Farewell Nine Inch Nails

I've been planning on going to the Nine Inch Nails concerts for months. But I didn't really have anyone to go with. There were 1 or 2 friends of mine that were interested in going. But we couldn't really peg down plans for it. A friend of mine, Chad, texted me a few days prior to the concert asking me if I had plans on going. He offered to buy me a ticket along with his bandmate Tebs, so we can all go together. So I was thrilled to be able to go with people to the concert.

I was giddy like a kid all day at work, on the way to Araneta Collisuem, and up to when we were seated in our Upper Box B seats. I haven't been to a good concert in ages. So my excitement was spewing out of every orifice of my body.

A few minutes before Pupil came up on stage (they were the fronting act), Tebs got a text from her Tita whom she's been bugging for weeks to get her tickets for this concert. The text said to go claim her tickets at the ticket booth. So she went downstairs to go check it out. Apparently her Tita came through for her last minute, and she had 2 tickets right in the front row, smack-dab in the middle. Tebs and Chad were both looking at me because there were only two tickets. I just told them, that I'd kill them if they didn't take the tickets and head down to the front row. They both smiled and quickly ran to their front row and center seats.

The pictures on this post are mostly from Tebs' camera since she took some really nice shots from up in the front row. So photo credit goes to her.



My seat was still good up in Upperbox B. It was at a height were you can see the entire stage and it sounded great. Rather than get all depressed that I found myself in a situation all alone yet again, I just went with it.

Luckily one of the many vendors ferreting around the concert venue had the bright idea of selling beer. He jacked up the price a little of course to make his own personal profit. And he became my insta-best friend. I slipped him 500 pesos and told him to keep the beer coming. I ended up slipping him a few hundred more during the course of the entire concert.

The music was fantastic. It was something else to see Trent Reznor perform live. The dude seems to have shaken off his drug addiction because he was huge! He both looked and sounded like he can kick my ass and then some.

While people around would start getting tired or plainly just don't get the music and sit down, I stood for the entire length of the concert. I was shouting/singing along whenever there was a favorite NIN song that was playing. "Closer" and "Head like a Hole" were my favorites. But I enjoyed every song they played. I so felt the the anger and the hate reverberate across the entire colliseum. LOL!

I took some pictures and even a video of the song "Closer" using my iPhone. But the camera on the iPhone sucked too much to have any form of visual quality with the pictures and video I took. I think I just took a video of one of the songs just so I have video proof that I was there. LOL!

At the end of the concert, everybody was screaming for an encore. Trent and crew obliged by coming back out and picking up their instruments. The last song they played was "Hurt", which was my all time favorite NIN song. The lyrical content is so depressing that you can't help but say "I know what you're going through man!" in true immature adolescent high-schooler fashion.

My age was obvious because I took out my lighter from my pocket and lit it while waving it slowly from side to side. Others were doing the same thing, but they were using their lit cellphones instead. I could've done that too. But I would've felt stupid doing it. Obviously, I'm not "with the times" anymore. Gawd, I'm friggin' old. But I saw a few people raising lighters instead of the cellphones. That made me feel a little better.

Below is a video of the song "Hurt" taken by someone who also watched the concert, along with the song's prose. The video cuts in the middle of the song. But it's the most complete video taken of the song that night that I've seen on YouTube.



Hurt
by Nine Inch Nails

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of shit
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way


It was definitely one of the best rock shows I've seen in a long time. I kept talking about how kick ass that concert was for days after.

After the concert, I met up with Chad and Tebs downstairs near the entrance. They invited me to come with them to an after-concert get-together somewhere with their friends. We went to two different places and kept raving about the concert over beer. Definitely a good night cap from an already awesome night.

This concert tour of NIN is apparently their final tour. According to Trent, the band will go on an indefinite haitus. I can only hope that Trent will actually start missing his music and start writing and playing again after some time.

In tribute to NIN, I dug up the video of a version of the song "Hurt" that I love the most. I was surprised that somebody even has a copy of this video, let alone clean it up and upload it on YouTube. It's a live version of the song with David Bowie singing along with Trent. Check it out. It's an amazing version of the song.



Farewell Trent and crew. You will surely be missed.


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