Peeling It Back

By Marek Alban

Before I begin, I feel both the contextual need and the personal urge to include a
preamble. I love Nine Inch Nails. Ever since junior year of high school, I have counted
Trent Reznor’s primary musical project among my favorite bands of all time, in addition
to considering the first four NIN studio albums (yes, I count Broken) among my all-time
favorite albums. Of course, what he’s done since between NIN and his scoring work
with Atticus Ross has ranged from decent to great, but to me the greatness of NIN lies
in those first 4 albums. The nihilistic intensity, the self-loathing prurience, and the
musical Molotov Cocktail of “Depeche Mode meets Ministry meets Prince meets Pink
Floyd’s The Wall” makes for endlessly intense and engaging music. Heck, I even threw
on The Downward Spiral (which ties with The Fragile for my all-time favorite NIN album)
while writing this article.

Anyway, you get the gist, all-time favorite band/albums/songs, so once I heard Trent
was taking the band on tour last year for the “Peel It Back Tour,” I knew immediately I
had to see them on stage. So last September, at the end of my first day here at
Montclair State University, me and my buddy J went to see them at the Barclays Center
in Brooklyn. And it ruled. Flash forward like, two? months, it is announced that NIN was
going on another leg, this time coming to the Prudential Center in Newark… on
Valentine’s Day!!! My birthday!!! So obviously, reservations were made, Christmas gifts
for my birthday were received, and once all was said and done, me, J and my other
buddy C were off to go see…

The most insane line ever to get into the Prudential Center. We got there around 7:30
and it was a WRECK. Hordes of people stuck outside in admittedly better than usual
lately but still not even that good weather (like 45 degrees out), while we were
wondering what was going on. Eventually around like… I don’t know, 8:30, we finally
made it in, and after bumbling around for C to get merch and food and to find our seats,
we made it to our seats to see Nine Inch Nails take the B Stage first. Unfortunately, C
didn’t get to see Boys Noize’s opening segment, but me and J already had at Barclays,
and it was… ok. Very talented, but by 8:50, we were ready for NIN.

Anyways, the main gist of this tour is as follows: Boys Noize opens, then it’s Trent on
the B Stage solo on piano for the first song (this time it was (You Make It Feel Like)
Home from the Bones and All soundtrack, with a snippet of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry
Christmas Mr. Lawrence, other times it’s been Right Where It Belongs from With Teeth
or Something I Can Never Have from Pretty Hate Machine, with a snippet of Stripped by
Depeche Mode). After that, Atticus Ross, the only other official member of the band
besides Trent, shows up first to perform Non-Entity, a song from the NIN|JA promotional
EP from when NIN and Jane’s Addiction toured together, and afterwards, new bassist
Stu Brooks (whose resume includes work with Lauryn Hill, Lady Gaga, Danny Elfman
and my GOAT Mike Patton), replacing Alessandro Cortini in the position (possibly
temporarily as Cortini is off doing solo work), arrives, and then longtime guitarist Robin
Finck arrives last, as the band then transitions into Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now),
from the remix album Further Down The Spiral, done by Rick Rubin and Dave Navarro.

Following that, the band joins drummer Josh Freese (Devo, A Perfect Circle, The
Vandals, who previously played with NIN from 2005-2008) on the A Stage for a perfectly
strong rendition of Wish from Broken. This is where the experience hued like the show
in Brooklyn, but ultimately, as me and J discussed, it’s a testament not only to the
strength of the songs, but the design of the live show that we were still having a great
time. The only major difference was that The Frail from The Fragile was placed before
Reptile, which made for a sick jump scare, despite me wishing for The Wretched to
come afterward. Otherwise, March of the Pigs, Copy Of A, Gave Up and Heresy filled
out the A Stage setlist, with Trent throwing his guitar at the end of Gave Up and Finck
shredding like crazy throughout. And then…

Trent and Atticus joined Boys Noize on the B Stage for remixes of Vessel from Year
Zero, Closer, a cover of Parasite by How to Destroy Angels (Trent’s side project with
wife Mariqueen Maandig), and As Alive as You Need Me to Be from the recent Tron:
Ares soundtrack. The absolute highlight of the “Nine Inch Noize” set is the new Closer
remix. Before I saw them in Brooklyn, me and my ex-coworker were joking about how
could Trent possibly breath new life into Closer, as the song is 30 years old and Trent is
double that (plus being a dad of 5), but I need them to put that version out somehow
because my GAWD IS IT INSANE. Otherwise, some Year Zero representation is nice,
and the Tron song is probably the only song I cared for off that soundtrack. But overall, I
really like how Boys Noize integrated into the main show, it reminded me somewhat of
how when NIN and David Bowie toured together, Bowie would join NIN to transition
setlists by playing Hurt and Reptile from NIN and Scary Monsters, Subterraneans and
Hallo Spaceboy from Bowie. On that note…

The final part of the show kicked off with the classic Mr. Self Destruct from The
Downward Spiral, followed by Less Than from Add Violence. Then, as a tribute to David
Lynch, who passed away last year, Trent and co. launched into The Perfect Drug from
the Lost Highway soundtrack, with Freese blasting off on the drums. Trent then
proceeded to introduce the band one by one, as well as thanking everyone for showing
up on Valentine’s Day. I mean come on, what’s more romantic than seeing Nine Inch
Nails on Valentine’s Day? Anyways, the band then performed David Bowie’s I’m Afraid
of Americans in tribute, which Trent not only remixed, but also appeared in the music
video chasing Bowie through NYC (great video). Then, the encore! The Hand That
Feeds, Head Like a Hole and Hurt! One guy even lit a match up instead of taking his
phone out and turning the flashlight on, which kind of startled me for a second but hey, I
wrote this without a hitch or a singe on me, so all was fine. And then, the show was
over.

So apparently, as we left to get C merch (which he spent $90 on, I take no credit for
that), they were playing Laura Palmer’s Theme from Twin Peaks by Angelo Badalamenti
over the intercom, which I didn’t know about until I went to Setlist.fm to corroborate the
setlist. On that note, according to Setlist.fm, the night’s setlist consisted of in total: 6
Downward Spiral songs, 3 “covers” (Bowie, Trent/Atticus, HTDA), 2 Broken songs, and
1 from Pretty Hate Machine, Lost Highway, The Fragile, With Teeth, Year Zero, NIN|JA
Tour Sampler, Add Violence and Tron: Ares each. Personally, I was wishing going in that
me and the boys would get to hear Something I Can Never Have/Stripped, Burn from
the Natural Born Killers soundtrack and Somewhat Damaged from The Fragile (which
was a snippet last time in Brooklyn with Right Where It Belongs from With Teeth on the
B Stage), but overall, I had a great time with the show. Fantastic set design, fantastic
energy, somewhat safe set list but most of those songs have earned their place in the
repertoire, and great homages to prior collaborators.