How old is pink September 8, 2008
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Last Night: Nine Inch Nails at Oracle Arena
Nine Inch Nails, Deerhunter Oracle Arena September 5, 2008
Words and Photos by John Graham
Better than: the last arena rock show I saw (Marilyn Manson & Hole in 1999 … don’t ask).
Trent Reznor is either a genius or a goddamn crazy fool take your pick.
Nine Inch Nails’ spooky guru has been bucking a lot of industry standards lately, from giving away his music for free to playing a concert like tonight’s, which was heavier on new songs than the material that made him a megastar, and even went so far as to hide the entire band behind a screen for multiple songs. People fork over 50 bones to see their icon kick out the techno-metal stadium blasters and he gives ‘em long stretches of atmospheric instrumental “ghosts” and a wall between fans and band that would make Pink Floyd envious? Hey, if Reznor’s gonna risk his career making questionable business decisions, at least he’s got the guts to do it his way, common sense be damned.
When you’ve assembled an entertainment machine as flashingly sharp as NIN ‘08, however, it’s pretty hard to say Reznor’s doing anything wrong. Despite the fact that most of tonight’s setlist was culled from recent albums The Slip, Ghosts I-IV, and Year Zero, the show’s visual spectacle including a diabolically awesome LED curtain that sputtered and shimmered with electrical light storms was enough to distract anyone who might have wished to hear more than a song or two from zeitgeist-defining records like Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral.
Of course, Reznor himself is beefier these days. The skinny little angst-muppet who used to whip his fishnet-clad body across the stage has been replaced by a brawny, all-business dude who looks more like Henry Rollins (sans tattoos) than the guy who used to drag guitarist Robin Finck around by the hair. Finck, by the way, is back in the band, replacing kung-fu wildcat Aaron North on six-string duties, while session drummer extraordinaire Josh Freese handled percussion, Alessandro Cortini worked the keyboards, and Justin Meldal-Johnson played bass. It’s a tight lineup, musically, albeit certainly more restrained than earlier tours: No flying mic stands, smashed equipment, or violent collisions anywhere in sight.
But let’s go back to that LED curtain. It was a main feature of the show, raising and lowering at various buy topamax online times throughout the set. Reznor, Finck, Cortini, and Meldal-Johnson stood in front of it for synth-fueled songs from Year Zero, then disappeared behind it for several Ghosts instrumentals. In its most striking use, the curtain dissolved just enough to reveal the band lurking in the back shadows, and was even able to fizzle into a moveable hole that followed Reznor around as he approached the wall of lights with his mic. When it raised for rockers like “Terrible Lie,” fog and flashing lights were the only distractions from an otherwise bare stage.
On the downside, the crowd itself was surprisingly tame. Not only did the ubergoth demographic seem oddly underrepresented there was no more black clothing to be seen than in your average high-school hallway when a moshpit spun into action, it was limited to about 12 guys on the floor. Even slam classics such as “March of the Pigs” and the inevitable “Head Like a Hole” mustered only a token whirlpool of bodies. Judging from the achat levitra loud cheering between songs, however, customer satisfaction seemed high. And why not? Trent Reznor’s career apogee may already be past (and his band’s future uncertain in a changing musical landscape), but as tonight’s high-tech showcase proved, Nine Inch Nails knows how to do arena rock right.
Now if only we could get Reznor to work a little more on improving those lyrics…. John Graham
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