After having suffered last night from the jetlag I feel now refreshed enough to give my 2 cents about the STL show.
I stopped by the venue at about 11 am to get some orientation about the entrances, the presale pick up window etc. I had a short talk with some hardcore fans who more or less camped in front of the entrance (a boy with long hair and a laptop and a girl with brown curls). I saw you later in the first row and hope you enjoyed the privileged place!
Then, I visited the gateway arch, returned to my B&B for a short break and then went back to the Scottrade Center to pick up my ticket.
As everyone in the presale line cheered at about 3:30 pm I almost got a heart attack because I thought someone important would show up. But it was just the will call window finally opening ...
After having got my ticket I went to the Hardrock Cafe but there was no one there so I had lunch in the Union Station, then watched other fans feeding gold fishes in the pont between Union Station and Hardrock Cafe and then returned to the venue to find out that the line at the GA entrance was like 300 feet long. After almost another hour (felt like 3 hours) of waiting I found out that the presale entrance was at the door next to the one in front of which my line waited and that there was no line at all at this door. Great organization, thanks! I asked the young guy who checked my ticket to send someone who would tell the other presale ticket holders about the right door as there were many of them in the wrong line but he didn´t care. Than they forgot to give me my wristband. And I didn´t know that I needed one, that has never been the case at other concerts I went to except festivals. With that time loss (plus the T-shirt buy) I ended up in like 8 th row or so. Next to me where Jen and Steve (Nice to meet you!) I was impressed by Jen´s longterm fandom and by the young age of the girl behind her (she was born in the year when Jen became fan

). I think the crowd was an interesting mixture of longtime fans and very young people and everything in between (like me).
I have to say that I really enjoyed APTBS. I already liked the song on the tour sampler. But I admit that I like goth music very much so the melancholy of their songs felt alright to me. I had the impression that the majority of the audience didn´t feel the same way. The guy next to me asked shortly before the end of their set "Have they started the second song yet" because he probably thought it sounded all the same. However I had a good laugh about that comment.
During the break between APTBS and NIN I wondered about the silence in the crowd, no one screaming for NIN or starting to sing one of the songs ...
When NIN entered the stage I was even more wondering about the restrained reaction from the crowd. And as they started with fast and aggressive songs I wondered even more about no one jumping or even raising their hands. I´ve never seen anything similar in a NIN show. I mean, there were just the first 6 rows right in front of Trent doing at least something that looked like moving to me. I watched that until MOTP however and then decided that even if this was not the way you behave at a show in the US I would not stand there like a dead during that song. So I jumped (I did not mosh though). If I had known that this was unusual in 7th row left to the center I would have tried to make my way to the first centered rows. But before the show I thought that this position would be hard enough to survive. So this is a question not a reproach: Is it impolite or inappropriate to jump and mosh during a rock concert in the US? Or is it that you are tired of the old songs? Or have you moshed during the 90s and now prefer to listen to the audio details during a live performance? I am just wondering because I experienced it very differently in Berlin and especially in Prague. If I pissed someone off I am sorry. I couldn´t avoid landing on the foot of the girl behind me sometimes (and she was very afraid because of her cell phone, too) but I did my best to jump just high and not the site or back and forth. (And I still think that if you want to write sms you should not go to a concert but to a coffee shop.)
I started to ask myself if Trent would cut the show short because of disappointment about the crowd. But he did his best and the band was awesome, too. And I think I don´t have to start about the visuals. Man, that was mindblowing!
After – I think it was Me I´m not – the crowd began to cheer much more than before. So I had the impression that it took a long time to warm up but then it got better and better. I was glad to see that the newer material is so well received in shows. Everyone really digged the YZ and Ghosts stuff. It might have been my special ear plugs but I heard no one shouting during the quiet songs and instrumentals.
I was sincerely grateful for Terrible Lie as that wasn´t played at the last two shows I went to. I loved that camera gag during Survivalism and Josh´s solo at the LED screen during Echoplex. And Only was so cool with that visual effect!
The Big Comedown and Reptile were a sweet suprise (I didn´t look at the setlists of the previous shows of this tour not to spoil the experience). I never heard them live before. Thanks! And like everyone I loved the live version of God Given. Looking so forward to the bootleg of this show!
And I was so happy to hear the "old version" of Hurt. That´s awesome! I took the earplugs out during this song and In this twilight. And I have to say at that time the cheering was really loud and that made up for the slow reaction in the beginning. I also loved the warm applause that the band members got when they left the stage one after the other. That was love. They really deserved that after an awesome show with brilliant sound. And did I mention the visuals?
I´d also like to say hello to the bald guy to my right. We didn´t really talk much but I appreciated being your neighbour. I could hear your singing along quite well and it was not bad at all. Also your lyrics knowledge impressed me. Was there any line that you got wrong at all? You could become TR´s prompter
McGrew I saw you in the presale line. I wish my parents had been as cool as you when I was a kid!
And flawlessutensil, thank you for all the youtube clips!
Sorry, this was a bit long. But that show really deserved an extensive comment. And please don´t feel offended that I called the crowd lame in the beginning. It really changed after the first third. And I am just a tourist wondering about your manners and customs.
And Trent, I totally understand that you had had a bad day. I met a person who claimed to be the promoter of the show the evening before. He was a drunk, short, salacious guy named Don. The first thing he told me (I hadn´t even asked) was that he was the person to take you to the strip clubs in the city. And there was no doubt about how to get a backstage pass. I spared me that. By the way, I was the one telling him that I couldn´t go with him because I promised my father not to go out with strange men. He couldn´t stop laughing about it. I guess he told that every single person he met afterwards. He thought I was so uptight about sex and left me alone. God, stupid people are so easy to manipulate ... So, if he actually was the promoter and if you had to spend the day with him I totally understand that you were pissed off. He might be more likeable when not drunk though.