Post your photos, setlists, stories, and rantings about the first NIN show in years here.
Please, if you did not attend the show listed in the title of the thread, do not bother posting, your post will be deleted

Your questions will be answered, just have patience.

General stuff goes in this link!

By way of the Hotline:
Name: stephen
Message: ok, you'll probably get a ton of these e-mails tonight, but here's the (somewhat vague) review i got from some friend's who saw teh concert in fresno tonight. they played for about 1.5 hours, with no opening act, and no encore. apparently they played six or seven new songs (i'm sure the hand that feeds was one) as well as a bunch of old stuff (i know hurt was played). my friends said the band was going crazy, especially the new guitar player, who was prone to break things. this was told to me by someone who has never scene nin live before.

sorry it's so vague, but it's all i could get out of them. i'm lucky enough to be attending the show on friday in davis, i'll write down a setlist and give a bigger review. take care, i've been reading this page for years. thanks for always keeping me updated!!

also
Name: one1deuce
Message: NIN's opening act for the first three shows is Carre Callaway. i had a chance to speak with her after her performance, she is unknown unsigned no management hopint this tour will get her management, and she's sooo pretty. her homepage isn't complete carrecallaway.com but stay posted because the girl can rock. she's a solo act. FRONT ROW FRESNO!!!

No brain. Can't think. Stream of consciousness...

It was awesome. Can't wait for Reno tomorrow, With Out Seats.

Played for about 1.5 hours. 18 songs by my husband's count. No encore.

No cornstarch, no makeup. Aaron is a madman.

Sound...eh. I thought the guitar was too heavy on the new songs, drowned out the vocals and the keyboards/synths. Made it harder to figure out what any of the WT songs were.

Trent set a record for saying "thank you" after songs. May also have set a record for talking. "It's been a fucking long time." "Thanks for coming out tonight"

Guess at setlist. I didn't do to well on the new songs; order may be off.

1. (new)
2. you know who you are
3. march of the pigs
4. TLBTB
5. piggy
6. closer
7. (new)
8. burn
9. gave up
10. (new) only?
(now the order gets more screwy)
11, terrible lie
12. even deeper
13. hurt
14. wish
15. THTF
16. starfuckers
17. head like a hole
missing another new one in there somewhere.

The crowd definitely got into the songs they knew more than the new ones, which isn't too surprising.

Rob was running around with his video camera.

Caree Callaway or whatever her name was for the opening act. Eh. If anyone saw PJ Harvey in LA last fall, Caree was only slightly better than the guy who opened up for PJ. Nuff said. Bring on the Dresden Dolls.

OK, gotta go email friends now....

Man that was a badass concert. If anybody was able to record the show, I am willing to pay for a copy.

These are some pics I took with my camera phone. I would have taken more but I was too busy enjoying the concert.

Click here for new user's image...

Click here for new user's image...

Props to the guy who gave me the ETS bumper sticker in the theatre.

Row H, Seat 8.

just a repost that there was an opening act, carre callaway. she sounded like a pissed off alanis morissette. she is a solo act and this was her first opening act performance in front of a crowd this large, she's 18. her instrumentals are better than her vocals, maybe she should have someone else sing but she can jam on the guitar.
the lights weren't as big as i thought, for anyone who has seen "and all that could have been" dvd...lower your expectations. it was mainly solo lights for the three guitar players, some blue lights in the back, few songs with the LCD in the back, and few songs with heavy strobe lights...but the strobe lights were heavily used during those few songs.
and yes if it weren't for Trent, then Aaron North, the guitarist, would have stolen the show with his jumping off of the drummers platform, playing guitar laying on his stomache on a speaker with his feet in the air (that was his moment), knocking over his mic stand mutiple times, and just rocking so hard that you would think that he would fall off the stage backwards many times. no one in the band came down from the stage, which is dissapointing when you're in the front row.
i think the fresno crowd did a good job of providing trent with a great welcome back, and i'm sure that there was no one in the band or crowd that left unhappy, unless they didn't hear their favorite song. (trent mentioned that "Burn" was one of his favorite songs before playing it). however, there was no encore. but he played enough songs, and long enough to be excused from an encore. and he didn't end with "hurt" so i'll count every song after hurt as an encore. FRESNO FRONT ROW!

The show was amazing! I have never seen NIN play before and I was very impressed, especially with he lapse in time since trent last performed live. I was very entertained thru the entirety of the show, and I will definitely buy the new album. The bass player spit on the drummer twice which i though was odd, maybe an inside joke or something? Energy on stage for the whole band was high. Although the opening act was pretty, musically I left unimpressed. Her guitar playing was not in sync with the drum machine many times.

You do have to give her props for having the guts to play though. That was her first "big" gig ever.

and here i thought it was the "dresden dolls". anywho, i thought she was pretty cool and fucking brave. i mean u guys heard all those assholes yelling at her, right? i liked what she played

NIN. OMFG!!!! NIN RULES!!!!!! this was my very first ever NIN show and it blew me away. they have the best lighting i've seen. i believe that one of the new songs that was first plyed was either "All The Love In The World" or "Love Is Not Enough". i must say i was surprised they didnt start the show with something familiar, instead 2 new songs.

i'm brain dead, i think my brain is still at the venue dancing to NIN i cant wait to see them again! if anyone has a SF ticket to sell, im in!!!!

wasn't it the bass player who was with his feet up for a while too? was he playing or just fell accidentaly? it was funny
fuck, I was high the whole time. loved the energy Trent put into the show too. intense man he is.

Yeah, opening act was pretty horrible. She couldn't play in time with her drum machine and she even had a hard time keeping time when it was just her voice and the guitar not to mention the fact that she only had one strumming style.

As for NIN, I was actually disappointed for a few reasons...

1. In the recent interviews with the new keyboardist and guitarist (can't remember their names), they mentioned how they were trying new ways to play old songs and how they'd play songs that fans would be surprised to hear. Well, aside from the songs off With Teeth, there weren't ANY new songs that haven't been played before OR in new odd variations with the exception of "closer" which breaks down with the main melody from "Down in it" and then trent sings the "through every forest... etc" section instead of whipsering it. Burn was played a bit different than it was on the self destruction tour though, and the last melody for piggy is played with a small stringed instrument I don't know the name of. Actually every song on the setlist (ommiting with teeth stuff) was played regularly on the fragilty tour with the exception of "Burn." So if you've been to one of those shows, you've pretty much seen all the old material.

2. Production value for this show was nowhere near the fragility tour. There weren't any projections or moving screens and the lights were really average. This wouldn't have been so bad if Trent didn't tell us we wouldnt be disappointed with it on his website. This would have been cool if he went as crazy with breaking instruments and hurting band members as he did on the self destruction tour.

3. Too short, there weren't any encores. Maybe I've just been spoiled with long radiohead and david bowie setlists, but this setlist seemed short even compared to the Fragility setlist.

But to end on a positive note, I thought the sound was good as well as the performance. Trent's voice was great and during the ballads, he hit all the notes and stayed in key. The guitarist was wild and even Twiggy was moving around. I haven't seen him with APC, but he must have been on opiates during the manson years cause he barely moved on those tours compared to this show. The keyboardist didn't get much of a showcase so its hard to comment on him. Jerome played pretty much how I expected him to which gets the job done. I do have 6 more shows to attend (and that's just before they announce the fall dates) but I have 3 good reasons to be hopeful.

1. This was their first show so maybe they were nervous and trent will be more alive later on and maybe they'll play more songs when they are more confident.

2. According to one of the new members in recent interviews (can't remember who said it), they have a lot of material to change up setlists. My biggest gripe with the fragility tour was that they essentially changeed back and forth between two setlists with the occassional oddity like "The Fragile," played now and then. If their shows are like the recent bowie tour where the setlist vary a lot, I will be fine with the lower production and short shows. If this happens, I hope they don't stick to their "greatest hits" style setlist which was pretty much just all of their most popular and obvious songs (with the exception of burn). I'd like to see some songs that have never been played before like The Perfect Drug, And All that Could Have Been, and some neglected songs off the fragile like We're in this Together. It would be cool if there was an instrumental section of mellow section of the show. I like it when a band doesn't just play their loudest songs.

3. Maybe production values will increases when they are done with these preliminary dates much like they did on the fragility tour when they replaced the tubes with the huge screens. This would make sense since trent plans to play larger venues which equals more money to play around with.

I'd rate this show a seven out of ten, but one should keep in mind that only myself and one friend of mine were disappointed since we both had seen 4 fragility shows. My friends who went with us who had never seen a NIN show were all very satisfied so they'd probably rate it an 8 or 9. Still, I used to brag about how no other band's show comes close to a NIN show, and I don't feel like this show lived up to the hype I was building.

Just got home (1:30am)...
Using Kerrang's descriptions, here's the setlist I get:

Love Is Not Enough
You Know Who You Are
March of the Pigs (All The Pigs, All Lines Up)
The Line Begins To Blur
Piggy
Terrible Lie
The Collector
Closer (With "The Only Time" keyboard breakdown)
Burn
Gave Up
With Teeth (Trent has a tambourine...)
(New Short Song, doesn't really fit any of Kerrang's...)
Even Deeper
Hurt
Wish
The Hand That Feeds
Starfuckers, Inc.
Head Like A Hole

I could be missing a new song...I know my order isn't perfect, but it's all pretty much there...

Note: Only was not played. I listened for it.

On to the review...let's make it short an sweet, I'm tired.

Setlist was somewhat of a disappointment. All of the songs other than Even Deeper and Burn (not counting new ones) could be heard/seen on And All That Could Have Been. Only exception to that is Closer. After the second "I wanna fuck you like an animal..." chorus, the drums and keyboards changed to "The Only Time" (?!) as Trent sang ("Through the forest", etc., etc.) to that beat...

Best new song award goes to "You Know Who You Are". It pwned everyone there.

Worst new song (Not counting Getting Smaller) goes to "The Collector". However, I think Aaron's guitar was not working, so I think elements were missing.

Noteworthy:
The song "With Teeth" has Trent on a Piano solo in the middle. He also uses a tambourine (?!?!) on harder parts of the song.

Aaron is much more entertaining that Robin every was. He climbs on top of his amp, jumps, falls, kicks stuff, etc., all while "playing" the songs. Sure, it may be reckless, but it's sure fun to watch other people injure themselves, and those around them, isn't it?

Ok, just got home. Some thoughts.

First, the opening act is god awful. Seriously, I don't care if she's 18, trying to break in or whatever. For an act the caliber of NIN I would expect something better or no opener at all.

As far as NIN goes. It was kinda hard to get a feel for the new songs. Seemed like they could be cool if I got a second listen. You Know Who You Are opened with some pretty cool drumming. Line Begins to Blur sounded good live I thought. Terrible Lie was definitely the tops for me tonight and I wasn't really expecting it to be my favorite. The whole band pumped tons of intensity into it. Closer was really cool with that The Only Time breakdown. Really fucking cool. Trent's tambourine playing during With Teeth was interesting and I was seriously thinking what the fuck? I don't think there was a short song after With Teeth but it was just a break in the middle that was way ass different from the rest of the song. Just Trent playing really slow on the keyboards before he returned to the rest of the song.
Hand That Feeds did not get better or worse in concert. So whatever opinion you have I think will pretty much stick. Head Like a Hole capped the show really well. Aaron North is a fucking crazy bastard and was all over the fucking place. He even kicked a group of four or five water bottles over one of the security guards.

Overall, a really good concert (of course I haven't seen NIN live before). The old stuff sounded really good with the new band. I have the AATCHB DVD and I thought the way it was played tonight sounded better. As for the new stuff, I couldn't hear it well enough to form an opinion other than that tambourines are badass.

*edit* Upon listening once I got home I don't know how I thought this was a Down In It breakdown. I just kinda went with the setlist posted and my foggy memory. But with a clear head this morning, it was definitely The Only Time.

great fucking show and the new band rocks!

the set list was awesome eventhough no encore the playing sounded clean thanks to the new guitar player and can't wait to see them again in SF.....

yes trent you can do what you want and get away with it...

lucky fuck....What what in da butt

Ur Mom has the set list right except there was also a new song between the animal fuck song and burn.

and to let you know the lights kicked ass, maybe you could not see it from your fancy front row but up in the balcony you could see all the pretty colors and how they danced and made blue flames during burn (use your imagination people). It reminded me of an art instilation in the LA subways, yes LA has a subway.

Tambourine, ohhhhhhhh Tambourine. . .Tambourine! Seeing Trent Reznor use a Tambourine was something I never thought I would see but it was so fucking ballsy I could not help but grin and love it. ! he threw it in the air too.

music is good

Just got back home...a few thoughts before I crash.

Personally, the setlist was a dissapointment, given all of the chatter of Trent leaving the past behind - aside from Burn, the setlist added nothing that I had not heard on the Fragility tour, save the new songs. Hopefully this will change as dates go on, as it really is an exciting new incarnation of the band - I just wish I could have heard some new versions of the classics.

The lighting was quality given that this will be a theater tour, and the kinks are likely being sorted through. The vertical rows of lights in the background are almost identical to what Radiohead has used their past couple of tours, I could have also sworn that they also used the same "branch" lights that were set around the stage tonight.

Aaron North stole the show, I am shocked that his name did not come up earlier in the search for a guitarist. His playing style is really the polar opposite of Robin - much more violent and dramatic, where Robin was far more passive, and colored within the lines - this is also obviously reflected Aaron's stage personna, which was wild as fuck. He made Trent look sedated...

None of the new songs really jumped out at me, which is understandable given the excitement level of the show - its difficult to wrap my brain around them. I can say that "The Line Begins To Blur" was not a highlight for me. I did really dig THTF, and Trent did play guitar on that one (As he did for quite a bit of the evening, including Terrible Lie, which I had never seen him strap on a guitar for).

I really dug the new "Closer", with the Down In It breakdown - and "With Teeth" was really seemed bizarre with that mellow piano interlude in the middle catching me by surprise

Everybody looked and sounded wonderful - can't wait to see how they evolve as a band...

EDIT- i'm an idiot, they played "Gave up," of course, not "Last"

sorry to get everyone's hopes up.. :\

I swear that the Closer breakdown was actually a tease of the keyboard melody from "The only time," not "Down in it"...

Anyways this is my setlist, based on what i wrote down at the show and what's been said here:

Love is not enough
You know what you are?
March of the pigs
The line begins to blur
Piggy
Terrible lie
The collector
Closer (w/ the only time tease)
still inside you? <-- dont know this one either
Burn
Gave up
With teeth
New song* <-- ?
Even deeper
Hurt
Wish
Hand that feeds
Starfuckers inc.
Head like a hole

* I wonder what this song was... I only know there was some lyrics sounding like "go thru this" or something like that...? Any clues?

Needless to say I am very sad that "Get down make love" was ignored, yet again.

sorry, read my edit above



Still waiting to get blasted for this. Anyways the show was too short and the opener was terrible (im so sorry, it just didnt fit) and the new t-shirts were, like the new album cover, disappointing.

ya i thought it was um. a line from The Only Time

not down in it. im pretty positive.


anyway.



The song no one can seem to remember to name or whatever


Love Is Not Enough.


thats one of the new ones that was played.

i dont know the first song.


but yea i was impressed with Love Is Not Enough. definitely.


other than that. i'd prefer not to share my opinion on this fascist board.

dont get me wrong. i love ETS. all you guys are seriously great. but the fact that you invented "naysayer" just really made me lose faith in your sense of reality.

anyway. it was a great show. the seats were weird but being that i had a dream once about seeing NIN in a strange place in a strange auditorium with seats and trent singing strange music i'd never heard with a band i'd never seen.

It kind of worked out.


Also. seeing aron being all bouncy was um. ok.
but i need to say. This isnt a fucking Indie show.

Its Nine inch nails.

that was disapointing. And for me, someone who loves violent shows. that was just.. it wasnt right.

Pretty much everyone else sums it up with the details ... as to my personal opinion, i loved the show ... we need to keep in mind that this was not is not the "Real Tour" ... these are like practice sessions we get to see ... before they go on a FULL TOUR ... so lights and so on are not going to be a huge productions. well i was impressed like i always am, and now I need to go to the other two shows. So I'm going to get some sleep and then catch a flight to Reno ... damn