Recordings
Notes
Here are some notes from Mark, "This is a good recording but not a GREAT recording. First of all, the entire day was super windy; I tried to fix this with the windscreens and moving to the left side stack for good sound/less wind. Well, the crowd wasabsolutely insane when the show started. Crowdsurfers everywhere, you couldn't move a foot, the surge of the pits, etc. It was pretty much chaotic. Finally I was able to move further left during "Heresy" and the second half of the recording came out great. You're going to hear crowdsurfers go over me and some crowd stuff onthe first half, but it isn't too terrible. I cleaned up what I could when editing. Listening back, it isn't as bad as I would have thought during the set. I'd still give the recording a 7/10. There was a 12~ minute technical difficulties break after "Less Than" because the humidity broke the band's IEM system. They stayed on stage to try and do "March of the Pigs" after a break, but stopped immediately. They then left the stage for it to get fixed, and an announcement was made by the festival which was interesting. They got it fixed and came back and rocked us, but had to drop two of the best songs from the setlist - "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" and "The Becoming" - darn. Rockville still let them play past 11:00."
Notes
Franklin is just outside of Nashville and this is a brand new amphitheater. It's in an old quarry transformed into a nice music venue. The place has bad reviews on getting out afterwards, which are pretty accurate but otherwise this was an extremely enjoyable night. We grabbed brunch in downtown Franklin, hit a brewery later in the day with TJ and got to the show nice and early. Security and staff were super nice at this one. We had seats for this show on the left stack, just behind the pit. The sound was quite low in my opinion when the show started but they bumped it big time on Burn into Survivalism which was good and by the end it was a normal show volume. Terrible Lie didn't have a big punch as the opener though. The setlist was great, with the newer songs and deeper cuts. We also lucked out at this show with a good crowd around us and no screamers in front of us or near us in the seats. The lights on the quarry walls changed on some of the songs (green on Reptile, etc) which was SO cool to see. Ryan, Adam and I rocked all show and had such a great time. After the show while waiting to get out of the lot, Ryan started editing the show standing outside of the car! Wild. And it was uploaded while we were on the way to the hotel - now that' commitment. Overall the 3 show run was just incredible. Let's do it again soon!
Notes
After a LONG drive back from Raleigh, I was super thankful for the break between concerts. I was excited for the festival show because I knew NIN would bring it after what they played in Raleigh. We posted up on the middle rail in the crowd with a group of tapers and it couldn't have gone any better. Mr. Self Destruct into Wish absolutely MELTED the place - insane strobes and production and fog - you couldn't see anything. Total sensory overload in a great way. The band was so LOUD too - I absolutely loved it. The set was a total burner and they left it all out there, putting Shaky Knees in the ground with that performance. A+ set. We lucked out with no crazy folks around us and we ended up with good pulls. After the show, we grabbed some excellent Fellini's pizza and headed off to the next show in Franklin but not before Ryan started editing and tracking tapes in the BACK SEAT as we drove! Shaky Knees is an awesome festival and is the last place I saw the legendary Foo Fighters last year with an epic show so I was looking forward to an amazing NIN set. We got exactly what we were wanting!
Notes
It'about freaking time I returned to record some NIN! Ryan and I spent most of the pandemic talking almost daily and hanging out (when it was safe to do so)... just wishing that NIN would eventually get back out there. When the southeast dates were announced, we said - We are GOING! Fast forward to the show day - I met up with Ryan on a long drive to the show at the small but nice Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh. The pit was miniscule at this show so we were all really close to the band. Opening with Somewhat Damaged after that huge break of NIN shows - amazing!! Massive energy and the band was out to blow the place up! Right into The Day the World Went Away and off we went. They played all of the bigger songs I was looking for after such a big break. The highlights of this show were Every Day Is Exactly the Same and the amazing performance of The Perfect Drug which I was stoked to get! Trent was on fire, the band was in great form and overall the show kicked ass. We met up with TJ from Rage Against the Machine's Live Archive and had a blast before the show and during it. Adam, Ryan'brother, joined us and overall, our group was flawless. I was a bit nervous after not stealth taping for a very long time, but once I got a show recorded it felt natural again. Luckily I didn't have many people around me going insane and the tape came out pretty solid considering we were SO close to the stage! The production and overall energy on the stage was so, so cool. Ilan smashing the drums along with Atticus's programmed beats on Perfect Drug, the energy in the crowd - all flawless! Thanks to Ryan for getting me out to the show!