Do I need to talk about the wedding on the internet? -- A helpful flowchart

NINventure Kansas City!

The backstory:

Kourt and I had wanted to maybe do more than one NIN show on this tour, but after thinking about it and looking over our finances at ticket purchase time, we decided to be responsible adults and just do the one show nearby. The cost of travel and lodgings to any of the other nearest shows would have been prohibitive.

Recently, however, we ended up selling Kourt's second car. The Jetta had been sitting, neglected, in the driveway for over a year, waiting to be fixed and cleaned up and sold, and when we finally got it ready we actually got a lot more for it than we expected. Yay for low mileage! So, when Trent tweeted about raising money for Eric, it just so happened that we had some money left from the car sale.

So Kourt called me up that night saying she needed me to talk her out of spending money on something, because that's what she does when she's not sure if I'll agree with a large purchase. I'd been off the internet for the most part for a while, so I hadn't seen Trent's posts, but when she told me about it (despite the fact that usually I'd balk on spending $300 bucks on... well... anything) I couldn't really see a downside to donating.

I probably should have been really excited from that point on, but to be honest I've been really trying to stay off the interwebz and spend the time I needed to spend on my to-do list. I've got some high-priority stuff to focus on. So it didn't really hit me until last weekend. And then on Monday night it finally REALLY hit me, and I went directly from "I get to meet Trent!" to "Holy shit, I'm going to meet Trent..." I had absolutely nothing to have autographed except the hat I put Rob's AIR patch on, and that just didn't seem like a great idea. I had no idea what to say. And I was fairly sure I'd say something dumb to embarrass myself.

By Tuesday night, though, I was back to being really excited. Kourt and I stopped at a local independent record store and had a nice convo with the NIN fan behind the counter. We ended up picking up copies of TDS and The Slip to have signed, which were a) the only NIN CDs they had and b) conveniently appropriate. Kourt had been a NIN fan from way back, but lost track of what Trent was up to during the long down time after TDS. I became a fan just before The Slip came out and got her caught up again.

The NINventure:

We went to bed at midnight on Tuesday night, thinking we'd sleep a full eight hours and be on the road by 10am. Unfortunately, I woke up at 4:30 and could not get back to sleep. It was weird and frustrating because I hadn't gotten any sleep after work Monday night and only about 2 hours of napping in during the afternoon on Tuesday, so I knew if I couldn't get myself un-excited and get a few more hours of sleep I'd be in trouble driving back after the show. I finally managed to play games on the web until I got tired again and caught about 2 1/2 hours before finally getting up at 9:30.

Kourt had to do some stuff at work before we could leave, so we stopped by there and didn't actually get on the road until 11:30. (We're never on time with these things, so we weren't surprised.) I'd picked out a tank top to wear and brought my With Teeth hoodie for when it got cold or rained, and realized about halfway into the drive that I probably should have thought out my wardrobe better. Hoodie on, I was too hot. Hoodie off, I was freezing. But whatever, as the weather got shittier I just resigned myself to being in the hoodie.

We arrived at about 3. There weren't many cars in the lot yet and only a few people by the gate. We milled around the gate area for a bit as more and more people showed up for the meet and greet, watching deliveries come in and out and the staff setting up the presale tents. At about 3:30 or so they lined us up to get our presale tix and had all the donors stand under a tree to wait. (I wondered if they weren't trying to get us struck by lightning to thin our numbers a bit.)

The meet and greet:

At this point Deighe and Casee showed up with their husbands, so we got to talk a little before they got the donors together to take us inside for the meet and greet. We only got to chat a little while, though, because they then lined us up to have our bags searched and get our hand stamps (for $300 donors) and purple stickers (for $1000 donors). After everyone got through security (with only minimal confusion, I might add) JT came out to tell us how things were going to go. Based on the stories of those who had gone to previous meet and greets we were expecting a more unstructured event, but the sheer number of people involved have necessitated a more structured approach. We were told to have one and only one item to get signed and that we'd be lined up to go past the band and meet them and get our autographs. After that we'd be lined up again, and each donor and their guest would have their pic taken with the band as a group.

So, we headed down into the venue and around the side of the stage to the back of the venue where there was this... shack. Well, maybe not a shack, so much, since it wasn't enclosed, but it was a covered storage area of some sort. Kind of weird. A few people at a time were led up the ramp into the sheltered area for autographs. Kourt and I were about a third of the way through the line, which moved pretty quickly. Brett and Leo were there, standing around just being Brett and Leo.

I let Kourt go first, but honestly I didn't hear much of what she said to the guys. Robin was first at the table. We had a kind of awkward conversation. He's rather soft-spoken, and I was rather at a loss for anything to say. To be completely honest, I think the guys in the band are extremely talented and great performers, but I'm a NIN fan because of Trent, and I don't have any real emotional attachment to whoever he's currently paying to play the live shows. It's the lyrics that have gotten inside my head, really, and they don't have anything to do with that. I don't really even remember what I said to Robin. Something came up about if we were from KC or not, I remember that much. His hair was fantastic, though.

Justin was next, and he thanked us for donating to help Eric. I thanked him for doing all this to help raise the money, especially since this was going to be my last NIN show and it made for a really great way to kind of bring my live NIN experiences to a close. He assured me that I'd really love the setlist, and I said I was sure I would.

Next was Trent, and I was really surprised that I didn't completely clam up. I introduced myself, and he said, "This is your last NIN show?" I said yeah, and then said that we'd wanted to have him sign our car but that security wouldn't let us bring it into the venue with us. He laughed, and then said, "You car?" I explained that we'd painted the stripe from The Slip down the sides of our car, and he said I should send them a pic. I said we had the pic on our camera and we were going to show him, but Kourt had it. And I thanked him for doing the whole fundraising thing.

They had Ilan last at the table, and I thanked him for doing all this and said I was looking forward to the show. Really quick convo. His hair, too, is really fabulous. I kinda wanted to touch it.

I joined Kourt in the second line and we Twittered our excitement while we waited. I was just happy that I'd not only managed not to completely embarrass myself, but that I'd actually gotten Trent to laugh.

When they finally got everybody through the first line, Rob came out to take the pics. They lined the band up against the brick wall that, I assume, was the back of the venue itself. When Kourt and I got up to take our pic Kourt stood inbetween Trent and Justin and I got inbetween Trent and Robin, saying that "we should put Trent between the lesbians." Justin started cracking up, and Trent tried to keep his "serious picture" face on but couldn't quite hold it with Justin shaking with laughter on the other side of Kourt. He let out a... chortle? It was funny. Once Rob had gotten the pic, I said we were going to use that pic on our Christmas cards, and Trent said that, yeah, we should do that. I kind of wanted to thank Rob for the patch I'd put on my hat, but I didn't want to hog time when there was such a long line behind us.

Once our pic was done, we went back down the ramp to line up on the little sidewalk leading back around to the seats, but after a few minutes it started raining on us and they let us come back up under the shelter to wait while they finished the pics. We kind of hoped once they were done that we could catch Rob and talk to him, but once they had us all photographed he got us together to film a little video for Eric, and then he left. They took the $1000 donors on to where they'd get dinner, leaving the rest of us standing around waiting to be taken back out.

And we waited.

And waited.

The young security dude said he didn't know why it was taking so long, and that he didn't want to go ask because he'd been assured that they'd come back for us when they were ready. I thought they were probably waiting until the presale people had been let in, but when I tweeted that Casee tweeted back that the presale line was already in. Eventually JT showed up and thanked us for our patience and assured us that it wouldn't be much longer. And after about another ten minutes he came back and let us into the venue.

The show:

Kourt and I made our way first to the bathroom and then to the merch table. I got the olive green shirt with the white logo on the front and the "Wave Goodbye" logo on the back without the concert dates on it. Kourt got the black shirt with the dates and the turquoise green logo. By then we were kind of hungry, too, so we split a funnel cake. Funnel cake isn't really on my diet, but as Lisa said, NIN/JA day is splurge day!

Our seats were even better than we expected. Nine rows back, center section, by the aisle on Robin's side. By the time we sat down, it was FUCKING FREEZING! I ended up putting my new shirt on between the tank top and the hoodie just for the extra warmth. We tweeted while we waited for Street Sweeper Social Club to start, and made some small talk with the people around us.

Our section was just about half full when SSSC took the stage. They were phenomenal! Some people stayed seated during their set, and that blew my mind.

After their set we went up and had a smoke and then went back to our seats. The break inbetween SSSC and NIN was a lot shorter than I expected, which was fine by me. With no crowd jumping around, the temperature was really uncomfortable.

The setlist started with Now I'm Nothing/Terrible lie, which I was hoping we'd get. Then right into Discipline, March Of The Pigs (which is really odd to see live without being in a pit, I have to say. I couldn't jump around as much as I wanted to, because when I did I ended up taking an armrest to the thigh, which is rather painful.), The Frail and (thankfully!) The Wretched, Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now), The Becoming (which was the one song I most wanted to hear live -- it's my all time favorite, and I was blown away), Burn, Gave Up, Echoplex, The Fragile (yay!!), The Way Out Is Through, Wish, Survivalism, Physical, The Hand That Feeds, and Head Like A Hole. For an encore we got Hurt, which was kind of annoying because it seems to be an open invitation for idiots to yell dumb things like "happy birthday" and make obnoxious "woooo!" noises. My only complaints during NIN's set were that the idiots behind us kept talking really loud about stuff like the girl's insistence that she could sing the songs better than Trent because his voice was worn out. Oh, and the couple beside us who kept having to squeeze past us again and again for more beer and bathroom trips. Seriously, how many fucking cups of beer do you have to drink during a show? You miss shit while you're gone, and by the end I can't imagine they were able to remember much of what they saw. But whatever, their loss. And the dude in front of me kept swaying side to side and blocking my view, so several times I had to kind of straddle the armrest between Kourt and I so I could watch Trent over her shoulder. But still, none of that was enough to really impact how perfect the whole show was.

After NIN we went up and had another quick smoke, and tweeted that any of our twitter pals who wanted to grab a cheap dinner after Jane's should meet us at The Slip Car. We went back down to our seats and waited for Jane's Addiction, which I was hoping would really impress me.

I guess I just don't "get" Jane's. It was a good performance, but I can't say I enjoyed it half as much as SSSC. And their fans are annoying. Everyone was drunk, I was starting to get a contact high, and there was a lot more flailing around than seemed warranted by the music. Oh, and because of the shitty Missouri weather, Dave wasn't even shirtless. About two-thirds of the way through their set Kourt and I made our way back up to the lawn area to sit down where doing so wouldn't be disrespectful to the band.

After the show:

By the time we left and met up with Casee at The Slip Car, Deighe and her husband had already gone back to their hotel. We made plans to meet at the Waffle House near their hotel to hang out and eat. However, it took Kourt and I a good hour to get out of the parking jam and finally find their hotel and then ride with Casee and her husband to the Waffle House. We had a good time hanging out over waffles and eggs and such, and finally got back on the road home by about 1:30. I was exhausted, but still running on residual excitement to keep me awake for the drive. Finally, a trip that didn't include any drama or catastrophies!

Once Kourt gets the vids and pics edited and uploaded I'll post them on here. We got some good stuff, which is the upside to having NIN start their set in daylight. Usually once a concert is done and we get home I have this sort of withdrawal thing. Post-show depression or something. But it's like I have closure on the whole thing. As much as I'd love to see another show, I'm totally satisfied with this being the closing chapter on my live NIN experiences.

It couldn't have been a more perfect day.

Hey, Live Nation?

What the hell, man? I mean, I understand the scam you're running. I get it. But with the nin.com presale you're supposed to at least sell THOSE tickets on the up and up, right?

*shrugs* Guess not.

Kourt and I both logged in for the Camden presale at 3:00. We both get in, and both pull up seats. Not a problem... if we'd wanted seats. Call us silly, but we want lawn tix. We can't afford pit, so we'll sit in the back on the grass where we can have some fun with the other fans we know. And we need three tickets, so Kourt was going to buy one and I was going to buy two. Thinking that maybe your computer system would start spitting out lawn tix after the seats ran out, we emptied our carts and kept trying.

Now, here's where it gets weird. After a little while, we're on the phone (logged on from different places) talking about what we're going to do and contemplating trying to pull up three adjacent seats, and suddenly Kourt says the tickets are sold out. She's getting the "not enough available tickets to fill your request" message.

Funny, I'm looking at a pair of seats. Section 202, Row R, Seats 1 and 2 or something. So I dump my cart and go back and see if I get the sold out message.

Nope, now I pull Row R, Seats 32 and 33 or whatnot.

Kourt tries again, still nothing. I try again, now I'm on Row Q.

She keeps trying, I keep pulling tickets. Single tickets, pairs of tickets, Row P, Row Q, Row R, all different seats...

So I figure maybe she's got something in her cache or her cookies or hasn't emptied her shopping cart or something, so I tell her to try logging out and logging back in and trying again.

Still sold out for her.

I'm still getting available seats. In pairs.

By now it's 3:15.

I go upstairs to my other computer and log in under her name there, still logged in as myself on my laptop. She's about to blow a fucking gasket. I try to pull up some tickets.

Under her account, tickets are sold out. I try again and again, singles and pairs, different price levels, all sold out.

Under my account, I'm still pulling various seats in Row R.

So what's the deal, Live Nation? Kourt's not good enough for tickets? Did you tag her account to sell out early? Or am I just that special?

Sockpuppet Douchebag Theater Presents: NIN fans bitch about NIN/JA tickets

"Treeeennnntt... Why do the tickets for the NIN/JA tour have to cost so much? If I have to pay this much for my ticket, I want a bunch of flashing lights and lasers and dancing girls and my very own beer wench and for you to personally dedicate Closer to me in front of the whole arena! It doesn't matter that I'm getting to see Jane's Addiction, too, and that the ticket prices are still lower than most big shows. I'm gonna feel personally shortchanged if this show isn't at least twice as flashy as the Lights In The Sky tour! If you don't do this for me... I mean us, your loyal fans, then you suck!"

"But if I can't get a good seat before they sell out, what am I supposed to do without buying from a scalper? If I can't get close enough to the stage to be able to count your nose hairs, then I just don't want to go at all. If I can't get the exact ticket I want, I'll just have to stay home and listen to The Fragile in the dark and cry. I'd rather do that than sit with all the losers that are dumb enough to buy cheap tickets where they can't possibly get splashed by even a drop of your sweat! I need to be splashed by your sweat! It's important to me!!!!!"

"Hey, what are you guys even bitching about? At least you can afford the tickets. I don't have any money. Trent gives us everything else for free, why couldn't he make it so everyone can go to the show without paying him? I've been his absolute biggest fan for eleventy million years, and it's wrong for him to deprive me of the opportunity to see this show. IT'S HIS FAULT! DO YOU HEAR ME, TRENT? IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"


"Shut up, loser. I love him more. And because I love him more I need to be able to get way close so he can see me and know how big of a fan I am. And for the record, I've been his biggest fan for eleventy million and one years, so you can kiss my ass."


"You're just an elitist asshole. Just because you can afford to spend a lot of money doesn't make you better than me. I listen to NIN 24 hours a day. I tape headphones to my ears when I go to bed so I can listen in my sleep. I pick all the letters out of my Alphabits except N and I because it just means that much to me. I'm just so mad that now Trent has made it impossible for me to see the show. Doesn't he know that the economy is bad? Isn't he a multi-kajillionaire? Can't he just afford to keep giving us free stuff forever and ever? DOESN'T HE REALIZE THAT I'M SUFFERING HERE?"

"Idiot. Of course he can't do this for free. It's a big concert. He's got to get paid. But damn it, Trent, if I'm paying you then I should be able to get exactly what I want!! I PAY YOU!! I'M THE BOSS!! GIVE ME LIGHTS AND LASERS AND THE DANCING GIRLS!!!"


"I hate you all. I have box seats that I paid for. They cost a lot of money, but I'm rich, so I can afford them. And now I might have to be moved out of the way of all you stupid peons who don't make as much money as I do. Trent's a jerk for putting you ahead of me. Doesn't he know that I paid for the priviledge of flaunting my douchebaggery for everyone, and he's interfering with that? If you all want to be as cool as me, you should just get out there and make a lot of money. I'm tired of rock stars paying attention to poor people who care about their music when they should pay more attention to rich people like me who don't actually care."

"If rich bastard gets food and drinks and special seats, then I should at least get a beer wench! I want a beer wench! Wearing flashing lights and lasers! The music isn't enough!"



"If the Spiral were still around, we'd get beer wenches with lasers and meet and greets and little vials of Trent's saliva to take home with us. Bring back the Spiral, Trent! We're special and we deserve it!"



"Paying for a fucking fan club doesn't make you special. Anybody with money can do that. I carved the NIN logo into my left pinky toe with a spork. THAT makes me special! Send me a free ticket, Trent! Please!!!!"



"Did one of you just touch me? Oh, god, now I have poor people germs on me! Get away from me, all of you! This is all your fault, Trent! It's your fault poor people are touching me!"

"LASERS! LASERS! LASERS! LASERS! LASERS! LASERS! LASERS! LASERS!"





"I'M GONNA HOLD YOU PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE IF I CAN'T BE FRONT AND CENTER ON THE RAIL, TRENT! I LOVE YOU!!!!"



"MY LIFE ISN'T WORTH LIVING!!!" *sobs*






"I'm going to go spend a weekend doing really expensive rich people things. You all disgust me."



*sigh*

Ticket brokers can go fuck themselves

And Trent Reznor agrees:

"Thanks to those of you pointing out the obscene ticket reseller prices. We are actively trying to combat these parasites."

"I will post more on ticket-resellers in a bit, I'm trying to take the day off. In the meantime, do your part - DON'T BUY TICKETS FROM THEM!"

Considering some of them were selling NINJA tickets before they were even available, it cannot be considered in any way ethical to do what these parasites do.

Thank god for artists like Trent who understand that the good seats should be in the hands of fans and sold at face value, not sold to ticket brokers who will turn around and assrape fans with obscene prices.

For what it's worth, Kourt and I have ninth row seats for the KC show, purchased through the nin.com presale for the regular ticket price. And that's how it should be.

NIN, take 2!

I believe in the blog I wrote about the NIN show in August, I expressed a fervent desire to be in the pit instead of in seats for the next one. So, if the curiosity has been killing you, we did indeed get presale GA tix for the show last night in Columbia. Also, while I have decided that I am in no way too old to be in the pit, I am really out of shape for it. My legs are killing me already.

Anyway, a probably overly long recap of the day:

We found out a few months ago, after we got our tickets, that one of our friends was also a NIN fan and wanted to ride up with us if she got a ticket. Which was fine with us, except the presale was already sold out and she'd have to be in a different line and everything, and we knew there'd be little chance of staying together once we got to the arena. But with all of that understood, she got her ticket and wanted to go anyway.

I decided that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it right, and that meant being right down on the rail. So we left town at 6am with plans (and an arsenal of cold weather gear) to wait outside in the freezing cold all day like real die-hard fans. I was half afraid that we'd get there and find a whole line already waiting, and half afraid we'd get there and have nobody else show up until hours later. Reality was a bit more on the side of the latter. When we arrived, there was little sign of an impending concert besides some security barriers outside and a couple of empty chairs that looked to be waiting for the first two people in line to return. We went to the box office area in the lobby, and then spotted about four people already camped out down at the other end. Kourt was worried that we were going to end up in the wrong place or miss something, so we asked them where we were supposed to be, and they said that the presale line was around the corner, but that we could wait in the main lobby for the time being.

Over the next hour or two, a handful more fans trickled in, and we started to actually socialize with each other. We played a few rounds of Uno and Bullshit, joked around with each other, and had a pretty good time. One girl remained passed out totally asleep in her sleeping bag for the entire morning, snoring even, in the midst of all our noise and her cell phone ringing off the hook.

All through the morning, one of the staff at the arena would pop in periodically to tell us what the plan was for lining up and such the rest of the day, and he asked how many of us were presale and how many of us had just regular tickets. When our friend Lauren said she just had a regular ticket, another guy who was waiting with us said he had an extra presale ticket with nobody to give it to, and that he'd let her take it so the three of us wouldn't get split up.

I just have to say for the millionth time now really awesome NIN fans are.

So yeah, they actually let us wait inside the lobby instead of out in the cold until about 2pm, when they moved us down to the basketball office entrance and, again, let us line up and wait inside that little lobby area. Of course, by that time comatose girl had woken up, and it became quite clear that we all liked her a lot better when she was asleep. Turns out she's one of these superfans who, somehow, has the means and time to go to half the shows on the tour, has all sorts of (probably exaggerated) stories about meeting various band and crew members, knows what hotels the band is going to stay in, has Trent's autograph tattooed on her back, etc, etc. Couldn't shut her mouth to save her life. Also couldn't put her cell phone down for more than ten minutes. Oh, and also hadn't showered in at least a day.

Anyway, we waited around in the little lobby for several more hours as the fans trickled in. We met some really cool people in line, including some that I know from the nin.com forums, and we all had a really good time talking and sharing snacks and playing the occasional card game. We talked a bit, even, about what we'd do if one of us caught Trent's tambourine, and decided it would be cool to pull it apart and take the little cymbal pieces out and let everyone have one, because they'd make cool necklaces.

Around 5pm the line started to finally get pretty long, and we prepared to get our tickets and get down to our spots on the floor. That process didn't quite go as smoothly as it could have, partly because the staff at that part of the process had a median age of around 70, and seemed to have very little clue what was going on. But the NIN crew got things under control and made sure we got our tickets, got through security, lined up again, and got taken down to the floor without the line order getting messed up and people mauling each other.

When we finally reached the rail, Kourt and Lauren and I were just off front center, slightly to Robin's side. We chatted a bit with the security guy in front of us, who was really cool.

Annoying girl got slightly more annoying once we hit the floor. A friend of hers, who had just arrived prior to us being let down onto the floor, made her way to the front. They talked a bit, and Miss Superfan goes into this lecture to her friend about not letting people push their way to the rail, all the while making room for this girl to do just that.

It was a bit of a blessing in disguise, though, since it meant Kourt had a one-person buffer between her and the other chick.

The opening act was a Japanese band called Boris. They're okay. I honestly couldn't believe that anything that loud could actually lull me to sleep. Yet it can. No thirty minute long strobe light solos this time, just a ten minute feedback solo, during which time the security staff gave several people earplugs.

The NIN show, however, was beyond amazing. There was one small technical glitch before Me, I'm Not, but it was quickly resolved without Trent resorting to smashing anything, and everything else seemed to go off without a hitch. The setlist was similar to last time:

999,000/1,000,000, Letting You, Discipline, March of the Pigs...

I really expected the pit to get really brutal during MOTP. There was a lot more crushing going on and people were definitely jumping around behind us -- not like we weren't jumping too -- but it wasn't anywhere near the brutality we experienced at LP this summer. Granted, being on the rail is a lot easier than being back in the crowd with nothing to hold on to, but still...

...Head Down...

We knew Trent would be throwing the tambourine during Head Down, and he lobbed it high and hard enough that it came down a few rows behind us. One guy managed to catch it, and the douchebag behind me tried to grab it out of his hand. There was a little bit of a scuffle, but there were enough of us around trying to get the second guy to back off and not be an asshole that he finally wised up and let go. Yay for fairness!

...The Frail, The Wretched...

One of the guys near us had a set list before the show because his mom was part of the arena event staff and brought it out to him, so we already knew we'd be getting The Wretched after The Frail. I'm almost a little sad that I knew what was coming, because it took the suspense out of things. Still, though, I was super excited to finally get to see ALL of the Wretched without being pulled aside and chewed out for shooting videos. In fact, the security guys were actually going out of their way to move out of the way so we could shoot pics and video unobstructed.

...Closer...

Trent's got some cool new visuals to go with Closer this time around, and he actually sang as part of the chorus of The Only Time instead of just using the breakdown in the middle.

...Gave Up, Me, I'm Not...

Like I said, there was some little technical glitch before the song started. Trent was actually kind of funny about it. I think we got some video. Once they got everything working, the song was great.

...The Great Destroyer, 5 Ghosts I, 17 Ghosts II, 19 Ghosts III, Ghosts Piggy, Pinion/Wish, Terrible Lie, Survivalism...

They SO should have had the cameras on our part of the rail. We were going nuts. The girls who were on the screens were just standing there being dorks. FAIL.

...31 Ghosts IV, Only...

It's so much cooler to watch the effects on that from the floor than it was from the seats, as cool as the view from the seats was. In fact, I think that was true for the whole show.

...The Hand That Feeds...

I was super happy that he didn't skip it this time like he did in St. Louis. Thankfully he's stopped having to do the whole "picture of George Bush morphing into a pic of McCain" visual to go along with it. It's fine on its own.

...Head Like a Hole. And then for the encore: Echoplex...

After which Trent gave his customary band introduction and speech. We just got a short couple of sentences in St. Louis, but he was kind of talkative tonight. He asked where he was, because he said it was the part of the tour where they just get off a bus, go into the arena, do the show, and get back on the bus again. He asked if there was anything cool to do in the area and if it was a cool place to live (and got mixed responses) and said he grew up in a place where there was nothing to do. Then he introduced the band, and made some joke about how he'd called Justin the wrong name at the beginning of the tour, calling him Jeordie White. Then some guy held up his iPhone with a scrolling request for Trent to play The Big Come Down, and Trent told the guy that if he downloaded the iPhone update he could get the words to scroll faster so he wouldn't be wasting everyone's time. And then finally he told everyone to go get The Slip for free at their website, and to get every other album they'd ever done for free from everyone else's websites, because he doesn't give a fuck anymore.

...The Good Soldier...

Here's where it takes a little turn for the worse. At the end of The Good Soldier, Trent had another tambourine to toss. He'd looked our way a few times during the song, and when it came time to throw it he lobbed it our direction. The problem was that the lights cut out just as it came into reach, so nobody could see well enough to grab it and it fell inside the rail in front of where we were standing. We'd already joked with the security guard about how if a tambourine fell down inside the rail he should give it to us, but when he picked it up and the lights came on again the annoying chick screamed and reached for it. She's taller and louder than us, and he handed it to her. We protested, pointing out that it landed in front of us and that she not only already had an autographed tambourine from another show, but she also was going to another handful of shows on this tour. The guy apologized and said he didn't know that. Kourt tried to reason with the chick, but she wouldn't give it up. So at that point we figured there was no point in putting on a nice face to her like we'd been doing all day for the sake of peace in the line, and got hateful. Kourt pointed out that it's really no surprise she goes to all these shows alone, and as we were leaving I made a point of stopping to tell her that every time she'd left the lobby during the day, everyone else had made fun of her. Not that it helped, and it certainly wasn't mature, but the bitch needs a fucking reality check. Nobody likes her. The NIN staff obviously barely tolerates her -- you can tell by the looks on their faces when she talks to them. She only thinks she's special and isn't a "stalker." I'm sorry, having a list of all the hotels the band will be staying at officially qualifies you as a stalker.

...Hurt, In This Twilight.

Again, I cried a little at the end. Maybe it was exaccerbated by the fact that I was pissed off about the tambourine. I don't know. It's hard not to tear up, though, when he's singing Hurt just ten feet away from you.

So, after the show, we planned to go grab some dinner with a friend we met in line from the nin.com forums, but we couldn't find a place close and she didn't want to drive too far out of the city because she had a hotel room to get back to. So the three of us ate dinner in Jeff City. We were starving and exhausted by that point. The drive home was harder than we thought, since we were all not only tired from being awake something like 20 hours, but also from the exertion of being in the pit. But we made it safely home with no major catastrophes, and only one minor one -- I accidentally sat on my purse while we were playing cards and put a dent in our digital camera. It still works fine. Just now it's got a NIN concert battle wound. Sort of.

We got a crap ton of good video clips this time. I'm sure Kourt will be uploading them soon.

I hope they tour again in the States next year sometime. I wanna go again!!!

Best. Concert. Ever. So.... Now what?

After last week's concert escapades... or whatever we want to call what transpired last Wednesday... I had pretty high hopes for the Nine Inch Nails show tonight. Or, I don't know if hopes is the right word. More like I sure as hell was not going to let tonight go down in anything but awesomeness. And as I'm sure you can tell from this blog title, it was fucking... indescribably amazing. But I'll try. Not that there weren't a few less-than-perfect moments, but I don't think anything short of complete catastrophe could have ruined tonight.

First off, we actually left ON TIME! Yeah! Really! I was going to pretty much go straight home from work and go to bed, but I was on the verge of bouncing right out of my skin all Tuesday night, so I was in no mood for sleep when 6am rolled around. So I took Kourt to breakfast, then stopped to get the cash and energy drinks and gas for the trip taken care of so we wouldn't have to worry about it later, and then we decided to make good use of the box of black hair dye she had sitting around in the bathroom. And for the first time ever... really... I painted my nails black. Because it just seemed like if I ever had an excuse to be a little silly and absolutely stereotypical that way, a NIN show would be it. Anyway, not much sleep was had, but way more than I had last week, and I was running on adrenaline anyway.

So, yeah, out of the driveway at right around three, as planned. Quick stop to pick up some cheap lunch at McDs, and we were on our way. Uneventful drive up -- as it usually is to StL since it's impossible to get lost -- with NIN blasting most of the way and me bouncing in the driver's seat. Well, okay, we listened to Eddie Izzard part of the way, too. We only kinda got lost once on our quest inside the city to find the arena. Not my fault -- the directions didn't tell us which way to turn, and I guessed wrong. Quick correction, and we found the venue with no hassle, and even had an easy time finding parking.

Picked up our tickets at the special nin.com window ('cause we're cool), and still had a bunch of time to spare. I had to pee after the drive and the caffeinated beverages I'd consumed, so we walked over to Union Station to find a bathroom (the venue only has bathrooms past the turnstiles -- what's up with that, anyway?) and an ATM (kinda forgot, when I was getting cash for a t-shirt, that we'd probably have to pay for parking). Conveniently enough, the ATM was Bank of America, so I didn't have to pay a fee on the transaction -- which is what I was trying to avoid by getting the cash out before we left -- so bonus good news on that one. And I showed Kourt that arch thing where you can whisper on one side and the person across the arch can hear. She thought that was pretty cool.

By the time we got back over to the Scottrade Center, they'd opened the doors. So yay! No lines! There was a special entrance for us cool nin.com presale ticket holders, so we got right in. And bought t-shirts, which of course are awesome, and cost exactly the amount of cash I'd pulled out at the ATM, which of course was awfully convenient. And then we went to our seats...

...WHICH WERE FUCKING AWESOME, TOO.

We thought from looking at some seating charts beforehand that we were in the second section back from the stage, but we were actually the very first section of seats, right off the side of the stage, ten rows back. Great view. Sat next to a couple of pretty nice guys, too. As I predicted, the crowd was considerably older on average than the one we were in last week, and far less... um... high strung, maybe? Assholeish? I mean, let's face it -- it's not like Trent's been busy making super commercial, "this sounds just like Downward Spiral so I know everyone will buy it" type albums for the last 14 years, so it's the older folks who have been fans for years and years that show up. (And me -- who kinda just now caught up, but whatever.) I mean, for fuck's sake, the man plays a freakin' xylophone in his show now. You can't mosh to a xylophone. Knocked a few things over, but didn't break anything (though he did throw a mic stand during March Of The Pigs, but it wasn't even close to hitting anything or anyone else on stage, and he pushed his keyboard over at one point). I saw three guys try to start a mosh pit during Wish, I think, and nobody around them would join in and they gave up. Funny -- somebody on the ETS message boards said it looked like the "pit was in full force tonight" but compared to the LP/Atreyu pit last week it was nothing! Which in my book is a total thumbs up. That's not to say that the crowd wasn't into it -- it was a really great crowd -- but it didn't look like anyone was getting mangled down there. Looked like the most noteworthy thing happening in the pit was when somebody started tossing around a roll of toilet paper.

That was actually damn funny.

Anyway, we shot the breeze for a while until the opening act that nobody had ever heard of took the stage. A Place to Bury Strangers. They weren't bad, I guess, though I couldn't understand a single lyric. Probably would help if the singer stepped an inch or two away from the mic instead of trying to eat it. It was somewhat entertaining, though, until their last "song" which involved a half-hour long strobe light solo. I'm sure they were playing their instruments during that time, but it didn't matter since my brain was incapable of registering anything sensory other than the too-fast, too-bright, pulsating light that I think could be used as an alternative to pepper spray or a taser. I'm surprised nobody had a seizure. Kourt spent the time with her face buried in our new t-shirts. I spent it laughing hysterically out of sheer discomfort and staring anywhere but in the direction of the stage. The dude next to me said he couldn't stop staring, but he didn't know why. Most agonizing half hour ever. Okay, it was probably just ten minutes, but still. Everyone applauded at the end, but I think we were all applauding the comfort of darkness and not the band. And then the half of the crowd that hadn't made a run for the hallway during the strobe light assault made a run for it to get their senses back in order for NIN.

Seriously, it was that horribly uncomfortable.

Back in our seats, it was a fairly short wait for them to set up for Trent and Co. Lights went down, 999,999 started up, and the awesomeness commenced. Trent is evidently still battling his throat problems (he's had to postpone two shows already this tour), and is still pretty hoarse, but I didn't even realize it until near the end of the show when he finally talked a little bit.

They played just about every song I was hoping they would, with the exceptions of The Hand That Feeds and Getting Smaller. Love the new version of Piggy -- didn't know what it was at first and everyone kind of looked around bewildered for a second before the lyrics kicked in, but it's awesome. Just in case you're curious about a set list... 999,999, 1,000,000 (got good video of everything after the first verse), Letting You, Discipline, March of the Pigs (got awesome video), Head Down, The Frail, The Wretched...

Okay, at this point I was super excited about them playing The Wretched, and I was catching it on video. And I know the signs on the doors said no audio or video recording devices, but they always say that and people do it anyway, and I know I wasn't the only one. But the security at the Scottrade Center are video nazis and we were close to the end of the row so they could see us, and they fucking pulled me aside and up to the landing to jump all over me for shooting video. Kourt followed, because she was afraid I was getting thrown out. I was afraid we were getting our camera confiscated. He just asked me to delete the video, which I didn't know how to do, because the camera is brand new. So Kourt grabbed it and deleted what I'd gotten of The Wretched, and said she thought that was all, so he let us go back to our seats. If I'd lost the other two, too, I'd have been pissed. But still not as bad as getting our camera taken away or getting thrown out.

The bad part was that while we were getting scolded by the miniature security guard, we missed getting to pay attention to the first half of...

...Closer (but we got back to our seats in time for that The Only Time breakdown part), Gave Up, Me I'm Not (I'd been SOOO hoping they'd include it!), Great Destroyer, Ghosts 17, Ghosts 28, Ghosts 19, Ghosts Piggy, Greater Good, Pinion, Wish, Terrible Lie (thankfully, because some 40 year old idiot behind us kept yelling "TERRIBLE LIE!!" during the Ghosts, so after that he shut up -- I just wish the "I LOVE YOU, TRENT" girls behind us would have done the same), Survivalism, The Big Come Down (yay!), Ghosts 31, Only, and Head Like A Hole.

And then for the encore, which they've been starting with Echoplex for I think every show so far. And then they played Love is Not Enough, which I think is a first this tour, so that was fucking sweet! Then Reptile, God Given, Hurt (which I'd been saying he could totally skip for this show because it's not one of my absolute favorites, but I have to say I'm glad he did it), and finally In This Twilight (at which point I kinda teared up).

I'll try to get pics and video up soon. Pics were hard to get with all the LCD screens and lights and visual effects and stuff -- either there was too much light for the camera or not enough -- but I think we got some good ones.

And once it was done, we didn't even have any trouble getting back to our car and back on the road. Probably if we'd parked in the parking garage we'd have waited in a line forever, but we were inadvertantly smart that way. The only hitch on the way home was the on-again/off-again torrential downpours and Kourt's contact-induced migrane, but we got home by just after 3am with all four tires intact. So yay!

Now, though, I can't sleep. It's like I've become an addict -- now that it's over and I've experienced the high, I don't want to just go back to the everyday crap. I WANT MORE! I want to go again, and not wait until fucking November (not that I'm going to complain about two NIN shows in close proximity in one year). I wish I'd gotten the video footage I wanted to get, so I could at least relive the show. Security bastards. It's not like Trent cares.

Sigh.

It was just so good, I'm bummed it's over.

I so want to be down on the rail (or at least close to it) for the show in November. I know Kourt's not all that excited about the prospect, but I think this is one of those things I'm going to have to be selfish about. Me want!!!

And I totally agree with her, even though I've only seen video footage of Trent from back in the day, that fit-and-sober Trent is an infinitely better performer (and songwriter, IMO) than drunk-and-strung-out Trent.

Is it November yet?

Very clever, Mr. Reznor

I finally got it yesterday. You know how the newest Nine Inch Nails album is free online?

It seems Trent Reznor is giving us "The Slip."

Funny.