected with their typically over-the-top showmanship. Trashing his microphone stand and tackling guitarist Robin Finck, the singer played the part of raging rock star with abandon. And while the mood of the band's music was bleaker than a roomful of dead puppies, there was a cathartic power to songs like "Sanctified," "Burn," and "March of the Pigs."
The bulk of the crowd had clearly come to see the Nails: The second the band came onstage, hundreds of fans surged past security guards toward the makeshift mosh pit at the front of the stage. The second Mr. Bowie's band came on, thousands headed for the parking lots.
But almost everyone had the good sense to stick around for the 25-minute Bowie/Nails duet at midshow. The pairing didn't always fly: Mr. Reznor sounded like a sick calf trying to harmonize with Mr. Bowie on "Scary Monsters." But the two singers fared better on the slow, dramatic "Hurt," and "Hallo Spaceboy," which seemed like an industrial-rock update of "Space Oddity," thanks to the Nails' pile-driving rhythms.
If you didn't count his version of "Under Pressure" (a tune he cut with Queen), Mr. Bowie lived up to his 1990 vow never to play his hits again. So instead of "Young Americans" or "Golden Years," he devoted most of his set to songs from his new concept album, Outside. On CD, the work is dense and confusing, as Mr. Bowie plays the roles of an old man, a 14-year-old girl and a 46-year-old "tyrannical futurist."
But in concert, where lyrics barely count, the foreboding "We Prick You" and the futuristic R&B number "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town" succeeded on their music alone. Mr. Bowie also dug out a few oldies, including "Andy Warhol" and "The Man Who Sold The World" -- not because it was a hit for Mr. Bowie, but because Nirvana recorded it.
-- transcribed by kate mccormack