August 7th, 2008Concert Review: Nine Inch Nails Lights in the Sky Tour
Let me start off by saying I was very, very nervous to go to this show, because of my panic disorder. I had not been downtown in over a year, and just going 10 minutes away from home can result in a severe nauseating panic attack. I managed to not only go downtown, but go to the concert without any panic attacks. I did have some anxiety, but that’s nothing compared to what I was expecting to happen. I’m very proud of myself that I went and enjoyed the show. I was scared I was going to get downtown and have to go back home, or not even make it downtown and have to go back home.
I got to the show after the opening band, Deerhunter, were finished playing. I usually don’t like opening bands, and I checked out these guys before the show. They are really crappy, and I just had no interest in being bored to death by them before watching Nine Inch Nails. I grabbed a sub from Mr.Sub before the show and stood outside in the pouring rain eating before going inside the Air Canada Centre. I then went to the gate for the presale ticket holders, which was on the south side of the venue, right under the Gardiner Expressway. As I said it was pouring outside, and every time a vehicle would hit a puddle on the highway above, a huge wave of water would fly down on everyone outside the gate. Turns out you have to get your ticket from the will call/box office back at the main entrance to the venue. So I had to walk all the way back there again, and then go back to the gate entrance. Annoying, and now I’m wet. At least the ticket is really cool!
Once inside, I got a bottle of water, which they had to pour in a cup. The woman working was extremely slow and did not seem to enjoy her job very much. When working in a place like that, you need to be fast, but apparently she doesn’t realize this. Then I went to the nearest stairs to get to the floor. Once I entered I was told by an usher that I would have to walk to the end of the venue to get to the floor entrance. Then when I get to that entrance and walk down the stairs to the floor, the usher there tells me I need to walk to my left, back off of the floor again, and through some hallway that is normally VIP only, and then go through another entrance to the floor, where I am finally on the floor! Woohoo! Time to find my friend Melissa. I found her no problem at all within 30 seconds. Then after chatting a couple of minutes, I call my other friend Genny and her husband Rob, and while I’m talking to her I turn my head, and she is waving at me, about 20 ft away. So I found the people I was going to the show with in no time at all! Very nice considering there is roughly 16,000 people in attendance! After chatting for 3 or 4 minutes, the show starts.
Highlights of the show for me was The Frail leading into Closer. That was totally not expected. Usually The Frail leads into The Wretched. The lighting and visual effects at this show was unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life.Absolutely mind blowing stuff. They had some kind of screen that came down in front of the band, and it reacted to light and I guess also if you went near it, it would react to proximity. So if the screen were all static and Trent walked near it it would create a hole through the static, so you could see him behind the screen.
I didn’t like how they did a section in the middle of the show with a bunch of songs from the Ghosts album. I would have preferred they leave out all of that material. I don’t much care for the album, obviously. I felt it broke up the set too much, and made things calm down too much. That material maybe would work better at the very beginning of the show or completely on it’s own as a different tour.
Piggy was amazing. The drumming by Josh Freese was just incredible. I’m so glad he’s drumming for the band. He is just a machine. I don’t know where he gets his energy from. He must consume crazy amounts of sugar and caffeine. Terrible Lie was another really good one. Normally I’d be tired of that song after hearing them play it every time I’ve seen them, but the energy of the song this time was definitely the best song of the night for me. It was unbelievable. I couldn’t help but scream the lyrics along with the rest of the audience.
Survivalism was pretty awesome too. The stage had screens behind the band with surveillance cameras planted throughout the venue. They even had one in the men’s washroom showing the urinals. There was one in a hallway where a fake arrest (I assume), of someone was acted out. Very very cool!
I am really tired of hearing Hurt, and Head Like A Hole, and Closer, at Nine Inch Nails shows. I know they are favourites and classics, but ugh too much of the same songs now. I was really disappointed that we didn’t get the good songs they played at the European shows last year. They played songs like Ruiner and Heresy from The Downward Spiral. Also We’re In This Together from The Fragile, which had never been played anywhere else besides that tour. So when we didn’t get any of those I was sad.
Echoplex was really awesome live too, as the drum machine was actually the touch screen behind the entire stage. When the "buttons" were touched, they reacted as if it was the drum machine itself. Very awesome! In This Twilight was played, and it was so good. It was played after Hurt though, which felt strange. I would have preferred to have Hurt taken out of the set list, and replaced with something else followed by In This Twilight as the closing song. Or maybe Right Where It Belongs.
Then the show was over. As we were walking off of the floor, a security guard was handing out the band set lists from the stage. Oh my god amazing!! I looked at it and on the top it says Chicago. Kind of disappointing that it doesn’t say Toronto, but they played the same set as they did 2 nights before in Chicago, so I guess they just used the same one and didn’t bother to change the city name. Still though. Very cool! This is the only set list I’ve ever obtained from a big band.
To see the rest of the photos I took of the night click here.
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