Here's a strange little video that was posted up on nin.com. Some behind the scenes, funny footage. It reminds me a lot of the Closure VHS footage but more of a 'modern', up to date sort of feel to it.

"I feel a million miles away"

Let's talk about Friday. Specifically, Friday September 5th which was the night I saw Nine Inch Nails live in Oakland. Oh man, what a spectacular show. I highly recommend you check out this tour when they come back for a second run through the US later this year. The light show is amazing and the performance by the band was far better than I anticipated.

My trip from Vegas to Oakland was pretty insane but I'll just give you some highlights. It took eight hours to get to the Oracle Arena. That's 500 miles of barren desert, small towns, California hills, farms, and windmills.

We managed to make it to the venue at 7:00 pm and got about seven rows from the front of the stage. After watching the opening band, Deerhunter, I was four rows from the front. At about 9:00 pm the lights went out and the familiar drone of a forthcoming awesome concert began. Now as I heard when I got back to Vegas, there was actually an earthquake that hit Oakland at about the same moment that NIN took the stage. The crowd was going crazy at that point so I doubt anyone felt anything.

So the moment Trent ran onstage for the first song, "1,000,000", EVERYONE pushed towards the front gate. We were packed, jumping around and singing along to the song. "Discipline" and "March of the Pigs" had us all pushing and literally falling on each other. I was glad for the next more mellower songs so I could recover for a few minutes. My hair and t-shirt were already drenched in sweat.

Then during the recognizable beat of "Closer" I looked up and saw Trent singing and shaking a tambourine. Suddenly, he tossed the tambourine into the air and I watched it spin above the crowd. It reached the peak of its flight and started falling towards the crowd. It started falling towards where I was standing. It's coming here!

I stretched my hand as high as I could. I couldn't jump, I was wedged into the crowd along with everyone else. I got two fingers around it! But the tall punk standing next to me also gripped it at the same time with his whole hand. Several hands were now clamoring to get it. Tall punk yanks it down and holds on to it. It slipped right through my fingers.

Then the furious drums of "Gave Up" came on and the entire arena was screaming. I felt my head get hotter and I looked up at the lights. Uh, oh. My vision was slowly getting dark around the edges. I was in trouble. I looked around and instead of people, I saw dark shapes moving around me. I was seeing what Frodo saw when he put on the ring. I knew my eyes were open but I couldn't see the light.

I told myself not to panic and decided I had to get out of the packed-in crowd. I considered climbing onto the people in front of me and have them crowd surf me out of there. But I was already blind and slowly losing consciousness. I faced the people behind me and started to muscle my way to the side of the crowd. I yelled at everyone standing in front of me. "Get outta my way". I pushed and shoved through the people, I didn't care now.

I made it to the side gate and told a security lady I needed some water. I followed her to the small area where medical personnel help out injured concert goers. I chugged down two water bottles and one Gatorade. Immediately my vision came back and I felt my body cooling down. I realized I hadn't drank or eaten much during the eight hour drive. I must have dehydrated from the heat of being in the crowd. Luckily, I hadn't passed out in the middle of the floor. Imagine how that would have turned out.

Anyway, the medics released me and I was back on the floor in time to see the beginning of "Piggy". I got as close as I could to the front but not back into the densely packed crowd. The rest of the show was amazing right down to the last song of the encore.

They played several songs from the extensive back catalog of music and a lot of new ones from The Slip. I loved it. I sang along to "Wish", "Terrible Lie", "The Big Come Down", "Head Like a Hole". EVERYTHING. I was one of the handful of people in the crowd that knew all the words and threw hands in the air while most just nodded their heads and sang along to the radio hits.

And I thought the "With Teeth" tour was awesome. "Lights in the Sky" completely surpasses the last tour with its great visuals and extraordinary performance. At one point during the encore Trent mentioned that he may be turning into "a cranky old man" but he really enjoyed playing that night. Then they played "In this Twilight" in front of a great visual scene and each member slowly bowed out. What a great way to close the show. Go see this band live. I'm getting ready to go again this December!

(Picture from my cell phone of the big NIN lights before the encore.)