otherwise known as a Nine Inch Nails concert.  Yes, I went to the Nine Inch Nails concert on Saturday up at the Forum in LA and it was better than I had imagined. It was the happiest angst ridden sing-along political rally that I’ve ever been too — uh, well, and the only too ;p. The opening band was actually pretty good, which was a first for me.  The crowd, too, wasn’t as raucous as I thought it would be.  Most of the people there appeared to be in their late 20-s up to their early 40-s with a few baby-boomers sprinkled around — for the most part, it was a “Gen-X” rant fest.  The best thing about this concert is that everybody knew the words to most of the songs and we all sang along and shouted with Trent Reznor with great zeal.  “Head Like a Hole” was particularly fun because we all wanted to sing it, so it kinda sung itself loudly.  The band didn’t even really have to play, so they played a note or two to keep us in sync.  That was really neat!   There were also some dazzling special effects provided by what I can only describe as a pair of LCD curtains.  The images provided high-theatrics and highlighted the band’s playfulness.   There was also heavy use of strobe lighting and colored lighting that brought to mind how people imagine mass hypnotism techniques.  Anyhow, I sang my voice out and got rid of enough anger. This was definitely the release I needed.  I took some very bad pictures with my iPhone and uploaded them to my Fuzzyshot mobile blog.  Here’s a link.

I admire musicians who give big concerts like that.  Every concert I’ve been too so far, the artists have shown great appreciation and love to the audience and the audience returns that love by cheering and singing along.   It seems that musicians have a deep understanding of their audience and how to put on a show and in a way, concerts feel like the ultimate customer experience to me.  It’s a one to many, many to one, many to many, and one to one relationship all packed into 2-hours.  It’s magic to see your favorite performers performing.  Because they have such energy and enthusiasm,  I really get the feeling that artists like Bjork and Trent Reznor love what they do and feel that it’s a privilege that they are blessed with the talent to do what they do.  I think it would be nice if we all felt that way about our jobs.