Nine Inch Nails concert attendance

[halo33]

2 cents.

I went to 8 shows on this tour so far. At every stop, I have met people who told me that it was their first time seeing NIN.

Ever.

And I am not talking about 15 year olds. People all over the age spectrum, either just discovering them now, or finally getting around to seeing them after hearing from their friends what an amazing live show it was.

As Levi mentioned, TR never really "sold out" every arena show. Hell, even the first Self Destruct show I went to wasnt even close to selling out. But that has never prevented him from putting on a great show.

Trent has always dealt with people jumping on and off his bandwagon and I am sure will continue to do so as long as he decides to have a career.

[Krazy]

Still haven't had anyone explain to me why Tension is so good. All I'm seeing is how much of a faggot I am and bro and lol irony

I'm only half-trolling. I do actually not like the female vocals but that's unacceptable to the NIN community I have found out.

Go see it- no one really had to explain why LITS, or Fragility, or the 2006 summer tour was so good. If you don't like it after that fair enough, you don't like it.

I dont think anyone gone called you a homo. I'm with you on the female back-ups though, it ends up working OK but I prefer live NIN without it, kinda feel its unnecessary.

[fishtifer]

I'm only going to one show this time around, I wonder if other fans are doing the same? When the Tension dates were first announced I was excited and considered 2-3 shows in Canada but then I thought back to the Lights In The Sky tour and how much money I spent going to 4 shows, only to see a couple of songs get switched around. It started off with Edmonton/Calgary, but then Trent did the whole "curtain call" thing on nin.com later that year saying this would be the last time you'd see a large production NIN tour. I went to Kelowna/Victoria after that, only to see the same show and songs while hoping they'd play some rare stuff and switch it up a little. The open camera policy kind of ruined the NIN live experience for me too, way too many shows in HD quality on my dvd shelves and on my computer (I would keep downloading them looking for the perfectly captured show with the perfect setlist from the tour I was at), now I'm still sick to death of the Lights In The Sky and Wave Goodbye tour footage. I'm trying not to do the same thing with the beautiful HD festival shows from this year.

I was really thankful for the Wave Goodbye tour, the Toronto show was the perfect "last NIN show" for me, I finally got to see some gems like Now I'm Nothing, Heresy, I Do Not Want This and Mr.Self Destruct and met Trent and the band at the meet and greet. Now NIN is back, and fans are excited that The Wretched and The Big Comedown got played? I was really hoping they'd keep playing a few rare gems on this tour, oh well maybe next summer they'll do another North American tour in amphitheatres or clubs and play Happiness In Slavery for me.

[m15a]

i can confirm that the NYC (MSG) fragility 2.0 show didn't *really* sell out. i was alone in a section with a few my friends and some ushers. and that was a show that supposedly sold out in 2 minutes. (i wasn't able to process tickets until after about 30 minutes. ahh, the good old days!)

[sick among the pure]

I went to Kelowna/Victoria after that, only to see the same show and songs while hoping they'd play some rare stuff and switch it up a little.

Not sure if you've been following the setlists, but these shows have a much looser set from night to night than LITS. A lot of songs switched out, every single night, you honestly don't know what's going to come next after the opening 3 songs or so. Alternatively, the 2 shows I went to for LITS had song-for-song the same setlist, except the second night cut one song out (so it was one song shorter).
I hadn't heard The Wretched until the Wave Goodbye club shows, and hadn't heard Me, I'm Not until the Made In America festival this year.

[Krazy]

i can confirm that the NYC (MSG) fragility 2.0 show didn't *really* sell out. i was alone in a section with a few my friends and some ushers. and that was a show that supposedly sold out in 2 minutes. (i wasn't able to process tickets until after about 30 minutes. ahh, the good old days!)

I remember when I didn't care if a show sold out or not (wether NIN or another band), just went there for the fun of it.

Honestly dont know know why I care about attendance numbers these days- best guess is to see how relevant my favorite band/musician is I suppose.

[sick among the pure]

Still haven't had anyone explain to me why Tension is so good.

You want someone to take your hand and spoon-feed you why we are enjoying a tour that you're shitting all over without having gone to a show yet? Go in the tour journals and read people's reviews. Nobody owes you an explanation beyond what we've already said in this topic.

[icecream]

Still haven't had anyone explain to me why Tension is so good. All I'm seeing is how much of a faggot I am and bro and lol irony

I'm only half-trolling. I do actually not like the female vocals but that's unacceptable to the NIN community I have found out.

No one called you a faggot... I just find your whole attitude kinda hilarious. The whole, "say it to my face bro" kinda thing. Then add the part where you imagined people called you a fag on the internet, you are acting like the college bro archetype - "Say it to my face bro, come at me bro. I'm not a fag dude, what the fuck bro."

[Leviathant]

Still haven't had anyone explain to me why Tension is so good. All I'm seeing is how much of a faggot I am and bro and lol irony

Hi, I run this place. Who called you a faggot?

I'm only half-trolling. I do actually not like the female vocals but that's unacceptable to the NIN community I have found out.

You are welcome to your opinion, but don't troll my shit. Not even half.

[Arkadin]

The people who were around during TDS are now pushing 40 or little older. That means many won't go to a show without a partner, which takes the price over $200. Plus babysitter costs (if you can find one) and work responsibilities if the show takes place mid-week. And many of these are people who have seen NIN multiple times, so the urge to go might not be there.

Nine Inch Nails isn't really at the (U2, Springsteen, McCartney, Stones, Roger Waters) stage where they have plenty of older fans with disposable income.

Many of the younger people (did I just say "younger people") can't afford it. In my day, a NIN ticket at a college town arena show in 1994 was about $25.

That being said, I would like to see a list of bands that could sell out an arena tour like this.

[nineismine]

also - say it to my face and not the internet and see what happens bro

Uh oh! We got some internet thuggery going on guys.

[pigpen]

Tension 2013 is alright. I was more impressed with the fall 2005 WT tour, to be honest..
There's an energy that's missing now, I think. Like, instead of running, jumping, falling, screaming, etc.
They decided to put up big screens and cool visuals, and while that's awesome, I just felt less compelled
by this tour than I have with ones in the past. The additions are great, love the backup singers and the sax, but kind of miss
the aggression.
That said, Tension2013 was definitely worth attending.

[JonCh101]

NIN has been my favorite band since TDS im 32. I have been to more concerts than I can recall but for various reasons I've never seen NIN live. When he said he was going to tour again I was ecstatic. Problem is that I live in Cincinnati OH, the plan was and maybe still is to see them in Nashville. BUT....the most I have ever paid for a concert ticket was $150...for 3 days of Woodstock 99. Trent wants me to pay $118 for one show...and I have to pay for my gas/hotel room. Yea I could get a cheaper ticket, but then why go through all the effort of getting there just to sit in the nosebleeds. If I'm going to sit that far away I might as well wait for the Blu Ray concert release.


Maybe I want to take my GF...add another $118 to that. It's the price folks, if a diehard fan is second guessing going then do the math. $80 should have been the price for pit then go down from there.

[brokenfragility]

Tension 2013 is alright. I was more impressed with the fall 2005 WT tour, to be honest..
There's an energy that's missing now, I think. Like, instead of running, jumping, falling, screaming, etc.
They decided to put up big screens and cool visuals, and while that's awesome, I just felt less compelled
by this tour than I have with ones in the past. The additions are great, love the backup singers and the sax, but kind of miss
the aggression.
That said, Tension2013 was definitely worth attending.

Well, as I'm sure you know, Trent can't put on that intense-breaking-everything-super-angry show forever. NIN has to adapt with time if it wants to still be around at all, not just because of Trent but because a lot of fans (including myself) have grown a little out of the angsty phase as well. I like what they're doing now (with Hesitation Marks and Tension) its much more mature, I can see myself like 8 years ago hating it though and wondering why Trent isn't smashing everything in sight. There is a part of me that still misses hulk smash Trent though, I will admit it. Overall, I like the new direction. Change happens, and we will always be nostalgic about hulk smash Trent stomping around and rolling on the floor and screaming with no regard to personal health or safety. Those were fun times.

[Ash512]

Don't know about other shows, but 3 of the 4 shows I went to were jam-packed... Montreal, Toronto, Brooklyn. I don't know if there actually were any tickets left but the whole venue was filled up for sure, no empty section. So I guess it's more of a regional matter...

Price sure didn't help either, $100 is a lot for a single ticket. GA was a little around 60$ last time they were in Montreal.

[screwdriver]

I thought BK was pretty full too -- I remember looking around during the show and being amazed/surprised/happy by how many people were there, and wondering how so many people can like NIN and yet none of my friends do.

[ninsp]

1. No rock bands are selling out, no matter what legacy. Muse is all the rage, wasn't sold out. Radiohead, not sold out. Tool doesn't sell out. Nobody does. Hell, I saw Deftones & A7X (ew) the other night and the whole top bowl was tarped off. This is the music climate nowadays. An 80% full arena is a success as a rock band in 2013. Furthermore, Atlanta's top bowl is all sold out and most of all of the San Antonio show is sold out. This tour has been way better attended than LiTS.
2. Expensive tickets.
3. Weird cities. San Antonio but no Dallas or Houston? Brooklyn AND Newark?
4. Economy.

Lights in the Sky had horrible attendance, don't you remember Trent complaining about it? It had no publicity. This show is all over the cities and all the radio, marketed excellent so far.

Attendance has been what I expected. Near sell outs in major cities, 60-70% full in smaller cities.

Bands make their money for missed attendance in clothing and ticket prices. They know there won't be sell ours but they do it because it's the biggest size possible and lets them have a cool stage. Smashing Pumpkins routinely played to half full arenas but Corgan still turns a profit.

It boggles my mind that NIN still can almost sell out arenas. Most bands can't. Shows how relevant we still are.

[WorzelG]

^^Funnily enough, when you mention other bands, I went with my husband to see Bruce Springsteen at Cardiff Millennium Stadium earlier this year, and he played in about a third or less of the venue with the rest screened off - the stadium has a capacity of about 75,000, but 27,000 or so tickets sold (of course on the wiki entry under box office figures, it says 27,000 or so of 29,000 sold and has it at 90+% full or so, but that's crap because he played to about 50,000 there in 2008. So I guess sometimes figures are doctored to make things look better - of course he played Wembley Stadium and it says that was 100% capacity). If the Boss can't sell out places, who the hell can? Still, the world economy can't be in the shitter for that much longer I hope

[Jinsai]

love the backup singers and the sax

What the hell?!

There's back up singers and a sax player?!

[screwdriver]

Still, the world economy can't be in the shitter for that much longer I hope

take it from an inside man -- yes, it can

[ryanmcfly]

Still haven't had anyone explain to me why Tension is so good. All I'm seeing is how much of a faggot I am and bro and lol irony

I'm only half-trolling. I do actually not like the female vocals but that's unacceptable to the NIN community I have found out.

You haven't even seen a show, so I don't see why you can criticize something you haven't experienced yet.

[Joy Prevention Hotline]

Regarding Tension versus LITS, it does seem (I'll try to choose my words carefully here) "less ambitious" than the '08 shows from a technical production/visual trickery and gadgets standpoint. And it's very fair to compare the two since TR stated this tour will be where they left off with LITS and be the full-on NIN experience (or something to that effect). I've got to say the 2013 lighting and video content is much better though.

My feeling is that they don't have to up the ante on the screen/grids. The three-layer sandwich has a lot of flexibility, and with that as a base (and maybe a few refinements) they can concentrate on the new lighting and video content.

[Joy Prevention Hotline]

Not sure if you've been following the setlists, but these shows have a much looser set from night to night than LITS. A lot of songs switched out, every single night, you honestly don't know what's going to come next after the opening 3 songs or so. Alternatively, the 2 shows I went to for LITS had song-for-song the same setlist, except the second night cut one song out (so it was one song shorter).

Not to mention that it's gotta be harder to surprise people after all the stuff they pulled out for the Wave Goodbye tour.

And with so much of the set devoted to HM — rightly so in my opinion, since those songs are brand new to all of us and they don't suck — there's a limit to how much of the old stuff they can cram in there. (I am disappointed that he couldn't choose something less predictable from WT and YZ, though.)

[WorzelG]

...(I am disappointed that he couldn't choose something less predictable from WT and YZ, though.)...

How they can have back-up singers and not play All the Love in the World is beyond me?

[BRoswell]

There's still over half the tour left. Lots of time for some surprises.

[Leviathant]

Oh look. Another comment/thread where billpulsipher is complaining about something.

And instead of ignoring it, you choose to float it back to the top of the page with your off-topic reply. Nice one!

[BRoswell]

And instead of ignoring it, you choose to float it back to the top of the page with your off-topic reply. Nice one!

Yes, you're right. My mistake.

[That other guy]

For me:

I dont care if was a sell out , if 1k of 10k people showed up at a NIN show I would be concerned , pricing wise if its worth it , I would pay anything to see a band I really like ( add meet and greets to it , even more worth it.)

[ninsp]

Lights in the Sky is likely the best tour ever. This is just something similar but not the same thing. I'm cool with what I've seen of this tour so far. It's not LITS, but it's similar yet different.

I think they're focusing on the music more than they did with LITS (Trent's voice, for example) and I love the sheer musicianship on this tour. The videos I've heard all have new takes on old music, with tight, new, and incredible musicianship. That's the trade off.

[pigpen]

What the hell?!

There's back up singers and a sax player?!

Yeah man, and Benny Goodman joins TR and friends on stage for a brilliant rendition of Stompin' at the Savoy!