It's been awhile since I have posted but I wanted to comment on what will be my last Nine Inch Nails show for some time - if not ever.... (PS. Not by my choice but that's what Trent said - Dammit...)
Yesterday, the wife and I spent most of the day in the yard, planting flowers, et al, along the back of the house. It looks really nice, but it came with a price - we were both pretty tired lastnight when we went for Sushi. Pretty damn good sushi up in the occult town of Town Lake. We escaped, nonconverted, and made our way to Lakewood.
The way to do it at Lakewood Ampitheater is to buy the parking pass... Not many people know about it, or aren't willin to spend the $ but it's all good. Only bad thing about VIP parking is NO BATHROOM. We see a Chevy Blazer parked against the fence near some brush and that turned into the bathroom - for men and women... Eeeew. We had a front row seat to watch 4-5 women drop trou and go right behind this Blazer. Not a pretty sight. But we had a cooler packed and it as nice drinking FREE beer because beers are $11 at Lakewood - that's right, its not a typo, beers cost $11. No wonder everyone smokes dope...
Show was to start at 7 so we decided to miss the 1st band and wander in for the 2nd, which I thought would be Jane's Addiction... Ummm... No, here comes the beat and then outcomes Trent... What the Fuck??? Why the Hell would he be 2nd and not Headlining??? NIN has totally surpassed anything that Jane's Addiction has done... Well, this is the 2nd time I have seen NIN in the daytime - first time was at the 1st Lollapalooza... Trent put on a great show on a very scaled down stage setup. (The last 4 shows have kinda been disappointing with the stage set up - compared to the past shows that had video's and props etc.) Well, I had to take a piss so I picked a slow song off of the Year Zero album and ran out took care of business and tried to buy a t-shirt. The 1st t-shirt booth was out of the Long Wave Goodbye green concert t-shirt so I made my way to t-shirt booth #2. I hear his sermon about this being their last tour for a while, how the music industry has changed - and not for the good, how record companies are money grabbing whores and how they stifle any creativity. It is obvious - he needs a break. But while I am in line he starts up the best cover song in his catalog, Adam Ant's "Physical" which is on the minidisc inside the Broken EP.... Wow... I had to leave the line and hustle back to the seat to try and catch some of this song... He plays a good mix of old an new and left out the instrumental songs of Ghosts I-IV, thank God, but in all it was 90 minutes and he was gone as night fell...
(oh, but I gotta tell ya - he brought out Saul Williams for 2 songs... If you don't know Saul Williams - check him out...)
Well, his exit was unexpected - I expected a 2.5 hr headlining act, power chords, and people tearing out the seats. But it was not to be... This exit was almost as surprising as the absolute surprise the first time I ever saw him. It was early 1990 and to be honest, I don't remember Pretty Hate Machine being released in 1989 when I was at WSBF. Maybe that is because I had a regressive progressive show and played some oldie alternative and I may not have had my finger on the pulse of new stuff. Well, I went to see The Jesus And Mary Chain at the Roxy and was prepared for a great J-M Chain show and I see an old WSBF'r there and he says "Get ready to be blown away by the opening act - Nine Inch Nails" And he was RIGHT.... Wow... I was blown away.... I had never seen anything like that before and it was a great feeling - that feeling you get when you see greatness... I knew they were going to be HUGE. I will say that Pretty Hate Machine has to be one of the top 5 albums of all time.... (London Calling, by the Clash; Never Mind the Bollocks, by the Sex Pistols; Joshua Tree, by U2, and insert 1 more of your favorites here). Well that first show was almost 20 years ago and last night was my 36th Nine Inch Nails show. I have probably seen the Goodies and Spider Monkey/Rev-7 more times but no other National Act have I seen that much - I've only seen Flogging Molly <20 times....
Over the Years I have seen NIN in a multitude of venue but I will never forget the shows at the Masquerade... I was at the show where Meat Beat Manifesto played and had crazy dancers and there was no a/c in the joint. Trent didn't come on until 1:30am and damn it was oppressively hot. By the end of the show 3/4 of the women had their shirts off and no one cared... The Festival shows never gave Trent top billing but he gets his due at the Voodoo Festival (wish I would have seen one of those shows) The shows at the Fox wer also epic. The Fox Theater took out a$1million insurace policy for 3 days - Nine Inch Nails had 2 shows Thursday and Friday and then Metallica played on Saturday - they were scared to death that their Theater would be torn down... The shows at Phillips were OK - Gwinnett SUCKED, like always. My tour from Raleigh/Charlotte/Atlanta was over Mother's Day in 2000 as well. That was great.... I could go on and on.... Wow, the memories....
Now to express my disgust...
Fucking Perry Ferrell was lucky to even be on this tour... It is called NIN/JA not JA/NIN so why the hell did he get to headline... Don't get me wrong, I respect that Perry founded Lollapalooza and does the Entourage theme song but come on.... They played the ENTIRE "Nothing's Shocking" album that was released in like 1986. Now, Dave Navarro is an awesome guitarist BUT the Base Player out played him and drowned his ass out. Wow... I don't know who that guy is but he was impressive. Perry Ferrel looked just like what you would think a 50 yr old Heroin addict would look like. He might weigh 140lbs and looked aweful. I heard that the lead singer for The Cramps died in 2oo8 and all Perry needed was some red pumps and a pearl necklace and he could tour with them... Eh, they had the energy but the crowd was dead and it got old him Eh-ah-oh oh-wo-wo-woo ing the whole damn show... So they come out for the encore and I knew "Jane Says" would be the finale... Well, they screwed the whole thing up. 1st Lollapalooze he had a team of steel drum guys, well, this time it was 1 white guy and it was aweful, we left...
I did make a final coup for the evening - Found a new way out of Lakewood.... University Ave., only thing is your car needs to be bulletproof and don't stop for any reason - traffic lights are just a suggestion.... On I-75 in nothing flat...
So-long Trent - I will miss you...
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