June 3rd, 2000
San Diego, CA
COX ARENA

My first show was during the Fragility Tour and I can remember my mom allowing me to skip school so I could go wait out front of ticketmaster to get tickets. I secured GA tickets and was thrilled to finally be able to see my favorite band. Went to the venue super early and met a couple of people who I am still friends with to this day. We swapped stories about how we all got into Nails and what our favorite tracks were from The Fragile. After the show I made my way to the back of the venue and waited to see if we could catch anyone before they got on the tour bus. After waiting nearly three hours, a security guard came out and told us that TR was going to come out and say hello, sign some autographs, and that we could take one photo with him. By this time our group had dwindled down to about 15 people and we all lined up to get our chance to meet the man. When it came time for me to meet TR I was as giddy as a school girl and nervous to boot. I shook his hand, handed him my ticket stub while thanking him for taking the time to come out and say hello to everyone, and the snapped a photo real quickly before walking off. Just as my friend was heading up to meet TR, I turned around and said "Hey Trent, do you think you will come out and say hello to us fans in Anaheim?" - Anaheim was on the 6th and was the next show on the tour - He looked at me, smiled, and said "yeah man, I think I can do that." I walked away from that experience in total awe as I never thought I would get a chance to meet the man who has helped shape who I am as a person. My friends and I went to Denny's later on that night (it was sort of a tradition for after concerts) and I remember sitting there in the booth holding my ticket in the Fragility ticket holder thing and couldn't believe I had just met TR.

A few days later I went to Anaheim and saw them again which was another great show. A good portion of us who were waiting in San Diego showed up at the bus ramp in Anaheim, but sadly TR didn't come out. While we were waiting thought, a talk skinny guy with fucked up hair started to make his way up the ramp. The lighting was really poor so it was hard to see who this person was. At first we thought it was a roadie, but as he got closer we couldn't make up our mind if he was or not. He walked passed us and no one said hello or anything and thats when he turned back around to us while saying something to his friend and that's when a girl noticed who it was.....it was Robin. He seemed kinda shocked that no one asked him for a autograph and was a little upset once we finally figured out who he was. He signed one signature for the girl who called out his name and then shuffled off to the tour bus. After that we waited another 30 minutes before calling it a night and then made our way to our car so we could get started on driving back to San Diego.

And there you have it, my first two NIN shows were 17 years ago...christ I'm getting old...

*SIDE NOTE* who remembers the ETS member passes that were made during the first leg of the WITH_TEETH Tour? I still have mine and keep it with my backstage pass collection: