Went down to pick up Humpback Oak's Oaksongs Box set. What can I say about it? It's really beautiful and is certainly a labour of love. When you open the box, you get a diorama of a bedroom with Humpback Oak memorabilia strewn around the place. When you open up the bed, there're tiny booklets, a bundle of lyric sheets, a guitar pick, and small photo cards of the band. The CDs are wrapped in paper with lyrics written on them, and I don't think I can bear to unwrap these. For me, the box is a little trip down memory lane of one of Singapore's best band.
I'm clearing my bookshelf, so I'm putting up these books for adoption. Let me know if you want these books.
- The Last Days of William Shakespeare - Vlady Kociancich - Cal - Bernard Mac Laverty - Lamb - Bernard Mac Laverty - Babyhood - Paul Reiser - The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins - Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson - e-mail: A Love Story - Stephanie D Fletcher - Come Together - Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees - 1985 - Anthony Burgess - Naked Beneath My Clothes - Rita Rudner
- The Moonstone - Wilke Collins - Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Hard Times - Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll - Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - Nostromo - Joseph Conrad - The White Company - Arthur Conan Doyle - Stories for Summer (Collection of 14 short stories by F Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, Oscar Wilde, etc) - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce - Sons and Lovers - D H Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover - D H Lawrence
3 Volumes of The Complete Sherlock Holmes - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle - The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle - The Return of SHerlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
This Ping.fm thingy is rather useful, but confusing. Confusing because I'm wondering if there'll be multi-postings that ends up all over the place. That will be really annoying.
I first heard of the band in 1990 when I was still in JC. I bought Pretty Hate Machine on cassette and its industrial rock sound gave me a reason to rock out during those years as a late teen. Never in my wildest dream would I have dreamt that I would actually be able to see Trent Reznor actually perform live, but I did, when he was here in Singapore. Playing at Fort Canning Park, the gig was suppose to be part of his last tour before he goes on hiatus as NIN. Due to personal things happening in my life, I didn't thought of going, but at the last minute, I decided that I must go, else it will be a missed opportunity of a lifetime. And boy was I glad I went. Watching NIN play Head Like A Hole and Terrible Lie made me incredibly nostalgic. Ah, those industrial metal years... and what a high it was to hear thousands of people singing the words to Closer - "I want to fuck you like an animal!"
I've also manage to capture some vids from the concert. The bad thing was that since I was so close to the stage and due to the crappy mic on my compact camera, the sound in these clips are really bad. Visuals are great though. Sadly, the only song where the sound is just (but only just) acceptable is the song Hurt.
Overall, the band was tight. Trent did not interact much with the crowd, but he doesn't need to. He makes it up by playing a set that is possibly contains some of his best works. It's worth noting that the Trent Reznor may not be the lean, mean, rocker during his younger days. He may look "bigger", but his attitude and power on stage is still something to behold.
At one point in the concert, Trent dived into the audience. But it seems that the crowd couldn't give him a proper bodysurfing experience. Epic fail for the folks right at the front. :P
"What have I become? My sweetest friend Everyone I know Goes away in the end" - Hurt
A fitting goodbye. Even if NIN may be going away, I'm pretty sure that this won't be the last we hear of Trent.
