POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Intensity, Inspiration: Reznor and Bowie Together

Plenty of scary monsters were on hand at the Forum on Saturday, getting a jump on Halloween at the joint concert by Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie. Of course, none of the costumed vampires were as scary as the music.

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor designed this U.S. tour in order to collaborate with one of his heroes, but the links between the two weren’t all that obvious from the contrasting sets they played on the first of their two nights at the Forum.

Reznor preceded Bowie’s headlining set with an abbreviated version of the “Downward Spiral” show that was one of last year’s defining concerts. His music is a compressed panicky expression of rage and despair, a monolithic attack that virtually pins you to your seat.

Bowie’s sound, on the other hand, was all sweep and grandeur, with an expansiveness suggesting a possibility of hope, or at least some room for negotiation. Especially following NIN’s characteristic blunt force trauma, his set didn’t have a lot of urgency, and the atmosphere in the arena palpably relaxed. Even creepy songs from his new album, “Outside,” seemed comforting and embracing after Reznor’s unrelenting assault.

If the current musical bond is tenuous, their spiritual and thematic kinship is more apparent: For this brooding budding genius kid stuck in Smalltown U.S.A, Bowie was a crucial inspiration. His artistic independence, and his depictions of alienation, spiritual dislocation and psychological extremes showed that rock could deal with the deepest, darkest matters of the soul.

A four-song teaming by the two artists bridged their sets, turning up some chaotic common ground as they pushed each other into intense vocals on Bowie’s “Scary Monsters” and “Hallo Spaceboy” and Nails’ “Reptile” and “Hurt.” The key difference between the two artists might be the ingredient of punk, which Bowie prefigured but which barely registers in his music now. It underlies much of Reznor’s visceral approach.

Reznor waved goodby and left things to Bowie, who went on to confront demons in his own way, from the set-opening “Look Back in Anger” to “The Man Who Sold the World,” the Bowie song probably most familiar to this young, NIN-leaning audience, thanks to Nirvana’s “Unplugged” rendition.

Bowie’s presentation seemed deliberately modest, with none of the flamboyance or theatrical production associated with his early shows. But by sticking to his long-ago vow to mothball his signature hits, Bowie made it a challenging experience.

The bulk of the set was drawn from the new album, a collaboration with producer Brian Eno that marks a step back to creative form and away from commercial concession after a long period adrift. He also sprinkled in a few obscure old favorites--”Andy Warhol,” “Teenage Wildlife,” “Breaking Glass,” and closed with his 1981 hit with Queen, “Under Pressure.”

Bowie, who will play a longer concert on his own on Tuesday at the Hollywood Palladium, was quietly defiant in his unspoken insistence that this music be taken on its own terms. It might have lacked tension and ambition, but it was engaged and purposeful, with no forced moments. Rather than an assertion of Bowie as Big Rock Star, it repositions him as fascinating if erratic cult artist--one who could very possibly inspire some brooding kid genius in 1995.

* David Bowie plays on Tuesday at the Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd., 8 p.m. Sold out. (213) 962-7600.