A Profuse 'Thank You' to The Talented Mr. Reznor
OK...first off...news.
I lost my steady industrial shit job...I was a damn good worker, and even promoted at one point, but I was almost always late to work and back from lunch, and ice that cake with a few missed days in defiance of not getting Memorial Day off, and I got the ax. I don't like to burn bridges, so it was an amicable parting. Going most of the spring working about 50-60 hours a week wore me out, so I neeeded a respite anyway. So, I turned right around and called the temp agency again, and got a few one day jobs last week, and some more for this week...if they hold true to form like last time I was working through them, I should have something steady again in a few weeks.
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Also, my little sister Renee came over Saturday for a little something that her, Angela Deaner and I had planned ever since one hour and thirty minutes after the tickets went on sale over a month ago...
We caught Nine Inch Nails live. June 3, 2006, Smirnoff Music Centre...lawn seats were about 27 bucks a pop, and for me and my sister, those are the best 55 dollars I've spent in a really, REALLY long time.
Now, early on, I was highly annoyed. I'd never been to this venue before, and this was the first major live act I've caught since I went to the Coachella Valley Music Festival 2002 (Björk, the Chemical Brothers, Queens of the Stone Age, Siouxie and the Banshees...and a whole slew of others...Coachella is simply AMAZING and I highly recommend it every year). We got in line fifteen minutes before the doors opened, and once the doors opened and we got to the gate, we had to throw away the water bottles we had been drinking in line. So, early on, we're all thirsty as hell...and the vendors are selling cups of water for $4.25 a pop...a plate of nachos for $5.25...and $7 for a beer. I wanted a t-shirt, but after seeing those costs, and on Angela's advice, I didn't even bother seeing how ridiculous they would cost...it would only piss me off more. Tickets for Coachella were steep at $75 per day, but the lineup was worth every penny, and once inside, vendor prices were comparably reasonable, with shirts at a decent 20 bones and bottled water for $1.50. I tried to arrange a buyback from a beer vendor, offering a dollar directly to him for just a cup so we could fill it up at the fountain, but it turns out that in order to prevent this, every cup is accounted for. Fucking corporate BULLSHIT...
We had lawn tickets and got a spot with a good view early on. There was a screen behind the stage, showing what semed to be a broken up test pattern for visual appeal. The first opener was a band called TV on the Radio...they've got some potential. Not bad. After that, Bauhaus came on for an hour-long set. I'd never heard of them, but Angela told me they were good, and sure enough, they didn't disappoint. Their lead singer makes me think of a cross between Billy Idol and David Bowie...lots of glam, great songs, just a good show overall...
But I mentioned Nine Inch Nails, and after that, I don't think that you, dear reader, would just want to read my obscenely long rant about overpriced vendors and critiques of the opening acts, would you? No, you want to know about the headliner...
It was 9PM, evening cool had set in, and Bauhaus just left the stage. After their solid hour-long set, I wasn't as pissed off anymore. Neither Angela, Renee or myself had bought a damn thing, and we'd been drinking exclusively from the fountain. Fuck the man, and we're feeling okay, but now we're ready to see The Talented Mr. Reznor and his band.
It goes without saying, but so many songs of theirs have deep emotional significance to me...I was turned on to NIN at age 14 just as "The Downward Spiral" came out, and in those formative years, it and "Pretty Hate Machine" expressed and nurtured feelings of teenage anger, despair, and lust. The music became a part of me, and I usually only listen to NIN when feeling one or more of those three.
An impatient hour later, and after what must've been many attempts to get the screen to function properly, NIN finally took to the stage...
As amazing as NIN's albums are, they pale in comparison to the live act. Trent designed his set to satisfy two crowds...the newer, younger NIN fans that might just be warming up to them on the "With Teeth" album, and the old guard, fans like Angela and myself that knew every lyric to every song from "Pretty Hate Machine" and "The Downward Spiral" and sang along accordingly.
To mine and Angela's delight, he even played some non-single album tracks off of PHM, namely "Terrible Lie" and "Something I Can Never Have". Also, they played "Sin" which, while still a single, seemed an unlikely, but highly welcome, pick for the set. The arrangement on "Closer" was different, but quite good, and I'm willing to bet that some couple in the audience, most likely in a remote back corner of the lawn section, was probably fucking as he played it. Hell, given the proper company, I know I'd want to. And we all wanted so very badly to be in the mosh pit for "March of the Pigs," 'cause, well, wouldn't it make us feel better? At one point, he slowed things down to dedicate a moving piano eulogy to one dearly departed Dimebag. The last two songs of the evening were "The Hand That Feeds" and "Head Like a Hole" which only could've been made better if preceded with comments about corporate BS at the vendors. I was hoping to hear Trent cover Joy Division, most likely "Dead Souls" but preferably (and most unlikely) "Shadowplay". Even though he didn't play any covers, my first response after the set was over was a Wayne's World-esque "we're not worthy" bow.
On the way back, Angela and I picked apart and gushed over damn near every nuance of the performance. I absolutely LOVE talking music with her. One of the few outside factors that can make an already magnificent show like that significantly better is having someone like Angela around to intelligently discuss it with. We concluded that it must be far better to catch such acts late in their tours, when they tire of playing the same set every venue and decide to mix things up, hence the aforementioned pleasant suprises from PHM. And inside, I was beaming, as earlier in the evening, Angela and Renee discussed their affinity of Dir En Grey...priceless.
On a personal note, standing behind us in the line at the gates was an old friend from my days back in Bridgeport, Whitney. Nine or so years ago, I distinctly recall showing her some tracks from "Pretty Hate Machine" in an attempt to turn her on to my musical taste, since she was into much lighter fare at the time. The only NIN song that she heard and liked from that attempt was "Something I Can Never Have", which, never having been a single, seemed unlikely to find its way into the evening's set. But, to my suprise, about a quarter of the way through, there it was, with Whitney somewhere in the 4th row and myself front and center on the lawn...and that moment, playing PHM over the phone for her to listen to flashed brightly in my mind again, and things just seemed to come full circle.
So, everyone, thus concludes my thoughts and musings on an evening so blissful that it took me four days to capture it in writing. For the first time in forever I was actually able to listen to NIN in a good mood, and that is highly noteworthy to me. I apologize for being so verbose, but a with all the emotion and backstory at work within me that night, a simple "Nine Inch Nails was fucking awesome!!!" just wouldn't do it justice.
I lost my steady industrial shit job...I was a damn good worker, and even promoted at one point, but I was almost always late to work and back from lunch, and ice that cake with a few missed days in defiance of not getting Memorial Day off, and I got the ax. I don't like to burn bridges, so it was an amicable parting. Going most of the spring working about 50-60 hours a week wore me out, so I neeeded a respite anyway. So, I turned right around and called the temp agency again, and got a few one day jobs last week, and some more for this week...if they hold true to form like last time I was working through them, I should have something steady again in a few weeks.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Also, my little sister Renee came over Saturday for a little something that her, Angela Deaner and I had planned ever since one hour and thirty minutes after the tickets went on sale over a month ago...
We caught Nine Inch Nails live. June 3, 2006, Smirnoff Music Centre...lawn seats were about 27 bucks a pop, and for me and my sister, those are the best 55 dollars I've spent in a really, REALLY long time.
Now, early on, I was highly annoyed. I'd never been to this venue before, and this was the first major live act I've caught since I went to the Coachella Valley Music Festival 2002 (Björk, the Chemical Brothers, Queens of the Stone Age, Siouxie and the Banshees...and a whole slew of others...Coachella is simply AMAZING and I highly recommend it every year). We got in line fifteen minutes before the doors opened, and once the doors opened and we got to the gate, we had to throw away the water bottles we had been drinking in line. So, early on, we're all thirsty as hell...and the vendors are selling cups of water for $4.25 a pop...a plate of nachos for $5.25...and $7 for a beer. I wanted a t-shirt, but after seeing those costs, and on Angela's advice, I didn't even bother seeing how ridiculous they would cost...it would only piss me off more. Tickets for Coachella were steep at $75 per day, but the lineup was worth every penny, and once inside, vendor prices were comparably reasonable, with shirts at a decent 20 bones and bottled water for $1.50. I tried to arrange a buyback from a beer vendor, offering a dollar directly to him for just a cup so we could fill it up at the fountain, but it turns out that in order to prevent this, every cup is accounted for. Fucking corporate BULLSHIT...
We had lawn tickets and got a spot with a good view early on. There was a screen behind the stage, showing what semed to be a broken up test pattern for visual appeal. The first opener was a band called TV on the Radio...they've got some potential. Not bad. After that, Bauhaus came on for an hour-long set. I'd never heard of them, but Angela told me they were good, and sure enough, they didn't disappoint. Their lead singer makes me think of a cross between Billy Idol and David Bowie...lots of glam, great songs, just a good show overall...
But I mentioned Nine Inch Nails, and after that, I don't think that you, dear reader, would just want to read my obscenely long rant about overpriced vendors and critiques of the opening acts, would you? No, you want to know about the headliner...
It was 9PM, evening cool had set in, and Bauhaus just left the stage. After their solid hour-long set, I wasn't as pissed off anymore. Neither Angela, Renee or myself had bought a damn thing, and we'd been drinking exclusively from the fountain. Fuck the man, and we're feeling okay, but now we're ready to see The Talented Mr. Reznor and his band.
It goes without saying, but so many songs of theirs have deep emotional significance to me...I was turned on to NIN at age 14 just as "The Downward Spiral" came out, and in those formative years, it and "Pretty Hate Machine" expressed and nurtured feelings of teenage anger, despair, and lust. The music became a part of me, and I usually only listen to NIN when feeling one or more of those three.
An impatient hour later, and after what must've been many attempts to get the screen to function properly, NIN finally took to the stage...
As amazing as NIN's albums are, they pale in comparison to the live act. Trent designed his set to satisfy two crowds...the newer, younger NIN fans that might just be warming up to them on the "With Teeth" album, and the old guard, fans like Angela and myself that knew every lyric to every song from "Pretty Hate Machine" and "The Downward Spiral" and sang along accordingly.
To mine and Angela's delight, he even played some non-single album tracks off of PHM, namely "Terrible Lie" and "Something I Can Never Have". Also, they played "Sin" which, while still a single, seemed an unlikely, but highly welcome, pick for the set. The arrangement on "Closer" was different, but quite good, and I'm willing to bet that some couple in the audience, most likely in a remote back corner of the lawn section, was probably fucking as he played it. Hell, given the proper company, I know I'd want to. And we all wanted so very badly to be in the mosh pit for "March of the Pigs," 'cause, well, wouldn't it make us feel better? At one point, he slowed things down to dedicate a moving piano eulogy to one dearly departed Dimebag. The last two songs of the evening were "The Hand That Feeds" and "Head Like a Hole" which only could've been made better if preceded with comments about corporate BS at the vendors. I was hoping to hear Trent cover Joy Division, most likely "Dead Souls" but preferably (and most unlikely) "Shadowplay". Even though he didn't play any covers, my first response after the set was over was a Wayne's World-esque "we're not worthy" bow.
On the way back, Angela and I picked apart and gushed over damn near every nuance of the performance. I absolutely LOVE talking music with her. One of the few outside factors that can make an already magnificent show like that significantly better is having someone like Angela around to intelligently discuss it with. We concluded that it must be far better to catch such acts late in their tours, when they tire of playing the same set every venue and decide to mix things up, hence the aforementioned pleasant suprises from PHM. And inside, I was beaming, as earlier in the evening, Angela and Renee discussed their affinity of Dir En Grey...priceless.
On a personal note, standing behind us in the line at the gates was an old friend from my days back in Bridgeport, Whitney. Nine or so years ago, I distinctly recall showing her some tracks from "Pretty Hate Machine" in an attempt to turn her on to my musical taste, since she was into much lighter fare at the time. The only NIN song that she heard and liked from that attempt was "Something I Can Never Have", which, never having been a single, seemed unlikely to find its way into the evening's set. But, to my suprise, about a quarter of the way through, there it was, with Whitney somewhere in the 4th row and myself front and center on the lawn...and that moment, playing PHM over the phone for her to listen to flashed brightly in my mind again, and things just seemed to come full circle.
So, everyone, thus concludes my thoughts and musings on an evening so blissful that it took me four days to capture it in writing. For the first time in forever I was actually able to listen to NIN in a good mood, and that is highly noteworthy to me. I apologize for being so verbose, but a with all the emotion and backstory at work within me that night, a simple "Nine Inch Nails was fucking awesome!!!" just wouldn't do it justice.