posted:

Concert review: Nine Inch Nails still challenging and rewarding
Out promoting two new albums, Trent Reznor and Co. effectively avoided being a nostalgia act.

By CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER, Star Tribune
Last update: November 26, 2008 - 8:19 AM

The makers of Trent Reznor's microphone stand can be proud: Tuesday's visceral, pummeling concert by Reznor's band Nine Inch Nails proved their product can withstand just about anything.

The bulldog-size but pitbull-tempered frontman alternately pounded his mike stand into the floor, tossed it around the stage or gripped it like it was Excalibur in the rock -- all in keeping with the impact of his music. Even though he writes and records a lot of NIN's songs all on his own, he used that stand as his main instrument of choice Tuesday.

Reznor's 20-year-old group proved almost as resilient in the mostly frantically paced 2 1/2-hour set. For one thing, the crowd of 7,817 was modestly impressive on a weeknight and in this economy (although, since it was a makeup date for a show canceled in August, fans had plenty of time to buy tickets).

More impressive, though, was how NIN steered clear of becoming strictly a nostalgia act. Where most hard-rock bands would be resting on their laurels two decades in, these guys continue to put on challenging but rewarding, innovative shows.

The set list relied heavily on the three albums NIN has put out over the past two years. That's right, three -- including two just this year. Newly freed from his record-label contract, Reznor has become hyper-productive, even issuing his songs for free online before they're available for purchase.

The practice seems to be paying off, as the crowd screamed and howled along through the first six songs of the concert, four of which came off the latest of those records, "The Slip." The juggernaut "1,000,000" made for an explosive opener, and the arena erupted twice over a few songs later as the band lit up with the '90s hit "March of the Pigs."

The fans were even tolerant of the mid-show segment of moody, atmospheric songs from this year's all-instrumental CD, "Ghosts I-IV." Reznor had great help there, though, from the visual effects, as the band eerily performed behind a curtain-like Jumbotron-type screen.

Throughout the concert, the crowd was subjected to a seizure-worthy array of strobes and whirring, flashing lights. With that hi-fi of a setup, it seemed a little hokey for Reznor to be singing into a mini-cam during the mega-hit "Closer," but the crowd ate up that gimmick, too. By the time he got to the pre-encore finale, "Head Like a Hole," Reznor returned to the front of the stage to take it out on his mike stand once again -- still the best visual effect of the night.

posted:

Reznor, Nine Inch Nails refuse to let fans forget them
By Ross Raihala
Pop Music Critic
Updated: 11/25/2008 11:46:06 PM CST

After spending much of his career battling with his record labels, Trent Reznor entered 2008 as a free agent. And Tuesday night at the Target Center, Reznor and his band, Nine Inch Nails, turned in a memorable performance that suggested they'll do just fine on their own.

In terms of unbridled energy, NIN's 2005 gig at the Xcel Energy Center was probably the better show, if only because it saw a freshly rehabbed Reznor back in business after a five-year break. That tour was about re-establishing NIN's relevancy to an audience that might have forgotten the band. Tuesday night was about reminding that audience NIN's not ready to become a nostalgia act quite yet.

Judging by the crowd of 7,817, Reznor isn't adding many newbies to his following, although the number is larger than many markets, where he's seen positively anemic attendances in the 3,000 to 4,000 range. And Tuesday's performance seemed more aimed toward Reznor's hardcore following, with plenty of rewarding and sometimes subtle bits stuffed in along the way.

To wit, Reznor opened the evening with a selection of cuts from "The Slip," the new studio album he self-released in May in a variety of formats, including a free download.

Some of the fresh stuff took on a new life removed from the context of the middling "Slip," too, including the lively "Head Down" and a fiery "Discipline" that morphed into the NIN standard "March of the Pigs."

In one of many cool tricks that synced up the state-of-the-art visual display with the music, the encore-opening "Echoplex" began with a "Wheel of Fortune"-like interactive display that drummer Josh Freese used to launch the percussion track.

A handful of selections from NIN's other new album of the year, the fascinating instrumental collection "Ghosts I-IV," popped up midway through the set as Reznor and company manned such markedly un-NIN-like instruments as a marimba and acoustic guitar to interpret the loosely structured songs on stage.

In lesser hands, an avant-garde instrumental interlude would signal a mass exodus to the beer stands. But Reznor pulled it off thanks in part to the aforementioned visual display, which included sheer LCD curtains that dropped behind and in front of the band members and carried some eye-popping graphics and video to an awestruck crowd.

Elsewhere, Reznor simply turned up the volume and tore the place apart, working in many of the grinding industrial-rock songs that made NIN famous, from early stuff ("Head Like a Hole," "Wish" to more recent stunners ("Survivalism," "Only". In typically terse fashion, Reznor barely said a word to the crowd but did manage to apologize for his last-minute postponement that pushed back this gig from its originally scheduled date in August.

leo3375 posted:

I'm just starting to upload my photos and plan to spread it out over the weekend. Here are the first two formal photos:

leo3375 posted:

I wanted to start this thread!

But I had a blast tonight! I'll have lots of photos to upload soon.

Rudi posted:

The Setlist posted looks right to me, only corrections I might add would be before he played The Frail, he played the first part of La Mer then transitioned into The Frail, and I think Trent was playing Lights in The Sky when everybody was taking their final bows at the end of the show, no lyrics just the music. I could be wrong though.