Whoa! The Nich Inch Nails show last night was g-r-r-r-reat!

After making it past the religious gauntlet outside, it was cool to discover that since I had bought my ticket off the nin.com pre-sale site, we had our own area to get our tickets and our own special entrance (which had no line waiting to get in). Smooth. It was nice to have the venue treating the band’s web fans kinda special. Once inside I did pick up a decal and a button pack (all icons from “The Slip”). Personally, I think concert t-shirts are way too pricey in gerneral. The cheapest one last night was $35. Gah!

Can I just say … I had a great seat! First row of the lower balcony. Sweet!!!

Deerhunter opened up first and I enjoyed their set. It was loud and very dense. I am fairly certain the the crowd didn’t quite know what to make of front man Bradford Cox. He performed the set wearing a cheerleader outfit. Towards the end of their set he informed everyone that the band was from Pigeon Forge (just down the road) and that his boyfriend, Cletus, was in the audience. Hmmm. I do think he was joking though the rednecks behind me didn’t seem to think so.

Then Nine Inch Nails kicked off the evening with “999,999” and “1,000,000.” The whole set list was pretty blistering with a down tempo break in the middle where they performed a few tracks from “Ghosts 1-IV.” The accompanying light show was quite incredible. Definitely would have been a nightmare for the seizure prone. The stage was pretty bare but later in the show three transparent LCD screens were used to make some quite striking effects. I wish there had been a tour program on sale as I would love to know who came up with the stage concept. For me, highlights from the set were “Discipline” and “Me, I’m Not.”

Another highlight of the evening was seeing Rob Sheridan (NIN’s current designer) running around and shooting pictures (on various cameras) and video. To me, he’s as much of a rock star as the guys up on stage. When I got home last night and checked the Nine Inch Nails Blog and Media Archive, I was surprised to find that I had made it into one of the pictures … even if I am tiny, blurry and in the background.

Photo by Rob Sheridan.

You can see fan photos from the show over at the event page on Facebook.

I can say that I will definitely try and see them again the next time they tour through the area.

While in line to get into the show last evening, some nice folks kindly informed us that we were all going to hell. I wonder if they do that at all shows at the Civic Coliseum or just for things like Nine Inch Nails. I was handed an informative pamphlet before I knew what was going on. All I can say is that I am happy I have AmEx and MasterCard and not Visa!

Whoa! This clip from NIN’s Toronto show tells me that tonight is gonna kick so much ass!!!

Way back in 1987, MTV was showing the Top 20 Video Countdown in syndication. It was the only way I could watch music videos as we live too far away from a main road for cable. So, I was a religious watcher until one night the show came on and annoucer said it was their last in syndication. That night they played a weird mix of videos and The Cure‘s “Why Can’t I Be You” was right smack in the middle.

I had heard of The Cure for a while but had never heard them. I remember Jim Barton would run around school in his The Cure T-Shirt (“Head on the Door” logo version). I was always curious as the cool art kids seemed to know who they were. Well, after seeing the video, I knew who they for sure and was out purchasing my first Cure album (“Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me“) the next week.

And here I am, over 20 years later and there’s a new Cure album coming out in about two months. I can tell you I am gonna be just as excited about purchasing it as I was purchasing my first one.

In exactly one week I will be jetting over into Tennessee to see Nine Inch Nails live in Knoxville. I can’t wait!!!