The Coolest Thing You Will See Today

NIN: 1,000,000 Live from on stage, Sydney 2.22.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

As I mentioned in a post last week, NIN is going on a sort of farewell tour this year. They've just released tour dates for the first leg here (I'll be buying up mine for June 9 in DC).

Anyway, aside from the music, obviously, there are two things that have always put NIN a cut above everyone else in my books...

1. Their accessibility to fans. Reznor has revolutionized this. From releasing complete tracks for fans to remix, to blogging, to giving away free music and albums.
2. Their live shows. I've seen a lot of really good bands live, and NIN beats them all. And that's saying a lot considering I've seen U2 live on multiple occasions.

Anyway, the clip above combines both of these elements (plus the music) into one, big awesome. NIN has put a bunch of these up on Vimeo, but I chose this because it's the first song in their set and you can feel the anticipation. You see the roadie counting down then waving them on stage, the band members slowly emerging and getting into routine. You hear the roar of the crowd as Trent finally arrives on stage. You see the guys psyching themselves up for the show, and finally rocking the s#$t out of Sydney, Australia. The unique thing is that it's all filmed from on stage with the band. Awesome.

It's things like this that really make me wish that this planned hiatus is fleeting...