Biting The Hand In Chicago

My plan Friday was to get to the arena by 3:00. Unfortunately, Christy had to stay at work, despite having requested the afternoon off previously. She would be looking for another job if the money was not so good. Anyway, we did not end up leaving here until after 3. Which meant we ran into rush hour traffic, adding another hour to our drive. By the time we checked into the hotel and walked over to the arena, it was well after 7 and the opening act was about over. Why am I mentioning this? Well, it turns out that about 30 people were let in to see the end of the NIN soundcheck and there was a "meet and greet" with the band. I knew this was a possibility, which is why I wanted to arrive early. However, apparently I would have had to be in line at the very latest by 3 (to be among the first 30 people), and a nearly 2 hour wait in line was necessary, as the 30 people were not let in until 4:45. Saturday was a cold day in Chicago, and with my recently injured back I don't think I would have had the patience to wait, not knowing for sure if they would let anyone in, as they don't always do it.

A 3 day old hotdog and a large drink were $9.50. A beer was $6.50.

The opening acts did not do much for us. We only saw the last two songs by Autolox. They had a great female drummer, but little else to offer. Queens of the Stone Age surprised me. Or, I should say, the lack of fans for Queens of the Stone Age surprised me. NIN fans are notoriously fickle about their music. As about 99% of the people there were only on hand to see NIN, you can imagine how cold the general audience reaction was to obviously inferior music. Even the people standing right in front of the stage were behaving like zombies during Queens' set. Would this catatonic state continue into the NIN set?

Thankfully, no. The difference was night and day. The crowd in the pit surged forward, hopped up and down, and generally put forth a chaotic physical melee. We were up in the safety of reserved seating. Did I say seating? Everyone in our section stood for the entire 21 song set. A jaw-dropping number of people were singing along. My best guess is that 80% of attendees were hardcore NIN fans. And a shocking number were women. There might have been more women than men in my section, though in the rough and tumble pit area it was probably more men. The average age was impossible to tell, though there could not have been many people older than me, or younger than 20. Enough with the demographics. Was the show good? Yes. With me, that was practically a given. But even Christy gave it high marks, despite not being familiar with anything besides Closer and Hurt. The energy level displayed by Mr. Reznor was astounding. The music was top notch also, despite the presence of a brand new drummer who played NIN songs for the first time at a midnight rehearsal the night before. Up next-the St. Louis show later this week.

A couple pics-first, a frame from a video taken of the meet and greet-


Performing-