Jim Barraud

This past Saturday I had pleasure of attending the NIN/JA (Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction) show at the PNC Bank Arts Center (Garden State Arts Center to those of use who know better) in Holmdel, NJ. It was a big day for me as I had been looking forward to this day ever since I purchased the tickets a couple of months ago. This tour has also been billed as the final Nine Inch Nails tour.

Some background… Midway through the tour Trent Reznor posted a special VIP opportunity on the NIN website. He began seeking donations for Eric De La Cruz. Someone in desperate need of a heart transplant but stuck in the red tape of the healthcare system. In return for your donation, Trent offered VIP opportunities to his fans. For a $300 donation, you and guest would be able to meet the band, get autographs, pics, handshakes, hugs, etc, and be able to attend the bands soundcheck. For $1000 you and a quest received all of the above, plus backstage access where you could have dinner with the band and even watch the show from the side of the stage. Seeing this as a once in a lifetime opportunity for me (and at the insistence of my wife) I donated $300. I got to try and help someone in dire need and gained an opportunity to meet one of my idols. This on top of the already great seats I purchased for the show via the NIN presale. I was excited that my wife was finally going to be attending a NIN show with me (she’s a Jane’s fan) plus be with me when I got to meet Trent and attend the soundcheck. We joked this would be our official 9th wedding anniversary outing. She was excited. I was excited. Then tragedy struck.

Two days before the concert my wife broke her ankle. Since she had yet to see a specialist (thanks healthcare system!) and was in a lot of pain, she would be unable to attend the show. Which of course made us both upset as we’d been looking forward to this for months. She insisted that I still go, but not wanting the ticket to go to waste, I dialed up my future brother in-law who I knew would enjoy the show and the VIP opportunity. He jumped at the offer and we were off to the show.

I knew it was going to be a long day since we needed to be at the venue by 2:15 for the meet and greet. The outpouring of donations for the VIP opportunity far exceeded the bands expectations, so due to the large volume of donors they blocked out 2 hours of time for the meet and greet to accommodate everyone. There were about 130-150 donors at this show, but others have had between 200-400.

When it came time to meet the band, donors were broken up into groups of 20 and were escorted to the meet and greet area. The band were sat behind a table and you had the opportunity for handshakes, a quick chat and to get one item signed. I brought my copy of The Slip since it was the latest album, limited edition and had most of the band members who were going to be signing it on the disc. I had a handshake and brief chit-chat with each of the band members as they signed my CD, but of course I was the most nervous meeting Trent. I splurged the usual “honor to meet you, been a fan for years” banter, then explained that my wife was supposed to be hear with me but that she had broken her ankle two days previously and was unable to come. I also mentioned that this was something she was extremely upset about. He mentioned it was a pleasure to be doing this and that he appreciated the help with the donation. He also mentioned it was too bad about my wife with a “that really sucks” kind of smirk. It was all very surreal and went very fast, but was at the same time awesome. After everyone had their opportunity with the band, our group gathered around for a group picture with the band.

After the meet and greet it was time for the soundcheck. We were treated to 4 songs the band wouldn’t be playing that night. It was like our own private concert for the donors and I was in the third row. A truly awesome experience. The songs played were Home, I’m Afraid of Americans, Lights in the Sky, and In This Twilight. As Trent said in the soundcheck “We’ll get the quiet pussy shit out of the way now and rock out tonight”. And indeed they did.

The performances started off with Street Sweeper Social Club, Tom Morello’s new band. I had heard a couple tracks before the show and thought they were good, but their performance far exceeded my expectations. Their energy was infectious and performance was top notch. I’ll definitely be picking up their album when it comes out on June 16th and I highly recommend checking it out.

Next up, as the sun was setting, was Nine Inch Nails. I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as setlist goes since the setlists for this tour have been so varied from venue to venue. I had a good idea of what could be played, but I stayed away from checking the setlists of the previous couple shows to keep some sense of surprise. The show kicked off with Pinion, Wish and than Last. From there I knew we were in for something special. I honestly couldn’t have hoped for a better set. Were there other songs I was hoping to hear besides what was played? Sure. But the cohesiveness of the set and unrelenting energy of the band really made this a special night. Highlights for me were Wish, Last, Reptile, Meet Your Master, Non-Entity, Mr. Self Destruct and 1,000,000. Also, thanks to their relaxed camera policy I was able to capture some nice video and photos.

To close the show was Jane’s Addiction. Fan bias aside, I wasn’t sure how anything could follow the performance NIN just gave. And I think I was right. While I like Jane’s Addiction and thought they put on a great performance I had a hard time getting into it. While both performances were loud volume wise, I felt the NIN sound mix was better as it was easier to make out lyrics and individual instruments while Jane’s was more of a wall of sound that made it hard to make out certain songs. For example I didn’t realize one song was Been Caught Stealing until about a quarter of the way into it. But overall they were entertaining.

It’s four days later and I’m still on a high from the show. From the meet & greet to the soundcheck to the phenomenal performance, it’s a day I will never forget. Thanks Trent and Company.

NIN Setlist

Soundcheck:
Home
I’m Afraid of Americans
Lights in the Sky
In This Twilight

Show:
Pinion
Wish
Last
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Reptile
Meet Your Master
Gave Up
La Mer
Non-Entity
The Way Out Is Through
Mr. Self Destruct
1,000,000
Echoplex
Survivalism
The Good Soldier
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
Hurt

A strong line of thunderstorms moved through the area today which consisted of some impressive cloud formations. What really struck me was the rate at which the clouds were traveling. So a whipped out my point and shoot and captured some footage.

With the release of the Ghosts I-IV album a few months ago, Nine Inch Nails has been holding a film festival on YouTube. The idea being to take the tracks from Ghosts and apply imagery you feel fits the tracks best. And since the album was released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, this is a legit use of the music.

I thought my cloud footage fit nicely with one of the Ghosts tracks, so this is my submission.

Last night I experienced my first Nine Inch Nails concert and what an experience it was. This is a band I’ve wanted to see perform live since high school, but just never did. Well last night more than made up for lost time.

Mr. Sykes and I traveled up to the IZOD Center (or the Brendan Byrne Arena as we old school Jersey folk remember it) in East Rutherford, NJ for the show. But to call it a “show” would be an understatement. It was more of an audio/visual juggernaut sending your auditory and visual senses into overload. There were signs posted around the arena warning that “Strobe lights are in use” when they should have said “your mind may explode”.

Being a long-time fan and this being my first time seeing NIN live, I was extremely happy with the setlist. Sure, they played the big standards “Closer”, “Head Like a Hole” and “Hurt” which are to be expected (and rocked). But they also played some great non-standard tracks off past albums. “The Big Comedown” off The Fragile was one of the best performances of the night. But the best? “Reptile”. Fucking Reptile. I can’t tell you how excited I was to see them perform this, and we were only 8 songs into the performance.

The first third of the show consisted mostly of a wall of synchronized lights and strobe lights for the visual effects, which in itself was amazing. Then three screens were lowered to stage level and basically encased the band. The front two being essentially a mesh LCD screen (not sure of the exact technology) allowing you to see the band behind them. These screens created the illusion of the band playing in the desert, a swamp, the rain and even a wall of static that gave the appearance of being controlled by Trent. Amazing stuff.

The musical performance was top notch. The band really seemed energized and hammered through each song flawlessly. Midway through the show they performed three tracks off the recently released instrumental album “Ghosts I-IV” with an electronic/acoustic twist involving an upright bass and Trent playing a xylophone. The songs were more down tempo then the rest of the set which provided a nice change of pace. But were back to rocking in overdrive with “Wish” in no time.

Overall I would have to say this is one of, if not the best show I have ever seen. It’s possible they’ll be playing in a city near you. So if you have the opportunity, go check them out. Even if your not a fan, it could turn you into one.

Unfortunately my little point and shoot was having a hard time capturing any of it so I didn’t really get any quality photos or videos. But I’m finding plenty of other people did, so I’ve included flickr slideshow below of shots others have gotten. You can also find plenty video goodness from the show on YouTube

In my previous post about the new Nine Inch Nails album I mentioned it was purchased using iTunes “craptastic pre-order mechanism”. Let me explain.

This was my first pre-order through the iTunes store. I did so since I was going to purchase the album anyway, and if you pre-ordered it you would receive a bonus track. Another advantage of pre-ordering was when you placed your order, the current single would automatically be downloaded. You would be charged 99 cents for the single, then charged the remainder when the album was available. So I figured why not.

I was notified via email when the album was available for download. Upon downloading the album I noticed something strange. Then entire album was being downloaded except for track 3. Which was the previously downloaded single. Not a huge deal, I could just update the ID3 tags of the file so it had the correct album name and more importantly, the correct track number. It’s current track number was 1 since it was the single that was previously downloaded. Updating the album name and track number would put it in the correct track listing order, or so you would think. No matter what I updated on the file, what should be track number 3 would always be listed last. And after searching Apple’s support forums, it turns out I wasn’t the only one.

But there was something else strange. iTunes has a feature where it places an arrow next the selected track, artist and album. Clicking this arrow takes you to that particular track on the iTunes store. At least it should. Clicking the arrow on these tracks produced the error “Year Zero will be available in the store on April, 16 2038”. So obviously something was wrong.

I sent an email to Apple support explaining the track listing issue. Which essentially boiled down to the following. You can sort by Track Number and everything is peachy. But if you sort by album, the previously downloaded track is placed at the bottom of the track listing. The iPod sorts only by album, so it would never be listed in the correct order on my iPod. Apple support promptly responded with a suggestion of creating a custom playlist to sort the tracks correctly. To which I responded that this was not an acceptable solution. That something was obviously wrong with the file and explained the date issue upon clicking the track arrow. Apple support then responded that something was indeed wrong with the files and apologized for the fact. I had expected them to just give me the ability to re-download the album, but they actually provided me with a refund for the album. I have to give them credit that they exceeded my expectations in resolving my issue. Will I pre-order an album again? No. First impressions are the most important. And while the support response was great, I still wouldn’t risk having the issue happen again. But I would by more tracks from the store, I’ve purchased plenty already. They just won’t be pre-ordered.

You’d think I would have just turned around and repurchased the album on iTunes. But no, I didn’t. With all the cool things I’ve heard about the packaging and the heat sensitive label, I went out to my local Target and purchased the CD. I then ripped it at a higher bit rate then what’s currently available on the iTunes store. And I have the freedom to put those tracks on any device I choose. I also have the ability to share this great album with friends who may not have discovered it on their own, <cya>not that I would do that of course</cya>. Maybe that EMI company is on to something.

I’ve been listening to this incessantly since it was first available as a full album stream on yearzero.nin.com. Quiet simply, awesome. It harkens back to earlier Nine Inch Nails albums with a return to a more industrial sound. It’s also refreshing change in that it’s not another “woe is me” melodrama. But a concept album about an apocalyptic future as a result of an oppressive government. And now that I’ve purchased it through iTunes’ craptastic pre-order mechanism (I’ll cover that later), my morning commutes are full of Year Zero goodness.