Nine Inch Nails Concert, 2005
Dilemma: how do you go about describing an event in a journal when three of the four and one half people who actually read said journal was at said event with you? Do you try to describe the event? Well, they were there too. Do you share what you think about it? Chances are you told them directly afterward, then it becomes redundant.
So I’ll keep this kind of short and just hit a few random points, for the other, um, one and a half members of my readership:
For starters, I really enjoyed the concert (and trip as a whole). There was some good and some bad, but the good outweighed the bad by far. I’ll start with the bad to get it out of the way.
The “Bad”:
The trip to the concert was pretty rough. We had spotty directions, the signs were confusing, the roads were in bad shape and seemed to be under a constant state of construction. Mel did all the heavy lifting (driving that is) through all this and managed to get us there and somehow keep her sanity. Trey and David helped to navigate as well as they could. I just stayed out of the way.
The concert felt too short. Yeah, we missed the opening act and the very, very start of the show. But it was “pinion/terrible lie”, I can live with that. Still, time flew and before you knew it, show was over. I guess that means it was a good show. Maybe I’m being greedy, but I was hoping that, by chance, Trent Reznor would have picked this particular show to perform his entire catalogue. From start to finish. Y’know, for his special fans. Maybe I’m just being greedy…
I wish he would have played some or all of the following songs from the new album: Only, Getting Smaller, Everyday is Exactly the Same, Right Where It Belongs, and Beside You in Time. At least he did The Line Begins to Blur. And Awitha_Teetha, which has become one of my favorites. Sounds great live too, which is a good thing. And he didn’t sing the Collector, which is also a good thing.
I have only one thing to say to the large number of people who had thier camera phones out most of the time: stop it, please stop.
I knew what to expect. I knew too much of what to expect. Guess that’s my fault, what with all the bootlegs I heard and smuggled footage I saw. But being overly familiar with the material kind of diminished the wow factor for me, but not by much.
It was hot and crowded.
The “Good”:
It was hot and crowded.
It was loud. It was really freakin’ loud. The floor I stood was shaking. The rail I leaned on was vibrating. You couldn’t hear yourself scream. Hearing these songs on bootlegs through a pair of earphones is one thing, having the sound-waves assault your entire body is totally different. I wish I had a stereo and speakers that could put out a tenth of that volume. Of course then I’d be evicted.
Since it was a small venue, we had a good clear view of the band and Trent. And there is a lot more of him to see these days. We could see the guitarist (“Twiggy”) go all spastic. We could all the tripping, stumbling, and throwing things. And probably best of all, we got to see Trent rock the tambourine.
Did I mention it was loud?
Pretty much every song in the setlist was a good song, with few “duds”. Still wish he would have played more though.
It was a NIN concert. That, in and of itself, makes it good.
And it was loud.
Aside from the concert. I enjoyed the trip there and back, even though Houston sucks. It was great just riding and talking and laughing with friends. And the inevitable semantic arguments between Trey and David are always highly entertaining. It was good to meet Melissa for real this time. She’s a pretty cool person and it’s too bad I’m just meeting her right before she’s going to be moving off (seems to be a trend lately). I don’t get out often enough and for me this was a big thing, more than just a concert.
Just want to say again: “Thanks, I had fun”.
Ron.
May 26th, 2005 at 6:50 am
how does one half a person read your blog? perhaps if it is the upper half, the part with eyes. but they would still be a whole person, a moral entity, unless they had just finished bleeding to death as a result of the halfing. anyway, as far as i know, in addition to the people who were at said concert with you and any lurkers there may be (i have a friend who joined happypoet a while back just to keep tabs on me and she’s a lurker), at least dramke and i read this thing (of this, there is definite proof: we have both commented on it), and i am pretty sure that neither of us have been the victims of some terrible accident while serving as a magician’s assistant. *looks down at feet. yes, they are there. whew* dramke, please tell me [b:193ccf459f]you[/b:193ccf459f] have not fallen victim to a houdini-wannabe!
May 26th, 2005 at 9:33 am
Nobody understands me 🙁 It’s very handy for tax purposes …
May 26th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
I can define it mathematically: It’s not necessarilly half a person. Half a person could read a whole post. Or a whole person could read half a post. Or two people could each read a quarter of a post. And so on. Which can be demonstrated by this: let x=number of readers let p=number of posts read Readership (R) = x*p so if 9 whole people each read every other word in here (which would be half my journal, and which,by the way, would probably make more sense that way). Then it would work out something like this: R= x*p =9*1/2 = 4.5 Or maybe I’m just making all this up cause I didn’t think anyone one pay much attention to the 4 1/2 people comment. Ron. (HLF the man he used to be)
May 26th, 2005 at 7:11 pm
I was worried there for a while. Nope I am all here physically, but Arglor and Wilbur can attest to the fact that I am not here mentally sometimes…so I was beginning to worry that Ron thought so too. So thank you snaars!
May 28th, 2005 at 8:16 am
Random NIN news and updates for those of you who care and didn’t already know: [url=http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=795&e=2&u=/eo/20050528/en_music_eo/16651]Link to Yahoo News[/url] It seems that Trent Reznor has won his case against Malm and now owns the sole rights to the NIN trademark. And he’s owed some money too. Also, he will not be performing on MTV for the music award show next week. He pulled out because MTV wouldn’t allow him to perform The Hand That Feeds with a picture of George Bush as a backdrop. This action would lower my opinion of MTV, but I don’t think that’s even mathematically possible anymore. And finally, for the big arena tour in the fall, he will be touring with Queens of the Stone Age. Do I know who these guys are? I’ve heard the name, but can’t tell if I’ve heard anything by them. Quick, someone tell me one of thier songs I should have heard. That’s all I have for now. Scouring the internet(*) for all things NIN, so you don’t have to. (*)Actually, just echoingthesound.org Ron. (Goes off to watch Finding Neverland)
May 28th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
NiN Hotline the only NiN news source. heheh Oh how I love interesting little tidbits that peak my interest and keep me on the seat of my chair through all the years waiting for another album. Let the wait begin. Wilbur (aware that the above may sound insulting to Hlf, though that was not the intention)
May 28th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
Yippee Trent gets a second chance … to screw everything up again. Hopefully he learned something. I doubt he will get any money as the first thing Malm will probably declare bankruptcy, but good news from the Bush era. If Malm waits too long, he will not be able to declare a chapter 7 because he definetly earns above the mean. Chapter 13 would be a liquidation of assets and a monthly payment to pay off creditors. Go Bush!
May 28th, 2005 at 5:52 pm
Well the resolution of the case means NIN:Closure on DVD should be coming out soon. He had finished the dvd but wouldnt release it until the mess with Malm was finished. I hope we see it soon. Wilbur
May 28th, 2005 at 8:50 pm
[quote:5e808e1be8]Yippee Trent gets a second chance … to screw everything up again.[/quote:5e808e1be8] Or third chance, as the case may be. He doesn’t seem to have a good track record with getting along with labels/managers, remember TVT? [quote:5e808e1be8]I doubt he will get any money[/quote:5e808e1be8] I doubt it as well, but at least he owns his own shit again and he’s not beholden to the contract he signed with Malm anymore. He’s at least back to square one which is better than the way it was before. [quote:5e808e1be8]Well the resolution of the case means NIN:Closure on DVD should be coming out soon.[/quote:5e808e1be8] It better. [quote:5e808e1be8]may sound insulting to Hlf, though that was not the intention[/quote:5e808e1be8] Nah, I know better than that. You’ve never had to hedge your statements before and you don’t need to start now. Ron.
May 31st, 2005 at 8:43 pm
it was cool finally getting to ‘meet’ you as well. thanks for walking back to the car with me when the security guard noted the dangerous weapontry around my neck…