Nine Inch Nails News (09/19/05 @ AWA)

KingLouieLouie · Mar 2, 2005

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7069039/nineinchnails?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1

Nine Inch Nails Bite Back

Trent Reznor keeps up the aggression on "White Teeth"

"I had plenty of life experience to draw from while working on this record," says Trent Reznor of White Teeth, Nine Inch Nails' first album in six years. "I was getting sane while the world was going crazy."

Due May 3rd, the follow-up to 1999's The Fragile bristles with as much aggression as anything in the NIN catalog while adding more live drumming into the mix, courtesy of honorary Nailsman Dave Grohl.

"I wrote some of these tracks with a Grohl-esque performance in mind," says Reznor. "I asked him if he was into it and that was that."

Stellar tracks include "Only," which boasts a "Billie Jean" beat and spoken-word vocals that evoke Prince, and "The Hand That Feeds" (the first single), which combines a guitar assault with New Wave-y keyboards. Says Reznor, "This record is probably more honest than anything I've done."

Trent Reznor and the new Nine Inch Nails lineup -- guitarist Aaron North, bassist Jeordie White, keyboardist Allesandro Cortini and drummer Jerome Dillon -- will kick off a North American theater tour in April.

Nine Inch Nails tour dates:

4/27: San Francisco, The Warfield
4/28: San Francisco, The Warfield
4/30: Las Vegas, The Joint
5/3: Denver, Fillmore Theater
5/4: Denver, Fillmore Theater
5/6: Chicago, Congress Theater
5/7: Chicago, Congress Theater
5/9: Toronto, Koolhaus
5/10: Toronto, Koolhaus
5/12: Boston, Orpheum Theater
5/13: Boston, Orpheum Theater
5/15: New York, Hammerstein Ballroom
5/16: New York, Hammerstein Ballroom
5/18: Philadelphia, Electric Factory
5/19: Philadelphia, Electric Factory
5/21: Atlanta, Tabernacle
5/22: Atlanta, Tabernacle
5/24: Houston, Verizon Wireless Theater
5/25: Austin, Stubb's Bar-B-Q
5/27: Phoenix, Marquee Theater
5/28: Phoenix, Marquee Theater
5/30: San Diego, Soma
5/31: San Diego, Soma

BRIAN HIATT
(Posted Mar 01, 2005)

http://www.nin.com

Brandon_Webb · Mar 10, 2005

When Does NIN New CD Come Out?

"With Teeth" I believe it's called. Anyone know when it comes out, and who's getting it.

Griffin · Mar 14, 2005

Brandon_Webb said:
"With Teeth" I believe it's called. Anyone know when it comes out, and who's getting it.

May 3rd. I am definitely getting it. Seems like only yesterday that The Fragile came out

Between NIN and Tool, we can expect a new CD every half a decade.

KingLouieLouie · Mar 25, 2005

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7209563/nineinchnails?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1

NIN Bare "Teeth" Live

Trent Reznor and Co. return with a vengeance in California

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor told Rolling Stone during last year's Grammy weekend that he was "coming back to combat all the poopy music out there." Well, it took thirteen months, but, last night, Reznor brought the fight back to his most effective battleground, returning to the stage at the William Saroyan Theatre in Fresno, California.

Backed by the newest incarnation of his ever-evolving band, Reznor debuted material from the group's long-awaited, With Teeth, due May 3rd, and delved liberally into his back catalogue for a ferocious eighty-minute set.

A buffed-up and black-clad Reznor took the stage at nine to a standing ovation from the capacity crowd, most of whom were also in black and wearing NIN shirts from past tours. He opened with a one-two punch of two new tracks: "Love Is Not Enough" and the brutal "You Know What You Are," a song whose venom recalls John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep." Despite the fact the majority of the crowd hadn't heard the new material, they quickly picked up on the latter track's refrain of, "Don't you ****ing know what you are," turning it into one of the many of the night's sing-alongs.

The energy in the theater mounted with a savage "March of the Pigs" -- although Reznor, performing for the first time in more than four years, wore a huge grin as he sang the line, "Doesn't it make you feel better." Reznor acknowledged his absence from the stage simply by saying, "It's been a long ****ing time," to a roar of cheers. He added, "This is an old favorite -- of mine, that is," before launching into "Burn," from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack.

Before the new album's title track, a scathing look at a relationship's broken promises, Reznor approached the microphone like a prize fighter, psyching himself out with a yell and jumping up and down as the four musicians behind him began the opening notes. The song moves from a booming rock beat to a tender keyboard interlude, with Reznor singing repeatedly, "I can't go through this again."

Among the other new songs debuted were "The Hand That Feeds," which mixed Reznor's snarl with an infectious pop beat that even prompted a few women in the audience to start dancing, and the distortion-laden "The Lines Begin to Blur." As for classic material, NIN offered up "Closer," "Terrible Lie," "Piggy," "Wish" and "Star****ers, Inc.," among other hits.

The crowd stayed with Reznor and mates in the softer moments as well, breaking out lighters old-school style for a sing-along rendition of "Hurt," which found the frontman behind a keyboard at center stage.

The night ended at 10:30, surprisingly sans encore, with a raucous performance of "Head Like a Hole." Actually, no encore was necessary, as Reznor and band had made their point: Nine Inch Nails are back.

STEVE BALTIN
(Posted Mar 24, 2005)

KingLouieLouie · Apr 19, 2005

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1500292/20050418/nine_inch_nails.jhtml?headlines=true

Nine Inch Nails Want Fans To Destroy 'The Hand That Feeds'
04.18.2005 8:07 AM EDT

Reznor releases single on Web site in GarageBand format, encourages remixes

With just over two weeks to go until the release of With Teeth, Trent Reznor's first collection of fresh studio material since 1999's The Fragile, the singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist behind industrial act Nine Inch Nails is "Chop up the vocals. Turn me into a woman. Replay the guitar. Anything you'd like." — Trent Reznor

inviting the band's fans to do with the album's first single what they will.

Reznor has released a downloadable version of "The Hand That Feeds" through the official Nine Inch Nails Web site, in a format that allows Mac-using aspiring producers the freedom to manipulate the song's various parts, using the Apple-specific GarageBand 2 application.

"For quite some time, I've been interested in the idea of allowing you the ability to tinker around with my tracks — to create remixes, experiment, embellish or destroy what's there," Reznor explained in the download's accompanying text file. "I tried a few years ago to do this in Shockwave, with very limited results. After spending some quality time sitting in hotel rooms on a press tour, it dawned on me that the technology now exists and is already in the hands of some of you. I got to work experimenting and came up with something I think you'll enjoy."

The 70MB download features the entire track, broken off into 64 sections, with all the core sound libraries and six different, increasingly more intense, versions of the song's chorus. Fans can toy with the files at will, and can even take song sections and utilize them as the foundation from which they can create their own songs. Or they can just mess with Reznor's vocals, as he suggests.

"Change the tempo. Add new loops. Chop up the vocals. Turn me into a woman. Replay the guitar. Anything you'd like," Reznor's text file reads. "It's fun to mess around with. I've now heard a country version of the track as well as an abstract Latin interpretation. I'm interested to see what comes of it, what issues are raised and what the results are."

With Teeth will hit record stores on May 3.

— Chris Harris

KingLouieLouie · Apr 26, 2005

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1500693/20050425/nine_inch_nails.jhtml?headlines=true

New Nine Inch Nails LP Takes Risks — By Being Accessible
04.25.2005 9:15 PM EDT

Trent Reznor says what scares him are catchy, obvious songs.

SANTA MONICA, California — Nine Inch Nails' new With Teeth is a deeply personal album with a few exceptions. One of them is the first single, "The Hand That Feeds."

"I was so irritated and fed up with the political situation in this country that it slipped into the lyrics and I couldn't stop it from happening," Nails mastermind Trent Reznor said of the tune, which includes the lyrics "What if this whole crusade's/ A charade/ And behind it all there's a price to be paid/ For the blood/ On which we dine/ Justified in the name of the holy and the divine."

"[I was thinking,] 'I don't know if I'll include it or not,' that's kind of my safety blanket ... 'I can always throw it out,' " he continued. "And it turned out to be something that I felt good about. I didn't feel it was too heavy-handed in terms of lyrical content, and it fit nicely in the context of the rest of the record."

By context, Reznor's referring not to the album's lyrics, but its music, which he describes as "more like song songs, less soundscapey." Therefore, "The Hand That Feeds," which is reminiscent of some of his biggest singles, especially "Head Like a Hole," is the logical centerpiece.

"With 'The Hand That Feeds' ... I wondered if I should include it because it was coming out catchy, like an obvious song," he said. "For me, what's scary is the stuff that comes out a bit obvious. What wouldn't be scary would be an eight-minute dark epic of weird time signatures. I'm not saying I don't like doing that, but what felt daring and unsure was a track like 'The Hand That Feeds.' "

Reznor's always felt that way about his music, he said, but he drew on those feelings most heavily on With Teeth.

"With Nine Inch Nails, I've enjoyed doing stuff I feel is challenging, but at the same time it has a bit of accessibility that can seduce you in," he explained. "Then I can get you to subversive content. But I like having something that makes you wanna give it another chance. It's easy to create music that's impenetrable under the guise of art, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it's interesting and challenging and hard to do to try to make stuff that's interesting to you as an artist but at the same time having a quality to it that can suck people in. I've enjoyed trying to walk that line.

"The last couple records didn't have songs that announce themselves as something you can latch onto," he continued. "If I didn't feel confident about myself, I wouldn't have included that. This time I'm not really worried about what happens. But the response has been great and unexpected and it feels great."

Reznor is so confident in the track that he's invited fans to remix it (see "Nine Inch Nails Want Fans To Destroy 'The Hand That Feeds' "). So far the most unexpected version is a mash-up with Britney Spears' "Toxic."

Nine Inch Nails will launch a theater tour Wednesday at the Warfield in San Francisco (see "Nine Inch Nails To Launch Theater Tour In April"). Reznor and his new band are also headlining Sunday at the Coachella Valley Music Festival in Indio, California.

With Teeth hits store May 3.

— Corey Moss

KingLouieLouie · Apr 27, 2005

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1500853/20050427/nine_inch_nails.jhtml?headlines=true

Nine Inch Nails' Next Video Gets 'Fight Club' Treatment
04.27.2005 1:25 PM EDT

Director David Fincher developed a new computer-graphics concept for the clip.

Nine Inch Nails' sold-out North American tour is just starting, and "The Hand That Feeds" — the first single off their upcoming With Teeth — is hitting radio stations now, but that doesn't mean that Trent Reznor and his cronies aren't already thinking ahead.

They've already shot the video for Teeth's second single, "Only," working with a guy whose eye for the dark and dank might even surpass Reznor's: director David Fincher.

Fincher — famous for the bleak and brutal flicks "Seven" and "Fight Club" — hasn't made a video since A Perfect Circle's "Judith" in 2000, but it's not like he's a newbie to the format: He's also directed clips for Madonna ("Express Yourself") and Aerosmith ("Janie's Got a Gun"). But those videos are walks in the sunshine compared to his recent work, and it's that dark side — combined with a whole bunch of high-tech frippery — that he's bringing to "Only."

According to a spokesperson for Fincher, the new video almost entirely comprises computer-graphics-enhanced shots, and the director developed a brand new CG concept for the clip. Points of reference can be found in the CG shots from "Fight Club," including a scene that looks inside the head of Edward Norton's character. As with most of Fincher's work, the video for "Only" relies heavily on post-production, and as a result, the clip is not expected to be completed until June.

The video's blend of technology and emotion seems like a perfect match for the new NIN album (see "New Nine Inch Nails LP Takes Risks — By Being Accessible"), and now fans can decide for themselves, because NIN are streaming the entire With Teeth album via a special player on Web site/makeshift dating service MySpace.com. Just cruise over to the band's page on MySpace.com and have a listen to "Only" — or any other track on the album — before it hits stores on May 3.

Nine Inch Nails' North American tour kicks off Wednesday (April 27) in San Francisco and runs through a May 31 date in San Diego (see "Nine Inch Nails To Launch Theater Tour In April").

— James Montgomery

KingLouieLouie · May 12, 2005

http://www.mtv.com/bands/n/nin/news_feature_050509/?headlines=true

Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth Devours Chart Competition
05.11.2005 11:13 AM EDT

Latest from Reznor gnaws its way to #1.

Fans of Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails were clearly famished. For six long years — during which Reznor battled a drug addition he feared would kill him — followers waited patiently for a fresh batch of studio material from his
industrial-strength rock entity. Finally, the wait ended last week with the release of With Teeth — and as the latest SoundScan data indicates, the faithful flooded America's record stores to put an end to those hunger pangs.

With first-week sales of nearly 272,000 copies, Reznor's With Teeth will break Billboard's thick skin to take the album chart's top spot, outselling retail powerhouses Mariah Carey, Matchbox Twenty vocalist Rob Thomas, rapper 50 Cent and Garden State giant Bruce Springsteen. With Teeth marks Reznor's second career #1 and Nine Inch Nails' biggest opening-week showing; 1999's The Fragile also debuted at #1, with sales of nearly 229,000, while 1994's The Downward Spiral opened at #2, selling less than 119,000 copies during its first week of release.

Holding the chart's #2 slot for a third straight week is Carey's latest, The Emancipation of Mimi, with fourth-week scans of more than 197,000 pushing the album's total sales over the one-million mark. Mimi is followed by last week's #4, Thomas' solo album, Something to Be, which climbs one chart position to #3 with third-week sales of 125,000 and then some. Hip-hop heavyweight 50 Cent's The Massacre hopped two places to #4, with sales of nearly 104,000; after 10 weeks at retail, Fiddy continues to prove his retail staying power.

After opening at #1 on the previous week's chart, the latest disc from the Boss (no, we don't mean Tony Danza), Devils & Dust, falls to the #5 position, thanks to a 54 percent sales dip. Despite the plunge, Springsteen had a strong second week, ending just shy of the 102,000 mark.

With the theatrical release of the final installment in George Lucas' beloved "Star Wars" franchise just around the corner, the debut of the "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" score — composed and conducted by John Williams — as the chart's #6 finisher comes as little surprise. Nearly 96,000 copies of the orchestral disc soared off store shelves. The Lucas-penned liner notes and a fold-out poster featuring a montage of images from the movie undoubtedly provided a sales boost.

An 11 percent surge in sales helped Gwen Stefani's Love, Angel, Music, Baby jump three chart positions to #7; the disc finished out its 24th week with a bang, recording sales of nearly 79,000. "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell's boy-band protégés Il Divo finish at #8, clocking sales of nearly 75,000 with their self-titled debut.

The week's biggest chart shocker comes in the form of Chicago emo-punk band Fall Out Boy. The group's latest, From Under the Cork, will debut at #9, with first-week sales of just under 68,000; the band's single, "Sugar, We're Goin' Down," is a rock-radio staple. Houston-based MC Mike Jones rounds out the top 10 with his latest, Who Is Mike Jones?, which netted third-week sales of close to 65,000.

The Fred Durst-fronted nü-metal five-piece Limp Bizkit turned in what might be the week's most disappointing debut. The band's latest, The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1), is a collection of seven songs (with a full-length price tag). Bizkit's label, at the band's behest, did not fund any pre-release promotion for the record — and first-week sales of the disc appear to reflect that fact. A mere 37,000 copies left retail shelves, giving Limp the chart's #24.

By comparison, 2000's Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water debuted at #1 with sales of nearly 1,055,000. 1999's Significant Other also debuted at #1, with sales of close to 635,000; and 2003's Results May Vary opened at #3, selling over 325,000 copies in its first week of release.

Lost And Found — And Found

Two artists with two very different styles and sounds who seem to have been on the same wavelength when it came time to name their records are featured on top of one another.

Coming in at #28 is the latest from heavy metalers Mudvayne, Lost and Found, which sold close to 32,000 copies during its fourth week of retail release. And selling just over 30,000 copies to secure the chart's #29 position is Will Smith's latest, Lost and Found. Could this be a sign of the apocalypse?

"Idol" Assistance

A trend has emerged during this season of "American Idol": songs performed by the show's contestants often help boost sales of the albums they're on — good news for the original artists. For the most recent example of this phenomenon, look to the chart's new #147.

Before his elimination last week, ex-"Idol" contestant Scott Savol did his best with Brian McKnight's "Everytime You Go Away," a track from McKnight's latest offering, Gemini. Not surprisingly, sales of that disc jumped a whopping 46 percent, bringing the week's total to nearly 7,500.

It's A Long Way To The Bottom

R&B songstress Tweet is probably hoping an "Idol" finalist covers one of her songs real soon. Tweet's latest record, It's Me Again, has steadily slipped — from #17 to #37 and then down to #61, #81, #110, #137 and finally hitting #200 (the bottom of the proverbial barrel) this week, when sales of the record were reported at just 5,500 plus.

— Chris Harris

KingLouieLouie · May 17, 2005

http://nme.com/news/112372.htm

NINE INCH NAILS STAR SUES MANAGER

NINE INCH NAILS’ TRENT REZNOR is suing his manager, claiming he had just $400,000 (£217,000) in cash, despite earning millions with his band.

The singer claims that John Malm duped him into signing a bad contract and claims that his former friend misled him into a deal which gave Malm 20 per cent of Reznor’s earnings.

Malm’s lawyer Alan Hirth said that his client worked for years without a salary and kept no secrets from the singer.

According to BBC News, Hirth said: “Of the millions upon millions upon millions that Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails made, the vast majority went into his (Reznor's) pocket."

Reznor told on US court yesterday (May 16) that he trusted Malm more than anyone in his life when he agreed to let the manager handle his finances in the 1980s.

He told jurors: “John was the business guy, and I was the guy working for nothing in the studio."

Reznor admitted that he ignored his finances and sometimes signed documents without reading or understanding them but said that he grew worried about his money when he was told in a meeting with Malm and a lawyer in 2002 that there was “clause for alarm”.

In 2003, Reznor said, he asked Malm to tell him how much money he had.

The singer said that he was sent a financial statement that revealed he had at most $3 million (£1.6 million) in total assets and as little as $400,000 in cash.

KingLouieLouie · May 27, 2005

By the way..I'm wondering if anyone here is attending either tonight's or tomorrow's show? Lord... I wish I had "snapped-up" some tickets, but they sold-out quickly...

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7369223/nineinchnails?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1

NIN Bail On MTV Show

Band cancels Movie Awards performance over Bush backdrop

Nine Inch Nails have cancelled their performance at the MTV Movie Awards because of a disagreement with the network over the band's use of a George W. Bush picture.

"Apparently the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me," frontman Trent Reznor posted on NIN's Web site Thursday.

The band was planning to perform its politically charged single "The Hand That Feeds" with the Bush image as a backdrop. The song features the lyrics, "Inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold . . . There's a price to be paid for the blood on which we dine/Justified in the name of the holy and the divine."

Calls to MTV were not returned by press time.

NIN's cancellation came two days after Motley Crue filed a lawsuit against NBC, charging the network with "governmentally pressured censorship" for barring the hard rock band from appearing on its late-night shows after singer Vince Neil used profanity on a live New Year's Eve broadcast of The Tonight Show.

MTV's parent company Viacom famously became a political lightning rod last year when the MTV-produced Super Bowl halftime show on the Viacom-owned CBS network culminated in the infamous baring of Janet Jackson's right breast. The Federal Communications Commission fined CBS a record $550,000 for the incident.

If the producers of the MTV Movie Awards are refraining from controversial political statements, they are hardly playing it clean, as Eminem will debut his bawdy new single, "Ass Like That," on the show. (The network has aired the video for rap star's anti-Bush song "Mosh.")

The Awards, which will also feature a performance by Mariah Carey, will be taped June 4th at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. MTV will air the show June 9th.

BILL CRANDALL, TRACEY FORD
(Posted May 27, 2005)

KingLouieLouie · May 30, 2005

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=42174

Entertainment
Council of Trent: Nine Inch Nails devotees pack Marquee
May 29, 2005
By Albert Ching, Tribune
It’s an odd sight: 1,000 pierced, tattooed, leather- and latex-clad music fans gleefully singing in unison to lyrics like “I want to (expletive) you like an animal.”
Despite mostly lukewarm reviews for their latest album, the recently released “With Teeth,” the crowd at the Nine Inch Nails show Saturday at Marquee Theatre was clearly starved to see the group in action, five years since their last show in town.

“The sound was much better than the last show at America West Arena,”
said Aaron Moore, 25, of Chandler.

Trent Reznor, band leader and only official member, showed off sculpted deltoid muscles in a (naturally) black tank top, evidently fully recovered from several well-publicized bouts with drugs and depression.
He led the newest version of his touring band through a balanced set featuring a roughly even mix of the revered industrial act’s four full-length studio albums (as well as their acclaimed 1992 EP “Broken”), nimbly alternating between the thrashing metal of songs like “March of the Pigs” and the contemplative musings of tracks like “Even Deeper.”

Reznor poured admirable amounts of energy into each song, be it a vintage classic like “Terrible Lie” or one of the deeper album tracks from the new disc. The singer was soaked in frenzied sweat a mere four songs into the set, although the considerable body heat conducted from the crush of people packed into the venue was probably at least a little to blame. This juxtaposition of electronic music and Reznor’s very personal lyrics and vocal style has always been central to the appeal of Nine Inch Nails, with Saturday being no exception.

The show was the second of two consecutive Tempe dates to sell out almost instantaneously, and it was definitely a hardcore audience on-hand. Suffice to say, it seems unlikely that the Marquee will see as many mesh shirts and fishnet stockings at the Collective Soul show later this week.

“I’ve seen them like four times, and this was great. The fact that it was a smaller venue really made a difference,” said Andrea Feldaberd, 24, of Chandler.

This devotion comes from bleak ballads like “Home” and “Something I Can Never Have” resonating with detached youth for more than 15 years.
Almost each song became a dreary yet spirited chorus between Reznor and the audience, with the Johnny Cash-covered “Hurt” inspiring the loudest sing-along.

Yet this heavy amount of audience participation could not be attributed to Reznor himself, who engaged the crowd only in the occasional “thank you,” not that one would expect the angst-ridden icon to regale a crowd with charming anecdotes. The music itself also felt a little distant, as the heavily programmed keyboard-reliant tunes leave improvisation at a minimum, with the only freewheeling changes being an occasional expletive awkwardly inserted into a song lyric.

The band’s lyrics usually toe the line between Keats-esque erudite gloom and high school diary-esque tedious blather, and thus began to wear thin during the course of the 90-minute set. The mood was helped out by the lighting, which featured a backdrop that displayed colorful patterns, acting like a goth Lite Brite.

Boston’s Dresden Dolls, rising cabaret/weirdo act, opened the show, with a brief yet theatric set of current radio hits like “Coin-Operated Boy” and “Girl Anachronism.”

NIN PLAY LIST
“Beside You In Time” (into)
“Wish”
“Sin”
“The Line Begins To Blur”
“March of the Pigs”
“Something I Can Never Have”
“The Hand That Feeds”
“Terrible Lie”
“Burn”
“Closer/Only Time”
“Home”
“Even Deeper”
“Reptile”
“Love Is Not Enough”
“Suck”
“Gave Up”
“Hurt”
“Star****ers Inc.”
“Head Like A Hole”

KingLouieLouie · May 30, 2005

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/music/articles/0528nin.html

NIN: a religious experience

Michael Senft
The Arizona Republic
May. 28, 2005 12:24 PM

Nine Inch Nails may be amazing in an arena, but to see Trent Reznor and his band in a club is near a religious experience.

The industrial pioneer, touring in support of his fourth CD, With Teeth, drove the packed house at the Marquee Theatre into a frenzy, playing a sweaty, 90-minute set that showcased most of his hits as well as a plentiful dose of the new album.

After arena and amphitheater shows during the late ‘90s, this concert came closest to capturing the adrenaline rush of Nails’ ’94 show at the late, lamented Roxy nightclub.

And thankfully, despite the recent heat wave that has struck the Valley, there were no equipment snafus like the ones that marred Reznor’s performance at the inaugural Lollapalooza concert in 1991.

A word must be said about the security at the Marquee on Friday, however. Between turning people away for chains on their wallets (a reasonable, if inconvenient safety precaution), picture phones (less reasonable) and making the concertgoers take off their shoes to be searched (come on, Richard Reid is not going to be attending a NIN show in Phoenix), many of the patrons missed opening act Dresden Dolls. I had barely gotten my shoes back on when the lights dimmed.

I don’t normally go into the pit. I’m usually content to stand on the sidelines, soaking in the music and the vibes, taking notes from a safe, detached point of view. But seeing Nails in a club was something special and it called for a change in routine.

By the time Reznor struck the opening chords of Piggy, from the 1994 album The Downward Spiral, I was pressing towards the front, fighting my way into the maelstrom of sweaty bodies jostling for position close to the stage.

It was a visceral experience.

The songs blended together – tracks like Terrible Lie, from the 1989 debut Pretty Hate Machine and Burn, from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, fit nicely next to new songs like Line Begins to Blur, all building to a sweaty climax during the sensual, industrial smash Closer, which included a nod to the early hit Down In It. The energy expended also required a brief respite, as Reznor slowed the pace down briefly to chastise a stage diver and give the audience a breather. It was the only moment of interaction between the reclusive industrial icon and the crowd.
,br> I needed a break as well – a bottle of water to refuel, a chance to catch my breath. But after the turbulent singalong of Suck, and the majestic ballad Hurt, popularized recently by late country singer Johnny Cash, it was back into the chaos for the frenzied Hand That Feeds from With Teeth, and the classic Wish.

Although dehydration and lack of sleep may have called for a rest, none was coming. I would ride this adrenaline wave until the end.
,br> Nine Inch Nails’ breakthrough single, Head Like a Hole closed the show, with Reznor leaving the audience spent, yet still demanding an encore. None would come, and in truth nothing could have topped the climactic end.

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