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MP3.com Live: NIN close tour in style
Trent Reznor and crew romp through a hit-laden set in the Bay Area, hinting at a new studio album to come in 2007.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Nine Inch Nails stormed into the Shoreline Amphitheatre in the Bay Area Saturday, delivering a verifiable ode to the best of the industrial rockers' catalog, including most of the biggest hits from their nearly 20-year career.
Nine Inch Nails, 2006
Playing before a packed house on the last show of the band's With Teeth 2006 tour, frontman Trent Reznor claimed it would be the last time he'd see people for some months.
The setlist was masterfully compiled, with songs pulled from all of the band's major releases, spaced apart to appeal to the wide array of Nine Inch Nails fans present. To kick off the show, they performed "Somewhat Damaged," the opening song from Nine Inch Nails' 1999 release, The Fragile.
Reznor began on his knees reaching through the spaces of a large metal grate that covered the stage. The show was in full swing in no time, and soon the metal grate was raised to make room for the band's usual stage antics, which included microphone stands launching through the air and a keyboardist with a penchant for standing on top of his instrument.
The grate would make a reappearance several times, once covered in a display of red lights during the performance of The Downward Spiral's megahit, "Closer," which Reznor then danced behind. But props aside, it was the band's high energy and anthemic sound that carried the performance.
From "Down In It" to "The Hand That Feeds," Reznor displayed that though the music has changed much in 20 years, his passion and charisma have remained constant. The few quiet moments included a haunting version of Pretty Hate Machine's "Something I Can Never Have" and a performance of "Hurt," written by Reznor and more recently covered by Johnny Cash, under a lone spotlight on the stage.
Reznor performed a couple of covers as well, including the hidden track "Suck" off of 1992's Broken album (originally released on Pigface's Gub). And he brought Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy on stage to sing (while he played guitar) for a performance of "Dead Souls," a Joy Division song that Nine Inch Nails covered on The Crow soundtrack.
Though the majority of the show was about the music, Reznor did take a few moments at the end to address the audience. He thanked his band, which includes former Marilyn Manson guitarist Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez), for their hard work and noted they were the best he has ever played with. Reznor also thanked God and his parents and "I have a list somewhere around here," mocking a typical awards show acceptance speech.
Most interestingly, Reznor claimed that they were about to go back into the studio and that they would reemerge on the first of next year. Then, and only then, did Nine Inch Nails perform "Head Like a Hole." The crowd erupted, and then the show was over. It was a hell of a way to close a tour.
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