Subject: Something I can Never have - Nine Inch Nails 1st Dec 1999 Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 13:34:44 PST First off, for those of you who have checked out my music homepage http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/Arena/6613/music/musings.html will know The Adventures are one of my favourite band, they released twee irish pop in the mid-eighties. Their first two albums are definitely in my top ten list ! Anyway I'd been after these albums on cds since I've been here. The second is still in print but hard to get in New Zealand, but the first one I always knew existed but have never seen any reference to it or knew anyone who has or indeed if it 'really' did exist. Well finally I got it...I held it in my hands, and went silent with a big grin on my face for thirty seconds. I would have happily paid $60 for it but managed to get it for $18 !!! YAY ! It was only made in Germany in 1985 only. It was fortunate that in my search for 'Diary Of Anne Frank' I struck out at Shepherds Bush Library and Hammersmith so ended up busing to Fulham and decided to check out the music store there. Okay, I thought you'd enjoy that happy moment with me ! Anyway back to the concert review - the concert was great ! I was in a state of nervousness during the day as the previous week I tried to buy something online with my card but it got rejected so there was a possibility that when I rolled up to the box office there would be no tickets there. The main worry was letting down everyone else who was coming. I bought four tickets: me, Emma, Andrew (who always goes to whatever concert I suggest) and someone else. Originally Craig was gonna use the ticket but at the end he wasn't able to go, worried about getting home by tube and train and walking 30 mins in the dark back home ! Last week I forgot to mention that he did say I could have his spare Foo Fighters ticket, I said no. As the day drew closer he decided he wasn't going to go - still too upset about his mountain bike getting trashed after the Mission gig. So he said I could have both tickets ! Anyway I really couldn't find anyone here that wanted those tickets and I really needed some rest so said no again. To cut a long story of umming and erring he got drunk the night before the gig and didn't bring in the tickets which didn't annoy me too much... But...we regretted it the day after when it transpired that Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen turned up onstage and they performed one of their old songs "Now I'm Here" ! back to NIN, I had a spare ticket, I phoned up Ant and said he could have it, but he was on a 'hot date' - someone he met on the tube a bus or a mexican restaurant, but he quickly hooked me up with his friend Paul who needed to go - remember that the tickets were sold out very quickly and were fetching high prices. I planned to meet with everyone outside the tube station at 7:30pm. I really couldn't be bothered seeing Atari Teenage Riot as they are noisy breakbeatish dub stuff. So I foresaw they would be onstage from 8:15pm to round 9pm. I got off at Brixton and passed 20+ ticket scalpers before queueing up to pick up my tickets. For some reason, security is tight, and it takes 15 minutes to move 10 metres. They are bodychecking everybody and their bags. I get padded down and they don't find my camera though some people have been found out and have to leave it at the box office. Joy of Joys the tickets are there for me ! I head out of the venue and back to the station. I know Anthony's friends by name and face but can't pin the face on the name. Luckily I see Paul and I recognise him now as the slightly big guy with red/orange hair and thick black eyeliner ! Two others from the Electric Dreams club arrive and we talk Carol the french girl (remember her?) into going. Someone is selling their spare ticket for 20 pounds (it would've cost her 17.50 pounds) so it is a good bargain. Then they go and line up. My crew arrive so we get a little something to eat and line up. The line to get in isn't as bad as the other night but we still pass about two hundred people to get to the end of the queue ! It moves well enough then all of a sudden gets a burst of energy and the queue really starts moving, I prepare myself to hide the camera but luckily they have decided to stop checking as the support band has started already so we just whisk ourselves through ! Brixton Academy used to be a music hall and it is beautiful. Through the front doors I see two ornate staircases on either side of us with people dressed in all black lining the walls. Up the stairs we reach a circle balcony where we can look down and see the merchandise store. Up another set of stairs and we are at the circle seating area, plenty of room to move around in. Unlike some venues where you always seem to be pushing your way through everyone. I head down and grab a tour tshirt. It has 'The Fragile' on the front and on the back it has 'The Fragility tour - where the fuck were you ?' and a list of tour dates as well. Really cool ! Lots of other tshirts, belts, cds, pins etc Now I will bore you with my descriptions of the crowd. LOTS of black, some many tshirts : Marilyn Manson, Coal Chamber, NIN, Rage Against The Machine, System Of a Down.. all have played recently. Lots of piercings, coloured hair, dog leads and collars, gothic girls with 'death' (sandman-related) eyemakeup, guys as well, and some girls in very very short skirts !! All looked a bit scarey to Emma, but an alternative crowd like this is less aggro and violent ! The support Atari Teenage Riot are missing one member today so they decide to let the strobe light go crazy and make complete noise, I mean distortion and ear-splitting high pitched sound. Fun to listen to and to watch everyone else's reaction but not everyone's cup of tea ! Walking into the hall is amazing. There are no seats tonight so as we walk through the door we find ourselves looking onto a large stage. On the walls there are balconies and little towers at the top, that were perhaps once used in a show (well actually not really as you really have to crane your neck to see. And the floor, the floor slopes down towards the stage so that everyone should be able to get a good view ! We get to about halfway down and stay there for the duration of the concert, despite me wanting to get down and get physical upfront. The support finish at 8:40pm so at 9pm the lights go down and the gradual increasing sound of Pinion comes over the speakers, the crowd goes mad. Onstage there is one keyboardist, three guitars and one drum and one by one the little myriad of lights only a few metres about each of them light up to startling effect. I just cannot fault the lightshow, the best ever !! I hadn't really thought about what they'd play, but I am very happy when they launch into a track off the first album. It is hard but not too fast, a good idea. As the next few songs would induce about three hundred people up front to start moshing and crowd surfing ! The lighting was awesome, very bright and really fitting in with the songs, plus the sound mix was the best ever, despite the musical genre I could hear every word and lyric sung ! here's the setlist : Pinion/Somewhat Damaged Terrible Lie Sin The band have a reputation for getting physical with each other and their instruments. This song was a stormer and Trent finished it by smashing his keyboard with the mike stand !! I'm sure it used to be a cathartic angsty release but now it looks planned, but cool to watch. March of the Pigs I was looking forward to this track, as the 248bpm drumbeat started up more people filed past us I really wanted to start jumping up and down to this one and getting physical with my neighbour. This would be a regular occurrence in that the crowd would be crazy during the new stuff, but when the old classics come out they go mad and more and more people file past us to get to the front ! Piggy The Frail The Wretched Reptile No, You Don't Gave Up After this stomper the band goes off and a screen comes down and projections appear on the screen of travelling over oceans, mountains, larvae. The band come back on and play in the dark behind the screen. La Mer This is a cover of an old song. The Great Below The Way Out is Through The screen now rises and they crack into Wish from the Broken EP, awesome !!! Wish Into the Void Down In It Head Like a Hole The above two tracks from the first album are stormers and EVERYONE even Emma (who doesn't the band well) and the previously rock solid people next to me go crazy and start dancing and gyrating to HLAH ! The band go crazy again and Trent violently (?) grabs the guitarist from behind and drags him off the stage and down. He comes back up and throws his guitar across the stage, all part of the act I am sure !-) Looking down from the top of the slope we can see hundred of heads bobbing up and down - from what I can make out everyone is pretty well behaved, sometimes there is a small pit of moshers of annoy everyone else around them. Encore: The Day the World Went Away Starfuckers, Inc. Closer Hurt of course after Head Like A Hole they can't leave us in such an agitated state so they come on and play the new single, the thrashiest rock'n'roll track off the new album, 'Closer' the song that everyone knows, which Trent customarily ends by kicking over the keyboard. And that was it, one of the best concerts I've been to. I was glad I wasn't too upfront cos sometimes you miss what else is going on, lights were nice and bright so I got plenty of photos, the crowd was friendly, in fact we got talking to some people next to us, for someone who didn't know the band it was a good concert, always moving, full of energy, running about onstage, awesome lightshow (yes I know I go on about it). We got back onto the tube and got home in normal time, wasn't too crowded !! Outside there were lots of bootleg tshirts on sale so I grabbed another one. On the tube Andrew recognised someone from Perth University and we got talking - he'd been to every concert we missed out, Front 242, Ministry...I really regretted not going to those concerts !!! I'm writing this up on Friday night at work. Yesterday I had the day off and spent it resting i.e. a wasted day. On Sunday I have audience tickets to a new BBC show called Too Much Sun which stars Lee Majors. I know someone who has gone to a screening already and says it is really funny and said that when Lee Majors comes out he pretends to run in slow motion and everyone gives him a standing ovation. On Sunday there is a black music record fair so me and Anthony are going to that. have a good weekend ! Me and Emma are going to Amsterdam for three days so will be back on Wednesday. We'll be staying at a botel (a floating hotel) near the centre and close to Anne Frank's house. On Thursday an All Saints music collector from Canada is coming over so I'll be showing him round London ;-) darryl!