The Impromptu Concert
It was the Friday before Labor Day, 1996. Classes started the Monday before. Early in the day, I saw Brassy Girl and Lawyer Girl on the Peace Quad and learned that our friend The Texan had informed them that his idol, Trent Reznor, was putting on a pay at the door, impromptu show at the Howlin’ Wolf (Edited to note: according to the Texan, the show was at Jimmie’s on Oak Street. I could have sworn otherwise). Trent would be playing with the lead singers of Prick and Pop Will Eat Itself (a band I listened to almost every day my freshman year of high school, and thanks to YouTube, you too can enjoy the video madness that is “Can U Dig It” – as in, can you dig that white turtleneck with black stars).
The way I heard it was that Trent was about to do a couple gigs with these guys and he was talking to the owner of Howlin’ Wolf and decided to put on this last minute show sort of as a practice appearance. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but we did know that a last minute concert had been announced at Howlin Wolf featuring Trent Reznor and we intended to be there for it. Brassy, Lawyer, and I headed over after class, where The Texan had already staked a spot in line. That was around 1 or 2pm. The doors didn’t even open until like 5 or 6.
Now would be a good time to mention that the weather in New Orleans this time of year can best be described as humid is as humid gets. It can also be described as rainy. And that particular day, as we sat outside, could be described as *very* rainy – like, torrential downpour rainy. Still we sat and waited, soaking ourselves to the bone for tickets to see Trent Reznor.
Finally, we got in. We were no longer a line of people standing outside in hot sticky weather masked by heavy rain but a crowd of people crammed into a hot sticky bar meeting its maximum occupancy limits – and we were all soaking wet. Aren’t you glad you used Dial commercials don’t even compare to the personal hygiene lines being crossed that night as the crowd continually rubbed against one another with their hot, sweaty bodies and rain-soaked clothing. If you are the kind of person who is grossed out easily by personal hygiene issues, I have been to your worst nightmare. I don’t recall any disgusting smell accompanying the scene because it was overpowered by the prolific cigarette smoking. Have I ever told you how much I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke? The things I do for music… You cannot imagine what my hair smelled like after this event. I shudder to recall. And that’s saying a lot, seeing as in my most recent post, I admitted to once going a week without showering.
So we’re in the Howling Wolf, we’re waiting… waiting… waiting… A few bands of insignificant talent performed, until finally, at TEN O’CLOCK (remember what time I said this whole affair started?), Trent Reznor strode onto the stage, along with the guys from Prick and Pop Will Eat Itself, and oh, water and sweat and sticky flesh woes begone—what a glorious show! SO worth the wait.
They performed songs I didn’t know and songs I did know, and I felt like Trent was staring right at me when he sang “Head Like a Hole” but not in a “Ooh! He’s looking at me!” kind of way but a “Wow, he’s kind of got a ubiquitous eye thing going on – that’s freaky” kind of way. Which, in my youthful mind, equaled “Like, awesome.” Everyone went nuts, dancing, and moshing (I can’t even believe I used that word, but that’s what it was), and, frankly, between the whole day of sitting in rain and standing in the bar and then the heat and the crowd and the lack of food all day and the limited amount of water (because who wants to struggle through sticky-fleshed peoples for a cup of water from the bar tap and lose prime spots right by the stage?), it got pretty rough. I felt like I was going to faint. Brassy actually did faint. We snuck outside for fresh air, then trooped back in and finished the show. The show ended around midnight, and we were elated albeit soaked and sweaty and famished, not to mention we had also planned a road trip that weekend to my brother’s place in Gainesville, Florida, approximately a 9-hour drive away.
Because we were in college, and therefore invincible and not in need of those silly things like sleep, we decided to go to our respective homes, shower and dry off, pack our bags, and meet back at Brassy and Lawyer’s place within the hour to – yes – drive nine hours to Gainesville.
I went to my dorm room – remember those torrential rains I was talking about earlier? My SECOND FLOOR dorm room had a soaked floor and hallway. Welcome to New Orleans. I didn’t even want to deal with it. I told my roommate I’d help clean when I got back on Monday, packed my bags, and walked right back out. And I wonder why we don’t keep in touch.
9 hours later…
We arrived in Gainesville, Florida in that wide eyed stupor that comes from too much coffee, too much driving, no sleep, and a previous night of sweat-and-water-soaked moshing to an impromptu Trent Reznor concert. What was going on when we arrived in Gainesville? The pre-partying for the Tennessee-Florida football game. For those of you not familiar with the adrenaline rush that is an SEC game, imagine thousands of college students driving and walking about, crowding up the streets and sidewalks wearing orange and blue and (in that day’s case) orange and white. The whole city had turned into one big tailgating party that we had to wade through to get to my brother’s house, where we would rest for a few hours before driving ANOTHER TWO HOURS to Orlando where the Zen Fest would be going on that night. After telling my brother all about the Trent Reznor show, including vivid descriptions of sweat and flesh-rubbing that made everyone possibly uncomfortable, I turned to his bedroom for a nap.
Restless sleep and a two-hour drive later…
Zen Fest took place.
And that, my friends, is a story for another post.
***
On another note, I guest posted at Scribbit today on free things to do with children in south Orange County. Am I aware of the irony of adding this message to the end of this post? You betcha. Oh life, look at this long silly path you’ve brought me along…
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Ahh, one of the best nights of my life!!! I recently found a video on the pirate bay of this very concert. Who else can say they saw NIN perform in front of only 700 people?
A couple of things to note:
1 - the show was at Jimmie’s on Oak St, not the Howlin’ Wolf.
2 - the announcement that it was NIN was at noon on that day.
3 - i think torrential downpour is an understatement.
4 - you failed to mention the couple next to us that was beyond wasted the entire night and kept writing all over each other and sometimes us.
5 - the zen festival was in Volusia County near Daytona.
6 - I still have problems falling asleep at the wheel after that drive back on the Turnpike from Zen Fest.
7 - I walked down the aisle at my wedding to the tunes of NIN.
Texan, I knew you’d like this post. Responses:
1 - I’ll yield to your memory that it was at Jimmie’s but I could have sworn it was Howlin’ Wolf.
2 - I bandied around on the times. I think you might have heard about it at noon but it didn’t trickle down to me until later.
3 - Word. That rain was so, SO insane.
4 - TOTALLY forgot about them!
5 - True, but “Orlando” is more recognizeable than “Volusia County Fairgrounds in DeLand.” Much like people refer to southern CA as “LA.”
6 - I still get scared of falling asleep at the wheel because of you.
7 - Anyone who read my blog in early January already knows that.
I remember reading about walking down the aisle to NIN! Don’t know if Grandma would have stood for it, but still thought it was a cool idea!
[...] was such a good show.” I say that about so many concerts, like this one, and [...]