Quiet Color

by marc evan | pics courtesy of marc evan’s iphone

After just over 20 years of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor has decided its time to retire.

Tonight I witnessed… no, fuck it… I was a part of one of the greatest concert experiences of my life.  Nine Inch Nails performing at Webster Hall.  One of the final shows of what is supposed to be Trent Reznor’s final NIN tour.  Seriously.

Artist: Nine Inch Nails Song: Piggy

Artist: Nine Inch Nails Song: Head Like A Hole

…
Here’s how it went down.

After exhausting every industry contact and trying with all my might to get tickets from the NIN.com member interweb presale, I still found myself completely shut out for this show.  Trent’s determination to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers seems to have paid off but playing the final shows in small clubs was going to make tickets a challenge for fans.  After the show had been reported sold out, almost since about the time it was announced, I kept my hopes up that there would be some way in for me.

The text arrived at 6:51 p.m., “Get to webster hall now- 16 tickets left.”  Apparently a few tickets were made available at the last minute.  I raced over to the venue thinking that luck was on my side.  I happened to be only a few blocks away.  When I saw the line wrapped around the block my heart sank a bit though.  Then I noticed that everyone on line had bracelets already.  I walked up to the VIP entrance door, where there was no line, just a very large bouncer, and asked where I could buy a cash ticket.  He walked me right inside where I found my roommate, and received my ticket and blue wristband.

We headed upstairs to the venue and took our place in the crowd and watched as the Horrors took the stage.  They had a cool sound, but the vocals were often muddy.  I definitely found myself enjoying their sound, which at times was reminiscent of The Cure or Joy Division, but the anticipation in the room for what was about to follow was unmistakeable.  I’ve seen NIN in many venues, ranging in size from the House of Blues in Atlantic City up to Madison Square Garden.  Nothing could prepare me for seeing them in a small club setting.

Me and my roomie Chris, had just finished listening to The Horrors set when the text arrived from our other friend, Dan.  He had tipped us off that the tickets were being made available. Then he drove a 100 mph, from an hour away, to get to the show.  When he arrived the bouncer stated flatly that the show was sold out.  Chris rushed downstairs and went to work, finding the girl who had sold us our tickets and begging her to let Dan take his place in the show.  Then came the miracle… this lovely lady walked down the stairs, out the door, and told Dan, “Your ticket is on Trent.”  It was like the sky had parted and pierced and tattooed cherubs were playing hallelujahs for us.

It was odd not being armed with my photo equipment at this show, but I’m not sure my gear would have survived.  We made our way through the masses right into the center of the pit.  It was unbelievably hot and sweaty all across the room.  As The band appeared on stage playing “Mr Self Destruct” and then “Piggy,” the opening tracks from the classic Downward Spiral album, the tightly packed room erupted into a frenzy.  Each member of the audience was a vibrating molecule, bouncing, and colliding with those adjacent.  The crowd was a controlled chaos.  Pushing and pulling with each wave as fans pressed on towards the stage.  Somehow we ended up right in front of Trent, center stage, and just a few people back.  By the third song many started to suspect what was going on. It seemed that they were going to play all of the hit album that was released back in 1994, including many songs that hadn’t been played live in years.

As I watched Trent alternate between instruments, all while flawlessly singing, yelling, and screaming his dark poetic lyrics, I was transported back to my teenage years, listening to the very same album that they were playing tracks from, with the two friends that I was moshing with, in our parents basements.

It was a constant struggle to stay upright and balanced as the crowd roared, danced, smashed, and plowed on.  It wasn’t long before it became hard to tell how much of the sweat on me was my own.  I felt like I had been pushed into a heated swimming pool with all of my clothes on.  It didn’t matter. We were having way to much fun as NIN worked their way through the entire Downward Spiral album.

We danced and smashed and moshed until our fingers were wrinkled from losing so much sweat.  I felt so dehydrated, so beat by the crowd and overwhelmed by emotion, that I came close to falling a few times.  Maybe I couldn’t muster the energy to keep fighting, to keep driving.  In those moment I was thankful that the sweaty mob was so densely packed.  I couldn’t fall to the ground if I wanted to.  I was sandwiched in, stuck in a vertical position, whether I liked it or not.  In that moment, the event security team started to disperse water into the crowd.  The bottles empties fast.  Take a quick sip and then pass it on to someone else, but it was enough.  A few small sips of water and I could keep rocking out.  During “Closer,” the crowd writhed, stomped, and bounced in an escalating display of repressed sexual energy.  I could feel the wood floors springing back with each beat and really wasn’t sure if they would hold. It seemed like any minute the floor could cave.

A few more tracks and then came “Hurt,” possibly the most well known NIN song, made even more popular by the late Johnny Cash’s beautiful reinterpretation.  As the song started, many calls of “Thank you Trent” rang out from the crowd.  If this was truly the last time most of us would see NIN, it was a hell of an experience.  At the end of the song Trent thanked the fans for coming out and packing these final intimate shows.  He said that he had always wanted to play a whole album live and this was the first time he had done so.  So cool.  He then continued on, playing tracks from the other classic albums: Broken, Pretty Hate Machine, and even the great track “Burn,” found only on the Natural Born Killers Soundtrack.  It seemed that the band was enjoying this as much as we were.  At times it even looked like Trent couldn’t hide the smiles from face.  Even while spitting out some of his angriest, most angst laden lyrics.

The final track of the night was “Head Like A Hole.”  The band left the stage and did not return for an encore.  This fueled much speculation, but it seemed fitting.  The encore is such a contrived tool at this point.  Why would Trent concede to typical concert going conventions?  He gave it his all, pouring everything he had into what many fans were describing as an epic set.  He was as drenched as we were… if not worse.  Amazingly, as much as people were hoping for just a few more tracks, there was no disappointment.  After a set like this any fan would be way more than pleased.

There were only a few tracks from the newer albums to remind us that it was no longer the 1990s.  I have seen many great NIN shows, but this was not the Trent Reznor I have seen in the past.  This is a man who knows he is going out at the top of his game.  A truly unforgettable concert, a high watermark by which all others would be defined.