NiN: 6/6/2006 concert in Birmingham

Last night I took a trip down to Birmingham with a few friends and saw Trent Reznor play a live show at the venue formerly known as the Oak Mountain Amphitheater. The last time I was at this place, Tool was playing the Lateralus tour.

Not having previously seen Nine Inch Nails life, I must admit that they put on an excellent live show. Trent really knows how to spread his energy to the crowd; the visual effects are also quite stunning. The show was combined with a number of interesting visual effects, many of them three dimensional and encompassing the whole stage.

During some parts of the concert, a sort of metal screen was lowered in front of the artists; images appeared on this screen from the lights that were on it. They combined the images on this screen with the stage-wide screen that was behind the artists for an excellent 3D effect. It truly made the whole stage come to life.

For example, they would show these detailed red droplets moving up on the rear screen and moving blocks of color appeared on the front screen. The effect choreographers did well to enhance the emotions expressed while retaining simplicity and sophistication.

Although I enjoyed the performance, I was disappointed with the way in which the Amphitheater was re-arranged. Remembering back to the days of that unforgettable Tool concert, I begin to notice many a change in the way concerts are conducted at this venue.

One of the most disappointing aspects was the lack of an open space near the stage. The only place where you could watch and listen to the music was in the confinement of your assigned seat and what fun is that? I and many others chose to take to the aisles only to have the security cops come by every 10 minutes and push everyone back into their rows.

Anyhow, I won't dwell on this subject any longer, let it suffice for me to say that the Verizon Music Center, formerly the Oak Mountain Amphitheater is a shitty place.

If I'm able to get my camera-phone to email me the pictures and videos, I'll post 'em up if anything came out good.