Nine Inch Nails. Wave Goodbye. Manila.

Nine years ago, I would’ve smirked at the mere mention of Trent Reznor or Nine Inch Nails. But that was almost a decade ago--when I have just entered into college and have just initiated myself into the Goth Subculture. You see, back then every “goth girl” had a crush on Trent Reznor, and every “goth boy” wanted to be like him; being the shrewd little fledgling that I was, I knew that the sure-fire way to get killed during the infiltration process into any “underground” group is this: to be labeled as a poser. And the quickest way to be labeled as one is when you can only give surface information about the lifestyle: i.e. the more obscure your choice of bands/ books are, the cooler you become to the hardcore’s discriminating eyes.

The irony is, Nine Inch Nails isn’t and was never even Goth music in the first place. Perhaps NIN only got associated with Goth because Trent Reznor looked like a vampire, and his brand of industrial music also evoked the same emotions that permeated the Gothic soul: depression, anger, cynicism, and dark sensuality. Any kid who had access to the internet and who had a reading attention-span that was longer than 10 minutes would’ve easily saved herself/himself the stigma of being called a fraud. Good thing, it turns out, I may have overestimated my laziness.

Hence, given the “mainstream” scarlet letter that has been stamped upon Nine Inch Nails [plus the cheesy association to Satanism], back then, I didn’t even give NIN the time of day. In fact, until last year, the only Nine Inch Nails song I knew was “The Perfect Drug”. But when I got to watch this movie called “Wanted”, there was this one particular background song which spoke of ennui, disillusionment and despair that struck a chord in my weary proletarian heart. Immediately I googled the lyrics that I remembered and found out, to my initial dismay, that it was a Nine Inch Nails song entitled “Everyday is Exactly the Same”. But darnit, the song kicked major arse—from the lyrics, to the melody, to the beat, it encapsulated me during my depressive episodes. It was then that I got interested in NIN and started "stealing" their available songs online. The next NIN song that blew my mind—and my id was "Closer". I got even more impressed when Trent released a full album, The Slip, free for download. Yes, free. I guess, since Trent knew that on the one hand, he hated the gluttonous machinations of music moguls, and on the other, people were going to steal his music in the guise of “peer-sharing” anyway, he resolved the dilemma by releasing the album en gratis, merely “for arts’ sake”. And from then on I thought, man, how cool is this guy?

 Yet at that point, I still didn’t become a “fan”; in fact I only learned it through a friend that Manila was going to be one of NIN’s stops for their Wave Goodbye tour. This was some two months ago and being the concert-hog that I am, I initially reserved a Patron VIP ticket online that was worth some Php 5,000, but then changed my mind later on and decided it was too much to pay for a band which I just liked, even if this could potentially be the first and last time that I’d be seeing them live. I eventually settled with and bought a Lower Box seat.

As the concert drew nearer, I psyched myself up by viewing their recent live performances and it was then that I had realized these four things [in order of realization]: 1. Trent looked more like a bouncer now—which is so far from the lanky, mysterious Lestat that he used to look like, 2. They do pull off some ridiculously intense, badass live music onstage, 3. Their drummer is AMAZING, and 4. Trent’s butt is cute for a stocky dude. It was with realization numbers 2 and 3 that I may have slightly, truly begun becoming their fan [which was what, only last month?], because it was then that I started to dedicate a few of my surfing hours researching NIN.

Hence, 12 years since I first saw [and got freaked out by] a song of theirs, “The Perfect Drug” on MTV, it was only last month that I found out the basics about Nine Inch Nails: that Nine Inch Nails is essentially Trent Reznor [he just handpicks his touring line-up band members, who mostly are multi-instrumentalists], and that Trent actually had a normal upbringing, and as he said in an interview, "a fairly happy childhood"—which imo, should’ve made him more of a posterboy of suburban angst than any other goth ascription. It was also quite exciting for me to learn that I am about to see this artist who has won 2 Grammy’s and was dubbed by Spin Magazine as “the most vital artist in music”, who was speculated to have dated Tori “my goddess” Amos, and a bunch of other accolades. I was also initially amused to have learned that he is engaged to a Filipina musician, Mariqueen Maandig, [and possibly the reason why he has decided to go on a hiatus after this tour] but a few more googling about her made me think that perhaps Trent is too epic for her. Anyway, I don’t know her, and she’s of my same race and age [I think], and it’s their personal business, so I just wish the couple well.

But the most pleasant surprise was their drummer, Ilan Rubin. Now I don’t know how to play the drums, but upon viewing their Brisbane live performance of "Letting You", I was entranced from the first beat. Seeing him there, hunched like a grizzly animal that I couldn’t even see his face, hitting those drums with solid intensity and vigor, made me feel like I was a part of some tribal ritual with his sonorous drum-playing opening up the higher states of my consciousness. And he is only 21 years old. Darn, another one of those kids who make me want to slit my uber-productive life. Anyhow, I was soon to find out that he is also a multi-instrumentalist [piano, synthesizer, guitar, bass guitar, oboe, vocals], and is Guinness Book of World Record’s youngest musician to play on a Woodstock stage [age 11]. I love you man, I love you.

Come August 5, Wednesday, I was ecstatic for the concert, albeit I was going there alone. Well, from the online forums I joined, it seemed that majority of those who were going to the NIN concert were steppenwolves, and weren’t even the slightest bothered that they were going there alone. I did meet up with a few peeps from the Pinoyexchange NIN forum though, and was glad to not have looked like a psycho-who-couldn’t-even-look-at-people-in-the-eye-freak [like how I assumed I looked like when I went to the 2nd Incubus concert here] and at least have had company prior to entering the coliseum. Inside, I felt somewhat sad for NIN that the concert had not been packed, although there was also this narcissistic part in me that was glad to know that at least here in Manila, NIN wasn’t very much mainstream still [no high school kids, no tacky movie celebrity sightings]. Pupil opened for NIN with a few songs—apt choice, being that they are probably the only current mainstream local band who sounds interesting and prog-rockish.

Now as for the concert itself, the closest phrase I could probably ascribe to it is DECADENTLY TANTRIC. Prior to going to the concert I had told a friend about how a lot of us NIN fans were going to the concert alone, and had even laughed as she joshed that we freaks probably thought we were going to some occult worship and just want to be able to headbang in solemnity. Quite ironically, that’s how the concert felt. The stage-backdrop was made up of these humungous strobe lights that blindingly flashed yellow, red, blue, green, purple according to the beat and mood of the song they were playing. In majority of the songs, I just bobbed my head, mesmerized by the light-and-sound trip brought about by the alien-ish strobe lights and the pulsating, synthetic, and cathartic music that Trent, Ilan, Robin and Justin produced. After they played "Closer" [which was a miracle, because they apparently ceased playing this live already] the coliseum was already soaked with a sado-masochistic-sensuality, and by the end of the concert, I was officially Trent Reznor’s biatch and felt like a drunk Maenad hungry for more.

Wham, Bam, Thank You NIN. I’m waving goodbye but I’ll always have that night to remember you by.

The Full Wave Goodbye, Manila Setlist:

Somewhat Damaged
Terrible Lie
Heresy
March of the Pigs
Piggy
Closer
Reptile
The Becoming
I'm Afraid of Americans
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
The Fragile
Non Entity
Gone, Still
Downward Spiral
Wish
Survivalism
Mr. Self Destruct
Echoplex
The Day the World Went Away
Dead Souls
Hand that Feeds
Head like a Hole
Hurt

For NIN Wave Goodbye Tour videos from my crappy cameraphone, hit the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z3zhkSQmXQ