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Mar. 30th, 2007 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solitary_summerConfessions of an ex-fangirl would be an appropriate title, I think...
Or, reflections, not to get anyone's expectations up.
It's not that I haven't loved the music, but in hindsight I guess my involvement with nin was always primarily emotional, and yesterday I felt... not even out of place, at least not uncomfortably so, rather in a fond & distanced way, if that makes any sense?, but so absolutely emotionally detached that it's impossible for me to say if it was good, bad or anything in between. It took me about half the show to get even a little bit into the mood; for a long while I was just mostly standing there wondering how - seven years? how can it have been seven years already [insert platitude about the swift passage of time] - ago I listened to this, decided (not immediately, but soon after) it defined the state of me and fell in deep fanish love for the next few years?
Strange.
I'll still listen to TF on occasions and have recently discovered a certain fondness for tracks 10.-13. of WT, but nin isn't what I want from music emotionally at this point; the limitation to the anger/depression spectrum doesn't interest me any more. And while other people seem to be perfectly capable of doing that, I find it almost impossible to divide artistic appreciation from emotional connection in this case.
What I liked: Help Me I'm In Hell/Eraser (which had a simple, but very effective light-show to go with it), Ruiner (not coincidentally tracks I haven't payed so much attention to in album context and that haven't been played to death); Survivalism worked beautifully live (although I'm still not sure what to think about the album version) and really sparked my interest in the new CD.
What I didn't like so much: Granted, this is coming from a disgruntled ex-fangirl, and touring is about promotion and making money & new fans and whatnot, & so on, & so forth, but Trent should be a little more daring and creative with his set-list.
I don't want to hear Closer [*band starts playing* *crowd goes predictably wild* *![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solitary_summer rolls eyes, is bored*], MOTP, HLAH or Sin any more; or, much as I love the acoustic versions, Something I Can Never Have, and it makes one kind of wonder how TR himself can tolerate to play these songs over and over and over again for years and still at least make a pretty convincing show of putting some emotion in there.
I was almost going to add I don't want to hear Hurt anymore, but to listen to an auditorium full of people (happily) singing along with the chorus... that was touching, slightly strange and almost funny all at once from an observer's perspective.
The Tracks from Broken (Last, Wish, Gave Up) are of course kind of over-played, too, but they fit surprisingly well into the current mood of nin (better than the TF tracks - Somewhat Damaged, The Big Comedown, TDTWWA) - IMO; or perhaps I'm too used to the album versions there), so not much complaint here, except about Suck, which has some of the most awkward lyrics in nin history that should be impossible to sing with a straight face and it genuinely baffles me why it keeps reappearing.
Only I found uninteresting live, more so than the album version, and THTF is catchy for about 30 seconds before it becomes repetitive and boring, just as on CD.
Both Burn and Dead Souls might have been replaced by something more interesting - again, IMO.
Browsing through various set-lists of other European shows... I think I'm a little jealous since others got La Mer, The Fragile, The Frail, The Wretched, Into the Void, Even Deeper or We're In This Together; I'd have loved more (and different) TF material. Love Is Not Enough, which might have been interesting or The Line Begins To Blur, one of the few songs from WT that I actually like. Heresy, Mr. Self-destruct, Reptile, The Becoming. OTOH, no You Know What You Are, no Terrible Lie, no Get Down, Make Love, no Deep and no Down In It,thank fucking god.
Plus a few other songs I don't have strong feelings about either way; could've been better, but could've been worse, too...
Sad thing is (and I chalk it up to some kind of still-ingrained pavlovian reaction to announcement of nin show-dates), despite all the whining above, when I read they were playing Frequency this summer, I caught myself thinking that, strictly hypothetically of course, Frequency would be doable, because I'll be on holiday around this time of the year anyway, and what's more, in the vicinity already and -- and WHAT THE FUCK am I thinking, i just came back from a nin show where I was BORED. The new CD can't be that interesting. Not to mention that I refuse to do festivals, because apart from the hassle, the obligatory rain, because there's always rain on Frequency, and listening to bands one isn't really interested in, even if they're playing new material, festivals always mean greatest hits show, so. NO. Shut up, brain. Really.
(I guess that would have been the confession part...)
Or, reflections, not to get anyone's expectations up.
It's not that I haven't loved the music, but in hindsight I guess my involvement with nin was always primarily emotional, and yesterday I felt... not even out of place, at least not uncomfortably so, rather in a fond & distanced way, if that makes any sense?, but so absolutely emotionally detached that it's impossible for me to say if it was good, bad or anything in between. It took me about half the show to get even a little bit into the mood; for a long while I was just mostly standing there wondering how - seven years? how can it have been seven years already [insert platitude about the swift passage of time] - ago I listened to this, decided (not immediately, but soon after) it defined the state of me and fell in deep fanish love for the next few years?
Strange.
I'll still listen to TF on occasions and have recently discovered a certain fondness for tracks 10.-13. of WT, but nin isn't what I want from music emotionally at this point; the limitation to the anger/depression spectrum doesn't interest me any more. And while other people seem to be perfectly capable of doing that, I find it almost impossible to divide artistic appreciation from emotional connection in this case.
What I liked: Help Me I'm In Hell/Eraser (which had a simple, but very effective light-show to go with it), Ruiner (not coincidentally tracks I haven't payed so much attention to in album context and that haven't been played to death); Survivalism worked beautifully live (although I'm still not sure what to think about the album version) and really sparked my interest in the new CD.
What I didn't like so much: Granted, this is coming from a disgruntled ex-fangirl, and touring is about promotion and making money & new fans and whatnot, & so on, & so forth, but Trent should be a little more daring and creative with his set-list.
I don't want to hear Closer [*band starts playing* *crowd goes predictably wild* *
solitary_summer rolls eyes, is bored*], MOTP, HLAH or Sin any more; or, much as I love the acoustic versions, Something I Can Never Have, and it makes one kind of wonder how TR himself can tolerate to play these songs over and over and over again for years and still at least make a pretty convincing show of putting some emotion in there. I was almost going to add I don't want to hear Hurt anymore, but to listen to an auditorium full of people (happily) singing along with the chorus... that was touching, slightly strange and almost funny all at once from an observer's perspective.
The Tracks from Broken (Last, Wish, Gave Up) are of course kind of over-played, too, but they fit surprisingly well into the current mood of nin (better than the TF tracks - Somewhat Damaged, The Big Comedown, TDTWWA) - IMO; or perhaps I'm too used to the album versions there), so not much complaint here, except about Suck, which has some of the most awkward lyrics in nin history that should be impossible to sing with a straight face and it genuinely baffles me why it keeps reappearing.
Only I found uninteresting live, more so than the album version, and THTF is catchy for about 30 seconds before it becomes repetitive and boring, just as on CD.
Both Burn and Dead Souls might have been replaced by something more interesting - again, IMO.
Browsing through various set-lists of other European shows... I think I'm a little jealous since others got La Mer, The Fragile, The Frail, The Wretched, Into the Void, Even Deeper or We're In This Together; I'd have loved more (and different) TF material. Love Is Not Enough, which might have been interesting or The Line Begins To Blur, one of the few songs from WT that I actually like. Heresy, Mr. Self-destruct, Reptile, The Becoming. OTOH, no You Know What You Are, no Terrible Lie, no Get Down, Make Love, no Deep and no Down In It,
Plus a few other songs I don't have strong feelings about either way; could've been better, but could've been worse, too...
Sad thing is (and I chalk it up to some kind of still-ingrained pavlovian reaction to announcement of nin show-dates), despite all the whining above, when I read they were playing Frequency this summer, I caught myself thinking that, strictly hypothetically of course, Frequency would be doable, because I'll be on holiday around this time of the year anyway, and what's more, in the vicinity already and -- and WHAT THE FUCK am I thinking, i just came back from a nin show where I was BORED. The new CD can't be that interesting. Not to mention that I refuse to do festivals, because apart from the hassle, the obligatory rain, because there's always rain on Frequency, and listening to bands one isn't really interested in, even if they're playing new material, festivals always mean greatest hits show, so. NO. Shut up, brain. Really.
(I guess that would have been the confession part...)