Nine Inch Nails: Wave Goodbye 2009 in Los Angeles

20 years after exploding onto the scene my favorite band in the entire universe has played their final live show. I've been a fan of NIN since 1997 when I first heard The Perfect Drug, I slowly got all their albums and they've been my favorite band ever since. It's hard to believe so much time has passed since then. Having missed out on the NINJA tour, which by all accounts was awesome, I told myself I had to try and get tickets for the final section of the Wave Goodbye 2009 tour. After seeing the Ninternet almost fall apart for the New York and Chicago presales, I didn't want to get my hopes up, as NIN decided to play the small venues Hollywood Palladium (4,000), Wiltern Theater (2,000), Henry Fonda Theater (863) and Echoplex (500). (Approximately capacities in parentheses.) With these small venues, the number of people wanting tickets is most definitely greater than the number of tickets available so not everyone is gonna get a ticket. Surprisingly enough the presale process for me was absolutely painless and I managed to get 1 ticket for each of the venues fairly quickly, the only hiccup being that Henry Fonda floor tickets were sold out and I had to "settle" for balcony (this would turn out to be a big blessing). Expecting nothing, I ended up with a ticket to each show!

The original plan had NIN playing Sept. 2, 3, 5 and 6. But after the Sept. 2 show, Trent was too sick and had to cancel and reshuffle the dates from 3 and 5 to 8 and 10. This presented a dilemma as I was originally scheduled to fly home on the 7th, but because of this I had to extend the trip to the 11th. It cost me more than $500 to change my flight, extend my hotel stay, car rental and medical insurance, bringing the cost for the whole trip to well over 2 grand. It was more than worth it though. If I had left as originally planned on the 7th and missed the last 2 shows, I would end up regretting it for the rest of my life.

To all those that waited overnight, and endured the scorching heat to get the best place in the floor and be one of the few to get those venue and show specific shirts, cherish them, because you deserve them! You are as hardcore as hardcore gets, and I bow down to you. To everyone looking for tickets outside the venue, I hope you were able to get in, and sorry I couldn't help. To everyone who couldn't attend, I'm sorry you missed it because it was pretty amazing. Words and video and audio recordings will never do justice to experiencing NIN live. On these very special nights, Nine Inch Nails delivered an experience I will never ever forget. I'm happy that I got to attend these very special shows, but also saddened that I'll probably never see them live again. But as Trent said, Nine Inch Nails has just stopped touring, not making music, so I shouldn't be too sad.

Here are some pics of all the swag I got, followed by each night's setlist and some recollections:

Personalized Tickets and Wristbands (in a nice touch, each featured a different NIN logo from over the years) along with a Pin for the Palladium show that you could only get if you picked up your ticket early:

Posters:

T-Shirts, the top 2 both have the standard NIN Logo on the front, while the bottom 2 show the front and back of the same shirt (1 of em purchased for a friend):


Night 1 - Sept. 2, 2009 - Hollywood Palladium

The first night started out with a bang literally with Mr. Self Destruct. As the rest of The Downward Spiral album was played in order, we knew we were in for a treat as this was only the 2nd (and also the last) time the album in its entirety had been played.

Setlist: (with my own personal comments and observations)

1. Mr. Self Destruct
2. Piggy
3. Heresy - been wanting to hear this live and it does not disappoint!
4. March of the Pigs
5. Closer
6. Ruiner
7. The Becoming - love this song even more after hearing it live
8. I Do Not Want This - so many songs I haven't heard live before, it was heaven
9. Big Man With A Gun
10. A Warm Place - this is so cool to hear live I wish it was in the setlist every night!
11. Eraser
12. Reptile
13. The Downward Spiral
14. Hurt - man, people just wouldn't shut the hell up during this song. We're lucky Trent said he couldn't hear because he probably would have walked off during this and I wouldn't have blamed him
15. 1,000,000
16. Terrible Lie - I love how this song is probably the most popular NIN song that's never been a single. It always get a good reaction and never disappoints
17. Lights in the Sky
18. Burn
19. Gave Up
20. Suck
21. Metal (with Gary Numan) - what a great surprise! It must be so amazing for Trent to be able perform on stage with so many of his childhood heroes, first David Bowie and now Gary Numan (Imagine if Freddie Mercury were still alive!). It's also amazing that those that Trent looked up to when he was younger now look up to him musically. And I don't know how old Gary Numan is, but he can still sing!
22. Cars (with Gary Numan)
23. The Hand That Feeds
24. Head Like A Hole

No encore, but that was most likely because Trent was very sick, although if he didn't say so you wouldn't have known it.

Night 2 - Sept. 6, 2009 - Echoplex

Originally this was supposed to be the last show, but I'm glad it wasn't because it's not exactly the ideal venue for NIN. With a tiny capacity of about 500, you might think it would make the show more intimate, but the way the venue is laid out was just awkward. The venue was asymmetrical, had a low ceiling, columns in the way and the soundboard area took up a huge chunk of desirable floor space. Might be a cool venue to see some small band with a couple hundred other people, but for NIN at full capacity it wasn't to my liking. With that said, the band and crowd were excellent. The band was almost at full capacity as Trent said, and there weren't any screamers during Hurt (that's gotta be the barometer of how good a NIN audience is).

Setlist:

1. Somewhat Damaged
2. The Beginning of the End
3. The Collector - first time live, much more aggressive live, no piano at all, just more guitar
4. Discipline
5. March of the Pigs
6. Something I Can Never Have
7. The Frail
8. The Wretched - during the last couple of years NIN would sometimes play The Frail but not The Wretched, but I'm glad that we got them both for 2 nights!
9. Terrible Lie
10. Ruiner - just awesome live
11. Head Down
12. Burn
13. Gave Up
14. La Mer
15. Non-Entity
16. Gone, Still
17. The Big Come Down - my favorite live NIN song. The energy of this song is just incredible and never ceases to get my heart pumping
18. The Way Out Is Through - first time hearing this live, definitely a pleasure
19. Wish - What else is there to say? This just blew the roof off the place especially at the end with all the guitar and the double bass-pedal from Ilan
20. Survivalism
21. Down In It
22. Metal (with Gary Numan)
23. I Die: You Die (with Gary Numan) - a pleasant surprise, it was nice to know that even near the end Trent and Co. still wanted to break out some new songs to surprise the audience
24. Physical - another live first for me
25. The Hand That Feeds - have heard this at every show except my very first in 2000 and love it, but now it makes me a little sad because when this plays, I know we're getting close to the end
26. Head Like A Hole - after all these years, this is still THE quintessential high energy NIN song and gets the crowd riled up like nothing else

Encore:
27. Dead Souls - before they did this, it sounded like they were going to do Atmosphere and started it twice but screwed it up both times and just went into Dead Souls
28. Hurt - in contrast to Head Like A Hole, this is the quintessential quiet NIN song. Always more enjoyable when there are no screaming idiots in the crowd like on this night

Night 3 - Sept. 8, 2009 - Henry Fonda Theater (Rescheduled from Sept. 3, 2009)

As I said earlier, I could only get a balcony ticket to this show, but it worked out for the better in the end. Normally I like having a floor ticket because the experience of being in a hot, sweaty mosh pit with a bunch of other rabid fans just adds to excitement of enjoying a live show. If you can handle it, I recommend you do it at least once in your life. The downside of course is that you are surrounded by hot and sweaty fans and you are on your feet for hours on end and that gets really tiring. Not only is your body taking a pounding, but your view is constantly obstructed by others. And I'm 6 feet tall which is taller than most, if I'm having trouble seeing, I can't imagine how bad it is for those shorter than me.

That being said, the balcony tickets were a godsend because it allowed me to enjoy the entire show with a clear view of the whole stage. I was already a big fan of Ilan's short stint with NIN, but this night made me respect him even more. I was mostly watching him play most of the night because the other 3 nights I couldn't quite see him clearly; he's kind of tucked away in the back, hidden behind the drums on a riser barely half a foot high.

With this being a rescheduled night and with the promise of making these last nights special, NIN delivered, and the theme of this night (and the next) was special guests galore! Joining NIN on stage were Mike Garson (pianist who's worked with David Bowie and NIN on The Fragile), Gary Numan, Jane's Addiction Bassist Eric Avery, opening act HEALTH, Dillinger Escape Plan's Greg Puciato, and former NIN member Danny Lohner.

Setlist:

1. Head Like A Hole - usually saved for last, they instead open with it
2. Terrible Lie - after the first 2 songs, and having The Downward Spiral in its entirety days before, was this going to be Pretty Hate Machine in its entirety?
3. Sin - alas, it was not to be
4. March of the Pigs
5. Piggy
6. Echoplex
7. Reptile
8. I'm Afraid of Americans
9. Survivalism
10. Head Down
11. 1,000,000
12. Letting You
13. Burn
14. Gave Up
15. Eraser
16. Just Like You Imagined (with Mike Garson) - at my first NIN show in 2000, they were supposed to play this, but because of a technical fuckup they skipped the song. I've been wanting to hear it live ever since and finally 9 years later it happened in a rendition that exceeded all my expectations
17. The Becoming (with Mike Garson) - Mike Garson adds so much to these songs that I wish he was a full time member. There's a sound in the studio version of this song at the end that is guitar, but live is Ilan playing double-bass pedals, and I love it!
18. I Do Not Want This (with Mike Garson)
19. Down In The Park (Piano Version)(Mike Garson Solo) - it shows you the kind of person Trent Reznor is that even on the final NIN shows, he'll take a step back and showcase his fellow musicians
20. Down In The Park (with Mike Garson and Gary Numan)
21. Metal (with Mike Garson and Gary Numan)
22. Cars (with Mike Garson, Gary Numan and Eric Avery) - every time the lights went out between the songs and went on again, it seemed like there was someone new up on stage!
23. Anthrax (with Gary Numan, Eric Avery and HEALTH) - I think there must have been 10 people on stage all jamming on this cover of the Gang of Four song!

Encore:
24. Heresy (with Danny Lohner) - so nice to see Danny up there as he was such a big part of NIN
25. Get Down, Make Love (with Danny Lohner) - according to NINTourHistory.com, the last time they played this song live was on May 23, 2007 in Osaka, another show I was at! (NINTourHistory.com is a fantastic site for all you NIN fans out there)
26. Mr. Self Destruct (with Danny Lohner and Greg Puciato) - Dillinger Escape Plan's Greg Puciato joins NIN onstage to provide vocals for this and Wish
27. Wish (with Danny Lohner and Greg Puciato)
28. The Hand That Feeds

Encore 2:
29. Atmosphere - Thankfully they didn't screw it up this time. However, Trent screwed up the lyrics near the end and his voice was definitely suffering at this point in the show
30. Dead Souls - more Joy Division goodness
31. The Day The World Went Away
32. Hurt

Night 4 - Sept. 10, 2009 - Wiltern Theater (Rescheduled from Sept. 5, 2009)

Despite being sick of Los Angeles by now, it was actually nice to have a day in between shows to recover, especially with the Henry Fonda show going nearly 3 hours. With the reshuffling and rescheduling of the dates, this became the last show and has already reached legendary status in Nine Inch Nails lore. An epic set of 38 songs lasting nearly 3 and a half hours. I was slightly sick (caught the Ninfluenza at the Fonda show I think), I was on my feet for a good 5 hours straight, but I was never tired and I didn't want it to end.

Setlist:

1. Home - another first for me. A subdued opening to a grand night. This was kind of like an Overture you'd see in some classic movies. When it comes on, it lets you know that the show is about to start
2. Somewhat Damaged - and after the Overture, the show kicks into high gear with this
3. The Collector
4. Discipline
5. March of the Pigs
6. Something I Can Never Have
7. The Frail
8. The Wretched
9. Ruiner
10. Head Down
11. Burn
12. Just Like You Imagined (with Mike Garson)
13. La Mer (with Mike Garson)
14. Eraser (with Mike Garson)
15. The Becoming (with Mike Garson)
16. Down in the Park (Piano Version)(Mike Garson Solo)
17. Down in the Park (with Mike Garson and Gary Numan)
18. Metal (with Mike Garson and Gary Numan)
19. I Die: You Die (with Gary Numan)
20. 1,000,000
21. Letting You
22. Survivalism
23. Suck
24. Down In It - "Here we go...all the way back to the beginning"
25. The Hand That Feeds
26. Head Like A Hole

Encore:
27. Me, I'm Not (with Atticus Ross) - nice to see Atticus up there as he's been one of the unsung heroes in the NIN camp, he's been Trent's self-professed "right-hand man" in the studio and had a major part in the production of all NIN albums from With Teeth onwards. Very cool to see this song live again, one of my favorites from the Year Zero album, I just love the distorted sounds in this
28. The Warning (with Atticus Ross and Dave Navarro) - great to hear these Year Zero songs again one last time
29. Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now) (with Atticus Ross and Dave Navarro) - Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction joins in with some guitar for a few songs
30. Gave Up (with Dave Navarro)

Encore 2:
31. Mr. Self Destruct (with Dillinger Escape Plan) - everybody was clapping to the opening beat of this song as it slowly sped up until pandemonium hit! 2.5 hours in and the crowd was still full of energy. None of us wanted to leave
32. Wish (with Dillinger Escape Plan) - with Dillinger Escape Plan it was 2 bands and twice the carnage. Just absolute and utter destruction at the finish of these 2 songs. Instruments were thrown into bodies, and bodies were launched into instruments. Somebody launched himself full speed into Ilan's drum set. That had to hurt! After Trent came back for the final encore, he apologized for taking so long because they had to make sure they weren't missing any teeth!

Encore 3:
33. Atmosphere - a beautiful cover of my favorite Joy Division song. The original always had this melancholy feeling, but this live rendition by NIN gives it a little kick of energy. And third time's the charm apparently as this was their best performance of it yet!
34. Dead Souls - I was starting to get sad here, I thought it would be this, then Hurt, then the end
35. The Good Soldier - fortunately I was wrong, and NIN really sent us out with a great encore
36. The Day The World Went Away - these last 3 songs were appropriately sad and melancholy
37. Hurt - Johnny Cash may have popularized this song some years ago, but to me, this is and always will be Trent's song. With the right crowd, this song always brings a tear to my eye. What else is there to say? "Everyone I know goes away in the end"
38. In This Twilight - I remember when this song was first leaked before Year Zero came out. It was a sad song with lyrics that haunted me, and I couldn't stop listening to it. I must have looped it for at least an hour. To me this song was about the end of the world, not literally, but in the sense that when you lose something you love, like someone close to you, that can feel like the end of the world. Well tonight, with the end of NIN touring, it was the end of the world for many of us in that crowd and across the world.

"And the longing that you feel
you know none of this is real
we will find a better place
in this twilight"

Quick Hit List

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father - this documentary movie was one of the most compelling movies I've seen in recent memory. Dear Zachary is a letter in the form of a movie by Kurt Kuenne, close friend to Zachary's murdered father, Andrew Bagby. The twist: The murderer, Shirley Jane Turner, also gave birth to Zachary after she murdered his father. We follow Kuenne in his journey to document how Andrew affected so many people in a positive way. We also follow how Andrew's parents do everything in their power to gain custody of their grandson. Complicating matters, Turner flees to Canada. The Grandparents follow, but are subjected to legalities of Canadian law, which throw some unfavorable roadblocks in their way. Their fight is long and tough and does not end well.

Be prepared, this movie will absolutely tax you emotionally. After I finished watching it, I just sat in silence trying to soak it all up. While this movie is meant to be upbeat, it is, but it is still heartbreaking after we learn the outcome.

Telefon Tel Aviv: Immolate Yourself - the third album from the electronic group Telefon Tel Aviv is their best yet. Having gotten it a few days ago, I've been listening to it nonstop. Surely that's the sign of a great album. Eschewing traditional song-structure, the tracks typically combine electronic beats with usually just a couple lines of lyrics, repeated throughout the song. Strange at first, but catchingly effective. This electronic album has some nice sound manipulation but sometimes has some very dark, brooding and ambient elements.

My favorite tracks: The Birds, Mostly Translucent, You Are The Worst Thing In The World.

The Kills: Midnight Boom - This is another album I've been enjoying a lot lately. This duo have made an album that is an amalgamation of indie rock, electronica with a little bit of punk. It's very danceable with some catchy hooks. I particularly like how "funky" it is; I can't explain that in words, it's just something I feel when I listen to the record.

Favorite Tracks: Getting Down, Last Day of Magic, Black Balloon.

And Remember, you can always see recent stuff I'm enjoying on the sidebar to the right. Scroll down to see it all. I like to reserve full posts for the absolute best stuff.

2008: Over!

Been a while since I did one of these, so let's revisit some of my favorite things from the year 2008:

Wall-E - the best movie of the year, and nothing else really came close (although keep in mind I haven't seen a lot of recent releases like Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler). Just a masterpiece of storytelling, the likes of which we haven't seen since the Halcyon Days of silent cinemas when masters like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin delivered us dozens of dialogue-less epics. Bravo Pixar, just when I think you've hit the top of the ladder, you manage to find another rung. So many movies are filled with inane banter and dialogue that just exists because the filmmakers don't have the talent to portray it on screen. Here we have a movie where dialogue is kept to a bare minimum and everything is told through visual storytelling. An absolutely beautiful and engrossing movie with some of the most endearing and memorable characters ever put on screen, and they're not even real! Despite that, they way they act seems more real than most "real" people in other movies. This is one of the sweetest and most romantic movies I've ever seen and there's no sex and not even a kiss (in the traditional sense). It's also one of the best movies I've ever seen. This one's for the kids, the adults, the romantics and and everyone else in between.

The Way Home - this Korean movie hit home with me so much that I couldn't stop balling at the end of it. This is the story of a young city boy sent to live with his grandma in the country by his mom who needs some time to sort out some personal issues. I was raised by my grandmother as much if not even more than my parents when I was a kid, and the parallels between the movie and my childhood were uncanny.

One of my favorite scenes is when the boy tries to teach his grandmother to write so that she can let him know when she gets sick. She can't quite get it, so the boy, crying, finally tells her to send him a blank letter so he'll know that she's ill, and come to her right away. If that description made you feel something, then you need to see this movie right away.

A love letter to grandmothers everywhere, this is a movie that I will cherish forever.

Friday Night Lights - who knew high school football in Small Town, USA would make for a great TV show? I just recently got into this, and I am addicted. A wonderfully shot, written and acted TV show, that is as compelling as television can get. We are shown real life issues, and real life situations. Shot in a handheld documentary style, the best compliment I can give this show is that it feels real. This is one of those shows where I'm protective of the characters. When something happens to a character it's like you're brother's being hurt and you want to defend him. This is one of those shows that's always on the cusp of cancellation. For some reason it just doesn't click with the mainstream. Watch it, buy the DVDs, spread the word, and cross your fingers for a fourth season.

Dexter - Like Friday Night Lights, I am a recent devotee of this show also. This is a show about a serial killer who kills serial killers. An interesting concept that is backed up by good writing and superb acting. Not only does it make you question morals and ethics, it's a hell of an entertaining show. Not for the faint of heart (obviously), but those with the stomach will be rewarded.

Torchwood - this is an atypical scifi show (spun off from the also excellent Doctor Who), billed as a sci-fi show for adults. It deals with more mature themes that you wouldn't see in a typical sci-fi show while still managing to include all the stuff most people enjoy about sci-fi shows like action & adventure. From the show's introduction, "Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police; tracking down alien life on Earth, and arming the human race against the future." Seems like any other sci-fi show, but what sets it apart is how it deals with adult themes like death, homosexuality, bisexuality, and existentialism. Definitely not anything you see in any sci-fi show airing on American TV today.

More Later. Soon (Hopefully).