Nine Inch Nails #56 – “Cleveland”

As we know covid ruined everything. NIN had planned a 2020 tour that would have brought 5 shows to Toronto, cancelled. They planned a “rock and roll hall of fame” 2 nights in Cleveland for 2021 which I got a ticket for one night, cancelled. 2022 tour, closest date again is Cleveland. Since I don’t like the 3 most recent EPs I really wasn’t excited to see a tour for them, so when tickets went on sale AND I was “at work” I didn’t set alarms to try for tickets, or anything like I would have done in the past. I remembered late for the first pre sale, but went on and never got out of the lobby to try for tickets until they were all gone. I attempted 2 more pre sales and the public sale, each time forgetting to go right on at 10am, and I was not willing to pay surge price, or $40 for lawn so I was left without tickets. And sadly, I wasn’t sad about it. I didn’t really want to drive down there, and I didn’t want to spend absurd prices, and I didn’t want to be on the lawn.

But as it goes, Mary saw a set list from early on in the tour, and really wanted to go. Spent months looking at ticket prices, and finally just bought 2 lawn from a fan on ETS for cheap, thinking as it got closer, and then day off, ticket prices HAD to go down so we could get seats. Well, they didn’t. We were relegated to the lawn.

We are old now, we got to sit in between bands, low stress. I am never going to queue all day for the rail again, so I thought it would be fine. Well, I learned that is not the case for me. lol

Since this turned into a sort of “rock and roll hall of fame” show, and the band did a live Q&A at the hall the day before there was the thought that maybe some guests would show up. Adam got to go to the Q&A and said he suspected there would be some appearances. Foreshadowing…..

Nitzer Ebb and Ministry opened. I am not very familiar with either, and they were fine. Didn’t love it. Seen worse. NIN opened with Somewhat Damaged. And that is when I realized I cannot see them from so far away. I could not see anything in detail, and the side screens showed the view of a singular camera guy who walked the stage the entire show. So it was lovely and artsy and beautiful but not good for actually SEEING what’s going on. Set started pretty typically, into March of the Pigs, Piggy etc. I did have the thought that this was just going to be the same thing I’ve seen 55 times. 2 new songs, one that I don’t mind one that is boring. Blahblahblah. We get to Reptile. This is the true moment when I realized I can’t be so far away. I need to feel Reptile in my chest. Those killer guitars, the drums, the vibe…I just couldn’t feel it so far away and it made me sad, even tho it sounded amazing as always (unless Peter Murphy is guest starring. I’m still bitter about that).

Middle of the set went to new songs again, one that Robin sang! But it was NOT AT ALL familiar to me, to the point where I wasn’t even sure it was a nin song. It was. I hate it. Another boring new song that I will forgive, purely because TRENT PLAYED SAXOPHONE. Wish I was close so I could see sexy old man Trent playing sax. lol Back into the old stuff. I will say there is a benefit to the new things I hate – it makes the old stuff even better haha. Then we get THE PERFECT DRUG. I had COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN that they had fiiiinally put it into the set a few years ago. Awesome. Burn is back, another moment to be closer.

We get to the Frail, and as it winds up and you wait for the Wretched you hear Eraser start. It always makes me laugh when the Wretched doesn’t start, and I think of Adam haha. But this time… Eraser begins, and there seems to be a lot going on on the stage. I CAN’T REALLY SEE THO cuz LAWN! The video guy is wandering around, and Trent and Robin walk on stage (they had gone behind some light screens)…and there’s people around, and then the camera is on this blond guy standing there….wait, what? I know that guy, I just saw him play at Gratwick Park. It’s Richard Patrick! So while I knew there was the guest possibility of, say, Danny Lohner, because he was part of the Q&A, given Trent and Rich’s history, that was really fucking unexpected. And then I realize, Danny is on stage, and then there is a little guy playing drums – Chris Vrenna! And someone is there with a theramin…it’s Charlie Clouser. So basically it’s everyone important from past band lineups on stage all at once. Robin and Richard (and Trent) are playing guitar. Ali, Charlie and Danny are on bass/keyboards/gadgets. 2 drummers. They do eraser, and all of the rest of the set – Wish (another moment wishing I could feel it), Sin, Gave Up….Hey Man Nice Shot! and finally Head Like a Hole. It was awesome having all those guys up there, and a really nice thing for Trent to do. Especially cuz though obviously I know nothing about their lives, it still feels like a bit of an olive branch to Richard. Danny is still so entertaining to watch, he broke a keyboard like it was the old days lol. Man it was great.

HLAH finishes and the NIN logo comes up and we wait for an encore….but it doesn’t come. They had been doing them, unlike that one tour that didn’t (summer 06?) and they hadn’t played Hurt. Also, I had accidentally seen a previous setlist that showed an encore of AND ALL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? What what what? The 1 song I really never thought they’d ever play. I was kinda mad for seeing that setlist, for several reasons. One, I’m not totally sure how I feel about them playing it live. I always said I wanted to hear it live, because I loved it so much. But on the other hand, I feel like it’s a very special song, AND it’s kinda strange so I don’t know how it would translate and I wouldn’t want it to be bad. The other reason is, now that I saw that they were playing it, if they DIDN’T, I’d be mad lol. And they didn’t. There was no encore. NO HURT!!!!!!!!!!! HOORAY!!!!! So I’m kinda mad, kinda relived I didn’t hear it in the end.

I’m really glad I got convinced to go. I really truly was not going to go, and I wasn’t that upset that I wasn’t going, but it really was good. I realized that I did miss them. It felt good. Kinda like home. But never lawn again.

Setlist:

  • Somewhat Damaged
  • March of the Pigs
  • Piggy
  • Heresy
  • Less Than
  • The Lovers
  • Reptile
  • Sanctified
  • Copy of A
  • Shit Mirror (the song I feel like I never ever heard before)
  • God Break Down The Door (a bunch of noise but with SAX)
  • The Perfect Drug
  • Closer
  • The Big Come Down
  • Burn
  • The Hand That Feeds
  • The Frail

Enter Richard Patrick, Chris Vrenna, Danny Lohner, and Charlie Clouser

  • Eraser
  • Wish
  • Sin
  • Gave Up
  • Hey Man Nice Shot
  • Head Like A Hole

Then there was the epic zombie hoard walk to the car, and then sitting there not moving eating car charcuterie (that’s what seeing nin at 40 is lol), finally got out an hr and 45 min after the show ended.

Las Vegas and NIN #55

We picked our random vacation week then Trent announced shows in Las Vegas at the same time, so decision made. We stayed at The Plaza because I wanted to be able to go to a nice pool, since it was going to be sweltering, and they have a new rooftop pool area. Adam decided to go to the show too after I bought my tickets, so he joined us after a few days.

As soon as we got there, off to Drag Brunch at Treasure Island. There were 6 queens, all past RuPaul’s Drag Race alumns, it was awesome. And there were bottomless mimosas, so we drank 3 bottles of champagne with the (not great) breakfast buffet. That didn’t end well for me, but the show was awesome, and though I lost the rest of the day, it was worth it lol.

Monday we made plans to meet up with Adr1 and Tom and the kids. We were going to try to do some trivia but there wasn’t really any going on so we met up to check out the Container Park, then went up near their house to a pizza place for dinner who was having music bingo. Tom didn’t feel well so he left us there, and we ate and played for a bit. It was fun, even though it wasn’t trivia really because you could use your phone to look up the songs if you didn’t know them.

Adam arrived Tuesday morning, we hung at the pool a bit and Adr joined me with the kids. So we had a good time in the water, and chatting, and Adr said the nicest thing ever – that I’m still her favorite person to do nothing with LOL awwww. <3 She needs to move back to Buffalo! Tuesday night we ended up checking out the High Roller giant ferris wheel on the strip, which was pretty neat. Wednesday was the show. Honestly, I wasn't all that excited about it because I really don't care for the EPs, but I told Adam that I would try not to be an asshole about it lol. He had VIP and went down early, plus I had no interest in queueing. I've gotten too old for this shit. Plus the lack of excitement, I didn't feel the need to be up front. BUT, it's still Trent and I still love him. The line was insanely long when we finally did get there, but we didn't end up with a bad spot. Pretty central in all ways, and other than the guy who didn't put his arms down, filming the entire show on his phone, I could see decently. I hate that I have to admit this. Maybe I've aged out of NIN shows? Don't get me wrong, it was still good, but I don't get any of the catharsis, or really any of the energy I used to get from the shows. Is it because I'm not up front? Have I just seen too many that they've lost their effect? I am pretty tired of seeing March of the Pigs after all. It makes me sad though. The setlist was pretty good, Year Zero heavy up front, not too many new songs, and some deep cuts that were very welcome. But as J said, the middle got a little boring with The Lovers and Find My Way back to back (he was probably bored with Even Deeper too, but NO!!! I will always take Even Deeper as a slow song!) And BONUS!!! NO HURT!!! And no Closer, which I do always enjoy, but it's ok. 1. Pinion / The Eater of Dreams 2. Metal 3. Me, I'm Not 4. The Beginning Of The End 5. Survivalism 6. March of the Pigs 7. The Lovers 8. Find My Way 9. Burn 10. God Break Down the Door 11. Letting You 12. Gave Up 13. Even Deeper 14. I Do Not Want This 15. I'm Afraid Of Americans 16. Less Than 17. Came Back Haunted 18. Only 19. Wish 20. Head Like A Hole So...it was good. But I just don't get the emotional benefit that I used to, so...I am very unlikely to travel to see him anymore (unless he puts out something I love, or does some kind of very unusual out of left field tour, like an all acoustic tour or something), and if he continues to do stupid things like "you can only buy tickets in person" crap, this may have been my last show. 55 is a good number to stop on. Now this brings me to his new EP, Bad Witch. I haaaate it. And if I'm honest, I basically hate the other 2 EPs as well, though there are a few tracks I like here and there. But everything I liked about NIN is gone. Trent's brilliance was in his ability to craft a song that could be loud, angry, noisy and heavy but still have a musicality to it, with a catchy hook and a melody. It's all gone. If he wants to experiment fine, go for it, but it is not what you expect and want from NIN. Even though I didn't love Hesitation Marks, it had solid actual songs, and not just movie scores for a non existent movie that he decided to put lyrics to. Because that's what it feels like. And I hate it. And I'm not going to listen to it.

Top Ten Teen-years Albums

This was floating around facebook the last few days.

List 10 albums that made a lasting impression on you as a TEENAGER, but only one per band/artist. In approximate chronological order of when I found them.

1. Aerosmith – Get a Grip (1993) – I wasn’t sure this fell into my teen years, until I looked up the release date, and saw that it had to. This is the first CD I remember wanting to buy on my own. My clique of friends all had it, and we were scandalized that there were nipple prints on the CD.
2. Salt n Pepa – Very Necessary (1993) – I loved this record, I listened to it a ton with headphones when I got my first portable CD player, in my room, doing my homework, even though I had a perfectly working stereo. Thinking of this record got “None Of Your Business” in my head last night. Awesome.
3. Stone Temple Pilots – Purple (1994) – While I still don’t really think of them as “grunge”, I guess this is the first grunge cd I loved and listened to all the time (I owned Pearl Jam’s “Ten” but never listened to it).
4. REM – Monster (1994) – I listened to this, and the STP record, all the time when I was playing my Super Nintendo. In retrospect I’m not really sure why I liked this record, but at the time it was great.
5. The Cranberries – No Need To Argue (1994) – Zombie still is a fantastic song. The rest is a bit mellow, but it holds up.
6. Elastica – Elastica (1995) – I heard the song “Connection” while hanging out in Media Play and bought the CD. I remember writing song lyrics on the desk in study hall, only to see that someone had written the next line after. Turns out that someone was Marney.
7. Michael Jackson – HIStory (1995) – 2 records have changed my life. This was the first. It led me to travel, spend a lot of money, and most importantly, led me to meet some of the best friends who I still have to this day. Awww.
8. U2 – Achtung Baby (1991) – Not discovered until I was at Geneseo, and not appreciated upon first listens, when I listened to it months later, it’s brilliance blinded me. So amazing.
9. Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (1999) – The 2nd life changing record. Even if it took 6 years for it to make a huge impact as far as leading me to travel and meet great people, this was an emotionally impactful record. I really don’t know what my life would be like if I had never fallen down the NIN-hole.
10. Orgy – Candyass (1998) – Orgy was the first band I met, and was the band responsible for getting me into seeing concerts, and following tours, and trying to meet bands and get autographs. They were fun, and super cute, yay boys in makeup.

nine inch nails, toronto, 7-27-14

My 200th concert and 54th nine inch nails show. Headed up to Toronto with Jason, Eric and Adam. Adrienne and Bliss were able to go too (it was touch and go for a bit) but drove themselves, and due to the crappy insane parking situation we never ended up finding each other. So yeah, an hour on the bridge, mild traffic up to Toronto, I made the call to exit at Lake Shore and go up the lake instead of into Toronto on the Gardner, where it was backed up quite a bit. It was the right call, we got to the area of Molson Ampitheater fairly quickly, but that’s where it ended. Construction limited parking, so while we usually would just park in the lots directly in front of the venue, they were somewhat filled or VIP only. We pulled into a lot, paid $20, to find out there were no spots. By this point it’s been almost 4 hours since we left the house, we already missed the first opener (no one was crying about that), but Soundgarden was going on at 8 and we were fast approaching 8pm. I kicked everyone out of the car so they wouldn’t miss anything and went on to find parking in a ramp far away haha.

So I got into the venue during Black Hole Sun, which is really the only Soundgarden song I’m super familiar with. I can’t really judge if they were good or not because of my lack of familiarity but Eric said Chris Cornell sounded good so I’ll take his word for it. They don’t put on much of a “show” it’s just a straight performance of rock songs.

I was a bit more excited for this show than for the October show because Trent had said this tour would be more Fragile and Year Zero heavy. When he said Fragile heavy, he meant “no songs from the Fragile”….yeah. So there was that. Since this was a dual headlining tour, it was a short 18 song setlist, and sort of a “Greatest Hits” set with the return of “closer” and only 3 songs from Hesitation Marks. There were a few songs from Year Zero that we didn’t hear since Lights in the Sky tour in 08, so that was nice. The stage set up was very minimal compared to the last 2 tours, with the giant moving screens and what not. This time they relied on large squares of lights/screens that techs moved around behind the band. Jason’s opinion of this show, not being a fan, was that there was less to look at, and he’s right. Nothing wrong with that though, as I feel like trent was beginning to rely too heavily on light show effects.

The only song played that was new to me was a very heavily remixed version of “sanctify”, which was cool to finally see.

I’m a bit sad that I don’t have that much to say about it. I don’t know if it’s the getting older thing, or the 50+ show thing, but the large shows just aren’t as appealing to me anymore. I am not sad that I’m only going to 1 show this tour, where as 5 years ago it would have been a tragedy to only see one. The entire venue was seats, there was no GA pit, so we were in the 200 section, slight left of the sound board. Seats aren’t exciting. I told everyone, I may not ever want to queue again for entire days to see shows and be up front, but I still never want a seat…even if I stand in the back of the crowd on the floor, I want to be GA… it’s just not the same in a seat. I hope he ends up doing club shows again, which I would queue for, because they just feel so much better and more exciting, plus the potential for different setlists.

Soundgarden:
(missed the first 4.5 songs)
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Flower
Outshined
Black Hole Sun
Jesus Christ Pose
The Day I Tried to Live
My Wave
Superunknown
Blow Up the Outside World
Fell on Black Days
A Thousand Days Before
Rusty Cage
Beyond the Wheel

Nine Inch Nails:
“Copy Of A”
“Sanctified”
“Came Back Haunted”
“1,000,000”
“March Of The Pigs”
“Piggy”
“Terrible Lie”
“Closer”
“Gave Up”
“The Warning”
“Find My Way”
“The Great Destroyer”
“Eraser”
“Wish”
“Only”
“The Hand That Feeds”
“Head Like A Hole”
“Hurt”

Shows 52 and 53 – NIN in Toronto and Cleveland

So while other people took Trent’s “retirement” from NIN seriously, I always said “give him 5 years, he’ll be bored, he’ll be back”….so I was wrong, it only took 4 years, but here he is again. Hesitation Marks has really never grown on me, I feel like I’ve given it ample time and several tries, and I just don’t like it. So that being said, 2 shows supporting an album I don’t like, they’re not going to end up on my “favourites” list. But, it IS Trent Reznor we’re talking about here, and it’s impossible for him to disappoint.

So the shows brought Adam into town, and I was making Jason go to his first with me (ok so “making” isn’t the right word, he said he wanted to go, and I tried to warn him about what it meant to go to a nin show with me, and he said he got it but then…i don’t think he really “got” it hahaha cuz he hated queuing all day even though we didn’t get there til noon which is fairly “late” for us, and he hated waiting around for the crappy opener, etc etc etc). We were 20th in line, which was really far up for arriving at noon for a Toronto show. We tried to prepare Jason for what the crowd would be like, to protect his head/hat/glasses if security is in front of us for a crowd surfer, to hold onto the rail and not let go, etc then we ended up not getting touched. We got a tiny bit of jostling with March of the Pigs and Wish, and that was it. It was the most ridiculously tame GA show I’ve ever been to of any band in Toronto. U2 was worse than this LOL. So after all that prep for Jason, I felt almost embarrassed that the experience didn’t live up to the hype LOL. Though I’m pretty sure he’s ok with it haha

The show itself. Like I said, it’s Trent, it’s going to be impressive and awesome. And it was. We were at the rail in front of Robin and the new backup singers when they were on stage. The light show was along similar lines to Lights in the Sky tour, with 2 curved light screens that moved up and down. There were moving sets of lights above each band member and other areas of the stage, that had 9 sets of lights of 9 in them, that could rotate and spin and created some nice effects. Being up front you miss a lot of the light effects, so the 2nd night I spent “mid-ice” in Cleveland it was cool to see. Since the tour is supporting the new album, he played 9 new songs….too much, and they were grouped badly, with a chunk of 5 of them in the middle of the set. I hate when bands do that. I know you’re going to play new stuff, doesn’t matter if I like it or not, but spread it out, intersperse it with old familiar stuff. Ugh. So, to me, it got sorta boring. I’m happy he played the 2 songs I like from the album, but Disappointed, Find My Way and Running are too long, and fairly boring. And while the new songs did sound better live than on the record (live drums!!!), just like The Slip, I still don’t like them. The argument for the grouping of all new songs, is that they feature his new female backup singers, so perform them all together and keep them on stage…as if they can’t walk back and forth on and off the stage? Whatever. But the singers. It was a bit weird the first show, at times I couldn’t hear them that well, so I couldn’t really tell if they “worked” or not, but being mid-ice for Cleveland and I could hear them better, they do add something different to the old songs, and are fairly necessary for the new ones. I approve. I hope for a good bootleg recording that I can hear them well on.

Of course the show highlights for me will be the old songs, but in particular, Somewhat Damaged. Dear lord that song. Suddenly it makes me emotional and teary, but holy crap it’s so good. Adam said he liked it mid-set instead of as an opener, and I’m not sure I agree, but who cares, it’s amazing and I’m just glad they kept it in the set. Survivalism was too loud and distorted when we were up close, better when I was at mid-ice. In This Twilight was not mixed right either, too loud, or the bass too strong or something. Wish had some amazing lights at the end, reminiscent of the spinning lights during U2’s “Streets” on Elevation tour. In Cleveland they switched out Various Methods of Escape for Piggy and Only for Burn, and the lights on Burn were the best I’ve seen from all the shows I’ve seen that song played at. While I’m Still Here is yet another new song I find a bit boring, but it builds and goes into the instrumental Black Noise, which was pretty overwhelming and awesome.

So overall the show was good, Trent can’t be bad, but to be honest I’m glad the tickets ended up being as expensive as they were which prevented me from going berzerk and going to every show I could. Because I’d be a bit bummed if I had to go to more shows where I had to wait out that mid set of new tracks and not hear other songs that I want. If I hadn’t liked With Teeth I wouldn’t have wanted to go to 20 shows from that tour, but it was an easy decision that time since the album was out long before tickets went on sale, unlike this time. Same thing with Year Zero, and Ghosts and even The Slip. I knew I liked those records and wanted to see those songs live, so I knew to buy as many tickets as I could. So I’m ok with my decision to not go to Detroit and Pittsburgh this tour.

And I’m really completely over the queuing and waiting at the rail, suffering through openers etc. It’s just not as fun for me as it was before, and I’m totally happy and can enjoy the show from farther back, with space, and less annoyances.

So Jason said he liked the show, and I hope he’s being honest. I know it’s not his style, I didn’t think it would convert him into being a fan who’d want to listen to nin all the time. But I wanted him to be blown away and I don’t get that impression from his response. I wanted him to experience it because it’s such a big part of who I am.

In Cleveland, Adam and I got to catch up a bit with Matt who we had met at the Wave Goodbye shows in Chicago, which was nice. In general there were only 3 or 4 other people we recognized from previous tours. We had wondered who’d still be doing the travel thing. Not as many as we thought, in the end. It was an enjoyable few days, got to spend time with friends, and see some great music. Time to relax now.

Toronto Setlist:

Copy of A
1,000,000
Terrible Lie
March of the Pigs
The Frail
The Wretched
All Time Low (With barely a snippet of “Closer”)
Disappointed
Came Back Haunted
Find My Way
Various Methods of Escape
Into the Void
Survivalism
Running
A Warm Place
Somewhat Damaged
Wish
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Encore:
Even Deeper
In This Twilight
While I’m Still Here
Black Noise (Not listed on the setlist)
Hurt

Cleveland setlist:

Copy of A
1,000,000
Terrible Lie
March of the Pigs
Piggy
All Time Low
Disappointed
Came Back Haunted
Find My Way
The Frail
The Wretched
Into the Void
Survivalism
Running
A Warm Place
Somewhat Damaged
Wish
Burn
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Encore:
Even Deeper
In This Twilight
While I’m Still Here
Black Noise
Hurt

Hesitation Marks Review

It came in the mail today so now I’m allowed to listen. I really don’t know what to say.

the eater of dreams – instrumental to start the record.

copy of a – not bad, but having heard came back haunted, it’s very very similar.

came back haunted – first listen when it was released i was like….*crickets* jason asked “was that the dance remix?” no, no it wasn’t. but i listened on repeat one day and it grew on me. it’s ok.

find my way – initially makes me think of beside you in time, or something from the end of With Teeth. and first How To Destroy Angels EP. it’s sorta boring.

all time low – i liked this one at first listen. it’s got a groove to it. a dance vibe that isn’t based on a boring drum machine, more like the vibe from god given. trent should do a funk record lol. this might end up being my fav on the album.

disappointed – moooore drum machine. yay. not. under the covers sounding vocals like right where you belong. guitar like The Slip. i think he needs to get rid of that effect pedal along with the drum machine (see below). builds into a chorus that again is similar to came back haunted.

everything – i wish someone was here listening with me so they could see my face. brows furrowed, wtf is this? it doesn’t sound like any other nin song and it doesn’t fit the vibe of the album. and trent needs to throw out that drum machine that he bought before The Slip cuz i hate it. and i will probably hate this song. (listening a 2nd time, immediate thought, WTF! i feel like it’s a joke or something.) for one second it sounds like some band (i can’t think of), then the guitar has this 80s vibe to it, then the backing vocals are just…w.t.f. then guitars like getting smaller. and it’s so loud, nothing on this record is loud except this song. then everything stops. then 80s guitar again.

satellite – i like it, but it reminds me of something from the first How To Destroy Angels EP…BBB maybe? yes.

various methods of escape – i like the chorus. i like it. nothing else to say. (yeah, definitely like it)

running – druuummm machine, african feel?…repetitive and…meh. dare i say cliche? as a 33 year old with no angst do i just not relate anymore?

i would for you – and more drum machine. “ballad” of the album? “love song”? nice transition into the next song. with teeth era sound.

in two – he has an affinity to writing songs with only a few words per line. i don’t know that i like it. or rather, i don’t dislike it, but it’s being used too much. i think i’ll end up liking this one. there is some noise in it at the end that i can’t figure out if it’s in the song or my speakers messing up…thinking it is my speakers, cuz copy of a has it too.

while i’m still here – drum machine makes me think of Zero Sum. random saxophone all of a sudden. weird.

black noise – instrumental to close. i was waiting for it to start, but it transitioned so smoothly from the previous song, i don’t actually know what this exact song was lol.

i didn’t listen to the remixes, don’t know that i ever will.

Definitely not your “typical” nin record, but then again, what does that even mean? Every album sounded different from it’s predecessor and none really repeat the sound of any previous one. The comparisons of this to Pretty Hate Machine must be based on the extensive (overuse?) of drum machines instead of live drums (I think only one song credits Ilan Rubin for “live drums”. Lots of “percussion” and “electronics” credits instead.) And the reason I’m not into electronic music is that I find drum machines and electronics to be so repetitive that it gets boring. Please throw out that drum machine! I may like it better than The Slip, but “best album since The Fragile” as someone proclaimed on the nin hotline….it certainly is not.

i have my nin records in mp3s on 2 cds for my car. the 1st is PHM through Year Zero, plus a folder of bsides and stuff. the 2nd disc is ghosts, yz remix, the slip, and this. guess which one is going to continue to get the most play?

dream

dream: for some unknown reason i was watching a tv special featuring 50cent. i can’t remember what songs he was playing, but i thought, these aren’t so bad. (tho i don’t remember the songs, i do know that they were not his own songs in real life). then he started a song and i thought, this sounds like “discipline”, and turns out it was…and trent was singing it as a special guest on 50cent’s special. he was playing a piano while singing, and doing like flips on it. very flamboyant like jerry lee lewis. i called adr2 because she never gets my text messages, and she actually answered. she didn’t say anything right away though and i could hear discipline through the phone so i knew she already had it on.

dream

dream:

was at a nin show. on the floor but it was all seats, and at first amira was sitting next to me, but later that became sarah. adr2 and bliss were down the row a bit. it was a very strange show. only remember bits and pieces of it. the band kept changing, first i don’t know who was on stage, but then it changed and robin took over on guitar, and the other members changed too. then they started playing mr self destruct with all these “guests” on stage….like ali returned to do vocals on the song, but i was thinking the stage wasn’t set up the way it should be if ali was there for that song, with him actually up front on guitar and playing. and then trent wasn’t even there anymore, ali was just going to sing. then 2 girls who were on the large side, both wearing matching red and white striped shirts were on stage to sing. then the band changed again and robin was leaving, it was supposed to be the WT version of the band taking over but i really didn’t see it as being aaron and twiggy i was just sad robin was leaving. and this whole time everyone is sitting in the seats, and i’m like why aren’t we all rocking out, but the songs were all so weird and not right. then a video was playing and none of the band was on stage, and it made no sense and i asked sarah if this was supposed to be some lame showcase of fan made videos, and she didn’t know. then it seemed to be a giant ad for something, but it was weird and i thought maybe it was somehow related to year zero. then it showed a girl in a car and the light outside the car was all really bright, so we expected “the presence” to show up. the end.

dream

dream:

cassie and i and someone else were depressed and mad at trent reznor for some reason, and this other person (a guy) decided we were going to blow up trent’s apartment. so we got in somehow, and he set up bombs in trent’s wine cellar. the bombs were set up through the corks of each bottle. everything was set up and the timer was set, when cassie found some sort of information that said we shouldn’t be mad at trent and we decided to call off the bombing. we ran into the cellar to get the guy to shut the bomb off, which he was trying to do but it wasn’t working. the way the bombs were in the corks it caused the bottles to spray out wine as the countdown got closer to 0, so we’re running around the cellar trying to get the bombs to turn off, getting covered in wine as if it was coming out of a sprinkler system. he couldn’t get the bombs off and they exploded. it didn’t ruin the place tho, we ended up in the living room because we were stuck inside, no way out. we were stuck, and the cops were going to come and we were going to get caught, so we figured might as well drink…cuz trent’s apartment was apparently set up like a liquor store with racks of all kinds of booze, so we decided to drink some from every bottle of rum there was. we tried to figure out ways to escape the apartment, but i didn’t think the windows opened, plus it was a long drop to the ground. looking out the window we saw someone escaping out a window across the street, i thought at first that it was mark zuckerberg, but it was michael cera. then we saw 4 other people escaping out windows, and down poles and gutters. cassie figured out the window did open, but it was still a big drop down. then magically there was a ladder onto a fire escape, except that once you opened the window and went on the fire escape, it automatically called 911. we decided to go anyway, and started running to escape from the cops. ended up in a parking ramp, where either we had a car already or we were going to steal one. but we had to pay for parking first, only problem was we had never gotten a ticket so we didn’t know how much. then i saw a sign that said to pay whatever you wanted, $2, $4, $6, so i paid 2 in the machine, but then we couldn’t find the car cuz we were on level 3 but the car was supposed to be on level 19 (something about leaving the car on the top level because that’s how we got into trent’s apt). the end.

woke up from it at 5am and had to txt cassie about it right away before i forgot it.

dream

dream: was at a nin show, my last one (tho not in chicago like real life), and trent was closing with “The fragile”….except that half way through the song he just decided that was enough, and stopped got up, and walked off the stage. from my vantage point i could see him go back stage, knock on a door, and then walk away. and i was really upset, on the verge of tears, that he didn’t finish the song. adr2 and cassie were with me, and we were all like wtf, why didn’t he finish the song. no one threw anything at him like when he walked off during “hurt” in 06, and there was no obvious reason as to why he stopped. this upset me so so very much, because it was my last show, and the closing song, and it couldn’t have been any more appropriate than to be “the fragile”. days later, i was still upset about it, so much so that i told them i was going to have to join twitter, because it was the only way to get trent’s attention to ask him why he didn’t finish the song, and to let him know how mad i was about it.