Tag Archives: Nine Inch Nails

Just three songs?!

05 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by in Music, My Journey, Writing101

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s prompt is to write about three songs that are important to you, and I’m really struggling with it. There are so many songs that are important to me, and the songs that speak to me at one point in time are different to the songs that speak to me now.

I remember when I living in Thomastown, I would have been 22 or 23 I suppose, and I used to get terrible bouts of depression. One of the things I found that really helped, sometimes, was to really just indulge in the feeling. I would turn the lights out in my room and lie on my bed in the dark listening to Muse and Nine Inch Nails and crying. It was a release.

Music has always played an important part in my life. I remember the music that my partners and friends exposed me to; Sean and Slayer, Kelly with his numetal and trance music, Damien who introduced me to NIN and Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah, Wade, gorgeous Wade, who introduced me to so many fantastic artists and bands, and who had an amazing knowledge of all of them, even now I can recount some of his interesting tidbits when a song comes on the golden oldies station in he car. Wade was the one who opened the door to Leonard Cohen, and made me see the beauty in his version of Hallelujah. He showed me Johnny Cash, and Nick Cave, and The Angels (vale Doc), and so many more. Richard who lent me the entire discography of Pink Floyd. Aaron who showed me the genius of Dolly Parton and Elvis. And Paul for Die Antwoord. And Louise, the best poet I know, who shared Radiohead and PJ Harvey with me. And Jonathan and Gabrielle for Queens of the Stone Age, and Serge Gainsbourg, and The Cramps. And Simon and Kat for The Nymphs and The Bluebottles. I could go through almost my entire collection and tell you who each artist/band came from.

There’s something about the relationship between who shared the music with you and how you feel about that artist/band. Something more powerful than the music itself sometimes. An almost magical force that ties you together, the sense memory of the good times and a feeling of knowing the musicians because of how well you know the people who first experienced it with you.

For me, I could never pick just three songs. I could never say it’s ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’, and ‘The Perfect Drug’ and ‘Creep’. Because it’s Johnny Cash singing ‘Hurt’ and it’s Nirvana singing ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ and it’s PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke crying over Nick Cave, and it’s Skrillex dropping the bass, and it’s Michael Bublé making my knees tremble, and Tom Waits’ grumbling, and so many more.

And that’s not even counting the classical music that I played for years when I was in orchestras and bands, through high school and uni. It’s the solo in Scheherazade that I never got right. Or the operas that I see with Mum every year. Or the emotional roller-coaster ride of a great film score. And it’s fucking around with a bass guitar in my bedroom when no one is home.

Someone asked me once what song would I want to have in my head for the rest of my life. It was in highschool, probably 1999 or 2000, and I was obsessed with Marilyn Manson. I said ‘The Man That You Fear’. If you asked me today, I couldn’t tell you.

Music is mood, and music is meditation, and music is motivation, and music gives meaning to life. And that’s why I can’t tell you three songs that are the most important to me.

In which I am a groupie

16 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Music, My Journey

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you’re a follower of this blog, you would know that I went to Sydney last week to see NIN, QOTSA, Brody Dalle and Sweethead and it was amazing. Last night, on the spur of the moment my other plans having fallen through, I decided to go again.

This time in Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, a venue about a third bigger than the Sydney Entertainment Centre, I saw the same line-up, in the same order, but what made it all the more exciting was, I can honestly say, the shows were significantly different.

Brody Dalle and band were awesome again, even with Brody’s voice suffering a bit from getting a lurgy. Her guitarist was wearing a NIN shirt, which I thought was pretty cool, and she was looking the part of Rock Goddess wearing all black. More than a week into the tour they seemed to have settled into their role as openers, so much so that Dalle tried to get the crowd to sing ‘Kookaburra sits in the Old Gumtree’ with limited success. I’m all for audience participation, and I think it’s great to get the crowd energised, but that song is super naff, and I think the rest of the audience agreed. That being said, seeing them perform a second time I felt like I was better able to appreciate the musicality and skill of their work; I had a better understanding of where the music was going, what it was trying to say, and as a result I was able to rock out harder than at the Sydney show.

NIN were on next, unfortunately this was the same order as I saw the show in Sydney, but that was about where the similarities ended. While many of the tracks on the setlist were the same as the Sydney show, there were also a number of tracks that were not played in Sydney, and according to Gabrielle, a friend who saw both of the Melbourne shows, were different to Friday night too. I was disappointed to hear that NIN brought Mariqueen Maandig out on stage to do some How to Destroy Angels songs on Friday night, I would have really loved to see them performed live and to see the dynamic between Mariqueen and her husband Trent on stage. It does give me something to look forward to though, one day I’ll see them.

The crowd last night were much more into NIN than they were in Sydney. I haven’t had the privilege to see the same band play to different crowds in person before and I am truly astounded by the difference it makes to the quality of the experience. I mean I know I said that the show in Sydney was the best thing since sliced bread, and it was at the time, but I can now say that last night’s show was better. There were moments when the whole mosh pit threw their arms up into the air with Trent, something that didn’t happen in Sydney, and perhaps indicative of a larger overlap of NIN/QOTSA fans among the Melbourne audience.

As with Brody Dalle, being the second time I attended I was able to get different things from the experience, specifically (and perhaps as a result of being on the other side of the stage) I was able to get a better understanding of the talents of the people in Trent’s band; the drummer, Ilan Rubin, played guitar and cello, the guitarist, Robin Finck, played violin and synths, and keyboardist, Allesandro Cortini, played drum machines. I know that Trent is a hard task master, and a multi-instrumentalist (as demonstrated by his playing saxophone on one of the albums) and it is clear that he surrounds himself with others who are just as talented.

Trent Reznor and NIN perform 'Hurt' at Rod Laver Arena, 15/3/14

Trent Reznor and NIN perform ‘Hurt’ at Rod Laver Arena, 15/3/14

The set was finished with Hurt, as it was in Sydney, and I suspect every set NIN does. While in Sydney, with a lower energy audience, this left me feeling a bit bewildered and sort of melancholy, last night it was just the right note to end on; beautiful, thoughtful, classic NIN.

During the break I decided that I had to race off to the merchandise stand and get myself a tour tshirt, something which I didn’t do in Sydney because the line was moving too slowly and I couldn’t be bothered waiting. I also invited Gabrielle to sit down with me (I had better seats than she did and the seat next to me was apparently vacant). We then got chatting with a guy sitting behind us and, between the two of us, became the biggest combined NIN/QOTSA fan ever listing every album both bands had ever released and evangelising their virtues to this English tourist. Hopefully he came away enthused about the music and not thinking that we were idiot savants or complete weirdos.

And then came QOTSA, who entered the stage to their same countdown and who went straight into the head banging, ear bleeding, heart pounding rock that they do so well. I may have thought that the crowd was into NIN, but I will freely admit that the response to QOTSA was even bigger. Gabrielle and I discussed later that perhaps it’s an attribute of NIN’s music that makes the crowd ever so slightly more subdued, maybe it’s the undercurrent of melancholic misanthropy or perhaps it’s the irresistible beats of QOTSA that make you want to move. Like NIN, QOTSA played quite a different set list to what they played in Sydney. I was interested to note that while at the Sydney show every song was accompanied by an animation behind the band, they had animations only on about half of the tracks last night. To be honest, I prefer it when there are songs which are just the band. The animations, as interesting as they were added another dimension to the songs and therefore, in a way, detracted from the ability to focus on the music. Having a break in which I could really focus on Joshua Homme’s Elvis-eque hip-shaking guitar work, or Troy Van Leeuwen’s sliding footwork gave the show a sense of light and shade which added to the experience for me.

QOTSA perform 'The Vampyre of Time and Memory' at Rod Laver Arena, 15/3/14

QOTSA perform ‘The Vampyre of Time and Memory’ at Rod Laver Arena, 15/3/14

To top off the evening, and after spending the entire night chair dancing, I decided to get up out of my seat to dance to QOTSA’s encore set. I had mixed feeling about the concert etiquette of this in the seated section but most of my section were standing so I decided it was fine.

In summary then, I have to say that I know the expense of seeing these bands perform a second time might seem like a waste, but for someone like me it was certainly worth it. As I get older my appreciation for the art of live music is growing, but I will probably never have the chance to see two (well, three) such amazing bands, for whom I have such love and respect, play twice in two weeks again, and that my friends, is why I did it.

Epic Night of Epicness – A Review

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Music, My Journey, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Featuring: Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Brody Dalle and Sweethead.

It’s Thursday 6 March, 2014. The day starts with me getting up at 6am. I stumble around in the dark (yeah it’s dark then, who knew?), get all my shit in order and head out the door of my house at about 6:45am towards the train station. What follows is this:

Walk to train.
Train to city.
Bus to airport.
Plane to Sydney.
Train to city.
Walk to hostel.
Go for lunch.
Accidentally buy shoes.
Then come back to my room for a little lie down before heading to the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

If you are planning to see these guys play during their current tour DO NOT READ ON! Seriously, spoilers and stuff. Trust me when I say going in without preparation will make it so much better.

The gig officially starts at 7pm with Brody Dalle and her band. Being a bit of a nerd, and believing that you should give support acts your time, I turned up very early. I had time to have a bit of a chat with some of the staff behind the bar, with the ushers, with the guy who checked my ticket at the door. I was clearly one of the very few seated audience members who thought being early was a good idea. The standing area (mosh pit) was about a third full, but the stands were conspicuously empty.

As a result of having a chat with the usher, he offered me a seat upgrade. What a stroke of luck! I ended up being five rows from the front of the seated area, off to the side (but at a better angle than my original tickets). Score!

At bang on 7pm Brody Dalle and her band strode on stage. There were still very few punters in the audience, but to their credit the band seemed unphased by this.

Brody Dalle and band performing at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, 6/3/14.

Brody Dalle and band performing at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, 6/3/14.

Dalle herself is a fantastically rock front woman. She has a killer vocal style which sits somewhere between singing, screaming and growling. I honestly don’t understand how she can talk normally and still produce such intense, guttural sounds. She is slim, blond, and knows she’s kicking ass. Her stage presence unquestioned. I was not familiar with Dalle’s body of work, but I feel like this is something that I should address at my earliest convenience.

The set list is as follows:

  • Die on a Rope (The Distillers song)
  • Dismantle Me (The Distillers song)
  • Rat Race
  • Don’t Mess With Me
  • Meet the Foetus/Oh the Joy
  • Ghetto Love (Spinnerette song)
  • Underworld

Following her set, the roadies cleared the stage and started putting up new equipment. It had not been announced who, out of NIN and QOTSA, would be playing first, by all accounts it was going to be decided by coin toss, but the keyboards and synthesisers on stage made if pretty clear that NIN would be on first that night. I was exceedingly excited. I have been a fan of NIN for a long time, ever since a highschool boyfriend introduced me to their work. I’ve listened to Trent Reznor’s singing, screaming, yelling and crooning to soothe me to sleep on more than one occasion after a bad day. I’ve bounced up and down to them at parties, and more recently I’ve used their newest album, ‘Hesistation Marks’ as motivational music at the gym. Something about Trent’s cold, controlled fury and industrial beats really helps when I’m doing weights!

Nine Inch Nails perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, 6/3/14.

Nine Inch Nails perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, 6/3/14.

So at 7:50pm, when the smoke machines covered the stage and the lights went down announcing the band’s presence on the stage, and Reznor’s legendary self at the front I screamed and whooped and bounced and was generally filled with nervous anticipation.

The NIN setlist was as follows:

  • A Warm Place
  • Somewhat Damaged
  • 1,000,000
  • Letting You
  • Terrible Lie
  • March of the Pigs
  • Piggy
  • Sanctified
  • Came Back Haunted
  • Me, I’m Not
  • Copy of A
  • Survivalism
  • Only
  • Wish
  • Burn
  • Gave Up
  • The Hand That Feeds
  • Head Like a Hole
  • Hurt

The highlights from this set were the entire arena yelling ‘fist fuck’ in Wish and Trent’s dance moves (an honourable mention should also go to the manskirt that he was wearing). I also very much enjoyed that several of the songs played were remixed versions, and the audience were required to pay attention to find out what the song was. These were moments of uncertainty followed by a collective cry of recognition from the crowd. In addition to being generally awesome, Trent jumped down off the stage and touched the crowd and the mosh pit lost its shit.

I took a few photos, but I made a conscious effort to enjoy what was happening in front of me. In an age where I can see a concert through the lens of a camera basically any time I want I wanted to savour the experience of actually being near one of my all time favourite performers.

Once the set was finished, with ‘Hurt’,  a song choice that seems to be a signature of NIN but none the less has pros and cons (pro: it’s a fucking amazing song, con: everyone felt a bit deflated by Reznor’s emotional rendition of a difficult song) there was another short interval in which the stage was completely reset.

NIN had a fairly empty stage; they had low hanging lights, used a lot of smoke machine and used the lights to carve trails through the smoke. The effect was pretty cool, if occasionally a bit too heavy on the smoke so that the band members were obscured. QOTSA had a massive screen behind their set, they had big red, retro-looking speaker stacks on the stage, and they had laid what looked like shiny red linoleum on the floor. If not for the fact that I was there, I wouldn’t have believed it was the same gig.

On the screen behind the stage a huge countdown introduced them. As the band walked out, Joshua Homme had some serious swagger going on (although as a rock star wearing a leather jacket and a guitar it would be hard not to swagger). It was very attractive. They then dove straight into a powerful set which was full of their great songs and had everyone in the house going off tap. The mosh pit was writhing like a living organism and a couple of times when I looked over a circle had appeared in which some patrons were clearly dancing with considerable vigour and the others decided to give them some space. I worried that someone had started a fight, but I think it was just good natured overly excited dancing.

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, 6/3/14. This is during the epic jam.

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, 6/3/14. This is during the epic jam.

The QOTSA setlist is as follows:

  • You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire
  • No One Knows
  • My God Is the Sun
  • Burn The Witch
  • Smooth Sailing
  • …Like Clockwork
  • If I Had a Tail
  • Little Sister
  • Fairweather Friends
  • I Sat by the Ocean
  • Make It Wit Chu
  • Sick, Sick, Sick
  • 3′s & 7′s
  • Better Living Through Chemistry
  • Go With the Flow

Encore:

  • The Vampyre of Time and Memory
  • Feel Good Hit of the Summer
  • A Song for the Dead

The highlight of the show was the epic jam that happened in the middle of one of the songs (I think it was ‘3’s &7’s’, but let me know if that’s wrong), the song lasted for about 15mins. The band would be jamming away and they’d go to a quiet part and the crowd would think they were done and cheer, but they weren’t done.

I’ve read some reviews which were of the opinion that QOTSA played a better gig. I have mixed feelings about that analysis. Sure, QOTSA had a more pronounced crowd response, but I would argue that their music is better suited to rocking out than NIN. Additionally, Reznor has said in interviews that he has been striving to make the shows interesting for him to play as well as interesting for us to attend. I think that part of that manifests as a slightly experimental, and as a result more challenging concert experience. Additionally, for this show anyway, the audience were much drunker by the time QOTSA got on stage so that probably helped too. I should probably mention here that I’ve been a NIN fan for longer than QOTSA so I guess I’m always going to think they’re amazing.

It was now 11:30pm but my night was not over! After the last song of the QOTSA encore, I gathered myself up and headed up to the Oxford Art Factory to see Sweethead; a band composed of two guitarists, Troy Van Leeuwen and Dean Fertita and the drummer, Jon Theodore, from QOTSA and singer Serrina Sims.

Sweethead front woman Serrina Sims performs at the Oxford Arts Factory, 7/3/14 (technically, it was after midnight)

Sweethead front woman Serrina Sims performs at the Oxford Arts Factory, 7/3/14 (technically, it was after midnight)

I didn’t know any of the songs, and I’d only heard about the gig a couple of days earlier when it was announced, but I thought for under $20 it was worth checking out. I’m very glad I did! Sweethead are a tight bunch, they have consistently rocking tunes and Serrina does some excellent front woman work. From the black catsuit, to the thigh high diamonte heels to the repeated pouring of liquid over herself, she doesn’t shy away from the spotlight. I would have liked her vocal to be turned up a bit more in the mix but other than that it was a stand up show. The set was only 30 mins, having starting at 1am after already playing a set of well over an hour, you couldn’t blame them for keeping it short and sweet.

I have put a couple of pics into this post, but for the comprehensive set, check out my facebook album. My thanks also go to Tone Deaf for the setlists.

I’m not going to try to rate my night because I think trying to quantify it into something that simple looses all meaning, but it was, truly, one of the most spectacularly memorable nights of my life. Well worth the ticket price!