Warning: Excited happy go lucky fan alert. Wording and grammer have not been cared for in the following blog. It was written to get the true feeling out.
It was just another day when all of this started; I was looking forward to going to the concert and catch a glimpse of the best music I’ve heard in my life. The music of Nine inch nails has been such a major influence in my life that it was hard to believe that I would be going to see them live. It was a Saturday morning and I was checking my email in the morning before heading out to catch a movie. I receive this email from the spiral (which is the fan club of nine inch nails). Intrigued, I open the email to my astonishment and utter disbelief that the email said this:
“as a selected premium spiral member we would like to extend an invitation to you to come down and meet the band while we are touring in your part of the world. we're trying to coordinate this meet and greet with one of the australian shows you may already be planning to attend. please respond with date/show you currently have tickets, along with confirmation of your legal member name. thank you for your support and upon confirmation i will forward further meet and greet instructions.”
I did not know what to do, I did not know to believe it or discard it. But I took the chance and replied to the email right away giving them the details of my membership. My heart was pounding like anything as it was just disbelief and also a bit of suspicion that this all could be just a fake. It’s the next day and I receive yet another email from the Spiral membership, this time my heart was pounding even harder, my heart in my stomach and I open the email which is as follows:
“you and one guest are invited down to meet the band on saturday august 20th. please meet in front of the venue at 4:30pm. "Sully", one of the guys traveling with the tour will meet with you at that time and give you all the instructions for the meet and greet. though we know you don't have your spiral membership card yet, please do bring some sort of id that confirms your legal (member name / not user id) name. feel free to bring one item to have signed. thank you again for your support and your spiral membership. we look forward to seeing you soon.”
I went through the roof, and I mean literally went through the roof. I could not believe this was happening to me. After all these years of going crazy about this amazing band, I would not only be seeing them live but potentially be also ‘meeting’ them. I did not know what to think, what to take to get autographed, what to ask etc etc. This email was sent to me on the 13th of August and I can’t tell you how hard the next 4 days went.
The day of the concert on Friday was amazing, I left my office early in order to get into the line at 5 and we managed to be the first few who were there to wait till 7 till the gates finally opened. We went inside to hear the weird/catchy/dark/techno kind of music and dark lights and everything in black. The start of the concert was bad as expected with the opening act just making the people even crazier for man in black to come out. The man in black came and amazed all of us by putting in a show of amazing intensity, lights, energy and sound. Starting the concert with the frail and the wretched and blending the new songs with the old. The man had the crowd amazed, even though some people in the Sydney crowd were just sitting in their seats like zombies and clapping at the end of each song. The man had given it all he had and it was just an amazing performance. My feelings after the concert were mixed; I was going even crazier now that I had seen them there. But there was still a part of me that was ready and prepared for when things would not go as plan and this all turned out to be just a hoax.
The day of the second concert, we had some stuff to do during the day and I did not have the mind or the stomach to do anything right. My hands shook when I was eating, spilling food occasionally. My stomach had a constant stomach ache and trips to the washroom were more frequent. My heart was racing all day long, until it was time for us to head towards the arena in the afternoon. My wife had been amazingly supportive throughout this ordeal, even making fun of my in the afternoon to calm my nerves, telling me that she’s going to tell everyone how I was acting all day. We head to the arena at 4 where they had indicated to meet at 430. We saw a group of people standing there talking but we didn’t know if they were just talking or were they one of the group to meet. We walked towards them and a guy with a NIN badge, wearing all black with a black cap, wearing glasses and holding a list in his hand was visible. The guy noticed us and asked, “How may I help u”, I asked if his name was Sully and he agreed. I told him my name and offered to show my ID, but instead the guy said you don’t need to man, its cool, you didn’t see the list. I saw my name on the list and I’m about to fall on the ground as my knees were going to give. He told us the instructions that the band has opened up for the first time and doesn’t want their pictures to be taken during the experience. They would rather have a conversation and an experience with the fans rather than posing and say next. Disappointment was there, but the feeling that this was finally happening was so overwhelming that not a single drop of it came through. The man gave us two purple bands to put on our hands and asked us to meet in front of the gate at 10 minutes to 5pm.
We didn’t go anywhere and stayed there holding my t shirt in my hands that were all sweaty. Of course everyone wanted to talk to Mr. Sully as he was the man with the power there. An interesting fact came through out of this conversation, which was about the movie batman. The next batman that stars the same people is going to be about the Joker (which was already decided in the last movie), but to our surprise the joker is going to be none other than Mr. Sean Penn! How did Sully come about in knowing this? Well, when people were making small talk with the guy, he merely mentioned that he went partying with Clive Owen and Sean Penn and that’s where he found out. The time seemed to drag on and that hour was the hardest to pass.
Once it was time, Sully took us inside the first gate and led us into an area just outside of the side entrance of the arena. This was still out in the open where the security had set up. We could hear the band inside playing ‘You know what you are’ and ‘The Collector’ giving us all shivers. I could not believe this was happening to me and the band was right inside, just a few steps away from us. Sully’s radio crackled and it was someone from inside asking us to wait just a little bit more and let them complete this song. Sully gave us the final instructions, told us not to please take any pictures and be respectful of the band as they’re not performing and would appreciate if we don’t take any. He also told us we could stand basically wherever we wanted to (besides the stage of course). Finally, the radio crackled again as the song ended and we were let in. The arena was quiet as a tomb, no sound whatsoever. We started walking inside and we could see the stage with smoke, the band right there just visible in the smoke. I couldn’t help but quicken my pace and walk towards the stage. The place was empty! It felt weird as just one day before the same place was full of people and there was no space to stand let alone walk. The lighting was different and it was very bright as compared to the previous day when it was all dark. I saw Aaron North on standing on the right side of the stage, Jeordie White standing on the left side of the stage. Jerome Dillon was on the right back side of the stage and Alessandro was on the far left side. And last but definitely not the least, Trent Reznor himself was standing in the middle but he wasn’t visible as he had his back to us and he was fiddling with the keyboard behind the smoke that was everywhere.
We reached the stage, everyone could not say anything and the silence was weird. Trent finally turned and gave a small wave to the crowd and we waved back. He did not say anything and the band started Jerome started drumming and they started to sing ‘Love is not enough’. I could not believe they were only 2 feet away from us! I could see the entire band right there! Trent was singing passionately like he always does and so was Jerome at the drums. Aaron was playing it like it was nothing, of course not anything like he performs in concerts when he’s everywhere. So was Jeordie, who was just playing his guitar casually. Oh God, I can’t express in words how amazing the experience was. To hear Nine Inch Nails live was amazing in the first place, but standing two feet away with them playing songs only for the 15 of us? Was just out of this world!!! Trent finished the song and everyone started clapping and Trent gave a subtle thank you. Trent was wearing a casual black T shirt with dark denim jeans, wearing small boots like CATS. With that song Trent went back and had some coffee that was near the keyboard. He also took some medicine? Don’t know what it was for though, but I did read in the press one day before that he had the flu. With that he stood next to the keyboard and started playing the frail, I had goose bumps all over. It was as though the music was dealing a blow to my heart with every tone. They went on to play two more songs, ‘Even Deeper’ and ‘No You don’t’.
When the last song was over, they started to put their instruments away. Sully came over and told us to line up across the bar where we were standing. My heart was pounding like anything.
The band members started from the left and Trent from the right. We were on the far left corner, so maybe the 3rd or the 4th couple. First was Jeordie, when he came to us. I put the T shirt I had brought to get signed on the bar so that he could sign it. He was very quiet and no one was saying anything as he signed my t shirt. Of course he started with a hand shake and asked how I was and I did the same. The next thing he asked was really unexpected! He asked ‘What’s Halo seventeen?’ (The shirt that I was getting signed said that on the front) I was caught off guard, but I answered ‘It’s And all that could have been’ and he just smiled and started to move on. Next in line was Aaron North, I wanted to make the most of it this time and I asked if he was having a good time in Australia after asking how he was. And he answered ‘Yea it’s been fun, too hot though I was looking to spend some time in the cold weather here’ I said, ‘that’s surprising’. That was basically it for the conversation with Aaron.
Next came Jerome, I didn’t know how tall he was, he’s probably about 6 feet 2 or around that. He’s really thin and has amazing eyes; I noticed his eyes when I asked him my question. I asked ‘How do you keep yourself physically fit considering you have the most physical job in the group?’ Jerome answered by saying that he’s quit smoking; he goes to the gym every day and eats right. Jerome looked very sincere in the way he was talking and it was really nice to talk to him. Allesandro followed, and my question to him was the same I asked Aaron, he answered by saying he’s enjoying his time and said exactly the same thing, which was about the weather. I asked if he had been to the beaches as yet, and he said that he’s not really a beach person and like to stay indoors.
When the entire band members were done, it was only Trent who was left, who took about 5 mins to get to us, of course everyone wanted to talk to him and he was surprisingly spending time with people. We could see him on our right slowly coming closer and closer, we saw him smiling! which is one thing I haven’t seen him do much in photos. When he was right next to us standing and talking to the person standing right next to us, it was unnerving! My heart was beating as if I had been jogging, I didn’t know what to thin or what to say. He finally reached and started signing what I had with me. But the stupid jerk person standing on our right couldn’t stop talking and just went on and on. Finally, he looked at me! And said, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ and I told him how I was and asked how he was. He answered saying very well. I actually shook his hand!!!! He had a smile on his face, indicating that he was really cool about all this and wanted to spend time with us. He didn’t have an arrogant look whatsoever! I asked him ‘How do you keep your energy up with all the touring and concerts all over the world’ after thinking for like two seconds, he said ‘You know, eat well, get sleep, and eat vegetables yea you know do what your mom said’ I couldn’t say anything, my mouth was dry and frozen, I was like ‘OK!’ my wife managed to ask how did he get all those muscles, and he answered by saying ‘Oh that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 100 years, which is since the last album and laughed’ my wife said, ‘well, you look great!’ and he gave a smiling thank you. I’m sure thousands of girls have asked and said something about this.
He came across as a very friendly guy, not arrogant one bit and very, what can you say, normal. He seemed very much focussed in spending time with the fans, he seemed to be in the moment and not think about anything else. The point about spending time with each and every fan there was just wonderful. The purpose behind that was the reasoning Sully told us before the experience, which was that the band would rather spend time with the fans, rather than to just say next and get pictures taken. All in all, it was just a wonderful experience and I will never ever forget it. The way he shook my hand, the way he talked to me face to face. The performance in front us before the actual show, the feeling before and after the experience, it’s just too overwhelming to pass. I still feel like screaming out of my lungs thinking about it, I’ve actually met Trent Reznor! Sometimes I can’t believe that it’s actually happened, it’s really like a dream come true.
When this was all done, we thanked the band and off they went and off we went led by Sully. We were given the opportunity to come 15 minutes before the gates opened to buy merchandise and basically stand anywhere we wanted to before the people came in.
The experience of meeting Nine Inch nails has been one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had in my entire life. Something that is not even in my dreams came true and I will always be thankful to God and of course Trent himself for making this dream come true.
