San Francisco Blog

When you've assembled an entertainment machine as flashingly sharp as NIN '08, however, it's pretty hard to say Reznor's doing anything wrong. Despite the fact that most of tonight's setlist was culled from recent albums The Slip, Ghosts I-IV, and Year Zero, the show's visual spectacle — including a diabolically awesome LED curtain that sputtered and shimmered with electrical light storms — was enough to distract anyone who might have wished to hear more than a song or two from zeitgeist-defining records like Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral.

Of course, Reznor himself is beefier these days. The skinny little angst-muppet who used to whip his fishnet-clad body across the stage has been replaced by a brawny, all-business dude who looks more like Henry Rollins (sans tattoos) than the guy who used to drag guitarist Robin Finck around by the hair. Finck, by the way, is back in the band, replacing kung-fu wildcat Aaron North on six-string duties, while session drummer extraordinaire Josh Freese handled percussion, Alessandro Cortini worked the keyboards, and Justin Meldal-Johnson played bass. It's a tight lineup, musically, albeit certainly more restrained than earlier tours: No flying mic stands, smashed equipment, or violent collisions anywhere in sight.

But let's go back to that LED curtain. It was a main feature of the show, raising and lowering at various times throughout the set. Reznor, Finck, Cortini, and Meldal-Johnson stood in front of it for synth-fueled songs from Year Zero, then disappeared behind it for several Ghosts instrumentals. In its most striking use, the curtain dissolved just enough to reveal the band lurking in the back shadows, and was even able to fizzle into a moveable hole that followed Reznor around as he approached the wall of lights with his mic. When it raised for rockers like "Terrible Lie," fog and flashing lights were the only distractions from an otherwise bare stage.

On the downside, the crowd itself was surprisingly tame. Not only did the ubergoth demographic seem oddly underrepresented — there was no more black clothing to be seen than in your average high-school hallway — when a moshpit spun into action, it was limited to about 12 guys on the floor. Even slam classics such as "March of the Pigs" and the inevitable "Head Like a Hole" mustered only a token whirlpool of bodies. Judging from the loud cheering between songs, however, customer satisfaction seemed high. And why not? Trent Reznor's career apogee may already be past (and his band's future uncertain in a changing musical landscape), but as tonight's high-tech showcase proved, Nine Inch Nails knows how to do arena rock right.

Now if only we could get Reznor to work a little more on improving those lyrics.... — John Graham

A Selection of Songs Performed (That I Remember, At Least): "Letting You," "Discipline," "March of the Pigs," "Gave Up," "The Great Destroyer," "Piggy," "Terrible Lie," "Closer," "Only," The Hand That Feeds," "Head Like a Hole," "Hurt," "In This Twilight," miscellaneous "Ghosts," etc.

Opening Act: The young indie kids in Deerhunter played a short set of fuzzy and likeable dream-pop that gave new meaning to the old "shoegazer" term. I don't know if the hugeness of the stage setting freaked them out or what, but they were practically immobile. Relax, guys: take a deep breath and have fun! You may never get to perform in front of this many people again.

Future opening acts for NIN include L.A. noise hipsters Health, Japanese art-metal darlings Boris, and British techno-dub wrecker The Bug (also playing in this month's installment of Surya Dub at Club 6). The closest upcoming NIN show to San Francisco is a December 12 date at Arco Arena in Sacto.

Critic's Bias: As a teenager I had tickets to see NIN on the band's very first headlining club tour, but had to skip it due to scheduling conflicts. A year later, Lollapalooza, a Spin cover story, and MTV hype had made them stars who commanded arena-size venues (and ticket fees) in all future tours. I never saw NIN in person until tonight.