Live And In The Flesh
Nine Inch Nails - August 5 & November 11, 2008
2008 had turned out to be a busy year for Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor had already released Ghosts I-IV, a 36-track instrumental in February, along with their free album The Slip, which shortly followed that May. Having been downloaded 1.4 million times in the first month and a half of its release, you could say it was a pretty good tactic for getting his new music out there to the public during a time when sales within the music industry were hitting an all-time low. All while still offering those diehard NIN collectors the option to purchase the physical release, of course. We hadn't had a tour since the release of his 2007 concept album Year Zero. Needless to say, there was an abundance of new material to see live and we weren't going to pass up any opportunity to catch them out on tour.
This was the first leg of the Nine Inch Nails Lights In The Sky Over North America Tour. The name of the tour said it all, as this ended up including one of the most extraordinary light shows I've ever seen. Moment Factory, a Montréal-based company, worked with Nine Inch Nails' longtime art director Rob Sheridan, and lighting designer Roy Bennett to develop groundbreaking visuals that would interact with Trent and the other members of the band while on stage. Not only was the light show worth getting excited about, guitarist Robin Finck was getting back into the live lineup, along with a new bassist who had been known for his work with the likes of Beck and Tori Amos - Justin Meldel-Johnsen. I was pretty pumped about Robin Finck rejoining the band since his departure after The Fragility Tour back in 2000. This was my first chance to finally see him live with the band.
There was a pretty good sized group of us who were able to buy general admission tickets to their stop at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto that Tuesday in August. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very co-operative that day and we were soaked before we were even inside the venue. It didn't help that the lineup was situated directly below the Gardiner Expressway, where vehicles were continuously splashing water in addition to the already steady pour. It was a relief when they had finally decided to open up the doors to let us in. We were asked to stand in a hallway for a few minutes while the band finished up their soundcheck. Hearing the few notes that we did was enough to get us all riled up and ready to go despite the poor conditions.
We made our way down into the general admission area of the ACC and managed to secure our spot on the rail just right of center stage. Our socks, shoes and clothes were sopping with water throughout the entire show, which certainly didn't help the typical concert pit stench. It wasn't much of a wait until the opener for this leg of the tour came out and tried their luck with the Toronto crowd. Trent brought along Deerhunter, a five-piece indie rock group out of Atlanta. Gearing up to release their third studio album Microcastle in just a couple of weeks, we were treated to mostly new material. They were alright live but didn't really seem to stand out enough for me to look into them any further.
We were getting pretty tired of waiting by the time the intermission between sets was coming to an end. The anticipation was getting to be too much when all of a sudden the lights went out and 999,999 started playing in the dark as an introduction to the set. Each band member made their way to the stage before Reznor himself came out to get the ball rolling with 1,000,000, starting everything off with some of his latest material from The Slip. He kept it going with a few more tracks from his seventh studio release before mixing in a few of the classics like March of the Pigs, The Frail, Closer and Gave Up. We weren't even halfway through the set and we had already heard more than half of The Slip live, what more did Reznor have up his sleeve?
The visuals were really just beginning to get interesting with some interactive elements. The Warning and Vessel from Year Zero really kicked things into high gear with the light show. The cage of little LED lights that encased the stage was adding an incredible level of imagery to their songs. A few tracks from his instrumental album Ghosts I-IV came next, which translated surprisingly well live. 5 Ghosts I, 6 Ghosts I, and 19 Ghosts III were perfect additions to the set to help catch our breath before they dove into Piggy and The Greater Good, another track from Year Zero. The visual imagery really lent itself to these Year Zero tracks so well, bringing them to life with their digitally influenced collage of sounds, which were quite different from With Teeth. Pinion provided us with a bit of an intermission before the band came out for the second half of their set. Wish, Terrible Lie, Survivalism and even The Big Come Down, a classic from The Fragile, were all played next. 31 Ghosts IV, Only (which probably had one of the most interactive lighting set ups of the entire night), The Hand That Feeds and Head Like a Hole wrapped up their regular set which had given us twenty-four tracks already! How could anyone ask for any more than that? We were already blown away with the incredible show they put on.
Nine Inch Nails came out to play an incredible five song encore to finish us off. Echoplex started it all up with an interactive drum loop machine that Josh Freese was able to program using the lighting display. They continued to give us everything they had with God Given (one of my favourites of the night), The Good Soldier, Hurt, and In This Twilight to bring things to a close. We were lucky enough to experience a twenty-nine song setlist, a spectacular performance all around. From the visuals to the amazing musicianship, Nine Inch Nails were at the top of their game and we loved every single minute of it! So much that we would go on to see this exact same tour on its second leg during their stop in Ottawa that fall on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2008.
We knew just how incredible of a show this was, and the fact that Reznor would be bringing it through the Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, just a forty-five minute drive away, meant that we would get to see it all over again! This time however, we opted out of the general admission and decided to get some seats through their fan club presale. We ended up with some pretty fantastic seats for the night a few sections over from side stage in Row C, our view couldn't have been anymore perfect. It was nice to be able to take our time getting down to the show and not have to worry about lining up early to ensure our spot on the railing. Not to mention being able to take in their incredible light show from a totally different point of view and be able to appreciate it that much more. Being up front on the railing certainly had its advantages with being up close and personal, but for this tour especially, you really benefited from standing back and viewing it as a whole.
Boris, a Japanese experimental metal band opened up for them during a portion of their second leg of the tour. We were lucky enough to have them come through in support at the Ottawa gig. Their fourteenth full-length album Smile was released earlier that year. They had proven to be a much better opener than the previous Deerhunter on the first leg of the tour. Looking forward to seeing them out on a solo tour one of these days.
Nine Inch Nails' Ottawa setlist would be relatively the same as the Toronto set from the first leg of the Lights In The Sky Over North America Tour. A disadvantage I suppose to having such an elaborate stage production is the flexibility of the setlist, as certain songs would have specific lighting set ups. The Frail was actually paired with The Wretched (where in Toronto it wasn't), two classics off of The Fragile which are always nice to see live. They also changed up a couple of the Ghosts I-IV tracks as well, as we heard 17 Ghosts II and 28 Ghosts IV. The encore for the night also had one of the songs changed up to include Meet Your Master, one of my favourite tracks off of Year Zero and definitely a highlight of the night for me.
Twenty-eight songs blew the roof off of Scotiabank Place that Tuesday night in Ottawa as we were treated to Nine Inch Nails' Lights In The Sky Over North America Tour. These two Nine Inch Nails shows would be my sixth and seventh times seeing the band live, and obviously wouldn't be my last. How could I ever pass up seeing such an extraordinary live performance? The Lights In The Sky Over North America Tour was originally planned to be documented in a 3D film by James Cameron, but unfortunately fell through due to lack of co-operation with past record labels. Luckily for us though, the band had decided to allow for video recording at their last few stops on the tour to provide the fans the opportunity to create their own tour film. The fan collective known as This One Is On Us, compiled the footage into a Blu-Ray and DVD release called Another Version Of The Truth: The Gift, which can be seen below.