John Tooker

Who's their manager? Man, I would be all over the manager for ever booking this gig. It's too bad because such negativity takes the musician away form concentrating on the music. It moves completely away from the simple joy and fun of performing music and into a tragic grind. It kills the creative music process completely. This is the kind of thing that takes it's toll on many musicians and touring, in general.

You either learn from it or walk away from itall together.

As Ringo Star sang:

It Don't Come Easy"

"I don't ask for much, I only want trust
And you know it don't come easy
And this trouble vine keeps growing all the time
And you know it just ain't easy"...

Kinda' spooky how much the lyrics echos the very thing this band went through...The song lyrics mentions trust and the guy in the band talks about lies, the exact opposite.

T-CUB

This is definitely an eye-opener into the downside of the life of a performing musician. Indeed, it don't come easy.

If lack of trust of the "Middleman" in the music ecosystem standing between Artists ands Fans becomes the norm rather than the exception, the negativity that T-Cub mentions can certainly creep into and take-over the essence of the Artists', largely positive, spirit of creativity and expression.

The journey of the Artist is a tough road to travel, and by being too caught up in the romance of the adventure, we often overlook the negative side of the artistic calling.

Here is another example of where Trent Reznor's self-described "weird space" is right now in which he says, according to the Herald Sun article, "I'm not real centered." [for now - May 2007]].

Although I certainly can't blame these guys for being really p.o.'d at times, I hope the negativity of the "weird space" in which I'm sure many Artists find themselves doesn't poison them for the long haul.

If we are not centered, where will we be?

To end this comment on a more positive note for the Artists' calling, I hope the self-help approach taken by sites like this one, will give music back to the Artists and the direct interaction with their Fans, where it properly belongs.

I agree. I can empathize greatly with NIN, because I've been in situations just like that myself, and worse. The band wants to put on the best show they can, and they got screwed. But, I just believe that we have to raise the bar as artists and act like professionals especially when it's tough. You make sure not to use that promoter again, but don't punish the fans.
One time I did get extremely angry at an event. Because the power was so bad we had a ground loop between the lights and the PA system, and our saxophone player basically got his horn arc welded between a music stand and a mic stand. The force of the jolt knocked him backwards into his chair so hard that he fell over backwards. I believe the plastic on his mouthpiece probably saved his life. Sometimes bad power means people can be killed. I take a volt/ohm meter with me now to check for voltage between my guitar and mic stand if I think the power is not properly grounded.

Actually in this case I think Trent went out of his way for the fans and still was pissed because he knew that it was the fans that got ripped off not he.

Most likely not having the power that was in the contracts would've let him walk away while still getting paid. Most concert ridders are very exact about the amount and quality of power a venue most provide to support the full production.

That is the key point here. A NIN show is almost never just a band playing on a stage. The lighting design and projection work are well thought out and damned impressive and interwoven with the music creating more then the sum of the parts.

I think Trent was pissed because his audience paid for a production that he could not give them because of someone else's failure to meet an agreement.

My bet is he was pissed for himself, for the audience, and for his crew not getting to do there very best.

His only choices where to not play and disappoint his fans or to play and disappoint himself.

Makes me want to send him a copy of Atlas Shrugged to help him out the next time that happens.

I agree with John here. Keep in mind that in the first few lines of speaking to the audience, Trent apologizes and goes on to say that they will still play their asses off and put on a great show. I think his heart was in the right place reaching out to the fans who paid a boatload of money to see the FULL production. There were countless problems before the show and he went out there and performed to his best - maybe the whole guitar smashing bit was to at least give something more to the fans - who knows... I can tell you that when I saw Wolfmother smash it's equipment at the end of their show, I was pretty satisfied myself... old school.

It certainly sucked for the band, but it seemed that the fans were pretty stoked and probably were still pretty happy about seeing them play... even without the lighting effects.