Nine Inch Nails played May 29 at Starlight Theater.

NIN rocks the stage

By: Kelley Kates

Posted: 6/1/09

Flashing lights, smoke and hard-core industrial music filled Starlight Theatre last Wednesday night as Nine Inch Nails (NIN) took over the outdoor amphitheater.

Hard rock/metal fans were infused with energy as soon as Nine Inch Nails erupted on stage, opening with "Terrible Lie," a longstanding hit from their first album "Pretty Hate Machine".

The music was loud and intense - everything a Nine Inch Nails fan could want.

Trent Reznor's voice was perfect as he ranged from quiet lows to hard-pounding screams.

Reznor is an absolutely fascinating performer with such intensity, you might feel like he is singing to you.

The way Reznor grabbed the microphone and sang into it with such force and passion made his performance reminiscent of every other NIN video or concert anyone may have seen before. He sang as if he felt the lyrics of the song as much as when he wrote them.

The audience felt it too and displayed it through enthusiastic cheering, yelling and clapping after every song.

Reznor showed off his extreme musical talent throughout the show by playing the keyboard, guitar and tambourine while singing his gut-wrenching vocals. The sound was incredible with no echoing or distortion and a beautiful balance of guitars, drums, industrial sounds and vocals.

Reznor stopped mid-show to introduce his band and to thank the audience for supporting his cause in helping fan Eric De La Cruz, who needs a heart transplant and cannot be insured due to a pre-existing condition.

Fans helped through donating to the Storey Dreams Foundation, which also got them a backstage pass as a thank you gift from NIN.

NIN performed many of their fan's favorites such as "Discipline," "Piggy," "Wish," "The Hand That Feeds" and "Burn," from the "Natural Born Killers" soundtrack.

One major difference about this concert from other Nails performances was that there was no large screen in the background showing Reznor's odd yet trance-inducing images of reptiles, pigs and, of course, G.W. Bush turning into a monkey. That was somewhat of a disappointment.

Unfortunately, that was not the only disappointment of the evening. Reznor informed the audience this was NIN's last tour.

And to top that off, they only played for an hour and 15 minutes leaving out songs like "Closer," "Only" and "Reptile." Some fans were pretty upset about this.

As I was leaving a passer-by shouted, "You wasted your money." Although many people raving afterwards, including myself, thought the show was magnificent.

It seemed as if NIN went back to the days of "Pretty Hate Machine" when they used a smaller venue and a simpler stage show.

The smaller venue, with only seating present, did, however, rob the fans of creating mosh pits during songs like "March of the Pigs" and did not allow for the rowdy concert one would normally see at a NIN show.

Regardless, NIN put on an amazing performance as usual and ended with an encore by doing the old Johnny Cash remake "Hurt."

The amphitheater lit up with lighters and cell phones taking images and video of the spell-bounding performance.

The mellow, low sounds captivated the audience and left all of us begging for more.

kkates@unews.com