C/D--Nine Inch Nails

Trent is somewhat of a confused popist I think. For the Fragile, he seemed to try and apply some of his "industrial" ways to forms other then hard rock. The problem was, he took his persona and angst and gothitude instead of his phat synth beats.

A completely insightful comment. Trent is a frustrated popsmith trapped in a scowling industrial cyberpunk's bodyarmour. I, for one, would love it if he completely pulled the 180 he's been threatening and came out with an unapologetic pop record that completely dropped all the sci-fi/angst/bondage/goth shenanigans. Let his former protogee, Marilyn Manson, milk that particular cow dry while Trent could take on Timbaland and the Neptunes as THE inventive producer to be reckoned with.

I always get that feeling that he's still got this potential for a really incredible album, although I confess my hopes sorta wavered after the Fragile. It had the sound of someone falling out of touch with reality, which is always what brings down the Great Big Artists (unless they're out of touch to begin with, like Madonna).

And what the fuck is with the "halo #" thing? I never got that.

The halo thing is just numbering his releases. I think it's a savvy play to the hardcore among his fan base, like my freaky friends.

This particular drunk story mentioned up there some took place at Bethany College, like 20 miles north of Wheeling I think. I dunno, I'm from Steubenville OH, right across the river from Weirton WV, and Bethany was like a 30 minute drive south.

And while I'm not too excited over With Teeth, I am hyped up about the upcoming DFA remix. Woo!

Got out my copy of The Fragile the other day. Most of that album is really not good! And what drove me up the wall wasn't just lyrics, it was the way the songs were so calculated, structurally - so predictable - verse, chorus, verse, repeat, add sound layer, add sound layer, add sound layer, add singsong refrain, drop them all out, blast of everything at once, repeat.

Overall, I still like the Fragile a lot despite its flaws.

I find that this doesn't bother me on the really great tracks, however, notably throughout The Downward Spiral.

Dude, I've lived in the States for 3 years. [pats head]. Who knew?

that may have been a warning sign, I think.

I agree that Fixed was better than Broken but I large chunks of The Fragile were fantastic. Maybe I'm just very easy to entertain but "The Wretched", "The Fragile", "We're In This Together Now" and "Into The Void" rank up there among my favorite Trent songs.

Pretty Hate Machine is still amazingly innovative, even if its sound is dated at this point.

:::splutter:::;

WHAT? Ministry and Skinny Puppy might vociferously dispute that.

On the topic of NIN, I like them okay. I keep trying to like The Fragile, and sometimes I succeed. The thing is, I really like songs on Disc Two like "Where Is Everybody" and "Into The Void," so I listen to those a fair amount even today. But when I try to play Disc One all the way through, I get hung up almost instantly, because the rhyme "There is a place that still remains/It eats the fear, it eats the pain" just perfectly encapsulates everything that's wrong with Trent Reznor the lyricist. The first time I listened to the CD, I heard the first line of that couplet and thought "Oh, shit, he's going to rhyme 'remains' with 'pain,' isn't he?" And sure enough, he did, and I have hated that song ever since.

Let's try that again.

I would say Trent filtered pop songs through the sound of vintage Skinny Puppy, blah blah blah...

xpost - referring to it as "innovative" was me being a little sarcastic!

Obviously it's his intensity more than anything that gets to people.

You know, that could be. My head's nowhere near at the same place it was when I listened to Downward Spiral day in day out, thank goodness. In the interim between that and The Fragile I went and discovered postmodern irony disease and now I can't seem to un-discover it, so I just can't relate to the stuff in the same way - although I still have a lot of empathy & fondness for Reznor and would totally invite him over for a cup of tea. I think my trouble with NIN is that Reznor seems to think good art is always honest, and to equate 100% honesty with a fairly limited scope of feelings and emotions, 99% of which are negative.. But you can be honest and be goofy and funny, and anyway, good art is not necessarily created in a really loud confessional. Maybe I sound like Captain Obvious saying that but it wasn't at all obvious to me when I first got into NIN.

I think Trent should ditch the whole industrial alternagoth shtick altogether and just write pop music, which is clearly his calling.

Isn't the goth shtick on the way out, though? Perhaps there should be a restraining order taken out against all goths in the vicinity of T-Rez so the rest of us could have some nice pop tunes.

It's one of my favourites this year. I don't understand the hate it got.

I like that! I'm into chanted mantras or something.

WITH-A TEETH-A!

Y'know, like Mark E. Smith.

Title track was my favorite thing on there for a long while.

I think there are elements of humor in his later work too Jess (at least Broken and The Downward Spiral - I haven't actually followed Trent beyond that). I think his hardest and loudest tracks are often also the funniest (intentionally).

...Or, at least, I have to assume that there is something kinda self-knowing about lyrics like:

"Big time, hard luck/bad luck, FIST FUCK!/Don't think you're having all the fun/you know me, I HATE EVERYONE!"

or

"Shove it up INSIDE! SURPRISE! LIES!"

fragile is a fucking dope album

Reznor can definitely be guilty at times of overusing the same tricks, but that wasn't the problem on the Fragile for me! If anything the problem was that he awkwardly tacked on those 'predictable' pop song structures to songs that didnt work in that way. The best tracks on the Fragile by far are the instrumentals, and it would have been great if he had released an entirely (or almost entirely instrumental) album.

Overall, I still like the Fragile a lot despite its flaws.

-- latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Sunday, March 27, 2005 9:20 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

this post features a great summation sentence, its like a book report

OTM ^

The THX-1138 sample that Downward Spiral leads off with is classic in itself.

http://www.nin.com/strobelight/

Nine Inch Nails - Classic or Dud Funny Or Not?

i laffed, especially because of the chris cornell dis aspect

I'm beginning to wonder if there's going to be some sort of set piece on the forthcoming tour.

ilx needs to make STROBE LIGHT a reality

I see where you are going with this.

who's up for "coffin on the dancefloor"?

Thread for potential further follies:

"ilx needs to make STROBE LIGHT a reality"

strobelight funny, ILX strobelight would not be funny

anyone try putting in their email to see if they get more lols delivered?

especially because of the chris cornell dis aspect

Yes. And especially because I entered my email addy. I got got.

trent_reznor

I may have to actually write "pussygrinder"! Anybody have Sheryl Crow's #?
12 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Okay.. I totally expected this thread bump to be about the Digg Dialog with Trent Reznor thing, but since no one's posted about it here's the link..

http://digg.com/dialogg/Trent_Reznor?FC=UATDTR1

NIN laughing at chris cornell - is like the kid who got beat up at school is beating up another kid who got beaten up at school.

unlike the chris cornell album, strobeline could theoretically have been pretty good!

or strobelight

ok, chris cornell sucks...but it's as if NIN's last albums were a masterpieces or something

You clearly have not heard the chris cornell album. The special ed kids are making fun of it.

I suppose it is that old, yes.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=28262

Apologies if this has already been discussed, there's a million nin threads.

Beginning at 4:00. Has anyone noticed the similarity?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVU00zallHg

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

http://www.vulture.com/2013/02/nine-inch-nails-will-tour-this-year.html

As promised, Trent Reznor is bringing Nine Inch Nails back, though with a brand-new lineup. "The band is reinventing itself from scratch and will be comprised of Eric Avery, Adrian Belew, Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis, Ilan Rubin, and me," according to Reznor's statement. The arena tour kicks off this fall in the U.S. and goes international in 2014. More details (presumably with an album announcement?) to come, he says.

!!!! Eric Avery

Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv!

although I guess Adrian Belew is really the most notable? pretty crazy addition, there

EricAveryEricAveryEricAvery

yeah and Belew too! i'm v excited

although I guess Adrian Belew is really the most notable? pretty crazy addition, there

It isn't crazy at all! That's him on guitar on "Mr. Self Destruct," check the credits. Two of them have been buds for a long while now.

just me being ageist, I guess. Didn't expect anyone born before 1950 to get added to Reznor's tourist roster in 2013!

Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv!

that's the best part of this for me, happy for him.

I am fearful that Nine Inch Nails "reinventing itself from scratch" with a slew of new musicians involved will approximate Guns N' Roses with just Axl Rose and we'll get another "Chinese Democracy." But maybe not since unlike the Gunners, Nine Inch Nails always was about Trent Reznor and never really felt like a collaborative project.

well, also Trent has worked with most of these people at one point or another over the past 20 years

Trent's always played mix n'match with his touring band, so this isn't any kind of deathknell for NIN.

GNR/Chinese Democracy is a whole different kettle of rotten, indedible fish.

can't wait for the NIN version of "Big Electric Cat"

Two things:

1) Chinese Democracy is a really good album, fuckyoushutup.

2) Adrian Belew is one of the worst things to ever happen to a guitar.

NIN live has been all hired guns, doubly so in the 2000s

all the live shows I saw in the 2000s were killer so he could hire circus animals at this point and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.

i was all 'uh huh' about this until i saw that it happened because reznor was working with belew on musical ideas

now i won't sleep until i hear something

One way or another I will finally see NIN live on this tour

1) Chinese Democracy is a really good album, fuckyoushutup.

2) Adrian Belew is one of the worst things to ever happen to a guitar.

Double wrong.

Has NIN ever made it an entire tour with the same line-up? Dude is always changing things and replacing people. Also, they have always been awesome live.

Also, anyone who does not think Belew a good fit has not heard latter-day Crimson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gQ1aAaV2H0

I am fearful that Nine Inch Nails "reinventing itself from scratch" with a slew of new musicians involved will approximate Guns N' Roses with just Axl Rose and we'll get another "Chinese Democracy." But maybe not since unlike the Gunners, Nine Inch Nails always was about Trent Reznor and never really felt like a collaborative project.

I don't really think anything compares with the shitshow that was Axl Rose in the last twenty years but suffice to say, give Trent a little more credit than this

Yeah, Trent - is it OK if I call him Trent? - has yet to disappoint or give less than 100%. Unlike Axl, who gives what Axl wants to give, and certainly does not give a shit.

yeah and even though Trent disbanded NIN he was *productive* in the time that NIN has been away. The same cannot be said for Axl's looong hiatus of indecision and paranoia. Until Trent holes up in a mansion with a piano and no output for 5+ years I think we're good

2) Adrian Belew is one of the worst things to ever happen to a guitar.

This has to be among the statements that I've disagreed with the most in ILM history.

Studio-wise, Trent Reznor *is* NIN. I don't believe that anyone's really had writing credits outside of him. He disbanded the group he had been touring with for a while and took a break from writing music under that moniker.

I was never really into GN'R but I don't think anyone has ever believed that the band was best defined as "Axl Rose and some other dudes" outside of Axl Rose.

NIN spent more time not touring or releasing anything between The Fragile and With Teeth than this little break, although i give Trent credit for never saying 'this is the end,' i guess he just felt the need to dial down fans' expectations and ask for breathing room to do these other projects.

i really dug Ghosts I-IV and The Slip and thought NIN was heading in an interesting direction at the time, also the only time i've seen them live was in '08 and it was amazing, so i'm def looking forward to this. still haven't checked out the How To Destroy Angels record yet.

Al we may wind up at the same show

is that your cryptic way of saying you may be moving back to maryland?!

Back to PA, but yeah

ahh still!

no, "still" was an ep post-The Fragile

yeah, fwiw, you can hear belew on a number of more recent NIN tunes if you look at the liner notes for ghosts. wouldn't be too crazy to think they might try fleshing some of those tunes out.

2) Adrian Belew is one of the worst things to ever happen to a guitar.

this comment entirely disgusts me

i really didn't know there were people who disliked Adrian Belew!

There aren't.

Um. I'll just leave this here.

Head Like a Hole mashed with Call Me Maybe

oh shit

t < 30s (-_-) t > 30s ＼(^o^)／

From the Nine Inch Nails Reddit AMA:

Q) Why did Trent announce a new NIN tour at the same time your new album is releasing if he is trying to not be a frontrunner of the band? Odd coincidence in my opinion.

As millionaires, why did you sign up with a record label to promote your new album? Especially when Trent has had a history of being screwed over by said labels and managers. If it's really about the music and getting it out to as many people as possible, why not release it all for free? I understand if you want to make money. It makes sense to want money for your work. However, I don't buy the "get it to as many people as possible" excuse for signing up with a label. Again, especially when Trent conveniently places a spotlight on his former cash cow a few days before your band releases this new album.

Good marketing, Gene Sim-, er, Trent Reznor.
When can I get my NIN toothpaste?

Rezor's reply:

Sorry, the wifi on our yacht is having issues, we can't get your full question to load. Try sending me an email at gofuckyours✧✧✧@youc✧✧✧.c✧✧

The person who asked the question just doubled down, which I suppose is noble to a degree...

http://www.reddit.com/user/no12345?sort=new

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhyyQZ67544&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv5O145MC0Y

Hahahahaha! 'March Of The Pigs' translates very well!

Right, I'm going to listen to that whole thing next time I'm alone in the house for an hour.

Trent is somewhat of a confused popist I think

Really? :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYBx5NJULY

New song: http://www.stereogum.com/1917494/nine-inch-nails-burning-bright-field-on-fire/music/?utm_source=sc-fb&utm_medium=ref&utm_campaign

Kind of cool as a noisy sludge-rock guitar jam, even if there's not that much of a song there.

it's literally a dandy warhols cover :D

Year Zero has been very satisfying to listen to this past week.

This EP is great! Been a while since I was pretty amped from a new NIN release.

as I wrote on the ballot poll thread:

I'll definitely be there if they tour again.

time to put my money where my mouth is:

https://www.nin.com/

they're playing barclays yuck!!! but i'll try to be there assuming ticket prices aren't exorbitant (i'm guessing they will be)

I do like how there's no presales

no codes to sign up/scour the internet for, none of that annoying shit, everyone just hammer Ticketmaster all at once

yeah I saw them a few years back and had to go in person to get paper tickets which was novel but also stupid. This seems better. I don't love they're playing the enormous stupid Oracle Arena in Oakland but I'm looking forward to this. I just wish tickets weren't going on sale the same time as like a dozen other things.

Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Denver all equidistant from me (90-120 minutes on a plane) but is this a greatest hits tour or is there new music coming?

I hate arena gigs but am seriously considering this

The tour title suggests it's a greatest hits - otoh their upcoming score for the new tron film "will feature new Nine Inch Nail songs".

they announced hesitation marks way after they started announcing 2013 tour dates so i wouldn't rule out something like that happening again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4sUq-ftzgc

this was so good

Excited about a chance to see them again, not excited about how much this will cost, especially with bullshit fees included. I assume I will wait until the week before and try to get cheap(er) tickets then.

that's always a gamble.

Already dreading Wednesday

I feel like everything surrounding this will be expensive and stressful as hell, but, NIN though.

I’ve always wanted to see them live and never have.

I’m at best a casual fan but my brother is a huge fan who’s seen them 4 times, and we go to the Nashville show together if we can work out logistics. Definitely seems like a band worth seeing.

I've seen them a bunch, enough that the last time I saw them I just sort of took it for granted, so if I don't see them this time it won't be the end of the world for me. Ticket buying in the US is so fraught and corrupt that I just really can't be bothered to jump through more than the most minimal of stressful hoops.

Haven't seen a NIN show since 1999 when they toured for The Fragilé. Tempted by this but really can't be paying like $200+ (as if, these are going to be $500-1000 tickets aren't they) on a concert right now.

I saw them at Lollapalooza (well, heard them, and saw a giant cloud of dry ice emanating from the stage area while I was in line for food) and on the Fragility 2.0 tour. I like 21st century NIN music better than 20th century NIN music, but I don't know how many songs from The Slip or even Hesitation Marks, never mind the recent EPs, are likely to make it into a hockey-arena greatest-hits set.

I saw them in 2009, on that weird tour when they opened for Jane's addiction. they were good, but I got bored of watching him do his angry mic grab after like 20 minutes.
should also add that this was in an open air amphitheater, before the sunset.

I did recently watch the full Woodstock set, pretty nuts/silly/galvanizing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfV7NLCWiiU

They should have another one of these so that America's wayward (mostly white) youth can get their yayas out and reset the timeline. First comment:

Stressful jobs:
- Astronaut
-Surgeon
-NIN backliner

I saw the band a handful of times - once in a NYC theater during the Pretty Hate Machine days - but the only time he toured since I met my wife tickets sold out and a second show I was only able to get pretty poor seats and it was a huge letdown (for both of us but her more so, though she was nice about it) so I am expecting to pay way more than I want to for this show but also hope there will be a good payoff with my very happy wife.

caught em at a "secret show" at webster hall when my wife was six months pregnant. wild show lol, idk how i landed the tickets.

I saw them in 95 (actually it will be 30 yrs exactly next week) in a basketball arena and it was as unhinged and crazed as any small show I had ever point to at that point, instrument smashing and seemingly some inter-band fighting. The Melvins were a surprise opener. The main floor where I was general admission, so just chaos and intensely thrilling. I've actually been kind of chasing the high of that gig for a long time.

2000 was next time I saw them and it was good, much more a "normal" performance but still great.

My fave NIN story (that I'm sure I've told before) was when I saw them in 2005 at a rando venue. For whatever reason the stage monitors were working, but the house sound was dead. So the band comes out in full emo/aggro mode, making all the faces, really intense, but you couldn't hear anything. Nada. It was like watching on mute. Eventually they figure out what is happening and Reznor is pissed. They all storm off the stage, and when they come back they burst into "Wish" and are twice as aggro. Iirc someone was bleeding.

You can hear (or not hear) the whole thing here. The first 13 minutes is barely there, then blam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npYpwP6bFlA

I got a standing ticket for London. £91 inc fees. don't think I'd have gone for it if it was any more than that

Standing had sold out - I was about three seconds too late. Got "cheap" (lol) seats, £66. Would much rather be standing but ah well.

Would much rather be standing but ah well.

At 53, there is likely no circumstance under which I will ever say "would much rather be standing" about a concert again.

xp I think that was a glitch. there weren't any standing when I first looked, then I was looking at Level 1 seated, decided I didn't want to do that and cancelled, then there was a standing available so I got that instead

I'm pretty much standing or nothing at these arena gigs. I saw Radiohead (for free, friend had a spare) at the same place NIN are playing, in a seat and it was fucking rubbish, couldn't see anything, terrible atmosphere, if I'd paid for it I would've been pretty unhappy tbh

Good to know lol

yeah uh this is gonna be a no for me

On the rare occasion there's big arena show that I'm interested in, I'm like "OK, maybe I'll ball out for this, just this once" and then I don't.

Last and maybe only show I've sprung for $300 tickets was eight years ago https://www.barclayscenter.com/assets/img/910x350-Yo-MTV-Raps-30th-Anniversary-2018_new-bede753b7a.jpg.

This show sounds absolutely amazing but this economy isn't exactly being merciful to journalists-turnt-software-developers

I seem to be the only person in Toronto and/or on my TL that got a ticket

By the time it got to me in the queue it was like sweet seats for $500 and lousy seats for $180, so the ROI wasn't really popping off for me. Everyone have fun!

I got decent seats for $170 in Oakland.

define decent? the only ones we found in Oakland for that price were behind the stage :/

dynamic pricing is a fkn scourge

All right I am apparently going to see them in Nashville, my brother got tix. I think they were like $150 or so.

At 53, there is likely no circumstance under which I will ever say "would much rather be standing" about a concert again.

did you decide this on, since, or before your birthday

define decent? the only ones we found in Oakland for that price were behind the stage :/

section 105, row 15 or something. I only had about 5x people in front of me in the queue when they went on sale though.

5xxx people, that is

mmm yeah we were just too late i guess :(
bummed, i wouldve liked to see this one!

i have seen them four or five times already though

Boys Noize announced as the opener

interesting combo

Good show, minor technical issues notwithstanding. I think 7 tracks off The Downward Spiral? One off PHM (HLAH), two off Broken (Wish & Gave Up) - those two were the highlights, for me. Some other tracks, I have to say the post TDS stuff didn't do much for me, even when they went all "Tonight Matthew I'm going to be The Chemical Brothers(*)" for about three songs in the middle.

(*) Or David Guetta, as my colleague who was also there said.

I thought it was great, although would've liked more Pretty Hate Machine songs. I was standing quite near that small stage in the middle so got a good view when they were doing those bits

I was high up and right at the back, tiny trent was tiny but the light show was very impressive.

ah I vowed never to do that again after seeing Radiohead from right at the back there (for free luckily, spare ticket), it was so shit I decided if I can't get a standing ticket I'm just not going to arena gigs

I thought it was pretty great, too (and I liked the Boys Noize interlude a lot, maybe it would grate on relistening but I would have been happy with a whole show in that style).

just perused the setlist, looks great to me though I don't know who boys noize are but I'll take your word for it. last time I saw NIN they also did "I can't give everything away" (bowie), wish that were still in the setlist as it was awesome.

Boys Noize was playing New Beat/EBM bangers before NIN came on

Annnnd we got the first song from the Tron sequel soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sj-FmI5JfA

this song is fucking sick

clearly picking up what the challengers soundtrack was laying down

I’ll go with that! Various friends are making Gessafelstein comparisons

it's a very good INXS song

assuming from the sound of this that there's gonna be a lot of gay sex in the new tron movie

Given the trailer -- possible.

i am like negative 1,000,000 interested in this stupid fkn movie (and lets be real stupid franchise) but NIN soundtrack might be the sole reason i endure it

I do honestly want to hear it via a good theater level soundsystem. I can just treat the accompanying other thing as an unwanted visualizer.

maybe i just go in, put on my sleep mask & vibe out

Daft Punk, NIN ... who is going to do the next one, Aphex Twin?

Hey, Wendy Carlos is still with us.

i am like negative 1,000,000 interested in this stupid fkn movie (and lets be real stupid franchise) but NIN soundtrack might be the sole reason i endure it

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, July 17, 2025 3:15 PM bookmarkflaglink

otm

this is pretty fun and the sound design is really excellent, it's about the best they've ever sounded in this sort of mode

boys noize has a production credit on it, and ian kirkpatrick, hudson mohawke and bj burton (!) are all credited with 'additional production'

here's the soundtrack tracklist, it's over 70 minutes and "who wants to live forever?" is going to be the second single. reznor's saying in interviews that it's a proper nin album, but i expect it'll have more in the way of instrumentals given the tracklist

01 Init
02 Forked Reality
03 As Alive as You Need Me to Be
04 Echoes
05 This Changes Everything
06 In the Image Of
07 I Know You Can Feel It
08 Permanence
09 Infiltrator
10 100% Expendable
11 Still Remains
12 Who Wants to Live Forever?
13 Building Better Worlds
14 Target Identified
15 Daemonize
16 Empathetic Response
17 What Have You Done?
18 A Question of That
19 Ghost in the Machine
20 No Going Back
21 Nemesis
22 New Directive
23 Out in the World
24 Shadow Over Me

"who wants to live forever?" is going to be the second single

Queen cover or GTFO. (Hey he did "Get Down Make Love" way back when.)

It does sound like a very good song but in the same way that a lot of PHM sounds like good INXS. Makes me wonder if I’ve been missing something by never checking out Elegantly Wasted

*a very good INXS song

the intro is very MOTRAL COMBAAAAAAATTT, but then turns into a nin track pretty quick (with i guess an INXS chorus?). and the ya ya ya y aa is super daft punk

it's over 70 minutes

this one

If Marty McFly went back in time thirty years ago today, what song does he play at the dance to blow everyone's mind?

maybe i just go in, put on my sleep mask take two edibles & vibe out

haven’t checked a nin record since clint mansell was on one but Challengers score cooked so hard (and the end titles credit drop such a delightful surprise) that I might try this

Wish I heard what everyone else is hearing. I hear With Teeth which is my least favorite era by a mile.

this is super Justice-y for him.

It’s got a Boys Noize production co-credit, so.. yeah

a lot of PHM sounds like good INXS

Wait, what?

pretty great US tour opener last night in Oakland, though I wish "I'm AFraid of Americans" had made the setlist.

hell yeah. seeing them in a month. very stoked

Would have enjoyed going but finally had the chance to see Blood Incantation last night so choices made. (But it's not like I haven't seen NIN something like six, seven times already.)

the highlight of the latest tour for me has to be the small stage in the centre where it's Reznor / Ross and Boys Noize.
I'd be happy to pay just to have and hour of those versions

I really like how they aren't doing the same set twice and mixing it up

"I'm Afraid of Americans" made it on the London night

I was texting JD Twitch with updates on the New Beat tracks Boys Noize was playing beforehand. ( Fatal Error, Neon, A Split Second and others )

uhhh this was sick as hell

I was about six rows on the floor behind the B stage and had a direct line of sight.

I found out about the mini-stage set-up two days before, got a pit ticket on the day, and ended up on the barrier, waving hello to Reznor as he came around the side and went up to play solo piano directly in front of me. Great view of the crew prepping and tuning, Robin Finck psyching up while the Ross + bass + Trent trio played, etc, and then a clear line of sight across the crew area to the mainstage projections when the other members kicked in up there. Sick as hell indeed, recommended to anyone even slightly intersted.

really like how they aren't doing the same set twice and mixing it up

It seems the North American leg might have less variation in setlist: in May, 2005-2008 NIN drummer Josh Freese was fired from a band for the first time in his 36-year career, let go with no reason given from the Foo Fighters, who he’d joined in 2022. Five weeks ago, the drummer who replaced him in NIN informed Trent that he’d be leaving after the tour, having taken another job. When this turned out to be the Foo Fighters, NIN had one rehearsal with Josh Freese, and went out with him instead.

So presumably there’s some songs previously in the rotation that he’ll have to learn at soundchecks…

Having watched a few more clips, it's pretty awesome how well Boys Noize doing some real-time remixing (mixing?) of the songs from the stage works.

saw them last night, as fantastic as advertised, it was my first time seeing NIN so I wonder how it compares to past tours

Also apologies if this is wide knowledge or previously discussed but why don’t they play anything from The Fragile?

they played Somewhat Damaged during an earlier leg of this tour

setlists this tour have been dominated by the downward spiral to an unusual degree, i'm not sure that there's much more to it than that

Fragile is my least favorite NIN album so that was fine by me

Trent has played/sung the end of Somewhat Damaged as a coda to the piano opener of Right Where It Belongs at 10 of the 12 American shows so far (inc last night 😀)

They’ve also played The Fragile a few times.

i'm seeing all these clips my friends are sharing from the show last night and really regret not going.

imo the back half of With Teeth is like a concentrated version of The Fragile without the bloat but this might be controversial

I forgot to mention, there was a guy in my row at the show who brought his grandma, I am still thinking about this as much as the show itself

Holy shit. Just got back from the show in Baltimore. Fucking fantastic.

xpost -- I mean...Trent turned 60 this year. Are you sure she wasn't the fan?

I love Reptile, but I did not expect that to be the heaviest goddamn song of the night. Friend who had pit tickets said the pit exploded on that one.

Glad we got Perfect Drug. Josh Freese destroyed the arena with that solo.

Played Somewhat Damaged in full, which was also mean as fuck. My favorite song on The Fragile tbh.

Awesome Boys Noize mixed version of Closer on the B Stage.

Head Like a Hole the only PHM song they played, finale before Hurt. Crowd erupted for it with a light show to match.

xxp she was like 70-80 years old at least I think, trust me I would not bat an eye at a 60 year old at the show

crowdsurfing Santa (in August) makes Trent laugh

https://www.tiktok.com/@nik64593/video/7543686425628200222

I’ve been enjoying that one! It’s even funnier
that he’s not rolling his eyes as a jaded long-term large concert guy and seems genuinely disrupted

it does seem like the santa kind of ran out of crowd and and ate shit as he dropped, which is also funny

I feel less terrible since the crowdsurfer got up and was fine, but I cracked up many years ago when a crowdsurfer ran into a guy in front of me, absolute unit of a man, and probably at least 6’3” was not into boosting anyone. The guy soaring over the crowd basically brick walled into this guy’s chest and dropped

Seeing NIN this weekend for the first time, pretty psyched! I'm going with my brother and sister-in-law, they're both much bigger fans than me, they've seen them many times. (This will actually be my SIL's second time seeing them this tour.)

my only previous time was twenty-five years ago on an afternoon slot at a festival, where the vibe was so off I bailed to a tin shed to re-see an act I’d already caught at their sideshow two days before

you’ve made a good choice imo

that same santa dude was also at the oasis show on monday.

xpost sic was that Big Day Out? i saw them at the Melb BDO that year

yah in Sydney, and it was Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros (sideshow in a 1200 cap venue) that I went to catch the encore of instead

I really wish I’d followed my gut and seen them in my early 20s; my days of shows like this are probably done

stfu and buy a pit ticket & get there in time to be on the barrier with yr back to the main stage imo

(lol I had to bring a second phone with the ticketmaster app just to get in, but then there was no 5G in the VIP entrance I got redirected to bcz of overcrowding, so I had to queue half an hour at a desk to have a gif generated and then get a url for it texted to another phone so I could get back in the main queue and get scanned, so I was on the side instead. take my advice as sincere.)

I don’t know where they were playing in your early 20s but this was approx. my sixth arena show ever

Full official video for this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnMyroAH0rg

The floor seats directly behind Stage B were pretty great, imo. Visibility to the main stage is hit or miss depending on how tall people in front of you are, but I was to the left of B about six rows back and the experience of everything on that stage was great.

There were people in their 40s/50s there with their kids scattered throughout and they were not the oldest there.

I was there last night and it was awesome. The visuals are pretty amazing - one in particular is likely to be appreciated if you're near the front because it looks like a whole bunch of life-size Trent Reznors are replicated many times and shown around the stage. (Looks like the trick was done via the layers of curtains, but from afar, it wasn't clear they were projections of Reznor until later - they initially looked like slivers of light.)

more than a few videos on my social media feeds of the Barclays show tonight and god I wish I was there

I was super impressed with the 3d looking visuals from my seat approx. 1 million miles away from the stage.

third NIN show i've seen and easily the best. the subtle rearrangements of the vast majority of the songs made them feel so new and alive to me. the dj set in the middle just about made me die and go to heaven

I admit the more the tour goes on and I hear reports like this the more I semi-regret missing it (I say semi because 1) I have seen them at least six times over the decades and 2) it was up against Blood Incantation, who I had never seen and really wanted to, and they put on a mighty fine show). But yesterday I did enjoy rocking my January 1991 vintage LA-only shirt from a short stint opening for a Jane's Addiction stand plus a standalone show that month -- the starpower was evident even then.

also i took my mom, she's 73 :))))

xpost, yeah, I've seen em three times over the years. Once I saw the ticket price I said my official stance was "I've seen em already" but I may grab night-of last-minute-bail tix for the L.A. show if they are a normal price. I still can't reconcile "everyone is unemployed right now" with "every show is $600 and sold out immediately" but here we are.

I def sprung for Future Ruins tickets though, so I'll get my Trent and Atticus fix this year

so other than Ivy, who’s already given her answer, for those who have seen them on this tour and isn’t their first time, how does this compare to past times you’ve seen them?

also was thrilled that we got a super funky dj-fucked version of "sin" last night, my goodness

may be conflating "best nin show i've seen" with "gayest nin show i've seen"

trent reznor saw the "she should be in the club" meme and thought it was about him

I was looking up some NIN trivia the other day and was a little agog that “March of the Pigs” made the top 10 on the Billboard dance chart. But I do remember a lot of “industrial dance nights” in that era, so I guess not that much of a stretch.

The remix on the single was in 4/4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJsMKy-r1Zo

I kept thinking of a tweet I saw a long time back about "the 10% of people who are at the sex club just for the music" when I saw the St. Paul show

so other than Ivy, who’s already given her answer, for those who have seen them on this tour and isn’t their first time, how does this compare to past times you’ve seen them?

better in every conceivable way compared to the first and only other time that I saw them, which was the with teeth tour iirc. loved the DS-heavy setlist, the tweaked arrangements generally sounded great, and they figured out a way to make a big stadium show visuals actually look cool, which couldn't have been easy. great show!

xxetcp is Trent Reznor gay

for me, specifically

The remix on the single was in 4/4

That would help for sure.

is Trent Reznor gay

― Murgatroid, Thursday, September 4, 2025 3:38 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i’ve never read an interview or anything about this but i’ve written more than a few posts on ILM about how the text of pretty hate machine is pretty much “damn i really want a guy to fuck me, sounds cool”

watching the visual elements of this show i wondered if trent had seen and become obsessed with the recent broadway run of andrew lloyd weber’s sunset boulevard

Trent getting into recent broadway shows? Must be working on finishing that EGOT collection

jukebox musicals are generally corny and bad but I would watch the shit out of a NIN jukebox musical

Year Zero is practically a musical soundtrack already

Was going to say.

trent absolutely has a musical in him - from our lips to god’s ears let’s make this happen

omg can u even imagine how awesome that wd be

So yeah, great show. That’s how you do an arena show. They sounded great and seemed to be having a blast, the setlist rocked, the lights and staging were simultaneously stripped down and grandiose — minimalist maximalism. (Opted to close my eyes a few times during the intense flashing.) Ending with Head Like a Hole and Hurt felt almost like the closing of a religious service.

yeah, only once did I have to shield my eyes from the flashing strobe lights, forgot which song it was during but yeah that was a bit too much, esp for the aforementioned granny in my row

loved how he kept jumping around from stage to stage, I really dig how it helped him unveil different intensities of performance. the solo piano opener led into a few songs with a band in the middle of the floor that were pretty good but just a kind of warm-up, then bam! he hits you at the end of the floor with a bigger stage, the soundsystem booming, the huge video screens and we're off. the mid-set remix break with Boys Noize was also fucking sick, especially Closer and the new song. didn't realize there would be no encore so the ending on Hurt was pretty dramatic and abrupt.