Nine Inch Nails (Seoul Olympic Hall)

As you may already well know, South Korea (presumably the North also!) struggles to entice any noteworthy bands to play here. This point was comically illustrated last year when I paid around 50 pounds to see "nu metal titans" Korn. If you missed that, it was actually a surprisingly fun trip down memory lane, thanks to a hefty slice of early material, and I dreamed whimsically of the days spent sitting outside certain record stores, trading mix tapes and scowling at passers-by. If you remember the names of either of my mix tape series, post it in the comments and you will win a prize, possibly some form of delicious food that even stranded marines avoid until they run out of elephant dung.


We managed to get away from work early, at 7.30pm, and faced a mad dash to the other side of Seoul for a concert beginning at 8pm. Fortunately, our subway line is the same line as the venue, so no irritating transfers, but it still takes an hour to cross the city. Hearing an indecipherable throb and rattle from the venue, we presumed Nine Inch Nails were not on yet, and rapidly quaffed some beers outside. As it turned out, there was no support band, and NIN started at bang on 8pm! Luckily, they played a generous two and a half set, so we still saw at least 80 minutes and it was absolutely superb. I'd go so far as to say, if the venue was full, it wasn't a Tuesday, I could get drunk and have a good jump around, it would easily be one of the best gigs ever, and I've seen thousands, the product of a misspent youth given to the debauched excess and spirit of rock!


I remember, as in "High Fidelity", writing numerous Top 5 lists back in school, and NIN were my number one in "Bands You Want To See, But Haven't". I have since found the setlist from the night, and if you are a fan of the band, prepare to be fairly excited....

Hyperpower!
The Beginning of the End
Heresy
Terrible Lie
March of the Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
Closer
Survivalism
Burn
Gave Up
Me I'm Not
The Great Destroyer
Eraser
Only
Wish
No You Don't
Piggy
The Good Soldier
The Day the World Went Away
Dead Souls
Suck
Down In It
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Hurt

Throw in a remix of Happiness In Slavery, and you probably couldn't construct a better set.

We entered just as "Me, I'm Not" was starting, and while it's a little depressing seeing some of the classics we had missed, you can probably still see there were numerous classics still to come. Unfortunately, my camera still takes videos with abysmal sound, so the only video for now will be of "Hurt", which was absolutely incredible. Spine-tingling almost. BUT, if you are a fan, and interested, Lynne has brilliant videos which I will put up when we figure out how to make them smaller so that Youtube accepts them. Any ideas?

Well, here are some pictures. For part of the show, they played behind an electronic screen which intermittently flashed images in between TV static, giving the impression that the band were playing inside a broken TV, which was very cool. Also, the sound was amazing, and the electronic beat-orientated moments often bludgeoned the likes of The Chemical Brothers in terms of volume and creativity.

For me, the undoubted highlights were Hurt, Wish, Eraser, and Head Like A Hole, which still sounds AMAZING, despite being almost 20 years old. That song reminds you why Time Magazine dubbed Trent Reznor "The Most Important Man In Music" back then, it's still absolutely fantastic, and completely timeless. That's Time Magazine too, not Kerrang or something! All that was left to do was the obligatory poster theft from the venue, and I went home extremely happy.