Nine Inch Nails review

This seems to have got incredibly long, apologies! I'll post a summary in a new post (and no, it's not to up my post count, it's cos the whole thing won't fit in one post) for anyone who's disinclined to read the whole thing.

The Date: 7th March 2007, Roughly 6pm – 11pm

The Location: Brixton Academy, Brixton, London

LADYTRON (support act): I’ll admit, I don’t know them too well, downloaded four of their songs prior to this gig (of which, as far as I could tell, only two were played: Seventeen and Destroy Everything You Touch) … anyway, the came and went without making too much impact on me; some electro is all well and good, but generally unless it’s really special I need me some guitarage, and this wasn’t really special. It’s also rather too repetitive for my taste. The main thing I got out of the performance was that the frontwoman is rather attractive (although her hair is too short ). So yeah, I shall give them 5/10 I think.

NINE INCH NAILS:

The show:
Sometime just before 9, with no announcement at all (no intro tape, with the house lights still on, no instrumental intro, and as far as I can remember, although my memory may be playing tricks on me about this, with roadies still on the stage), Trent Reznor walked up to the mic and started singing Somewhat Damaged. Kind of an unusual way to begin a show, I wasn’t actually sure if it was him, and I’m sure a lot of other people in the crowd weren’t either. To add to this, at least for the beginning of the show, the entire stage was shrouded in a heavy dry ice haze, which, coupled with the bright striplights at the back and the spotlights meant that you could only really see the band members in silhouette. Undoubtedly it was very atmospheric and eerie, and I thought it was quite an effectively out of the ordinary way to begin; but it did also create something of a detachment between the band and the audience, probably piss a fair amount of fans off that they couldn’t see the band properly, and also did nothing to dispel some people’s image of Trent as wilfully difficult and pretentious.

Anyways, before long Trent was joined by the rest of the band, and they tore through beginning of the show in a ferocious manner, barely pausing for breath between each song, giving the impression that it was almost a very big medley. The performance itself was also ferocious: from the more “regular irregularities” as it were (smashing instruments) to the slightly more unusual (a proper stage dive from the guitarist, just launching himself into the crowd without warning; Trent picking up a stage light and leaning right into the front row, shining it down on them, before getting back on stage and throwing it straight up in the air; Trent throwing the mic into the audience for the last line of a song). However, despite the ferocity, and the fact that it wasn’t too long until the dry ice was toned down enough to see Trent, the guitarist Aaron North and the bassist Jeordie White to a reasonable degree (although the drummer Josh Freese was still a little obscured throughout the entire show, and I don’t think I ever saw anything but the silhouette of Alessandro Cortini, the synth player); the songs didn’t entirely seem to click at the beginning. I can’t really explain why, just something was a little off. I suppose though that if NIN are good at one thing, it’s letting things build to a climax; which is why I was a little surprised they played Closer so early, during the first half and as part of the ‘medley’. It was a faster, considerably cut down version as well, and I don’t think it had all the hypnotic menace that it could have. Still, this section did contain some highlights, particularly March Of The Pigs, and also Ruiner and Burn. Around about the time they were playing Burn, I somehow managed to get pushed to the front, getting pinned against the people standing at the barrier … it was obviously a great view from there, but being pinned meant that a) there was virtually no way I could get out should I start to die or anything, and b) it was made rather difficult to use my glowstick (yeah I had a glowstick, my friend brought ten along with him, but left eight of them in his bag which he have in to the cloak room ... ).

In the middle of the set was a short swirling interlude comprising of the instrumental Help Me I Am In Hell, and the mostly instrumental Eraser; before finally setting the place alight with a blistering Wish. Their rendition of their new single Survivalism, the sole new song tonight, seemed to go down well, and I have to say that although I was originally a bit sceptical about this song, since reading the lyrics I’m starting to like it quite a bit. After running through a great performance of Only, they slowed it down a bit for the phsychadelic melancholy of The Day The World Went Away; before the band went backstage and left Trent alone with a keyboard for a haunting rendition of Hurt, which had the biggest sing along of any song the entire night. The band came back on for the crashing climax of the song before tearing through The Hand That Feeds and Head Like A Hole. And with that, they all just walked off stage, only the guitarist staying behind long enough to knock over an amp (although in an oddly hesitant way, looking almost like he was contemplating whether he should or not before he casually pulled it over). I think everyone thought there’d be an encore … but no, the houselights came up, and the roadies came on to throw the remaining drumsticks and plectrums out into the audience (shouldn’t the band do that?).

Commentary:
On the whole the band’s performance was absolutely top notch: tight and precise, yet never rigid and clinical; watching them perform there was an element of danger about it, as if it could all collapse at any second (especially from the guitarist … the man is a rock n’ roll wildman through and through). Trent’s vocal performance was superhuman, especially since he’d had to cancel a show just two days before as a result of throat problems (incidentally, they’ve rescheduled it for August … a sign that maybe they’ll be touring over here again around that time, or maybe doing a festival … ?). The dry ice covering the stage didn’t get too annoying in my opinion, and actually made for a rather good beginning, along with Trent’s surprise entry to the stage. Although, I think the visual aspect as a whole was a bit too minimalist: just the dry ice, the lights (striplights at the back of the stage and a typical lighting rig), the band themselves, and six lamps hanging from the ceiling that band occasionally swung about. There weren’t even any screens, which must have been a bit rough for the people a bit further back. Some bands (like Pearl Jam for example) can get away with the minimalist approach, but I feel that NIN, like Muse and Tool, have a very visual element to their songs. During Hurt, I couldn’t help but think of the video, with the screen with all the dying animal imagery, and just how much it would have enhanced the experience.

I was also a bit disappointed with the setlist. Yeah, it was pretty good, but first of all, it was too short. Actually, I’m beginning to notice this to be a common problem with bands; it’s probably my fault, having seen bands such as Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses and Bryan Adams, who tend to play 25 – 30 songs and 2 and a half – towards 3 hours a night, a 1 hour 45 minute show with 20 songs doesn’t really cut it for me anymore. And the lack of an encore was annoying too.

Secondly, the choice of songs in the setlist was rather annoying. Yeah, there was lots of great ones in there, but this is a band where it’s been 18 years since their first album release. They have 4 albums, an EP which is essentially an album, and a few well known stand alone songs, as well as various other bits and pieces. Enough to get a good spread really. So, let’s break down the setlist shall we: 1 song from Pretty Hate Machine (no Terrible Lie, Sin, Something I Can Never Have), 5 songs from Broken (which only actually has 8 songs), 7 from The Downward Spiral (that’s half the album), 3 from The Fragile (no We’re In This Together [yeah I know they don’t play it much, but they have started to recently] or Star****ers), 2 from with Teeth (I suppose it’s fair that they don’t want to play many from that since they’ve been touring it for essentially the last two years), one new one (maybe one more would have been an idea, the tour is essentially a promo tour for the new album after all), and one from a soundtrack (Burn). So from the three year period of 1992 – 1994, they played 13 songs, in a 20 song setlist. Sure, that was arguably their most popular period, but still, that’s about 4/6 of the setlist, from a period that’s 1/3 of their recording career. And it was the exact same setlist they played in Birmingham a few days ago. And the setlist they played in Glasgow a few weeks ago had We’re In This Together and Something I can never have. Grumble bitch whine moan rant.

That’s mainly a personal niggle though, as a live show it was pretty kick ass.

Overall:
So to summarise for those that were too lazy to read the entire thing: generally a very good performance; some slightly unusual aspects, such as Trent’s entry onto the stage, the slight wildness, and the dry ice and silhouetting technique; very ferocious and impassioned and didn’t seem at all as if they were simply going through the motions; an immense, powerful and precise (but neither clinical or uninspired) live sound; an impressive vocal performance from Trent considering he was having throat problems; a stage show based mainly on creating an atmosphere using lighting, dry ice, swinging lamps and of course the performance of the band themselves, which while effective possibly could have included a bit more of a visual aspect (screens at least?); and a reasonable setlist, but which was too short and far too biased towards songs from a three year era of the band’s eighteen year history, at the expense of too many other classics from their catalogue.

And as an aside note, as a promotional tool for their new album, Year Zero, they’ve been leaving USB sticks with songs, pictures, phrases and just general clues in some of the venues to be found by members of the public … the one found for last night’s performance has the video for the new single, Survivalism.

RATING: 8+/10

Setlist:

Somewhat Damaged
Last
Heresy
March Of The Pigs
Piggy
Ruiner
Closer
Burn
Gave Up
Help Me I Am In Hell
Eraser
Wish
The Big Come Down
Survivalism
Only
Suck
The Day The World Went Away
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

Highlights:

March Of The Pigs, Ruiner, Burn, Wish, Survivalism, Only, Hurt, The Hand That Feeds, Head Like A Hole

How much I loved closer when I was 15/16

.... which makes him UTTERLY irresistable!!!!!!!!!!!! Sheesh!!!!

*nevermind - girl moment*


Great review Walrus!!

I saw NIN last summer and reading your review brought back those memories rather vividly. I really really really love their show openings - they are so real and the combination of utter surprise and flickering lights makes for a heartpounding experience imm. I was further back on the lawn and the lights and dry ice were absolutely intoxicating (as was my state of mind which most certainly contributed to my finding Reznor to be an almost saintly savior that night).

Not sure I would want to see him indoors though.... It might come off plastic and fake and shallow and everything it was not.

I still do :S

You heard the Static X mix?

Your setlist sounds better than mine at Manchester Apollo. We did get Star****ers and We're In This Together but no Ruiner or Eraser (Two of my favourites).

I was really pissed of at the beginning at not being able to see the band at all through the dry ice. As the show went on though I got over it although it did kind of feel like you were in a club listening to NIN. You did feel a little detatched. They have an incredible live sound though and Hurt was incredible. I'd got a bit bored with it after the whole Johnny Cash thing but he totally reclaimed it with that performance.

All in all it was a good show but not totally satisfying.