So well jealous of everyone who saw 'em back in the nineties. I've been a fan since '93, but for some reason it then took me 14 years to make it to a show.
Of course then it should have been an epic occasion, making it up to Brixton for the 2007 tour. Just to show how underwhelming an experience it was, I can't actually remember which date it was. I'm guessing the 11th (http://www.nin.wiki/2007/03/11_London,_UK) just on vague memories of what was played.
Damn! What a setlist huh? It should have been awesome, but I think I was in a bad mood generally, and the people I was with were annoying me. On top of that the crowd was made up of a mixture of sweaty devil horns throwing metal 'dudes' and too cool for school nu-goth posers (I'm such a snob). Just to finish things off - I've honestly never been able to get down with that era band. Of course Freese is a legend, and Cortini is close to a legend, but the North / White axis up front just leaves me cold, and I'm glad neither stuck around for too long.
Anyway, it wasn't all that bad of course, and maybe after so long I had built up my expectations so high that reality had no chance of comparing. I feel like an ungrateful git for not having as good a time as I should have, but that's how it goes I guess. Maybe there are a bunch of people who saw NIN in '94, or at the '09 TDS shows (dream come true) and didn't have an amazing experience either.
In contrast though my second NIN show was a belter - 2014 at the O2. A much suckier venue, with a fairly generic setlist in comparison, but I really felt I was seeing a much better band, and I had a hundred times more fun. There's probably a life lesson in there somewhere.