Review: Nine Inch Nails in Montreal

• Pinion
• Love is not enough
• You know what you are?
• Terrible Lie
• The Line Begins to blur
• March of the Pigs
• Something I can never have
• The Frail
• The Wretched
• Closer
• BURN
• Gave up
• Eraser
• Right where it belongs
• Beside you in time
• With Teeth
• Wish
• Only
• Even Deeper
• Dead Souls
• Suck
• Hurt
• The hand that feeds
• Head like a hole

Went down to Montreal on Friday with Matt, Trish and Jennie. Shopped around for a bit…very cold that day in Montreal. We were caught inside this frigid wind tunnel. Ended up at Reuben’s for a nice Reuben sandwich which everyone enjoyed. One day I’m going to have to dig into the pound of smoked meat.

Went to the Bell Centre and managed to walk right up to the doors cutting past a 1/2 hour wait in line. Some people are stupid. Just go through the OTHER doors with the security guard waiting there.

Checked out Death From Above 1979 who were decent. May have to check out the rest of their stuff.

Queens of the Stone Age…what can I say about this band? I have SO many friends who are into this band. I can’t say they were a bad act…I enjoyed them. But would I buy an album? Probably not. Just doesn’t hook me in. Highlight of the night was when they finished off with No One Knows and messed up in the second verse, but instead of stopping right there, they cut into a 10 minute long jam session, then bring it back to the song. Brilliant. That’s a good live band for you right there.

NIN showed up on stage around 9:45. They had a semi-transparent curtain in front of them which managed to become the means of some great lighting effects. I’ve been telling people that NIN is one of those bands that give a visual experience as well as an audio experience. They had a great backdrop which played along with the With Teeth artwork nicely. My favourite lighting effect was when they had a line spreading across the backdrop and everytime it hit upon one of the solid blocks, the block became red. Very hard to explain in words, but think of how a virus works. As soon as the virus hits you, it spreads, and then continues onto the next victim.

I also enjoyed when the curtain came back down and they played a series of movies while the band played on. Movie highlights included monkeys attacking each other and George Dubyah ballroom dancing. At one point, the movie changed so it looked like NIN was playing behind a waterfall…then Trent swings his mic stand towards the curtain and the video appears to smash into pieces. Brilliant. I do hope there will be another live DVD for this tour. There HAS to be.

My highlight of the night was hearing Burn…one of my fave tunes and I don’t think it’s ever been played live (until this tour). I was freaking out.

Thanks to Christelle who hooked me up with an audio recording of the show. Awesome. I really enjoy her blog and what she does for her concert reviews. It gives me an idea of what to do with mine.

On a random other note, I’ve started hanging up pictures around the house and I started to frame up concert reviews from newspapers along with the ticket stub. I think it looks sharp and I like it better than hanging out inside my scrap book. I now have to search the world (aka Ontario) for newspaper clippings for the past 10 years. Good luck with that buddy. Hey, if any of you out there actually keep newspapers like the Toronto Star or the Ottawa Citizen let me know!

nowblissfullyenteringmyears: The Frail [Live in Montreal – 2005-11-11] – NIN, thanks to Christelle.