Teenage Riot: Riot's First Nails Shows!

Self Destruct Tour!



Word! OK, so, some of my friends and I have been talking a lot about the past, and old tours, so, I thought I'd bring out some SERIOUSLY old school shit! So, obviously, this is a very silly photo of me when I was 13. That's right kids, that Grandma Riot just about the time she got into Nails. You see, when Grandma Riot became a Nails fan, all those decades ago, in 1994 - you know, before some of you were even born - it was not a good time to be a New Fan of Nails. See, back then you were either a fan - or you were a Closer Poseur! That's Right, Grandma Riot was a Closer Poseur! (Please tell me there is more then just me and Robin TMP who remember Closer Poseur!) Oh god I’m so old!

I remember all summer wishing MTW would play that DAMN video they would only play clips of. Of knew of Nails, I knew their stuff was hard - but when I heard and saw the clip of Closer, I was intrigued, their sound, it seemed to me - uneducated as I was had evolved. I wanted to see it, I wanted to hear more! But they would only TEASE me with the freegin Buzz Clip of Closer Green Day And Cracker.

FINALLY - July19 1994 I heard the song on the radio. Just a few days later, I ghetto recorded it off the radio, then an hour later caught the video on Alternative Nation and was BLOWN the fuck away. I love the rust and the textures. It reminded me of Tool videos (Which I'd also just gotten into. Brother's Quay influence, though I was too uneducated at the time to get that. But I loved it. I remember what it was - that night that hit me over the head and made me love Nails and never turn back. It was the Ivy. Those last shots of him, levitating - playing the piano on the wall covered in Ivy. There was something so intense in his eyes, and in the precision in his fingers as he played. He seemed to care so much for what he played in that moment... and that’s what made me fall in love with the band and never look back. All through that video - all the rotting meet, rusting, dusted over tools. Rust and earth colors... all the torture and death - and yet there was this piano - the wire of which were intertwined with Ivy. The only green, the only signs of life and hope it seemed, and they were intertwined with the piano.

And isn't that what makes Nails - what he does so beautiful always. How he, in these places of despair and death, is able to find, and create hope and life through music and through is piano... That look in his eyes - how dedicated and focused his is in what he does. I still see that look come over him now. The way he is, when he goes off on TGD - the digital sets he does live now. That look that comes over him, is just as powerful now as it was then.... I still see that beautiful man, gracefully playing that piano with that peaceful look upon his face as he floated effortlessly in that video -

Which is pretty impressive when you consider that in real life he had a fucking wire up his ass the whole time! Ow!



So - then a few months later - I Riot, attended my first show - at Madison Square Garden on December 7th (&8th) 1994. And since it was a Nails show - of course, there was Massive Drama.

Now, everyone I love you, you know I do. But now I need to go off on a "When I was a kid we didn't have no hot topic we walked 15 barefoot uphill in the snow to down town NYC to the drag store when we wanted fish nets moments." I know you're all upset about Pre-sales. I know you worry about Pre-Sale Drama and what if I don't get GA....

OK. When I first had to get tickets to a show. There were no Pre-Sales. GA? Did you hear me? NO Pre-Sale. No Pre-Sale? It was - 1994! WE DIDN'T HAVE THE INTERNET. I waited on a LINE. My first try - it SOLD OUT. Madison Square Garden SOLD OUT in 2 minutes. Yeah - you think you hate New Fans now? At least now New Fans may not know protocol - back then New Fans were Frat boys and the mean girls at school. EVERYONE thought they liked Nails. That’s why Old Fans back then called you a Closer Poser. "You like them - name three songs!" And they couldn't! And you complain now because they newbie haven’t hear Not So Pretty Now.

Oh man. So thank god, they added a second show. See, the first day, I had some bad pop song stuck in my head. I chalked it up as a bad omen that had hexed my chances. Second time I had Porch stuck in my head. Yeah Pearl Jam! The gods obviously looked favorably upon this - I GOT THROUGH! I was so happy!

And that - Lukas - is why I always to this day - sing Porch to myself during Pre-Sales!


So, this is me in my first Nails shirt - I got it at that first show. I loved it - it had a purple shell on the back, I wore it all the time in high school...

I don't have any photos from my first show. It seems weird now - how little photos I have from back then. Even my pics for the entire string of shows I did back on Fragility totals maybe 20 pics. Things were different then - now, we take 20 pics on the way to the show alone!

December 7 1994

I'm sorry I don't have photos, that night was Epic. It was Nails - how could it not be! I'll never forget how everyone dressed back then. EVERYONE dressed up. People really took it seriously - this was a massive occasion and those fans were just gorgeous - no detail was over looked. Everyone was decked out in crowns, capes - leather - velvet lace and the most exquisite metal jewelry. These were not your store bought Hot Topic Goth duds either. This was home spun - high fashion couture Goth. And it wasn't just a scattered few pockets either. 90% of that crowd looked amazing - and you know who the other 10 % were... I'd never in my life seen so many people in one place with fantastically colored hair! Every shade of blue - green - crimson - purple and god knows what else. It was like this huge gathering of artistic people that has never occurred since. It had such a tremendous impact on me...

So I ran up the stairs to my seats. Yeah seats! You can have fun in them too you know - so I run to my seat after I bought my aforementioned shirt. My brother was out getting a pretzel. Some guy is on the stage talking - And as I reach my place - all I hear is "I know you're New York and you deserve the best."

Oh THAT never ends well... Oh shit - so he goes on to explain, that Robin had broken his finger, and that the show was being postponed until the next night. What!?

My brother said - Oh someone is drunk backstage. I said - no they wouldn't lie. Then Closure came out. Ha Ha. So there you are. My first Nails show - or sorta show - was the Infamous Night Robin Broke his Finger!

December 8 1994 - night two. The show took happened. I was by then 14. It blew me away. My brother couldn’t make it the second night - so my sister in law - who is also awesome, took me instead. We snuck up an entire section. We by then had pretty good seats. The people - whose seats they were, came - but she pulled a fast one on the people next to us who'd also snuck up. They moved - we shifted over and we never got caught. (Hmmm maybe I should bring her along in case of Line Drama next tour; she'd be good...)

Manson opened, we laughed. My Sister in Law turned to me and said, "Oh he's definitely getting naked," as he took of layer after layer of pleather. He never did - but then, his set didn't amount to much more then him stripping and falling. Jim Rose was next. We were impressed and a little grossed out by the nipple thing...

- And then.... after playing some Low - THEY took the stage. I’ll never forget. Reznor came out - Head Down with his leather gloved fingers outstretched far from his hunched over body, as he slipped and slithered his fingers through the gossamer curtail, slowly emerging from behind it. People - I screamed - well, like a 14-year-old girl - and I didn't stop until mid-way through M. Self Destruct. Pinion reached its end - and he TORE through that shit and into the song!

It was AWSEOME. I remember March of The Pigs - I remember at one point thinking we were close enough to see his eyes. I remember the screens... I remember them well. I don't know - I was just some dumb kid the rest is a blur and I wish I remembered more. They did The Only Time. I wish I'd known enough to appreciate it then. One of the best lines ever written - that I knew - but, back then those songs that don't get played now - how would we have known? I mean, back then, we all thought another record was a year or two off!!


Well - we all know now - new record was Five Years off! But - another tour was not. Nine Inch Nails, and David Bowie. David FUCKING Bowie. One of my greatest regrets in my life as a fan. I knew enough to know Vanilla Ice and Cobain took those songs from him - but at 15 - I was not a fan of his. That would not happen until 1997 when I saw him perform Quicksand alone and acoustic - but I digress... I was there - I actually saw - Bowie, and Nails together....

Once again, my brother was awesome. I called him to ask if he'd heard when tickets would go on sale for the Bowie Tour. He said "Yesterday". I said - "What." *Silence* Then he says - "Don't worry - I got them." Yeah, my brother was just that awesome. That time, both he and my sister in law went. They're both awesome, they still are.

We saw Nails and Bowie at Meadowlands on September 27 1996. We missed Prick - I ran up the stairs just in time - Pinion - Terrible Lie. Dude. The Nails boys rocked. Then the shift came. We all sat up - is that - Trent!? On the SAX!? It was. Wow. Amazing. Bowie took the stage. They all - BOWIE - TR - Robin Finck - The DIVA - Gail Mike - Vrenna even fucking shit sharing the same stage. And I saw it. Again - I wish I remembered more - I wish I had photos - and I wish now - to go back as a Bowie fan - and with those of my friends who were too young - but were more deserving - even then - then I was to have gone.


I also wish I could go back and dress better! Heheeh - yeah I dressed up in my pleather pants. Aww, it was cute - but if I was to see Bowie and Nails now - I would make such a dress... Back then I was just figuring out how to sew. Nails dresses were a long way off.

So, the Bowie show was cool. But I also experienced my first Post Show Depression - really bad the next day. It was awful. We certainly didn't have a name for it back then, and I was alone with it. I was the only Nails fan in my school. I had the most wonderful friends who were all so supportive of my ridiculous love for the band. They'd listen to me talk, and I loved them for that - but back then, I didn't have other fan friends as I do now. My brother was awesome for taking me to shows but - I'm much happier now. I love everyone I do shows with. And even you Abby - even though you say now you are out. I love everyone - all you little butt knockers out there, even if you post crazy shit about why do I have to pay so much for pre-sale or are mean to other fans - I love you all. All of you. You make this that much more fun, and I can't wait for the next tour.

Now lets hope I finish my art work before then so I can actually make one or tow of them! Thanks for reading through my insane long trip down memory lane if you did. Next time I promise a lot more pics and a lot less words!