NINE INCH NAILS: AUSTRALASIA SPRING 2007
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA [METRO NIGHTCLUB]
5.13.07
By stacey84
Setlist:
Somewhat Damaged
You Know What You Are?
Sin
March Of The Pigs
Piggy
The Beginning Of The End
Survivalism
Ruiner
Burn
Gave Up
Help Me I Am In Hell
The Frail
The Good Soldier
Wish
Only
Capital G
Suck
Hurt [ended prematurely]
The Hand That Feeds
If there was ever a prime example of when alcohol should not be served at rock concerts, it was Nine Inch Nails first of three concerts in Melbourne. But I’ll get to that later.
After canceling two Sydney shows it was a relief to turn up to the Metro on Sunday night to find the show was a go-ahead. The club was already packed to the rafters of black-clad youth when support act Sarena Maneesh took to the stage. Their noise seemed to be just one long song as they hardly stopped for a breather. One good thing I can say about them as they weren’t the Bird Blobs (NIN’s last support act in Melbourne). By the end of their lengthy set, they had somewhat won over the NIN crowd, with a deserving round of applause.
After about the roadies set up the stage for NIN, Trent Reznor casually strolled onto the stage, followed by the band, who immediately launched into ‘Somewhat Damaged.’ This opener quickly dispelled theories that Trent’s voice may have been still recovering from the past week. Though he did allow the crowd to help him out on the “too fucked up to care anymore” refrain. The sing-along’s continued throughout the night, the size of The Metro containing the voices of everyone in the crowd. It’s amazing how people will relish the opportunity to sing swear words loudly – ‘You Know What You Are’, ‘Piggy’ and ‘Survivalism’ were ‘crowd participation’ standouts. During ‘Piggy’ Trent prowled the stage, climbing amplifiers. The beginning of ‘Ruiner’ caught fans off-guard, but once we realized what it was, it was ecstasy to hear live finally.
The band was on fire, Aaron North was hyperactive as usual and Josh Freese is an amazing presence behind the drums. Jeordie withstood persistant “I love you Twiggy!” shrieks. Surprisingly none of which came from me, and some of which came from dudes.
New ‘Year Zero’ songs such as ‘The Beginning of the End’ and ‘The Good Soldier’ stood up well against old live favourites ‘Sin’, ‘March of the Pigs’ and ‘Gave Up’. One new song that is destined to become a crowd favourite is ‘Capital G’ (played live for the first time I understand?), with Jeordie urging us to pump our fists along. ‘Only’ was outstanding, even though Trent was having guitar trouble and couldn’t properly start the song until it kicked in (‘I’m just gonna keep going until they fix my guitar…could be a couple of minutes, could be a couple of hours…looks like a couple of hours.’ – was hilarious!) If you can’t dance to that song, I feel sorry for you. Really.
The technical difficulties continued with what seemed like an intermission, but was actually failure to set up for a particular song (Trent: “Too bad, we had something really special planned for you. That’s what happens when you use computers to make music”). I’ve read that they were most likely about to play ‘Me, I’m Not’. Even through the numerous problems, it seemed Trent was happy, exuberant, and communicative with the crowd.
That soon went to hell.
After ‘Suck’, Trent took his place behind his keyboard and began to play ‘Hurt’. This is when the drunk Neanderthals amongst us thought it was their cue to yell out stupid crap. As Trent was pouring his heart out, heckling came in the form of ‘you sexy beast!’ and ‘what are you doing after the show?’, amongst other things. After what must have been a tough week, i.e. sickness, cancelled shows, and the technical troubles they were having, enough was enough. He asked if he was supposed to ignore the rubbish being yelled in his direction, and then felt no need to continue the song. It’s hard to tell if the unceremonious ‘boo’s’ that followed were directed at the derisive moron’s, or Trent. Either way, they were uncalled for. The band then played ‘The Hand That Feed’s’, and left.
It was over. I was actually surprised they bothered playing another song and didn’t just leave then. Pretty good of them in hindsight. The usual signpost for the end of a NIN gig, ‘Head Like A Hole’ was missing, but it seemed Trent didn’t feel like he owed this crowd that. He was probably right, but 99.9% of us were having the time of our lives up until that!
So overall, it was an awesome show. The band gave it their all, put on a great spectacle and whipped the crowd into a frenzy. It just ended on a rather sour note. I hope they sensed the appreciation of most, the following shows run more smoothly and they don’t skip Melbourne in future tour plans.
I also hope I never run into those couple of hecklers. For their sake, yo!