Nine Inch Nails at the Calgary Saddledome - July 29, 2008
by Jillie
My boss won the tickets from our local radio station to the Nine Inch Nails concert and circumstance dictated that I was the only member of the staff that didn’t already have tickets nor was working that night. So, On Tuesday, July 29, my pal and I made the arduous journey by car and C-Train from Lethbridge, Alberta to Calgary, Alberta’s Pengrowth Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames to witness what was to become the most spectacular audio and visual performance I have had the pleasure to enjoy.
The journey was not without its pitfalls, however. After spending $9.50 Canadian on one slice of pizza and a pop, my pal and I sat down to take in the opening act. I am a fan of opening bands in general, because I love new music and am always thirsting for more CDs to add to my eclectic collection. I have left many a concert with a CD or two of the opening band’s, impressed and ready to help spread the word about their talent.
This opening band was not one of those bands.
Crystal Castle, a two man and one woman trio, sucked beyond belief. I have been to many a concert in my day and never have I ever heard anyone boo the opening act. Until last night. The band itself was great - it was the lead singer that everyone hated. As my cohort said, "this band would be great if there wasn't some woman on stage screaming." It wasn't even good screaming. It was "ack! ack! ack!" The band was kind of techno-rock - lots of heavy beats and synthesizer sound effects - and when the lead singer was not near the mic it was phenomenal. They did an instrumental song and it was great. The ear-splitting, high pitched yelping of the chick on the mic was not complimentary to the music in the least and that is why she got booed off stage.
After an interesting intermission which provided all sorts of great entertainment - such as a girl in a mini-skirt trying to and succeeding in alluding security to sneak into the mosh pit and the stoner in front of us begging everyone in our section for a lighter because, although he thought far enough in advance to hide his pot from the obligatory security pat-down at the door, he did not have the presence of mind to remember his lighter – the lights dimmed and the crowd roared in anticipation of the band they all came to see – Nine Inch Nails.
To start off the concert, Trent Reznor and his musicians played some new stuff (that I was not that familiar with) that rocked. The lighting system and the band were set up like your typical rock concerts - coloured and flashing lights, lead singer in the middle, bassist on one side, guitarist on the other and the drummer elevated in the back. After about three hardcore rocking songs, there was a little interlude and some screens came down. Everyone changed up positions and the really amazing part of the concert started.
These screens and lights were used to put on an AMAZING visual show to compliment the music. They played with silhouettes, sometimes each instrument had it's own pulsing light, and during the performance of some of the instrumental pieces from Ghosts I-IV there were changing sceneries in the background. They had cameras on stage to project distorted images of Trent on the giant screen as he sang one song. For "Survivalism" they set up security-type cameras on stage and in the crowd and, combined with some canned video of two bathrooms and a stairwell, created an eery vision of Big Brother. During yet another song, the screen behind Trent, who was lit to look like a silhouette once again, was covered in static and wherever Trent moved the static had a little peep hole in it. For the performance of "Hurt" (the second-last song of the night) there were two amber spotlights pointed in opposite directions at just Trent creating the illusion that he was depressingly alone and isolated from the thousands and thousands in attendance. Finally, for the last of the encore songs, each band member again had their own pulsing light that went out as the musicians stopped playing their instruments, one by one, until only Trent was left with his piano in the middle of the stage.
The music, obviously, was phenomenal. But as my friend and I waited for the C-Train to take us back to our car at the southern Calgary city limits we overheard several conversations and what everyone was blown away by was the visual feast we were treated to. Not since I went to see Tool (again – free tickets for the show at the Saddledome), where the creepy images from their various videos were projected from the ceiling onto the white stage for the benefit of those of us in the nosebleeds, have I seen such a visual and amazingly complimentary light show. Phenomenal.
What I came away thinking about this concert more than anything was how there is something for everyone in this performance. Rock concert veterans will be awed by the seamless and seemingly effortless compliment the light and visual show plays to the music. Theatre fans will appreciate the technical theatre and dramatic lighting. Nine Inch Nails fans will drool over the rockin’ good music and the crazy (yet somehow typical) visual effects. If any of you have a chance to go see this particular tour, DO. Even if you think Nine Inch Nails’ music is “ok” or “alright” but would not normally shell out the dough for a live performance it will be well worth your money.
Until next concert;
Jillie
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