NIN

On 28 July, I went to see Nine Inch Nails with Alex, Rod and Robyn. Alex was a huge NIN fan at the beginning and I've been a big fan for a long time as well. I've kept up to date with their recent stuff which I enjoy almost as much as the classics. Rod was a big fan and knows the classics as well and Robyn just thought it'd be a fun thing to do.

The Opening Act

Crystal Castles has to be about the worst opening band ever. There was a download on nin.com where you could get a sample of the opening acts for the tour and the Crystal Castles song wasn't bad. That was their best song and their live performance wasn't anywhere near the quality of the studio version. That was also the only song where the lead singer had her voice run through a synthesizer. The other songs had her screaming unintelligibly and wracked with posing fits to show "I'm really into my lyrics!" She was striking all your standard "my lyrics have deep meaning" poses which included the squat-down-lean-into-the-audience-and-clench-your-fist pose and the lie-on-the-ground pose. The backing back was playing music I could create in Garageband if I had a free afternoon. I'm not sure how many people are in the band because they could only afford one spotlight so I never saw anyone other than the lead singer. Bad music, bad effects. They had it all covered. Luckily, they only had about five songs.

The Main Event

Nine Inch Nails was definitely worth tolerating the opening act. Trent et al. played for at least two hours straight. They played a great mix of the old songs I remember from high school and their latest works. I can happily say I knew all the lyrics except for maybe two songs. Rod and Alex knew all the classics and Robyn knew two songs. Trent even let the audience sing the chorus to "Head Like a Hole" (I think that was the one) and Robyn just looked around with a blank stare when I noticed her not singing and gave her a poke. Watch "The Family Guy" where they go to the KISS concert and you'll know what I mean.

I enjoyed the light show quite a bit. Unbeknownst to me, they had a sort of see-through light curtain which they dropped while it was dark part way through the show. I just though the stage was suddenly a lot shallower than it appeared previously. They shone some brightly coloured patterns on the curtain which left Trent et al. as backlit silhouettes. Trent et al. retreated behind the curtain for "Breathe" which was filmed with a handicam with a night-vision effect and broadcast on the curtain. I kind of wondered what was going on 'cause you could see lights moving around behind the curtain and then Trent and the camera guy came out front briefly. The next song just had the band playing behind the curtain which was showing bright colours again. Suddenly, like they had been watching Bonanza while planning the stage show, the middle of the curtain became completely see-through and the audience could see the band playing behind it. They used this effect a few times in different ways but always enjoyable.

The one thing that struck me as odd was all the little blue lights you could see in the audience; people using their cell phones to take pictures or video or record audio. I also noticed a wide range of ages at the concert. That's to be expected since NIN has been around for twenty years or so. We did find ourselves out of touch since we repeatedly wondered where the young kids go to have a good time in the evenings when we tried to play our after-concert fun. I think we ended up at Urban Lounge but we didn't last long 'cause some needed to work in the morning and some needed to get back to their children. I bought a shirt but I was given a medium instead of a large so LP got a souvenir from my going out and having fun.