“The Best Gig I Ever Saw” is a weekly column that will see us ask a musician to chat about their favorite concert thus far. This week it's Gen, frontwoman with fetish-themed industrial band The Genitorturers, currently on tour with Lords of Acid.

David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, 1995
I did a lot of soul-searching on this one. I guess it’s because our first album came out in ’92. We were getting ready to go out with KMFDM in ’95, and we shared a producer, Dave Ogilvy from Skinny Puppy. He called me to come up — he was out with Nine Inch Nails because he did a lot of work on that Bowie/NIN collaboration. I went up and got to actually sit at the soundboard.

Right before the show, Trent [Reznor] grabbed my hand and said, “Do you want to meet somebody?” I go, “OK.” He takes me to their room, which was just him and David Bowie. I sat in there for probably 25 minutes before the show, and it was pretty mind-blowing. Trent introduced me as “Gen from the band Genitorturers,” and Bowie knew of us from the Torture Garden. That was insane.

Standing at the soundboard with Dave Ogilvy and watching the show, what was the most impressive was, Bowie had gone through a lot of different styles of music and changes. It was the coolest thing as an artist — Nine Inch Nails were cresting and they did not stop playing. Nine Inch Nails were on, then the keyboard player left and Trent went on keyboards. Then Bowie came out singing, with Nine Inch Nails backing him up. Then every few minutes, one of the Nine Inch Nails would leave and be replaced by a Bowie band member. It was absolutely mind-blowing, to see it done seamlessly and flawlessly.

The Genitorturers play with Lords of Acid, Orgy and Gabriel & the Apocalypse at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 22, at the Regent.

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