18 inches of nails

This was a _GREAT_ weekend!

Nine Inch Nails were here in Lisbon for 3 nights in a row, playing at the "Coliseu", one of the best concert halls in Portugal.

I was luky enough to go to both the first and the last of the three concerts and all i can say is UAUUUUU!!!!! (and this is me being reasonably distant so i can make a serious review....)

Day 1 (February 10, 2006)
The show started with The Popo heating up the room with a competent yet somewhat boring display of atari-teenage-riotesque furios beat and rage-against-the-machine-like lyrics. They might be giants in the future, but right now they just make a good enough proof of concept.

Being the first shows of the upcoming tour, and after 7 months off stage (more one this one another post) I expected NIN to be somewhat rusty and the first (shocking) image of how fat Trent was has he entered the stage led me to believe I was going to see a decadent display of vulgarity from a former star. Images of Axel Rose at Rock in Rio were going trough my mind and they were not pleasent as you might remeber if you saw that show.

But boy, was i wrong!!

The scenario was set with over 3.000 people (ok, its just a guess) dressed in the same black that taint their souls, as lost as Ian Curtis' , screaming Trent's name.

By the end of "Terrible Lie",the lights on stage went out and this was when i realised NIN where in town for business. What might have been the only moment where something was not planned, Trent took things into his hands and shouted "We're not here to fuck around. Turn the house light on and we'll keep playing". And they did. They played "March of the Pigs" on a pit black stage. Wow.

An hour and a half of angry dark feelings and emotions, soud waves coming from a place close to the hell where the lyrics to "Hurt" were first bled, the show remarkably orchestrated by Trent and his acolytes, ended leaving a (still) full room expecting and in extasy.

There was no encore. But there were two more shows to play.

My rating : 18 out of 20
Playlist:
Mr. Self Distruct
Last
Terrible Lies
March Of The Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
The Line Begins to Blur
Closer
Burn
Wish
Help Me I'm In Hell
Eraser
La Mer
Into The Void
No You Don't
Only
You Know What You Are
Hurt
Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Day 2 (February 12, 2006)

Well this was a very special show for me for several reasons, namely:
I had my girlfrind there with me
I wasn't so hesterical to see NIN, because after all I had seen them just 48 hours earlier
It was the first concert in a more civilized Portugal

The Popo were no surprise. They played the same songs (probably the only ones they know how to...) or at least they all sounded pretty much the same. No surprises here.

As for the NIN show... Well, i never tought they would give so much for Portugal. I mean, it was the third night in a row and they played louder, more intensely that in the first day!

On a side note, I had went to the oficial site earlier that day and there was a visual reference thare to their shows in Lisbon. That felt great!



(screen capture of the nin.com front page on monday)


Back to the show now. They played the whole set with the stage lights out, using instead a light show that included strobs and other parafernalia that I can't really name.

That light game provided an even better ambiance to the show, which by itself proved even more intense, more powerfull than the first.

To my great surprise they even played a cover from Adam Ant (get down, make love) wich is a hidden track on the Burn EP.
I just love that song, and their version gives it an extra something.

Again, in under two hours of screaming, crazy feedback ridden riffs Nine Inch Nails proved to be in great shape, no matter how fat or old Trent looks right now. I bet that at this rate by the end of March he'll be back to his old fantastic shape. I just hope he can hold it together and stay clean. At least I could have sworn he was sober for the entire show.

If you missed it, do your best to see them during this tour. You will never regret it


My Rating: 20 out of 20
Playlist:
Pinion
Love Is Not Enough
Sin
Terrible Lie
March Of The Pigs
The Line Begins To Blur
Closer
Reptile
Deep
No You Don't
Even Deeper
Help Me I'm In Hell
Eraser
Fragile
All That Could Have Been
Into The Void
Wish
Make Love (Adam Ant cover!!!)
Down In It
Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole


Image credits:
All the images in this post are from the NIN official site and are here because I think I can use them. If you know diferent, please let me know.