Nine Inch Nails
Just Like You Imagined (2009)
This song just may take the cake for best live song, especially because I was actually in attendance for this show. This was on their Wave Goodbye Tour. This was a much more stripped down, in your face style of Nine Inch Nails than most of their tours. It wasn't in an arena, it was in a room the size of the House of Blues with people smoooooshed in together to see this. Not a single square inch of this place was free. They only played a few nights in only three major cities in the entire country for these special shows, and I got to see two of those shows while living in Los Angeles. This song gives me goosebumps on the record, let alone seeing it two feet in front of you played for what was to be the very last time ever. It was fucking INTENSE for me. Take me back!!
Ghosts 31 (2008)
This is the side of NIN that blows me away for entirely different reasons than any other band. This was the Lights in the Sky Tour in 2008 which was geared heavily towards high end live production. This was definitely the biggest SIZED show of any band I have seen, even for Nine Inch Nails. I have so much respect for Trent for funneling the money he makes from the band back into his live shows. I'd imagine it'd be pretty easy to hire a lighting crew and pocket all the money from tour, but running a massive visual rig like this has to be more of an investment than anything else. As great as it is seeing a band with just the house lights and a loud, raw set, it's mind boggling to see him pushing technology into a new era of live performance like this. I felt like I was in a movie for this show. Absolutely incredible!
Here's my last example of why Nine Inch Nails blow me away live. Now this video is from a different leg of the tour when I saw them. This is them playing to a huge audience in an outdoor arena setting. I saw this in a tiny club just like I saw the first video in. I remember fearing for my life when all of Dillinger came out to join them for a few songs for their "last" shows back in 2009. They broke the entire fucking stage before ONE song was over, then it went black and they played a few more. It was the loudest, meanest few songs I have ever seen any band play. I'm not a Dillinger fan, but holy SHIT are they fucking awesome live.
Autolux
Autolux of course had to make my list. I've talked more about this band on this blog than I've made fun of Stephen Hawking on my Facebook. This is my soul mate band. I don't care what format their material is in when I hear it or see it because it sucks me in regardless. When I was living in Los Angeles I had the luxury of seeing these guys a few times as well as meet them. I can't say enough how much I love these guys!
Off!
This band blew me away live for a completely different reason than Nails did. When most NIN shows were accompanied with intricate lighting and visuals, Autolux had layers of tones and drones.. Off just gives you a no bullshit punk show from start to finish. As a drummer, I know the cathodic feeling of playing your instrument with intent to break it. It's an amazing outlet that I wish more people had the luxury of releasing. These guys fucking nail it!
Ghost
This would definitely be the newest band to take my breath away live. I've only seen them once, and it wasn't very long ago. I heard this bands music before I knew anything about them and I fell in love. When I started to read about how no one knows who's in the band and saw the vision they had.. I was hooked.
Now I know, you're all too fucking cool for this band because they "aren't real metal" and you think they're only popular because they wear masks. Get back on your shit plane and head back to Jackass Island, because these guys are outstanding! Never once have they claimed to be any genre or anything people so foolishly go out of their way to argue them to be!
-Novak