cowbell redux: part II (the sequel)
So, wednesday Ducore, Kevin, Laurel, and I all went to see Nine Inch Nails and Queens Of The Stone Age at MCI center. The concert was freaking awesome. But I know the question on everyones mind is: "was there enough cowbell?" . I will get to that all in good time.
Ducore and I got to the MCI center at about 7 (which is when the concert supposedly started). We had Kevin's extra tucket with us and we were supposed to sell it for him since he was getting there later. So, being the good little law-abiding citizens that Ducore and I are, we approached the police officers standign on the corner with drug/bomb sniffing dogs and asked how we could legally go about selling a ticket. They said that there was no legal way to do it. I said that we were goign to sell it for teh face value, so it wouldnt really be scalping, and they said, basically "Go away", with a smirk on his face. Ducore maintains that the cop was just annoyed with us, but I'm pretty sure he was just saying "why the hell would you tell us that you are about to break the law? Everyone else is doing it, just get the hell away from us so we cant do anything about it". Gotta love cops who turn the other cheek. Anyway, we ended up selling the $50 ticket to some guy for $20, and I'm pretty sure he resold it for a lot more.
We finally found the right door to go into for floor seats and got in in time to see the end of the opening band, Death From Above 1979. They were kind of interesting, with only a drummer and bassist. I wouldnt buy their CD, but they were kinda cool to see live. I was impressed at the bass work as he managed to get a pretty high melody going. I dont know whether he was using special pickups, higher strings, an effects box, or I just under estimate the range of a four string bass. Anyway, the real selling point of their set was the fact that one of their songs featured a nice cowbell part. They actually used two tones of cowbell, so I think that is worth twice the credit.
Queens of the stone age was pretty good, although I have seen them twice before and therefore and was not incredibly excited to see them again. However, their new CD is pretty good, so seeing them play that stuff was cool. I especially liked "Burn the Witch" which is one of the more infectious songs on the album. Unfortunatly they did not play "Feel good hit of the Summer" which they have played every other time I've seen them and is a good crowd pleasing song. Any song thats about drugs is gonna get the audience's attention. They did play "Little Sister" which satiated my need for cowbell. It was a good set, but I kinda wanted them to hurry up so that Nine Inch Nails could come on.
Nine Inch Nails came on behind a sheer fabric curtain, which was actually pretty cool. They removed it and the brought it back throughout the show. The stage setup was probabaly the most intricate I have ever seen. They had these dealies that were like bundles of random height parallel columns protruding from the floor and ceiling like staligtites/mites which were covered with some sort of digital LED array or something, so that images and animations could displayed on them. They also displayed images on teh backdrop behind the band and on the sheer curtain when it was down. I dotn remember the setlist very well, but they played a lot from the new ablum as well as a pretty good mix of older stuff. They didnt play much from "The Fragile", which disapointed me a bit. I wished I had listened to their older stuff before teh concert, because some songs I recognized, but did not know the words to because I havent listened to them in a while. I think the highlight was "Right where it belongs" which was palyed with the curtain down and a nice nihilistic video projected on it complete with animals eating each other, flowers decaying, shit getting blown up, and a soldier with a gun to a girls head. There was a lot of war footage, and a shot of president Bush. Of course at this image, the growd erupted in a chorus of boos and "Fuck You"s. "Hurt" was of course awesome as well. The heavier songs like "Head like a hole" and "Sin" were great as well, and it caused the crowd to be proabbaly more energized than any other concert I've been to. It's pretty amazing that NIN can do both soft and heavy songs so well. And it wasnt like other concerts I've been to where everyone gets bored during the slow songs. Oh, another cool thing about the setup was that at one point Trent Reznor took his mike stand and swung it at the curtain in form of him just as an image of breaking class was displayed and the curtain was pulled up, like he had broken though it. That was cool. Throughout the concert I was tryign to figure out who Reznor reminded me of with his new buzzed haircut. The next day I realized it was Jack Johnson. I probabaly shouldnt tell taht to Trent if I meet him though, cuz that guy is built. Although if I were to get pummeled by anyone, he'd probabaly be on my list of people to do it. "what happened to your face Tim?" "Oh, Trent Reznor beat my face in with a pipe... isnt that awesome?". Anyway, thats about all I have. The concert was freaking awesome, and well worth my money. I would give it 3 cowbells out of 5 for cowbellosity, and 5 out of 5 for kickassitudeness.
Ducore and I got to the MCI center at about 7 (which is when the concert supposedly started). We had Kevin's extra tucket with us and we were supposed to sell it for him since he was getting there later. So, being the good little law-abiding citizens that Ducore and I are, we approached the police officers standign on the corner with drug/bomb sniffing dogs and asked how we could legally go about selling a ticket. They said that there was no legal way to do it. I said that we were goign to sell it for teh face value, so it wouldnt really be scalping, and they said, basically "Go away", with a smirk on his face. Ducore maintains that the cop was just annoyed with us, but I'm pretty sure he was just saying "why the hell would you tell us that you are about to break the law? Everyone else is doing it, just get the hell away from us so we cant do anything about it". Gotta love cops who turn the other cheek. Anyway, we ended up selling the $50 ticket to some guy for $20, and I'm pretty sure he resold it for a lot more.
We finally found the right door to go into for floor seats and got in in time to see the end of the opening band, Death From Above 1979. They were kind of interesting, with only a drummer and bassist. I wouldnt buy their CD, but they were kinda cool to see live. I was impressed at the bass work as he managed to get a pretty high melody going. I dont know whether he was using special pickups, higher strings, an effects box, or I just under estimate the range of a four string bass. Anyway, the real selling point of their set was the fact that one of their songs featured a nice cowbell part. They actually used two tones of cowbell, so I think that is worth twice the credit.
Queens of the stone age was pretty good, although I have seen them twice before and therefore and was not incredibly excited to see them again. However, their new CD is pretty good, so seeing them play that stuff was cool. I especially liked "Burn the Witch" which is one of the more infectious songs on the album. Unfortunatly they did not play "Feel good hit of the Summer" which they have played every other time I've seen them and is a good crowd pleasing song. Any song thats about drugs is gonna get the audience's attention. They did play "Little Sister" which satiated my need for cowbell. It was a good set, but I kinda wanted them to hurry up so that Nine Inch Nails could come on.
Nine Inch Nails came on behind a sheer fabric curtain, which was actually pretty cool. They removed it and the brought it back throughout the show. The stage setup was probabaly the most intricate I have ever seen. They had these dealies that were like bundles of random height parallel columns protruding from the floor and ceiling like staligtites/mites which were covered with some sort of digital LED array or something, so that images and animations could displayed on them. They also displayed images on teh backdrop behind the band and on the sheer curtain when it was down. I dotn remember the setlist very well, but they played a lot from the new ablum as well as a pretty good mix of older stuff. They didnt play much from "The Fragile", which disapointed me a bit. I wished I had listened to their older stuff before teh concert, because some songs I recognized, but did not know the words to because I havent listened to them in a while. I think the highlight was "Right where it belongs" which was palyed with the curtain down and a nice nihilistic video projected on it complete with animals eating each other, flowers decaying, shit getting blown up, and a soldier with a gun to a girls head. There was a lot of war footage, and a shot of president Bush. Of course at this image, the growd erupted in a chorus of boos and "Fuck You"s. "Hurt" was of course awesome as well. The heavier songs like "Head like a hole" and "Sin" were great as well, and it caused the crowd to be proabbaly more energized than any other concert I've been to. It's pretty amazing that NIN can do both soft and heavy songs so well. And it wasnt like other concerts I've been to where everyone gets bored during the slow songs. Oh, another cool thing about the setup was that at one point Trent Reznor took his mike stand and swung it at the curtain in form of him just as an image of breaking class was displayed and the curtain was pulled up, like he had broken though it. That was cool. Throughout the concert I was tryign to figure out who Reznor reminded me of with his new buzzed haircut. The next day I realized it was Jack Johnson. I probabaly shouldnt tell taht to Trent if I meet him though, cuz that guy is built. Although if I were to get pummeled by anyone, he'd probabaly be on my list of people to do it. "what happened to your face Tim?" "Oh, Trent Reznor beat my face in with a pipe... isnt that awesome?". Anyway, thats about all I have. The concert was freaking awesome, and well worth my money. I would give it 3 cowbells out of 5 for cowbellosity, and 5 out of 5 for kickassitudeness.
posted by Unknown | Friday, November 04, 2005
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