A goodbye to an old friend

This post was originally published at ChannelOmaha.com where Gabe is a guest blogger.

I can’t think of a more inappropriate first blog to ChanelOmaha.com than a story about how I traveled to Kansas City.  But that’s just how this is going to be.

On Wednesday night I traveled to Kansas City to say goodbye to an old friend.

I arrived, got comfortable, and heard him tell the same stories he’s told so many times before.  But this time he was a little more jovial, just a little less stone cold serious.  But each tale still had the complete power and inspiration as every time he told it before.  I still was able to mouth the words with him, as I’ve heard the stories so many times.

Of course I’m talking about seeing Nine Inch Nails perform in Kansas City.  From the t-shirts saying "Wave Goodbye" to Trent closing his show with "Hurt" instead of something like "Closer", it was nothing less than an old friend giving a large collective hug and saying "Thanks."

For those who’ve seen Trent and Company perform before, this wasn’t like previous tours.  No video screens.  No lasers.  No special effects.  Just some guys on stage, a fog machine, and some of the best music ever made.

He didn’t play a lot of what many fans call "the new stuff."  And to me, that was a downer.  I don’t recall anything from Ghosts being played.  But it seemed to work.  This is Trent’s goodbye, and from the crowd screaming the lyrics it got a lot quieter during "Discipline" and "Echoplex" anyway.  But like any other NIN show the place erupted with "Sin", "Wish" and "Head like a hole."

I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to an old friend than how I did Wednesday night.