End of the Month Music Bitchfest - September 2013

Nine Inch Nails

In honor of the official release of a brand new "halo" at the start of the month, I thought I would take a ramble down memory lane with regards to the previous twenty seven halos.

Halo 1 (Down In It) - What a disappointing start. I can't recall just where I found this. I remember listening to the handful of "Down In It" remixes and not really caring. Or not getting the subtleties. I know this was obtained around my introduction to NIN and that I was hungry for new NIN, not a bunch of remixes of a song I didn't really care about.

Halo 2 (Pretty Hate Machine) - Another complete blank. I remember listening to only "Head Like A Hole", "Terrible Lie", "Something I Can Never Have", "The Only Time" and "Ringfinger" when I first got this, and, today, while I understand how important this album was at the time, for music, both industrial and in general, it's still not my favorite.

Halo 3 (Head Like A Hole) - Same as Down In It, although I did dig some of these remixes. And that random instrumental? And that weird little sound clip at the end? One thing I will say: the Opal remix of "Head Like A Hole" is EXACTLY was I look for in a remix: a total reconstruction with connections to the original, an exploration and rediscovery of the original.
And a Prince sample.
I also always look for a Prince sample.

Halo 4 (Sin) - In 8th grade, my class took a trip to Boston. While there, we went to Quincy Marketplace. As my friends and I were in the clutches of NIN Fever (or NINfluenza), we found our way to The Wall, which, when compared to the glut of Best Buys that covered the Floridian landscape like pustules on an ass, was the most Indie music store any of us had EVER seen. While there, we came across a double pack of the French import versions of both Sin and Fixed. Wide-eyed, I made my purchase...

Halo 5 (Broken) - I got deep into Nine Inch Nails during my time in Florida (the six years from 1994 to 1999) and, during that time, I purchased most of their most easily attainable catalog from mega-chain stores, such as Best Buy. Pretty sure that's where I got my copy of Broken. I remember actually being startled when "Physical" started, as there was no Internet and therefore no way for me to know about those "hidden" tracks. I remember thinking something was wrong when I first heard that growl coming out of my speakers.

Halo 6 (Fixed) - So eager were my friends and I to hear this counterpart to Broken, that one of my friends, Matt Vander Maten, bought a set of those shitty speakers that plug into your Discman so we could listen immediately, in our shared hotel room. About...I don't know...a minute or so into the first track, the speakers, literally, exploded. There was a pop, a hiss, a whiff of smoke and that was the end of our impromptu Fixed listening party. While we were all bummed that we couldn't listen to the album right then, we were thrilled that we now possessed music that had the ability to actually destroy a set of speakers.

Halo 7 (March of the Pigs) - Yet another blank, odd considering the really solid remixes on here. Maybe my mind has been tampered with...

Halo 8 (The Downward Spiral) - My first halo, which I received for Christmas, 1994. It also happened to be one of the first two CDs I ever got (the other being Green Day's Dookie, which, since it also had fourteen tracks, planted the idea that all albums should have fourteen tracks and, to this day, albums with less feel light, while those with more feel fuller). When I first listened to the album, I would skip a lot of it, playing the hits more than anything else. Eventually, that changed and I would begin adding more and more tracks to the program (remember programming CD playlists on your stereo?). An odd occurrence that I'm just remembering now: over the years, I have owned three copies of TDS on CD (although I only really played the shit out of the first two copies, the third was the deluxe edition, purchased after the rise and reign of the mp3), and both copies developed a skip right around the build up of "Eraser". That was also the point at which I most often fell asleep while listening to the album if I happened to put it on while going to bed or on a long car ride. I also remember never being able to get all the artwork and that slimline back in the sleeve properly.

Halo 9 (Closer) - As was my practice while in Florida, I would always look for the "Import Single" section of every music store I went into. It's here, at the Coconuts Music in Altamonte Springs where I found the digipak of Closer, which, although it had space for two discs, only contained one. I did not understand either the madness of Gary Talpas or the greed of overseas record companies and had never seen packaging like this before, so I obviously thought something was wrong and went back in to  complain about the "missing disc".
I showed my purchase to the clerk and, thanks to both my ignorance and his, he went into the back and found the slimline case containing disc two, thinking (as I did) that my packaging (perhaps some deluxe version?) was, indeed, missing its second disc.
It was later that I discovered that I had not been swindled (not by Coconuts at least) and that there was a second disc that came separately.
SUCK IT, ISLAND RECORDS!

Halo 10 (Further Down The Spiral) - This was another Best Buy purchase, but, with a twist. As I stood there, holding two copies of this in my hand, I noticed some differences...namely that one was in your typical jewel case, while the other was in some sort of digipak. Odd. Then, I flipped them over and did some scrutinizing. What? "The Art of Self Destruction...part three"? "Hurt...live"? To this day, I have no fucking idea how a Best Buy in Longwood, Florida got the UK import of FDTS.

Halo 11 (The Perfect Drug) - Oh my fucking shit was I excited about this. I loved the new, non-TDS artwork on this but was just as oh-my-fucking-shit crushed by the lack of an album version of the original. I think I found this at the Blockbuster Music right outside the, yes, you guessed it, Altamonte Mall.
Hated that Orb remix, still do.
And, call me crazy, but is this the last halo to have a NIN remix of a NIN song on it?
If so, that is fucking bullshit.

Halo 12 (Closure) - Yet another "Holy shit! Way to go, Best Buy!" moment. I don't know why I was looking at the "Music Video" section (I never did) or how this caught my eye among the other video cassettes; I had no fucking idea this even existed, let alone what it looked like. My very first thought was that it was fake (they'd even misspelled "Closer"), although, what a fake Nine Inch Nails double-video cassette would be doing in a Best Buy...? My thinking didn't get that far. I bought it. As it turns out, I was on my way to role play (White Wolf, none of that geeky D&D shit) and I spent the whole fucking time grinding my teeth and wishing I was watching this. This was around the height of my obsession with Nine Inch Nails and, yes, I did think of asking to use their VCR for a few moments, just to see and understand what this thing was. You must remember that, when this came out, there was no way to see a HD version of any NIN video, forget fucking "Sin" or "Gave Up". The first time I put this in was the first time I was seeing a lot of these videos in their proper form. I recall watching endless hours of MTV with the VCR ready to go, hoping that they would play "The Perfect Drug" (my absolutely favorite NIN video and song), and when they did, and I got that "perfect" copy*, watching it over and over and over, pausing it, going through it frame by frame, trying to understand what was happening, to understand the story of the video.** I thought up narratives for the character Reznor played in that video, man...
In other words: you damn kids and your YouTube.
Also, release Closure on fucking Blu Ray. You can't tell, but I'm pressing a fifty dollar bill against my screen.

Halo 13 (The Day The World Went Away) - The first Nine Inch Nails music from a new album in five years and the last Nine Inch Nails music I would buy in the state of Florida. Can't remember if it was Camelot or Sam Goody, but it was yet another of those forgettable music chain stores, all of which are now gone, where I bought this. I was with a girl named Brooke and it was my last summer before I returned to New York City for college. We listened to the first two tracks in her truck while she drove me home as they had both been played on the radio, however, I wanted the "Quiet" version all to myself and my headphones. I had made a tape off the radio of "The Day The World Went Away" and "Star****ers, Inc.", just those two songs, and would listen to nothing but that. Until this came out, of course. The first time I heard "The Day The World Went Away (Quiet)" I cried. Then I started the CD over again. I have never been more obsessed with any fifteen minutes of music in my life.

Halo 14 (The Fragile) - One of the most exciting moments of my life. I went to the midnight release at the Times Square Virgin Megastore (where I also picked up To Venus and Back...which I didn't even open for about a month) then rushed back to my dorm and listened to this for...let me see...14 years.
Like some folks, I thought that one disc was to be all instrumentals and the other was to be all vocals and was very happy to see that was not the case.
I'm almost unable to focus on this because it's just too big...hearing "La Mer" into "The Great Below" into "The Way Out Is Through" for the first time, the connection shared by "The Fragile" and "The Frail", that instant love affair with "Into The Void", seeing "The Day The World Went Away" in context, the amazing Carson artwork, the harmonies...Jesus.
I would play selections of this for anyone even remotely willing to listen and the entire thing for anyone slightly more than remotely willing to listen.
I tried to write plays based on several songs (I was a Theater major) and convince directors who cast me to use tracks from the album in their shows, just to be able to sit in a room and hear the new Nine Inch Nails on something other than my headphones or my stereo or my computer.
I could not get this loud enough or be close enough to this music.
The Fragile was my life for several years, and, honestly, it still kind of is.
So, when you see my bitching about Reznor not releasing the deluxe / 5.1 / ultimate / amazing blowjob version of this that he's been teasing since the mid-2000's , I hope you have a bit more of an understanding as to why it's more than the consumer in me gnashing its teeth.
Shit.
I wish I wasn't feeling so inarticulate today or I'd drown you in information you don't really care about.

Halo 15 (We're In This Together) - I clearly recall trawling every music store in New York City for these fucking things. I also remember my blistering disappointment with the orange one; you know it, the one with the radio edit of "We're In This Together", the "Quiet" remix of TDTWWA which I'd had and been listening to for, literally, months, and the stunningly awful Porter Ricks remix of TDTWWA, which is, essentially, a steady, unchanging drum beat running at a different BMP than the original song, elements of which one can kind of hear, soft and distant, in the left channel. This goes up there was one of the worst Nine Inch Nails remixes ever, perhaps only bested (or...worsted?) by Olaf Lazyass's remix of "Me, I'm Not", but, never mind...
The other two parts (which I found here and there, Virgin Megastore, HMV, etc.), were pure gold in comparison, one of which contained two brand new tracks from The Fragile...unless you owned the album on vinyl, which, at the time, I did not.
However, while all these tracks couldn't have been released in one place, on one disc, is a mystery...a mystery which, I deduce, could be solved by corporate greed.

Halo 16 (Things Falling Apart) - Another midnight release at the Times Square Virgin Megastore, although this one was a bit less packed and had a lot less fanfare. I remember they gave those who bought the album a sort of official, bootleg NIN shirt...it was white with a neon pink and green NIN logo and something about MTV on the back...maybe TRL?
Fucked if I know.
I actually threw it out.

Halo 17 (And All That Could Have Been) - Fragility v 2.0 was my first NIN show (I had missed Self Destruct by a day when I was living in Florida) and I was in the pit in Philadelphia.
Fuck the pit in Philadelphia.
Fuck the pit in general.
I was expecting the scrim with the projections from Fragility v 1.0, so when those fucking panels came down...my jaw actually dropped.
And then I got out of the pit because, as I think I may have mentioned, fuck the pit.
When AATCHB was announced, I was only concerned with Still.
There was a screening party for the DVD at some goth club in Manhattan and I went and patiently sat through the performance, anything to kill time before new, Fragile-related Nine Inch Nails music.
The day it came out, I headed to the Virgin Megastore Times Square to get my copy of the deluxe version and then I went right back outside to stand in line to meet Trent Reznor, Danny Lohner and Jerome Dillon and have them sign my stuff later that day.
Long story short, when I finally got to him, a smiling, bearded Trent Reznor, I wanted to tell him about my favorite song from The Fragile and ask about how he'd created it and what it meant to him and what it meant to me, but, thanks to the Virgin Megastore's decision to BLAST the live album AS LOUD AS THE IN STORE SPEAKERS COULD, I was only able to yell something about how cool I thought the album was before he smiled and stuck out his hand.
My time with Trent Reznor was done.
Ah. Golden memories.
Fuck the pit.

Halo 18 (The Hand That Feeds) - Probably the second most expectant I have ever been for a new NIN release. I knew there was no way this new album could be as good as The Fragile...it was only one disc, how could it be? But that doesn't mean I wasn't going out of my mind for brand new Nine Inch Nails music. The very first time I heard "The Hand That Feeds", it was just as Trent Reznor had suspected and in exactly the fashion he was afraid I might hear it in: a blurry recording of some leaked copy that was stolen from the set of the original music video shoot. Also, somehow, it was sped up. Maybe the original was a shitty vinyl rip? Whatever the case, my very first thought was: "Is this a joke?"
As soon as this entered my mind, I knew it to be the case.
Here's what happened: Reznor knew about the expectation leading up to With Teeth, the first NIN album in six years and was going to pull one over on us. So, he recorded and "leaked" this shitty copy of this shitty song that was easy and simple and boring. Oh Trent, you rascal. Once my brain walked in and dickslapped me, I realized, with great disappointment, that this was, indeed, the first single off the brand new Nine Inch Nails album that was meant to follow The Fragile. I was ready for this not to be  "The Day The World Went Away", but this? This?
This was also the final halo I purchased at the late, great Virgin Megastore in Times Square, specifically the vinyl 10" with one of those goddamn awful DFA remixes on it. Yeech.
Although that transparent CD was pretty cool.

Halo 19 (With Teeth) - The next tracks I heard off of WT were "The Line Begins To Blur" which made me hopeful and then, about two or three days before the album itself leaked, "Getting Smaller", which made me confused. As for the album itself, nothing special, Best Buy, I think.
This was the first Nine Inch Nails album I was to hear before its officially release date and, while it was amazing to get my hands on brand new Nine Inch Nails music A WHOLE WEEK BEFORE IT CAME OUT, something was lost, never to return. No more waiting with fans for that midnight release, no more scouring the basements of weird little record shops, looking for the UK import...no, not the Japanese import, the UK import...

Halo 20 (Only) - By this point, going to record stores was a thing of the past. Why would I actually leave my apartment to look for something that might or might not even be there?
Exactly.
No reason.
Amazon brought each of these (CD and vinyl) to my doorstep, and I didn't even care.

Halo 21 (Every Day Is Exactly The Same) - Got this at the Best Buy on 86th Street and Lexington.
*sigh*
Before that space was a Best Buy, it was an HMV. It had listening rooms, a huge collection of import albums and singles and now it's a Best Buy.

Halo 22 (Beside You In Time) - I bought a 5.1 set up primarily because Trent Reznor said it was the best way to experience And All That Could Have Been. And, following that trend, I bought an HDTV because this came out on Blu Ray. Yes, I owned a PS3, but you don't need an HDTV to use a PS3, just to fully enjoy it.
I also bought both the DVD and Blu Ray versions, because, while the DVD had the cool packaging, the Blu Ray had the Year Zero ARG clue.
Which was important to have.

Halo 23 (Survivalism) - As sort of a push back against the ease with which I had obtained the last few halos, I decided to make this a bit more interesting for myself, more of a ritual like I used to; so I set out into the West Village and found a tiny record store that also happened to have CDs. I asked if they had this on vinyl and, after telling me they did and bringing me a copy, the guy behind the counter said, "We have the album too, if you want it."
So I bought it.
This was the Thursday before Year Zero was to come out and I felt so fucking cool to have my hands on the actual album before its release. Of course I'd had the album on my iPod for the past week or so, this is the future we're living in, but I did not have the artwork or lyrics (which were key to fully comprehending the album and its context in the ARG that had been going on for months beforehand).
Tragically, this was the last time I had to do more than click a few buttons on my computer or stop into the local Best Buy in order to obtain new Nine Inch Nails releases, always after I'd had the actual music for several days already. I'll continue to do so as I hope Reznor continues to put effort into releasing interesting packaging and artwork with his music.

Halo 24 (Year Zero) - See above.

Halo 25 (Year Zero Remixed) - Ordered off nin.com. Click.

Halo 26 (Ghosts I-IV) - Ordered the deluxe edition off nin.com. Although, I can't express how absolutely stunned I was when, one day, I opened up nin.com to find this just sitting there. I love nothing more than for my favorite bands to surprise me and, holy fuck, did this do the job.
Aside from NIN (and, more recently, Beck, with his random little 12" releases) I've never had this, and, again, cannot stress how much I appreciate it.

Halo 27 (The Slip) - My wife and our two friends, Barrett Hiatt (also known as Halo33 on the Ninternet***) and his wife, Micol Raab, had decided to film a video for "30 Ghosts IV".****
After we'd wrapped, my wife and I went home and, about to go to bed after a long, hand day of filming, i decided to check nin.com, you know, for things.
I called Barrett and asked if he'd seen nin.com recently.
He said he had not.
I suggested he do so.
Trent, you're the best Dad a kid could ever want! <3 <3 <3

Halo 28 (Hesitation Marks) - Fuck you, modlife.


As of this moment, the official Nine Inch Nails tour***** has begun, and, aside from that tiny clip that was posed on the NIN Instagram a week or so ago, I know nothing about it.
I'm seeing them on the 14th in Brooklyn and the 15th in New Jersey and this will be the first time I've seen them since 2000 where I have absolutely no idea what to expect.
I know they might play "All Time Low", and that is all......well...I suppose that's not really true...
I'm assuming they're going to play "Terrible Lie", "Head Like A Hole", "March of the Pigs (replete with Ally panting like a thirsty dog), "The Hand That Feeds", "Wish" "Gave Up" and "Survivalism".
Hoping they don't, but assuming they will.
But, on the subject of the new line up...I'm not 100% sure how much I love the idea of the gospel choir back up singers.
Backup singers? Sure, go nuts.
Female backup singers? Totally, that could add a lot of dimension and depth to NIN live performance.
But those gospel voices are so...specific.
They also feel pretty 90's too. And 80's. And 70's.
I don't know, I don't think I'm being too precious about it, I was totally fine with the female backup vocals on The Fragile but they were in the mix, not front and center with Reznor's vocals.
And they weren't gospel singers.
Anyway, like I said, all of this has been gleaned from a twelve second video clip of some rehearsal footage and this might amount to nothing...I hope.
While I'm very interested to see what these new folks will be adding o the mix, I'm not looking for a rousing Southern Baptist rendition of "Wish".
Or "Hurt".
Or...well, of any Nine Inch Nails song, actually.
Fingers crossed on this one.


They Might Be Giants

Well, a few days after the start of September, I received the final two vinyl EPs from the 2012 Instant Fan Club.
And I am massively disappointed.
While I truly feel as though I have gotten more than $250 worth of goods and services from the IFC (including exclusive music and merch, signed copies of Nanobots, and, of course, my personalized ringtone (which features Flansburgh singing MY NAME and telling me to wake up, implying that I tend to sleep through my cell phone ringing, which I do...), I probably would have rather not gotten this last set of vinyls. One was described (months and months ago, when Flans first announced them) as a children's EP and the other "the first solo release from The Avatars of They" (sock puppets that the Johns use in concert to kill ten or fifteen minutes). Although I don't really care about TMBG children's music, new, exclusive They Might Be Giants music is new and exclusive They Might Be Giants music.
The tracklist of the children's vinyl includes four songs, all previously released (through iTunes or TMBG podcasts or their TMBG Unlimited service from the 90's) and attainable if one has ten minutes and the Internet.
The Avatars EP has three previously released tracks, all available in the last year or so from TMBG's site or podcast and then...one...new...track, which is almost catchy.
Guys, I know you're busy and that, as the IFC got on, that this whole making-new-music-on-a-deadline-for-people-who-already-paid-over-a-year-ago thing probably got way old, but, you guys also originated Dial-A-Song, which had something like a new song every day for something like a decade; with that in mind, were eight new songs that hard to come up with?
And what happened to that Tres Might Be Giants project?
That awesome cover of "I Was Dancing In A Lesbian Bar"?
Anyway, like I said, I feel that my $250 were more than well spent and I happily pony up that much for whatever you have up your sleeves for the 2013 (or maybe just 2014?) IFC, but this leaves things on a bitter note.


Beck

That rascal went and released another new song, but this time...there's something different...
Instead of releasing a 12" vinyl with a short version and a long version, he released a double 12" with a short version and its instrumental on side A, a ten minute "remix" on side B and then, on sides C and D...the whole song...all 24 plus minutes of it.
Yes.
I would say this is self indulgent, but it isn't. A fifteen minutes version would be self indulgent, a twenty four minute version is fucking hilarious.
He's upping his ante...
Anyway, the song is called "Gimme"and I dig it.
It's...weird and fun.
Here are my real-time thoughts on my first listens to the Georgic remix:

Floaty, open and ethereal.
I sometimes enjoy a huge remix if there's growth and expansion.
A gravely little beat comes in, but softly, almost as if it's not there.
This always seems to be ending.
Really nice harp.
Or "harp", this is Beck.
Starts to feel very LittleBig Planet, makes me wonder of any of this was intended for Sound Shapes.
Ends with footsteps walking off.
Most subtle remix I've heard in a while.
Not amazing, but light and refreshing.
Don't know how often I'll be listening to this, but, when I do, I'm going to enjoy it.
Or get sleepy.

And my real-time thoughts on the full, twenty four minute version.

Joyous explosion of marimba! Then right into song.
Beck is a marimba FIEND.
When I hear a twenty four minute Beck song, I want at least three different locations.
Or, a better way to put it: I want the same house, but different rooms; "Defriended" did not deliver that, but "I Won't Be Long" did. Three or four minutes in and "Gimme" is already delivering.
It does feel quite jam-y, but in a fun way.
Some new lyrics and intonations, then, about ten minutes in, Beck becomes a steam engine.
After that, things become crystal yoga.
 quick trip to church then we're playing pinball with those marimbas from before.
Some bits remind me of an old DFA remix of Nine Inch Nails' "The Hand That Feeds", although that's probably just the abundance of marimbas.
After a bit more play, things get serious and stellar and then, just drift off into space...
This could be a tour of a Beck-themed amusement park.

So, thus far, I'm liking "I Won't Be Long" more than "Gimme" and a lot more than "Defriended".
Only ten more of these 12" singles before we get that brand new Beck album!!!!
Keep it up, you fucking maniac.



On September 27th, I saw Atoms For Peace at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
In a nutshell, the band was great, like a fucking machine, especially...well, no, everyone was amazing. Flea had the energy of a 13-year old, Thom Yorke was flailing around like one of those wacky, waving arm things, both Joey Waronker and Mauro Refosco were CORRECT with their beats, like funky clocks, and, dude, Nigel Godrich.
All in all, the setlist was a great representation of Yorke's two albums, plus a song by UNKEL and Radiohead as well as an AFP b-side. I would have enjoyed hearing "Analyse" and "Judge, Jury and Executioner", but the whole thing was rock solid.   Highlights for me included "Default" (enjoyed the live arrangement, but that album version still wins everything), "And It Rained All Night" and "Black Swan".
The audience lost their shit after "Harrowdown Hill", "Skip Divided" was a creepy nightmare and "Amok" was epic.
As for their visual presentation...hm.
So, I kind of consider Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor in the same ballpark as far as innovation and musicality and all that, but Yorke is just not bringing it when it comes to the spectacle.
The entire light show consisted of a huge wall with crooked, horizontal LED "cracks" in it. Sometimes the lights were blue, sometime they were red, sometimes they were solid, sometimes they were broken.
And sometimes there were tiny, little panels scattered around the cracks that flickered or flashed or both.
Compared to what Nine Inch Nails has been doing live for years now, this was just not impressive and certainly not worth the eighty or so dollars we spent on this show.
Plus, a t-shirt was forty five dollars.
For about the same amount, I'm going to have my face melted by Reznor and his collection of reprobates in about two weeks.
Might recount that experience.
My bitching aside though, if you dug either of Yorke's solo albums, you should see Atoms For Peace, they are a great band with forgettable visuals, but that shouldn't matter when it comes to the music.  


And, that's it.
As I've mentioned, I'm seeing Nine Inch Nails twice in the next two weeks and I'll probably have something negative to say about that in a month.
See you then.





* You know, that "perfect" copy with the first and last ten seconds missing and with the MTV logo all over it and that promo for "MTV's Oddities! Tonight at 9pm!" scrolling through twice..

** This was before I knew who Edward Gorey was.

*** Shut up, it's a real thing. As real as "NINfluenza" anyway.

**** Aside from the lack of a better camera, we're all actually pretty proud of the results. Here it is, if you're interested-  "30 Ghosts IV"

***** !!!TENSION!!! ******

****** Okay, I was able to pinpoint my dislike of this silly, silly subtitle; first off, there aren't any tracks on the album that are called "Tension", nor are there any that have the word "tension" as a lyric. Every NIN tour up to this point has made sense: "Hate 90", while a bit overdramatic, referred to the title of the album it was supporting, "the Self Destruct tour" not only lived up to what was going on on stage, but also referred to a song from the album and the theme of the album itself, the Fragility tours reflected both the album and its title, "Live: With Teeth" was the band playing songs from the album With Teeth...live, "Lights In The Sky" was a song from the album the tour was supporting, referred to themes from the last few albums AND featured actual lights in the sky, "Wave Goodbye"...you know, I'm not even going to bother with that one, but, "Tension"? Unless there is actual tension on stage...maybe between Alessandro and Trent because, no matter how many times he asks him not to do it, Ally still does that weird panting thing during "March of the Pigs" or Trent, Adrian Belew and Eric Avery for joining and then leaving the touring line up or maybe the two female gospel singers are going to make out and create sexual tension...I don't fucking know, it just sounds silly as all get out and I'm having a real hard time thinking about buying any tour shirts because then I'll be walking around in public with the word "TENSION" all over my torso...as well as teeth. There are a lot of teeth featured in this tour's merchandise.
I'll report back on whether or not there is actual tension next month, after I've seen the show.
Who knows, maybe my first words after the end of the show will be, "Man was that ever tense."