Quote Originally Posted by Fred View Post
Mine was Roskilde Festival, July 3 2009.

Having missed their previous gig in Denmark on Performance 2007, I knew I needed to go. I didn't attend the festival itself, but got a one-day ticket and hung around for the day in anticipation. Also got to see Faith No More, which was cool, since I was and am a fan of Mr. Bungle.

The video of from that show speaks volume about the energy. I was right in front, slightly to the left of Robin, and I'll never forget everyone jumping along to that song. Trent was clearly in a good place on that tour, getting into the songs in a big way. He tossed his guitar into the air at the end of Gave Up, and had a bit of fun banter going with a fan who held up the "Important pre-show ritual" picture. If I remember correctly, he asked to see what he/she was holding up, grinned and went "I remember that picture." As someone who became a fan in 2002 as a 13- or 14-year old, it was really great to see that Trent could give the songs the punch they needed, but also allow some of his real-life happiness to make it way into the show. I was in a happy place at that time myself, so it kinda felt like everything coming full circle.

I liked the setlist a lot, even if I lost out on Closer. Mind you, I fully believed this would be my first and last NIN gig, since Trent had made it fairly clear he would stop touring after that year. But there were some nice surprises. I wasn't familiar with Metal, so I spent the next couple of days binge-listening to that song and getting into Gary Numan. I loved hearing I'm Afraid of Americans, though. And Heresy, which was just insane to witness, given how rare that song is. I do remember thinking it was weird they didn't play anything from The Slip. This was, after all, their first trek across the pond after releasing it. I wonder it it sold poorly in Europe? I don't suppose I can convince anyone that, contrary to what every setlist online says, they didn't play Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now). I wish. But it was just the regular, old, boring Piggy. I've tried editing that on setlist.fm god knows how many times, but someone keeps reverting it. Oh, well.

The rest of the band was pretty great. Near the end, I was yelling at Robin and raising my first in approval, and he reciprocated it. Great fucking moment, since I count the man as one of my biggest guitar inspirations. Justin was slightly subdued, but I had anticipated that beforehand. His manager's young son had just died, so he wore a black armband for the performance and generally didn't thrash around much. Musically, it was a treat, though. I was quite impressed with how well they sounded after losing Alessandro and replacing Josh. It was a raw, dangerous affair, but the quieter selections were still hauntingly beautiful. I walked away extremely satified that I'd finally gotten to see them.

Finally, here's the only worthwhile photo I have from it. Phone cameras were obviously way shittier back then, and I only took three sub-par photos anyway. I didn't feel like holding up my phone constantly. But here's a decent one I got of Robin and Trent. This is during La Mer, I think:
I attended that show too! I was right in front of Robin so i guess i was a few people away from you.
I agree it was an awesome show, i loved when they played "Metal" and "I'm Afraid of Americans".
I also saw Faith No More and it was glorious, i loved Roskilde, i want to go back again to the festival.

Needless to say; that wasn't my first NIN show, i'll talk about it in another post...