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
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Originally Posted by cahernandez
