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A tale of woe (NIN and Sydney)
18 years ago
General
Last week I flew over to Sydney, mainly for the purpose of seeing a NIN concert, along with just seeing the city itself. I've previously never been to a larger city than Auckland, and the experience kindly elucidated what a tiny shithole Auckland's city actually is. Still, I can't say big cities are my thing.
The first couple of days of the trip were all right. Investigated the zoos, the parks, and the beaches. I was quite impressed by the amount of wildlife over there, even around city areas. NZ seems totally dead in comparison. The wild pelicans, ravens, ibises and lizards made me particularly happy. But mostly I was looking forward to the NIN concert, as I am tragically obsessed.
On the day of the concert we got there pretty early, and waited around outside the venue. People with spiral tickets were allowed in earlier than everyone else, so there wasn't too long to go. You could hear what sounded to be the band rehearsing before the concert, inside.
And then I overheard someone in the crowd, mentioning that the concert was cancelled. I didn't take this seriously, with it being so soon until the concert was due to begin, and hearing the band right inside. But as I wandered around the area, I began noticing this was the topic of conversation for near everyone in the vicinity. So I went to ask the person at the box office about this, and he validated that the concert had indeed been cancelled, this feking soon before it was supposed to start D: D: FAIL.
So, overall, I'd say this trip was a very big waste of money. If I'd been able to get further outside of Sydney CBD to do some exploring it would have been cool. But I guess I'm glad to at least have seen Sydney. I want to travel more, preferably some place further away from NZ next time.
On a semi-related note, I'm really liking NIN's Year Zero. Wasn't so sure about it at first, but it's got some interesting sounds to it that I'm really keen on. The music style has taken quite a different direction, and in some parts the hiphop influence is a bit too apparent for my liking. The lyrics generally make me cringe, along with the vocal style in some of the songs, which again seem to show a hiphop influence. It's an album that I find best as a whole, conveying a kind of story, which unsurprisingly happens to be a rather depressing one. But, it's not as "personal" as previous albums, which I'm ambivalent about. While I've gone off blatant "WHAAA I HATE MY LIFE" themes in music, overused political themes (which seems to be what YZ is centered around) aren't my thing either. But, ignoring this, the sound of the music is great. I think this album is far superior to With Teeth, so I'm happy :D
I'm curious about others' opinions of this album, too. Anyone?
Also, no digital art for a while. My larger screen died on me.
The first couple of days of the trip were all right. Investigated the zoos, the parks, and the beaches. I was quite impressed by the amount of wildlife over there, even around city areas. NZ seems totally dead in comparison. The wild pelicans, ravens, ibises and lizards made me particularly happy. But mostly I was looking forward to the NIN concert, as I am tragically obsessed.
On the day of the concert we got there pretty early, and waited around outside the venue. People with spiral tickets were allowed in earlier than everyone else, so there wasn't too long to go. You could hear what sounded to be the band rehearsing before the concert, inside.
And then I overheard someone in the crowd, mentioning that the concert was cancelled. I didn't take this seriously, with it being so soon until the concert was due to begin, and hearing the band right inside. But as I wandered around the area, I began noticing this was the topic of conversation for near everyone in the vicinity. So I went to ask the person at the box office about this, and he validated that the concert had indeed been cancelled, this feking soon before it was supposed to start D: D: FAIL.
So, overall, I'd say this trip was a very big waste of money. If I'd been able to get further outside of Sydney CBD to do some exploring it would have been cool. But I guess I'm glad to at least have seen Sydney. I want to travel more, preferably some place further away from NZ next time.
On a semi-related note, I'm really liking NIN's Year Zero. Wasn't so sure about it at first, but it's got some interesting sounds to it that I'm really keen on. The music style has taken quite a different direction, and in some parts the hiphop influence is a bit too apparent for my liking. The lyrics generally make me cringe, along with the vocal style in some of the songs, which again seem to show a hiphop influence. It's an album that I find best as a whole, conveying a kind of story, which unsurprisingly happens to be a rather depressing one. But, it's not as "personal" as previous albums, which I'm ambivalent about. While I've gone off blatant "WHAAA I HATE MY LIFE" themes in music, overused political themes (which seems to be what YZ is centered around) aren't my thing either. But, ignoring this, the sound of the music is great. I think this album is far superior to With Teeth, so I'm happy :D
I'm curious about others' opinions of this album, too. Anyone?
Also, no digital art for a while. My larger screen died on me.
Better luck next time I guess.
As regards YZ versus WT, though, I actually preferred With Teeth's variety... The material covered a broader range, whereas the newer one's content seems a little homogenous. That's not to say I don't think it's great stuff, which it is, but some of the songs sound awfully similar.
I see what you mean about Year Zero, too. That hadn't actually occured to me before. While there's some variety in there, the "different" songs of the album tend to sound similar to previous work of his anyway, which doesn't make them particularly exciting. But in saying that, I also like that this album has a feeling of wholeness to it. Year Zero is a concept album, while With Teeth has always come across with a feeling of "hay guys, here's some random music I've done, because I feel pressured to release a new album!".
I don't think With Teeth was bad at all though. Has some awesome songs on it, but overall, I think I prefer Year Zero's sound :)
And I can certainly appreciate the view on "tiny shithole Auckland" after going overseas - I used to live in Christchurch for ten years, but after going to places like Tokyo, London and Los Angeles Christchurch looks and feels like a village! The funny thing was I didn't get the same feeling for Wellington, maybe because it's buried in hills and it already feels like a string of interconnected towns...
(Haven't been to Auckland outside the airport for years, must see if it's changed much...)
I don't think you're missing much with not having seen Auckland in years :D A lot of roadworks being done, but otherwise, I can't think of much that has changed.
Haha, I'm the same. When I first arrived in Sydney I was taken back by how much larger it was than any other city I'd been in. But that didn't last more than a day, and I now wish I'd made plans to get further outside the city, since that's where all the interesting stuff seems to be.