Last Week's Music Round-Up

Last week, T and I went and saw Nine Inch Nails on Wednesday at Festival Hall, and El-P on Thursday at the Corner Hotel.

NIN was a great show. Seeing them last year in Oakland left a bit of a sour taste as it really seemed like they were just going through the motions, but the band now seem rejuvenated by their change to a four-piece. The highlights for me were The Wretched and Gave Up. Until last year I always thought that Gave Up was far too metal, but finally seeing the clip really turned me around:

It just goes to show the angst has longevity, given that this was released on the Broken EP 17 years ago. And just for the record, I'm not a Marilyn Manson fan in any sense of the word.

I had been hoping for a surprise appearance from Mr Reznor at the El-P show on Thursday. He sang on Flyentology from El-P's most recent album, I'll Sleep When You're Dead, and NIN were having a night off (apparently they went and watched football!) No such luck unless he was lurking in the crowd in heavy disguise and managed to escape T's and my eagle eyes.

I thought the show was a little lacklustre at the time, but in retrospect I think there was much more to it than I was giving him credit for. Listening to Fantastic Damage again over the weekend cemented that.