Ryan's Currently Unnamed Blog

What a night! Three bands that I love, in an arena, with floor tickets!

First up was Autolux. Saw them open for The Ravenonnettes a few months ago at the Double Door, and here they are on a big stage playing in front of a big crowd! They sounded good, not as good as the double door, but with a large environment, and being the first band... i didn't expect the sound to be all that great. The general perception of them in the crowd ranged from "these guys REALLY suck", to "I'm Bored", to "Wow, that drummer is REALLY good". So, they weren't all that well received, but that's not too surprising, since they have a mellow feel to their music, and the crowd was mainly there for NIN and Queens...

After a short break, it was time for Queens of the Stone Age to play and they were tight... really really tight. There were people who were there JUST to see Queens, and actually left the pit before NIN. Josh was his good old self, ripping on the audience and having a great time of it. They actually did a fantastic job of warming up the place and getting people involved. They played more of their older stuff then I had expected and Nick Oliveri's abscence, didn't really seem to impact the power of their music as much as I thought it might. I was REALLY glad to see that they ended up opening for NIN, mainly because I missed them when they came through and played at the Metro (i think) a couple months ago.

Finally, it came time for Nine Inch Nails! The stage setup was (understandably) FAR more impressive then when they played at the Congress Theater a couple months ago. The whole set is a blur, but once the lights went out, and the old familiar push of the crowd toward the stage started, I knew I was in for one hell of a rollercoaster ride. I think that the pit was actually rougher at the Congress, but its always hard to tell and that impression varies depending on where you are standing. Surprisingly, the highlight to me was 'Right Where It Belongs'... maybe because it came about three quarters of the way through and the break was really welcomed, or perhaps it was because of the large projected images on a screen that surrounded the stage. Starting with happy pictures of suburbia, and families and pets and slowly shifting to business and corporate images and then getting into military and death and the trademark nature footage, this time of some sort of monkey hunting down a flamingo-like bird from a large flock. The pinnacle for me, was when they showed a 15 second clip or so, of George W. Bush, in a tux, dancing with his wife... of course drawing a large round of boos, and two extended middle fingers and a "Fuck you, mothafucker!" from me.

Again, I left wanting to hear "Something I can never have", but with auch a catalog to play from... that's a lot to expect. Was surprised to hear Suck and Reptile again... but the old standards, mixed in with the new tracks from With Teeth made for an incredible show. If you have an opprotunity to see this show, "GO!"

Tags: Autolux - Queens of the Stone Age - NIN - Nine Inch Nails - Concerts - Music