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.