When Nine Inch Nails last played Melbourne, it was part of the Big Day Out in 2000. At the end of that set, Trent Reznor promised the crowd they would return in fall, their own headline tour of the country. I suppose late winter in Australia is almost fall time in America. I guess Trent just forget to mention that it would be fall FIVE YEARS LATER!So was the wait worth it? After Wednesday night’s performance, the answer would be a resounding YES. The resulting years between the Fragility tour and the new Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth have been well documented since the release of that album earlier this year. Reznor’s struggles with alcohol, drugs, overdoses and the need to rediscover oneself in a new sober state of mind have all contributed to many changes between the band of the 90s, and now in 2005. Perhaps the biggest change has been where Reznor’s focus now lies. In recent interviews he has spoken of how the show used to be something you endured to get to the after party, but now the whole day is about waiting for the show, and after the show, you get excited for the next one.
This new focus was certainly evident when Reznor and his new band, now consisting of Jerome Dillon on drums, Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson) on bass, Alessandro Cortini on keyboards and synths and Aaron North (formerly of The Icarus Line) on guitar, hit Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. Hardly a place that could be deemed to have any sense of inbuilt atmosphere, the NIN stage-show still managed to fill the entire space with sound and light.
The set was long, and focused. Almost two hours long, the band played 23 songs overall. Including the expected hits like March of The Pigs, The Hand That Feeds and Terrible Lie. But the real highlights were the extents to which Reznor was willing to go through his back catalogue and pull out and rework so many old and obscure songs. Sin is one song which has benefited greatly from being reworked for a live version, but the first real surprise came from the introspective Something I Can Never Have. An early quiet moment in the set, it certainly had many people feeling chills.
Elsewhere Burn, Reptile and Suck were all unexpected examples of some of the band’s best work, while the cover of Joy Division’s Dead Souls kept the integrity of the original while offering a distinct edge to it. Another treat for long term fans was the teaser of Kinda I Want To dropped into the breakdown of Closer, the song which broke Nine Inch Nails to the world.
The main criticism that has been placed on the band’s Australian shows is the lack of violent destruction which was such a part of the mid 90s tours. While this element was missing, it seems to have been sacrificed for the renewed focus on making the performance better and longer. As one of my companions said, Reznor no longer seems as tragic as he once did, but his music still seems so vital. Not many bands in this day and age could play a two hour set in which tracks off their newest album such as Love Is Not Enough, You Know What You Are? and With Teeth can sit next to, and hold their own with tracks from fifteen years ago like Terrible Lie, and everything in between.
Oddly enough the other criticism I’ve heard is that North is perhaps too energetic and destructive in his stage antics. Personally I found that his antics did add the more dangerous and unpredictable edge to the music that a lot of people thought was lacking. His enthusiasm for the music also seemed to rub off on other band members, resulting in broken lights due to thrown mic stands, guitars flying all over the place and Reznor tackling him mid-song. It’s a tribute to the versatile musicianship of the current line-up that none of this seemed to be at the detriment of the music. The versatility was also evident in the instrument changes, with Cortini playing acoustic guitar during Home, White switching regularly between bass, guitar and keyboards, and Reznor himself often playing keyboard or guitar. Equally impressive was the ability to go from crushing loud noise, to moments of intense intimacy, and back again. The devastating Gave Up with all its strobe lighting and flashing red & blue screens was followed by a timid Hurt, long considered the penultimate NIN song, reworked so that most of the song was just Trent and a keyboard. This was then followed by the double whammy of Starfuckers Inc. and Head like a Hole (which saw North jump off Cortini’s keyboard) to close the set in a mess of noise and fury.
The only thing I can say at the end is that I hope it’s not another five years before we get a chance to witness it again.
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