Trent Reznor finally decided to tour the United States after a five year hiatus. Sadly, when NIN toured this land last, I was still a minor and unable to drive myself to the concert even if I'd been allowed to go.
In that time I aquired a third rate experience of NIN in concert from bootleg videos and recordings, stories from friends who saw them, and the official Closure video. I went expecting to see a swirling mass of frenzied Nailheads around the stage to both old and new songs.
And while the sound and performance of the band was astounding following the opening of "Pinion" which led into the angriest version of "Terrible Lie" I've ever heard, there was something wrong with both the Blockbuster Pavilion Venue and many of the people in attendance.
For starters, my ears were barely ringing after the show. My voice was gone, brought about from a summer cold the week before.
The other thing that was wrong were too many of the audience members were...not into the show. There was no mosh pit, even in the extrememly tiny area without chairs.
Most disappointing was the large amount of khaki pants and Korn T-Shirt wearing fans. Three kids, around 16, I'd guess, were SITTING to my immediate left during much of the show. They did not even stay until the end of the show, and by end I don't mean the encore of "Starfuckers, INC." and "Hurt." Also, far too many diehard Tool fans showed up to see Maynard and A Perfect Circle. I like Tool, and A Perfect Circle put on a good show. However, many of the above fans simply were too passive during the NIN performance.
And my last complaint about the audience were the guys who only appeared because they brought their significant others to the show in hopes of getting lucky afterward. Like most guys, I have nothing against their intentions. However, they should have gotten lawn seats so they wouldn't take up space grind dancing with their women in the rows.
And my final complaint is I was nearly 80 or so feet from the stage. For $45 I want to be at least be on the edge of the splash range from the band throwing water bottles at the audience.
Despite the distance and lack of audience enthusiasm the show still kicked ass. Trent and company did awesome renditions of "Sin," "Gave Up," "Hurt," and "Starfucker, INC.," and "Suck." There were no bad performances and the audience had more of a reaction to "Head Like a Hole" than "Closer" which gives them some credit.
NIN also had supporting visuals in the way of a projetion screen. For the majority of the show, three hanging "I" looking beams were held at an angle over the stage with the appearance of the "Broken" album cover. Then, during "The Fragile" songs, these beams came to resemble the "Fixed" album cover before giving way to a slideshow with ocean footage, going very well with "The Great Below."
The performance had a greater meaning to me since I read Reznor's interview in "Guitar World" magazine. His thoughts about writing some of "The Fragile" and his deepened depression at Big Sur California gave the ocean footage even more depth. Reznor also explained in the article he had the fans in mind when making the playlist, citing "I saw Rush and all they played were songs from the new album, and I thought "Fuck this, I want to hear Tom Sawyer." Reznor also thanked everyone for coming out and apologetically stated that "It's been a long time."
Despite all my complaints, the fact I lost my voice shows how much I got into the performance and that I enjoyed it, despite the $50 ticket cost.
