NIN – Live @ The Kool Haus

NIN – Live @ The Kool Haus – Tuesday May 10, 2005

I’ve had a fantastic month so far and it’s not even half over.  I returned from Las Vegas and the next night I got to see one of the best bands ever…NIN!

I had the pleasure of seeing NIN at Maple Leaf Gardens on 04.28.2000.  For those of you who know don’t know Maple Leaf Gardens it is a hockey arena and depending on your seats Trent could look the size of a fly on the stage.  Plus there isn’t much leg room/dance space for a tall chick that gets stuck with a seat far up in the stands.  So needless to say I was really happy when I found out that they were coming to the Kool Haus, which is a much smaller venue with standing space only.  I have to admit that I was worried about the sound quality in the Kool Haus as in the past it has been very poor.  But I was pleasantly surprised because the show sounded amazing!

The opening act was a duo called The Dresden Dolls.  Which consists of a female vocalist/keyboards & a very animated male drummer.  I hadn’t heard much of their stuff before the show, only a few tunes, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  Performance wise they were interesting to watch, especially the drummer.  He kept standing and sitting and moving all around.  He had much more energy then a lot of drummers that I have seen.  The girl was alright, I wasn’t too impressed with her voice.  She didn’t do much singing, it was mostly just spoken/yelled.  But overall they were interesting.  I’d say that their music is more enjoyable on the album rather then live.

NIN was incredible.  It was great to see Trent Reznor so close and I was standing on the sidelines.  I could literally see the sweat dripping off him and there was a lot of it, he was soaked by the second song.  Trent is an amazing performer and so is the rest of the band.  Trent didn’t talk to the crowd much, but he did jump into the pit at one point.  He also tossed his guitar and a mic into the pit.  He got them back but some guy in the crowd got to sing part of song while the mic was in the crowd.

Here is the set list from the night:

Beside You In Time (instrumental)
The Frail
The Wretched
You Know What You Are?
March of the Pigs
The Line Begins To Blur
Piggy (Trent took a huge leap into the crowd just before the thumb piano bit)
Terrible Lie
Burn
Closer
Reptile
The Big Come Down
Gave Up
The Day the World Went Away
Suck
Even Deeper
Wish
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Starfuckers, Inc.
Head Like A Hole

Tuesday night was the second of two shows that NIN played in the T-dot this week.  I’m glad that I got to go to the show.  It was one that I will never forget.  I can’t tell you how many times I got chills from the tunes.  It was incredible!  I’m getting soem photos from a girl at the concert so I should have something posted in the gallery soon I hope.

If you haven’t heard the new album “With Teeth” then I recommend that you get it immediately!

l8r,
Bonnie :)