Nine Inch Nails

I don’t know if anyone crossed your fingers that it wouldn’t rain, but if you did, thank you. It was a beautiful night! I wore my new olive green skirt with a black tank top and my new sandals. We got to the venue around 6:30 pm. We ended up having to take our “gear” back to the car which was very annoying. On Thursday I got this e-mail that went over the show’s details.

The following items ARE permitted into the amphitheatre for Nine Inch Nails:
* Extra Clothes
* Blankets
* Food is allowed in small soft-sided coolers, small picnic baskets, or zip lock bags
* One (1) factory sealed bottled water up to a liter in size
* Small Backpacks
“Due to artist restriction, permitted items are subject to change without notice. We regret any inconvenience this may cause”

Turns out they wouldn’t allow any of the things mentioned above. Regardless of that disclaimer above, why send the fans an e-mail saying “hey, you can bring food, drinks and backpacks” two days before the show if there’s a chance that would change? Or how about a follow-up e-mail to update everyone? I doubt that changed two seconds before the show started.

Other than that, it was fun. We had lawn seats so we kicked back in the middle of the lawn to listen to the first opening act, Peaches. I had never heard of her before, but I really enjoyed her set even if all her songs were about sex. I liked the music more than her lyrics. When she did her last song, Fuck The Pain Away, I realized we had heard it before on the digital dance channel we listen to sometimes. I’m tempted to buy her album, Impeach My Bush. Love that clever title, by the way. After Peaches was Bauhaus. Nothing to really say about them. Don’t like them, never liked them, still don’t like them.

Nine Inch Nails didn’t take the stage until 9:20 pm. By then we had moved to the right of the stage away from all the people which is how I like it. Although the place didn’t sell out by any means. There were a lot of empty seats but they managed to fill all the front spots and up the middle. We got some fliers when we came in about “winning” upgraded seats but I had a feeling maybe they were giving them to everyone just to fill the seats in front and around the stage.

In any case, they played a lot of older stuff. They seemed to do almost all of Pretty Hate Machine which is my favorite album, so I was happy. There weren’t a ton of songs I didn’t recognize, though there were a few. I was a bit sad they didn’t play Happiness in Slavery, but overall between Trent’s performance and the cool lighting, it was an awesome show. We left after The Hand That Feeds and listened to the last song, Head Like A Hole (one of my all-time faves) in the parking lot so we could beat all the crazy traffic trying to get out of there.

Here’s what I think was the setlist. I got it off of Song Obsessed since it looked the same as what we heard. I’ll fix it when someone posts an official setlist online.

Updated setlist on 12/15/09 (mine was quite close actually)

1. Somewhat Damaged
2. You Know What You Are?
3. Sin
4. Terrible Lie
5. March of the Pigs
6. Something I Can Never Have
7. Closer
8. Burn
9. Gave Up
10. Help Me I Am In Hell
11. Even Deeper
12. Only
13. Wish
14. La Mer
15. Into The Void
16. The Big Come Down
17. Suck (Pigface cover)
18. Down In It
19. Hurt
20. Final Solution (Pere Ubu cover) (with Peter Murphy)
21. The Hand That Feeds
22. Head Like a Hole