"Yes, I should like to think so, too."

Last Saturday Liz and I rented a car and headed out to Long Island for the Nine Inch Nails concert at Jones Beach Theatre. What a show, folks...

We got great seats through The Spiral, and were in the eleventh row of the orchestra pit, pretty far towards stage-left, but still with a pretty awesome view. Despite the fact that the temperature was in the 80s, once we got to our seats we were freezing, since we were right on the water and the breeze was absolutely ridiculous. It was nice to not be all schvitzy and such, but it sucked because after about ten minutes of waiting we were both all goose-bumpy and cold! Fortunately it occurred to us to head over to the merchandise stand and get some new shirts to keep us warm, hehe. Liz got an olive-green NIN hoody, and I got a sand-colored NIN t-shirt. Good times.

Peaches started her show on time at 7pm, and played for half an hour. We sort of felt sorry for her, since she was only playing to a partially-full venue, but whatever, she rocked anyway. I hadn’t heard any of her stuff before, and while it’s not my favorite thing in the world she put on a fun, energetic show, being extravagant and oversexed all the way through. I think she’s getting a bit old for the costume she chose to wear: a short leather one-piece that seemed a bit too small (after one song she said, in response to the audience’s applause, “My camel toe thanks you”), and underneath it a hot pink bikini. Still, mad props to her for being ballsy and entertaining.

Bauhaus was next, and they did not disappoint. They started around 7:45pm, and played for just about an hour. I didn’t know what to expect from them, but Liz was über-excited and said I’d love them, and I heard from my co-worker Inacio that they’re really good live...

Peter Murphy waltzed out wearing an awesome blue velour suit with an old-school tie and tuxedo shirt. You could tell he was going to be very theatrical, and a true showman. Their guitarist, whose name escapes me, was wearing tight leather pants and a white fur vest with poofy shoulders. Their bassist and drummer looked pretty normal, surprisingly.

After their first song there was a pretty big ovation from the crowd. Once they quieted down Peter Murphy looks at us and says: “Yes, I should like to think so, too.” Awesome.

Their set was:

• Double Dare
• In The Flat Field
• A God In An Alcove
• She's In Parties
• Adrenaline
• Severance
• Silent Hedges
• In Fear Of Fear
• Endless Summer Of The Damned
• Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores
• Stigmata Martyr
• Bela Lugosi's Dead

I can’t remember which songs I particularly liked (since it’s so hard to hear the lyrics to most of them), but I was very pleasantly surprised, and really enjoyed their set. They of course closed with Bela Lugosi’s Dead, their biggest song, during which a creepy chick in a medieval robe just stood on stage under a white light and looked scary. Why was she there? No clue, it’s Bauhaus, :-).

Some other funny/interesting moments included Peter Murphy dry-humping their guitarist, said guitarist absolutely rocking out on an alto sax during one of their songs, and Mr. Murphy using a big bamboo pole to give roses to a few lucky ladies in the audience…as well as one of the security guards. Definitely an entertaining fellow!

After Bauhaus the NIN roadies began setting up, and a little after 9pm an awesome light cage (no other way to describe it, really; it was a grid of bars that were actually light tubes that had tons of little lights on them) descended, and Trent and co. came out onto the stage and went right into “Somewhat Damaged”, from The Fragile. It was a great way to start the show, since I hadn’t heard this song played at either of the other two NIN shows we went to in the past year.

One of the coolest things about this show was the lights. The MSG show had a great lightshow, but this one blew it out of the water. There was the previously-mentioned light cage (which also conveniently provided Trent with something to hang onto for dramatic effect, hehe) as well as the huge diodes at the rear of the stage. There were also copious amounts of smoke, though the sea breeze at the venue made it hard for the smoke to really stick.

The setlist was:

1. Somewhat Damaged
2. You Know What You Are
3. Sin
4. Terrible Lie
5. March of the Pigs
6. The Frail
7. The Wretched
8. Closer
9. Burn
10. Gave Up
11. Help Me I'm In Hell
12. Non-Entity
13. Only
14. Wish
15. La Mer
16. Into The Void
17. The Big Comedown
18. Dead Souls
19. Suck
20. Get Down, Make Love
21. Down In It
22. Hurt
23. The Hand That Feeds
24. Head Like A Hole

After “Dead Souls” (a Joy Division cover) Trent gave a little speech, where he said that 5 years ago he was in the worst place he’d ever been in his whole life, and that he wanted it all to end, but that he made it through because of us and wanted to thank us all for supporting him. It was nice to hear him say that (even if he probably gives that speech every night).

The only songs that he generally plays that we didn’t hear were Reptile (that Liz doesn’t like much, anyway) and Something I Can Never Have. It was AWESOME that he played Down In It and La Mer, which were definitely the highlights of the evening for me, :-), as well as old reliables like March of the Pigs, Wish, Head Like a Hole, Hurt, etc. I was sooooo hoping that he’d do “The Great Below” right after La Mer, but alas, it was not to be… No matter, though, as a great time was had by all. The NIN logo they had on the light cage after Head Like a Hole was pretty sweet, too.

NIN is definitely the best live band I’ve ever had the pleasure to see, since they’re always so incredibly tight, whether it’s Trent’s vocals, Jeordie’s headbanging or Aaron’s crazy antics (after the show he came over to our side of the stage, unplugged his guitar and threw it into the water! The security guards had to make sure that no one jumped in afterwards to try and retrieve it!). We’ll definitely go see them every time they come to the NYC-area (though Trent said that this will be their last tour for a while, since he wants to work on their next album).

Summing up: awesome venue, awesome opening acts, awesome show. You can see all the pics I was able to find here.

Luis