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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The concert I'd been waiting patiently for since it was first announced back in February this year had finally arrived. The return of Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails to the Bay Area -- this time playing the outdoor theater over at the Greek in Berkeley this past Sunday night. The band recently embarked on a subdued US tour this fall with only a few dates sprinkled across the country so I (and we should) feel lucky the band earmarked the Bay Area for one of those dates!
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| Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The live band consists of Ilan Rubin (drums), Robin Finck (guitar), Alessandro Cortini (bass), and Atticus Ross on keyboards and this incarnation of the band is probably one of the longest running over the course of Nails' history. For this date, a newcomer (to me) Yves Tumor, opened the show promptly at 7pm and played a surprisingly poppy-rock 30 minute set. I'd been expecting something a little more experimental, but Yves was backed by a traditional 3-piece band that featured a bassist, drummer and keyboardist, and never got as crazy as I expected.
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| Alessandro Cortini of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Shortly after 8pm, the fog machines on the stage started to spew a metric ton of fog. It was unbelievable how much these things were producing. Maybe they were cranked to 11 to compensate for the outdoor venue, but I didn't remember Nails last few shows at the Bill Graham Civic having anywhere near as much fog as this show at the Greek had. The house lights went down just after 8:10pm and the ticking synth sounds of The Fragile's "Somewhat Damaged" began to ring out. Slowly, through the thick fog, Trent made his way to center stage, and the rest of the band assembled into their rightful spots on stage. Ilan's drum kit was on the left of the stage, Cortini had a rack of keyboards and a bass guitar just to the right of Ilan's drum kit. Atticus had his keyboard/synth perpendicularly aligned with the front of the stage as he faced both Cortini and Rubin. And then there was Robin who took his place over on the right front of the stage. As Trent sang the opening line's 'So impressed with all you do', Robin chimed in with the simple picking of his guitar to round out the first verse. Ilan and Cortini both joined in the second verse -- Ilan with slow strikes to his toms, and Cortini with the very cool bass line of the track... The energy was slowly building to the end of the second verse when Reznor yelled 'hey' and initiated the thunderous mechanized sound of the third verse that caused the entire theater to shake! There was probably no greater way to start the show. But as I quickly realized, with the additional strobe lights and general chaos of the pit's energy, this was going to be the hardest live performance I've ever tried to photograph!
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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Not skipping a beat from the first song to the next -- and to prevent any of us in the crowd from relaxing -- the band went full speed into their second song of the night, the GRAMMY winning "Wish." I swear that it felt like the crowd was trying to reenact the crowd from the original 1992 video. It's honestly hard to say who was emitting more energy at that point; Trent & co., or all of us in the lower bowl of the Greek. To call it absolute insanity would be putting it mildly, and it was fantastic!
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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Ilan showed that his multiple talents extend far beyond his beast mode behind the drums, he also played bass on "Sanctified" and in addition to that, he played the piano breakdowns within "March of the Pigs" as well. That transition from drums to piano in 'Pigs' just astonishes me. It's a song that has a 7/8 time signature and high tempo, and for Ilan to pause drumming, get up from his kit and make his way to an upright piano to play a single line or two, before hustling back to the drum kit just amazes me.
At this point of the night, Trent finally decided to slow it down -- but just a bit. Hesitation Marks' "Everything" was up next, which to me, really feels like a 70's disco pop song wrapped in a crusty metal outer sheath, but either way, it's not one of the bands more popular songs, so the crowd became a bit more subdued during that one. At its conclusion, Trent spoke his first words to the crowd by asking 'Everybody OK out there?' and then proceeded to play the incredibly beautiful instrumental "La Mer" from The Fragile. Trent played the piano part, while Robyn took up the sticks to a xylophone that had been wheeled onstage. The rest of the band joined as the song picked up and it was an incredible performance of one of my Nails favorites. From "La Mer", the band went into the strip club anthem, "Closer," and the crowd went nuts again.
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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Other highlights included Trent on saxophone during "God Break Down the Door" for which he said afterwards 'I used to be pretty good playing the saxophone, every day, every single day, I get a little bit worse... if that's possible.' He then asked if we were ready and the band launched into "The Perfect Drug" - another song where Ilan went into beast mode on the drums."Copy of A" was amazing not because of the bands performance per se, but because the stage lights lit the band from the front and projected massive shadows on the back wall of the stage. It was done in a way that made the shadows move and jump around and was really pretty amazing to see. I vaguely remember that technique employed at their older shows, but for whatever reason, it was more pronounced with the giant roman greco columns of the Greek Theater perhaps?
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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
During "1,000,000" something went wrong during the song which forced them to scrap it midway through and move to the next song. At first, I noticed Cortini walk with his bass offstage and then returned only after a few seconds, and then something happened with Finck's synth that had been positioned in front of him on the right. Trent said 'stop, something fucked up. It happens man, sorry... Fuck that song, get that fucking thing off the stage' (referring to the Robin's synth.)
After that, the rest of the night just got better and better. "Gave Up" was followed by "Head Like a Hole" to finish the main set. And with a few minute break while the NIN logo was projected onto the wall at the back of the stage, the band re-appeared with a cover of Bowie's "Subterraneans" followed by "Reptile" and then the closing number "Hurt."
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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ the Greek Theater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
All-in-all, a great show from a band that we're glad to see back on the road. Hopefully, we'll hear new music from NIN later this year after it was recently announced that Trent and Atticus have another two movie soundtracks on the way. The band wraps up this tour with a few festival appearances and one particular show that has all the makings of something historic... For frequent readers of the site, you may already know about our fandom for NIN, Ministry and Nitzer Ebb, so hell would have to freeze over to prevent me from attending the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-related/belated special performance by those three bands in Cleveland at the end of the month. Until then, thanks for reading and while you're at it, you can follow us as well here: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter.
