I’m up in Manchester, NH this weekend with laur to see Nine Inch Nails and have a weekend getaway of sorts. Tonight was the show at the Verizon Wireless Arena. Never have I had such a poor experience at a concert. They refused to allow me to enter with a chained wallet. I return it to the car. My next attempt to enter I am again stopped for having a chain attached to my keys which was not commented on prior. This chain is barely larger then a necklace. I return it to the car. My next attempt I’m stopped for having a clip for my keys “that could be used as a weapon.” Again the prior agent to pat me down made no comment about. Laur at this point yells to just throw the thing in the discard bucket. I’m quite fed up, throw the clasp into the 30 gallon bucket and tell them to “let me the fuck in.” While inside I notice plenty of people with key clasps and chains as large or larger then the one I had. Men with full sets of large rings. One guy who had his wallet semi permanently connected to a chain was asked to toss his wallet.

I’ve gone to lots of shows in NYC and NJ without ever having such a ridiculous pat down policy. The women were required to open any loose clothing and were patted down about as much as men. It was hardly consistent however. As I mentioned chains, which are not good weapons in the least (especially at 1 foot in length), which were supposedly unable to be trashed were allowed. So as long as someone had to tear their clothing to use the gimpy chain as a weapon it was okay.

There was, as always, a no filming policy. Well the security at the arena took this to mean just about everything. The security spent the entire show hunting down people who held cell phones or cameras up too long. There was one narc in particular standing next to me, speaking plenty loud to distract me from the music, who was ratting out people not even in her general area. Telling other security agents to get them. Teams of agents would approach people and tell them to turn off their camera. They’d walk up behind people on the floor while they were lining up a shot or maybe taking some high quality QVGA footage of the show and just watch their viewfinder for a few seconds then lean in over their shoulder and tell them to stop. After the show a guard told me it was requested by the band. I’ve been to a few NIN shows including one on this tour and never had I seen what I saw tonight.

They said nothing about the lighters or the loud drunks pushing people around to get up front or banging on things. It’s okay to possess the means to burn down the place but not protect your keys from being jacked and it’s okay to be ingesting a drug that often makes people more aggressive.

The security was so distracting I was completely unable to enjoy the show. After the show laur approached a security guard to ask how to submit a complaint. We were directed to the agent responsible for the overseeing of the pat downs. She issued her complaint of having to show more of herself then she’d like in a public setting in particular. We plan to contact Verizon Wireless Arena to further express our displessure with their draconian security. I will also attempt to contact Nine Inch Nails.

At this point we plan to never attend another event at the Manchester Verizon Wireless Arena.