What It’s Like To Be Backstage With NIN
Ilan Rubin, Robin Fink, Me, Trent Reznor, my sister Sara, Justin Meldal-Johnsen
It all kicked off with a short drive from my friend John’s house in Lawrence to the Starlite Amphitheater in Kansas City, Missouri. We arrived around 3:45 p.m. and joined a group of roughly 100-125 people who all participated in the donation drive for Eric De La Cruz and were anxiously awaiting for their opportunity to meet and greet with the band. One girl I was standing next was so excited, she said, “I’m looking at the same sky Trent Reznor is looking at.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
After passing through the gates and being handed my guest pass stickers (which only went to the top-tier donors) we were given a briefing on what to expect next. We were then led down the hill and around to the back of the venue where we waited in line to walk into a pavilion area of sorts, shake hands with the band, have one item of ours signed by all the members of the band, have our picture taken and even give everybody a hug if we wanted. From here, the group was split into two and the lower-tier donors were lead back out into the seating area of the venue while us top-tier donors were then lead to a dining hall for dinner.
I was personally expecting to see something like a series of tables pushed together with the band sitting down somewhere and everyone else surrounding them and having some lively table talk. To our disappointment, we were sat in groups of 8 per table and more or less had to wait there for 50 minutes before Trent arrived to say thanks for the donations and open up for a few questions before going back to whatever it is he does before a show. This was really the only minor annoyance about the entire experience. Time constraints and what not are understandable, though the words “dinner with the band” was in the description, and I didn’t realize the word “with” was being used in the Mitch Hedberg-ish sense. (Mitch Hedberg joked that whenever he goes to the bathroom to shave, he assumes someone else on the planet is also shaving, so he’ll say, “I’m gonna go shave, too.”)
We were then asked to go back out to the main seating area while Street Sweeper Social Club played the first act, and then return to the pavilion next so we could be escorted to the side of the stage and enjoy NIN. It was surprisingly quiet compared to the loudness you’re pounded with in the seating area. The staff throughout the entire experience were very kind and polite. I really didn’t get any good pictures of the side stage area as most of my time was being spent video taping the show. I’m not going to bother with re-encoding the video and posting it here because, well, I’m feeling kinda lazy, but also because I’m sure someone out there’s got better video than I do. The view was somewhat obstructed, the camera is shaking from time to time, and the audio sounds a little muffled.
After the show was over we were escorted back out through the seating area because Janes Addiction didn’t really want anybody backstage (certainly not side stage) while performing. But my sister and I snuck back around and actually caught a glimpse of the lead singer and guitarist head through the double doors we had exited from to go out to the stage and perform. And that was pretty much the extent of anything exciting that could possibly happen. I watched Trent walk through a hustling team of roadies loading crates of gear and equipment on his way to his tour bus never to be seen again. Not being a big fan of Janes Addiction, the four of us decided to leave the show early and beat the traffic to have a small after party of our own back at home.
That was more or less it. Like I said, I had my expectations high and it’s something I’m sure everybody does who has never participated in something like this. You have these fantasies of a “best case scenario” of actually getting to sit down and chat with the band for 5 minutes and stuff like that, but it’s simply not the reality of these kinds of things. I mean, you have to think about these things from the perspective of the band members. What would you rather do after a show: Hang out in a decked out bus while surrounded by beautiful women, or doing your best to gum it up with speechless fans who are skilled at the art of making social encounters totally awkward?
In the end, I had fun… I don’t think I’d call it jaw-dropping-awesome kind of fun, but that’s just me personally. The novelty of the event hasn’t sank in just yet, I guess. I also got this vinyl record I bought years ago autographed by the band (including their art director, Rob Sheriden, who is a perpetually depressed looking fella):
Overall review: GOOD TIMES!
Thursday, May 28th, 2009