only me…*UPDATED AND FINISHED WITH NO(fewer) TYPOS SO READ AGAIN*

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this has been the 2 weeks of “only me”.

i’m in LA… i shouldn’t be. i should be in the air on my way to san luis obispo, but no i’m in LA.

i managed to get 3 hrs of sleep before going to the airport for my flight to dallas. no problem. i didn’t even really have to wait to board cuz i was sorta running late. but then there was a head wind and we were late getting into dallas. so i almost miss my flight from dallas to LA cuz i have a whole 20 minutes to get to another terminal. and of course there are no signs, and the ones for the sky tram aren’t clear. then ass holes are slow and i miss the sky tram. but i get to the gate and board the plane….but it’s snowing, a whole 5 snowflakes (i counted) and they have to spend an hour and a half de-icing the plane. SUPER! my layover in LA was an hour and 15 minutes. no way am i making the flight. we get to LA earlier than they said but it took so long to get to the gate i’m late again. but then the gate i need is only a few away from where we got off the plane. COOL! people let me deboard and run only to find out that i have to take a shuttle to gates that are only a few numbers away. with 5 minutes to get there, so not happening. fuck. they try to get me on a united flight at 1:15 but don’t because for some reason i wouldn’t be able to get to the gate in the next 45 minutes before it leaves. ?????? so i am now booked on a flight at 3:40 out of LA to san luis obispo.

but of course i’m on a wild goose chase now cuz i gotta get to the united terminal. so i have to take a american airlines bus from point A to point B. then i have to take the continental bus to point C. then walk down an alley. wtf. so i find united finally and my ticket makes it seem like i’m paying another 235$ to get from LA to SLO. NO FUCKING WAY I’M NOT PAYING THAT. so i go to customer service to ask if i’m being charged and then they can’t find my reservation in their computer for the united flight. wtf. they finally find it cuz they had my name wrong and are trying to call someone about something. they can’t get through to them so they tell me to go down to the gate. but i don’t know why so when i get there i’m all…i don’t know why i’m talking to you they told me to come down here. they don’t know why i’m there either and tell me i can leave to get food or whatever but then they call me to come back cuz i need to go to TSA to get searched. wow i’ve never been so thouroughly frisked before. i was violated haha not really. but wow. was surpising. ok now keep in mind this is alot of walking and i haven’t really slept in 24 hrs and i’m freaking starving cuz i couldn’t get food or go pee in dallas since i was late for that flight too, and have a massive headache. soooo tired. and the duty free shop is closed wtf! BUT…while waiting at the gate, a man got arrested for being drunk. haha.

meanwhile…now that that’s out of the way…so the flight from dallas to LA i got to sit next to the most typical dallas old lady…er at least, she was my stereotypical dallas old lady. bright pink and orange leopard print shirt, big diamonds, poofy blonde cotton candy hair, fake eye lashes, fake nails. yeah. twas fabulous. of course she violated the i-have-my-book-out-and-am-“reading”-so-don’t-talk-to-me rule. blahblahblah talk talk talk yuck.

FINALLY get to san luis obispo which has the smallest airport i’ve ever seen. basically one room, with a baggage belt. i definitely won’t be able to come back there and sleep til my flight. crap. ok. i call a cab which takes forever, and i see the greatest woman ever. it’s a grandma picking up her family. she’s got blond hair all big in ringlets. she’s wearing a white knitted sweater, a homemade skirt with snowmen on it, blue leggings, and white cowboy boots. so wonderfully horrible. i took a pic on my phone but it’s crap of course. had the coolest cab driver, he knew that adr2’s ringtone when she called was animotion. and he’s the first american cab driver i’ve ever had.

so i get to the venue and find adr2 and bliss and get let in. waited forever for autolux to come on, and i must say they were very welcome compared to having to see dfa or queens again. these supremely annoying people ended up behind us, but they told me that i had cool clothes and looked exactly like what a nin fan should look like…?!? ok. satin pants from guess and the pirate jacket from hot topic. nothing fancy. ok. anyway….the show. josh freese has replaced alex who had replaced jerome dillon. i like josh. so that was cool. same basic setlist with the addition of starfuckers, which i did not miss from the other shows haha. got a bit killed. not the front of my rib cage this time, cuz i had a girl in front of me for padding, but 2 guys on the sides of me beat me up with their elbows and arms in my rib cage. was a bit rough though i have no visible bruises. club shows are amazing. er rather…college gym shows LOL. trent commented that it was the strangest place he has ever played, and that he was going to fire his booking agent except that it turned out to be pretty cool. he talked alot. it was cool. great great show. as always.

after the show, since i couldn’t hang at the airport, i had adr2 take me to a hotel, so i did manage to sleep for 6 hrs. back to the one room airport to leave for home. slept through most of the flight to dallas. ah dallas. did i mention how i fucking hate dallas? because yeah, guess what, we were delayed in dallas AGAIN. at least this time i didn’t have to make a connection, i just had to go find my car to get home. i wander all over to find the gate, then sit there and sit there and sit there and why aren’t we boarding? and why has the time when we were to have taken off come and gone and we haven’t boarded still? oh because one of the flight attendants decided not to show up. WTF. so it took over an hour for this girl, who we were told was IN THE FRIGGEN BUILDING to show up. the excuse was that dallas had a hard day yesterday what with the 32 degree temperature and all the delays because of the 5 snowflakes, they were all still recovering. YOU STILL HAVE A FUCKING JOB AND RESPONSIBILITY TO SHOW UP. she should be fired. how irresponsible. an entire fucking plane of people stuck because you can’t get out of bed or whatever? fuck that. so pissed. anyway, so we take off an hour late, but beat the snow storm home. uneventful flight.

home now. tired. desperately need to brush my teeth. after all the trip was still totally worth it, the show was awesome, and yeah. i’d do it again. and i liked the area in california. it turns out it was near where michael jackson lived haha. my total travel time was 25 hours. lol i’m insane i know. and i got tix to the toledo and cinci shows for us too.

this was more entertaining in my head before i actually got home and a chance to type it out. boo.

Posted in: Concerts, Nine Inch Nails \ Tagged: , ,

i can’t take this porn to break this

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after a year and a half someone stole my flamingo. i’m very upset. i need a new one. one that glows again preferably. dude this sucks. first my neighbor gets robbed, and now someone steals my flamingo. grrrrrrrrr.

so cold was good. i think. hard to tell when you only sorta recognize 2 songs. the other 2 songs that i for sure did know they didn’t play. crowd seemed kinda sucky, and scooter even said so. they did alot of slower stuff, and i guess alot from the new album. maybe i should listen to their albums finally haha. it was fun hanging out with phill and dave. they’re not retards so hahaha. went to eat n park! haha. i smell like smoke. and it’s something i’m not used to, even tho i work in smoke every day. i’m not used to going places where people can smoke anymore, being in smokefree ny. i hate people smoking at shows cuz i always think they’re gonna burn me. AND OHMYGOD there was this couple right in front of me, and it’s like CAN YOU PLEASE DISCONNECT FROM EACHOTHER FOR A FUCKING HOUR, YOU’RE AT A ROCK SHOW FOR GODS SAKE. i had to move. i couldn’t take it. and even though there was no “hurt” to make out during, the managed with other songs. gah.

tomorrow is thanksgiving with the parents. then i work on thursday. i wanted to work tomorrow but for the first time they didn’t ask for volunteers for a 6th day. grrr. i need the money people!

oh and i still hate cleveland.

gotta figure out how to make this narcoleptic goats video play funniest thing ever. omg seriously. watch it. i can’t stop laughing and i’m here by myself so i feel like a complete idiot hahahaha

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged:

thank you

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the 14th show – toronto – up there with philly as the best arena show of this tour.

(and wow hey. I’m going to see them at calpoly in san luis obispo california. it’s a club show again. i figured the spiral presale tickets that went onsale yesterday would be gone by now, but nope. just got a ticket. ha i guess i have to go now. 300$ flight here I come. and the following day is u2 in buffalo.)

headed up to toronto around 8. was supposed to be 7, but somehow i didn’t get up until 7…oops. didn’t much matter, we were the 3rd group of ppl in line, there were about 7 of us total when we got there. amira met us later, and we were joined by vanessa and siobahn (sp?) the girls from france. luckily for us, we got to spend most of the day inside at the box office, before they gave us our tickets and shipped us out side for 45 min in the freezing cold. got in for soundcheck, which this time was “with teeth”!!!!, “the frail/the wretched”, “deep”, and “wish”. very cool that they’re working on getting “with teeth” back into the set. and again, really really friggen cool to see the sound check. unfortunately there was no meet and greet. kinda disappointed. oh well. sat around after, and when it was time to go on the floor got barrier between trent and aaron. not bad at all.

dfa1979 is from toronto so all their family was there for the show. same as always. i didn’t fall asleep which is good, since that’d be rude. and queens i tried to pay attention but i still hate them. the crowd was nuts. between queens and nin these 2 skin heads pushed up front, and no one besides me and adr2 apparently know how to hold our own up front. they pushed up and got to barrier as well. they were assholes, and adr2 got in a fight with one of them. finally he was like, you are one tough bitch, and asked for a truce hahahah. the show was great! approximately the same set list as it has been. the crowd was nuts. i’m only slightly injured though – thanks to the last crowd surfer during queens who got me in the head, and the way the guy behind me was holding onto the rail around me and crushing my ribs. not anywhere near as injured as the club shows. i swear that trent changed the beginning lyrics of “only” to “i’m becoming more divine as days go by” which was really hot. hahaha.

not much to review, pretty standard show, but it was fucking great. everything went well and trent didn’t get pissed off at anyone this time haha.

2545.8 miles later, the trip is done. totally fucking depressed now. i’m going to go back to bed i think. although i need a rest, i don’t want to return to my shit ass life. i should have gone to montreal for the show today. i’m not sure if adr2 decided to go or not. it would have been tough getting back for work tomorrow and not dying. i do have this cali club show now so i have that to look forward to. and after 15 shows I BETTER FUCKING GET A MEET AND GREET! or SOME special treatment. haha 🙂

getting a “halo 14” tattoo, but i don’t know what kind of font i want yet. gotta look into it.

Posted in: Concerts, Nine Inch Nails \ Tagged: ,

bahston

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So. Bliss decided not to go to the Boston show, so I posted an ad on craigslist and ended up being offered side stage tickets for face value. score! so adr2 and i headed to boston around 9, in front of the line, and waited til the guy came to buy the tickets off him. ended up being joined by 2 girls from france/germany who were doing all the east coast and canada shows. we had met them at the philly and wb shows, the one girl got an entire guitar from aaron at the wb show. cool girls. it was sorta cold but not windy or rainy so that was good. got in for soundcheck again. reptile, the frail/the wretched, deep and wish again. we were walking by the speakers during reptile and holy crap it was the best thing ever. we were right up front for soundcheck this time, since there was no struggling to still get a good place in the waiting area so we could get a good place for the show. trent commented that deep “wasn’t a bad song” and that he didn’t know why we all complain about it. and he commented on the seats. the boston show was no GA, all seats even on the floor, which pissed trent the hell off. before march of the pigs he said it was an historic fucking event, because it was the last time he’d ever play a show with seats on the floor. that it was his fault for not reading the contract before he signed it, but it would be the last time he’d ever play that shit hole. during march of the pigs, as it started he told everyone to “shhh” and “calm down”, and during the “doesn’t it make you feel better” he said “i don’t feel better at all.” he broke his guitar, threw stuff. typical pissed trent haha. it was awesome. the show was cool cuz of the anger at the seats element. at one point he asked if we were having a good time, because he kept forgetting there were seats, and he thought everyone looked pissed off. he reminded us the seats were for our own safety. haha and it was funny, cuz both adr2 and i realized we must look choreographed, rocking out the same way hahah. by the end of the show we had a security guard at the end of our row, and adr2 overheard him say he was there to watch us cuz they thought we’d try to jump the rails to get back stage. hahaha.

after soundcheck we unfortunately sat in front of these really annoying girls who engaged in non stop bitching about how disappointed they were that they only got soundcheck. how if there was no meet and greet they could have done more songs at soundcheck. how they felt like they were in high school being penned up in a section of seats in the arena and not allowed to go outside. blahblahblah bitchbitchbitch ungratefulungratefulungrateful. they started a singalong which was funny for about 2 minutes. then it got old real fast. and seriously, they did not stop bitching about how disappointed they were. adr2 got so pissed that she left, and i eventually was like, hey, 13th show here and no meet and greet so shut your fucking mouth.

and oh yeah, it’s november, and it’s not even thanksgiving. do we REALLY need commercials featuring christmas music, and entire radio stations playing nothing but christmas music already?!?!?!?!

Posted in: Concerts, Nine Inch Nails \ Tagged: ,

seems like salvation comes only in our dreams

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wilkes barre today. we were going to go at 9 but i couldn’t get out of bed and adr2 was sick, so i got up and went when one of the girls we had met in philly called to see where we were. so we went to find the arena, had no clue where it was. figured there’d be signs. nope. ended up calling the girl for directions, got there, established a spot then left to go put real clothes on haha. stood outside in gale winds for 5 hours. it could have been worse, it could have done more than sprinkled for 5 minutes. and we had good company.

it was getting late and hopes of a soundcheck today were falling but they finally let us in. trent was late getting there. this time they did “reptile”, “the frail/the wretched”, “deep” and “wish”. awesome again. i still think it’s such a cool thing that they’re doing for their fans. mass confusion ensued afterwards about where they were taking us to wait, and how we were going to get on the floor. but it all went well and i ended up by myself at the barrier on jeordie’s side, along with a girl from the line. talked to this other girl next to us tons. she works for aveda and is gonna send me free samples hehe

the show itself…trent was pissed. after the first song they raise the curtain up, except this time it was stuck. a cord from some equipment thing got stuck in the wires and almost knocked one of the big crates that holds the lights over. meanwhile the curtain is stuck half way up for the beginning of “you know what you are”. trent was piiiiissssed. he went on a rant about punching the guy who works the curtain in the head hahah. threw some stuff around. typical angry trent. got “even deeper” and “dead souls” again. it was a cool show once again, but lacked something. maybe people. only half the tickets were sold. it was weird. same setlist as philly but without “something i can never have”

off to explore tomorrow in downstate ny, and drive the rest of the way to boston. i really want to find someplace to get my hair cut.

Posted in: Concerts, Nine Inch Nails \ Tagged: ,

and you, you’re just happy to be here!

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ok philly was the best of the 6 shows so far this leg. with 3 more to go i have high hopes for toronto. but yeah. this was definitely the best.

first off, we headed to wachovia spectrum at eleven stopping for lunch by eastern state on the way. when we got to the arena at noon it didn’t look good for us getting into soundcheck – rumor was only about 50 people got let in each show. met a few cool people, all of which were going to wilkes-barre sunday too. since it seemed that people kept cutting into line the whole afternoon we made a deal that we’ll all try to get there at 9 tomorrow and whoever gets there first we can go in line with them. plus the one couple are staying across the street too so we’ll have a bathroom etc.

around 4 everyone got let into the arena for soundcheck, SCORE!! we were all seated in the back of the seats to wait for things to get set up. various band members came on stage and were doing their thing. aaron started playing “eye of the tiger” so everyone clapped, being in philadelphia and all haha. trent came out and it was just really really cool to see. cuz he was just walking around playing the guitar as opposed to performing (and it IS different). they started playing “dead souls”!! half way through they let us out of the seats and up front to the barrier. so friggen cool. from “dead souls” they went into “the frail/the wretched” which is always rocking whether the lights are on or off. then shock of shocks, they did “a request for this old classic”….deep!!! omg never expected that. very very cool. after trent commented to remind his light guy to fix the super mario look of the lighting. they finished up with “wish”. lemme tell you, soundcheck was just so cool. such a great thing to do for the people who have stuck around the last 5 years, and yeah. just in awe. trent was very humble, thanking everyone, and stating how doing soundcheck with everyone was much more intimidating with the lights on and them all exposed and naked on stage. and every girl and probably a lot of guys wished that was really so hahaha.

they had let a lot of people in for soundcheck, so there was no meet and greet. we were sent back to the seats to wait til 6:30 to go back on the floor again. let me tell you, philly was the most entertaining of shows. we had a couple sitting in front of us, who suddenly out of no where apparently started fighting (it was hard to tell) and the girl starts crying cuz the guy broke up with her. so then it was like an hour of her crying and asking why he was mad at her, and just really funny shit. the people behind us kept making cracks about their fight etc, which was hilarious. one of them and i both took the girls picture as she cried on our phone hahahaha. and trust me, it wasn’t mean. they were ridiculous. “i hate you so much i want you far far away from me i never want to see you again, i can’t believe you broke up with me at a nine inch nails concert.” haha

so finally we were let back onto the floor. they did it sort of disorganized like but it was ok. ended up…one back, aaron’s side haha. i mentioned after the show that we HAVE to go to jeordie’s side next show cuz i’m getting a stiff neck from looking in the same direction so many times. suffered through dfa1979 and the queens. i don’t know how i managed the first 3 times seeing them without ear plugs. wow i just so dislike them, almost to the point of hate. only 3 more times…

so nin was incredible. being crushed is seriously the only way to see a nin show. being up front and not getting crushed is nice but it really is not the way to experience the show. there’s nothing like it. opening was the same. but we got “something we can never have” again, plus “dead souls” for real which we weren’t expecting (they had done the song at NYC soundcheck but not at the show), and “even deeper”. no reptile, but that’s ok. i got drenched with water that trent threw at aaron. felt good that’s for sure.

1. pinion
2. love is not enough
3. you know what you are?
4. terrible lie
5. the line begins to blur
6. march of the pigs
7. something i can never have
8. the frail
9. the wretched
10. closer
11. burn
12. gave up
13. eraser
14. right where it belongs
15. beside you in time
16. the collector
17. wish
18. only
19. even deeper
20. dead souls
21. suck
22. hurt
23. the hand that feeds
24. head like a hole

there was this drug addict next to me before the show started, seriously he was on acid, who kept leaning on me cuz he couldn’t stand. i shoved him and told him to get the fuck off me, so he called me a bitch. well he got off me. then later i ended up behind this guy who was at barrier and didn’t move or do a damn thing the whole show. so i made it a point to try to hurt him as much as i could during “the hand that feeds” and i think i succeeded cuz he moved his hand to right where i was punching him in the kidney. ha score! my shoulder is way fucked up right now from the very last crowd surfer who came over during “head like a hole”. it hurts reaaaaaally bad, as does the side of my neck. it’s making me feel sick.

so the people of philly continued to be entertaining even as we left, as a car in the parking lot would only let us in front of them if adr2 sang with the song they were blasting…”jack and diane” LOL they let us in anyway.

so yeah. definitely best show so far. off to wilkes-barre now. more tomorrow!

Posted in: Concerts, Nine Inch Nails \ Tagged: ,

we will never die…beside you in time

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hello from bellmawr new jersey. so the last few days…

tuesday left around 1 and headed for dc. it rained the entire way, which was yuck. we just missed being able to go to reptiland in PA, sadly. and there was one stretch of highway, we’re talking about 500 feet, that had the funniest signs and billboards in it. i can’t remember any of them, but believe me, they were funny.

as always, there was construction right where we needed to get off the highway to find our hotel, so we got mixed up and turned around. it’s really normal and no big thing. got the hotel, which had a really scary shower in my room – burned from cigarettes but it looked like someone was killed.

wednesday the day of the show, i got an email from the spiral about ticket pickup – that they were going to open will call early, at 130 due to the large number of spiral members going to the show. so that pretty much told us that we’d never make it into sound check there. so we decided to go around dc for the day, went to the vietnam memorial, then walked to the white house – er, tried to. all the streets around the white house are blocked off blahblahblah, but they wouldn’t let us down a normally open side walk that runs behind the white house but really really far away. couldn’t even look at it, let alone flip it off. we asked why we couldn’t go there, and one of the guards said “cuz he is.” drove to georgetown and found a whole foods for adr2 and bliss to get food. then finally headed to the show.

the show was great. 1 back from barrier, aaron’s side…again. haha. autolux is off the tour now, replaced with death from above 1979, who are from toronto. yeah, didn’t like them. would rather suffer through autolux. and queens of the stone age. forgot how anthony michael hall singer guy makes me ill. but! ear plugs work wonders, and made them tolerable.

nin was great as expected. alex learned some more songs, “you know what you are” and “the collector” were both added. set rearranged a bit, but same basic songs. these reviews are just going to be me repeating “reptile!!!! burn!!!! so great!!!!” hahaha aaron through a keyboard into the audience at the end. like the old days. i want a broken key haha.

1. Pinion
2. Love Is Not Enough
3. You Know What You Are
4. Terrible Lie
5. The Line Begins To Blur
6. March Of the Pigs
7. The Frail
8. The Wretched
9. Closer
10. Burn
11. Gave Up
12. Eraser
13. Right Where It Belongs
14. Beside You In Time
15. The Collector
16. Wish
17. Only
18. Reptile
19. Suck
20. Hurt
21. The Hand That Feeds
22. Head Like A Hole

partook in the absinthe after the show. it is…definitely a strong acquired taste. i could see how the more you drink it the easier it goes down. experimented with the amount of water and sugar til it got tolerable. haha. definitely got drunk off it, high alcohol content, but there was no halucinating or anything. it’ll be interesting to try it again.

thursday was driving to nyc day. again, we decided not to leave super early cuz, come on, it’s nyc. there’d be tons of people in line by the time we got there. so we left around noon and headed up north. checked into the hotel we booked here, changed, then headed to newark to take a train to penn station. we decided us driving in manhattan would not be too smart. newark was bad enough as it was rush hour. took forever to get down the street to penn station. anyway…

the show. i had a seat for this show, cuz my presale was messed up and GA sold out before i got one. so i was by myself. had a good seat, front of a section so no one was in front of me. i actually fell asleep during death from above, i got really tired suddenly haha. and i could sit! someone was snoring behind me during queens. nin show. great show. added “something i can never have” which was great, i didn’t think we’d see it in the arenas. emotional as always. no i didn’t cry. i still haven’t cried to that song live. so 😛 no special guests on stage, but james iha was there. they trashed the stage at the end, aaron destroying the drum kit and his guitar all at once. alessandro started tearing apart his keyboards. i didn’t notice trent destroying anything really, and jeordie was just really funny, cuz everyone else is throwing stuff, and he just gently puts his bass down haha. it was great.

1. pinion
2. love is not enough
3. you know what you are?
4. terrible lie
5. the line begins to blur
6. march of the pigs
7. something i can never have
8. the frail
9. the wretched
10. closer
11. burn
12. gave up
13. eraser
14. right where it belongs
15. beside you in time
16. the collector
17. wish
18. only
19. reptile
20. hurt
21. suck
22. the hand that feeds
23. head like a hole

driving back to the hotel, got lost. haha surprise!!

tomorrow is spending the off day in philly exploring.

good time so far. looking forward to the rest of the trip.

Posted in: Concerts, Nine Inch Nails \ Tagged: ,

i return to the only place i’ve ever felt that i belong….

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alright, home. how depressing. now where did i leave off?

friday: went and got adr2 at the airport. we were late, the family running around trying to get ready for their own departure from ohare a few hours later. it was ok though, cuz she was lost anyway haha. went to the apartment and then shopping. it was a crummy day, drizzly and grey and cold. we’d either sit in drizzle at the show, or shop in it, so we shopped. went back to uncle fun again – bought more stuff i didn’t see the day before, like a huge pirate flag! hehe. and i got the best, pin ever – so niagara falls – it’s a drawing of a steel barrel with a skull and cross bones on it LOL. i finally got a pair of roos too. navy blue and pink, i like em. back to the apartment to get un-yuckified from the rain, then out in terrible traffic to the arena. didn’t get their til the doors were about to open.

friday’s show: we ended up 1 back from the barrier on aaron’s side again. we were behind 2 bigger guys, who were great for providing padding during the show haha. autolux played first. they were alright. they make alot of noise for just 3 people. it’s sorta art metal i guess. it was ok. then queens of the stone age. completely unenjoyable. the singer looks like anthony michael hall all grown up. he does this elvis type dance thing when playing guitar. it’s strange. and i don’t like them. and i still don’t like them after seeing them 3 times. 6 more times to go…

nin opened behind a sorta mesh sheet, starting with pinion into love is not enough. quite cool. love that their opening with that.

the setlist was the same for all 3 shows, because of the new drummer. his name is Alex something or another, he’s from australia. the chicago show was his first show. we figure as more time goes by, and he learns the other songs, the set will change up. and jerome is supposed to come back next month i guess.

1. Pinion
2. Love Is Not Enough
3. Wish
4. Terrible Lie
5. The
Line Begins to Blur
6. March of the Pigs
7. The Frail
8. The
Wretched
9. Closer
10. Burn
11. Gave Up
12. Eraser
13. Right
Where It Belongs
14. Beside You In Time
15. Sin
16. Only
17.
Reptile
18. Suck
19. Hurt
20. The Hand That Feeds
21. Head Like
A Hole

beginning with eraser, the sheet comes down around the stage again, and a projector plays a big montage of nature clips, monkeys, bugs, george w bush, onto the screen. eraser is so cool, very powerful. once eraser is done pummeling you right where it belongs provides a break, much like the la mer/the great below section of the fragile show. besides you in time is going to give me a seizure at some point, but it was cool. they do the end a bit different, and made it a better song imo (not my fav song, probably least fav nin song ever). and then..friggen only!!!!! i just about died. no one even recognized it at first. but holy crap it’s such an awesome song to go nuts to live. screaming the chorus is one of the most cathartic things ever. loved it. so dancy and wonderful.

the sound was kinda weird, but dunno what was wrong. sin, and reptile just sounded not right. they sounded much better the following 2 nights. i thought maybe it was like u2 in boston, up front things just dont sound right in an arena, but up front again in cleveland sounded fine. dunno.

shared a cab with 2 guys back downtown, who were in love with depeche mode. and they gave me 35$ for the cab ride, so we only ended up having to pay 15$ nice!

saturday: adr2 flew back home, and i flew to detroit. waiting at midway i had the most disgusting bagel in the world. i swear it was made out of rubber. barf. this kid came into the C line wearing a nin shirt. so i stared at him until he looked at me, and asked if he went to the show. he hadn’t, but he was going to detroit for that show. ended up sitting with him on the plane, which was cool. we had the nin row haha. no one else sat with us we were so scary and intimidating hahaha. his name was caleb and he was from minneapolis. once in detroit, i got luggage and went to get my rental car. blahblahblah the lady says i have the smallest car they have, cuz i wanted cheap economy car. i go to get the actual vehicle and…it’s some sort of minivan/suv thing. so i go back inside and inline and tell them i think something was wrong cuz it was a minivan. they said it wasn’t a minivan. either way i said, the said SMALLEST CAR AVAILABLE and it was a truck! so they give me the car next to it instead, which was a FORD EXPLORER. what about “smallest car available” did they not understand. it wasn’t that i didn’t WANT the first suv/van thing, it’s that they said small car, and that was not a small car. whatever. so i had an explorer. i dont know how to drive a friggen suv! i managed tho. got a hotel near the airport, then drove around and found a walmart. my belt that had been breaking, did finally break completely, when security made me take it off at the airport. without beating myself up i had THE MOST FIGHT CLUB moment EVER at the hotel. went to open up my suitcase and something was making a noise inside. my electric toothbrush had turned on. hahahahah. took a nap at the hotel, and planned on going up to the venue late so that i didn’t have to see the openers again. ended up getting their before doors opened anyway. super.

saturday’s show: didn’t feel like going up front, so i hung back at the sound board for the whole show. froze my ass off since i wasn’t upfront haha. openers were the same eh as chicago. queens seemed slightly more tolerable, but i think that’s cuz i kept spacing out and forgetting i was even there. nin’s set was the same as chicago, as i said, but the crowd was way way better. everyone was super into it, singing along, trent actually would stop singing so the audience could. he didn’t say a word in chicago, but he talked in detroit. said thanks alot, then after hurt he said something like: i just want to say something. i don’t do this because i don’t like to talk about it. i just kinda got caught up in the song. 4 years ago i never thought i’d be on stage again in front of a great audience, so thank you. he went on to thank the new drummer, and the openers. it was cute :). now enter the stupidest girl ever. as i said, during the middle of the show a video gets projected on the sheet around the stage. and at one point they show george w bush dancing with his wife. everyone usually starts flipping him off. this girl behind me goes, in the whinest voice ever “they’re all flipping off the president, why?” omg. hahaha

after the show, was stuck in the joe louis parking ramp for an hour. and i just want to say joe louis arena is super small for an NHL team like the red wings…i also did the stupidest thing ever. this lady was trying to switch lanes, as if either one was moving, so she was sorta between lanes and kept trying to get in front of me but i wouldn’t let her. i was bigger! finally she beeped the horn so i’d look at her, asked if she could get in front of me, and i said no. then i remembered I’M IN DETROIT SHE COULD SHOOT ME!

left detroit early sunday to drive to cleveland, which did not take me 3 hours. if you think buffalo radio is bad, try finding a station between detroit and cleveland. barf. gave the car back, and waited for adr2 and bliss to come pick me up. once they did, we had nothing really to do. it was blah and cold again, so we weren’t going to sit in line. went to the arena to see if we could pick up our tickets yet (couldn’t) and ran into none other than caleb from the airplane. he had remembered that i said i was driving down to cleveland, and so he rented a car and did the same hahah. went into the building with him to find the box office so he could get a ticket, and nin was sound checking love is not enough. pretty cool.

sunday’s show: drove around cleveland to waste time, went to a starbucks, then finally back to the arena around 6. there were 2 cool girls behind us in line that we talked to. after reno, this city had the coolest people in line haha. we had gone at doors open so bliss could see autolux. bliss decided we could go up front, so we did, 2nd back from barrier on aaron’s side….again. haha openers, the same. the show was great again. aside from the girl humping me at the beginning of the show, and the one time i got slammed into bliss, we didn’t get touched at all. no pushing, no being smooshed up against everyone. you could breathe and move and dance around and whatever. it was great, and a great break in show for bliss. same set list, except during right beside you in time the movie projection stopped. once the song finished, trent asked if the fuckers in back fixed the projector or if they were just going to move on with the set. and they did, skipping beside you in time. he told them he was going to kick their asses hahaha. reptile in cleveland was incredible. when it started, it just slamed into you, like woah. it was fantastic. and i am officially going to hell. sometime during autolux a little boy, around age 12 i’d say, and mom and a guy appeared up front to our right. well during queens he decided to try to get in front of me. he was doing it all stealth, as if i wouldn’t notice this little munchkin suddenly in front of me. so i look down and ask “where you going buddy”, he just looks up at me all angelic and smiling and i shake my head at him. so he stops, stands there, then later tells his people that i won’t let him by. he goes away, and ends up at barrier to the right of us. ok fine. if people want to give into a child, whatever, that’s their problem. but then, he tries it again. HE WAS AT BARRIER?!? WTF. this time he actually asked me if he could get in front of me, and i flat out said no. i’m mean to children.

great show. after, ran into caleb again and talked for a bit, then out to the car where we ran into the 2 girls behind us in line and talked to them to see how they liked the show. finally headed out back to buffalo. stopped at a gas station store, and 5 other cars of nin fans ended up coming in too hahah.

aside: 1. when did hurt become a make out song? in detroit there were like 4 couples around me who were all huggy and yuck during hurt. hello! have you LISTENED to the song? “i will let you down, i will make you hurt”, not really a good relationship song. 2. fangirl moment, the “trent bounce” is so friggen hot.

awesome awesome trip. so depressed now haha. few more weeks and we’ll do it again. bliss said she’s addicted now, and that we can go to boston. so gotta look into getting boston tickets. also need to find out when depeche mode is playing toronto and hope for no conflicts (dec 1st, a thursday, so going!). i so don’t want to be home, though i did enjoy my bed. not looking forward to unpacking, laundry, etc. gotta go get kitty from the parents.

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and we’ll shine like stars in the winter

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my GOD was this show better than wednesday.

we didn’t head up to toronto til adr1’s plane arrived, and we got up there around noon. we ended up being in line behind the same woman we were behind on wednesday, who is named sandy. talked with her alot today, which was cool. and we were maybe 10 feet behind where we were in line on wednesday. they had already split the lines up – and this time, since there had been no presale for this show, you could be in the u2.com line without having presale tickets. great, i left my membership at home thinking we couldn’t use it. good thing kate and lei had their’s, cuz you were allowed to bring a friend. so that allowed us to be much farther up in line than we thought when we first saw it. nice. it rained all day, and was chilly. eh whatever.

so doors open, lei scans first and takes off when she didn’t get into the ellipse. my ticket scanned for inside. i was probably the least enthusiastic about scanning for inside the ellipse ever, cuz it didn’t really matter to me. but i took adr1 inside with me, and we ended up barrier right in front of edge. nice. kate was outside on adam’s side, and lei was same place as wednesday on the outside. let’s find the setlist…

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Electric Co.
The Ocean
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love & Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where The Streets Have No Name
One (w/Daniel Lanois)

The Fly
With Or Without You

All Because Of You
Fast Cars
Yahweh
Out Of Control (with 4 fans playing, band took over at end)
40 (with adam playing guitar and edge playing bass)

ok i wanna say, bono was way friggen hot tonight. haha. his voice has sounded pretty good most of the time, especially considering he’s doing a bit of opera. daniel lanois came out at the end of “one” and took over bono’s guitar, which was cool. he’s still dorky tho haha. “the fly” was much better tonight than wednesday. bono had way more energy, way more of a stage presence, almost like zootv bono. it was hot haha. “fast cars” 2nd time ever playing (first time was monday), and it was way cool. it’s an extra track on the new album, if you bought the special book release. very very cool. nice mariachi dancing from bono and guitar from edge. i’ll say it again..way hot haha. where’s the cardboard?! haha of course, out of film by that point cuz i forgot my digital and went and got a disposable from lei when i got barrier inside. oh well. “out of control” was a nice surprise, and they brought up 4 guys who had a sign that their band wanted to play with u2. so they started the song and then u2 took over, which was awesome. “40” was great, as they weren’t going to play it, but bono asked the rest of the band if they could play one more. so they did that, then one by one left the stage, larry being last. it was a really nice way to end the show. apparently there were cameras taping the whole show, as reported by lei, but adr and i only saw them up front filming the audience between songs once, and then onstage for “all because of you” and “fast cars”…bono said something about us being on tv. i dunno what that was all about. it’d be nice to see a video of fast cars, cuz…it was hot 🙂 from u2.com: “No sooner had the band caught their breath than director Lian Lunson – she of
the acclaimed Leonard Cohen documentary I’m Your Man,
premiered in the city earlier this week – is up on stage with a film crew. The
band are playing Fast Cars again, only the second live performance ever (Don’t
laugh!’ says Bono) and it is being committed to film. (Who knows what for ?
Guess we’ll find out soon enough.) The director gets a kiss on the cheek as she
takes her crew off stage and it’s a time for celebrations – this being the
eightieth birthday of the one and only BB King.
”

oh yeah. before “yahweh” bono starts talking about how it’s somebody’s birthday…bb king’s birthday. so at this point everyone starts freaking out that bb king is there, and that they’ll play “when love comes to town”. bono’s such a tease. but it was bb’s birthday, so bono CALLED HIM from the end of the ellipse and everyone sang happy birthday to bb. he definitely needed my horns at that point, macphisto throwback moment. haha.

oh, and yeah i got a guitar pick. it’s black with a shiny red target on it. it’s either from the tour, or sold by Target stores hahaha (that was a joke).

yeah. i don’t have much to say about the show, but it was just so much better than wednesday. the little add ons, the (slight) change in set list, it was just better. i’ll still be pissed if they play something from pop tomorrow. the idea of calling in and going up again tomorrow passed through us, but rumor is tickets are running 500$ from the scalpers. yikes. i can wait a month til detroit.

in other news, adr2 decided to go to san diego for nin. she text me from the show that they stopped because of a medical emergency – jerome was having chest pains. the show was cancelled and rescheduled for november some time. scary.

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and we’ll shine like stars on a summer night…

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today was day 1 of 2 u2 shows in toronto this week. i actually had been not at all excited about it just given how much everything sucks lately. after boston not going well, and being disappointed in the show itself, i was just not looking forward to seeing them 4 more times.

well they did a better job this time. actually a lot better. tho i still have complaints.

it was great because they massively rearranged the set list. it was no longer all new stuff, and really really old stuff for the first half, and then doing a greatest hits set before going into the achtung encore. they mixed it up nicely through the main set, they sounded better, bono wasn’t limping and in pain. it was definitely alot better. my complaint is that they played a whole TWO songs from achtung. “one” and “the fly”. no “until the end of the world” which is a tragedy really. we DID get “with or without you” this time, which was great cuz i miss it. we also got “bad”…unfortunately “miss sarejevo” replaced “running to stand still”…as expected there was no “who’s gonna ride your wild horses” as that seemed to be a special treat for the final boston show. i’ll find a real setlist somewhere. they brought daniel lanois, one of their long time producers, out at the end of “bad” as he’s from hamilton.

we got up there around 6:30am, and were around 35 in line (we got numbered by the line nazi – holy crap i remembered this lady from hamilton in 2001, but it wasn’t as bad as today…she numbered everyone, ok cool…later she went and stamped some ppl with a stamp that she was saying was bono’s lips…then as people are trying to sleep in line, she decides to do what the employees of the air canada center are supposed to do, which was to move and arrange all the metal barriers…we happened to have at least 6 behind where we were sitting, and by the end i was like, can i ask what is the point of all this? shes like, well people are going to jump in line ahead of you, and security is gonna do it anyway…SO LET THEM. later she came by and asked if she could use our sidewalk chalk so i guess it was a truce. didn’t mean we stopped making fun of her tho haha). i somehow managed to sleep in a folding stadium chair for a few hours. with lots of loud traffic around. amazing. spent the rest of the day coloring, and drawing with chalk, and reading etc.

once inside, none of our tickets scanned for inside the ellipse, so kate headed to adam’s side, and me lei and james headed to edge’s side. all 4 of us were at barrier for the whole show, on the outside of the ellipse. and i like that much better than being inside, cuz you can just see everything. on the way in someone had lost their devil horns, so finders keepers i wore them for the whole show haha. and now for my teenie bopper fan girl moment, during “streets” bono was walking along the ellipse over by us, and he absolutely 100% dead sure made eye contact with me, and started smiling cuz of my horns. and i almost threw up haha. it was so exciting hahahahah. a few people down from us was “Mrs Edge” from interference who lei used to talk to. she belly dances and was dressed up. even though they didn’t do “mysterious ways” (complete lack of achtung what?) bono found her and brought her on stage during “bad” which was totally cool. i’d die. there were some tough parts, teary parts i should say, through the show but i totally lost it during “one”. i’m a retard. hahah. how cliche, crying during “hurt” and now crying during “one” again. at least last time, i had the excuse of u2’s sept 11th tribute at hamilton during “one” and all the emotions running high from all that 4 years ago. this time i have no excuse i’m just lame haha.

one of the funny things about the day, was this crazy homeless black guy that was at the NIN shows was at this show too. he’s a pretty good homeless dude, as he actually sort of performs for money. he does crazy song rant things, and is rather entertaining in a black homeless crack head kinda way. and the same scalpers were there as at NIN and i hate the one guy i wanted to hit him.

but yeah….it was good. excited for friday. hopefully we get some set changes, and some big songs back into the show. we’ll see. adr arrives fri morning so we’ll probably get up there this time around noon. hoping to still do ok in line.

1. Vertigo
2. The Electric Co.
3. Elevation
4. Beautiful Day
5. I
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
6. City Of Blinding Lights
7.
Miracle Drug
8. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
9. Love And Peace
Or Else
10. Sunday Bloody Sunday
11. Bullet The Blue Sky
12. Miss
Sarajevo
13. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
14. Where The Streets Have No
Name
15. One

16. The Fly
17. With Or Without You
18. All Because
Of You
19. Yahweh
20. Bad / 40

when looking for the setlist, lots of people who had seen monday’s toronto show were disappointed in tonight’s. can’t say, i wasn’t there. i still think this was more enjoyable than boston. it still has problems though. there is something really lacking this tour. i don’t know if it’s energy, or bono’s stage presence lacking as someone suggested, but something is off. kinda sad. lei and i keep saying it’s cuz the elevation tour was just so perfect, but i dunno. not that much has changed, but it feels completely different.

and also when looking for the setlist, apparently DISCOTHEQUE AND MOFO were rumored to be appearing in the set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy crap i’ll die to get either of them, especially mofo. i kept saying it’d be so awesome if they surprised everyone and busted out with mofo. and i swear if they don’t appear on friday, but do on saturday that i’m not at, i’ll be pissed haha.

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