I first learned about the news of NIN’s Manila concert from the Multiply post of Wolf Gemora. I had doubts at first that it would push through but Wolf said that contracts had been signed already. Yey! A few days later, Trent Reznor himself tweeted about it!
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| Promotional poster by Splintr.com |
Nine Inch Nails (or the talented Trent Reznor) is one of the few known industrial musicians I had been exposed to during my younger eclectic days in high school when Trent was still not as muscular as he is now. In my own taste, I love edgy and heavy beats while I love dancing too. Yes, I consider NIN with its electronic sounds a danceable music for me and I love it! NIN is one of those rare acts that contributed a unique sound not just to its own genre, but to music in general. I have also admired Trent Reznor for his professional scoring in various movies. I can’t afford to miss NIN's coming to Manila!
I believe I bought the VIP tickets too early before Splintr announced that they were selling special tickets (where VIP rows A to F were not for sale in Ticketnet outlets but directly from Splintr only). I wished I had waited a little longer before I bought tickets out of panic, because I thought rows A to F were all sold out that’s why I only got the G row. The VIP seats I got from Ticketnet for me and Pol were G6 and G7 which were near the center aisle. Our location in the center and the distance from the stage was perfect! I think I bought the tickets three months in advance. That was how panicked I was. LOL
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| Screenshot from tour.nin.com! |
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| Our seating and view of the stage: nine feet away from Nine Inch Nails! |
Concert day came and we arrived at Araneta Coliseum as early as 7 pm. We thought we arrived too early because there were still very few people in the audience. I believed that the show wouldn’t start until 9pm, but to our surprise, it was past 7:30 pm when Pupil started to play. The members of the band wore yellow arm ribbons in memory of Former President Cory Aquino who just died last August 1. They were also with Amanda Ling, a former member of Singaporean band Electrico, as guest keyboard player. By the way, Pupil was lucky to be chosen by Trent Reznor himself for the opening act!
It was good to see Ely Buendia again, this time with his current band Pupil. The last time I saw him was on the Eraserheads' reunion concert called "The Final Set".
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| Pupil as opening act |
After Pupil finished their set, I was sure that NIN would play at about 10 pm like how pop stars would, so we bought dinner within the dome and didn’t rush with our eating. But it was just 9 pm when the lights suddenly went out and Trent Reznor appeared! The girls behind me were screaming like I was. It was very sudden!
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| There they are! |
Trent and his touring band got me really pumped up. It was my first time to see industrial rock live. And they had NO SET BREAK! Amazingly, they played more than twenty songs. We were really expecting a break because we were very tired from our all-out participation. NIN was all-out and superb too despite their every-other-day tour around Europe and America before they finally got to Asia. The crowd was also great! Too bad I didn’t bring my digicam because I thought it wouldn’t be allowed. I used my camera phone instead.
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| Trent and his machines |
I went home with Pol, realizing I had lost my voice and my body ached all over. That was how my chanting and dancing went for me.
Before the day of the concert, I searched for previous set lists for NIN's Wave Goodbye concert in other countires and found out that NIN's popular hit "Closer" was never included. Here's a proof. But on the concert in Manila itself, I was super surprised that I screamed when I heard just he first two beats of the intro! Was that a special treatment for Filipinos because of his then Filipina fiancé (now wife)? Who among his Filipino fans wouldn’t feel that special because of that? But nope, he didn't include his other hits "The Perfect Drug" and "We're In This Together". But we still felt special!
Here's NIN’s Manila set list for the Wave Goodbye Tour. It was called "Wave Goodbye" because NIN would be in a long hiatus after the tour. But Trent Reznor would still be busy doing other projects, so, 'til we meet again, Trent!
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