Nine Inch Nails

[Atelier]

It's insane.

 

[Luxx]

Its always great when you can start liking a band in grade school and still find them relevant years later.

 

[Atelier]

Its always great when you can start liking a band in grade school and still find them relevant years later.

No kidding like a week after I was introduced to NIN I found out Trent had played the old 9:30 Club (an institution in DC). It would have basically been seeing him in an area the size of a living room. I'm still kicking myself.

 

[Loud Love]

Has anyone been to the listening parties yet?

 

[indie]

This tuesday, the tour ending show in Helsinki was insane. My neck and legs still hurt...

 

[nicovelvet]

Oh I just love NIN and Trent - How could I have overlooked this thread! I first saw them live in 1990 (twice) in a small club here in Montréal during the "Pretty Hate Machine Tour". What a performance! Memorable! Since then, I became hooked!

PHOTO: Scan from the french magazine ELEGY

 

[nicovelvet]

A little GIF I made from the video "March Of The Pigs":

 

[nicovelvet]

That's how Trent looked when I saw the band in 1990 (except he had long dreadlocks).
PHOTO: From the "Wish" video

 

[tifa]

pretty hate machine is my favourite album of theirs, lucky you

 

[nicovelvet]

It is one of my favorite too - if not THE favorite. When you think this album was release in 1989 and you listen to it today, it is clear that it was very avant-gardiste for the time (we were still in the 80s after all!). That album was a revelation to me and a revolution in the music industry. I think it does not age. A true classic.

 

[nicovelvet]

FROM the website www.allmusic.com

Reviewby Steve HueyVirtually ignored upon its 1989 release, Pretty Hate Machine gradually became a word-of-mouth cult favorite; despite frequent critical bashings, its stature and historical importance only grew in hindsight. In addition to its stealthy rise to prominence, part of the album's legend was that budding auteur Trent Reznor took advantage of his low-level job at a Cleveland studio to begin recording it. Reznor had a background in synth-pop, and the vast majority of Pretty Hate Machine was electronic. Synths voiced all the main riffs, driven by pounding drum machines; distorted guitars were an important textural element, but not the primary focus. Pretty Hate Machine was something unique in industrial music — certainly no one else was attempting the balladry of "Something I Can Never Have," but the crucial difference was even simpler. Instead of numbing the listener with mechanical repetition, Pretty Hate Machine's bleak electronics were subordinate to catchy riffs and verse-chorus song structures, which was why it built such a rabid following with so little publicity. That innovation was the most important step in bringing industrial music to a wide audience, as proven by the frequency with which late-'90s alternative metal bands copied NIN's interwoven guitar/synth textures. It was a new soundtrack for adolescent angst — noisily aggressive and coldly detached, tied together by a dominant personality. Reznor's tortured confusion and self-obsession gave industrial music a human voice, a point of connection. His lyrics were filled with betrayal, whether by lovers, society, or God; it was essentially the sound of childhood illusions shattering, and Reznor was not taking it lying down. Plus, the absolute dichotomies in his world — there was either purity and perfection, or depravity and worthlessness — made for smashing melodrama. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Pretty Hate Machine was that it brought emotional extravagance to a genre whose main theme had nearly always been dehumanization.

 

[phantasmagoric]

I saw them at the Irvine show touring with Bauhaus and Peaches. The whole show was beyond incredible. Favorite songs of the night were La Mer/Into the Void, Trent and Peter Murphy's duet for Final Solution, Terrible Lie, and Hurt...they didn't play Reptile though...Where I was at, the crowd behind me wasn't that animated...almost bored looking...maybe they were just drunk...There was even a girl on her cell phone talking about this party she was going to after during the show

Setlist of the show (in order)
Somewhat Damaged
You Know What You Are?
Terrible Lie
March of the Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
Closer
Burn
Gave Up
Help Me I'm in Hell
Non-Entity
Even Deeper
Only
Wish
La Mer
Into the Void
The Big Come Down
Suck
Down in It
Hurt
Final Solution
The Hand that Feeds
Head Like a Hole

 

[tifa]

It is one of my favorite too - if not THE favorite. When you think this album was release in 1989 and you listen to it today, it is clear that it was very avant-gardiste for the time (we were still in the 80s after all!). That album was a revelation to me and a revolution in the music industry. I think it does not age. A true classic.

definitely! as far as nin songs go, terrible lie sums it up for me. just immense. i'm so glad i got to see it live

 

[Nocturnal_Antix]

Year Zero is seriously, AMAZZZZZZZING.
At first I was like yeah, yeah it's good, but the more you listen to it the more you love it. You really have to listen to the album as a whole, it gels so perfectly together. Trent has the coolest packaging too. Who else loves how the CD colors change as it gets hotter? Oh Trent, how do you do it?

 

[nicovelvet]

^^The CD colors change as it gets hot??!! That is very interesting! I had no idea! As we all know, Reznor and technology are quite a team! Got to love that Trent !

 

[Nocturnal_Antix]

^Yeah it does! How cool is that? It changes from all black to all white within minutes. Even pressing your thumb against it for a while and letting go changes the colors. It's just a litttle quirky thing Trent threw together that I love. The whole packaging and artwork is great, it comes with a 24 page booklet too. Trent's so nifty

 

[MissWednesday]

And apparently the binary the you see after the CD goes white leads you to a website...

 

[nicovelvet]

There are always interesting stuff to buy about NIN. In the 90s I began to collect the CDs... Phewww!...It never ended! One new E.P. there, one new version (again) of that and this song, so forth. It had to stop...! And it did. Now I only buy the regular albums (although I still have to buy "Year Zero"), I am very tempted by the latest DVD -"Beside You In Time". But I have to restrain myself...

 

[indie]

Where I was at, the crowd behind me wasn't that animated...almost bored looking...maybe they were just drunk...There was even a girl on her cell phone talking about this party she was going to after during the show

That's so weird. NIN is coming back to Finland this summer and they are excited by the gig atmosphere here - everyone's with them if you know what I mean? It's nothing like that here.

 

[indie]

Saw them live again yesterday, and it was insane, way better than last time. Open air...and during the last song, Hurt, there were fireworks, and I guess they played little too long so...they were released halfway trough Hurt!! But Trent was cool about it ("Well, that's a first") & waited them to end & continued the song.

Amazing lightshow but it went a little wrong too hahahhaaha well anyways I'm really happy now.