nine inch nails

[Neil]

and the show?

[MacGuffin]

Nine Inch Nails digs "Downward" at farewell NY gig

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Nine Inch Nails fans in New York got more than they bargained for Sunday, when the rock band played its 1994 classic "The Downward Spiral" in its entirety for the first time ever.

The Trent Reznor-led act, on a "Wave Goodbye" tour of small venues, had the 1,000-strong crowd at Webster Hall drenched in sweat within minutes of launching into the punishing rock of "Mr. Self Destruct."

It was soon clear that the band was plowing through "Downward" in sequence." Reznor 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 during the band's stop at the 550-capacity Bowery Ballroom, 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 played 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 Tuesday and Wednesday at New York's Terminal 5, and wraps September 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."

Reznor has not given specific details about what he plans to do following the tour's conclusion.

[modage]

I'm going to see them tonight for the first time at the 3000 capacity Terminal 5.  I hope it's good.

[SiliasRuby]

Fuck, what a great show tonight. Glad I go the hollywood palladium tonight because tomorrow night the show at the henry fonda theatre got cancelled because trent was sick. I'm still on such a high from it

[MacGuffin]

Trent Reznor shines some light on what's next for Nine Inch Nails

As Trent Reznor stepped up to the mike during the fourth encore Thursday night at the Wiltern, he reinforced the plans that crushed fans and fueled skeptics -- that Nine Inch Nails is done taking their act on the road.

"To be clear, we're just not going to tour anymore as Nine Inch Nails," Reznor said to an emotionally drained crowd.

"I'm going to miss them," he said, turning to his band members. "It's been great to play with you and know you as friends and hang out with you and be cramped in a bus and smell each other's farts all day."

It certainly felt like the end. But Reznor etched a bit of a silver lining before launching into a powerful performance of "Hurt."

"We will be making music," Reznor said, inciting a roar of applause. "I'll be making music with these guys. These guys will be making music on their own."

And like a good entrepreneur, he plugged the band's website, which he says will be updated with relevant info about the group's future projects.

One of those projects, some speculated after they closed their final show with "In This Twilight" from the "Year Zero" record, could be a TV series. Last year, Reznor was in talks with HBO about creating a show based on the futuristic, dystopian story line that drove his 2007 concept album and its accompanying alternate reality game.

Another project might be a rumored DVD that will document Nine Inch Nails' Wave Goodbye tour that spanned New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The band's crew filmed many of those shows.

And who knows? Maybe we'll get a musical collaboration between Reznor and fiancée Mariqueen Maandig, who recently split from her band, West Indian Girl.

"I'm not stopping making music," Reznor said. "I've got lots of stuff I want to work on. I just don't want to be touring, and I'm going to die if I keep it up."

[SiliasRuby]

If anyone wants the palladium show or the show at the wiltern let me know and I send you the audio files.

[SiliasRuby]

Whenever I mention Nine Inch Nails to someone whether its a friend, a coworker, or one of my parents old colleagues they seem to know exactly who I am talking about. They eyes either light up or they give me a 'Really Michael? You like that kind of music?' Yes I do. Un apologetically.

In the summer of 1994 before I was even ten years old I was introduced to this music from a friend of a friend. I was boiling with frustration and anger I got from getting teased at school the past year. The teasing would not really stop until after I proved myself to underlings during the 4th grade play later in the year. This friend (or friend of a friend) gave me a copy of an album on tape saying, 'You GOT to listen this. Its cooler than Metallica'. A casual fan of Metallica and lover of all types of rock music (Before this I was listening to Dylan, Beatles, Huey lewis and the News and Michael Jackson,) I happily accepted the piece. On the side of the copied tape it simply said 'NIN-TDS'.

I looked at the guy hesitantly for a moment, about to ask a question. He was older and had this wise aura about him.
"What-"
"Just listen to it and it will help get your anger out. I know how you have been feeling lately and this will help and its really cool" (Yes we said cool all the time)
"Okay" I said.

That afternoon I ran home. I always anticipated new music and this is the first time someone who wasn't in my family really URGED me to listen to something. I previously listened to whatever was on the radio and whatever my family thought I would like and I usually did aside from Barbara Steisand music which my mom seemed to love. She's still in love with Babs but that's another story.

I got into my room, locked the door, and searched for my tape player. Once I found it, bright yellow and dark black I made sure it worked by playing another tape. I received it as a present either on my last birthday or as a regular gift that my dad gave me from one of his business trips. He went on a lot of them. I opened up my back pack and found the tape. I studied it. 'NIN-TDS'. What in God's name does that mean? I would later find out that NIN meant Nine Inch Nails and TDS meant The Downward Spiral. That they were the same band that had that scary music video on MTV, 'Closer'. (This was when MTV still played music videos instead of the shit that they have on there now. Other than 'the hills'. I LOVE THE HILLS. But I digress).

I put in the tape and pressed play. 'Wooh Jeez. This is...awesome!' I was in a trance. With my huge bulky headphones on top my head and my rug rats T-shirt sticking to my chest I was transported to a world of pain, destruction, hate, and heartlessness that I was not attuned to just yet as a young-in'. My eyes closed and weird images of consequence flew in my mind. I could not grasp exactly everything Trent was saying or the meaning behind the lyrics, all I knew was that it rocked and It had curse words in it. Then the following came through my head and this is true: "Oh man, this is too heavy I don't think even Curt could handle this. This would freak him out and I don't want to do that. His mom would probably not let him see me if I introduced him to this. He has to find it on his own."

Plus I felt like this piece of music was made just for me. The singer really feels like he is just as frustrated as I am. How right I was. I wouldn't know until a couple years later. The next day I tried to find this guy who gave me the tape. I thanked him profusely. Almost to the point of humiliation. This band saved me. I never felt really truly alone since. If I'm ever angry, depressed or feeling just plain negative I put on some nine inch nails and I feel like there's someone there representing me. That's what most NIN's fans feel. It was made just for us, the angry geeks. Its this market niche small as it is, that made Trent and his eclectic cohorts the band that they are today.

As the years passed and I opened myself to more and more bands. Unusually NIN let me get into Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Linkin Park even though they are totally different bands from my Beloved NIN. I got newer versions of Nine Inch Nails' Albums on CD and then finally on MP3. I often compare NIN to Bob Dylan, its music that will often mean something completely different as years go by. No matter which album or song you are listening to (I have all 8 albums and they are all different) Trent's got that constant heavy energy ingrained in his music that is un mistake-able from anything else in music today.

Some will complain that its nothing but noise but they said the same thing about The Beatles and look what happened there. I never went to a NIN concert before this year, possibly because when I was in their heyday (the mid 90's) my parents wouldn't have taken me to such challenging music. Lyrics like 'HEAD LIKE A HOLE BLACK AS YOUR SOUL I'D RATHER DIE THAN GIVE YOU CONTROL' and 'GOD IS DEAD AND NO ONE CARES' would have set them and me to the Arco arena parking lot, never to even mention the band again. I think they would be much more open minded now that we are all adults and the compositions and lyrics of all of their songs (not just 'Head Like a Hole' and 'Heresy') would impress them. Also, if my dad read up on Trent's business models for distributing his music while still making money and not compromising himself as a artist he would be impressed. I might just send them a mix. Some of the stuff could be construed as work out music which my mom could enjoy. My Dad really likes Bowie and so does my Mom I believe so I now KNOW they would be into them since Bowie was such a heady influence on Trent's music.

When I heard earlier this year that Nine Inch Nails was going to stop touring all together I tried and succeeded in getting tickets. My friend Jeremy and I went on that september 2nd. It was at the Hollywood Palladium which I was happy to get since I heard that the acoustics were out of this world amazing. In fact I knew they were since I saw Third Eye Blind there in June. They were another staple of my childhood. When I went I was blown away. Trent was sick and he still played the full TDS album in its entirety plus 10 songs extra, 24 songs total. Just over 2 hours. The Palladium was a perfect place to hear such a huge band.

Now they have said they are not touring anymore. They just wrapped up their wave goodbye tour here in LA just this thursday. Trent has been touring under NIN since 1989 when "Pretty Hate Machine" debuted to the world. While that may be true (that he's stopping touring) Trent Reznor is not going to stop making music. He's pulling what the beatles pulled, for the same reason they did, "I'll die if I keep doing this", in reference to touring. That's why The Beatles stopped touring right?... Joking. For those who don't know The Beatles stopped touring because all of the fans were screaming so loud you couldn't even hear their own instruments. Its wonderful Trent will still be making music. Whether it will be as Nine Inch Nails or as a quote unquote "Solo" artist is up for debate. Solo artist. Funny. If you are not familiar Nine Inch Nails is basically just Trent with a round scatter of different artists playing with him.

I'm starting to think this is going a little long but Nine Inch Nails and Trent deserve this type of note filled with adulation, even though he'll never see it. It needed to be said. Nine Inch Nails changed my life and thank God it was for the better.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Closer was a real important video for me, too.  I've always had a problem sleeping, so I used to stay up when my family was asleep to watch 120 Minutes on MTV (and all its iterations).  This is the time when I'd see the videos they wouldn't allow during the day, anyway.  The Director's Label DVD's was definitely a rush of nostalgia because all those videos definitely shaped who I am now.

Fun fact: When Trent asserts that he wants to "Fuck you like an animal" I had no idea what he meant.  I knew that fuck had several connotations and I had never assumed that it meant sex, especially in the context of the song because to someone very unfamiliar with BDSM, nothing in the song is entirely sexual.  At the time, I assumed it was just something violent and that the whole song was about beating someone senseless.

[Neil]

between me and you silias, and maybe i read this wrong, but if you were listening to dylan in 4th grade, i think we should hang out.  Granted maybe you weren't getting fully cathartic with it, but still that kind of exposure at such a young age, you're very lucky if that was your folks' doing.  I'd like to know where you're at now, and i don't mean in the physical sense.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I'd like to know where you're at now, and i don't mean in the physical sense.

Can't it be both?

[Neil]

sure, i just thought  asking his exact location was creep status. because i'm serious.  My dad always tried to show me dylan, but i just like "tangled up and FUCK OFF DAD!"

[SiliasRuby]

I physically live in L.A. In my music I'm still addicted to my roots of Beatles, Dylan, NIN, Rolling Stones, Third Eye Blind, the Doors, Hendrix, and Janis Joplin and the whole era of late 60's and 70's music. Emotionally, I'm in flux. I know there is array of music in those two decades. Well, Neil, you are partly right-I was listening to Dylan starting in the 3rd grade as well as the artists that I just mentioned. For a time in my youth (5th and 6th grade) my mother got me addicted to Aaron Neville. It was partly my parents doing as far as music goes, my parents and my cousins that I used to visit in Ohio. I have a strange music collection now: I have Everclear and Joni Mitchell. Crosby, stills, nash, young and Portishead.

Anyway, ya, if you live in L.A. We should hang out. I have some very cool bootlegs I'm very proud of, one being of a recording session between John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder and the other being a record of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix playing live in New York in 1968, both completely wasted.

[03]

...third eye blind?

[SiliasRuby]

Yeah, Third Eye Blind. I threw them in there even though they are not part of the late 60's early 70's music that I loe so much. Their lyrics to a lot of their songs could have come from songs that were made in the 60's though...possibly.

[RegularKarate]

So, I guess Nine Inch Nails is dead?

Anyway, there's a new track from Trent's new project, How To Destroy Angels on Pitchfork:
http://pitchfork.com/news/38686-how-to-destroy-angels-a-drowning/

Basically sounds like generic NIN (I can't place it, but I feel like it's exactly like another NIN song) with a female (his wife) singing just like he would sing if it was him.