If you win tickets to see Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden July 27 at the Molson Amphitheatre this week beware of injuries at the show.
In 2008 I drove from Vancouver up the sunshine coast to the little town of Pemberton, BC, which happened to be the site of one of the biggest festivals ever. The Pemberton Festival featured Coldplay, Jay-Z, Vampire Weekend, Death Cab For Cutie, Interpol, Flaming Lips, Metric, and more.
The headliners on the first night were Nine Inch Nails, so we staked out a spot close to the stage. By the time the band got into their new material from The Slip, the crowd was whipped into a frenzy and I was pretty much pinned to the front guard rail. All of a sudden guitarist Robin Finck climbed down off the stage and down to the crowd, still playing his guitar. As he jumped up on the back side of the guard rail he somehow tripped and fell, landing directly on top of me. While he was trying to get upright the sharp string-ends on the head of his guitar scraped against my bare arm and left a couple decent sized scratches. I was bleeding, and contemplating which kind of hepatitis I would get from a rock band’s dirty guitar strings. I did my best to clean it after the show, but I still have a couple of scars as souvenirs.
A lot of people can say they’ve met their favourite rock stars, not many can say they got cut by them.
Trent Reznor soundcheck at Pemberton
The light show was killer!
Robin Finck onstage at Pemberton
It’s good to have a friend when you’re hanging out at the port-o-potties
I know it doesn’t look like much but holy Finck did it ever hurt.
