The big come down

Its been a while since I have posted. What can I say it's been a couple of busy months. During the past couple of months I have come across many different things that I wanted to express my feelings about...unfortunately didn't get around to posting anything. One of the things that just happened last week is none other than the tour of Nine Inch Nails to Australia.

Warning: Groupie Alert!
Trent had given us a huge surprise right at the end of the With Teeth tour by saying that he had been working on the new album while touring. And then going ahead and announcing that the new album will be released in April and the whole Year Zero alternative reality game (ARG) kicked in. It was just unbelievable how quickly this was happening. All NIN fans were expecting a new album in the future....but never so quickly! Next came the tour dates, which of course started from Europe and then Japan and then came the dates to Australia. Come to think of it, this all happened in a flash! They announced 3 dates for Sydney and 3 for Melbourne, but they announced one after the other meaning if the shows got sold out they would announce another and so on. I purchased tickets for the two shows as soon as they were announced, I couldn't wait for them to announce any other shows. My wife being the accommodating person she is let me buy tickets to the first 2 concerts, but wasn't too keen in going to the third one, which is fair enough. So the dates we purchased tickets for were for Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th of May 2007. I couldn't believe that I was about to see them live again, considering how amazing the experience was last time around (refer to previous post Aug 2005).
As this time around both the dates were on weekdays, we had to figure something out regarding the work situation. Also the concerts were going to be held at Luna Park, which is not a very good combination with NIN. We caught the ferry from circular quay to get there as this was the fastest way possible. The doors were meant to be open at 7PM and we reached there at 6. I wasn't too fussed about the queue as I was a member of the Spiral, which had a separate entry.
Once we got in the venue, we were quite surprised to find out that there were no seats whatsoever, which was quite bad. We had planned on sitting in the comfort of seats for a better view, but had to settle for standing in the middle. The venue looked pretty small as compared to Hordern where the 2005 shows happened.
The band supporting NIN were called Sereena Meneesh, who are a Scandinavian band. They sounded pretty average in my opinion. I couldn't make sense of their music although I thought the drummer was pretty good. Once they were done with it was time for the main act. We were waiting in anticipation for Trent to come out and blow us away.
The Show:
It all started with Hyperpower! which is the first track of the new album and people just went crazy (along with us of course). Instead of me posting the set list, I reckon it's a better idea how the performances of each of them were. In total they sang 21 songs, it's amazing to think they can keep this momentum and energy up every time and still give amazing performances. In total they performed solid from 10 till 1130 non stop.

The Songs:
Hyperpower! ---> Great starting track really set the tone of the whole concert, combined with the theme of the whole album. The drumming on this track live is unbelievable. The noisy end to this song is just out of this world live. We could see the whole band besides Trent performing this one as this is an instrumental.
The Beginning of the End ---> Just like in the album, right after Hyperpower! I think this song sounds better live, it has a 'My Sharona' type beat which sounds great with all the noisy sounds in the background.
Survivalism---> Man! this song is a killer live. The sound is totally different to what it is on the audio track. The chorus was unbelievable!!! This was one of the best performances of the night. I like this song in general, but live its even better!
March of the Pigs ---> As usual this song really got the crowd worked up, showed how much energy Trent still has! Its amazing to think he has been performing this song for over 10 years now and he still gives it his all.
Heresy ----> One of my favorite songs off the Downward Spiral. I didn't have any clue that this would be performed live and it delivered. My wife doesn't like this song and doesn't like me singing it either as some lines go like 'God is dead and no one cares.. if there is a hell I'll see you there' and I think this line was sung even more passionately live.
Burn, No, You Don't, Suck, Dead Souls ----> I had heard these songs live before and they did not disappoint then and they didn't now. Before Dead Souls came on, Trent said "As you know we have a new album out which most of you have stolen, this song is not from our album and it's not even ours"

The Hand That Feeds, Closer, Gave Up, Wish ---> Star performances of the night

Help Me I Am In Hell, La Mer ---> Great interludes, Trent had a little trouble with the light over his keyboard during La Mer and had to abandon the song, it's so funny seeing Trent pissed! He just stopped the music and pushed the keyboard away
Me, I'm Not ---> The one performance I was expecting so much but didn't deliver. Maybe it was because of the fact that this was the first live performance of this song for NIN ever. Firstly, it had a little bit of problem getting set up (as this is totally computer generated) It was only him and Alessandro on stage for this. The tune of the song was not there most of the time. Trent said after the show in his blog, thats what you get when you make songs on a computer! I also believe just because these songs are so layered and so much work has gotten into them on the computer, they can't be matched live.

The Good Soldier, Only ---> I hadn't heard both of these songs live before and both were really funky tracks live. The good soldier had not been performed live ever before!

Mr Self Destruct ----> Mr Self Destruct was THE star performance of the whole show! It just went through the roof, the whole crowd was going nuts. I don't know why he hasn't performed that historically, but my compliments to him on that one.

Hurt ---> Out of the 3 NIN concerts I have been to, I definitely think that this performance was the best! He really looked as if he was totally into it and felt what he was saying. Unreal performance by him on the keyboard. It was so funny before this song started though. The roadie came and brought the keyboard to the center of the stage. Trent came and was jostling with the mike and ended up pushing it toward the keyboard which made the entire keyboard collapse. It almost fell toward to crowd! After all was settled, Trent said "Ever have one of those days?"

Head Like A Hole ----> Perfect ending to a NIN performance, it was full of energy and poise.

All in all it was a very different performance of NIN that I had seen. The lights were not that impressive, Trent said in his blog a couple of months back that he was really pissed at the lighting as he couldn't pay much attention to that part of the concert experience due to the whole album experience. I have seen better performances from him, but then again maybe I expect too much from them. I was seeing them perform 9 songs that I hadn't heard live before. Trent looked as if he was pissed generally and didn't seem his usual self, even though he looks pissed normally anyway, this time it was different. We had been wondering about his voice in some of the songs as he was sounding different?!?
As I mentioned earlier in the post, I had tickets to see them live on Thursday as well. We rocked up to the place the same way only to find out that the show had been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. Really disappointing as we had been anticipating eagerly to see them live again. They ended up canceling the 3rd Sydney show as well citing the same reasons. No one knows what happened and why they can canceled although rumors are everywhere. I suspect that he had a sore throat or something (as we did notice him sounding different) They did reschedule for the dates in September, which was quite a relief considering its not just a city in the US where they can just fly to. They would have to especially fly out to Australia to perform, but I'm glad they announced the dates. I had my heart set to see them live again and will have to wait another 4 months.
It's so weird to see so many NIN fans in the same place, normally I hardly ever meet people who are actual NIN fans. This time around I saw a far less goths though, maybe it was because I was in the spiral entrance?
As I said in the 2005 NIN concert experience, my wife was totally supportive and amazing throughout the experience. I definitely wouldn't enjoy as much if I had gone without her (which I noted in the Tool concert)
Can't wait for September!!!