2014.05.23 - London, UK @ The O2

[TheBang]

London.......

[echoespaul]

Highlight, o2 staff coming to my seat and trying tell me I can't film. I was only taking photos!!

[[parasite]]

well I really enjoyed that!

[simonn]

Excellent show. If I have one criticism, it's that I'm too short! Thank God I've got great seats tomorrow, as the only time I saw all 4 members was when I was pogoing to HLAH! Hurt was awesome, and crowd was virtually hushed for it, which was great.

[[parasite]]

I'm now hoping someone was able to get a great audio recording of the show!! please!

[miss k bee]

Glad that I got to hear The Frail and Wretched this time. As i was in seating got some very good pictures of the stage. Crowd seemed more lively than in Birmingham. Was bit jealous that I wasn't in standing but had an excellent view of the stage.

And I agree it does feel short!

[witte]

Thank you.

[[parasite]]

loved it! shame a bout some people drinking a little too much, but all in all great, but no Terrible Lie or The Big Comedown but I can live with that!
oh also was the O2 nearly sold out? looked pretty packed

[Vertigo]

Am I the only person who liked Cold Cave?

[quantumepiphany]

First time seeing NIN live outside of North America, and it pains me to say this but I was expecting a lot more out of the crowd. As a basis of reference, the last time I saw them live in a non-festival setting was a town 4 hours by bus away from a major city. I couldn't get GA tickets but I figured at least I'd be in a section with other fans (who would have bought tickets from NIN.com itself) equally excited to be there. Props to the people on the floor who did react on some sort of visceral level past Closer/THTF/Hurt, but being in the presale seated area, asides from a few people the next section over, it was all pretty sedate. Everyone sat the entire time being pretty non-responsive to external stimuli, (Came Back Haunted? ever even heard of that song before?), and I was actually asked to sit back down by a mid 20s male during March of the Pigs. Meanwhile, in the same section for Depeche Mode a few months back and everyone stood up the moment the band took the stage and stayed there until the end of the encore.

Anyways, great to meet a fellow ETSer, and I genuinely hope everyone else had a great time. Enjoy the rest of your night :D

[filmfanb]

^^^^^ ya it was pretty much sold out from what I could tell. a few drinkers around but not much to be distracting.

Wow.

That was worth 7 years of waiting.

I arrived about half way into the cold cave set. Grabbed a tshirt and a poster on my way in.
Cold Cave were so average. It was like a art school project gone wrong. The girl really had nothing to do. The music isnt as awful as I expected.

Anyway, the MAIN event.
Fuck me. It worked for me all the way through. I was off to the left slightly and half way back. I need somewhere decent being 5'6 and got a good spot. I danced to every beat and sang every word. It was intense. The lighting was stunning and also the crowd really got into it where I was.
The good thing about NIN is the crowd that have been there from the beginning are older and calmer and just want to enjoy the concert as much as possible. Everyone around me was atleast 35+ and still rocked out with out being twats.

The Great Destroyer though...fucking hell......the visuals and the break down. Everyone around me danced almost all the way through and during that backdown EVERYONE was stopping and starring . Some brain wash shit right there. Loved WISH and the lights during HLAH where mental. TDTHWA had me in tears. I cried the whole way through. Its a song I connect to a strange time in my life and it just brought back a lot of those feelings...as all good music should....

Anyway love this picture on the twitter

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/10345551_10152019753491065_7854197042833350968_n.j pg

[filmfanb]

Also trent seemed in a pretty good mood

[Yuppyslayer]

I was a bit underwhelmed, at first, thinking we wouldn't get much Hesitation Marks material, but really pleased with what we got. Anyone know who the main security gut was, at the front? He was singing along to every single song. He was almost as loud as NIN during The Wretched.

[simonn]

^^^^^ ya it was pretty much sold out from what I could tell. a few drinkers around but not much to be distracting.

Wow.

That was worth 7 years of waiting.

I arrived about half way into the cold cave set. Grabbed a tshirt and a poster on my way in.
Cold Cave were so average. It was like a high school project gone wrong. The girl really had nothing to do. The music isnt as awful as I expected.

Anyway, the MAIN event.
Fuck me. It worked for me all the way through. I was off to the left slightly and half way back. I need somewhere decent being 5'6 and got a good spot. I danced to every beat and sang every word. It was intense. The lighting was stunning and also the crowd really got into it where I was.
The good thing about NIN is the crowd that have been there from the beginning are older and calmer and just want to enjoy the concert as much as possible. Everyone around me was atleast 35+ and still rocked out with out being twats.

The Great Destroyer though...fucking hell......the visuals and the break down. Everyone around me danced almost all the way through and during that backdown EVERYONE was stopping and starring . Some brain wash shit right there. Loved WISH and the lights during HLAH where mental. TDTHWA had me in tears. I cried the whole way through. Its a song I connect to a strange time in my life and it just brought back a lot of those feelings...as all good music should....

Anyway love this picture on the twitter

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/10345551_10152019753491065_7854197042833350968_n.j pg

Must've been pretty close, was about 5 yards in front of mixing desk to the left of it, quite a few lively people near me, myself included. TGD was just mind blowing, and Hurt bought a tear to my eye, in a very good way. Loved every minute once Cold Cave (aka 21st Century Blancmange from now on) left the stage. If Nottingham thinks I'm sitting all night tomorrow they can do one!

[miss k bee]

First time seeing NIN live outside of North America, and it pains me to say this but I was expecting a lot more out of the crowd. As a basis of reference, the last time I saw them live in a non-festival setting was a town 4 hours by bus away from a major city. I couldn't get GA tickets but I figured at least I'd be in a section with other fans (who would have bought tickets from NIN.com itself) equally excited to be there. Props to the people on the floor who did react on some sort of visceral level past Closer/THTF/Hurt, but being in the presale seated area, asides from a few people the next section over, it was all pretty sedate. Everyone sat the entire time being pretty non-responsive to external stimuli, (Came Back Haunted? ever even heard of that song before?), and I was actually asked to sit back down by a mid 20s male during March of the Pigs. Meanwhile, in the same section for Depeche Mode a few months back and everyone stood up the moment the band took the stage and stayed there until the end of the encore.

Anyways, great to meet a fellow ETSer, and I genuinely hope everyone else had a great time. Enjoy the rest of your night :D


I was at a Depeche Mode show at the 02 last year as well and I agree when the band came on everyone in the seating section where I was stood up pretty much for the whole thing, not so with NIN, muted my enjoyment a bit.

[quantumepiphany]

The good thing about NIN is the crowd that have been there from the beginning are older and calmer and just want to enjoy the concert as much as possible. Everyone around me was atleast 35+ and still rocked out with out being twats.


The Great Destroyer though...fucking hell......the visuals and the break down. Everyone around me danced almost all the way through and during that backdown EVERYONE was stopping and starring . Some brain wash shit right there. Loved WISH and the lights during HLAH where mental. TDTHWA had me in tears. I cried the whole way through. Its a song I connect to a strange time in my life and it just brought back a lot of those feelings...as all good music should....


Anyway love this picture on the twitter





That is an awesome photo.


Totally happy you and everyone else had a great time. And reading this reminded me of the first time I ever saw them live and how much it meant to me. TGD live definitely gets me everytime. I was going about as insane as I could have during TGD/Wish/the rest of the concert -- 5 foot 3 Southeast Asian girl headbanging while seated -- at some point I stopped feeling self conscious and did the best to (non-disruptively, in a stereotypically polite Canadian way) enjoy myself!

[InnerLondon Skywave]

I loved that show!
I was in the standing area and the crowd was going fucking nuts. I been to 12 NIN shows, since 2005 and i dont think i have been in an audience that were losing it to that degree. Which was weird, I expected the gig to be more mellow given NINs recent sound,and the video of the U.S tour, but at times during the oldies like Wish, Gave Up, March of the Pigs it felt like i was at a Slayer concert or something by how physical the audience were. It was not intimidating it was good fun!
There were at least 10.000 people there.
Im glad they played the O2 instead now. the music felt epic in that enormodome venue. It was much better than the 2009 show in my opinion.

I liked Cold Cave too, especially their first song, i definitely was not bored, i want that lead singers Leather Jacket. always feel sorry for support bands anywhere but i was suprised i liked them. Much better than Ladytron and Dresden Dolls and some of the other NIN support bands in the past.

Only gripes, the security at the O2 are really overbearing, and The Becoming to my mind has never worked live, It always sounds like a totally lesser, clunky, version of the recorded version on the Downward Spiral.
I thought the Wretched and The Day the World Went Away sounded best tonight.

[jubilee]

My third time seeing them, first time seated and probably the best set list I've seen personally.
TGD was mesmerising (my brother: he's making white noise into music). Thanks for the photo, I could see it from where I was but that angle is great.
We were seated up near the top of the back left, the view of the stage was great and ..
Actually, hold the fuck on!!! Am I the only one that thought they couldn't have sounded better? I mean it could have just been the arena's superb sound system and acoustics (it wasn't) but everything just sounded so thick and immersive. The drums were shaking my heart. THE WRETCHED!
Tonight's was also (for me) the best set list witnessed. Highlights were The Becoming, TGD, opening with MIN and TDTWWA near the end. Some of these choices surprise me too. Well structured for sure and the very few HM songs were a delight but PLEASE wont you start playing Discipline again?!?
Fuck that song sounds so great live, underrated?
Some people asking me to sit down near the end I didn't know what to say, I thought standing was pretty normal and I had been standing up pretty frequently. I wasn't really sure about the formalities in seating at the time. Got home and read the back of my ticket , clearly states in the t&c's : In seated areas other people might stand up in front of during HLAH. Ah well I'll know for next time.
Anyway, nothing could sour my night or indeed my memory of the performance and I really couldn't have enjoyed the music more.
p.s during a toilet+ break I remarked to my brother that I thought it was funny they had such a terrible song on in the foyer+ in the toilets. It was "yellow" by Coldplay. When I said this and giggled I got the dirtiest of looks from the guy at the next sink to me. He was clearly a fan.

[sheepdean]

I got so bored during cold cave's set that i started playing sudoku

[simonn]

And I agree it does feel short!

You misread my post, I said I'm too short!!:p

[Furie_Zacharias]

I saw a lot of people wearing shirts with this version of the NIN logo:
http://photos-b.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-prn/927034_278305105681377_1503193868_n.jpg

I tried looking for the merch stand but I couldn't find one. Any idea where I can pick one up online?

[witte]

^misschien in amsterdam of antwerp?

rond 17:00u toen we de O2 binnenliepen, zag ik er nog voldoende hangen in de eerste stand...

[Trains]

Glad everyone else had a great time! My fifth time seeing them and it surpassed all my expectations. I couldn't have been happier with the set-list. Sure, when I saw them in 07 and 09 they were breaking out a bunch of deeper cuts like Last, Metal and Somewhat Damaged, but I'm still thrilled with the arrangement from last night.

I actually really enjoyed Cold Cave, they weren't the most exciting band to watch perform onstage but I thought their music was solid. I thought their sound was in synch with the current vibe from NIN. Got a Numan meets The Horrors feel from them, I preferred them to that Mew band from 09. I was less-than-wowed by the merch stand, but still picked up a shirt.

As to the show itself...just damn. It was so good. The band were on form. I was right in the front-center/left of the crowd most of the time, about three people back from the barrier. Considering I was going to settle for being halfway back at first, I'm pretty damn chuffed I got almost all the way to the front. Thought the crowd was great, a little rough at times but everyone was considerate and having a good time. Probably the most fun I've had seeing NIN. Highlights for me...seeing TGD, opening with Me, I'm Not (very strange choice but it worked for me), the pogos during Copy of A and THTF. The Becoming and TF/TW had the intensity of previous shows, and Gave Up and Wish never get old. And I can definitely say I'm not jealous of everyone who saw Tension and LITS anymore. The lights were insane! Also, loved that there were some 'geeky' moments in the light show for those that picked up on it -- I spotted The Presence in the TGD breakdown a few times, could have sworn the opening music sounded like a mashup of The Downward Spiral and The New Flesh, and when that snake from the Hurt video showed up in the last song I just got goosebumps. And when TDTWWA started and it turned out to be the Fragile version and not the live one...wow, that was the absolute highlight for me.

[Kamelion]

Fantastic show. Met great folks in the presale line - early morning crew ftw! :). We were right on the barrier in front of Trent - such an amazing performance. The security guys on the front were top-notch and NIN's crew were consummate professionals from start to finish. Just what I needed after 5 years without a NIN gig :D. Roll on Nottingham!

Oh, and to the guy who hit my wife and stole her setlist then ran off into the crowd, you are a worthless sack of shit. And to his father, who stood up for his son's disgusting behaviour, you are an embarrassment to all parents everywhere. Fuck you.

[icklekitty]

@filmfanb (http://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=3375) - stealing that image for my Facebook wall!

Nine Inch Nails played some nice songs tonight. Nothing I haven't heard a lot already, but Nine Inch Nails songs are nice so I enjoyed. I knew a lot of regular humans going to this show so it's been fun to watch them flap about things that we take for granted (i.e. gigs where the band give a shit). Most of my group were in seats, so we had a nice reunion at the bar while Cold Cave were playing.

The setlist was livetweeted to the Thisoneisonus twitter if someone fancies pasting it here.

After the show I went to Reptile for the afterparty with my goodies for the giveaway, got drunk for free, ate birthday cake, and met nintourhistory. Fun times.

[houndington]

Great gig! The sound was incredible, way better than in Berlin. After the Berlin gig I almost didnt bother coming to this as I really thought I'd never experience a better NIN show, but I guess I was wrong...

[echoespaul]

It was a brilliant show from start to finish. Couldn't be happier with the pre-sale seat I got. Set list was great. Lighting was brilliant. Really glad they had the big projector screen too, especially for Hurt. Agree the merchandise wasn't fantastic which is a shame. I'd love to pick up a decent quality NIN shirt that will last a while. Also interested if the 3D logo one can be acquired online. Hope it's not too long before he's back.

[Sutekh]

Day the world went away was perfect

But god I hate the o2

[Trias]

Awesome show. One of the better ones I've seen. (Okay most of them have been festival gigs). The becoming, yay.

Was right in the center up at barrier surrounded by awesome peeps.

BTW. Is the 02 the only music venue in the world without a coat check? WTH?

[WorzelG]

Wow - that was amazing, I felt a real connection tonight, it was just brilliant, and as much performance as light show. Saw it with my sister who has just been out of the loop with all things NIN and only listened to the album last week. But she's very much back in the fold, with comments like she'd forgotten how devastating they were live etc. Equal with Cardiff for intensity etc. Kind of bittersweet that my run of shows is over though, I really hope Trent makes a new album and tours again

[miss k bee]

Post gig comedown, no more NIN live for me now till whenever when. Ended up buying a t-shirt after the gig, bought the charcoal grey one. Shame they don't sell mugs so I can add to my small rock mug collection!

[Vertigo]

Only after I woke up in the morning did I realise that my £25 t-shirt was a ladies' (https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/10304358_10154139147900244_607054364844858087_n.jp g).
Took multiple minutes to peel it back off again, I thought my epitaph might read like a colonist's in Aliens - "they killed him taking it off."

Seriously, why are they so incapable of designing attractive men's tees for NIN? Every halo is packaged with stunning and/or iconic artwork.

[sheepdean]

Only after I woke up in the morning did I realise that my £25 t-shirt was a ladies' (https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/10304358_10154139147900244_607054364844858087_n.jp g).
Took multiple minutes to peel it back off again, I thought my epitaph might read like a colonist's in Aliens - "they killed him taking it off."

Seriously, why are they so incapable of designing attractive men's tees for NIN? Every halo is packaged with stunning and/or iconic artwork.
I think you can totally rock that anyway, but it is a shame that there's many shirts that are ladies' fit/men's fit only.

[miss k bee]

Only after I woke up in the morning did I realise that my £25 t-shirt was a ladies' (https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1.0-9/10304358_10154139147900244_607054364844858087_n.jp g).
Took multiple minutes to peel it back off again, I thought my epitaph might read like a colonist's in Aliens - "they killed him taking it off."

Seriously, why are they so incapable of designing attractive men's tees for NIN? Every halo is packaged with stunning and/or iconic artwork.

I was going to buy that but it has no back print?. So I bought the men's charcoal grey one in small. Don't know why they can't have better design t-shirts!

[dominik]

I came from Vienna for this gig and it was worth every single penny. Fuck, that was an amazing concert. The crowd was AMAZING. Somehow I managed to get to the first 10 rows without having a nin.com presale ticket. The setlist was standard but the crowd more than made up for it. Copy of A is fantastic live. Trent was really enjoying it too.. he said it was "a fucking amazing night".

[simonn]

I came from Vienna for this gig and it was worth every single penny. Fuck, that was an amazing concert. The crowd was AMAZING. Somehow I managed to get to the first 10 rows without having a nin.com presale ticket. The setlist was standard but the crowd more than made up for it. Copy of A is fantastic live. Trent was really enjoying it too.. he said it was "a fucking amazing night".

Glad it worked out well for you, seeing as it was so last minute!

[dlb]

Just got back home to Germany and all I can say is: wow! what a great weekend I had! the show at the O2 had everything that I had missed in Berlin and I had very good seats, or well, I took over some really great seats after having spotted some empty places so I could move up front quite a bit!

I liked the setlist even more than the Berlin show, except for "beside you in time" which I would have loved to have seen with the full production. either way, I got "the wretched" again which will always be my favorite live NIN tune! :) Highlights for me: me, I'm not into copy of a and the visuals for closer, eraser and hurt. So, so, so amazing to see Trent still rocking out like a boss! This whole tour definitely was worth the 7 year long wait!

My whole trip worked like a charme! I had a great time in London before the show and even got to the train to Cambridge in time without any stress. Me and my pal spent Saturday walking through the town, talking about the show and even playing pool in the college's leisure room listening to NIN. Lots of fun and I'm really sad I couldn't stay any longer in the UK and do some more shows. :)

At the airport today I even spent my last pounds on a copy of gone girl for the sake of it and to top my NIN weekend off nicely! :D

[Tchrin]

Thought Nails were excellent on Friday, crowd was a little muted, but it was my first time sitting at one of their gigs, so that might have just been the norm for all I know. Had a good crowd immediately around us though and had a great time singing and dancing along throughout. Highlight was definitely TGD which was just awesome, one of my favourite NIN songs anyway, and when those beautifully filthy industrial beats came in...it was pretty damn orgasmic.

http://tchrin.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/10414115_10152876220231982_1142643950_o-e1401050779692.jpg

EDITED to put smaller version of photo in.

[Tchrin]

Also if anyone knows of any recording (video or audio) of this gig please let me know/post! Thanks.

[Frydek]

It was a good show but overall I was slightly disappointed with the setlist. Maybe it's because I've seen NIN quite a few times since TF era but the sequence MOTP - Piggy - The frail/wretched is so predictable. Same with Eraser - Wish or THTF - HLAH. I thought Berlin's setlist was much more interesting. More HM songs. I'm not too keen on hearing the same "hits" at every single gig. But hey, I'm not sure I'm the majority as the audience always seems to go wild during these songs.

I was also very far away surrounded by heavily drunk people who kept asking me if I wanted to smoke their electronic cigarette, which doesn't help getting into it.

Paris next!

[dominik]

I was also very far away surrounded by heavily drunk people who kept asking me if I wanted to smoke their electronic cigarette, which doesn't help getting into it.

Yeah man, is that a thing in London?

[Frydek]

Yeah man, is that a thing in London?

Don't know man. Never seen this before. It actually took me a few moments to get it! One guy kept showing me his electronic cigarette but I had no idea what he wanted. I couldn't hear a thing. He kept on insisting and I finally got it :rolleyes:

[utterben]

Just an incredibly awesome, wholesome NIN experience. My heart sank a little when I heard TR wasn't bringing the full show over, but, honestly, this four-piece setup with Ilan coming forward more is really, really tight.

The Great Destroyer "2.0", as everyone says, is just mind-blowing and relentless.

Eraser sounded really goddamn meaty.

Head Like A Hole has been sounding different for sometime with the new haunting guitars over the outro, but they've definitely ramped it up even more lately. Massive, massive sound.

Seen NIN in venues large and small, but there was something about this night. It just felt really fucking solid, but definitely not too "safe".

[miss k bee]

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee348/buzzybee77/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-05/6090ff07-16e1-44f8-8e59-c1a947abdab8.jpg (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/buzzybee77/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-05/6090ff07-16e1-44f8-8e59-c1a947abdab8.jpg.html)
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee348/buzzybee77/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-05/20140523_223855.jpg (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/buzzybee77/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-05/20140523_223855.jpg.html)
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee348/buzzybee77/Mobile%20Uploads/20140523_223945.jpg (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/buzzybee77/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140523_223945.jpg.html)
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee348/buzzybee77/Mobile%20Uploads/20140523_220044.jpg (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/buzzybee77/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140523_220044.jpg.html)
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee348/buzzybee77/Mobile%20Uploads/20140523_223859.jpg (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/buzzybee77/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140523_223859.jpg.html)

[Tchrin]

Video of almost the whole concert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC_W96g1vqA

And video of the encore (as not in previous vid) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0OuynajrrQ

As an aside...seriously, who does this? who pays to go to a gig just to film the whole thing!? Is it so they watch it back and wish they'd seen it live properly?! Makes no sense to me at all

[dlb]

I'm actually glad those people exist but only if they are not standing in front of me! :D

[[parasite]]

I love those guys who record the shows! I am truly grateful to them!