My experience was very similar to elevenism on the first page but it's my own so I'll share anyway.

November 28, 1994, Pittsburgh


First off I was able to get floor tickets the day of the show when they released more. I was so excited that I spent the exorbitant price of $28.50 for them (I was a college student lol). Since it was last minute, I knew people who would be there but it was too late to get in touch with them but I hoped I would see them there (which I did) but if I didn't, I didn't care. I was finally going to see my new favorite band (my roommate got TDS the week it came out and being from a small town classic rock environment, this was the first time I had heard anything like this and it blew me away and I managed to squeeze my fandom in before Closer was a single and video and sent them mainstream - just barely) and it was my third concert ever and the first "big" one (interestingly my second was Jesus and Mary Chain so this new tour is very nostalgic for me). I wasn't 100% certain where the arena was, but I knew the general area so I just planned to get on a bus and follow everyone dressed in black - which worked like a charm, I might add.


First act - Marilyn Manson before they were famous. My only exposure to them at all was one time MTV was on late at night and they introduced a video by Marilyn Manson and I said to myself "hey, that's the chick that's opening for the NIN show I want to go to" so I paid attention. Needless to say, it wasn't quite what I expected. They set the tone for the element of danger and rebellion that was present all night. Jim Rose (I didn't know who it was at the time, just some guy) introduced them with some rant about how he sometimes talks to Satan before a show. At one point Manson pulled down his pants and was wearing a pair of black leather underwear with a giant strap on dildo and asked the crowd if they wanted to suck his rock star cock. The show ended with him completely naked humping the keyboard before Pogo carried him off stage.


Next up was the Jim Rose circus. I was expecting a band and got an actual circus. T was a circus with things like a guy swinging cinder blocks from his nipples and a topless girl laying on a bed of nine inch nails.


And then came NIN..... the various videos you've seen do not do this tour justice. It was pure chaos from the start, culminating in Happiness in Slavery where the ending part of the song was basically wanton destruction. He smashed everything and then went off stage and brought more things on stage just to break. And it wasn't just destroying things, it was a complete sense of anything could happen. And to add to that, there was a board missing on the floor and the ice underneath (the Penguins hockey team also played there) was exposed making there a dangerous spot right smack in the middle of the pit but we all looked out for each other). After HiS ended, the screen came down for the eraser/hurt/TDS midsection and between the destruction (I didn't think they had any instruments left to play) and the screen, I thought the show was over and I was torn between "holy shit that was mind blowing" and "holy shit that was short," but fortunately t wasn't even halfway over. And Hurt.... again, the video doesn't do it justice. This pit that was beating each other up just minutes before was motionless and captivated. It was truly mesmerizing and part of the reason I don't care for the song live anymore - in my head I'm comparing it to this. Did the people in the video know they were being filmed? Because the crowd surfers pull me out of the video because there was nothing like that from what I could see at my show. Everyone was in awe. And then after that section it goes right into wish and the guitars at the end of each line in the verses was a literal assault on all the senses. People moshing around you, a sudden increase in volume and strobe lights flashing right in your face. And the show ended with a completely haunting SICNH. After all the chaos (and right before it was IDNWT, not exactly a mellow song) this was how it ended and it was powerful and stuck with you more than another few minutes of destruction would have. Again, I believe this is what Trent has been going for constantly since then with Hurt but it just isn't the same, at least partly because he and the shows aren't the same.


In almost every way - musically, technically, stage production, etc - NIN is a better band now than they were in 1994, but there was one thing that that show had that NIN hasn't had since and no other band I've seen before or since has had and that's the element of danger and uneasiness that was present throughout the whole show. I saw Manson multiple times in the 90s and even he didn't have it in the same way (largely because it felt a bit more choreographed with him and less chaotic)


I left the show a changed man.