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[Jackie Blue]

 I thought I already posted about this show, but apparently not.

So yeah, I basically paid $50 to see Deerhunter.  Don't get me wrong, between '89 and '93 I was a pretty huge NIN fan, and I still love Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, Fixed, Ghosts I-IV and to a lesser extent The Downward Spiral and The Fragile.  I kind of despise With Teeth, Year Zero and The Slip.  And I think that Niggy Tardust, while not technically a NIN album, is so bad that Trent should issue a handwritten letter of apology to every single person who ever listened to it.

Also, a LOT of my friends were going so it was also paying $50 to be part of a massive pre-, during-, and post-show party.

I was one of the drivers.  I got to the Party House (owned by a very nice Norweigan with a PHD in physics that I know who has a humorous tendency to do things like wear cowboy hats and get drunk and say, in his thick accent, "heyyyyy girls, vant to come back to my haus for a par-tee???") around 6.  I was very adamant about getting there early since I knew it would be pretty full and that it really would start at 7:30 because this was a Big Concert and I've noticed those go by some pretty strict rules.

We got there early, but not early enough to avoid having to stand in a half-mile long line that wrapped around the venue twice.  It was the line to get "searched" (which consisted of emptying pockets and getting patted down by a lady cop; I found it odd that they segregated us such that lady cops patted down the guys and male cops patted down the girls  ).  Anyhow, by the time I finally made it to the arena floor, it was half-full of NIN fans who were getting up front so they could "camp" there and not move one fucking inch until they personally fondled Trent's balls or whatever.

I shoved a bunch but still only managed to get maybe 20 feet from the stage when Deerhunter started.

They.  Fucking.  Slay.  Live.  Enday FOOKING story.  Oh my God, I was not prepared for just how FULL they sounded, with three full-time guitar players (including one hot lady rocker).  They pulled out a lot of shoegaze and distortion.  The singer was dressed in a highschool cheerleader uniform.  All around me people were like "faggot faggot this" and "eat a sandwich lol" and "who the fuck are these people?" which was annoying as shit.  Before one song, Brandon said "This next song is for my boyfriend Cletus"; he was fucking with the audience the whole show, and they didn't even understand that's what he was doing.  During the same song, he made out with the sexy rocker babe WHILE playing an awesome finger-tapping solo BEHIND HIS BACK.

Thing is, they only played for about 40 minutes, tops.  That SUCKED.

Because then we got Thee Two and One Half Hour Trent Reznor Experience!!!!!

Some of it was good.  "Wish" rocked.  I sang along.  The light show was spectacular.  I don't remember really disliking any of the songs, but a lot of the time I kept ducking out to the smoking area with friends who, while huge NIN fans, were underwhelmed by the overall quality.

Got to give him credit for the bold move of, in the middle of the show, doing a full half hour of ambient stuff from Ghosts.  During this time a curtain of lights came down in front of the stage and it would have been quite pleasant indeed IF I HAD BEEN ON SOME GOOD DRUGS FOR FUCK'S SAKE.  But trying to find mushrooms or ecstasy at a NIN concert is like trying to find heroin at a Weezer show.

The next to last song was "Hurt".  I was drunk and pissed off at a few things (the crowd being idiots, unreasonable beer prices, my friend Jessica almost knocking my glasses off in the mosh pit) and standing in the back getting ready to leave with my carload because NO WAY IN HELL was I getting stuck in post-concert traffic for an hour or more.  So when it got really quiet and everyone was holding up their christing lighters and cell phones I screamed "I LOVE THIS JOHNNY CASH SONG".  After that, he played some new song with Blade Runner footage or some shit and it was supposed to be all epic and whatever but honestly I was just like "Let's get the fuck out of here", which we did.

I don't know what the point of all that is, but hey, getting stoned and posting on here is pretty much part of my regular after-work routine since what else is there to do at 2 or 3 AM on a weeknight?

[Tom]

Fuckin' ace, have Deerhunter announced any Sydney dates yet?

[Jackie Blue]

Oh, and this pissed me off slightly: after I had already bought my ticket, I found out that the act to replace Deerhunter next in the tour rotation is A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS.  For FUCK'S sake, I would have had to drive somewhat far to see one of those shows, but FUCK dude, just to see the look on the faces of NIN fans while APTBS is laying down the serious business would be so golden.  I mean, I love the fuck out of Deerhunter but seeing APTBS in a huge venue?  FUUUUUUUUUCK, man.

[Kyros]

That's all kinds of awesome.  I was going to see them when they came to McCarren Park Pool this summer but I had nobody to go with.  How does the stuff from Microcastle sound live? Still awesome I'd assume.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Yeah, Deerhunter are fucking awesome love. Weird as hell performance wise, it's ALL about Brandon for the most part. Not in the "what an arrogant prick" sense though. He's just the stage presence and the rest of the band remain fairly stoic. And yeah, it's a really loud, really full sounding experience. Come to think of it, I think Deerhunter was one of the first bands I dragged my girlfriend to see. She liked it (I believe) but I don't know if she's entirely forgiven me for being exposed to Brandon's hairy balls swinging out from beneath his thigh length sequined dress.

[RedLion]

I actually came across Deerhunter by chance: awhile ago I was looking to sample of Deerhoof's stuff after I had heard of them a couple times, and I saw the Deerh" part of the name and just assumed it was them. I was like "Hey, this is awesome!" Then I was like "..wait I thought it was supposed to be some kind of insane Japanese female singer?" Then I heard the real Deerhoof, and was so glad that I had found Deerhunter first

[billiumbean]

I fucking hate how people have such disdain for the opening bands.  I went to an Incubus show, but not for Incubus.  I went for Silversun Pickups, who were opening for them.  And in the line (a similar mass-molestation scene courtesy the security staff also occured), I kept overhearing people talking about how they wanted them to get booed off of the stage so that they could splooge all over Whatshisface's shoes sooner.

Luckily Silversun won most of them over in the end, but at the same time, come on.  I usually like the headlining act, but I'm not going to be a douche to the opening bands because I can't wait another hour.

[Jackie Blue]

What I really don't get is that the crowd is somehow not aware or respectful of the fact that the opening band for acts like NIN or whatever are bands that the headliner hand-picked because they like them.

[look out! Ninjas!]

Having seen Green Day's American Idiot tour of Australia (I like their old stuff, OK. FUCK YOU!), I question that. Question it hard.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Yeah, often when I go to shows I know the opener. Not always, but often. Sometimes I even go more excited for the opener than the headliner (a la Wintersleep opening for Wolf Parade). Sometimes the openers really suck but y'know what, the band is almost certainly out there playing their hearts out, performing songs that they've dedicated a ton of time too. I mean, this isn't always the case but in most live settings, when at least one band on the roster is a band I want to see, I give the rest the benefit of the doubt. Sure, for example, I thought The Paper Chase was an atrocious opener when I saw Explosions in the Sky but that didn't make me think the guy who booed them from the back was any less of an asshole. It was funny though, when EitS took the stage, Munaf Rayani was like, "before we start playing, I just wanted to say that TPC are great friends of ours and you don't have to like their music but don't be a fucking asshole about it. Show some respect." I think that's as good a philosophy as any for concert etiquette.

[KvP]

What I really don't get is that the crowd is somehow not aware or respectful of the fact that the opening band for acts like NIN or whatever are bands that the headliner hand-picked because they like them.

Yeah, really. When I saw QOTSA open for NIN they were booed pretty heavily. That boggled my mind. Fuck, they were recording together at one point. And they put on a good show. I knew people who hated Ladytron because their sets never changed from show to show (apparently people follow these things) which was ironic because there's about 2 or 3 songs that get changed from set to set with NIN, and that's generally a rotating thing (song A on night 1, song B on night 2, song A on night 3) I know you'll love the fact that Saul Williams was universally adored.

I mean, it's nice of Trent that he got a little free mp3 sampler thing going with all the opening acts so people could maybe not walk in totally blind and grumpy but it was pretty much a waste and I think he knows that.

Sometimes that isn't the case, though, but you can usually tell. Where there's 5 or 6 bands on a bill it's either a label or the venue trying to justify the space they've rented out, and they'll throw together a bunch of different bands (usually this happens at metal or punk concerts) and those concerts can get really shitty and confused, which is unfortunate. I really feel sorry for opening acts in general. Most of the time they don't seem to get much setup time, and 90% of the time crowds are either hostile or indifferent.

My personal view is that seeing music performed live is a pretty big privilege, and unless the band onstage is hostile or phoning it in (and not always, with the former) there's really no reason at all to jeer a band. But then, I usually find ways to enjoy any sort of live music I see. If not, then I guess I'll grab a beer or check out the merch stand and see if any other acts are manning it, meet some people. Or go outside and talk to the kids in the smoking section.

I'd have to say that the best crowds I've ever been in have been at hip-hop shows. Everybody who performs seems to get positive feedback from the crowd. But that might just be me.