Nine Inch Nails - Post Gig Bonerthon Missus
Now I may be into much more extreme or avante garde bands these days, but NIN was integral to my youth in opening my eyes to "heavier" music. While I think that "With Teeth" was a bit - shall we say - "wank" (bar the odd catchy single) I have always loved Nine Inch Nails and always will. Their live performance, was, and still is, one of the most amazing experiences full stop. They are by far and away head and shoulders above ALL of the extreme bands I have seen in terms of tightness, musicianship and just plain balls-out intensity.
I don't really give a shit what people think of NIN being mainstream or whatever. All you 17 year olds listening to your obscure black metal bands these days acting like you know everything or the hardcore industrial snobs who have spent the last 20 years whinging that Trent stole too many ideas can quite frankly bugger off.
This Saturday, a childhood dream came true. "The Downward Spiral" was an album that changed my life, cliched as it is. Unfortunately I discovered NIN around 95/96 and missed out on the tours for that album. The Fragile and With Teeth tours featured heavily on the material from those albums, so that great decadent period from "The Downward Spiral" - where Trent was fucked up and the music was dirty and dark - was something I've always regretted missing out on.
BOY am I glad I booked this Saturday's show. The setlist was a special show - showcasing almost all of THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL and BROKEN, and ignoring most of the newer records, bar a couple of singles. Infact, the first 30 minutes of the gig was ALL 5 of the first tracks from THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL in numerical order!!! :D In comparison, it would be like a Dream Theater fan going to see DT only to find out they will be playing "Scenes From A Memory" in it's entirity, or Nevermore playing all of "This Godless Endeavor" or Metallica playing all of "Master Of Puppets"...etc etc.
They played "Heresy" - the first time I have ever heard my favourite NIN song live - and quite frankly I was in heaven (pun intended). The whole crowd chanting "God Is Dead, And No-One Cares, If there is a Hell, I'll See You There!" was quite something. It was like a dream setlist for me, and like being back in 1994. Last night was like finally getting to see the NIN I missed out on. "No You Don't" and "Last" were also awesome surprises.
This was the 4th time I'd seen NIN and easily my favourite, and possibly one of my favourite gigs of the last 15 years. It's quite bad actually, I'm wary of seeing them again because I very much doubt I will get to see a setlist like that again, so I'm eternally grateful for this chance to see what it was that made me fall in love with this band in the first place.
The setlist was as follows:
Mr. Self Destruct (Downward Spiral)
Piggy (Downward Spiral)
Heresy (Downward Spiral)
March Of The Pigs (Downward Spiral)
Closer/Down In It (Downward Spiral)
Last (Broken)
Help Me I Am In Hell (Broken)
The Becoming (Downward Spiral)
Eraser (Downward Spiral)
The Frail/La Mer (The Fragile)
Into The Void (The Fragile)
Reptile (Downward Spiral)
Survivalism (Year Zero)
No, You Don't (The Fragile)
Only (With Teeth)
Wish (Broken)
Gave Up (Broken)
Dead Souls (The Crow Soundtrack)
Hurt (Downward Spiral)
The Hand that Feeds (With Teeth)
Head Like A Hole (Pretty Hate Machine)
Trent was also in high spirits, jumping like a loony and getting the crowd going. He even SPOKE directly to the crowd rather than just saying "thank you" after each song - which is quite a rarity for him to break that whole "mystique" thing - so he must have been in a good mood. It was something along the lines of "How are you guys doing out there tonight? Hope you are enjoying the special set from our older albums, here's something new..." when he introduced "Survivalism" (which I have to say, sounds bloody excellent live, and restores my faith and hopes for the new album...)
Really I think the only people that could find fault with this set are the floppy fringe brigade, in their top-shop AC/DC t-shirts, who heard "The Hand That Feeds" and bought With Teeth and that's it. Last night they really must have wondered what hit them, especially when they played tracks like "Reptile" and "Eraser" :D
Anyways, I'll stop waffling on now. :)