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Thread: 2014.08.16 - Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

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    2014.08.16 - Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

    I am just to the right of the soundboard, they do have some big ass cameras set up. Also a recording disclaimer sign. Interesting...

    Edit: might be Soundgarden recording. Ben Shepherd was walking around the stage with someone before DEP directing them on what looked like viewing angles from the crowd.
    Last edited by Landshark; 08-16-2014 at 07:14 PM.

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    Copy of a
    Sanctified
    Came back haunted
    1,000,000
    March of the pigs
    Reptile
    Closer
    Gave up
    Disappointed
    Find my way
    The great destroyer
    Eraser
    Wish
    The hand that feeds
    Head like a hole


    The day the world went away
    Hurt


    I'm beat. Will post details tomorrie.

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    Mothafuckin' Reptile!

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    I can't say enough good about this show. Most of it just because I had a great spot and a great crowd around me (sorry if any of this sounds like me just rubbing things in), but it felt like the overall energy everywhere (on stage and in the entire amphitheater) was just fantastic. It might have been because it was taped show, but it didn't seem like anyone in the crowd that I talked to realized that (despite the signs posted).

    Wasn't expecting Reptile to make it into the "Fuji" set. Wow. And I had forgotten how incredible Disappointed is live. I know there's some haters (I used to be one), but it's almost like a totally different song to me, since I still don't really care for the album version. TDTWWA was my personal highlight; been waiting ages for that, and tonight was the night.

    This venue has a place to check/store your merch after you buy it, and you can come back to grab it after the show. So awesome! Haven't seen that at a venue before, and was super handy for my NIN/SG venue poster.

    DEP's guitarist jumped into the crowd right by me, knocked a bunch of chairs over, and went nuts right in front of me/our mini-crowd of like 6 ppl. I think only like 4 of us in the pit were even standing. I think this was happening while Greg was up hugging some of the DEP fans and running around, so I didn't really get to look back and see his shenanigans. You could tell they were making the best of a "the crowd isn't really here to see us" situation, since he even said, "we know you're just here to see SG/NIN, but we're happy to play for you guys."

    I was SO CLOSE to finally getting a setlist. It wasn't meant to be. Not sure I'll ever check that one off the list; damn elusive NIN setlists.

    Curious to hear what everyone else's experiences were like.

    Edit: Oh, also! Forgot to mention that the pit at this show was 1,000,000% better than the Vegas pit. There were a few statues/sitters tonight, but this pit felt like a PIT! It was hot, I got sweaty, chairs were getting pushed around a bit, people were rocking out.
    Last edited by pwing47; 08-17-2014 at 02:37 AM.

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    Making a long drive back to El Paso today, so will post more of my thoughts on it tomorrow, but I really loved this show. Was probably just that I had better seats, but I felt like it was loads better than Austin the other night.

    Pwing, I snagged that set list that Trent's nephew tossed out - sorry if that's same one you were going for!

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    Yep, you did. Haha, just glad an ETSer got it at least. That does make me feel better.

    Guess ill have to fly from WI again to get my second chance

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    The wife acquired 2 set lists. One from the NIN security guy, who was awesome enjoying the show singing along. He must love his job. Another from Trent's mic guy who works his ass off jumping on stage swapping mics/stands out nearly every song. We talked with him a bit before and after the show, apparently he's Trent's nephew working what's got to be the best summer job ever. Even though we had two of them, I still had to pry it out of my wife's hands to give it away. I saw who I guess was natalielair come up earlier in the show to talk to Trent's nephew was very excited about getting a drumstick or something and figured she'd appreciate the dupe. Sorry pwing47 if you were the one I didn't hand it to.

    Front row bragging(sorry):I'd been around row 2-3 of GA areas in the past, crammed in like sardines. Those shows were fun too, but this was a totally different experience. You know you're close when...you've got to use panorama to get the whole band in the shot; the video camera guy knocks your $15 beer over onto your tour poster; or you have no idea what the rest of the crowd was doing. I felt like a human metronome having a one man spastic jam session in a garage with NIN. I might have turned around once during the show.

    The poster turned out ok, fortunately a super awesome janitor guy hooked me up with a trash bag before the show after security confiscated my poster tube.

    I had seen quite a few setlists and knew they were pretty much all the same, but avoided reading about Austin hoping for a surprise after they had 2-3 days off. I felt like they crammed pretty much everything I wanted into their 2/3rds set time. TDTWWA was #1 on the wish list, closely followed by Great Destroyer since I hadn't ever seen it live. Well worth the wait. Great show, if it's the last one I see for a while I've definitely got some memories saved up. I did see Rob at the end shooting a little video, hopefully that finds the light of day and I get another little memento from what may become my favorite NIN performance.

    Some iPhone pics:





    Crowd Pic during SG:


    Mr and Mrs ekrekel



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    I can't say enough good things about last night's show. It was my first time seeing DEP and they didn't disappoint. It was pretty funny to watch the venue security during Greg's antics - at one point he stood on top of a speaker stack and threw his mic stand into the seating area, and they just looked at each other like "What do we do? Do we touch it?" And later as he was running through the crowd he climbed up on top of a gate at the back of the seats and the security woman right by him reached up to pull him down but then stopped and looked around at the others confused.

    Soundgarden blew me away. I haven't seen them live in a long time, but I think they sounded better last night than any time before. Didn't expect to hear "I Awake" so that was a nice surprise, then listening to Chris absolutely nail "Beyond The Wheel" was incredible. Right before that song he took off his shirt and all of a sudden it sounded like a New Kids concert and I was afraid the place was going to flood. At the end Kim and Ben stood in front of their amps playing with feedback for a long time until someone (I think it was the NIN tour manager) came out and told Kim to stop.

    As for NIN, amazing. This production is mind-blowingly good to see in person - no Youtube videos or anything else do it justice, and it's so versatile they could really just continue to tour with it forever and wouldn't bother me at all. The song arrangements were also awesome and no complaints about the setlist. It was really cool to see Trent and Alessandro tremolo-strumming during TDTWWA, Kevin Shields style. Don't remember seeing that before but maybe wasn't paying enough attention at the other shows.

    Anyway, all three bands, the crowd, the venue - everything was perfect last night. Couldn't have asked for more.

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    Here is a sample of my recording. 3rd row, center. Surprised on the outcome of the tape. I thought for sure I was too close to get any sort of decent sound. Should be up on Tuesday or so.

    Eraser - http://www.ninlive.com/samples/2014/20140816ryanj.mp3

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    Here’s my TL/DR review of the DEP/Soundgarden/NIN show. In other words: The absolute best line-up imaginable. I’m on the plane from Houston back to Seattle so I have plenty of time to write:

    I arrived early to the venue to pick up my presale tickets, I heard Soundgarden soundcheck Pretty Noose, Been Away Too Long and I think Blow Up the Outside World. Dillinger rehearsed only the first bars of Prancer.

    I’ve barely met people from ETS, but for this show I had the chance to meet @Papagolash , to whom I sold my extra ticket (my brother was supposed to go with me but couldn’t in the end). He was running a bit late due to Houston traffic so that gave me time to purchase a Soundgarden shirt for my brother, and I also got the SG/NIN poster, which was being sold outside the venue (didn’t get a signed one) and then I walked back to my car to leave those there. Before the show we hung out with a friend of Papagolash, a girl that used to be a Spiral member.

    As Papagolash didn't (obviously) know how I looked like, I told him by text that I was going to be the dude wearing the yellow Dillinger shirt. He said he was going to wear a red DEP shirt. Why do I mention this seemingly boring fact? Well, after DEP’s first song (Prancer), Greg pointed towards our way and said: “hey guys, thanks for wearing those shirts”. It’s not like Papagolash and me both coordinated to wear DEP shirts, but I think it worked out well, those guys definitely deserve more recognition than what they get.

    This was my fifth time seeing DEP, and by far it was the strangest one. The amphitheater was almost empty, suuuper empty, it was very sunny, and most people were sitting. How the hell do you sit for DEP? Does not compute. Today, as I was checking out the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, my brother sent me this picture he found on Instagram:



    So you can easily tell who Papagolash and me are, I guess that’s why Greg recognized us easily. The show kept going and they played Milk Lizard, One of Us Is the Killer, Nothing’s Funny, Understanding Decay and finished with When I Lost My Bet. So, mostly songs from the new record, which I was fine with, but I could had used a song or two from Miss Machine and Option Paralysis.

    Anyways, the day before the Houston show, Papagolash texted me a brief recap of the Austin show, he said Greg went into the crowd and grabbed a guy to sing with him, and then during Milk Lizard, he threw the microphone to another fan to sing the end of the song. So, a day later, last Dillinger song and he hadn’t gone into the crowd yet so somehow I knew he was going to do it. There was one girl in front of us, about 5 rows ahead, that was also rocking out (so, it was Papagolash, this chick, and myself the only people rocking out in our vicinity, this was absurd) and from the stage Greg kinda made a motion to this girl and I knew he was going to go to her, so I trusted my instinct and started jumping the rows of seats, it was like an Olympics obstacle race, but I made it to where this girl was by the time Greg got there, and at this point things become blurry, I think he hugged the girl, and then I got a bear hug from Greg too! To be honest, when I was jumping the rows of chairs (which was possible because there was NO ONE in those chairs) I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do when I got to Greg, I was only thinking about “rocking out” with him, maybe give him a high five or something, but then he hugged me. It was IN-CRE-DI-BLE. The things I remember clearly: he was extremely sweaty and while hugging me he kept SCREAMING the lyrics to When I Lost My Bet. A life-affirming experience for me.

    Then Greg kept walking towards the very back of the venue and he sang to the people there. He made a point of involving the people in the back as well. In my opinion, seeing shows in amphitheaters typically suck because the people in the back don’t feel as immersed in the show as the people in the front (I think this problem is not as bad in arenas) but Mr. Puciato tried his best to make the show intimate for everyone. After that I high-fived the girl that also rocked out with Greg, I said something to her and she said something to me but I barely remember what the conversation was like, we were both in a high. I got back to my seat and I was euphoric, definitely one of the best “rock” moments I’ve had. Something I will tell to my children/grandchildren when/if I have them.

    Dillinger finished their set and Greg said something like: “guys, you have been our best audience this tour, thank you so much”. I can respect people that think DEP is terrible noise, and too much screaming, but even if you don’t like their music, you gotta recognize that these guys definitely give it their all, and don’t compromise the music, when you go to a DEP show you can absolutely be sure that they are not “phoning in” their performance, even when they are performing for a crowd that is clearly not there to see them (as was the case here). These guys are 100% passionate about what they do, and in that sense DEP is a role model for me.

    Soundgarden was up next, my second time seeing them, and Papagolash told me that the night before they started their set late, and ended with about 5 minutes of feedback (which I had seen them doing in the other SG show I’ve seen, after Slaves & Bulldozers) and said feedback jam session in Austin went on for too long, so apparently NIN had to cut their set as a consequence, and Trent seemed pissed because of that. In Houston SG started on time, and I think Cornell’s voice was a bit off at the beginning of the set but picked up halfway through their show.

    Previous SG show I’d seen they didn’t play Spoonman or Outshined (even though that show went for 2 hours and 20 minutes, and they played pretty much everything else I wanted to hear) so I was happy to hear these two songs in TX. People have been complaining about the NIN greatest hits set, but they forget that Soundgarden sets have also been fairly static, and like NIN, they have been playing the singles so that the NIN fanbase doesn’t feel that out of place, BUT (like NIN) Soundgarden has also played some deep cuts (I Awake, Beyond the Wheel, Pretty Noose, Gun, Flower –these last two not played last night, but during the tour-). Given the type of tour, I think both bands picked the best setlist structure (with NIN having TDTWWA, Eraser, Reptile, to please the NIN fans plus Disappointed, Great Destroyer, Find My Way, Me I’m Not to challenge the average SG fan).

    Cornell’s banter was quite interesting, he said that the album Badmotorfinger (and specifically reference the song Outshined) was written about Texas (or something to that effect) but he couldn't really explain why, or at least I failed to understand him. He dedicated the song “A Thousand Days Before” to DEP, as it was the last show with them.

    The crowd was fairly receptive of Soundgarden, and I got really into it during Rusty Cage, Outshined and Beyond the Wheel. This last song was EPIC, with Cornell going all out with the high-pitched screams, and then Kim and Ben following Beyond The Wheel with that beautiful wall of feedback. I think it went for 5 minutes, but then I noticed that NIN’s security guy (the big black guy, forgot his name) came over to Kim and told him to cut it off. I thought that was funny. Good show by the all mighty Soundgarden, who finished their set 5 minutes before their scheduled time and that got me thinking “since NIN is videotaping their show, they will probably want to do something special”. So then I told Papagolash “I bet you we are going to get TDTWWA, as SG finished their set early” (Note: Alex, Papagolash’s friend, had some connection with the guitar tech of Dave Navarro –if I remember correctly- and this connection told Alex that NIN was filming their show tonight. Based on that, Papagolash hypothesized that we were getting the Fuji set.)

    Before the show Papagolash apologized to me in advance for “bumping into me during NIN’s set from all the dancing” and I said “no worries” but I think I bumped into him more than he did. For some reason, when Copy of A started I just went bonkers, I just clicked with the set instantly! I was glad to hear Copy of A “festival version”, as I didn’t like it during Tension with the “real drums”. This song works a lot better with the synthesizers and the shadows, the huge shadows definitely add a lot to the song…for all the people saying this is a rehashed production, well, I think the live streams we were lucky to get during this last year somewhat ruined the experience for some. Sorry for typing in all caps here: WATCHING A NIN SHOW IN YOUTUBE DOES NOT COMPARE TO SEEING THE SHOW LIVE! (the shadow effects during Copy of A and Sanctified attest to this).

    (now I know why Tool is so adamant about people filming shows in shitty phones/releasing their DVDs: it’s just not the same experience, you gotta experience it live, this “festival” production was meant to be experience live).

    Anyways, I was also glad to get the Festival version of Sanctified, and as much as I liked the girls singing during the chorus of this song, I definitely did not like Pino’s bassline so it was good to hear Mr. Eustis bassline here, as performed by Seņor Rubin. The show continued and mucho rocking out happened during March of the Pigs (which I’m not that fond of anymore, because it has been overplayed to me, BUT last night I just connected to it big time). Ally did a good job with the bass here.

    It was really good to have Papagolash with me…I knew that NIN had been playing fairly static songs, but I have the memory of a fish, so I didn’t know that Piggy was typically supposed to go after March of the Pigs, and so he recognized the intro to Reptile waaay before me and he realized that we were getting a variation in the set, so that made me happy. As usual, people went nuts for Reptile. Robin’s screams at the end were top notch (and for the record I’m not a fan of Robin’s screaming). And by the way: much respect to Ally and Robin, how the hell were they able to wear jackets in balmy Houston? Granted, Robin did take off his jacket three songs into the set.

    For Gave Up (and for a lot of the faster songs) I jumped my ass off, I think I looked like one of those crazy South American soccer fans. What surprised me is that my left knee didn’t hurt at all (note to you guys: I had problems with my knee last year, patellar tendinitis according to my PT, I pretty much had to stop hiking, running and playing soccer for 6 months last year, that was a big bummer as physical activity is a great part of my life). So I was happy to be able to jump around without knee pain!

    Anyways, as it has been mentioned, Disappointed had some fantastic visuals, and I really enjoyed Ilan’s bassline for this song (to be honest, I don’t remember what he played for Disappointed during Tension –too lazy to check now- but he seemed much more fundamental to the song last night).

    Something else that Papagolash noticed: the screens at the beginning of Find My Way did not work, but they got back on quite quickly.

    The Great Destroyer: as Papagolash noted, there were some interesting Barack Obama/George Bush/John McCain visuals here, and I quite liked the extended jam with DJ Trent and DJ Cortini.

    Eraser: oh man…, I got “in the zone” for this song, I really felt it last night for some reason. A lot of fist pumping happened in my area during the “KILL ME” section, and after the song I high-fived one of the most energetic fist-pumpers in the row in front of mine.

    Wish was great as usual but here’s my only regret for the night: they should had brought on DEP onstage for this song! It seemed like a wasted opportunity for me, as it was the last show of DEP during this tour.

    At this point my neck was hurting because of all the head banging that started since DEP, so I was a bit mellower for THTF and HLAH. Goddamn I’m not getting any younger. Encore was fairly short (1 minute at best?) and then I heard the intro to TDTWWA, as I had predicted. I got to see it for the first time 9 years ago during my first NIN show in Mexico City, but that was the extended version with the drums (which I prefer) but I also liked this one version with the wall of guitars.

    Hurt was good, I didn’t hear people clapping or yelling “I love you Trent” or anything like that, the atmosphere was perfect and a great way to end a great show.

    And this was conclusion of the night: I thought that it was impossible for NIN to top what they did for LITS. And not that they necessarily surpassed that experience with this production BUT they provided something completely different and superb for this run, when they associated themselves with TWO extremely talented bands (and I’m speaking solely for DEP). One of those few occasions where I’m fairly familiar with the three bands on the bill, where I definitely enjoyed myself the whooole night, and as an added bonus, I got to hang out with a very cool ETSer. Perfect night, Alex, Papagolash and me had a post-NIN fiesta in a bar in downtown Houston.

    Thank you for reading this!

    Carlos
    Last edited by cahernandez; 08-18-2014 at 12:30 AM.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by ekrekel View Post
    Crowd Pic during SG:
    Haha, my left ear made it into this pic. To the right of whoever's arm is in front, w/ pink nails.

    Anyway, good crowd

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    Quote Originally Posted by pwing47 View Post
    Haha, my left ear made it into this pic. To the right of whoever's arm is in front, w/ pink nails.

    Anyway, good crowd
    Pretty sure that is me in lower left corner, looking down.

    Did anyone else in the pit see that girl that came up about halfway through the set to the second row (when for some stupid reason, like, 6 people got up and left)? It was right in front of me, so I guess you would have been in front of her ekrekel. She was reeeeeeally into the music. It was actually very distracting. I moved up to the second row right by her just at the very end during Hurt, and she kept flailing her arms around. She waved them right in my face at one point and I almost turned and socked her. Pissed me off. But thought better of it. Would have been funny to see that in a recording of the show later, though, huh?

    As I said earlier, I thought NIN's set for Houston was a lot better than Thursday night in Austin. Better crowd, better energy. Better venue, in my opinion. I had a blast. Was thrilled to hear Reptile and TDTWWA. I should have known I was sitting around a bunch of ETS people! The buddy I brought along was absolutely shocked by DEP, but then, I saw that coming. I thought they were awesome! Was happy that my buddy really enjoyed NIN, too, as he didn't know any of their music.

    A few pics --


    Took this next photo literally the second Trent was walking out on stage. I thought it would be a few more minutes, and right as I was taking the photo everyone started getting up and cheering.




    Last edited by magnolia; 08-18-2014 at 03:49 PM. Reason: forgot one

  13. #13
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    This was my 7th show.

    Dillinger Escape Plan was cool. I am more familiar with their older material but for what they are doing, they are doing it well. Everyone on this message board needs to check out the album Miss Machine, which has some tracks with a LOT of NIN influence. Also, this band collaborated with Mike Patton and it rules. If you have never heard that EP, you are missing out!

    As a fan of Soundgarden, I really wasn't THAT excited to see them since the NIN experience is so personal to me . I wished it could have been two separate experiences. But they delivered, and it was REALLY GOOD! As soon as it got dark, I could tell how many people were in the venue and it was overwhelming! SG really harnessed that energy and blew off the roof with "Fell On Black Days/Rusty Cage/Black Hole Sun" and the addition of "Beyond the Wheel" is fucking outstanding! Kim Thayil is such a badass, his live rendition of that quick solo near the end of "Fell On Black Days" was stellar and pure raw rock. Chris Cornell spoke about "Rusty Cage" and how he wanted to write song that was the "assbaby of Tony Iommi and Billy Gibbons." The end of that song was so heavy. I was fortunate to hear my favorite SG song, "Jesus Christ Pose" so I was thrilled about their whole set. It was funny seeing the NIN tour manager tell Kim to stop the noise/feedback ending.

    *I just looked on setlist.fm and apparently Houston got a killer Soundgarden set. I noticed that Houston didn't get "Been Away Too Long/Burden In My Hand/Blow Up the Outside World" but instead we got "My Wave/A Thousand Days Before/Pretty Noose" - I was lucky as the latter is WAY better in my opinion.


    NIN put themselves in a weird position with this tour. You already have a crowd who is really excited and amped up with their adrenaline going after Soundgarden playing, how do you get higher from that? How do you reach people in that state of mind? Well as soon as those lights cut out for the crescendo of "Copy of A," I realized it could be done.

    I loved being able to hear "Sanctified" at all 3 shows of the 2013/14 tour. This tour's rendition is neat and the intro grabs me with the electronic percussion. What was up with the little strobe light I saw being rolled out onstage during the beginning of that song? It was perfect for that moment lol.

    The lighting effects for "Came Back Haunted" were great! I also think the band sounds better stripped down when performing this song.

    The curtain being pulled down for "March of the Pigs" to reveal the light panels was awesome! That song sounded badass!

    FUCKING REPTILE! So awesome!

    "The Great Destroyer" was cool but I think it went over everyone's head. The hesitation between the stop and the noise breakdown was great. He sorta stood around and hesitated for a few seconds, and then hit the trigger all sneaky-like. It was one of those "you had to be there" moments. The crazy visuals were awesome and its good to read it was different than other tour stops.

    I love "Eraser," it rules every time.

    I hate that the show had to end so quickly it seemed. I felt like there was room for at least 2 more songs. But we were fortunate enough to get "TDTWWA." The guitar outro sounded really weird at first. Like someone was too high in the mix. It was strange but resolved itself. I really wanted to get "Somewhat Damaged" and "TF/TW" but its okay, no disappointments here.


    I was originally going to the Dallas show but I am really glad to have caught this show considering the energy, the Soundgarden setlist, and the filming that was going on. Also I would have been pissed to have not heard ANY songs from The Fragile, which happened in Dallas.
    Last edited by captainbeyond; 08-18-2014 at 04:53 PM.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by pwing47 View Post
    Edit: Oh, also! Forgot to mention that the pit at this show was 1,000,000% better than the Vegas pit. There were a few statues/sitters tonight, but this pit felt like a PIT! It was hot, I got sweaty, chairs were getting pushed around a bit, people were rocking out.
    I feared the seated pit was going to turn this into a Dave Matthews concert. Fortunately I was wrong. I felt like I was standing on a slip and slide, surprised I didn't fall over. Shirt was soaked the next morning.

    Quote Originally Posted by pwing47 View Post
    Haha, my left ear made it into this pic. To the right of whoever's arm is in front, w/ pink nails.

    Anyway, good crowd
    Took two pictures, pretty cool aspect. I mistook natalieliar and pwing47 for a different group of people. Though the girl you describe sounds a lot like the one I gave our crumpled setlist to. I wouldn't have noticed her, too busy jumping around like an idiot.



    2 More from Shawna's camera


    Her best shot of the night, Love the Black/White look. Also seeing the mic cabling coiled up leading to Trent is very cool, particularly after interacting with the guy in charge of the mics/cabling. Trent doesn't move around a lot with the mic, but when he does it's impressive he doesn't get tangled up in the lights as much.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by cahernandez View Post
    Here’s my TL/DR review of the DEP/Soundgarden/NIN show. In other words: The absolute best line-up imaginable. I’m on the plane from Houston back to Seattle so I have plenty of time to write:

    I arrived early to the venue to pick up my presale tickets, I heard Soundgarden soundcheck Pretty Noose, Been Away Too Long and I think Blow Up the Outside World. Dillinger rehearsed only the first bars of Prancer.

    I’ve barely met people from ETS, but for this show I had the chance to meet @Papagolash , to whom I sold my extra ticket (my brother was supposed to go with me but couldn’t in the end). He was running a bit late due to Houston traffic so that gave me time to purchase a Soundgarden shirt for my brother, and I also got the SG/NIN poster, which was being sold outside the venue (didn’t get a signed one) and then I walked back to my car to leave those there. Before the show we hung out with a friend of Papagolash, a girl that used to be a Spiral member.

    As Papagolash didn't (obviously) know how I looked like, I told him by text that I was going to be the dude wearing the yellow Dillinger shirt. He said he was going to wear a red DEP shirt. Why do I mention this seemingly boring fact? Well, after DEP’s first song (Prancer), Greg pointed towards our way and said: “hey guys, thanks for wearing those shirts”. It’s not like Papagolash and me both coordinated to wear DEP shirts, but I think it worked out well, those guys definitely deserve more recognition than what they get.

    This was my fifth time seeing DEP, and by far it was the strangest one. The amphitheater was almost empty, suuuper empty, it was very sunny, and most people were sitting. How the hell do you sit for DEP? Does not compute. Today, as I was checking out the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, my brother sent me this picture he found on Instagram:



    So you can easily tell who Papagolash and me are, I guess that’s why Greg recognized us easily. The show kept going and they played Milk Lizard, One of Us Is the Killer, Nothing’s Funny, Understanding Decay and finished with When I Lost My Bet. So, mostly songs from the new record, which I was fine with, but I could had used a song or two from Miss Machine and Option Paralysis.

    Anyways, the day before the Houston show, Papagolash texted me a brief recap of the Austin show, he said Greg went into the crowd and grabbed a guy to sing with him, and then during Milk Lizard, he threw the microphone to another fan to sing the end of the song. So, a day later, last Dillinger song and he hadn’t gone into the crowd yet so somehow I knew he was going to do it. There was one girl in front of us, about 5 rows ahead, that was also rocking out (so, it was Papagolash, this chick, and myself the only people rocking out in our vicinity, this was absurd) and from the stage Greg kinda made a motion to this girl and I knew he was going to go to her, so I trusted my instinct and started jumping the rows of seats, it was like an Olympics obstacle race, but I made it to where this girl was by the time Greg got there, and at this point things become blurry, I think he hugged the girl, and then I got a bear hug from Greg too! To be honest, when I was jumping the rows of chairs (which was possible because there was NO ONE in those chairs) I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do when I got to Greg, I was only thinking about “rocking out” with him, maybe give him a high five or something, but then he hugged me. It was IN-CRE-DI-BLE. The things I remember clearly: he was extremely sweaty and while hugging me he kept SCREAMING the lyrics to When I Lost My Bet. A life-affirming experience for me.

    Then Greg kept walking towards the very back of the venue and he sang to the people there. He made a point of involving the people in the back as well. In my opinion, seeing shows in amphitheaters typically suck because the people in the back don’t feel as immersed in the show as the people in the front (I think this problem is not as bad in arenas) but Mr. Puciato tried his best to make the show intimate for everyone. After that I high-fived the girl that also rocked out with Greg, I said something to her and she said something to me but I barely remember what the conversation was like, we were both in a high. I got back to my seat and I was euphoric, definitely one of the best “rock” moments I’ve had. Something I will tell to my children/grandchildren when/if I have them.

    Dillinger finished their set and Greg said something like: “guys, you have been our best audience this tour, thank you so much”. I can respect people that think DEP is terrible noise, and too much screaming, but even if you don’t like their music, you gotta recognize that these guys definitely give it their all, and don’t compromise the music, when you go to a DEP show you can absolutely be sure that they are not “phoning in” their performance, even when they are performing for a crowd that is clearly not there to see them (as was the case here). These guys are 100% passionate about what they do, and in that sense DEP is a role model for me.

    Soundgarden was up next, my second time seeing them, and Papagolash told me that the night before they started their set late, and ended with about 5 minutes of feedback (which I had seen them doing in the other SG show I’ve seen, after Slaves & Bulldozers) and said feedback jam session in Austin went on for too long, so apparently NIN had to cut their set as a consequence, and Trent seemed pissed because of that. In Houston SG started on time, and I think Cornell’s voice was a bit off at the beginning of the set but picked up halfway through their show.

    Previous SG show I’d seen they didn’t play Spoonman or Outshined (even though that show went for 2 hours and 20 minutes, and they played pretty much everything else I wanted to hear) so I was happy to hear these two songs in TX. People have been complaining about the NIN greatest hits set, but they forget that Soundgarden sets have also been fairly static, and like NIN, they have been playing the singles so that the NIN fanbase doesn’t feel that out of place, BUT (like NIN) Soundgarden has also played some deep cuts (I Awake, Beyond the Wheel, Pretty Noose, Gun, Flower –these last two not played last night, but during the tour-). Given the type of tour, I think both bands picked the best setlist structure (with NIN having TDTWWA, Eraser, Reptile, to please the NIN fans plus Disappointed, Great Destroyer, Find My Way, Me I’m Not to challenge the average SG fan).

    Cornell’s banter was quite interesting, he said that the album Badmotorfinger (and specifically reference the song Outshined) was written about Texas (or something to that effect) but he couldn't really explain why, or at least I failed to understand him. He dedicated the song “A Thousand Days Before” to DEP, as it was the last show with them.

    The crowd was fairly receptive of Soundgarden, and I got really into it during Rusty Cage, Outshined and Beyond the Wheel. This last song was EPIC, with Cornell going all out with the high-pitched screams, and then Kim and Ben following Beyond The Wheel with that beautiful wall of feedback. I think it went for 5 minutes, but then I noticed that NIN’s security guy (the big black guy, forgot his name) came over to Kim and told him to cut it off. I thought that was funny. Good show by the all mighty Soundgarden, who finished their set 5 minutes before their scheduled time and that got me thinking “since NIN is videotaping their show, they will probably want to do something special”. So then I told Papagolash “I bet you we are going to get TDTWWA, as SG finished their set early” (Note: Alex, Papagolash’s friend, had some connection with the guitar tech of Dave Navarro –if I remember correctly- and this connection told Alex that NIN was filming their show tonight. Based on that, Papagolash hypothesized that we were getting the Fuji set.)

    Before the show Papagolash apologized to me in advance for “bumping into me during NIN’s set from all the dancing” and I said “no worries” but I think I bumped into him more than he did. For some reason, when Copy of A started I just went bonkers, I just clicked with the set instantly! I was glad to hear Copy of A “festival version”, as I didn’t like it during Tension with the “real drums”. This song works a lot better with the synthesizers and the shadows, the huge shadows definitely add a lot to the song…for all the people saying this is a rehashed production, well, I think the live streams we were lucky to get during this last year somewhat ruined the experience for some. Sorry for typing in all caps here: WATCHING A NIN SHOW IN YOUTUBE DOES NOT COMPARE TO SEEING THE SHOW LIVE! (the shadow effects during Copy of A and Sanctified attest to this).

    (now I know why Tool is so adamant about people filming shows in shitty phones/releasing their DVDs: it’s just not the same experience, you gotta experience it live, this “festival” production was meant to be experience live).

    Anyways, I was also glad to get the Festival version of Sanctified, and as much as I liked the girls singing during the chorus of this song, I definitely did not like Pino’s bassline so it was good to hear Mr. Eustis bassline here, as performed by Seņor Rubin. The show continued and mucho rocking out happened during March of the Pigs (which I’m not that fond of anymore, because it has been overplayed to me, BUT last night I just connected to it big time). Ally did a good job with the bass here.

    It was really good to have Papagolash with me…I knew that NIN had been playing fairly static songs, but I have the memory of a fish, so I didn’t know that Piggy was typically supposed to go after March of the Pigs, and so he recognized the intro to Reptile waaay before me and he realized that we were getting a variation in the set, so that made me happy. As usual, people went nuts for Reptile. Robin’s screams at the end were top notch (and for the record I’m not a fan of Robin’s screaming). And by the way: much respect to Ally and Robin, how the hell were they able to wear jackets in balmy Houston? Granted, Robin did take off his jacket three songs into the set.

    For Gave Up (and for a lot of the faster songs) I jumped my ass off, I think I looked like one of those crazy South American soccer fans. What surprised me is that my left knee didn’t hurt at all (note to you guys: I had problems with my knee last year, patellar tendinitis according to my PT, I pretty much had to stop hiking, running and playing soccer for 6 months last year, that was a big bummer as physical activity is a great part of my life). So I was happy to be able to jump around without knee pain!

    Anyways, as it has been mentioned, Disappointed had some fantastic visuals, and I really enjoyed Ilan’s bassline for this song (to be honest, I don’t remember what he played for Disappointed during Tension –too lazy to check now- but he seemed much more fundamental to the song last night).

    Something else that Papagolash noticed: the screens at the beginning of Find My Way did not work, but they got back on quite quickly.

    The Great Destroyer: as Papagolash noted, there were some interesting Barack Obama/George Bush/John McCain visuals here, and I quite liked the extended jam with DJ Trent and DJ Cortini.

    Eraser: oh man…, I got “in the zone” for this song, I really felt it last night for some reason. A lot of fist pumping happened in my area during the “KILL ME” section, and after the song I high-fived one of the most energetic fist-pumpers in the row in front of mine.

    Wish was great as usual but here’s my only regret for the night: they should had brought on DEP onstage for this song! It seemed like a wasted opportunity for me, as it was the last show of DEP during this tour.

    At this point my neck was hurting because of all the head banging that started since DEP, so I was a bit mellower for THTF and HLAH. Goddamn I’m not getting any younger. Encore was fairly short (1 minute at best?) and then I heard the intro to TDTWWA, as I had predicted. I got to see it for the first time 9 years ago during my first NIN show in Mexico City, but that was the extended version with the drums (which I prefer) but I also liked this one version with the wall of guitars.

    Hurt was good, I didn’t hear people clapping or yelling “I love you Trent” or anything like that, the atmosphere was perfect and a great way to end a great show.

    And this was conclusion of the night: I thought that it was impossible for NIN to top what they did for LITS. And not that they necessarily surpassed that experience with this production BUT they provided something completely different and superb for this run, when they associated themselves with TWO extremely talented bands (and I’m speaking solely for DEP). One of those few occasions where I’m fairly familiar with the three bands on the bill, where I definitely enjoyed myself the whooole night, and as an added bonus, I got to hang out with a very cool ETSer. Perfect night, Alex, Papagolash and me had a post-NIN fiesta in a bar in downtown Houston.

    Thank you for reading this!

    Carlos
    Beautifully written, really can't add to this. This was the best show out of the 3 Texas shows. Thanks again for the ticket and great to meet you and enjoy the show with you. I have a video of The Great Destroyer that I'll get to posting at some time.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by ekrekel View Post
    I mistook natalieliar and pwing47 for a different group of people.
    Ha, my bad, that wasn't my ear in the photo after all. Guess I was out of frame, just off to the left of the shot. Yeah, I think I mistook everyone for other folks, also.

    Awesome pics, everyone! You too, @natalielair . But you just HAD to post that last one, didn't you? I've always wanted a "somewhat damaged" setlist :P

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by pwing47 View Post
    But you just HAD to post that last one, didn't you? I've always wanted a "somewhat damaged" setlist :P
    Haha, sorry, but yes I did have to! I was so excited - I've never gotten a set list, (or a drumstick or even a bloody pick!), for any show I've been to, ever. It was my birthday on Thursday at the Austin show, so I REALLY wanted one there, but I couldn't manage it - and I suppose meeting Robin that day was a pretty nice consolation. But I grinned like an idiot over the set list the whole way back to the car. Next time, pwing! : )

  18. #18
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    This was my girlfriend's first NIN show and my sixth. I just thought I'd let you guys know she loved it.

  19. #19
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    My recording is up on the archive.

    http://www.ninlive.com/shows/2014/20140816.html

    Also, if anyone has an extra poster from these TX shows and would be willing to part with one, please let me know. I got into the venue late really only wanting to see NIN and didn't see any posting about a limited poster. I know that the artist will be selling them on his site, but I never really get lucky with those.

    3rd row for the show, dead center. It was amazing. Here are a few shots. We brought in a decent camera too. I'll post those pics later.

    http://www.ninlive.com/pictures/hlah.jpg

    http://www.ninlive.com/pictures/tdtwwa.jpg

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by ninlive View Post
    My recording is up on the archive.

    http://www.ninlive.com/shows/2014/20140816.html
    Great job on the recording! It was a great performace overall, I hope the 2 T-Rez guitar blips during TDTWWA don't derail any plans of an official release. I love how heavy Reptile is, I've seen it 2-3 times live prior and don't remember it hitting that hard.

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