As poor as I am right now, went ahead and got tickets for the Nashville show. Got mad respect for Trent, he always does a show in TN even after skipping over huge venues like Dallas and plenty other big cities. Think one year he skipped a few huge cities and still played Knoxville and Nashville a few days apart. First show I ever saw was actually in the south, in possibly the greatest venue I could see him: the Tabernacle. Converted Cathedral for the And All That Could Have Been tour? Fuck. Yes. First really big show I went to on my own after high school.
Say what you want about his newer music, and I will. I'm a huge NIN fan but I just didn't like The Slip. Everything else was cool with me, especially Ghosts, but imo the Slip sucked and I saw that performed live several times. He didn't play anything from it other than Discipline both times. Think he kinda knew it wasn't that great. He's totally not the Downward Spiral coked up suicidal motherfucker anymore that drew alot of people in, but I can deal.
Honestly, I've liked the How to Destroy Angels stuff he's done recently a ton more than The Slip. People have been talking shit about Mariqueen being his Yoko but IMO he's done nothing but awesome since he married the chick and had kids. We'll see how it works out after Hesitation Marks is released but Welcome Oblivion was stuck in my playlist forever after I heard it the first time. One thing I always thought about NIN is that the music could incorporate a female singer really, really exquisitely if done right. I'm thinking he's probably going to keep her out of the new album but I'm not one of those people who will lose his shit if she ends up on a track or two.
Regardless, I've seen countless shows around the world and honestly there's no one I've ever seen that consistently can put on as exquisite a live show as NIN (whoever it's composed of at the time). He's just an awesome performer and he makes it just unique enough each time to make it worth it every time.
Really looking forward to the new one, really hoping it's not The Slip 2.0.