Being confined in a small dark room snout-to-snout with Trent Reznor and his music for two-and-a-half hours -- which was the case at Nine Inch Nails' "goodbye tour" show Saturday at New York City's tiny Bowery Ballroom -- is a rather startling experience for everyone involved.

"We have a lot of emotion to get through tonight," Eddie Vedder said winkingly at the beginning of Pearl Jam's two-night Chicago stand that kicked off their U.S. tour. "Let's get through it together."

Pearl Jam have a habit of handpicking various indie rock underdogs as their opening acts, like Ted Leo, who was set to open the first stop on the Seattle band's North American tour Friday night in Toronto. Sadly, weather prevented Leo from making his 7:30 P.M. set time. No worries. Pearl Jam had an excellent back-up opening band on hand: Pearl Jam.

At most gigs, "We're going to play a new song" is code for "If you need a bathroom break, now's the time!" But when the new songs are as excellent -- and as plentiful -- as they were at Islands' tour opener Wednesday night at Brooklyn's Bell House, the call of nature must wait.

Tributes to Michael Jackson have come by the barrelful in recent weeks, but rarely from a source as unexpected as Pearl Jam.

The Flaming Lips have always been about big ideas: In 1997, it was Zaireeka, an experimental release comprising four CD's designed to be played simultaneously; in 2002, it was Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, a concept album so theatrical the band decided to adapt it into a Broadway musical with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin; and come Oct.

On Saturday night, Seattle indie rockers Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band captured a rare piece of rock history by becoming the first band in the continental U.S. to ever play on an active volcano. The fact that the quintet played the volcano in which they take their name, Washington State's Mt. St.

Even at 57, Chrissie Hynde has still got it. After three decades, one of the Pretenders’ two remaining original members (drummer Martin Chambers is the other one) has held onto her provocative snarl and influential biker chick style.

As if there weren't enough bands cluttering Chicago this past weekend, Them Crooked Vultures -- featuring Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme on guitar and vocals, Dave Grohl on drums, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass and keytar (!), and longtime Queens cohort Alain Johannes on rhythm guitar -- made their not-so-secret debut at the hot, sweaty, and overpacked Metro midnight Sunday.

Shortly before Depeche Mode took the stage to close out a frustratingly first damp day of Lollapalooza on Friday, the rain stopped. Too bad, because if any band could've benefited from a dark and stormy night, it was these longtime British merchants of seductive gloom, who put on a solid 17 song set that, while played with passion and heavy on crowd-pleasers, was just short of magical.