So this past weekend—June 2, 3 and 4—I saw Nine Inch Nails three times in a row: San Antonio (Section 303, Row B, seat 33); Dallas (PIT); Houston (Center, Row JJ, seat 46). This was my third time to see them during the past year, having seen them in October 2005 in San Antonio and March 2006 in Austin as well.
All these seats were damn near perfect. Both times, the reserved seats were at the front of a section, in the center, unobscured and awesome view of the whole show and plenty of room to jam.
Saturday night in Dallas was my first (and last because it was so damn perfect) experience in a mosh pit. We got there about an hour before the gates even opened at 6pm. Once inside, we bought some shirts then made a beeline for the pit to get good positioning. Well, apparently they only give the pit bracelets at one of the venue entrances so we had to haul ass across the stadium then get to the pit. All in all, we had pretty good ranking, about seven people back from the railing. Of course we had to wait about two hours for the first band to start (TV on the Radio who are a lot better than Bauhaus imho). Then Bauhaus didn't start until almost 9:00. Everything started late but whatever.
So there was this dude who came pushing his way up to the front because I guess his friend was there and he brought some beer and hot dogs and then he stood right in front of me! And he was like 6' tall. I was like, I'm totally pwning this guy when NIN comes on. I had somewhat of an idea of what the mosh pit would be like but it was a lot different than what I expected.
When NIN came out, everyone surged forward and, lucky for me, I was in the second row which was perfect! I was right behind the people on the rail so I was getting squished against people and not metal. This picture of Trent is the best one I could get with my damn camera and all the bouncing. I didn't figure out until the next night how to decrease the shutter time. But anyway, OMG it was awesome to be THAT CLOSE. And it was so fun! I totally held my own against all those dudes and stayed right up at the front the entire show. Luckily too, my friend had my back so I didn't get groped or anything.
I thought there would be more actual 'moshing' but you could barely move at all, getting to bounce a little but that's it. It was mostly pushing back on other people and trying not to fall :D I won't ever go in a pit again because it would just be a lesser experience because I can't think of anything that could top this! Trent even got a bloody nose and was bleeding; it was awesome.
Update 8 June 2006: So after relating this story to a friend of mine, he insisted that I was NOT in 'the mosh pit' because those just happen. I was, for lack of a better phrase, in the squish pit :D
