Saw NIN a few Sunday nights ago - and "a night of ups and downs" it's probably best described as. It was the finest sound I've heard at a concert for a long time. The venue was also great (The Metro), and it was PACKED. I went along with Chris, Elaine, Greg and Alex, and managed to get in a little bit early (due to Chris sponsoring me a fanclub ticket) to see the place fill up. So, the ups of the night included the setlist (below), which was awesome - a lot from Broken and The Downward Spiral and the lighting (which was incredibly simple, but effective). I've never been at a concert which felt so intimate - I think having the stage backlit by massive incandescent lights helped. It was very minimal in all respects - Trent took to the stage without much fanfare, just striding out from behind some smoke (courtesy of a smoke machine that wasn't used that much actually). The band just did their thing. It wasn't a big stage. You could get up close if you wanted. I went in for a mosh on "Gave Up" (and boy, did my right knee feel it for the few days afterwards...).
Those were the ups. There were a few downs though. These included a Keyboard / Computer rig not working (which meant we missed out "on something really cool" as Trent put it). Trent's guitar also fucked up at the start of "Only", for a good few minutes. The crowd was also (really surprisingly) made up of a few complete fuckwits. So much so that during technical difficulties they were yelling "C'mon, hurry up" (whilst Trent took the look of someone who was really, really frustrated). Then the piece de resistance came when members of the crowd shouted shit through "Hurt" - seemingly especially in the quiet bits. Trent made it through two-thirds, but then stopped dead at one point to ask "What did he say? Am I supposed to pretend that I can't hear you? No problems, let's move on", and that's where the song stopped. They then played (conveniently) "The Hand That Feeds" as the last song. So, a bit of a disappointing note to end on - due to a bad night for Trent and some fuckheads in the audience (who deserved to be beaten severely)
Set was as follows;
- Somewhat Damaged
- You Know What You Are?
- Sin
- March Of The Pigs
- Piggy
- The Beginning Of The End
- Survivalism
- Ruiner
- Burn
- Gave Up
- Help Me I Am In Hell
- The Frail
- The Good Soldier
- Wish
- Only
- Capital G
- Suck
- Hurt
- The Hand That Feeds
Could only have been better had they played "A Warm Place", "Right Where It Belongs" and "Eraser". I'd bet money that there was supposed to be an encore of "Closer" and "Head Like A Hole", which we didn't get due to the moron who interrupted Hurt. Then again, I'm not too worried about that - they're both great songs, but a little played to death. I was thrilled that they played my favourite song "Ruiner", along with some other old favourites (March Of The Pigs, Burn, Gave Up)
Overall, it was a great night. Here's some pictures taken by a friend of a friend, at one of the concerts later in the week. Sums up the atmosphere. 4th time round seeing NIN, and yet to be let down, they always put on a great show.
|
