Just some brief thoughts after my crazy drive home (insane road conditions and accidents everywhere with 315 closed and 270 closed in both directions between 71 and 315). I thought it was a great show. March of the Pigs absolutely KILLED and was probably my favorite of the night along with Pinion/Wish. Really enjoyed Terrible Lie as well. I thought that the stage transitions before and after the Ghosts segment were awkward, especially the break after the Ghosts stuff before they tore into Pinion/Wish. They really brought the rock for the last segment of the show (after Ghosts and before the encore) and blazed threw several of their big "hits". Here's a brief setlist off the top of my head (I know I'm forgetting some stuff and some of it might be out of order):

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
couple of other songs (I forget which ones)
Closer
Gave Up

Ghosts stuff

Pinion/Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
Only
The Hand that Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Encore:
couple of songs (I forget)
Hurt

And the light show was absolutely ridiculous. The best I've seen since Daft Punk and their pyramid.

Here's a sample of the stage/lights from a July show (but basically the same thing we saw tonight)



I took Duffy home which meant I hopped on 71 to get home rather than my usual 315 route. Glad I did, sounds like it was a mess.

I thought it was a great show and told Duffy that I'd pay $30 to watch NIN do only Ghosts material at Mershon as long as they brought the cool visuals.

Would like to have heard "Down in It" but I'm not complaining at all about the setlist (imagine that).

More tomorrow after I've had a chance to digest. One thing is for sure, there was no danger of a sellout - the upperdeck was curtained off and the the arena was probably only 70% full.

Dispatch review:

Setlist from nin.com:

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the PIgs
Head Down
The Frail
The Wretched
Closer
Gave Up
The Warning
The Great Destroyer

--

Ghosts 17
Ghosts 21
Ghosts 19
Ghosts Piggy
The Greater Good

--

Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
Ghosts 31
Only
The Hand that Feeds
Head Like a Hole

--Encore--

Echoplex
The Beginning of the End
The Good Soldier
Hurt
In This Twilight

didn't expect it to start right at 7 so i missed the first 20 mins or so of boris. what I heard sounded good though, although not as loud as I'm used to hearing them.

NIN was good. If you cut 30 mins of songs from the last 3 albums out of the set it would have been even better (the exception being the great destroyer which I loved). If you replaced those 30 mins with songs I actually liked it would have been amazing. Best stage show i've ever seen bar none. I would pay full price NIN to see them doing a ghosts only tour but I love those discs. I got elbowed in the face during the 3rd song and lost one of the lenses in my glasses but amazingly I found it after the show and it's not even too horribly scratched up.

Traffic going home was a nightmare.

Is there a recording of this show?

I loved this show. So glad I went.

I posted photos of how empty the show was: http://www.donewaiting.com/2008/11/18/p ... lumbus-oh/

I was really shocked.. I thought NIN could survive the economy with the suburban kids......

Honestly, I would not play Columbus ever again If I were Trent.

The Cleveland show was packed to the gills, if not sold out.

I remember seeing NIN in the Schott on The Fragile tour, though it was packed the audience was lame as fuck. Every time I see them outside of Columbus, the crowds actually seem to enjoy themselves. Columbus is an uptight non-dancing, arms crossed in a "nothing impresses me" stance group of lame fucks when it comes to big rock shows. Columbus doesn't know how to fuck.

The show was good - although I've never seen a "bad" NIN show. Having been in Ohio since the start we have had the luxury of watching Trent come up through the ranks over the years, literally. From shows at Peabodys with about 20 people, to success of MTV and The Downward Spiral, The Self Destruct Tour, and beyond. This was prolly my 10th or 11th NIN show (not including Lollapaloozas), and I must say last night falls somewhere in the middle to bottom half. I've seen them much better, hell I've seen them much better in Columbus, Ohio. I did really like the stage setup and the way the show includes Ghosts stuff is very Bowie-esque... and like Bowie, some recent tours have dedicated a sizable portion to newer (experimental soundscapes) and less on album driven rockers or "hits". Think Bowie's last tour where he did a 15 minute version of Bring Me the Disco King. Trent kinda does the same thing with a Ghosts 3-4 song interlude, a point in the show where he rests up back stage apparently.

However, while admirable, I just don't think the setlist works as well as it should, esp for the Columbus crowd. The Ghosts stuff goes on too long and because of that, the set ends up omitting stuff like Down In It, Starfuckers, Sin, The Day the World Went Away, Reptile, etc... it puts the casual (to more than casual) fan off a bit. This makes the set slow to start, and it takes a while to get going and by the time it finally does, the inclusion of Ghosts stuff brings it right back down. Cool for the hardcore fans yes, but a mood breaker for others for sure. I understand what Trent is doing and I appreciate the dynamic of that material next to older stuff, but as a set it's frustrating. This is all ringing true when they launch into something like March of the Pigs (a highlight), viewing the reaction from crowd and band alike, you can see what they are capable of, and you remember why you like this band in the first place.

Also and I've said this before that venue sucks donkey balls. The sound is horrid, Even acts as diverse as Simon and Garfunkel or Metallica sound flat and fuzzy. The schott needs to be banned from holding concerts. Also, I think Trent needs to leave these Hockey arenas behind for a while.

It also should be noted that yes, the show sold like anthrax. Ohio loves Reznor (obviously), but for various reasons (Ghosts, venue, the economy) the venue was embarrassingly bare. They even closed off the (curtained) the entire top section of seats and the place still looked empty. Most concert goers noticed it too, saying NIN woulda been better at a sold out LC. They were right. I think it had an effect on the overall "meh" vibe of the crowd, esp in the seats. I heard a ton of grumbling. I should also point out that they had infant tees at the merch booth, an all telling sign that those suburban kids everyone refers to, were probably at home with their own kids last night.

Their last Columbus show, (With Teeth tour), was loads better, so was the setlist. Don't even get me started on how great NIN was opening for Bowie at Polaris years ago.

Also Reznor broke the second (the middle) screen after flinging his mic stand into it. He said "we don't bust things up like we used to, but sometimes shit still happens, I guess the screen's broke now", but by the encore it looked like the crew got it in a passable working order, still looked jacked though.

thank God I dodged the traffic and road problems.

I miss the old NIN shows.

FTR, I'd go again in a heartbeat though.

Yeah it was more about setlist than sound I guess at Polaris, but yeah, the Bowie/NIN was the best that place ever sounded.

the ghost stuff was great, even with last night being the first time i heard it. amazing show.

Ghosts stuff is good - no debate there - however a 4 song interlude of it - is a momentum breaker for most.

so yeah this show really was amazing...i was still on the fence yesterday afternoon and after being caller #2 when 101 were giving away their last pair i decided i had to go-i got a general admission ticket for $40 from craigslist-so glad i did

i had too much runnin around to do so i only saw like the last 2 minutes of boris-bummer

i'd forgotten who was on the tour-weird seeing beck's bass player up there....freese is a machine and it was cool to see fink back with trent...this was my first time seeing the beefed up short haired trent and it occurred to me some of those kids didn't know any different

the crowd was kind of lame-i got relatively close when they played gave up and the pit or whatever was super weak-like i wanted to instigate some aggressiveness but i didn't really wanna be throwin around teenagers

the sound was dope as fuck on the floor-i thought hurt sounded super awesome

but wow that fucking stage/light production-wow-never seen anything like it in my life...i don't think it was a projection though-that was all led right? fucking only was so cool...solid light on the screen or whatever and when trent got close to it the lights the lights in that particular area went off...so cool...he also moved all the lights all iphone like

this nonsense about the ghosts songs breaking the momentum or whatever is sillly...these dudes weren't going through the motions-it was intense-the ghosts songs were kind of a breather for the band and keep in mind, even though the crowd wasn't that aggro here in columbus, it seem like a band like that needs lulls in the set to calm the crowd down after heavy tracks or whatever

the only time in the middle of closer was so rad

so stoked i went

only live to illustrate what i meant



i was seriously staring mouth agape for the whole set

oh yeah

lol@the like five wardrobe changes

OK, so apparently the earlier setlist that was listed on nin.com isn't correct. Supposedly this one is correct:

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
Closer
Gave Up
The Warning
The Great Destroyer

Ghosts
Ghosts
Ghosts 19
Ghosts Piggy

The Greater Good
Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
Ghosts 31
Only
The Hand that Feeds
Head Like a Hole
**************
Echoplex
Good Soldier
Hurt
In This Twilight

Here is where they are discussing the show on the nin site (with some pictures):

Looks like small crowds at a few other recent shows. In the nin.com forums, there is mention of only about 3,800 people at the show in Grand Rapids, MI and only about 2,000 at the show in Ft. Wayne, IN.