I think CD is a work of genius.  I really do...it's an album of beautiful songs.

It's always been this way with GNR, both about Axl, the old band, and probably the new band as well.....we don't know the people personally, but we know that for whatever reason the people involved tend to get involved in lots of conflicts and dramas.....but whyever that is....and whomever is a fault...slash, axl, the media, the fans, the universe, bad luck....whatever the hell....

the one undeniable thing is that when it comes to music, their art...they are very very talented.

And that's what matters. IF axl is asshole (and I do say IF) then he'd be an asshole for what 80 years maybe more, then he is dead, what will be left will be his works of beauty.

Maybe mozart was a real fucker you know? Maybe not...it wont matter one day.

So I was at the Nine Inch Nails gig at Festival Hall in Melbourne last night.

A few impressions. Firstly let me say that the light show was nothing short of blinding from the front of the mosh pit. They had the sort of lighting rig you'd expect in a massive arena jammed into the smaller stage. Actually it was a lot more lights than you would expect. The intensity of the lights and their interaction with the sound was incrediable and completely disorienting at times. I've seen lots of rock acts, its not like i was impressed they had lights, but this was something else.

And the sound. Holy Hell there was a lot of bass, yet they didn't loose the vocals. I'm familiar with a lot of bass having seen various metal and rap acts, and i'm not sure if this was a function of the PA at Festival Hall and its wooden floors, but at times I was not only fearing for the structural integrity of the building, but that my insides we're being turned to liquid. A part of it was because in addition to the actual bass guitar a lot it was "sub-bass" created by the various industial computer instuments.

As you'd expect at Festival Hall, it turned into a sweat-box and a half. Take a small space, throw in a couple of thousand wound up fans, and a few million watts of lighting equipment and that will happen. Trent even commented at one stage that given how dripping with sweat he was safely out front, that he wondered how those of us in the front rows were handling it.

Speaking of Trent I had no idea how built be was in real life, dude has some pretty buff arms going on in person. LOL. Interestingly NIN has opted for a 4 piece line up for this tour, which ment all  four of them played keyboards at various stages in the songs in addition  to their "own" instruments of drums, guitar and bass. They'd run over and trigger an effect or something, then play some more other things. Sounds wierd but it worked.

Musically they were in top form, providing an almost unrelenting sonic assault, the band only pausing between tracks around twice in the night, the first time was more than an hour into the show. Trent commented that since his announcement this week that NIN would be "put on hold" that it made these shows now a lot more special to him and the band, and that therefore he'd decided to mix things up and play things he wanted to play, rather than playing a greatest hits package, this gave the show a lot more atmosphere than a regular performance from an established band.

Robin Fink looked totally at home in NIN, the industrial sounds suiting his natural style much more than GNR seemed to. Seemed like the best job in the world to me, as his guitar parts are pretty easy, as its mostly single riffs or supporting sound effects, yet he gets all the adulation and highs associated with performing in a major act, and the four piece set up gave him a major piece of the attention and action on stage. Without the pressure of having to deliver anything too hard. It must be a nice change for him from being in GNR where the fan base is semi-hostile to him (as a Slash replacement) and where h is also upstaged by Buckethead or Bumble. The NIN fans were into him and many new him by name, which surprised me as I thought NIN was mostly all about people loving Trent. Anyway..Robin  really shone in his own light as a peformer. So it was a good night.

^ Why must people insult Slash for talking to the media? It's the smart thing for a professional working musician to do to maxamise image and fame. Thats how you make a brand and get your products known. Slash spoke to the media for his projects, snakepit, VR, various guitar things etc....there were reasons...of course they asked him about the breakup of GNR...but considering he gets asked it every day of his life...his responces were mostly pretty easy going. I know Axl hasn't liked what slash says about it...but its nothing compared to the types of flame interviews he could have given that the media would have eaten up!

Awesome...i hope some of it is proshot so we get to see it on TV for those of us far away...oh and hopefully another Australian tour