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.

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

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.

Posted in: Concerts, U2 \ Tagged: ,

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.

Posted in: Concerts, U2 \ Tagged: ,

Adr2’s NIN Philly post

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Since I lost a big chunk of archives from the spring of 2005, I am posting Adrienne2’s live journal posts about the Philly NIN club shows. I am really really sad that my posts are missing because they were truly hilarious. Also missing, our trip to Reno, which she didn’t post about. Gone forever, boooo.

 

nine inch nails in philadelphia….. FANTASTIC!!! holy crap so worth it.

jerome kissed brian (from dresden dolls) last night and it was so fucking hot. (sara: “Am I gonna need to hose you off?” lol)

eastern state penn. gorgeous. enough said.

i hate philly. a lot. but i have to go back to see the mummers museum b/c it will just be fantastic. then i will never have to go back to that hell again (until the next leg of the tour). hehe

there are exactly 2 fucking hotels in philly b/c the place sucks. we had to drive around forever after the show on wednesday before we found any hotels which, of course, since there are only like 2 in philly, all of them were sold out. took a fucking year to find a place to sleep for the night.

oh, last thing (b/c i am so not going to do the whole obsessed fan show thing b/c i don’t want to type that much hehehe. although sara and i will be touring in the fall with the band. where ever they go we will follow. hehe) oh yeah, so one last thing….

“ggrrrrr…… FUCKING BROKE”
::stomp::
::crash::
::throws mike stand::
::jerome ducks w/o missing a beat::

trent must have really not liked star wars. lol

fucking amazing!!

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

NIN Toronto Club 2

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what have i become
my sweetest friend
everyone i know
goes away in the end

tonight’s show… gah. did i mention we got our tickets on ebay? yeah, we did. and it was totally cool, we got them in person and they were from a kid who was selling them so his girlfriend could afford to go to a bunch of pearl jam concerts. haha. it was cool that they weren’t from a bloody scalper.

we got up to toronto around 1:30/2 this time. after yesterday we decided to go up earlier to get at barrier from the beginning (were one back, good enough). waited in line today with much cooler people than yesterday, but not as cool as reno. we really lucked out in reno with the linemates i think. anyway….so we waited much much longer this time to get in. trent and bandmates got picked up and brought to the venue so we got to see them get off the bus (which didn’t happen yesterday). and i don’t care that it was a whole 3 seconds, trent was totally hot lol.

so yeah…we were one back from the barrier in front of trent/aaron, same area as yesterday. oh…dresden dolls…jerome came out to drum for them for a radiohead cover…which was really funny cuz i had absolutely no idea what song they were playing, though everyone else seemed to. so after we asked the kid behind us (who was singing the entire thing) who it was by, and when he said radiohead we both went “That’s why we don’t know it”…someone on adr2’s other side was all bitchy “how do you NOT know radiohead” maybe cuz they bore me….

so the show. yesterday’s show was the “with teeth” show, they did 5 new songs. tonight’s show was “the fragile” show, they did 6 fragile songs….set list was something like this in no particular order…. the frail, the wretched, you know what you are, march of the pigs, piggy, reptile (AGAIN YES!), closer, hurt, even deeper, big come down, starfuckers, the day the world went away, the hand that feeds, head like a hole, terrible lie, and i think the line begins to blur but i’m not entirely sure. pretty sure but not quite, will have to check a setlist (setlist and comments from echoingthesound.org).

Beside You In Time (instrumental intro)
The Frail
The Wretched
You Know What You Are?
(Trent: “Look at all the fucking pigs!”) March of the Pigs
The Line Begins To Blur
Piggy (stage dive)
Terrible Lie
Burn
Closer
Reptile
The Big Come Down
Gave Up
The Day the World Went Away
Suck
Even Deeper
(Trent: “okay, enough FUCKIN’ AROUND!”) Wish
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Starfuckers, Inc. (Trent forgot to sing “all our pain” so the middle was twice as long as normal)
Head Like A Hole
the show was fucking great of course. i think yesterday was better though. (and not just cuz i had a horseshoe up my ass and got lucky enough to hold onto trent for a while and get a guitar pick hahah). trent stage dived (dove?) which was like…what the fuck just happened LOL. we had to fight the crowd a whole lot more. i tried to protect the girl in front of me because she was scared out of her mind before the show even started (she managed to stay the whole time which was surprising cuz we were betting 3 songs haha, her friend left half way, and i got barrier again). mainly because she was good to be used as a cushion to not get any more injured. that didn’t really work once i got to barrier. definitely super injured now. can hardly breath it hurts so bad but it got to a point where you really didn’t feel it anymore. i got a wicked whack to the head during head like a hole from a crowdsurfer that the security guy didn’t see. adr2 punched some people. totally glad i wore pants today instead of a skirt again because in trying to protect my poor probably broken ribs, i kept trying to brace myself to push back with my legs and they are totally chewed up even through my pants, from the grating of the barrier.

changed into the 2nd set of clothing in the car then hung around in the parking lot for a while. i found that i had my show reject 8×10 photos in my trunk so i decided to write all my info on the back and go back across the street to throw them at the tour busses. so i did. LOL. i figure someone, anyone, will see them and they can throw them out i don’t care. then later i decided what did i have to lose to take the book i put together and throw it at the busses. so i went back across the street and making sure the security guard had his back to me i threw it between 2 of the busses. except i fucking hit the side of the one bus. that was a nice loud noise so i turned and fucking took off back across the street. LOL i was like, we have to leave now cuz i just hit the bus with the stupid book LOL. so…someone has my book now. hope they enjoy it lol.

drove home alot slower than yesterday, that whole cliched “i dont want the shows to end” bullshit…in my head at least haha. forgot to mention how much i love driving on the QEW where i was going 90 and got passed. brought my car over 100 for the first time. i’m pretty sure my car wasn’t made to go that fast. made 80 sound quiet, and 70 feel like a stand still hahah.

and now i have to wait until the fall??? i’m not sure that’s gonna happen LOL. philly on next wed/thurs….*goes to ebay* i should be mostly healed by next wednesday.

random memory #1: we had the same border guard going into canada today as we had yesterday. it was sort of a wayne’s world moment “nine inch nails? yes. again? yes.” hahahah. did not have the cool old guy who let us back into the states last night – had an asshole who made us show him our ticket stubs (which is a story in itself…didn’t bring my bag into the show, stuck everything into my socks in my big boots, didnt realize i didn’t have my stub until we got to lewiston and were waiting to move up to the custom booth. adr2 said it was probably stuck to my leg, hers had been. and it was….stuck enough that running back and forth across the street from the car to the busses twice, the entire car ride, and going to the bathrooms at the lewiston bridge it had still not fallen off my leg LOL).

 

injury report…

i should take pictures haha

one massive ugly painful bruise on left arm
one massive ugly painful bruise on left elbow
a few light bruises on lower right arm and wrist
giant thumbprint looking painful bruise on upper right arm
no visible bruises to the ribs just INTENSE PAIN
both hipbones very bruised, they took the brunt of the abuse last night. it hurts to wear clothes. wearing a belt is out of the question
left knee is just one giant bruise
right knee cut and bruised in various places

i really look beat up. no black eye though.

 

trying to get tickets for either or both of the NIN shows in philly next week. we’re addicted. i know. no need to tell me. no intervention necessary. we’ll be fine. this is the reason i have a job.

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

NIN Toronto Club 1

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please allow me a moment

I TOUCHED HIM. I FUCKING TOUCHED HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahem

BEST. SHOW. EVER.

oh my lord. i dont even know what to say. this was the best show i have ever seen, and i think i’ve seen a fair amount of shows. and it made reno seem like a nap. holy crap. how to even start.

adr2 had to scalp a ticket. we got in around 4 and the going price was 300+ so we kept waiting. some guy showed up to sell tickets to the “main scalper asshole” so she ran over to him with this other kid and bought the tickets from this guy instead of “main scalper asshole” (more on him later) turns out she got a “discount” (term used loosely), cuz the guy wanted to feel her boobs. she said no but he gave her the discount anyway cuz she “had such great tits.” LOL the other kid had to pay 75$ more. so yay. we both had tickets…or we thought so.

doors opened at 8. we were in a fairly good position in line, along the side of the building. cool. until we get in and my ticket doesnt pass the bar code inspection. wtf. its a real friggen ticket i actually got it during the sale. the guy who checks fake tickets looks at it, sees that it looks real. then realizes it says May 10th on it. TICKETMASTER FUCKING PRINTED MY TICKET WRONG. cuz i have the confirmation email as proof that i purchased a ticket for the show on the 9th. FUCK ME. so i had them take me back outside, so i could find a ticket for tonight. ended up trading in the ticket for the 10th plus cash to “main scalper asshole” who was a total dickhead. had to reenter the line at the back, which was all the way down the opposite side of the building. fuck me.

got in. adr2 sent me messages about where she was so i made the attempt to move up in the crowd towards where she’d be. got stuck about 8 back from the barrier on aaron’s side again. the guy next to me stunk something awful. dresden dolls came on so i just stayed there for their set. and they weren’t bad. it was completely not the disaster i was expecting so that was nice. as soon as they were done everyone started the push. i ended up 2 back from adr2. not bad.

the show started. holy cow. i’d say it’s the roughest show i’ve ever been to except for the fact that it was only rough in the sense of being completely smooshed…i wasn’t in the pit so i wasn’t getting hit. it was just one of those shows where your feet may not be on the ground at all times, but you can’t possibly fall cuz everyone else is holding you up. which was nice. cuz i definitely wasn’t on both feet alot of the time. during “head like a hole” i was not only on either of my feet, but i was at a 45 degree angle and being completely supported by the poor little girl next to me. the kid on my other side was like, we really need to stand up straight again LOL he managed to push some people and we both were able to stand back up haha. in the beginning i ended up on top of adr more or less. held on to her for a while. kept moving back and forth and ended up next to her at one point. she ended up attempting to leave the crowd but ended up in the pit and stayed there hahaha. i ended up getting pushed around more. some real short kid got in front of me when someone was pulled out by security. he had a camera and was trying to take a picture so i told him to let me do it. he thought i was the coolest, and a bit later he gave me his spot closer to barrier. another kid got pulled out and i ended up at barrier. rock on!

i really wasn’t injured until i got to barrier. it made me really really appreciate water street’s padded barrier. haha. but it was totally worth it. as i said I FUCKING TOUCHED HIM. i can’t remember for the life of me what song he was playing when he came down from the stage, but he was right there, and i got to touch him and omg i can die happy. lol. *teenie bopper moment*. the kid i ended up next to at barrier kept talking to me. he made sure i was able to grope trent, and he was like “well that was worth it” when the kid got pulled out and i ended up next to him lol. he also fucking wacked me with his head right above my eye, i thought i had a black eye but i don’t. he made sure i was ok after a crowd surfer sat on my fucking neck and security couldn’t get him off me. that’s when i mostly got injured, cuz i was bent over the barrier and the kid was sitting on me. ouchy. but yeah, i’m so totally injured LOL. can’t wait to see all the bruises in full effect when i wake up. i’m gonna need lots of painkillers tomorrow.

so…what was played. i have no idea. except SOMETHING I CAN NEVER HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i was holding on to adr2 at this point, and when i heard the first 2 notes i just went “oh my fucking god” in her ear LOL. and omg is right. it was so incredible. i almost cried, it’s something i can never have for gods sake, but also because everyone in the crowd is singing it and wow…just amazing. and reptile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! still best song live ever. and burn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what else…. opened with “you know what you are”…other than that, in no particular order, this is what i remember….march of the pigs, closer, hurt, with teeth, everyday is exactly the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!, something i can never have, burn, reptile, home, head like a hole, the hand that feeds, the line begins to blur, terrible lie, sin, suck, wish, gave up, no you don’t (hey that might have been the song he came off stage…it’s whatever song was before hurt…)….wow i think that was the only song off fragile…i can’t remember anymore. that might have been it…

*Edit* setlist
Pinion
You Know What You Are?
Sin
The Line Begins To Blur
March of the Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
The Hand That Feeds
Terrible Lie
Reptile
Closer (w/The Only Time)
Home
Burn
With Teeth
Every Day Is Exactly the Same
No, You Don’t (blew the goddamn roof off!)
Suck
Gave Up
Hurt
Wish
Head Like A Hole

though i’m not sure i remember sin being so early in the set. but i was too overwhelmed so who knows haha.

i have never sweat so much in my entire life. i might have lost enough water weight to be under 100 lbs right now LOL. completely soaking wet. at one point i wasn’t sure if i was still fully clothed. i lost my jacket pretty much immediately, found it at the end of the show. i thought at one point this guy was making a slow attempt to feel me up. had his hands in weird areas – everyone was holding on to everyone elses shoulders, but not him. and then he stopped. i told adr2 later and she said he totally was trying, she saw him and hit him LOL. at the end of the show, before the lights even came on, some guy walked by me at the barrier still and put a guitar pick in my hand. no one else even saw him do it. go me!! no one was moving so it took awhile to disentangle myself from the barrier to finally get some water and find adr2. called lei and screamed I FUCKING TOUCHED HIM as soon as she answered LOL. oh yeah…ran into rob sheridan and i talked to him. complimented his album art, and i did for real tell him that i hoped he thanks god every day for having the coolest job in the world LOL. he said yeah, it’s sorta hectic at times having to do everything, but then he smiled and was like, but it’s cool. oh yeah, he took a picture of all of us up front in my area after the show. i only sorta hope to see it at some point. i’m sure i look frightening. hah

best border crossing ever: on the way back in to the US “citizenship? nine inch nails? go on.” LOL the lady on the way in was like “nine inch nails?” as soon as i said i was going to a concert haha. guess there were alot of us.

holy crap. can’t get over how amazing this show was.

random cool thing #1. it was really cool to hear so many people during and after the show saying that it was totally worth the $xxx that they paid to scalp a ticket.

random cool thing #2. and it was really really awesome to be in a place completely filled with fans. not that reno wasn’t but it was very different. with so few tickets you know that there weren’t some random assholes who only like “closer” taking up space. and with the album being out for a week, you know everyone there spent the last 6 days listening to it. so everyone knew the new songs, and could sing along, and it was just so fantastic.

random funny thing. adr2 got hit in the head with trent’s tambourine when he threw it into the crowd during “with teeth” HAHAHA

and trent had a white shirt on at the beginning LOL it was so strange. later stripped to a black tank top. he got so built since last tour.

AAANNNDDDDD we scored tickets for tomorrow (well apparently i already had one :P). found a decent deal for 2 tickets on ebay, talked to the guy on the phone, meeting him at the venue tomorrow afternoon to get them.

so injured. so tired. so can’t wait for tomorrow! totally bringing a whole different set of clothes to change into afterwards. a shower has never felt so good my entire life.

best. show. ever

 

oh…and clock unveiling tomorrow morning LOL going back up to toronto right afterwards. going earlier this time so we can get barrier right away.

i’m sure i’ll edit this if i remember more stuff.

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

The Tea Party Thorold

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These signs
this fate
takes a path you didn’t choose
Stay strong
keep faith
there’s a change that’s coming through

so as i should have known, this show was doomed. the tea party are very very VERY lucky they put on such a friggen great show.

didn’t get up to thorold until 9ish. no big deal, we knew we wouldn’t miss anything. ran into joe and rick right away. it was nice to see them again, it’s been a long long time.

as usual, for a place associated with arizonas, we waited forever and a day for an opener to bore us to death. opener didn’t start til after 10. ok fine. whatever. kate asked if tea would go on at 11, i laughed haha. not until at least 11:30…which was actually perfect – except the lighting system broke…and it was 45 more minutes until they fixed it (we hung out at the soundboard, so we watched them play with it the whole time). so tea didn’t go on til after midnight.

and as i said. they’re mighty lucky they’re such a great band haha. it really really hits me seeing them live, how much of a perfect rock band they are. they put on such a great rock show. gah. love them.

setlist:
Overload
Writing’s on the Wall
Lullaby
Psychopomp
Fire in the Head (!!yay i missed it in the falls show)
Stargazer
Oceans
Sun Going Down
Halcyon Days
Heaven Coming Down w/ all along the watchtower
Release (!!!!!! first time i’ve seen them do it)
Cathartik (!!!!!!!! sooooooo happy it’s back)
Save Me
—-
I love you/The Messenger
Temptation
Sister Awake w/ Paint it Black

they played for 2 hours. i hate hate HATE that “heaven coming down” gets to me so much hahah. jeff martin playing his guitar with a bow during “save me”…so hot. soooo so hot. men with guitars, yum.

yet another great show. i didn’t like the venue. the sound was sorta…off. the theramin worked this time for “lullaby”, and it was ever so fabulous. i want one. kate was thrilled that they did “release” cuz it’s her fav song. i was just glad, as always, for “psychopomp” haha. and “cathartik”. yay.

so exhausted. long long day. another one tomorrow. then trent. gah.

Posted in: Concerts, The Tea Party \ Tagged: ,

The Tea Party @ Dome Theater

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tonight was tea party show in niagara falls. james was late. first band was 8 days over or something. they weren’t bad. i don’t like vocals like they had, sound like everyone else, but better than the usual tea party opening fair. tea was great as always. they did alot off the new album, but didn’t do “luxuria”. some of the show was surprisingly a bit rough to get through, specifically “the watcher” and “oceans”. NO THERAMIN DURING “LULLABY”, it was broken. while the roadie was trying to fix it they stalled by playing part of rolling stones “miss you”. it was funny, but the theramin didn’t get fixed. “psychopomp” a highlight as always. unfortunately no “cathartik” or “fire in the head” but a great show none the less. what a rock show should be. and i gotta say the dome theatre (formerly lame nightclub the pleasuredome) is a pretty decent venue. look forward to seeing some other bands there at some point. loudest show ever though. it was almost painful at parts. and who shows up, and cuts in front of us during the first song, none other than STP kid himself. i fucking hate that kid. lol.

setlist from tea forums:
Army Ants
Overload
Certain Slant of Light
The Watcher
Psychopomp
**After this my memory gets fuzzy and i forget the order but the other songs are:
Sun Going Down
Oceans
Lullaby w/ miss you
Zahira/Rakim/Halcyon Days
Save Me w/ I Love You
Writings on the Wall
Temptations
Winter Solstice
Sister Awake w/ Paint it Black

and the messenger and stargazer somewhere in there…i hate the messenger

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Jordan Knight in Buffalo

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tonight i reverted back to 1990…5th grade…14 years in the making. i saw jordan knight live!!! and oh my lord it was fabulous.

lei, adr, jenn and i went. we HAD to. it was at club infinity in williamsville/clarence. there were 3 openers. the first band was totally fun, mainly because the drummer/lead singer was 11 years old. and they covered guns n roses and limp bizkit. they’re 4 year old brother also pretended to play guitar, and the whole thing was totally cute. and they were pretty good. some audioslave, white stripes, i think hoobastank, and linkin park as well. totally fun. the drummer was doing the worm on the dance floor later on. unfortunately i forget the name of the band. 2nd band was floozie, from niagara falls (representing) and they sucked. period. 3rd band, also from the falls though they claim to be from buffalo, was seven day faith. such a frat party band. they weren’t bad, just nothing i would ever listen to, so it was boring. they managed to blow a fuse or something and set off the fire alarm in the bar….haha. then jordan.

haha jordan was soooo fabulous. gah he’s so hot. really, how can you be 30 something and live with yourself being so damn gorgeous. and the moves, the dancing…lovely  opened with “my favourite girl” from back in the day. so great. i don’t know if i’ve ever laughed so hard at myself at a concert before. i totally didn’t act all teenie boppery, seriously, i didn’t. but it just made me so happy lol. it was so much fun to sorta be reliving it. going back down memory lane as jordan’s dj guy said. so he did various new kids songs in between his own songs from his first solo album and the one coming up. played the piano for a few. danced. did the New Kids Dance…wonderful. brought this girl with the most whore shirt ever on stage to sing “baby i believe in you” to and my god she was hilarious. it was fantastic.

so we hung out in the back to try to get some pics with him. he apparently was running late so they just left “right away”. so we followed the limo. LOL it was hilarious. we didn’t intend to follow them that long, but it came to a point where we didn’t know where we were, and we figured they were going to the airport (where i would know where we were) so we kept following them. yep to the airport…but they didn’t go to the airport…they kept going to the 33, which meant we had to keep following them since that’s the way we HAD to go to get back home LOL. it was great. so much fun

tomorrow is open doors day one. gotta end up at the terminal at some point, but going to drive by the wollenberg silo that we were planning on going to sunday…cuz the site says theres no inside access, so then what’s the point? i could drive by any day…and i need sunday to do laundry and pack for vegas if wollenberg isn’t going to be cool. so i’ll investigate tomorrow. yep.

and in completely other news… mark david chapman (he shot john lennon) is in attica?!? i thought he was in a prison downstate…huh…who knew. hmm now that i think about it maybe i did know that. i seem to remember kids in high school wanting to find chapman during our attica field trip so they could kill him..lol

 

my grandpa died. instead of spending my vacation in las vegas i will be spending it in detroit.

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

Bowie at Shea’s

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bowie bowie bowie…

met mike and paul at hemingways before the show for a drink, then ran through the rain to shea’s. turns out we had awesome seats, to the left side of the stage. stereophonics were playing when we got in, and they were pretty cool. very rock and roll and cool.

bowie…was great of course. leighanne overheard someone say that bowie was taping tonight’s show. the set list was…very very different from toronto. alot more obscure. it was fantastic though.

the crowd sucked i thought. very rude. everyone sat down during “motel” and remained seated for a bunch of songs…even fast ones from earthling and outside. i hate that. it just bothers me. motel is a beautiful song, and just because you might not know it doesn’t mean you should be rude and ignorant during it. happened during other songs as well, including “quicksand” which i just adore since hearing it at the toronto show.

we had the 2 most annoying people ever in front of us. i can’t figure out if they were brothers or lovers. they defintely were too touchy feely to be straight male friends. but they looked too similar to not be related. whatever. they insisted on having a conversation throughout the entire show. i don’t normally spend 60$ to go someplace loud and try to talk. if they weren’t talking to eachother, they were playing with their phones. the lady next to them told them to stop talking, she was there to see bowie and they were talking too much hahah. and the one had the most annoying hair, that he continuosly kept puffing up on top so that i couldn’t see over it haha.

then there was this crazy old white guy in our row who looked like andy warhol and was psycho. he was yelling at the girls in front of him to sit down when everyone was being rude and sitting during various songs. but he was YELLING at them, and he even grabbed the girls arms to yank her down. it was like totally psycho.

it’s always amusing to be at a show with an older crowd and watching older people dance. depeche mode was the best, cuz of the big tall white guy and little hispanic woman dancing, but this was fun too hehe.

so much complaining, but it was a really really great show. no life on mars again, but that’s ok. still got hallo spaceboy and i’m afraid of americans. always a highlight. he sounded great, and looked great, and is just so cool. i would give anything to be able to photograph him. he is possibly one of the most photogenic rock stars ever. and not because he’s particuarly attractive, because he’s really not. it’s the way he moves. HE is catlike. he can pose like nobody’s business. ultra cool.

setlist:
Rebel Rebel
Cactus
Sister Midnight
New Killer Star
Looking for Water
All the Young Dudes
China Girl
The Loneliest Guy
The Man Who Sold the World
The Motel **
Battle for Britain (The Letter) **
Sunday **
Heathen **
Hallo Spaceboy **
Under Pressure
Reality
Station to Station
Ashes to Ashes
Quicksand **
Modern Love **
I’m Afraid of Americans
“Heroes”
—
The Bewlay Brothers
Queen Bitch
Suffragette City
Ziggy Stardust
Review from the Buffalo News
Tuesday night in Shea’s Performing Arts Center.
David Bowie has always been ahead of the curve. It was no surprise, then, that his sold-out show at Shea’s Tuesday found him still pushing the envelope, 35 years deep into one of rock’s most ambitious and consistently forward-looking careers.
Bowie’s current tour flies beneath the moniker “A Reality,” and that’s fitting; for 21/2 hours Tuesday, he and his seamless band brought an audience equal parts stunned and elated into another world, an elevated plane of artistic experience. In the arena of rock, this was quite simply as good as it gets.

Taking the boards following an exquisite animated sequence interspersed with sweeping aerial shots of New York City, Bowie materialized center stage, obscured by shadows, as longtime guitarist Earl Slick laid out the skewed glam-a-billy riff signifying “Rebel Rebel.” The song, given an up-to-date arrangement on this tour, brought the crowd to its feet, of course, but Bowie made it clear immediately that he had no intention of offering a Vegas-style nostalgic review. He’d come, after all, to show us that he’s still the most vibrant of artists, and not a museum piece.

Toward that end, Bowie led his band out of the elegantly wasted rock-candy of “Rebel” deep into the dimly lit world he helped create – the alternative music movement of the ’80s and ’90s. “This is a song by the Pixies,” smiled our boy, still remarkably youthful at 57, minus the snow-white tan and pharmaceutical veneer of his ’70s guise. The band – guitarist Slick, pianist Mike Garson, percussionist/acoustic guitarist/vocalist Catherine “Kat” Russell, guitarist Gerry Leonard, bassist/vocalist Gail Ann Dorsey, drummer Sterling Campbell – then tore through that seminal alt-punk band’s “Cactus” with a fiery irreverence that artists more than 30 years Bowie’s junior are rarely able to summon.

Anyone coming to hear the hits – and judging by the staid, apparently confused portion of the crowd seemingly unfamiliar with anything Bowie’s done since “Let’s Dance” was a mega-platinum ’80s-era hit, there were many – was going to have to enter Bowie’s reality for a while first; the show was paced by a mischievously grinning Bowie offering older tunes as “rewards” for accepting plenty of new material. There were “hits,” yes, but there were just as many deep cuts, rarely played gems and material from Bowie’s ’90s-and-beyond oeuvre.

So Bowie laid out the obscure “Sister Midnight,” a tune he co-wrote with Iggy Pop, and produced for Pop’s classic “The Idiot” album, before moving into a pair of glittering gems from his newest record, the current tour’s namesake. “New Killer Star” and “Looking For Water” burned more intensely and brightly in the concert setting than they do on record; strapping on a guitar for the former, Bowie was transformed into a man with a mission. Bowie’s intention with the set’s pacing became clear as a pattern emerged – he’d lay a few new songs on the crowd, then toss them a doggie treat in the form of an oldie or two. Thus, the two “Reality” stunners were followed by a tongue-in-cheek but still inspired “All the Young Dudes” and the “Let’s Dance” hit “China Girl,” both of which featured raucous-but-beautiful Jeff Beck-styled interpolations from Slick.

The set hit its full stride as Bowie took us on a tour through the bizarrely compelling world of his vastly underrated ’90s masterpiece “Outside,” with “Hallo Spaceboy” driving home the point that Bowie married rock to techno with more conviction, panache and creativity than anyone, peer or otherwise, and “The Motel” conjuring the ethereal, white-walled world of ambient genius he’d originally concocted for the ’70s watermark “Low” album. The band’s interplay here – particularly between Leonard’s effect-laden phrases and Garson’s punk-classical piano lines – was simply breathtaking. “The Loneliest Guy,” a forlorn, cinematic ballad from “Reality,” tapped into the same vein, and was another highlight.

If the crowd seemed a bit tame – at times, portions of the audience suggested by their body language that they’d just as soon have been sitting on the couch at home, watching television – Bowie never let on that he was affected. In fact, he seemed thrilled. Grinning broadly, playfully goading the crowd, he squeezed every drop from the sponge, giddy with the thrill of bringing one of the finest ensembles he’s ever worked with to a gorgeous, relatively small theater.

And then, of a sudden, there it was – the rarely played ’70s tour de force “Station To Station,” one of Bowie’s most impressively progressive tunes. Its mantra-like opening was a showcase for Slick’s tremolo bar, and when Bowie intoned the introductory narrative “The return of the thin white duke/throwing darts in lover’s eyes,” one felt gooseflesh rising. This was simply timeless fare, material that still sounds futuristic 30 years after its initial release.

Bowie saved some of the best for last. “I’m Afraid Of Americans” was a visceral stomp, a melding of industrial, electronic and glam rock stylings lent prescience by current domestic affairs; Bowie never explicitly mentioned the song’s subject matter, but those in tune should have had no trouble reading between the lines. (sara’s note…wonder if he realizes the song was not written recently, and so therefore is not exactly referring to our horrifying president…)

A trio of songs from the flawless “Hunky Dory” album took us even higher; “Quicksand” was outer-space gospel with heavenly harmonies and a lush 12-string acoustic strum from Slick; the freshly-relearned “Bewlay Brothers” was sublime, a reminder of the ground Bowie was breaking on “Hunky Dory,” which many diehards consider his greatest work of the ’70s; and “Queen Bitch” – well, no one has ever fused glitter rock to substantive songwriting the way Bowie has.

The encores concluded with a pair of tracks from “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” “Suffragette City” burning like a house on fire, while “Ziggy Stardust” writhed and wriggled like tortured rock-theater.

Those lucky enough to claim a ticket stub for this intimate-yet-grandiose show will likely never forget it. Bowie is a class act, and remains one of the most influential artists in rock music. That he still manages to challenge his audience at this stage of his career is an inspiration to all who care about the music’s future.

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