It's pissing down with rain in Brixton and there are a load of wannabe freaks loitering on the streets looking for cover. Perfect weather conditions, should wash out their hair dye and make them look sensible. This isn't a Marilyn fucking Moron gig, y'know?

Anyway, enough about that (tad trivial, doncha think?), and onwards to the soundtrack to the evening. After all, that's why you're reading this thing in the first place, non?

Before any of what people are REALLY here to see (I mean, a good 5 years wait is too much to bear for some), Atari Teenage Riot take to the stage. Well, Alec, Nic and Carl do, and promptly put up a wall of white noise with strobes on overdrive for about 20 minutes, whilst the entire Academy stands there with a look on their face which says 'What the fuck?!'

It took real balls to do that (I do mean that they just played around with a load of samples for all that time), but who was here for them in the first place? It also didn't work in their favour on Night Two-general booing activity.

They go, and black curtains are drawn across the front of the stage.

After what seems like an age, suddenly Pinion cuts into the atmosphere. Then a combination of guitar strumming and keyboards that sounds somewhat akin to Somewhat Damaged emerges, and the curtains are drawn back, as we see to the right Robin Finck and Jerome Dillon, with Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser on the left, and someone with his back to us pummelling his guitar stage centre, all wearing some kind of grey denim overalls. Then he turns 'round to do the lyrics. Ladies and Gentlemen, Trent Reznor is in the house. And the place becomes bedlam, people diving all over the pit like lemmings on acid. And did anyone expect to see him jumping around on stage?

Following up with Terrible Lie and Sin, the entire place is singing along word for word, even in the pit, which is absolutly seething, breathing in there is NOT AN OPTION. Following up with March of the Pigs just made sure that our safety is not really an issue. At least they take gaps between each song in the set, and they chuck water all over us. Apart from Trent, he seems to relish soaking Charlie throughout the entire set.

Then it takes a turn for the surreal. Whilst Piggy is getting aired, we see Trent SMILING on stage, getting onto the very edge, before tossing the mic into the crowd to finish off. Shame the bloke who got the mic couldn't sing for shit, but it probably made his decade.

Linking the end into The Frail, indeed linking that into The Wretched made sure that the smiling thing was just short-term, and we wouldn't be getting all night grins. Reptile follows, followed by an all out version of Gave Up. Just when you thought that what was to follow would make the entire place collapse, a screen came down from the top of the stage as they went into La Mer, showing images of flowing streams, waves crashing and water droplets. It stayed, this time showing images of insects in infared, for The Great Below, and flames rising to the top of the screen during The Way Out is Through.

After that chill-out phase, the place was immediatly smacked in the face with Wish, complete with the sight of 3600 shouting 'Fist Fuck' in unison. Surreal, but whaddya expect? Normalcy sucks, anyway.

Into The Void followed next, to bring down the tempo slightly, but Down In It sent the place into a frenzy, but that was nothing compared to what followed. Oh yes, the almighty Head Like A Hole arrived and the whole place went apeshit in response. It may be 10 years old now, but it still packs a punch, as well as a few kicks.

With Trent saying 'Think you very much' to rapturous cheers, they briefly went off for a break an have the equipment checked, before coming back to do The Day The World Went Away and Starfuckers Inc., which went down a storm. But that didn't compete with Closer, getting an almighty response even though much of the crowd were worn out and gasping for air and water by this time. Then, Trent introduced 'one of my very favorites', Hurt. The whole place suddenly stood their ground, singing along, clapping in unison. It was a beautiful sight for all to behold, and a very special one too.

The fact that ANOTHER encore was called for proves what this was like. And most people were slightly pissed off at the lack of We're In This Together and Something I Can Never Have, Eraser, Heresy, The Fragile...(well, can you blame them?), but those are minor quibbles. What we got was one hell of a performance from one hell of a band, and who can complain about that?