My (long) show recap ahead:

My girlfriend and I drove up all the way from Baltimore because I got my tickets from ticketmaster — missing the presale/modlife tickets — and then they added the Silver Spring show, but ticketmaster wouldn't refund. We got there around 5 or so. Upon our arrival we ran into... uh, I'm really bad with names... I'm guessing m0reta, a guy from Israel, a guy named Israel, a girl with a name that starts with B (you told us to say "red shirt!")... We were later joined by sick among the pure, a couple from Boston/LI, some guy that was just watching everyone and laughing.... um, anyway, you can see I'm terrible at this naming-people shit. Moving on.

For the record, I'm not much of a "big show" guy so this was my first NIN/HTDA show despite being a long-time fan of TR and related works.

Our man Israel was definitely the most excited of the bunch. I only had one extra P8M CD on my person and he snatched it up from me, like, on the spot. After that I held onto his Olive Garden bag while he circled the building at least a few times, managing to snag pictures with both Atticus and Trent. I did manage to run across 125th and meet Atticus after he snapped pics of the Apollo Marquee, you might actually see me in the middle of the street if he posts them somewhere. Atticus was very kind. I introduced as "8-bit NIN guy" for the hell of it, and he asked me about my toolset, so we talked about that, etc. Very neat. I got a photo of me being all giddy, I think I'll spare you guys from my horrible face for now and just post it to facebook later.

It was pretty surreal to be recognised by at least half of the people I met once they knew I was "the 8-bit Nine Inch Nails guy". Everyone was very friendly. Even Atticus knew who I was, which freaked me out a bit. I handed out some stickers in line and a few download codes for the album. I can't thank everyone enough for not punching me in the face for ruining their favorite album .... or whatever other criticism I got back when P8M was announced.

After we all reconvened in line, someone (I should probably know who he is) was handing out NIN stickers/postcards/etc. Then a venue organizer stopped me to ask what was in a box I had on me. I showed him that it was just where I was putting my swag, and also I had a copy of my own CD I wanted to see if I could get TR to sign. Oh, and also I have a complete-in-box Robotron 2084 for the Atari 5200 with the dual-joystick holder, which was another signing option if Trent thought I was being an asshole for asking him to sign my own album. He asked how I thought I was going to get it signed, mentioning stage diving and other hijinks. I mentioned I was hoping for something after the show, asked him if I had the crazy eyes, and he said no and moved on.

Speaking of robots, we were also joined by Rob Milus / robot_32 who I actually got to meet over the weekend at a convention and hang out with. Great guy. I did what I could to embarass him in line by introducing him as the "HTDA fan video guy". Us tribute folks gotta stick together, you know?

A number of people asked if we would be joined by Leviathant but he did not make the show. Also there was some buzz about Mariqueen breaking down in NJ. Everyone was concerned that someone insulted or harassed her. From what we were able to figure out it was just a very intense moment for her during the show. I heard the Boston show had a number of people ho-humming like bobby and they were actually just standing around not doing anything, not even looking at the show. I haven't read any other tour threads (other than Chicago) yet, but hopefully it wasn't because of that. It was very refreshing to see everyone caring.

The ticketmaster and modlife lines were on opposite sides of the entrance. We yelled and waved at the modlife peeps from the ticketmaster line as they were let in because, shit, we were all friends by the end of waiting in line, why not say hi? There were a few people in the modlife line that waved back at us, but for the most part we got confused looks. Oh well.

7.15 rolled around and we were in like clockwork. Both of the lines were really short (which was a little surprising) but the venue began to fill up nicely. I was originally a bit distraught that we hadn't gotten "Orch" seats but the Lower Mezz seats were pretty awesome and the Apollo is a neat place. I was also surprised to see a restroom attendant. Several of the venue personnel had never heard of Nine Inch Nails and had no idea what to expect. I found this amusing. There was a joke at one point about the HTDA show being the most white kids that had ever been in Harlem. After finding our seats I went downstairs to buy some merch and the guy running the merch table told me to put some of my cards on the display spread.

The show in and of itself was fantastic. I wasn't a huge fan of DIIV but their set ended better than it started. There were conflicting opinions from various people I talked to as to whether the DJ replacement on the show (shows?) they couldn't make was good or bad. Anyway, the HTDA visuals were great. As someone that has been coding for awhile I definitely have a lot of respect for Rob and everyone that helped to put the set together. It's not always easy to put together visuals that work well live. Lots of cool ideas explored. I'm not going to spoil it, but some of it really reminded me of demoscene stuff, which is where my "chiptune heritage" stems from. I already like the music, so the new experience was definitely those.

I did have my cellphone out a bunch of times, mainly to snap some shots and video. Being in the seats, I tried to keep my screen and brightness down but sorry if I upset anyone with it. It doesn't have a flash — and with how vivid the visuals are, you don't need one — so at least I wasn't one of "those" people. I did hear from a few people that they were bumped unapologetically or had some other negative experience with someone that claimed to be friends with someone in either band (or their guests), but I didn't personally have that experience.

I found out there was no signing table, and there was badge checking at the "Guests" room (where all the friends were), so after the show was over, I popped around back to see if I could maybe get my goods signed. I was the first one out there, and there was a long wait before we even saw anyone. The Apollo staff approached me and said they had to gate off the area, which made sense. There were a few points where we caught one or two of the band members coming out of the back door, but sadly no one ever approached us. In the end, there was maybe only a dozen or so of us out by the gate waiting quietly and patiently for something to be signed. One of the gates got moved and we made it around to the entry of the bus, but everyone was already on board and we were shooed away. The bus completely left the premises very shortly thereafter.

At the very last minute I was able to hand off an extra copy of Robotron I had to the tour manager, who said he'd hand it to Trent sometime today, and then my girlfriend and I headed off with Rob Milus to the nearby White Castle to have an anti-victory dinner before dropping him at the subway and heading south again.

I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to run into anyone other than Atticus, but shit, at least I got to meet Atticus, and the show and community was worth the drive. There might be family along on the tour and I understand there were a lot of friends in NYC, so we're hitting the Silver Spring show tonight to try again very shortly.

Signing off for now!