The first time I saw Nine Inch Nails perform was the 1994 tour for Pretty Hate Machine supporting David Bowie. The tickets were stupid expensive for me at the time (I made $4.25 an hour – minimum wage back then), and Bowie – to a young kid who barely knew better – was hardly a cushion to the blow of the ticket price, but my good friend Mike Petroskie said I had to see them, so I did. (He turned me on to Primus and Rush too, so what fool wouldn’t trust him?) I snuck out of my house to see the show, paid a much older neighbor to drive me…and it turns out Mike was so wise for his age, and to this day I cherish that experience! My one and only Bowie show was an accident as I was only there to see NIN – and I am pretty sure David Bowie would be fine with that decision today. Thanks Mike!
Well, 28 years later, things came full circle for me and I finally got to capture NIN with my camera for the first time as a professional. The payoff was worth the wait. I am so happy and humbled in my blessed life and the journey I have been allowed to experience, last night made me appreciate that all over again.
Despite being night two of the band’s run at Red Rocks, the setlist was not a repeat of Friday. Trent came at us hard with a whole new thing to digest…he opened this time with “Beginning of the End,” a tongue-in-cheek fuck you – not lost on me – then in a Shakespearean flip of Freudian levels he ended the night with one of the few repeats, “Hurt.”
A middle finger to all the analysts, classic Reznor. I could not be happier. Hope you dig the photos.
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