nine inch nails, toronto, 7-27-14
My 200th concert and 54th nine inch nails show. Headed up to Toronto with Jason, Eric and Adam. Adrienne and Bliss were able to go too (it was touch and go for a bit) but drove themselves, and due to the crappy insane parking situation we never ended up finding each other. So yeah, an hour on the bridge, mild traffic up to Toronto, I made the call to exit at Lake Shore and go up the lake instead of into Toronto on the Gardner, where it was backed up quite a bit. It was the right call, we got to the area of Molson Ampitheater fairly quickly, but that's where it ended. Construction limited parking, so while we usually would just park in the lots directly in front of the venue, they were somewhat filled or VIP only. We pulled into a lot, paid $20, to find out there were no spots. By this point it's been almost 4 hours since we left the house, we already missed the first opener (no one was crying about that), but Soundgarden was going on at 8 and we were fast approaching 8pm. I kicked everyone out of the car so they wouldn't miss anything and went on to find parking in a ramp far away haha.
So I got into the venue during Black Hole Sun, which is really the only Soundgarden song I'm super familiar with. I can't really judge if they were good or not because of my lack of familiarity but Eric said Chris Cornell sounded good so I'll take his word for it. They don't put on much of a "show" it's just a straight performance of rock songs.
I was a bit more excited for this show than for the October show because Trent had said this tour would be more Fragile and Year Zero heavy. When he said Fragile heavy, he meant "no songs from the Fragile"....yeah. So there was that. Since this was a dual headlining tour, it was a short 18 song setlist, and sort of a "Greatest Hits" set with the return of "closer" and only 3 songs from Hesitation Marks. There were a few songs from Year Zero that we didn't hear since Lights in the Sky tour in 08, so that was nice. The stage set up was very minimal compared to the last 2 tours, with the giant moving screens and what not. This time they relied on large squares of lights/screens that techs moved around behind the band. Jason's opinion of this show, not being a fan, was that there was less to look at, and he's right. Nothing wrong with that though, as I feel like trent was beginning to rely too heavily on light show effects.
The only song played that was new to me was a very heavily remixed version of "sanctify", which was cool to finally see.
I'm a bit sad that I don't have that much to say about it. I don't know if it's the getting older thing, or the 50+ show thing, but the large shows just aren't as appealing to me anymore. I am not sad that I'm only going to 1 show this tour, where as 5 years ago it would have been a tragedy to only see one. The entire venue was seats, there was no GA pit, so we were in the 200 section, slight left of the sound board. Seats aren't exciting. I told everyone, I may not ever want to queue again for entire days to see shows and be up front, but I still never want a seat...even if I stand in the back of the crowd on the floor, I want to be GA... it's just not the same in a seat. I hope he ends up doing club shows again, which I would queue for, because they just feel so much better and more exciting, plus the potential for different setlists.
Soundgarden:
(missed the first 4.5 songs)
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Flower
Outshined
Black Hole Sun
Jesus Christ Pose
The Day I Tried to Live
My Wave
Superunknown
Blow Up the Outside World
Fell on Black Days
A Thousand Days Before
Rusty Cage
Beyond the Wheel
Nine Inch Nails:
"Copy Of A"
"Sanctified"
"Came Back Haunted"
"1,000,000"
"March Of The Pigs"
"Piggy"
"Terrible Lie"
"Closer"
"Gave Up"
"The Warning"
"Find My Way"
"The Great Destroyer"
"Eraser"
"Wish"
"Only"
"The Hand That Feeds"
"Head Like A Hole"
"Hurt"
So I got into the venue during Black Hole Sun, which is really the only Soundgarden song I'm super familiar with. I can't really judge if they were good or not because of my lack of familiarity but Eric said Chris Cornell sounded good so I'll take his word for it. They don't put on much of a "show" it's just a straight performance of rock songs.
I was a bit more excited for this show than for the October show because Trent had said this tour would be more Fragile and Year Zero heavy. When he said Fragile heavy, he meant "no songs from the Fragile"....yeah. So there was that. Since this was a dual headlining tour, it was a short 18 song setlist, and sort of a "Greatest Hits" set with the return of "closer" and only 3 songs from Hesitation Marks. There were a few songs from Year Zero that we didn't hear since Lights in the Sky tour in 08, so that was nice. The stage set up was very minimal compared to the last 2 tours, with the giant moving screens and what not. This time they relied on large squares of lights/screens that techs moved around behind the band. Jason's opinion of this show, not being a fan, was that there was less to look at, and he's right. Nothing wrong with that though, as I feel like trent was beginning to rely too heavily on light show effects.
The only song played that was new to me was a very heavily remixed version of "sanctify", which was cool to finally see.
I'm a bit sad that I don't have that much to say about it. I don't know if it's the getting older thing, or the 50+ show thing, but the large shows just aren't as appealing to me anymore. I am not sad that I'm only going to 1 show this tour, where as 5 years ago it would have been a tragedy to only see one. The entire venue was seats, there was no GA pit, so we were in the 200 section, slight left of the sound board. Seats aren't exciting. I told everyone, I may not ever want to queue again for entire days to see shows and be up front, but I still never want a seat...even if I stand in the back of the crowd on the floor, I want to be GA... it's just not the same in a seat. I hope he ends up doing club shows again, which I would queue for, because they just feel so much better and more exciting, plus the potential for different setlists.
Soundgarden:
(missed the first 4.5 songs)
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Flower
Outshined
Black Hole Sun
Jesus Christ Pose
The Day I Tried to Live
My Wave
Superunknown
Blow Up the Outside World
Fell on Black Days
A Thousand Days Before
Rusty Cage
Beyond the Wheel
Nine Inch Nails:
"Copy Of A"
"Sanctified"
"Came Back Haunted"
"1,000,000"
"March Of The Pigs"
"Piggy"
"Terrible Lie"
"Closer"
"Gave Up"
"The Warning"
"Find My Way"
"The Great Destroyer"
"Eraser"
"Wish"
"Only"
"The Hand That Feeds"
"Head Like A Hole"
"Hurt"