May 23, 2009
NIN: The Best Night in the History of Earth
http://www.thiscellardoor.com/blog/entry/nin_the_best_night/
Filed under: A/V, Art & Music, Favorites, Photos
The Opportunity
Wednesday night Trent Reznor announced that in exchange for donations to Help Eric, he would offer exciting perks at the upcoming show of our choice. $300 would get you access to soundcheck and a meet & greet. $1,000 would further get backstage access, dinner, and allow for watching the show from the stage for you & a guest.
I basically had to decide that night, since the show was Friday. Thursday morning, I pledged the $1,000 and hoped I could find someone to split the cost. And a few hours later, I did. Some called me crazy while others praised my support of a good cause and taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Show Day
Yesterday was the big day. I hit the road for Mountain View, passing by Google’s headquarters, which was just down the road from the venue. Jason, my internet stranger guest, arrived around the same time. He was super cool (luckily). He’s my age and a stock broker in the city. He’s also a native San Franciscan, a rare find. We got along very well and passed the time easily. However, we were both growing anxious at the number of people showing up. It looked like we might have plenty of company backstage, and it turns out, we did.
Soundcheck
We hung out at soundcheck first. It was very chill. Just the group of us up by the stage while the guys played through some tunes. We also got to look in on Street Sweeper Social Club. Tom Morello can indeed shred any guitar. He was incredible. I didn’t love their music but they were cool. Before playing, they said, “You’re going to hear this again in 15 minutes so pretend like it’s the first time, but still sing along to all the words.” haha. We saw a lot of them backstage throughout the night.
I had to run to the gate to give other Jason his ticket to the show, which put me at the end of the meet & greet line. I made friends with the guys in front of me, who were apparently winners of the NIN scavenger hunt and scored backstage access. They were amusing. One of the guys said, “Sorry it looks like we cut. We were here.” I said, “That’s cool. I already lost my place in line so it doesn’t matter.” He said, “Oh you didn’t cut back with your friend?” I replied, “Nope, I didn’t want to be a jerk.” His friends started cracking up and said, “That’s so awesome.” heh. They provided some amusement for waiting through the line, though.
Meet & Greet
So there were literally at least 100 people who had gone through the line ahead of me, since I was 2nd to last. Trent was joined by the full band, so we could only get one item signed. They looked exhausted and tired of people. The cute boy taking photos, who I later learned was Brett Bachemin, was really nice to me. He took some video clips and a few photos. Well, as I was getting my autographs, I asked the band if they would do me a huge favor and say a “hello” to my sister on video. They were game. I didn’t just get a hello, but some sass too. It was better than I could have hoped. And Trent, the fan posing pro, pulled me in tight for the photo. I was just standing there, haha. I was glad I didn’t blink.
Dinner
Since there were so many people, the band had to prep for the show and couldn’t hang out during dinner. We watched the Street Sweepers Social Club from the TV monitors in the VIP area, while taking in the catered meal. I forgot to take a photo of the cheese potatoes with the label “White Trash potatoes”. I tried to be offended in defense of my mom.
We met a guy from Apple. His wife and kids were at a Giants game. He’s worked at Apple for 15 years. He got an internship there, after which he never returned to school. His best friend is the lead software engineer for the iPhone, so he was sharing some tips he’d learned from him. Cool guy and major props to Apple for keeping such happy employees. It turns out Kevin Rose from Digg was in the house. I knew a guy looked familiar but it didn’t click until later when I read that Trent had given the whole Digg operation backstage passes. The backstage area was practically a mini SXSWi haha.
NIN show
We all gathered around as the guys left the dressing room and walked out to the stage. I sort of missed the first few songs since I was trying to find a good spot to take photos.
Watching the show from stage side started out a bit disappointing. All the equipment was blocking the view of Trent. The balcony they had setup had a mesh screen which made photos pretty difficult. Later, Apple guy told us that one of the ladies took him back behind the drum kit. I guess I should have asked her where we could go.
It worked out, though, I decided to do a little filming backstage with NIN audio in the background. Just as I panned around, I caught Dave Navarro exiting the dressing room. He stared right at me and I just lowered the camera. We continued to run in to each other 2 more times in the next 10 minutes. As I wrapped up filming the VIP area, he had only his head ducked out of the stage curtain. He stayed expressionless. I just gave him “the nod” each time. I had no idea he was Prince-size.
Right after that encounter, I walked back to the side of the stage to discover Rob Sheridan, the NIN art director, typing away on his iPhone. I should rewind a bit. I had 2 goals for my backstage experience: get Trent to say hi to my sister and meet Rob. He was standing alone so I walked toward him and opened my mouth to say “hi” but realized he was still typing so I sort of spun around and stood off to the side, waiting for him to finish. Luckily I don’t think he noticed all that heh. So I turned and casually said, “Hey, you’re Rob, right?” He seemed surprised that someone was talking to him. I explained how I had hated him ever since I found out about his role with NIN. He laughed and said something to the effect of, “wow, you hate me more than anyone in the world?” I explained that it was a good thing. It meant he had the coolest job ever. So we were having a nice convo until this woman yelled “ROB!!” and pretty much took over talking to him. I realized she was clueless that she interrupted a conversation, so I just walked away. I was happy. I’d met Rob and successfully explained how much I hated him. Goal accomplished.
Well, a bit later, I got a tap on the shoulder. It was Rob. He apologized and said he had to go right then, but I should find him after the show. Nice!
So, I decided to check out the show from outside. I headed toward the front row. Security stopped me a few rows back. Hah, that was fine with me since I don’t think I should have even been there. So I stood there for pretty much the second half of the show.
I got to join in the crowd euphoria of Gave Up & Head Like a Hole—two songs that require completely loosing your mind and rocking the hell out. Nothing beats a crowd of thousands of people yelling along to “Head like a hole. Black as your soul. I’d rather die than give you control!” It was one of the highlights when I saw them in ’06, too. And we all chanted along to our “nah nah nah’s” in The Day the World Went Away. I couldn’t stop smiling. I could have stayed in that moment forever. Hurt was a beautiful close to the night. I just happened to be filming when it started so I captured the whole thing. It was semi-acoustic, so the audio isn’t horrible.
I hung out with Jason & Apple guy after the show. We compared photos and our excitement over the incredible show. We also looked in on them rearranging the stage in prep for Jane’s Addiction. Pretty cool. Well, Rob walked by us and said “hi” to me. I decided to play it cool and not leave to talk to him. Jason said, “Oh, so I take it you managed to meet Rob?” hah, yes.
Setlist (courtesy of setlist.fm):
- 1,000,000
- Terrible Lie
- Discipline
- March Of The Pigs
- Piggy
- Metal (Gary Numan cover)
- The Becoming
- Burn
- Gave Up
- The Fragile
- The Way Out Is Through
- Wish
- Echoplex
- Survivalism
- The Day The World Went Away
- The Hand That Feeds
- Head Like A Hole
- Encore: Hurt
Jane’s Addiction show
I can honestly say I didn’t know a single JA song prior to hearing the NINJA 2009 mix. I knew Perry Farrell as Lollapalooza man and Dave Navarro from his solo album and that rock version of American Idol. It was like someone flipped a switch when they took the stage. The backstage area cleared out. The stage backdrop was bold & colorful. Hot women were getting their photo taken with the band in the background from the side of the stage. I can only assume they were wives/girlfriends of the band. It was all in stark contrast to the simple light show and black/gray attire of NIN. Then I saw what Perry Farrell was wearing and realized these guys were totally glam. I can only guess it felt like a David Bowie/Prince show.
I took a few photos of their show from my spot outside. It was colorful and cool. I just had no interest in the music. So I went backstage and looked for Rob, but I couldn’t find him. I just hung out, leaning on the gate, watching the girls do ridiculous poses by the stage, thinking how much these guys were not my scene.
The Cool Part of the JA show
Well, after a little bit, I heard a “hey” and looked over to see Rob perched next to me on the gate. It’s fortunate that I’m not an overly expressive person, because it would have been hard to contain my excitement that he came back to talk. We had a fun convo talking about JA and Perry Farrell’s crazy outfits. I told him about my Dave Navarro encounters and explained my theory about the evolution of meeting new people: no eye contact, head nod, smirk, smile, verbal hello. He was right there with me. We talked about being introverts and how people tend to think we hate them since we’re not the type to yell “HEY! what’s up?” He told me about LA and other things. It was awesome. So he said, “Well, do you want to go to the special backstage? You don’t seem like a psycho.” heh so I went back to the dressing room area. (He said “she’s cool” to security. hehe) There was nothing glamorous, just a sofa, facing a blank wall, which confused us. We were only there a few minutes before Trent & his lady came out of their room. Brett also stopped by and said hello. He clearly remembered me from my special request at the meet & greet heh. Super friendly guy. Trent and crew had all their bags and headed out the door. Rob mentioned he didn’t even think the drivers were here, but he had to follow the group and get on the bus regardless. I gave him my number and said he should call me if he’s ever in the city and we said our “nice to meet you” see ya’s.
This is the problem with meeting boys who are part of a tour. They have to get on a bus almost as soon as you meet them. [See night with Gary Allan band]
Well, I walked up to my ticketed seat were Jason G. had been watching the show by himself. I watched a couple more JA songs, and decided I was going home to beat the parking lot crowd. So we left and Jason finally got to ride in my Mini, even if it were only across the parking lot. Like all the boys, he marveled over the huge speedometer and little buttons & lights. *sigh*
Going Home
It was great. I got to the 101 right away and it was a smooth drive home. I broke up out The Fragile (left) for the drive home. I hadn’t let myself listen to NIN all morning, but I knew I’d be craving more for the drive home. It was a peaceful drive home, but I had weird deja vu of being on Keystone like I was driving home from Birdy’s. I think that means the 101 and I are becoming friends.
Naturally, even though it was midnight at this point, I had to copy all of my photos and videos to my computer to see how I’d done. I knew without a zoom, I didn’t have any super awesome shots, but I did well enough. I wish I had realized I had my ISO set to 200, though. It was amazing I got any shots at all with that heh.
I had to get my sister’s video uploaded so she could wake up to it in the morning. Once that was done, I knew I had to crash. I was beat. I was in bed for about 10 minutes, already not sleeping because I was thinking about what a great night I’d had and how much I hoped Rob would actually call some day, when I heard my phone buzz. In an effort not to get my hopes up, I said “oh crap, I must have woken up Jenna with my text.” I did a silent “ahhhh!!!” when I started reading the text. “Hey, it’s Rob…” He wanted to make sure I had his number. So we texted for the next 30 minutes. I was shutting my eyes to sleep between each one, so I’m guessing he also finally passed out as it was 2am by this point and they had an early morning flight to Seattle.
I slept like a rock until a text from my sis at 6am woke me up, since I’d left my phone on the bed. I was so excited to tell her everything that I texted her for another 30 minutes, before I had to crash again.
I woke up at noon. My eating schedule is screwed up, and I’m exhausted and hungry at 10:30pm with no food left to eat. (I made a dinner out of snickerdoodles.) And all that sucks, but I’m still feeling the serotonin rush of last night, so nothing really matters. Could I have even scripted a better, more exciting end to my night? No way.
I’m trying not to be too hopeful about the whole Rob deal, since he lives in LA and is on tour until mid-August. However, I’d be lying if I said I’m not extremely excited about the possibility. I’d love the chance to learn more about his “job” if you can even call it that. Tyler was the first to say that he probably meets all the local girls like that, but I’m holding tight to my first impression which labeled him as a cool & talented geek. Honestly, the entire night I couldn’t get over the similarities, in personality & looks, between him & a friend back in Bloomington, who is one of the nicest people on the planet. I’m happy to have met him and had this one fun night, though, no matter what happens.
A/V
Clip from March of the Pigs:
Asking the guys to say hi to my sis: