2009年 Nov 5日 Thursday, 13:14
Granted, this is ancient history, but I'd still like to write a few words about the Nine Inch Nails live experience I had on the 25th of July before the year's over 'cause then it'd be definitely too late.
As all fans know, before the final world tour Trent Reznor has announced the end of NIN as we know it 'cause he's really happy and sober and has decided that vagina >>>>>>>>> fistfuck after all. He also stopped performing Closer at every single show 'cause he doesn't want to fuck everyone in the world like an animal anymore. Bummer.
Knowing that this is last chance to see Mr.T live (unless the future deflation of his fuckpuppet will leave him pissed enough to go screaming around the world once more), and I love his work a lot, I originally wanted to see 2 shows, but it's been a terribly long, exhausting summer, with lots of traveling, heat, shitty accomodations & shitty people surrounding me. That comes from me being a part of the Romanian national cycling team, but let's not go off topic here. The bottom line is, I didn't have the mental or physical strength to endure a long-ass travel to Budapest & back home in 2 days, so I ended up going to the Romanian show only. Even so, it took a car ride of almost 200 kilometers to reach the city where the Peninsula Festival took place.
The absolute headliner of the event was The Prodigy. HOW DARE THEY PUT PRODIGY'S NAME BEFORE NIN?!?-I thought every time I saw their ad posters. FAIL.
It was a moderately hot day, and it cooled off pretty nicely as the Sun went down. The festival was cute, small, pretty clean, no puking gross people anywhere, the area before the main stage being grassy & remarkably clean. I liked it. The crowd was a mix of pretty much every subculture you can think of, and quite of lot of "normal" people, too. I decided to keep it simple & dressed up in beige, a weed-smoking tattooed dragon on my T-shirt, steel-toed boots on my feet. That was the only time I've worn those all this year. No makeup. I detest that stuff.
After enduring the rather bland set of Primal Scream it was already dark and all sorts of annoying goth chicks pressed against each other in the front rows. They were all much smaller than me. I felt like I was being squashed between kindergarten monsters. One of them insisted on chain-smoking through the entire concert, and she was right next to me. I wanted to strangle her so, so badly.
Towards the end of PS it was time to light up the horns!
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Maaan, how those goth females screamed as Trent & Co. occupied the stage! The Reznor took his place behind the central mic and roared and the crowd went batshit insane. I really tried to take good photos but for various reasons (one of them being the cloud of cigarette smoke enveloping me) I didn't have much success. Here are a few decent ones:
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Look, it's JMJ! THE BEST BASS PLAYER IN THE WORLD!!!
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Look, I took a picture of a camera filming Trent! Is that cool or what?
http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv77/AnnaDraconida/nin2009/P7253597-1.jpg
Trent did his usual moves, flashed his lovely love handles and caused wet panties left & right. He didn't say much 'cept that Primal Scream is one of his fave bands and it was an honor for him to take the stage after their performance. Whatever, dude.
The setlist was great. Nothing from Ghosts I-IV or The Slip, though. WHY???
BUT they played my favorite song! I cried like a little bitch when the booming riffs of TDTWWA swept over the audience.
Full setlist for the night:
Somewhat Damaged
Terrible Lie
Heresy
March of the Pigs
Piggy
Metal
The Collector
I'm Afraid of Americans
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
The Fragile
Non-Entity
Gone, Still
The Way Out is Through
Wish
Survivalism
Suck
The Day the World Went Away
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Hurt
If I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I'd give it 11, even though I really missed kickass new songs like Discipline or 31 Ghosts IV. A surprising number of people actually sang along, which is a pleasant surprise, considering that good music is just not appreciated in this country, and the average Romanian listens to steaming sonic poo that would make a person with half-decent musical taste jump off a bridge.
After the show I stalked Trent to his hotel, not to ask for an autograph on my boobs or anything, but to give him a gift: this beautifully packaged amazing book about the wonders of Transylvania, 'cause all he and his band got to see was the ugly industrial area on the outskirts of the city. I did manage to arrive at the exact moment he and his fuckpuppet exited the bus & entered the hotel, but he looked terribly tired and grumpy and ignored me. I gave the book to his tour manager, Jerome, and he promised he'd give it to Trent. Maybe it ended up in Jerome's home or a dumpster. :-P
I got home at around 5 AM, feeling dreadfully tired… so, there you go. Trent was a total asshole to the Romanian public & press, refusing to give a 5-minute interview or any kind of contact with the fans, but he gave us a memorable, fantastic show that will be remembered by many for a long time to come.