Diary of a music junkie

I have been a fan of Nine Inch Nails since summer of 1994. I was 15 years old when I first saw the music video for the song Closer. I was privileged to view a live performance of Nine Inch Nails on television during Woodstock 94. Over the years Nine Inch Nails has toured many times, and I have not been lucky enough to see them in person, until this past weekend.

Nine Inch Nails Lights in the Sky tour

14 years I waited, to see Nine Inch Nails live in concert, and I don’t think I could have picked a better tour to see them on than this one. Not only was it an audio marvel, with the five member live ensemble playing many different instruments, each of which you could differentiate from the others (rather than it blending into a cluster of loud noise). It was also the most impressive light spectacle I have ever seen.

With three different lighted screens (one high quality LCD screen in the back and two stealth screens, one in the middle and one in the front), Trent Reznor and crew has definitely found a new way to put a show into their rock show with their interactive visual display. With each song, the lights display different visual effects. From the appearance of glowing pilot light looking effects which move with the music behind the band, visual static which Mr. Reznor can appear from and disappear into, to even creating three dimensional environments during the instrumentals depicting different distances on the different screens only to be hidden at the start of the next song by visual rain until a hole opens up in the middle of the rain to show the whole band through a frame of the rain.

The show lasted for just under two and a half hours of hardcore rocking songs and mellow melodic mood music. Playing hits like Closer, Head Like a Hole and Hurt and even touching some of his lesser known songs like The Wretched, In The Twilight, and various selections of the instrumental masterpiece, Ghosts. Touching on every album, Mr. Reznor gives the appearance that he really enjoys what he does. Rapidly switching between hardcore rocker to mellow environmental genius to almost dancing around to some of his more upbeat electronic hits.

I am seriously looking forward to my next opportunity to see Nine Inch Nails in concert again. It will sure take a lot to top the Lights in the Sky tour, I am eager to see what Mr. Reznor will do next in the studio and on stage.