Nine Inch Nails at The Warfield
Susie and I went downtown last night to check out NIN’s warm-up gig at the relatively small Warfield before Trent and his not-so-merry band of Jack White lookalikes (or Interpol-ians gone wrong?) go marching through the festival circuit for the rest of the summer. This was one that I went along with just a bit grudgingly, but Susie wanted and what the heck, if I’m ever going to see them, this was the right venue. I’ve always enjoyed NIN’s semi-electronica bent, though I can’t help but be taken aback by the content sometimes, or relentless lack of it. And — I know I shouldn’t say this — I’ve still got those crummy Columbine kids taking up space in my long-term memory.
Still I was looking forward to the evening because fundamentally I think of NIN as a sweaty muscley guy screaming at his computer. To see them with a band dynamic would be an interesting departure.
We were surprised to find very few scalpers and the place not quite packed (though I admit that I couldn’t see the balcony). Considering the rumors of $400 tickets and the constant airplay of late, hearing the usual crowed of scuzzy scalpers complaining that there were no buyers was odd.
It was a really weirdly paced set, with almost all of the hits at the beginning and most of the moodier pieces coming towards the end, then the new single, then “Head Like A Hole,” then lights up! No encore! Nobody seemed disappointed by what they saw, though. A few technical problems here and there — Trent muttered at one point “I forgot how much fun it is to break things” — but nothing you wouldn’t expect from a band that hadn’t played live in a long time with a bunch of new material.
The band was super-tight, which I should hope they would be when a band is so dependent on being locked in to the click. Overall I enjoyed the show, but I’ve got a slew of snarky observations below.
- I’d like to see Trent write a song without the following words: I, you, inside, feel, outside, decay, hate, fuck, world, whole, down, up, everything, nothing, anything, pain. C’mon Trent, a thesaurus. They are free on the web, and I know you are hecka computer savvy. (Or at least PR savvy.)
- The material from Pretty Hate Machine has not aged well at all, particularly Terrible Lie, which I’d have to guess wouldn’t make it past the mail room at most labels nowadays. In general, the live format really underscored which songs were strong and which were weak. The material from The Downward Spiral still sounds fantastic and was leagues ahead of the more turgid stuff they played from The Fragile.
- One of the show’s highlights was watching Trent’s water. Every time he threw water bottles into the crowd (at least five times), a roadie popped from his hiding place behind the rear amplifier with two more bottles, opened them and then crouched back down. It was like watching whack-a-mole in reverse.
- Trent can really sweat. I mean, really. If they had a Olympic event for sweating, he would represent the USA with aplomb. That said, I once read that Elvis asked Jackie Wilson how he was able to achieve his hardworking sweaty look so quickly on stage. And that’s when Elvis got turned on to salt pills. Can we do a salt test on Trent? I’d hate to see him years later at a Congressional Hearing, endangering his place in the Sweaty Hall Of Fame.
- We got a great laugh at the end during “Head Like A Hole.” I looked at the stage and realized that nobody was playing their instrument. When everybody is going nuts because of a tape of their favorite song is being played at full blast, that’s silly.
I’ve been saying for a while that when this whole New Wave Revival thing starts to run its course that the next natural thing to happen will be a Goth revival. I’m thinking Trent and his record company have taken the measure and are betting that way, too. With Teeth is getting the Big Push, and without having heard anything yet beyond the single, it looks like we’re all going to be hearing a lot of this record for the next six months.
[Soundtrack - Nine Inch Nails vs The Beatles]
DJ Zebra – Come Closer.mp3
Hold on there, Shawn. This whole review you did on NIN is completely biased and opinionated. Anyone who even has the slightest bit of intrest in NIN will agree with what I’m about to say.
Trent Renor is a very talented musician. He writes all of the music/lyrics for NIN. He’s been doing this for over 20 years. He’s worked with other esteemed artists like David Bowie and Maynard James Keenan. Heck, Johnny Cash even performed “Hurt”. They respect his work. Let me tell you that writing music is very hard work. Sometimes the right word is the simplest word to explain how someone feels in a song. Haven’t you heard the saying “Simplicity Sells”? I’ve heard a lot of Trent’s work and he has a plethora of rhetoric. His music has been successful his whole career.
To hear you “knock” his music is an insult to everyone involved in his success. Including his fans and people he’s worked with. Music critics will forever be the scum of the entertainment industry because they have very persuasive ways to lure fans away from a certain artist or genre of music. Not to mention very narrow minds.
Last note, when you said, “Nobody was playing their instrument” that may have been true for that one song. Musicians do get tierd and sweaty and sometimes may take a break for one song. How do you know half of it wasn’t done on their keyboards? Synthesizers do have loop functions and the capabilities to run without the musician actually playing evey note. Leave musicians alone. Your review may have been constructive critisism in your eyes, but it came off as “muy derogitorio”.
Hi Joel,
Thanks for writing. I was at a “Writing About Music” seminar on Sunday night where I learned a lot, and when you’re comment came the next day, well, let’s just say you hit me at the right time.
There was a lot of discussion about what really is the job of the music critic. And it came down to this — informing and conversing with your reader about what enraged, enlightened, enraptured, left you bored, left you cold, left you elated about the music you hear. And doing it in an articulate and accessible way. I agree with you that I am not always the best at doing that. I am, after all, an amateur with an extremely limited audience. I think you are right about my first bullet point, which I think is the one that incensed you most, the one about NIN’s lyrics. You’re right, the way it was written was too derogatory. But I stand by my basic point (which I didn’t make well) which is that there is a fine line between simplicity and inarticulateness. I would aver that Trent falls back & forth over that line with regularity, and that on a lot of his songs mostly towards the latter. Too many of his songs sound like tantrums. When he hits it right, though, as on Hurt or (shoot, don’t remember the name of the song on Natural Born Killers), he can be effective. (BTW, here is a nice story that talks about how Johnny Cash chose his songs for the American sessions: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/rnd/1117220631783/has-player/true/id/5933533)
My post, however, was not intended to be a review of NIN’s music or albums; in fact, I was laudatory on The Downward Spiral, which I still love. (Have you picked up the remixed edition yet? It’s great). I was writing about the performance and the unusual experience of getting to see them in such a small venue. I got to notice things that I never would have noticed in a festival environment, and of course that’s what their show is really geared for. Nobody at Glastonbury is going to notice (or care about) the bizarre water bottle roadie situation, for example. I go to a lot of shows, though, and it really was bizarre to see nobody playing their instruments and the crowd going nuts — as the song played at full blast! It looked more like a pep rally, with the band standing at the front of the stage all clapping over their heads together. I go to 30+ shows a year, and I’ve never seen any band simply stand in front of their click track like that and dance & clap without being at least a little ironic or funny about it. (Admittedly I’ve never seen any of the pop spectacle tours like Madonna, Britney and such where this is standard practice; honestly, I’d rather see a Broadway show.)
So in the end, how did I feel about the performance? Stupidly, I never really came out and said it in this write-up. So here goes: started fast, tailed at the end, band was still rough as was first gig in a hella long time. Occasionally brilliant, occasionally unintentionally comic, it’s a good show and will play well on the festival circuit this year.
As to your point about my being narrow-minded about music: dude, you’re just flat-out wrong on that one. My blog represents a very narrow view of the music I enjoy and get excited about, but even there I talk about artists as disparate as Bill Frisell, Tuxedomoon and Nine Inch Nails. I’ll be the first to admit that industrial is not my cup of tea — my girlfriend pleaded with me to go — but I’ve seen enough shows and heard so many many hours of music to feel like I can responsibly separate from the wheat from the chaff. Attending opening night of a highly anticipated tour … Gotta write about that, regardless of my biases, for or against. And there _are_ industrial bands and albums I like, The Downward Spiral for one. (Hey, whatever happened to Nitzer Ebb?) Does this look like a closed-minded guy to you? http://www.last.fm/user/entroporium
Of course I’m biased. That’s the job of a critic, and it’s a worthwhile one. To sift through it all and let people know what the good stuff is and why you’re excited about it, and possibly to avoid the other stuff. We all work hard for our money and free time, and there’s no reason we should let each other waste those precious assets on substandard stuff. In the corporatized world we live in, to separate what’s hot today because a company needs to make profits from what’s hot today because it’s good is a really important role that we ALL need to play for each other. I’m sure you’ll be burning a few copies of With Teeth for your peeps, while I burn copies of The Avalanches for mine, and that’s all cool. (Except for the artists’ lost revenue, but that’s yet another story.)
One last aside: they’re still playing Starfuckers. It’s not that great a song and piling on to Courtney at this point just seems unfair. That poor chick is a shell of her former self. Let’s leave Courtney alone!
Thanks for your note. Have a great 3-day!
Best,
Shawn