Live And In The Flesh
Nine Inch Nails - May 9, 2005
My very first Nine Inch Nails show ever. Where do I begin? First off, by this point in time I was already a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, and had never thought I would get the opportunity to see them live. Trent Reznor had placed the band on hiatus following the band's Fragility Tour in 2000 shortly before I had begun attending concerts, just my luck. Maynard James Keenan's new side project A Perfect Circle had just been starting out and would open for them during that tour. Disappointed that I couldn't have made it out to one of those shows. Five years pass, as the typical band's hiatus comes and goes, and we hear of something brewing in the NIN camp. Trent had found sobriety and was now more tuned into his craft than ever and was ready to drop his latest album, With Teeth which was due to come out just a week before showtime!
I managed to grab tickets to their Spring Live: With Teeth 2005 Tour and I could not have been more excited! So excited that we decided to make our way down to Toronto to get in line by 4am just to ensure we were able to secure our place front and center on the railing. This was our first Nails show ever at twenty years old, it had to be done, we needed that guarantee! We secured our place in the lineup and got settled in for the long wait. Yes, there was already a line formed, Nine Inch Nails fans are pretty intense and some of the most devoted I've seen out there. It has developed into quite the community fan base over the years. You get to know someone after waiting in line with them for over twelve hours. After we got to know a few of the other diehards we decided to take a break from the lineup and head out for some breakfast, do a little sightseeing around Toronto bright and early on a Monday morning, and take a trip up the CN Tower (when in Rome). The day was already long enough without these breaks. We made our way back to the lineup to let the next lucky soul stretch their legs a bit.
The wait was finally over and they were letting us in the building! We were lucky to get to see them during their Spring warm up shows which was just a small club run. They had the Kool Haus down by the Docks booked for two nights of mayhem, this being the first night. Kool Haus was a small 7000 capacity club which was all one level and seemed more like a warehouse than anything. Having just seen Queens of the Stone Age at this venue a few months earlier I knew what I was getting myself into. We made our way through the doors and rushed the stage. Front and center! We looked at one another and the first thing we said to ourselves was that we better hang on tight, and were we ever right about that. What was to follow that night was by far one of the best shows I had ever been to period. And that says a lot.
The Dresden Dolls came out to open up the night. I hadn't really heard of them before this and didn't get a chance to check them out before the show. They were definitely not what I had expected out of an opener for my first Nine Inch Nails show, but I understood why Trent had brought them along for the tour. They had put on a solid performance throughout the entire thirty to forty minutes that they were up on stage. The duo based out of Boston were unique, painted up as mimes and exuding this cabaret style, they were true performers. The vocalist/pianist Amanda Palmer really blew me away with the amount of talent that she had expressed throughout their eight song set which consisted of a cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs.
Now onto the moment we had all been waiting for… the lights dimmed down after the break between sets and we had begun to hear the track Pinion getting louder, and louder! Nine Inch Nails hits the stage, and they come out fast and furious! Straight into one of their fastest tracks off of With Teeth - You Know What You Are? The energy by this point is just pumping through my veins. The crowd was going insane, the band was literally a few feet in front of us and we were having the time of our lives! Next thing we knew March of the Pigs was starting up and the place was going wild! We were hanging on for our dear lives to that railing up front. If we didn't, we were going to be swept away within the mass of humanity behind us, and then the break within the track happened. The crowd erupted as the band busted back into the song, experiencing that front and center was incredible, and that was just the beginning! Something I Can Never Have, a classic from Pretty Hate Machine was played next, which allowed for a bit of a breather which was nice. As I hear the beginning notes of Reptile I felt the hair on the back of my neck begin to stand on end, definitely one of my favourite tracks off of The Downward Spiral and I was surprised to be hearing that live.
Trent and the rest of the band were destroying Burn, their track off of the Natural Born Killer's Soundtrack, when he decided to make his way down to the guard rail, right in front of us! He takes a step up to address the sold out crowd of 7000 while we help hold him up. We feel the pressure of the thousands of other people pressing up against us as they all tried to touch the Nine Inch Nails ringleader. We couldn't believe that this was actually happening! The moment was surreal and before we knew it he was back on stage. It turned out to be one of the only times seeing him play the track No, You Don't off of The Fragile album which was great. Nineteen songs in total that night were played, and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. Wrapping their set up with Wish and Head Like a Hole simply left me wishing for more.
On the way out of the venue Amanda and Brian of The Dresden Dolls were thanking everyone for coming out. I stopped and thanked them for such a great opening performance and asked if they could sign one of their promo CD's that they were handing out, always nice to see them trying to connect with new fans, and it certainly made an impression on me. The show finished up and we climbed into the car for the four hour trek home, yet again running solely on adrenaline. Since seeing them nine other times throughout the years after this May 2005 performance, this would be by far the most energetic, the most raw, the most memorable one ever. It seemed like Trent had something to prove to himself that first tour back out on the road again, and he had certainly returned refined and more precise than ever before.