Nine Inch Nails... live!
For the past week or so I had begun to regret not buying a ticket to Friday's Nine Inch Nails show. They were absolutely my favorite band for such a long time, but I was so disappointed in With Teeth that I didn't wanna go... I didn't wanna hear that shit live. And I was fairly content with my decision not to go until it came closer to the actual concert, and all of my friends were talking about it, and EVERYONE was going, including my little sister of all people...
Thursday was a bad day anyway, so I went to bed in a bad mood, irritated that I'd have to go to work the next day (the ONLY day I was scheduled to work this week, mind you) and that Saturday I'd get to hear about how fucking great the concert was and how I should have been there...
I checked my e-mail as soon as I woke up Friday and there was an e-mail from my buddy Jeb saying he had an extra ticket and asking me if I wanted to go. I was in complete and absolute utter shock... and excitement. I very quickly called him, then called in sick to work as I waited for him to call me back, which he very promptly did and told me he'd pick me up at 5:30. Yaaay!
I think he pulled into my driveway right at 5:30, honestly. Such a Virgo, haha. We went to his friends' house, Bo (which I may or may not be spelling correctly) and Steve, who I liked immediately. I'm so awkward about meeting people for the first time, but I just felt comfortable with them immediately and they were so sweet. They were decked out in their leather vests and wrist cuffs, it was AWESOME. The coolest part about them is they live in this totally conservative kinda yuppie neighborhood. Who knew, right?
We went to Chilli's for dinner, and we stuck out like a sore thumb, I'm sure. Jeb was the most conservative among us, with like a button up striped shirt and a nice jacket (which was still kinda rock 'n roll but but played-down rock 'n roll)... I think he was the only one wearing any color. I was rockin' a fishnet shirt and my facial piercings, of course... and then Bo and Steven in their leather. It was great. Our gay waiter caught on to them immediately (Jeb already knew him from having come in there before) and even sat down to ask advice on what to do about having to work with a coworker/ex-boyfriend who was causing drama. Ahhh, classic.
From there, we were concert bound... Jeb and I driving separately from Bo and Steve. I was expecting traffic/parking to be much worse, but it wasn't too bad. On the way in, Jeb and I joked that I was like Goldilocks and the three bears, but not quite, since my hair is black... so he modified that to Ravenlocks and the Three Bears. Hahaha!
Me and Jeb are some hateful bitches, apparently, because we could not STOP making fun of people. And these people really deserved it, too. All the goth trailer trash from the surrounding counties decided to come out in full glory... there were even some juggalo kids (it's almost obligatory at this point, honestly... I've never been to a concert where I didn't see at least two or three juggalos hanging around). Of course there were plenty of corsets, spiked heels, vinyl, fishnet (which I'm guilty of too, but I'm cooler/hotter than everyone else, so it doesn't matter) hair dyed with Manic Panic and pockets full of Hot Topic receipts. Oh, JOY.
Our seats were pretty good, actually... we were in a front row but not floor. We came in about halfway through the opening act's set. I don't even know who they were (their name wasn't on the ticket), but they had that pseudo-Killers sound that is starting to become so popular now. They were okay, just a weird band to be opening for NIN, really. The music played between sets ROCKED. Oh my god. New Order, fucking JOY DIVISION, The Rapture... holy crap. Jeb and I were just so excited.
Nine Inch Nails started with Pinion, which was fucking GREAT... perfect way to begin a show if you ask me. I can't really remember the order of songs from there... but Trent started old school and that was good for me... he played more from Pretty Hate Machine than I expected, really. Let me say their stage set up was pretty fucking impressive. Really excellent sense of lighting and such... I can't even describe it but it was wonderful.
The mood changed about halfway through, started playing some more mellow stuff and the visualizations kicked in. They used a lot of stock footage of things like... cell division, a lot of animal-in-the-wild stuff... but some of it was really political which surprised the shit out of me. There was even a clip of George and Laura Bush dancing at one of the inauguration balls... which incited chants of "BUSH SUCKS" and "FUCK BUSH". Rock out.
Trent only really spoke once, and it was positive. He talked about how important music was and how it saved his life, and how he didn't care about being played on the radio or success or money, he was just happy to play his music and share it with the people who love it. And then he ended the show with Head Like a Hole, and I can't imagine a better way to end the night, really. Oh yeah I can... IF HE HAD DONE A FUCKING ENCORE. Jesus, seriously. I was disappointed, I was really expecting it. Oh well.
I can't bitch too much, it was much better than I expected it to be... and I may even give With Teeth another chance. Plus, I was in really good company, which was the most killer part of the experience :)
Thursday was a bad day anyway, so I went to bed in a bad mood, irritated that I'd have to go to work the next day (the ONLY day I was scheduled to work this week, mind you) and that Saturday I'd get to hear about how fucking great the concert was and how I should have been there...
I checked my e-mail as soon as I woke up Friday and there was an e-mail from my buddy Jeb saying he had an extra ticket and asking me if I wanted to go. I was in complete and absolute utter shock... and excitement. I very quickly called him, then called in sick to work as I waited for him to call me back, which he very promptly did and told me he'd pick me up at 5:30. Yaaay!
I think he pulled into my driveway right at 5:30, honestly. Such a Virgo, haha. We went to his friends' house, Bo (which I may or may not be spelling correctly) and Steve, who I liked immediately. I'm so awkward about meeting people for the first time, but I just felt comfortable with them immediately and they were so sweet. They were decked out in their leather vests and wrist cuffs, it was AWESOME. The coolest part about them is they live in this totally conservative kinda yuppie neighborhood. Who knew, right?
We went to Chilli's for dinner, and we stuck out like a sore thumb, I'm sure. Jeb was the most conservative among us, with like a button up striped shirt and a nice jacket (which was still kinda rock 'n roll but but played-down rock 'n roll)... I think he was the only one wearing any color. I was rockin' a fishnet shirt and my facial piercings, of course... and then Bo and Steven in their leather. It was great. Our gay waiter caught on to them immediately (Jeb already knew him from having come in there before) and even sat down to ask advice on what to do about having to work with a coworker/ex-boyfriend who was causing drama. Ahhh, classic.
From there, we were concert bound... Jeb and I driving separately from Bo and Steve. I was expecting traffic/parking to be much worse, but it wasn't too bad. On the way in, Jeb and I joked that I was like Goldilocks and the three bears, but not quite, since my hair is black... so he modified that to Ravenlocks and the Three Bears. Hahaha!
Me and Jeb are some hateful bitches, apparently, because we could not STOP making fun of people. And these people really deserved it, too. All the goth trailer trash from the surrounding counties decided to come out in full glory... there were even some juggalo kids (it's almost obligatory at this point, honestly... I've never been to a concert where I didn't see at least two or three juggalos hanging around). Of course there were plenty of corsets, spiked heels, vinyl, fishnet (which I'm guilty of too, but I'm cooler/hotter than everyone else, so it doesn't matter) hair dyed with Manic Panic and pockets full of Hot Topic receipts. Oh, JOY.
Our seats were pretty good, actually... we were in a front row but not floor. We came in about halfway through the opening act's set. I don't even know who they were (their name wasn't on the ticket), but they had that pseudo-Killers sound that is starting to become so popular now. They were okay, just a weird band to be opening for NIN, really. The music played between sets ROCKED. Oh my god. New Order, fucking JOY DIVISION, The Rapture... holy crap. Jeb and I were just so excited.
Nine Inch Nails started with Pinion, which was fucking GREAT... perfect way to begin a show if you ask me. I can't really remember the order of songs from there... but Trent started old school and that was good for me... he played more from Pretty Hate Machine than I expected, really. Let me say their stage set up was pretty fucking impressive. Really excellent sense of lighting and such... I can't even describe it but it was wonderful.
The mood changed about halfway through, started playing some more mellow stuff and the visualizations kicked in. They used a lot of stock footage of things like... cell division, a lot of animal-in-the-wild stuff... but some of it was really political which surprised the shit out of me. There was even a clip of George and Laura Bush dancing at one of the inauguration balls... which incited chants of "BUSH SUCKS" and "FUCK BUSH". Rock out.
Trent only really spoke once, and it was positive. He talked about how important music was and how it saved his life, and how he didn't care about being played on the radio or success or money, he was just happy to play his music and share it with the people who love it. And then he ended the show with Head Like a Hole, and I can't imagine a better way to end the night, really. Oh yeah I can... IF HE HAD DONE A FUCKING ENCORE. Jesus, seriously. I was disappointed, I was really expecting it. Oh well.
I can't bitch too much, it was much better than I expected it to be... and I may even give With Teeth another chance. Plus, I was in really good company, which was the most killer part of the experience :)