Trent Reznor: I was planning on taking some time off after the continual waves of touring that ended last fall and spend this year experimenting around with what would become How To Destroy Angels and some new NIN. Well, that plan didn’t work out so well. David Fincher started inquiring about my interest in scoring his upcoming film, The Social Network. Yeah, the movie about the founding of Facebook. I’ve always loved David’s work but quite honestly I wondered what would draw him to tell that story. When I actually read the script and realized what he was up to, I said goodbye to that free time I had planned. Atticus Ross and I have been on a creative roll so I asked him if he wanted to work on this with me and we signed on.
Months later, I’m happy to tell you we’re nearing the completion of this and I couldn’t be happier with how it”s turned out. The level of excellence that David operates on is inspiring and the entire process has been challenging and truly enjoyable.
As Atticus and I near the end of the scoring process, we’re looking forward to the next phase – distilling the large amount of music we’ve written for this down to a satisfying record (or two). The film opens Oct 1 in the US with the record likely available a couple of weeks ahead of that.
Speaking of the film… it’s really fucking good. And dark!
First, they performed ‘Metal’ a song that’s been frequently covered by Nine Inch Nails, then came a rendition of Numan’s most famous song, ‘Cars’. Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy joined NIN onstage during the band’s last two concerts in New York City.
Nine Inch Nails fans got more than they bargained for last night (Aug. 23) at New York’s tiny Webster Hall, as they witnessed the Trent Reznor-led band play its 1994 classic The Downward Spiral in its entirety for the first time ever.
NIN is on a ‘Wave Goodbye’ tour of small venues, and had squeezed in to New York’s 550-capacity Bowery Ballroom the night before. At Webster Hall, the 1,000-strong crowd was drenched in sweat within minutes of the band taking the stage to the punishing rock of ‘Mr. Self Destruct’.
It was soon clear that Reznor and company were plowing through ‘Downward’ in sequence. He later told the audience, “I’ve always wanted to play that whole record, and this seemed like the time to do it.”
The ‘Downward’ sequence of course featured Nine Inch Nails’ iconic single “Closer,” which wasn’t played the night before, and finished with the hushed ‘Hurt’, which became known to an entirely different audience thanks to Johnny Cash’s memorable 2002 cover version.
Once ‘Downward’ was completed, NIN proceeded to play 10 more songs without an encore, including ‘Suck’ ‘The Hand That Feeds’ and its breakthrough 1989 hit, ‘Head Like a Hole’.
The NIN farewell tour continues tomorrow and Wednesday at New York’ Terminal 5, and wraps Sept. 6 at Los Angeles’ Echoplex. The band had originally planned to bow out of live performances after a summer tour with Jane’s Addiction, but Reznor said that since “we had to rush through sets due to a limited allotted set length and many shows were in daylight, it just didn’t feel right to end NIN that way.”
Even after all these years, still my fave video of all time. Brilliant visuals abound and continue to impress. The Joel Peter Witkin influence is rampant.
Let’s not waste anyone’s time here, tonight’s Nine Inch Nails gig at Melbourne’s Festival Hall… was a bona fide classic performance! I have seen NIN live close to six times now in various line-ups and guises – none of these could hold a candle to the stripped back, lean-mean-fighting machine that is the 2009 (and probably final line-up for a while) consisting of main-man Trent Reznor, bassist Justin Meldel-Johnson, guitarist Robin Finck and drummer Ilan Rubin.
Drummer Rubin has had massive shoes to fill. Previous sticksman, Josh Freese is considered one of the best in the business (and he is) but this new kid is either a robot or he’s been born with 4 arms. His playing was phenomenal. Such an amazing back-beat that was rhythmic, concise, mechanical and faultless all round. I see via his Twitter updates, that he cut his hand early in the show and had a left-hand that was bleeding for most of the night, but (and pardon the pun) – he didn’t miss a freaking beat!
Simply put, the band were on fire tonight and for the first time since I have seen them, Reznor was in good spirits – interacting with the crowd on a more regular basis and even coming across as jovial.
And with a very welcome return to the fold, Robin Finck is just the perfect guitarist for NIN. It really never was the same without him to Reznor’s left. His stage presence and blistering guitars are the perfect foil for the dangerous Reznor.
Highlights of the night for me was hearing tracks like ‘The Downward Spiral’ and the all-out insanity and intensity of ‘March of the Pigs’, ‘Wish’ and ‘Gave Up’. Seriously, I challenge any of today’s supposed ‘heavy’ bands to even try and outdo the sonic power of Nine Inch Nails. No contest whatsoever as this was a setlist that was both dynamic and overtly powerful at the same time and coulda blown any other band you care to mention – to hell and back.
The stage featured an amazing apocalyptic light-show. Not quite as impressive as what they had throughout the USA last year, but still brilliantly lit and reflective of the coming-of-the-apocalypse-soundtrack that was delivered. I was bitterly disappointed I couldn’t get a photo-pass for this show after trying so many avenues to score one ‘cos I think there could have been some classic shots captured tonight.
A classic gig. I’m taking this one to the grave and if this is to be the final NIN show I see for a while, so be it. I’m left with memories of an electrified performance of a band that has been such a huge part of my adult life.
