it is my sincere wish to never return to fresno or tour stop number one:
let me make a few things clear right off the top.
1. i attended all three shows
2. i intend to write up something for each one
3. people irritate me
4. i drove the whole way
5. i never remember setlists
6. i don't wait around for fucking autographs
7. to quote hst, "sleep is for the weak"
8. weird shit happens when i am around
if you have any questions, please refer to the previous list.
my tale begins on the 405 fwy heading towards LAX. i am on the way to pick up global mod/all around cool person, exit domina. you wish you were lucky enough to hang around with her for three days. but you aren't; so you suck.
her plane is late from seattle [apparently, it never showed up that morning from spokane. things like that happen] my cell phone keeps ringing over and over again, since i am supposed to "caravan" on the way up to fresno with a bunch of other nuts who are only attending the show that evening. this is making me break out in hives. i also am not looking forward to the drive for which i have not yet calculated the distance. this was intentional. it was the equivalent of putting a scarf over a horse's head to keep them moving in the middle of a barn fire. yeah, i hate travel.
exit gets picked up from the aeroport and i race over to the palms 7-11 to meet up with the car that carried skwerl, andy, dennis, and ying. i pray that andy doesn't speed and jump out of the car in the parking lot to scribble down the catalog number of my tires so that someone who we are meeting in fresno can buy some goddamn snow chains for the reno leg of the trip.
now, i have some serious welts.
andy does well in the not speeding category, since i figure getting stopped for a ticket would be counterproductive to our already late running schedule, but i still lose sight of their car in bakersfield.
lots of pork in bakersfield.
anyway, in some hick station about 25 miles or so outside of the lovely burg of fresno i stop for gas. after the tank is full, exit points out an humungous rainbow and takes pictures. i point out that i keep seeing rainbows everywhere since hunter s. thompson gave himself the hemingway floss. exit opines that this is probably the residual effect of the many psychedelics hst consumed working their way into the atmosphere. i figure this is as good as an explanation as any i could have come up with.
then i buckle up and turn the key.
just guess what happened.
yep, i have a dead battery, it is around four p.m. and fucking fresno rolls up their sidewalks at dusk. i run in and get the clerk to use the cables. seems to happens a lot around those parts according to this dude, but it doesn't make my anxiety about the reno drive any better.
while driving the rest of the way, i realized that to make sure that we don't get stuck on the way to reno, probably in the lovely donner pass area of the sierra nevada mountains, i am going to have to get a new battery. i curse my local dealership, since i had just taken the worthless piece of shit [aka my ford motor vehicle] in for a check-up.
when i get into town, instead of making myself pretty and taking a moment to relax or eat something, i feel compelled to go find the nearest open store with auto parts. thankfully, there is a pep boys in fresno and, with minimum of flirting, i get an assistant manager to change out the battery and drive directly to the venue since it is already 7:30 p.m. by then. this is crucial to me, since i don't want to let any of the people who are scheduled to go on to reno down. i should have saved myself the trouble as it turned out.
as i have many times before, i substitute bright red mac lipstick for rest and time before the mirror.
at the venue, i pop myself into the line with the rest of the party. this is where i am introduced to uncle drunkie. while swinging my arms, i nearly decapitated the family jewels. luckily, cliff let that one slide. once we get through the search, which was only mildly amusing, we all head out to our separate seats and wait.
here is where i get to the actual review:
carre calloway: eh, not my fave but i give her points for braving the crowd and trying some "interesting" rhyme schemes. the most embarrassing one was something about ripping a dress and tying some shoes. since you are unfamiliar with the frog water induced magnetic poetry that litters my 'fridge, let's just say i don't have all that much room to criticize.
also, kudos to thems that are in charge since they gave someone who isn't well known a shot. see, now. that review didn't hurt a bit, now did it?
what i shouldn't tell you that my seat was actually in row h, but for a brief shining moment i was in row b. had the person who actually bought that seat not shown up as nin was to take the stage, i could have had the privilege of sitting behind fresno dayve. as it was, i got chased out of the row by an agitato lady with large flashlight. she apparently thought it a priority to chase away the 5 foot 3 and 3/4 inch latina with pigtails instead of the pierced rock dude whose ticket she didn't check.
what a wonderful world.
as the show starts, i submit supplications to the elder gods to smite all fresno residents cruelly, but vow to never again count on sneaking up again. properly chastened, i recommend that wisdom to all you little kiddies out there.
cheaters never prosper.
song time!
you know what you are: new song, ballsy to start out the set out with after a long absence from touring [or showing up in public, releasing music in general]. i like what i hear.
love is not enough: a little lower key than the first number, but contains sentiments that i totally agree with. yes, i'm bitter. there is a certain tentative quality to reznor's performance at this point, but i chalk it up to the long absence and the lack of energy coming from the seated venue. imo, seated venues with no pit area for fans to rage in take the edge off the maniacal nature of rock shows. possibly the only mistake of this warm up series was choosing this venue [and the founding of the township of fresno, ca by settlers who needed to lay off the sauce, but that is hardly the fault of the band].
march of the pigs: aarrgghhh!
line begins to blur: sounds good and i think this is where the band started to click as a whole. this is also where i notice that reznor seems to be enjoying himself. awesome.
piggy: at least the songs that contain the word "pig" were separated by another song without pork.
terrible lie: okay, but there was a curious lack of forward motion on this one.
the collector: MORE NEW SONGS, GOOD! forward motion regained.
closer (the only time melody into reworked bridge): this is where the crowd first went nuts. i can only say for myself that the first time i heard both the return to the original version [vs. the stretch funk version from fragility] and the reworked bridge made me realize that some experimentation was going on.
home: i hafta admit, i don't remember this one too well. prolly was too jazzed about "closer". it could also be my lousy setlist memory. sue me.
burn: you already know how this was announced, but i can tell you the shock of reznor speaking in full sentences and announcing songs [and not to be mean, saying thank you] was totally wiped out by the complete and utter gobsmack of hearing the opening notes of this song. it was done well this evening but sounded even better at the next show. still, since i never thought i would hear "burn" - one of my all time faves - at a live show; the entire situation still leaves me aghast.
gave up:
!! this song would have gotten three exclamation points had i been closer to the stage. such is life.
with teeth (a): now, there has also been a lot of talk [of the fecal variety] about this song and its presentation. i can tell you that part way through the song i felt constrained to start text messaging people on the east coast and canada about it. for all the smack that has been shouted about the live version of this, the loop on nin.com has been derided even more ever since it was posted.
my text message?
""with teeth" makes sense now. oh, ye of little faith."
as for the tambourine, it was at this point that i realized that not only were we witnessing the warm up shows, but we were also here to see reznor takes some chances. as i have noted to friends before, sometimes when you take chances you run the risk of falling flat on your ass, having a lot of fun, or hitting it out of the park. my feeling is that the tambourine was somewhere between the latter two. i especially like the "rawk" move of t.r. throwing it backwards and leo somehow catching it. said tamb. was electric blue and some people have carped that it should have been black and that reznor should have smashed it. while i think that is a nifty idea myself, i don't recall seeing a suggestion box in the lobby, so tough shit. a wise woodland creature also pointed out that while the tambourine is a new feature at nin shows, it is not exactly new to rock in general [see: ozzy osbourne, robert plant] and was not to the level of say, trent whipping out a
triangle or anything. this makes me want to tell you haters to chill out. aren't you supposed to really like this band or something?
even deeper: i <heart> this song and am ultra happy they played it. the end.
hurt: reznor on stage with only a keyboard for the first few stanzas. eyes get teary and the lighters come out. those of you who mock the rock move with the tambourine get to eat your livers now, since
i know your punk ass was singing along and you were holding hands with your lame boyfriend/girlfriend, concert buddy, or random stanger who wept in your arms. the rest of the band comes back for the big finish and everybody reaches for a tissue.
wish: nice change of pace from the previous selection. i always mistake this song for "last". sorry if i got you all excited about that.
the hand that feeds: slightly lower energy song that made for an less than graceful transistion from "wish". i enjoy this song immensely and, while there really wasn't any question - at least in my mind- that it would be played, i wish it had turned up somewhere else in the song order, since i like it that much and i felt the crowd to be not totally with it because it followed "wish".
starfuckers: i think quite a few people were surprised by the inclusion of this song. i know it is one of the songs that divides the nin community. i like it, so i was happy.
head like a hole: hafta say i was overjoyed by this set closer. not only was it done with great energy it was a experience to not have to leave on a "down" note, like with the traditional "hurt" finale.
well, i kind of got into it earlier but i felt that some of the rules were being cast aside and new territory was being staked out in nin-land. this is all kinds of good and continued at the other two shows, but since this venue was so static, i had no choice but to really notice it. i say bully for reznor stepping out of the comfort zone.
i say again, please let reznor stick to his guns. it's working and it is appreciated.
The show was amazing! I have never seen NIN play before and I was very impressed, especially with he lapse in time since trent last performed live. I was very entertained thru the entirety of the show, and I will definitely buy the new album. The bass player spit on the drummer twice which i though was odd, maybe an inside joke or something? Energy on stage for the whole band was high. Although the opening act was pretty, musically I left unimpressed. Her guitar playing was not in sync with the drum machine many times.
. I think I saw V_N_D with one. 
would be totally cool tho.....
