Category Archives: Concerts

Berlin shows 1&2

Getting to the venue the first day was ridiculous and I don’t even want to get into it. So frustrated and pissed and got there “late” and just…terrible. The show was awesome. PoPo opened instead of Ladytron and they were…interesting. Far more entertaining to watch, but it all seemed somewhat chaotic and off to me. The 2^nd show they seemed much more organized and smooth and I liked it better.

Pretty standard set for this leg, with Big Comedown, and the new songs. Was next to Vanessa at the rail in front of Aaron. Didn’t get messed with too much so that was good. Unfortunately during Burn we had a crowd of photographers in front of us. Great show though I can’t really say why and what made it stand out really. It made me really not want to go back home. Trent confirmed the 2^nd new album and said they’d be back in Europe again soon, so… that’s nice. Hehe.

After the show a bunch of us went to Hard Rock to celebrate Mandy’s birthday. About 10 minutes after we get there “The Hand That Feeds” video comes on. And we’re all totally retarded staring at it intently as if we’ve never seen it before, and rockin out, as if we hadn’t just heard he song in the show haha.

2^nd show I scalped a ticket, and queued all day. It was…interesting. Sue and Kim and I got accosted by this guy on a bike. We were talking and he just appears and in German asks us what kind of music NIN was. So we talk about it, and then he starts speaking basically perfect english – about how we’re Americans without guns. Which led to “hey I didn’t vote for Bush.” And suddenly he’s off for about a half our about how Bush and his cronies planned and carried out 9-11 themselves, how he has all this proof that he collected on the internet and he starts pulling out cds and giving them to us, then asking for a few euro because he was trying to sell them. He just goes on and on about all this governmental conspiracy stuff. Now the strange(r) thing about it was that so much of what he was saying fit into the Year Zero concept. And once we finally got rid of him we started talking about how much of a coincidence it was, and that maybe that was planned to happen. Instead of USBs found in venue bathrooms this guy was part of the Year Zero ARG and maybe these cds he gave us – 3 different ones – are the next step in the game, leading to a new website or song. It just seemed too weird. So I took mine down to the internet cafe and took a look. No it was really just crazy conspiracy theory stuff. However one CD that Kim took was called “Final Solution to A Hitler”…final solution being a song that NIN played sometimes in the summer…and then we’re at the rail before the show, and they play final solution over the speakers…Maybe it is something afterall. Probably not, but just too many coincidences. At least now I have a rather unique souvenir hahaha.

I made the decision to try to change my flight home and stay on the tour through Vienna. Didn’t seem like it was going to work out but I tried, and tried more after the show with no luck. And I didn’t get to hear The Fragile or We’re in This Together…you kant…always get want you want.

The show…was weird. I didn’t notice it being all that bad – the sound to me was fine and normal. However they were having technical difficulties with the lights. They wouldn’t come on at the right time, or not come on at all. The first verse of Something I Can Never Have was in darkness, with Trent eventually getting a flashlight and shining it on his face until the lights came on hahah. After Closer, which was oddly cut short – the end piano notes just stopped – Trent said he had spent the day driving around the city and that it was beautiful, and that he came to the show ready to kick ass and beat us all into submission. But that they were having technical difficulties and they were all pissed, and they were going to take a minute to regroup and then beat us all into submission. Well…it didn’t really happen. The lights continued to be sort of late in coming on, so they weren’t matching up to the music, etc. I know that it’s annoying, but things could have been worse hahah. Set was pretty standard, no Last, but got the frail/the wretched and la mer/into the void which I was glad to see again before I left.

The shows have been so much fun, queuing included, and I really don’t want it to end. The experience has been so less stressful and much more mellow than the experience in the US. I definitely will be back for more shows in Europe. I had much more fun and everyone was in a better mood than in the summer. I am very very glad that I came and not just for having met Trent. It’s for having met everyone else, and spending more time with S and V and just…being a part of something. It feels like it was all sort of special – for some reason. Which is awesome 🙂

Amsterdam show today. So irritated. I was going to get up early to go to the Van Gogh museum. But the wind/weather sounded terrible and I really wanted to sleep so I did, til around noon. That still gave me plenty of time to check out the museum then go to the venue. Except I got lost and it took me and hour and a half to find the damn venue. By that time it was like 2:30 and I wouldn’t have enough time to go and get back to the venue by 4ish incase we were let in for anything. So I stayed at the venue and froze with everyone. There were many more Americans there now, including this guy who I don’t remember his name, but I recognize him from someplace – most likely Cabazon we decided. Him and his wife were cool, from Houston and talked alot while we froze. Brandy brought our tickets and said there would be a sound check. Except that when she came back at 4 to prepare, Trent radioed that he changed his mind. Moody bitch hehe. lovetrent. So we got to freeze some more outside instead.

The venue was the Paradiso which was an old church. Very cool inside and super small. Something like 1200 people. The stage was so small that there was about 4 feet between Ali and Josh’s risers, add Trent’s table and piano, and that left about 2 feet for Trent to move from the front of the stage to the back. Just so small! Given the smallness I didn’t get rail, was right behind Sue. Then some people showed up who I could tell were going to annoy the shit out of me, so I decided to go up and sit front row of the balcony. I could actually see the whole show this time, it was neat.

Nothing super special. Pilgramage, Mr Self Destruct, Last, Heresy, The Beginning is the End, March of the Pigs, Piggy, Closer, Line Begins To Blur, Burn, Wish, Help Me I Am In Hell, Eraser, Reptile, Survivalism, No You Don’t, Suck, Hurt, Hand that Feeds, Head Like A Hole. Something like that, I think I’m missing a few. I was glad to get Line Begins To Blur – I missed that song muchly. I love it live, it’s so pretty. Trent at one point decided to give credit to his band, introducing each one, then with Aaron mentioning it was his birthday. People started to sing, so Trent threw the mic out into the crowd to sing to Aaron. It was cute. Someone threw some kind of stuffed animal at him haha.

So starting in Cologne, while queing the incorrect song lyrics keep coming up in conversation. And I think Trent has heard us joking about “smash up my jelly beans” as a line from Gave Up and he decided to stop playing it. jk of course. But he left it out again today.

2 shows left to get The Fragile and We’re In This Together. Well…2 if I can find a ticket to Berlin2.

We leave for Berlin at almost 8pm tomorrow so I’m going to attempt to get to Van Gogh. I actually can’t wait to leave this city. I think it’s way overrated, unless you’re a pot head. In that case, game on.

Oh and “The Beginning is the End” when it begins is just drums, and it sounds like “My Sharona”

Wednesday brought the NIN show in Cologne. Having no idea where it was, we took a cab to the venue – across the river, in a very industrial area. The venue itself appears to have been some sort of industrial structure or warehouse at one point. And as has become expected on our trip so far, there was construction. It follows us. We got there around 1 and Sue was the only one there. S & V had gone for coffee and still hours later there were only about 8 of us in the Spiral. By doors at 6:15 there was MAYBE 25 Spiral kids. Needless to say, we all got on the rail. Directly in front of Trent. It felt like Rochester but missing a few (a lot of) key players :). The day actually went pretty fast, and there was much laughter about misheard song lyrics, the Russian “I will let you die”, Sue’s friend thinking “Down In It” was “I was in a bucket, now I’m down in it.” college roommate Danielle thinking “Terrible Lie” was “Turn off the lights”. There were others I now forget, but we had a good laugh. We also discussed Trent offending every country he goes to, and Germans throwing sausages at them last time they were here. We sat in the sun to stay warm, since pretty much wherever we were, that was the Spiral line. It was sorta amusing that when Brandy came out to give us tickets she was holding about 35 envelopes instead of the amount she had in London where she just gave them to the box office to hand out. Good for us though. It was pretty chill and relaxed all day. We went into the actual Spiral line when other people started to show up and they seemed pissed that we passed them all and went to the front of the line. Um hello, you saw us sitting in the sun across the street, we’ve been here all day. Whatever. It was sort of funny, S acted as a translator for the rest of us, and when doors opened security asked us to step forward…but in German…and none of us moved. Ha ha we had no clue until S told us to move haha.

The show itself. It was mostly the same set list as London 1 – opening with “Somewhat Damaged” followed by “Last”. At that point I heard Aaron talk for the first time ever during a show. He said, “What are you guys fucking bored?” I guess the rest of the place behind me wasn’t into it. It seemed to get better though, because Trent insinuated during his funny story that we redeemed his opinion of Germans. His funny story to come later after Adr2 and Bliss get my postcard. I don’t want to ruin it for them haha. I’ve already told them half the stuff I’ve written to them haha.

In the set they added new song “The Beginning is the End” – it has tambourine – I’m happy. Having only heard it twice I don’t quite know it enough to feel like I can participate haha. Heresy, Ruiner, Burn, The Day The World Went Away, Survivalism, Suck, and the regulars. Trent’s voice didn’t seem to bother him until the end, around Hurt. He dropped notes down during The Hand That Feeds, as he sometimes does if he’s not well. And this time Josh was sick – one of the reason’s for Trent’s funny story, to give Josh a rest. But Josh was still spectacular. Trent almost fell off the stage during Piggy on his way down. And I don’t quite understand why he goes into the audience because it seems like he really doesn’t enjoy it. He wasn’t near us, so I could watch him this time (I didn’t have a face full of Trent stomach, not that I’m complaining), and he seems to almost cringe and just keep his eyes shut the whole time. It wasn’t too rough, only a few crowd surfers, and I wasn’t completely smashed. Ended up with a few nice pains though because of how I was forced to stand. Wearing a belt hurts at the moment haha.

Still waiting to get “The Fragile” and “We’re In This Together”…I think those are the only other songs being recently played that I haven’t heard yet. Of course, London 4 got “The Fragile”. They probably got it today in Dortmund too, or will in Tilburg :P. I decided to go to the 2^nd Brussels show if I can find a ticket (not worried), and the 2^nd Berlin show if I see everything I want to see in the city on the off days. Kim said she’d look on the Spiral for me, since we had no/expensive internet in Cologne. We’ll see. The 2^nd Amsterdam show is when we are traveling to Berlin so that’s out.

London show #2 3-8-07

Special event for the Spiral kids today – we were let in to listen to Year Zero and have some snacks. We got let in around 4:30, there was sandwiches and dessert things and tea. Jeordie and Aaron came out to introduce the album. Jeordie was smiling and actually looked cute. Aaron was funny, telling us they were going to have pizza for everyone but thought we’d be out of our element so we got tea and crumpets instead. Jeordie then began to play the album off his phone/pda into the mic before having the album start on the sound system. Initial reaction – it’s kind of hard to gauge, just like when Adr2 and I went up to Toronto to hear With Teeth. Listening to it that loud with echo and distortion of the venue, vocals were drowned out and things like that. Trent said it began as an experiment in noise and you can definitely hear that. I don’t really know why but it kept reminding me of Gary Numan. It’s going to take some listens by myself in my car etc before I can really form an opinion on it. It’s promising, let’s say 🙂 I’m not scared anymore haha.

After the album finished we were let back into the lobby to collect our cameras and cell phones, and instead of shipping us back outside like they were going to, we were able to queue inside to get right back on to the floor not long after.

The show itself started and I was a bit disappointed that it seemed like we were right back to the same old show… Love Is Not Enough, Sin, Terrible Lie, March of the Pigs, Something I Can Never Have, The Frail/The Wretched (which I was glad to see back)…but then he threw in The Beginning is the End from Year Zero, which came off very cool, tho having only heard it an hour before it’s kind of hard to really compare. That was followed by Closer, with super hot homoerotic trent/aaron action. Instead of Burn following, they brought back Deep. Awesome. Hadn’t seen that since..the November 05 leg. I think No You Don’t followed, Gave Up, Help Me I Am In Hell, Eraser…what else..Survivalism, Wish, Hurt, The Hand That Feeds – renamed “A Lovesong for George Bush” – Head Like A Hole, oh! La Mer/Into the Void…no Piggy and no Suck, score! Haha. I feel like I’m missing something there.

Have you ever heard a Polish guy sing Hurt? And no this is not the beginning of a bad joke. The crowd today was 10x worse than yesterday, I was smashing this poor super short girl in front of me, then eventually got pushed in between her and V at the rail. All the pushing by these 2 Polish or maybe Russian guys, who when they weren’t singing broken english lyrics, they were talking in whatever language. But Hurt in Polish/Russian broken english becomes “I will let you go” and “I will let you die” hahaha. He continuously apologized for crushing us. Dude, we’re at a show, it’s alright. But what isn’t alright is using me for a pogo stick and humping. Brusied up real nice, but feel fine.

Great show again, and just different enough from the 28 other shows from 05-06 to make it not totally…what’s the word? The same. haha

I’m going to post my very fangirl review of the first show first, while it’s still somewhat fresh in the mind. Family needs not to read this since I know you won’t care. This is going to be very stream of consciousness as I remember seemingly random things.

We met up with the guy who was going to sell Alex his extra ticket (for less than face value!) and headed to Brixton. Got there around 12:30 maybe, right behind S and V. It was great to see them again and hear their stories of the tour so far. The butter story was the most entertaining, as well as the almost fight/death threat story.

Fast forward to doors, 1 back in front of Aaron. Surprise? Ladytron opened, and I had been interested in seeing what they would be like after looking at their myspace. Sounded good but not extremely exciting on stage. But better than some other opening bands I’ve seen.

/begin fangirl

hfs!! trent went away for a few months and got some new ultra hot moves *dies*. just the first 5 seconds of “somewhat damaged” and the little move he did….gah. I really think he has come into his sexiness as he has aged, because I would never describe Downward Trent as being sexy…but dear lord.

/end fangirl???

As expected “Somewhat Damaged” followed by “Last”, then followed by of all things “Heresy”…incredible opening to a show. “Heresy” was totally unexpected and I was very happy that I hadn’t been looking at setlists. The whole show was really a surprise, as to what was going to come next. In the end, there was 1 Pretty Hate song, most of Broken, 7 Downward songs, a few Fragile and 2 With Teeth.

I really had forgotten that Jeordie was even there until the beginning of “Eraser” when they start playing with the old factory beat up looking light fixtures (which gave me a revelation, more later) that have strings on them so they can grab them and swing them around. He had way too much fun doing that hahahaha. It was really hard to take ones eyes off of Trent.

Setlist…this is what I remember in no particular order: Somewhat Damaged, Last, Heresy, March of the Pigs, Piggy, Ruiner, Closer, Burn, Gave Up, Help Me I Am In Hell, Eraser, Hurt, The Day The World Went Away, The Big Comedown, Only, The Hand That Feeds, Head Like A Hole, Wish, Suck, Survivalism….

It was a fairly tame crowd, smooshed, but there wasn’t a single idiot violent ass person around us, it was a nice change. Not hurt at all, tho I’ve now noticed my wrist is bruised but no idea how – I was pressed up against S the whole show. Very few crowd surfers, and it was rather cool as the smoke fans the band used blew right on us more or less. At one point the security guard offered me water, and I looked at him like “Why?” There was no need. Of course a few people back they were all hot and dying, so he stood in front of us to pass back water…right as The Big Comedown started…dude…seriously…big comedown you need to move!!! He finally did and good thing too 😛

Oh right, before the show, V had gone to the bathroom to scope out the USB situation, and S and I were talking about where they had been found etc etc etc, wondering where they’d be today…neither one of us realizing that it was right in front of us taped to a flyer on the rail hahaha. She noticed and grabbed it. We’ll see tomorrow what was on it this time.

There were alot of Americans there. A good chunk of the Spiral line were Americans. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Makes things feel alot like they did back in the states, and I had sorta been looking forward to something different.

But we did get it. We got a completely different show, and thinking about what was not played, like Terrible Lie, I didn’t miss the omissions. It was really nice to see a completely different show than the With Teeth tour. I wouldn’t say it has alot to do with the concept of Year Zero (yet) but different songs, and you can sort of see how the shows could morph into being more meaningful as to the concept of the album. Sorta seems like the songs Trent has chosen for this leg could fit into the theme of the new record if you try real hard haha.

Very awesome show. At one point while queuing we had remarked about how many security guards were around – alot – which was odd. S ended up hearing later that there were so many guard around because there was going to be a meet and greet. I swear to god, the NIN camp scopes out the line to see who’s in it, and then decides to have a meet and greet based on that. And that means I will never ever meet that bastard! haha 😉 29 shows and counting…

Ah yes the revelation…another rumor is that Trent is doing a Year Zero movie. And looking at the faux ruined “factory” lights, I realized how perfectly Buffalo Central Terminal, and other Buffalo abandonments, could fit into the theme of Year Zero. hollywoodinmemoriam.com speaks of a dirty bomb hitting the oscars in LA…the Terminal could easily be used as a set for that sort of storyline, without having to make a fake set. So many other places that could be used for sets in a Year Zero themed movie. So now my main goal in life is to get Trent to use the Terminal in his YZ movie, and then work on the piano concert on the Terminal mezzanine. 🙂 And going along with that, the art show I want to do..