Horelica House of Music (#3) & NIN

Welcome to week three of Horelica House of Music. This episode is going to revolve around Nine Inch Nails. Why you might ask...simple answer; Heather and I saw NIN live last night at Cynthia Woods Mitchell pavilion. Before I get into that, here are a few NIN albums to take a look at.

1) The debut album from NIN released in 1989.



2) Here is the latest album from NIN released in 2005.



I think i got into NIN around '94. But it wasn't until '95 that I actually owned one of their(his) CDs. I say "his", cause NIN is really Trent Reznor. Not to belittle the rest of the band, but that's the way it is. Heather bought me Pretty Hate Machine somewhere in '95.

I never thought I'd go to a NIN concert! The violent nature of the concert is really what had kept me away. When i say violent i really mean the potential for moshing and thrashing about is quite high--expected even. Even though this was at Cynthia Woods, it's not unlike some energized concert goers to really get into the music. I would never be able to handle a general admission concert...there, i'd be sure to be trampled. Anyway, a pair of ticket became available and bandmate Ben and his girlfriend asked me if i wanted the tickets. Of course, knowing the tickets were under the covered reserve, it was hard to pass up.

Before the show, we went to Market Street in the Woodlands for dinner. Market Street is a quaint little open-air shopping "town". I say city, because it reminded us of the little square in "Back to the Future", nice little shops, movie theater, restaurants, etc. in a nice park square setting. We ate at a joint called Jasper's.
The swanky little restaurant had really good food, a bit pricey, but good!

Ok, on to the show. The first band, TV on the Radio, is a band from NYC. TVotR are an indie band with a nice sound. I was fairly impressed with these guys. They have a different sound. I suppose i'll be looking for some of their music next time i'm at the store. Perhaps you'll see them on an installment of Horelica House of Music?

The next band, Bauhaus, was pretty good too. Evidently they've been around since 1978 and are the founders of Goth music. Interesting? Their stage presence was...um...extravagant, yeah, that's a good word. The lead singer knows how to work the crowd and was quite entertaining. The good news is the music was good enough to not be completely weird to see him and his bandmates strut their stuff.

Now, on to Trent and company. The stage set up was more or less bare...6 or 7 large vertical light panels in the back of the stage, the usual rig lighting and a nifty "mall security gate" chain fencing that was lowered and raised at key points throughout the show. The show started out with the fence down. The neat thing about the fence is that it had LEDs all over it.

This was my first NIN show, so i figured the energy level was going to be high...i was not disappointed there. NIN came out hard and fast. Again, thinking ahead, we had earplugs. They protected well...and there wasn't a degradation in the sound...i could still hear everything. And when i say everything, i mean even the fans that try to sing back to the band and horribly butcher the song. Luckily there wasn't much of that, but every now and then you could hear someone...but i'd rather hear that, than not hear at all...And another odd surprise, heather and I didn't have anyone sitting on either our left or our right...we were not squeezed whatsoever...what a relief. That made the show even more enjoyable. I also had a pretty good view too. heather traded places with me cause there were a string of overly tall people in front of us. She said she didn't have the best view...i suppose we could've stepped to our left or right. Oh well...

Here is the setlist. I can't take credit for this list (it may not even be accurate). There were a few songs we didn't recognize.

Somewhat Damaged
You Know What You Are?
Sin
Terrible Lie
March Of The Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
Closer
Burn
Gave Up
Help Me I'm In Hell
Non Entity
Only
Wish
La Mer
Into The Void
The Big Comedown
Suck
Get Down Make Love
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

My favorite songs of the night were Hurt and Head Like a Hole. Once Trent started to play Hurt, some guy behind us yells out, "Alright! Johnny Cash!" Yep, for those that don't know, Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails and he did a damn good job too. Head like a Hole had a lot energy and was a good way to end the show. The guitarist, Aaron North, was throwing his guitar about...and when he went to pick it up the strap had come undone. He tried to continue to play it without the strap, but that proved to be too difficult...so he chucked the guitar into a speaker cabinet. That didn't satisfy him, so he pulled it out and repeated the assault on the speaker cabinet...

All in all, it was a pretty good show. I've been a long time fan of Trent and it was cool to see him live. Although honestly, i wasn't blown away like i thought i would be. There are other concerts that rank higher than NIN, but it was still awesome to see a legend in the business. I do seem to rank it higher and higher the more i think about it, but Bowie is gonna be hard to top. I'd probably rank this concert in the top 5. What are your top 5 concerts?

Now, that i've seen him live, i can truly appreciate the DVD that i have.
Here is a bit more information about NIN.