03/28/2006

A couple weeks ago was the NIN show in Atlantic City. We all went down early in hopws for another soundcheck and such but that wasnt offered this time around. instead I found myself in the most unorganized venue Ive ever gone to. they couldnt figure out how to set up anything for the waiting lines of people, for willcall ticketing, or anything. to make matters worse, this was a giant indoor hotel, casino, show venue, so the waiting was all inside, and being in Atlantic City, people can smoke indoors. To me, this was very aggrivating. sitting in other peoples smoke for any length of time starts giving me a headache. so finally its time tom go in... the Spiral members got to go in a whole 15 minutes before the rest of the crowd.. personally I dont understand why they even bothered... especially if there was no soundcheck to see. we get in and this Saul Williams guy comes out to do his opening rap... now.. Im sure theres someone out there that thinks this is ok.. but persoanlly, that was a horrible thing to have to sit through. very rarely do I feel like I should be drinking to get through something.. but this was just about that bad. this guy is yelling in to the microphone, with no sense of rhyme or rhythm as his little cronie sits there with probably the cheapest sampler jhonneys discount electronics had to offer. the act was bad. there was no substance. his words made sense here and there, as a lot of it was complaints about society... but other than that I couldnt even understand half of it... I think Trent has been purposly booking opening acts that are bad so that it makes NIN look even better... and NIN is so good, that thats not necessary... The Dresden Dolls were ok.. but still, on stage they are a little weak because they need that studio production to fill in whats missing.. When I saw Nine Inch Nails at Madison Square Garden in 2000, he had A Perfect Circle opening.. that was actually good. granted that no opening act is ever seen as all that great because no ones there for them, so the enthusiasim isnt at the level that it maybe should be... but APC was pretty good.. everything opening for NIN since has been sorta pathetic... that Queens of the Stone age... as good as they sound on radio.. didnt impress me one bit live.. and that Death from Above 1979 was almost enough to make me want to leave the building... Saul takes the cake though as probably the worst opening act Ive ever had to sit through. for the next go-round, we will be blessed with Peaches, which based on the web site, looks like another struggleing artist thats willing to do an opening show for pennie. Trent says it will be good though, so lets hope hes rights... and then theres Bauhaus which has some potential to be entertaining... so back to the actual show... Saul finishes his musical rant, and leaves. crews come out to clean up the 1 square foot of space his show required, and to set up for NIN... they turn on some lights and smokemachines to get the place ready, and in about 10 minutes the fire alarm goes off. we sit there for a good hour before the fire department shows up to determine that the smoke machine set off the fire alarm... well duh... by now, between all the unorganized bullshit in the halls and this smoke machine bit, were all wondering if this place has ever actually booked a concert before. and how ironic is it that a place that allows people to smoke indoors, would have a fire alarm trip from a smoke machine that doesnt even make REAL smoke!? its not like its burning wood to make this effect.. its a god damn halloween prop for christ sake... so anyway, all that behind us now, Trent comes out and he himself is just ON FIRE. he was so pissed off about the nonsense that they didnt even play pinion for him to walk out to.. they just hit the lights and went straight in to Mr. Self Destruct, which was completely amazing. that is a great tune, and his anger made it even better. they then went in to a few more angry tracks and then took a break for Trent to complain about the House of Blues, which he dubbed The House of Shit... myself all night was calling it The House of Fuckups, but Trents variation was good too. you can see someones sideways clip of part of that little complaint speach here. Which leads me to yet another complaint about this place, and probably a number of others... They made me check my camera in at coatcheck and had the nerve to charge me $2 to do so.... but every fucker with a cellphone that has a camera built in that many times have a higher megapixel capability than my camera does, is allowed in. that is just a big old W T F. dont let a guy bring in a camera.. but let everyone else bring in a camera phone... All that effort to get my $2 yet here we see this video clip online THE NEXT day... but anyway.. The show ended up being amazing, Trent was all fired up, and it made for a very entertaining concert.

My girl and I got a cheap room so we wouldnt have to drive all night. we stopped about an hour back in Toms River at a Best Western. I think of all the hotels and motels Ive stayed at, Best Western has been the nicest. knowing wed be near the Jersey Shore in the morning, I planned our route home to include stops at The Quickstop and RST Video, The Marina Diner, and Jay&Silent Bobs Secret Stash. She had never been there before and actually hadnt seen any of the 5 films until I showed them to her over the least year.. she got a kick out of seeing these locations, and I got her a shirt from the stash. We ate some lunch, headed home and are now ready for the next set of NIN shows.. which with any luck, Ill have a new post about in a few days.



03/09/2006

Mmmmmm Debian.