HEY GOD!

I'm back from being destroyed by Trent Reznor, and it was the single greatest experience of my life. Getting there and finding a place to park wasn't a problem as I had originally anticipated. When we finally got into the arena (after waiting in the wrong line for forty-five minutes), I ran to the merchandise table and bought my t-shirt and super limited-edition lithograph, which I will photograph later. Then the amazing happened. I came within ten feet of Rob Sheridan, photographer/web master for nin.com, and his girlfriend. I was awe-struck. I had never stood so close to cool before. They photographed a few people and quickly left. Immediately afterward I was kicking myself for not going up and asking for a picture with him. That's probably something I'll never live down; so much for missed opportunities. I did, however, manage to capture this blurry Sasquatch-style photo of him. The opener, Autolux, seemed like a sleepy and disheveled version of Snow Patrol (if that's even possible). They weren't bad, but I didn't come to see them. Queens of the Stone Age weren't bad either, at least the songs that I recognized. But I didn't come to see them either. When Trent took the stage I juiced my pants and had to pull my jacket down over my crotch so as not to embarass myself in front of the other screaming patrons. It was everything I had ever read about in the history books, and more. About halfway through the show, the video montage playing against a few songs was cut short. Trent immediately accused "some fuckhead" at the sound booth of not doing his job, and sternly asserted that he would "kick his fuckin' ass" after the show. This made the crowd go wild. As a result, one of the songs ("Beside You In Time") was not played, but the rest of the show was doubly good because Trent was in Super Saiyan mode. He was really pissed. It was grande. I was able to bring my camera into the show and took more than a hundred photos, which you can use to kill my bandwidth at your masturbatory leisure. Now I'm just wishing I had booked the Philly show. Oh well, maybe he'll tour again. Soon.