Nine Inch Nails in the Afternoon

LAST JULY I RECEIVED A FRANTIC PHONE CALL from my 16-year-old son, Offspring 1. It was Saturday afternoon. I had just returned from a conference in Portland and was at the grocery store filling the Rhodes family larder when my phone started to vibe.

"Mom, you gotta be here in 15 minutes. I have an extra ticket to Nine Inch Nails." It was O1, cutting right to the chase and skipping all the supporting information, as usual.

Turns out his neighbor across the street works for the company that makes the sound system for the Nine Inch Nails tour and he had three tickets for a family and friends dress rehearsal show the band was doing that afternoon at the Forum. He had invited Ricky and a buddy, who was stuck on a flight that was delayed from Hong Kong. The buddy's ticket had become available and O1 had lobbied for me.

I abandoned my cart (sans groceries) and arrived just as they were idling in the driveway waiting for me. We drove to the Forum discussing music. The neighbor's company supplies the tour equipment for NIN and a lot of other bands and he gets tix to behind-the-scenes shows all the time. Note to self: be nice to neighbor.

At the Forum, we lined up for about 20 minutes and headed to a bar area with no alcohol service. "God, I'd kill for a beer," Neighbor said and I concurred. This will go on record as the first rock show I've seen in the afternoon and the first stone cold sober.

There were only about 100 people milling about near the stage at the Forum when Trent Reznor walked up to the mic and said hello. What an affable fellow, I thought, remembering that Courtney Love had referred to him as the "anti-Christ." Apparently she thought Marilyn Manson had wrongly assumed the moniker. (An aside: click on Marilyn's link — the opening montage of his site is damned cool.)

There are not words to describe the power, imagination and spectacle of this show. They created a curtain of light that they'd use in various ways to highlight their music. It would change colors in sound patterns, it would move into shapes, sometimes Trent would "paint" on it with his finger like a digital etch-a-sketch. Neighbor told me that they wanted to use the backdrop like an instrument, like a piece of art. The sound was absolutely perfect, and the band played in peak form. No holding back for the family and friends. By the time they closed with "Hole in My Head," I was making contact with the other members of the audience realizing what a privileged and extraordinary experience we'd just had.

The odd thing was the applause at the end of each song. After this boom of light and sound, a smattering of clapping echoing through the 20-thousand capacity venue seemed too meager. There is just so much noise 100 people can make in the afternoon, stone cold sober.