Nine Inch Nails vs. Toledo

Roadtrips are always fun, right? Right. No Toledo traffic, a decent Mexican dinner at a restaurant with antler chandeliers (yep, that's right, Mexi-moose!) and Tecate (yums), watching coporate types 'speed dating' (they were just there on a bar crawl...still funny to observe, as we failed to steal their free drinks)...actually, I've never driven through 'downtown' Toledo. It's an attractive area - lots of restaurants on the water, tall buildings, boats. We missed the opener on purpose, and we got ready for Muscles McGee and the rest of the band.

FANTASTIC SHOW! It was like watching them in a high school gymnasium, but without the cheerleaders and much better sound! At Joe Louis, we were on the far side of the stage, so we never received the full effect of the video presentations or light show. This time around, we had a perfect view of everything...and the venue was so small. There couldn't have been more than 6,000 people there. We got our 'costume change' (long sleeve dress shirt to sleeveless shirt - YES!) and we got hit with so much muscle (TR decided to flex for effect during "Getting Smaller"...well, he certainly isn't...) and so many hits - lots from 'With Teeth', not enough from 'The Fragile' or 'The Downward Spiral' (we only got 'Closer' and 'Eraser'...boo), BUT WE HEARD 'DEAD SOULS'! Fun fact: Ron was The Crow for Halloween one year in high school. If you get him drunk enough, he just might let you take a look at the picture.

BUT here's where Ms. Complainy comes to town. During the previous night's show in Grand Rapids, TR walked off stage after a lighter hit him in the face three-quarters of the way through Hurt. He threw down his keyboard and stormed off - minutes later, the house lights came on, and Mr. FuckHead-Lighter-Javelin-Guy got a serious beating from the crowd. Usually, the curtain comes down, they play a song, curtain comes up, they rock out for a couple more then end with 'Head Like A Hole', destroying everything on the stage. Hot, meaty aggression - best.

So last night, NIN goes right into HLAH, without the curtain. I think, 'what a fucking diva..I bet they'll just end it here and not play 'Hurt' or go into an encore.' Guess who was right? ME. A mic stand was thrown and TR tossed his guitar up like a little girl. No destruction, no mayhem. They walked off the stage and house lights came on.

I completely understand his reaction from last night - he should walk off if someone is being THAT disrespectful. But Toledo loves you guys! We rocked out! We sang, we clapped along, we didn't throw anything (well, aside from ONE bra), and you take from us the ultimate sing-a-long opportunity. Back at JLA, every single person was singing along to 'Hurt' and you know what? It was kinda moving. It meant something. So, Trent, get over it. We drove an hour-and-a-half. We made the effort to come and rock out. Don't punish us because of a FuckHead who doesn't represent the majority of your fans.

He'd better get over it before NIN get to Richmond, or Amber and Chris will come after every single one of them with shovels.