2022.06.24 Clisson, FR @ Hellfest Open Air Festival

[TheBang]

Hellfest

[jshebib]

Left Nantes hotel around noon hour and arrived at the Hellfest grounds early around 1 pm to see Health but missed Youthcode. Was a rainy day and was disappointed that Skinny Puppy had to cancel. Had scoped out the park grounds the day before and this helped get me to the mainstage right away.

A bit of background, I have seen NIN about 25 times and I thought they sounded great this time... was definitely the highlight of my trip.
Will post more later but NIN show was great. Haven't seen them in about 5 years. I had hoped to go to see NIN last year in the USA ... after they cancelled I still ended up going to the LOUDER THAN LIFE fest because I had bought ticket, ended up getting COVID and not able to travel home for 2 weeks. Worst three weeks of my life basically so was pissed off and didn't want to even try travelling to the USA in 2022 to see NIN... when I heard they were playing Hellfest with dream lineup including SP that sealed the deal. Flew to Paris week before Hellfest and staying in Paris for the week after.

So, during Hellfest in Clissson, I was staying in Nantes and travelling by train (20 to 30 min ride each way) each day to see bands. Found this worked as I needed a hotel but was really tired with long days (i am 58 years old and find that after about 6 hours I just get exhausted from standing/sitting/whatever). on the day NIN played, i didn't really eat or drink (just a bit of water) while waiting the whole time... so probably explains why i felt like shit the next morning... did drink a bunch of water at the end of the show. After show had to catch train back to Nantes ... was pretty late and with walk to hotel ended up crashing around 4 am. I did go to the other day shows, tried to catch smaller bands, drank lots of water and ate lots of different vegetarian and indian food.


Highlights:
- fans were really nice
- Ministry, Killing Joke and Alice Cooper all sounded great
- NIN looked and sounded good, but i think being right up front the sound was a bit off, I was getting lots of echoing from drums and low vocals
- light show was interesting, not as fancy as early shows I have seen but still interesting
- played a lot of older stuff, not much newer (just felt that way)
- I was up against the front of the fence in front of stage, usually get punished by pushers and crowd surfers... but it wasn"t that bad and not too violent in terms of pushing and punching

My only complaints:
- show seemed short
- too much smoke - often hard to see band
- vocals too far down in the mix - often hard to hear singing - esp during Health song
- female used security problem with someone drunk or something to push her way in between me and a friend at the front -- there wasn"t really room so i couldn't talk to my friend any longer during the show (not that i talk during shows) but thought it was rude since we had both been there for over 10-12 hours waiting

Setlist (from setlist.com or something)
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Mr. Self Destruct
Wish
Last
March of the Pigs
Piggy
The Lovers
Reptile
Less Than
Letting You
Sanctified
The Frail
The Wretched
Heresy
Closer
Burn
ISN'T EVERYONE
(HEALTH + Nine Inch Nails cover) (with HEALTH) (Live debut)
Gave Up
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Hurt