“We keep on climbing
But we never find the top
It’s all downhill from here.”

- The Evens, ‘Shelter Two’

Little doggy looks out over Edinburgh from Blackford Hill

“I wish we could get our act together
Make some sense of present tense, alright
Take our time with what we find and feel it
Don’t you know there’s some place else that we can go
A billion trees to climb”

- Stephen Malkmus, ‘Us’

Os Gemeos wall mural, Coney Island

There’s no common goal
There’s no moral action
There’s no modern age
From which to run away

- Stephen Malkmus, ‘We Can’t Help You’

Been listening to a lot of Stephen Malkmus’ solo work lately. It’s quite brilliant.

During 'Survivalism' (image from nin.com)

Truth is I’m still kind of in a daze. I’ve been dreaming of seeing Nine Inch Nails play live in my hometown for about ten years now and last night that dream finally came true. When Trent & Robin came out on stage I was just like – oh my God they’re real people! It’s so weird, having seen countless videos of NIN live over the last ten years, always imagining what it would be like to actually be there. Wondering if I’d ever get the chance to see them.

They opened with ‘Somewhat Damaged’. When I was 14, I used to go to school early just so I could use the internet (during a rare, computerless period of my human existence) to see a live performance of that on the Fragility tour. I remember going alone to Tower Records late at night (when 9:30pm was late) to get The Fragile and being so fucking excited about that. I remember going all over town looking for The Downward Spiral and only finding it months later and buying Fixed, Broken and Further Down The Spiral in between.

I remember two distinctly hellish periods of my life. One I was reminded of when they played ‘Wish’ – I used to wake up to that every morning almost exactly ten years ago. I remember hating my life thoroughly and completely at that point. And then when they played ‘Reptile’ (which I was hoping for so badly), I was reminded of the complete disintegration of a recent relationship during which I was listening to The Downward Spiral a lot. I was most into NIN in 2000 and 2007-8. It was during the latter period that they became my favourite band and I listened to almost nothing but their entire discography for months on end. Both were extremely difficult periods during which I felt extremely disconnected from other human beings, but I got so deep into this music. I felt it so intensely. I felt like it was my sole connection back to humanity.

When they played ‘La Mer’, I got reminded of how I used to go to the beach and listen to ‘La Mer’, ‘The Great Below’ and a lot of Ghosts… And just space out, relax, and feel everything deeply, intensely. And remind myself that everything would be okay somehow, even if I couldn’t see it happening at that point. I feel like all these little moments of just spacing out and listening to music really saved my life. Actually I’m convinced that music in general (and my connection to it) has saved my life but that’s another story (and a really long one too).

A rare moment when Singapore actually seems magical

When they first came on stage, I was so impressed with the sound – it was so much better than I’d ever expected. Everything sounded so perfect. I was ridiculously impressed by just how good they are at what they do. After a while, I was just really amazed by the music and the energy of the crowd. Really, really good vibes and a great atmosphere. For once in my life I was proud of Singapore because I realized there were some seriously cool people here, or at least the concert drew some cool people because I know there were people who came in from China, Indonesia & Malaysia just to see NIN. I kept thinking how amazing it is that music really brings people together. It makes us one. The crowd was singing along to almost every song.

The amazing lighting rig!

Some cool people I queued with

Anyway, long story short, NIN were a huge part of my life and their music was around for a large chunk of it (10 years out of 24!). They entered my life during an important transition period (the end of childhood) and now that I’ve finally entered adulthood I realize that Trent couldn’t have ended NIN at a better time and on a better note. I feel like this music has offered me so much in the way of self-knowledge and most importantly catharsis. It’s been a catalyst for those things.

'La Mer'

I feel satisfied. And I feel like I can move on now. I look forward to whatever music projects he has in mind for the future and secretly hope for more work along the lines of Ghosts I-IV (which remains my absolute favourite NIN album to date). Which reminds me – I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t play anything off of that album. Oh well.

This awesome guy seems to have filmed the entire concert in HD. Here’s ‘Somewhat Damaged‘.

Additionally @nineinchnails on Twitter posted this video of ‘Survivalism’ last night. Also, Skylar took some great videos (she was right in front!) of ‘The Day The World Went Away‘ and ‘Closer‘.